The effects of freeze exposure at -4.5 degrees C for as long as 6 weeks on long-term postfreeze survival and body fluid composition were investigated in caterpillars (woolly bears) of the arctiid moth Pyrrharctia isabella. Woolly bears routinely survived the initial postfreeze period with little difference between the 1-week (100%) and 6-week (95%) freeze treatments. Caterpillars in the latter treatment, however, reached the pupal stage almost one half as often as woolly bears in the 1-week freeze treatment. The success rate for adult emergence was not different for pupae from the two treatments (ca. 50%). Woolly bears responded to cold acclimation by accumulating glycerol to levels exceeding 300 mM although this was not augmented by extending the acclimation period to 6 weeks. There was a significant (P<0.05) rise in hemolymph [K+] during the first week of the freeze (23.4-37.8 mM), which then remained stable over the remainder of the 6-week freeze period. Hemolymph [Na+] did not change from the prefreeze level over the course of the freeze treatment. Body water content showed a modest rise during the course of the freeze treatment but the underlying cause for this change was uncertain. Prolonged freeze exposure had a major impact on long-term survival of the woolly bears but this was not reflected by any instability in body fluid composition. Moreover, short-term recovery was not an effective indicator of the tolerance of P. isabella caterpillars to prolonged freezing.


A 71-year-old man was admitted to Kanto Central Hospital with hemoptysis. He had had chronic sinusitis and deafness since childhood. Situs inversus, bronchiectasia, and diffuse panbronchiolitis had been also diagnosed at the age of 59. Chest computed tomography demonstrated a 5-cm mass in the anterior mediastinum as well as a 4-cm mass in the upper lobe of the right lung. A transbronchial lung biopsy of the right lung tumor revealed squamous cell carcinoma. Electron microscopic examination of the bronchial epithelial cilia revealed a total defect of both inner and outer dynein arms, leading to a diagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia. Biopsy of the mediastinal tumor was not performed. After concurrent chemoradiation therapy, the lung cancer decreased in size partial remission (PR) and the mediastinal tumor disappeared complete remission (CR). Later, a cavity formed in the tumor, where a Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection occurred. He died 1 year after the diagnosis of lung cancer was established. There have been 5 reported cases of Kartagener syndrome complicated with lung cancer, but to the best of our knowledge there have been no reports of Kartagener syndrome with mediastinal tumor.


: The approach in analyzing defects on different pipe lines is conducted through Failure Assessment Diagram (FAD). These methods of analyses have further extended in recent years. This approach is used to identify and stress out a solution for the defects which randomly occur with gas pipes such are corrosion defects, gauge defects, and combination of defects where gauge and dents are included. Few of the defects are to be analyzed in this paper where our main focus will be the fracture of cast Iron pipes, elastic-plastic failure and plastic collapse of X52 steel pipes for gas transport. We need to conduct a calculation of probability of the defects in order to predict and avoid such costly defects.


This paper studies the multi-task high-dimensional linear regression models where the noise among different tasks is correlated, in the moderately high dimensional regime where sample size n and dimension p are of the same order. Our goal is to estimate the covariance matrix of the noise random vectors, or equivalently the correlation of the noise variables on any pair of two tasks. Treating the regression coefficients as a nuisance parameter, we leverage the multi-task elastic-net and multi-task lasso estimators to estimate the nuisance. By precisely understanding the bias of the squared residual matrix and by correcting this bias, we develop a novel estimator of the noise covariance that converges in Frobenius norm at the rate n − 1 / 2 when the covariates are Gaussian. This novel estimator is efficiently computable. Under suitable conditions, the proposed estimator of the noise covariance attains the same rate of convergence as the "oracle" estimator that knows in advance the regression coefficients of the multi-task model. The Frobenius error bounds obtained in this paper also illustrate the advantage of this new estimator compared to a method-of-moments estimator that does not attempt to estimate the nuisance. As a byproduct of our techniques, we obtain an estimate of the generalization error of the multi-task elastic-net and multi-task lasso estimators. Extensive simulation studies are carried out to illustrate the numerical performance of the proposed method.


This symposium essay discusses the recent history and current state of the Confrontation Clause and then explores its possible futures. Justice Scalia's 2004 opinion in Crawford v. Washington transformed confrontation doctrine and consequently rendered many types of hearsay statements potentially inadmissible in criminal cases. Although Crawford strengthened the right to confrontation in several respects, the subsequent decade produced significant backlash and disagreements—including dissenting opinions from Justice Kennedy—as the Court attempted to implement and develop confrontation doctrine. The fault lines that emerged among the Justices have left the current state of confrontation doctrine in disarray, particularly in cases involving expert witnesses. The replacement of Justices Scalia and Kennedy (Crawford's champion and one of the principal dissenters in subsequent cases, respectively) with Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh has added to the uncertainty surrounding the doctrine's future. This essay examines the possible pathways by which the doctrine on the Confrontation Clause may develop, distinguishing between cases involving experts and non-expert witnesses.


This paper considers the problem of simultaneously communicating high-security and low-security messages, referred to as the security embedding problem. An information-theoretic model is presented. A coding scheme that combines superposition coding and random binning is proposed and is shown to achieve the capacity region in several communication scenarios. As an application, it is shown that a simple scheme that combines security embedding codes and secure network coding can achieve the secrecy capacity of a parallel multi-eavesdropper wiretap channel with two reversely degraded components.


Being one of the oldest and most serious environmental problems, soil and groundwater salinization poses critical challenges for the managing of agricultural and natural areas. Together with climate, topography and land-use are main controls dictating salt accumulation patterns at different spatial scales. In this paper, we quantified the response of salt accumulation to the interactive effects of topography (lowlandupland gradients) and vegetation (annual crops, tree plantations, native grasslands) across a sub-humid sedimentary landscape with shallow groundwater in the Inland Pampas of Argentina. We measured salt stocks from the surface down to the water-table through soil coring and their horizontal distribution through electrical-resistivity imaging in eleven fields occupied by annual crops, eucalyptus plantations and grasslands, encompassing water-table depth gradients of 1–6 m below the surface. Land-use and topography exerted strong influences on salinity and explained together 82% and 66% of the spatial variability of groundwater salinity and soil salt accumulation (0–2 m of depth), respectively. As a single explanatory variable, land-use overwhelmed topography dictating salinity patterns. Tree plantations stored 7–8 times more salts than croplands and grasslands throughout the unsaturated soil profile in areas with shallow water-tables (<3.5-m depth). As groundwater became shallower, its salinity and that of the unsaturated soil above it increased, although the slope of this relationship was significantly higher in tree plantations. Soil salinity profiles and electrical-resistivity imaging showed maximum salinization around the water-table in tree plantations, indicating that groundwater absorption and solute exclusion by tree roots may be the dominant salinization mechanism. Our study highlights the strong influence of land-use on salinization patterns, which can be even stronger than the more widely recognized controls of climate and topography, and proposes some guidelines for a better use of vegetation to manage hydrology in salt-affected areas. A poor comprehension of this influence, as well as its underlying mechanisms, may is of s lead to incorrect diagnos


The Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC), even though a fairly recent converter, is considered a very important one for the future of electrical power systems, variable speed drives and other applications. The MMC enables ac-dc and dc-ac conversion at virtually any voltage levels without relying on bulky transformers. This work presents a newly developed comprehensive control oriented model and a control strategy implementation that focuses on rectifier applications for medium voltage drives and is naturally derived from the presented model. In addition, a survey on existing MMC control strategies is presented.


Biofabrication, specifically 3D-Bioprinting, has the potential to disruptively impact a wide range of future technological developments to improve human well-being. Organs-on-Chips could enable animal-free and individualized drug development, printed organs may help to overcome non-treatable diseases as well as deficiencies in donor organs and cultured meat may solve a worldwide environmental threat in factory farming. A high degree of manual labor in the laboratory in combination with little trained personnel leads to high costs and is along with strict regulations currently often a hindrance to the commercialization of technologies that have already been well researched. This paper therefore illustrates current developments in process automation in 3D-Bioprinting and provides a perspective on how the use of proven and new automation solutions can help to overcome regulatory and technological hurdles to achieve an economically scalable production.


New tetravalent metal complexes with a trianionic [ONNO]-tetradentate ligand and an ancillary chloride ligand were synthesized as catalysts for the copolymerization of epoxides with carbon dioxide (CO(2)). All of the titanium, zirconium, germanium, and tin complexes were found to copolymerize epoxides with CO(2). In particular, the copolymerization of propylene oxide with CO(2) gave the almost-completely alternating copolymers by using titanium or germanium complexes. These results are the first example of the copolymerization using tetravalent metal complexes as a main component of catalysts.


In monocots, transgene expression can be stimulated by over two magnitudes by including an intron in the 5' untranslated region (UTR). The underlying mechanism is presently unknown. Inclusion of the salT intron into the 5' UTR of cat and bar genes stimulated expression of the first gene only, indicating that intron-mediated enhancement of expression (IME) is gene-dependent. Stimulation was associated with increased cat RNA levels, which did not result from a reduced cytoplasmic turnover and were not associated with increased translation. This implies that IME acts in the nucleus. Importantly, the cytoplasmic accumulation of spliced cat transcripts, even with IME, is less than that encoded by the intronless bar gene. As the cat and bar genes were flanked by identical regulatory signals, and the transcripts had a similar cytoplasmic stability it may mean that IME rescues rather than stimulates gene expression.


Background: Elderly is someone who has reached the age of 60 years and over. Along with increasing age, a person will experience physical changes in the musculoskeletal system, which causes a decrease in the number of muscle fibers and muscle mass. This can result in a decrease in muscle strength, especially in the leg muscles, which is one of the factors that can affect the balance of the human body. The decreased dynamic balance will result in the risk of injury in the elderly.
Objective: The aim of this study was to prove the relationship of leg muscle strength and dynamic balance in the elderly.
Methods: The design of this study was a cross sectional study conducted in April 2021 with a population of all elderly people in Banjar Jasan, Desa Sebatu, Kecamatan Tegalalang, Kabupaten Gianyar, that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria, so that 46 samples were obtained. Measurement of muscle strength using a Leg Dynamometer and dynamic balance using the TUG test. Data analyzed using computer software, namely the Pearson test to determine the relationship of leg muscle strength and dynamic balance.
Results: The results showed that from 46 elderly there was a relationship of leg muscle strength and dynamic balance using the Pearson test with p results of 0.001 (p < 0.05) with a correlation coefficient of -0.819 (r > 0.05) which indicates a very strong correlation.
Conclusion: It can be concluded that there is a very strong and negative relationship between leg muscle strength and dynamic balance in the elderly.


The bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) play a pivotal role in endochondral bone formation. Using differential display polymerase chain reaction, we have identified a novel gene, named BIG-3 (BMP-2-induced gene 3kb), that is induced as a murine prechondroblastic cell line, MLB13MYC clone 17, acquires osteoblastic features in response to BMP-2 treatment. The 3-kilobase mRNA encodes a 34-kDa protein containing seven WD-40 repeats. Northern and Western analyses demonstrated that BIG-3 mRNA and protein were induced after 24 h of BMP-2 treatment. BIG-3 mRNA was expressed in conditionally immortalized murine bone marrow stromal cells, osteoblasts, osteocytes, and growth plate chondrocytes, as well as in primary calvarial osteoblasts. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated that BIG-3 was expressed in the osteoblasts of calvariae isolated from mouse embryos. To identify a role for BIG-3 in osteoblast differentiation, MC3T3-E1 cells were stably transfected with the full-length coding region of BIG-3 (MC3T3E1-BIG-3) cloned downstream of a cytomegalovirus promoter in pcDNA3.1. Pooled MC3T3E1-BIG-3 clones expressed alkaline phosphatase activity earlier and achieved a peak level of activity 10-fold higher than cells transfected with the empty vector (MC3T3E1-EV) at 14 days. Cyclic AMP production in response to parathyroid hormone was increased 10- and 14-fold at 7 and 14 days, respectively, in MC3T3E1-BIG-3 clones, relative to MC3T3E1-EV clones. This increase in cAMP production was associated with an increase in PTH binding. Expression of BIG-3 increased mRNA levels encoding Cbfa1, type I collagen, and osteocalcin and accelerated formation of mineralized nodules. In conclusion, we have identified a novel WD-40 protein, induced by BMP-2 treatment, that dramatically accelerates the program of osteoblastic differentiation in stably transfected MC3T3E1 cells.


This paper explores the expanding marketing and education mission of the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). Superintendents at overseas cemeteries and battle sites must continue their job of "keeping the headstones white and the grass green" but also must market specific events such as the 70 th anniversary of D-Day at the Normandy location and an upcoming 100 th anniversary of the end of the Great War in 2018. Part of the effort is passing the memory on to the next generation via materials relevant to young people today. U.S. history teachers who received ABMC grants to travel to Meuse-Argonne in France (the resting place of the most U.S. fallen of any overseas cemetery) to prepare materials to teach World War I served as one of two samples for empirical data. Another sample was drawn from battlefield tourists who visited the Normandy World War II beaches on the 70 th anniversary of D-Day. Results show "maintaining the memory", "telling others," and "simple connection to values/heritage" are key phrases chosen by the respondents on a battlefield tourism survey. From both groups, "I feel proud to visit" was important. "Pilgrimage" is more relevant for the older D-Day group than the young teachers, but both groups indicated that direct interaction with the veterans who were there (Canadian D- Day vets, or in the case of World War I, the teachers spent time with children of WWI soldiers) were major highlights of the trip. Future research will investigate whether these themes are still important motivators once the era of anniversaries is over.


Introduction: An ideal method of exploring the surgical anatomy and the variations and anomalies is
the human cadaver. The anatomical region of pelvic cavity consists of a large number of organs and
structures. The clear knowledge of vascular pattern and its variations is significant. The laparoscopic
surgical procedures for herniorrhaphy and hernio plasty makes the study of the pelvic vascular structures
very important. The obturator artery which is normally a branch of anterior division of internal iliac artery
has high frequency of variations which brings attention of many anatomists and surgeons to its origin and
course.
Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted on 24 hemi pelvises of 12 adult cadavers,
independent of age and sex dissected in the department of Anatomy, AIIMS, Rishikesh, India. During the
dissection, origin and course of the obturator artery were traced. The handy instruction booklet of Anatomy
by Cunningham was referred as the standard for all the dissections.
Observation and Result: In 22 specimens out of the 24 pelvic halves, the obturator artery originated from
the anterior division of the internal iliac artery (IIA). The variations were noted in 2 hemi pelvises. In the
right and left pelvis of a cadaver, obturator artery was coming from the posterior trunk of IIA. In 91.66%
specimen normal origin of the obturator artery was noted i.e. from the anterior trunk of the IIA and in 8.3%
specimens it originated from the posterior trunk of IIA.
Conclusion: The present study indicates that the obturator artery is frequent in showing disparity in its
origin and course. It is usually described as a branch of anterior division of IIA. It can also take origin from
posterior division of IIA. The surgeons who deal with the direct, indirect, femoral and obturator hernias
need to have a clear knowledge about its variations and relation to the femoral ring.

Keywords: Anterior trunk, Posterior trunk, Internal Iliac Artery, Obturator artery,


Malaysia had in the past sent two remote sensing satellites to orbit by collaborating with foreign space companies to build homegrown capacities for space technology development. At the educational institutions, a pico-satellite development program would be an ideal first step to establish such capacity as students could gain the experience and know-how through the complete cycle of designing, building and testing a satellite. As it is now, some of their overseas counterparts have already succeeded in running CubeSat programs due to strong support from kit manufacturers and their national space agencies. However, the cost to purchase such kits could be discouraging and National Space Agency (ANGKASA) recognises the needs to initiate some designs that could be used or referred to for further development or expansion. In this paper, a hardware design of On-Board Data Handling (OBDH) board using PIC Microcontroller is presented. OBDH is a main subsystem which controls all subsystems in the satellite. It provides a series of important services like command, telemetry, data communication, data acquisition, process, storage and management. The PIC Microcontroller made by Microchip Corporation is chosen as it is widely used by the industry and academia in Malaysia. The 16-bit PIC24 microcontroller has been recognized as a suitable part due to its performance, memory, peripherals, cost effective solutions as well as availability. The method used in designing the OBDH in this pico-satellite is first based on a main mission to investigate ionospheric effect on GPS signal transmission. Other considerations taken are that the parts used should be of commercial off the shelf product and having its own development board for ease of testing. The expected result would be the successful arrangement of all required parts in limited pico-satellite's size and the accomplishment in achieving the satellite's missions through simulation.


In this paper, thin film FET has been fabricated at the root of a beam, where is the maximum stress area when the beam bended. Probe has been used to bend the beam and produce large mechanical stress, which is in Gpa order. Electrical characteristic of thin film FET under GPa stress and different temperature has been studied. The maximum ΔIDS/IDS at Gpa stress is up to -31.35%. The device stopped work when 100°C temperature and 1.75Gpa stress applied. A "mutation point" at 2.4 V at output curve of the FET after released has been observed.


High-pressure torsion (HPT) is an important processing technique in which a disk is subjected to a high pressure with concurrent torsional straining. In principle at least, the imposed strain is zero at the center of the disk and a maximum at the outer edge. This difference suggests, therefore, that materials processed by HPT will exhibit considerable inhomogeneity. This paper describes the results obtained in a series of experiments which were designed to evaluate the evolution of homogeneity during the processing of two materials by HPT. It is demonstrated that it is possible to achieve a reasonable level of homogeneity in both materials but there are important differences which reflect the dependence of the microstructure on the occurrence of dynamic recovery.


INTRODUCTION: Pancreatic cancer is characterized by extraordinary fibrosis and pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) are the major player in synthesizing extracellular matrix (ECM) upon activation. The interaction/communication between PSCs and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells is essential for inducing stroma/ECM production, pancreatic cancer progression and general therapy resistance. Compared to traditional 2D cell culture, cells in a three-dimensional context demonstrate different behavior and functions as reflected by building up a microenvironment that more closely mimics the one observed in the native tissue. This feature is especially critical for testing drug efficiency as cellular response to drugs is profoundly affected by environmental cues. AIMS & METHODS: Our aim was to build up a more reliable and predictive drug screening system. To this end we set up and compared 2D and 3D cell cultures containing either human PSC and PDAC cells alone or in combination. RESULTS: Among PDAC cells, panc-1 cells are the most commonly used which are also able to form spheres in vitro. We generated mono-spheres from panc-1 cells and compared them to conventional 2D culture. The efficiency of different drugs on viability of cells in panc-1 sphere resulted to be much lower than on viability in 2D cultures. Cells in 3D compared to the 2D culture show higher gene expression for ECM proteins as collagen and fibronectin, for growth factors as PDGF and VEGF, as well as for protein like Cox2, Glut1. We co-cultured panc-1 and PSCs, allowing them to interact and form hetero-spheres in which PSCs localized in the cortical area and were identified e.g. by expression of asma, a marker for PSCs activation. These avascular mini-tumors were further characterized at different levels. CONCLUSION: 3D cultures are more resistant to chemotherapy compared to their 2D counterpart offering a more predictive platform for drug screening before proceeding to more expensive in vivo models and clinical trials. The avascular mini-tumors can be considered as an alternative in vitro cell model for studying pancreatic cancer development and fibrosis from a more complete perspective. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4244. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-4244


Decision models such as the drift-diffusion model (DDM) are a widely used and broadly accepted tool that accounts remarkably well for binary choices and their response time distributions, as a function of the option values. The DDM is built on an evidence accumulation to bound concept, where a decision maker repeatedly samples a mental representation of the values of the options on offer until satisfied that there is enough evidence in favor of one option over the other. The value estimates that drive the DDM evidence are derived from the relative strength of value signals that are not stable across time, so that repeated sequential samples are necessary to average out noise. The standard DDM, however, typically does not allow for different options to have different levels of variability in their value representations. However, recent value-based decision studies have shown that a decision maker often reports levels of certainty regarding value estimates that vary across options. We thus propose that future versions of DDM should include an option-specific value certainty component. We present four different versions of such a model and validate them against empirical data from four previous studies. The data show that a model built around a sort of signal-to-noise ratio for each option (rather than a pure signal that randomly fluctuates) performs best, accounting for the positive impact of value certainty on choice consistency and the negative impact of value certainty on response time.


The societal effects of forced migration are a burning topic of current political debate in Europe. There is an obvious absence of sustainable approaches to deal with this issue. We describe a collaborative and systemic regional effort, involving some 50 partners, towards a health-promoting and inclusive integration process designed to reach all refugees who settle in the southern region of Sweden. The main components of this process are now being disseminated to other regions in Sweden, which is contributing to national capacity-building. In addition, a national educational programme is being developed for those engaged in conveying civic and health information to asylum seekers and refugees. This work involves stakeholders in collaboration with six universities from different geographical areas of Sweden. The effort we describe in this report is expected to greatly contribute to providing better opportunities for all refugees in Sweden, and to empower them to control their own adaptation to a new life, thus reducing the risk of health deterioration often seen among


ideas; secondly, that the earliest lines of deployment seem to have been interior lines, running out in long arms westwards and southwards from a common point of origin in the upper Nile valley; thirdly, that this fund of common ideas was pre-Muslim and pre-Christian, in the sense that the basic ideas of the system ran sharply counter to the tenets of both these religions ... It is from standpoints such as this that the reconstruction of African history becomes vivid, convincing and pointful in its lessons. So much of Africa's past is still a matter for argument, pending discovery of fresh evidence, that anyone would find it easy to disagree with single judgements here and there. Unfortunately, the authors were asked to bring their history up to the present day, and so they have had to devote more than 100 precious pages, much needed for fuller development of their earlier material, to the fairly well-known and often-traversed periods of colonial penetration, conquest and decline. Here they had to hurry their narrative to the point of departing, now and then, from the balanced view that distinguishes their pre-colonial chapters. The partition of Africa, we are told (p. 182), 'was by no means a necessary consequence of the opening up of Africa by Europeans during the first three-quarters of the [nineteenth] century'. This is true in the narrow and relatively unimportant sense that the actual explorers seldom envisaged conquest and imperial rule (or not, at any rate, until the second half of the century). But in a larger sense it is not true. Given the expanding condition of European capitalism, at least an attempt to partition Africa was indeed the necessary consequence of exploration. This is not to argue historical determinism, but merely to point to cause and effect. It explains nothing to say (p. 182) that the partition was 'essentially the result of the appearance on the African scene of one or two powers which had not previously shown any interest in the continent': those powers appeared where and when they did because they were moved by specific existing circumstances.


Dendritic cells (DCs) are potent antigen-presenting cells which are key leukocytes in the initiation of cell-mediated organ graft rejection, antiviral immunity, and antitumor responses. In this study we demonstrate that genetic modification of primary human and mouse DCs by adenoviral gene transfer is an effective means of induction and modulation of antigen presentation by DCs. An adenovirus vector (AdLacZ) was used to express an intracellular model antigen β-galactosidase (β-gal) in DCs. Our results show that 30–40% of precursor dendritic cells (PDCs) derived from human umbilical cord blood and circulating mature blood DCs express high levels β-galactosidase (β-gal) after infection with AdLacZ with no cytopathic effect observed. In vitro, AdLacZ transduced PDCs and DCs demonstrated a 10- to 20-fold higher mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) stimulatory capacity as compared to that of monocytes. In vivo, immunization with AdLacZ transduced mouse DCs resulted in more potent cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses against the predicted H-2 restricted β-gal epitope as compared to CTL responses obtained by β-gal peptide pulsed DCs. Modulations of the MLR stimulatory capacity of DCs were examined by expression of mouse B7 and CTLA-4Ig. The results show that expression of mouse B7 by a recombinant adenoviral vector (Ad7) significantly enhances the MLR stimulatory capacity of human DCs. In contrast, expression of CTLA-4Ig (AdCTLA-4Ig) reduces the MLR stimulatory capacity of the transduced cells. We conclude that recombinant adenovirus can readily be used for genetic modulation DC-induced immune responses in vivo and in vitro. DCs targeted for induction of specific antigen responses or for modulation of the immune stimulatory capacity may have a potential use in the control of transplantation rejection or viral infections.


The attitude of the National Democracy towards the Soviet Union based on two factors: its political, military and economic weakness, which prevented Soviet aggressive foreign policy and common interest of Poland and the USSR, which was defence against German expansion in the East. So National Democracy wanted to have good relations with the Soviet state and objected of any intervention in internal affairs of the Soviet Union. National camp demanded from the USSR peacefulpolicy, stabilization on the Polish-Soviet border and cooperation in defending the territorial order in this part of Europe. The real relations between Poland and the USSR weren't so optimistic. The National Democracy accused communist government in Russia of the preparations to european revolution and to force all the countries to adopt totalitarian system. The ways of realization of that plan were Polish-Soviet war (1919-1920) and help given to Polish communists by the USSR in destructive activity against the Polish Republic. The National Democracy criticized east neighbour on dislike for political and economic cooperation with Poland, too. For the USSR better partners were Germany or France than poor Poland and national leaders had to resign from theirs conception of keeping close cooperation with the USSR. Poland was situated between Germany and the Soviet Union, what had grave influence on national conception of mutual relations with both neighbours. For the National Democracy Germany was the most dangerous enemy of the Polish state, so a natural partner had to be seek in the USSR. That's why, despite failures, national leaders during interwar period didn't change their main idea on good relations with the east neighbour on political and economic ground and were convinced, that the Soviet government would eventually change its foreign policy. Some political events strengthened the national camp in its conviction: a treaty of non-aggression, trade relations or influential Soviet politicians' speeches, for example ministries of foreign affairs, about the necessity of cooperation with Poland. But belief in their own conceptions caused misunderstanding of the real aims of the USSR, which were at odds with interests of Poland and based on intentions to destroy the Polish state.


Summary form only given. In this study, Pr3+-doped LiYF4 laser, was pumped by a high-power 444 nm GaN laser. The laser output power as a function of absorbed power for various output couplings was studied. No performance degradation was observed even at elevated crystal temperatures up to 380 K.


The ability of grid-connected microgrids (MG) to operate in islanded mode makes them an efficient solution for improving power quality and reliability. This property of MG is very much beneficial for remote and undeveloped areas in progressing countries. Moreover, ICT technology has led to the development of Smart Standalone Microgrids (SSMG), which are inundated with a plethora of sensors. This allows multiple microgrids to be controlled in a coordinated way to achieve self-sufficiency in power. In such systems, there is much interdependency between various power, control and communication parameters. Owing to these developments, the control of physical variables like voltage get affected by cyber parameters like, communication structure, delay and link loss. Moreover, due to isolation from main grid and abundance of renewable power generation units like solar PV, the inertia of these standalone grids is reduced greatly and calls for advanced control algorithms which use an abundance of sensors. Hence, the stability of these systems is greatly affected by sensor failures apart from many physical parameters like load and environmental conditions. In this thesis, a generic structure of an AC-DC hybrid microgrid is considered which is subdivided into various AC and DC counterparts. The AC and DC SSMGs are separately modeled and control solutions are proposed to improve their stability. The first two contributions propose adaptive control schemes on the primary level of control in the hybrid microgrid. Their function is to provide fast and stable parameters regulation in the DCSSMG when subjected to atmospheric changes along with faults in sensor readings. The third and fourth contributions cater to development of coordinated control cyber physical frameworks in the ACSSMG to handle the presence of simultaneous disturbances from both cyber/physical domains.


This paper describes a Romanian Dependency Treebank, built at the Al. I. Cuza University (UAIC), and a special OCR techniques used to build it. The corpus has rich morphological and syntactic annotation. There are few annotated representative corpora in Romanian, and the existent ones are mainly focused on the contemporary Romanian standard. The corpus described below is focused on the nonstandard aspects of the language, the Regional and the Old Romanian. Having the intention to participate at the PROIEL project, which aligns oldest New Testaments, we annotate the first printed Romanian New Testament (Alba Iulia, 1648). We began by applying the UAIC tools for the morphological and syntactic processing of Contemporary Romanian over the books first quarter (second edition). By carefully manually correcting the result of the automated annotation (having a modest accuracy) we obtained a sub-corpus for the training of tools for the Old Romanian processing. But the first edition of the New Testament is written in Cyrillic letters. The existence of books printed in the Old Cyrillic alphabet is a common problem for Romania and The Republic of Moldova, countries where the Romanian is spoken; a problem to solve by the joint efforts of the NLP researchers in the two countries.


This paper presents the results of HF channel fading measurements on 2000 and 3000 km midlatitude paths using a 1-MHz instantaneous bandwidth direct-sequence pseudonoise (DSPN) probing signal. The channel impulse response is estimated by correlating the received probe signal with a local DSPN reference. The channel is characterized in terms of the autocovariance and distribution functions of the received power. Bandwidth-dependent characteristics are obtained by Fourier transforming the measured impulse response and then applying appropriate filtering. The measured long-term wideband power statistics show a median standard deviation of 2–3 dB and median decorrelation times of 37 to 57 s. Both median fade depth and median incremental fade depth always decrease with increasing bandwidth.


H2S modified TiO2 films were grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) using TiCl4, H2S and water as precursors. The films were characterized by XRD, XPS, TOF-SIMS, SEM and UV-VIS spectrometry. Photocatalytic activities of the films under UV and visible light were determined by the degradation of a thin layer of stearic acid. Light induced superhydrophilicity of the films was also studied. Although the sulfur content of the films was very low, substantial modification of the film properties occurred. All the films prepared at 400 and 500 °C with H2S were photocatalytically active under visible light. Photocatalytic activity under UV irradiation of the H2S modified films was also drastically improved when proper deposition parameters were applied.


In the Photoclinic item titled "Vaccine-Induced Herpes Zoster," by Julie L. Cantatore-Francis, MD, and Yelva Lynfield, MD (Consultant For Pediatricians, June 2005, pages 290 and 291), the dosage of acyclovir was incorrectly printed as 80 mg/d divided into 4 doses. The correct dosage is 80 mg/kg/d divided into 4 doses. We apologize for the error.


We have sequenced the O-antigen gene clusters for the Escherichia coli O98 and Yersinia kristensenii O11 O antigens. The basic structures of these O antigens are identical, and the sequence data indicate that Y. kristensenii O11 gained its O-antigen gene cluster by lateral gene transfer (LGT). Escherichia coli O98 has a typical O-antigen gene cluster between galF and gnd as is usual in E. coli. However, the O-antigen gene cluster of Y. kristensenii O11 is not located at the traditional Yersinia O-antigen gene cluster locus, between hemH and gsk, but at a novel chromosomal locus between aroA and cmk where it is flanked by remnant galF and gnd genes that indicate the probable source of the gene cluster. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the source was not E. coli itself but a species in the Escherichia, Salmonella, and Klebsiella group of genera. Although other O-antigen studies imply LGT on the basis of the hypervariability of the loci and GC content, this report also identifies a potential donor and provides evidence for the mechanism involved. Remnant insertion sequence (IS) sequences flank the galF and gnd remnants and suggest that LGT of the gene cluster was IS mediated.


NMR core measurements have been made customarily in.high magnetic fields, emphasizing TI for pore-size evaluation or using chemical shift spectroscopy for quantitative differentiation of oil and water. However, new NMR logging tools use T2 measurements made at low field strengths and these measurements should be supported by core analysis. This paper illustrates that low field NMR T2 measurements made on water-saturated rock cores can be used to measure total porosity and extract T2-distributions. The T2-distributions are shown to be closely related to pore size distributions. Our experiments demonstrate that low field measurements are quantitative, even for cases where high field measurements fail. T2-distributions from water-saturated plugs are used to estimate producible fluids for sandstones and carbonates and to estimate clay bound water and matrix permeability. Although chemical shift spectroscopy is not feasible at low fields, a method is demonstrated on native state diatomites that permits the measurement of oil, water and gas saturation. In the case presented, it is also possible to determine the oil viscosity, in situ.


This paper gives an effective spatial area based picture concealing plan, utilizing Molecule Swarm Streamlining (PSO) with capsule encryption technique. First the plain text was encrypted using capsule encryption method after the PSO method was used to hide the encrypted data into the image. Partical swarm optimization is utilized to locate the finest pixel areas in a dark scale picture pixel information can be installed. The target capacity for PSO is characterized in a manner that mutually for quality and heartiness of the stego picture are adequate. This outcomes in a stego picture which is great in quality as well as ready to handle certain clamor and pressure assaults amid transmission. The outcomes when contrasted and some late information concealing procedures in the spatial area show better stego picture quality at the side of contortion resistance.


Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) was created in 1995, regional trade agreements (RTAs) have become a prominent feature of the Multilateral...


Abstract Most services and products are designed in response to the needs, desires or expectations of humans. A variety of methodologies grouped by the term Human-Centred Design (HCD) have been deployed to formalise and improve this process, ranging from user-centred to participatory practices. However, the approaches' consideration is primarily limited to individuals in their respective space and time. To examine these system boundaries in detail and address potentials for adaptation, this paper reviews dominant HCD methodologies, categorises them and highlights their respective characteristics. Further, concepts and methodologies from related fields are studied for potential contributions to HCD. This results in a proposed re-definition of the system boundaries of HCD by integrating spatio-temporal impacts on humans through an extended social, environmental and economic scope. The different studied approaches and varying impact assessments are exemplarily applied to the case study of urban mobility, in particular human-centred, scenario-based design approaches. However, the described methods and concepts are kept generic to ensure the applicability across various domains of design practice.


The purpose was to describe the differences in practice success of high- and low-skilled students to varied instructional tasks and feedback of two physical education teachers. Four to five lessons on striking with implements were presented, and feedback was consistently individual and specific. Subjects were four high-skilled and four low-skilled fourth graders randomly selected from two intact physical education classes. The teacher variable studied was the amount and kind of teacher feedback given to subjects during practice. Student variables included: (a) the success frequencies of practice in response to instructional tasks, and (b) practice success frequencies achieved immediately after receiving teacher feedback. Results showed that successful task engagement was 70% for low-skilled students and 86% for high-skilled students in response to instructional tasks. After receiving teacher feedback, low-skilled students increased their practice success to 75% (5% increase); high-skilled students decline...


The case history described in the Short Report 'Red cell lipid abnormalities in acquired acanthocytosis are extended to platelets' (Ulibarrena et al, 1994) is that of a typical case of spur cell anaemia, the only atypical feature being an increase of phosphatidylcholine (PC) whereas the other phospholipids were normal. This pattern of selective accumulation of PC (combined with an equimolar increase of cholesterol resulting in a normal cholesterol/phospholipid ratio) causes the increase in red cell surface area of leptocytes which can be seen in any patient with cholestasis of some duration (Werre et al, 1970; Verkley et al, 1976). Target cells as exaggerated forms of leptocytes show the same pattern. We have shown that this pattern is caused by the adhesion and subsequent fusion of an abnormal lipoprotein (LP-X) which circulates in the plasma of patients with cholestasis. This lipoprotein contains equimolar quantities of PC and cholesterol and from electromicroscopic observations we know that is consists of vesicular structures. For these reasons, LP-X closely resembles the cholesterol/PC-micelles in bile. In variance with Cooper's statements (Cooper, 1980), our results suggest that there is an equilibrium between fusion of LP-X vesicles with the erythrocytes and efflux of cholesterol and PC by molecular exchange with normal lipoproteins. So when LP-X ceases to circulate in the plasma, cholesterol and PC quickly normalize in the red cell membrane. It seems reasonable to assume that the same mechanism occurred in the platelet membranes of this patient. Pandian. M.R., Morgan, C.H.. Carlton, E. & Segre, G.V. (1992) Modified immunoradiometric assay of parathyroid hormonerelated protein: clinical application in the differential diagnosis of hypercalcemia. Clinical Chemistry, 38, 282-288. Seymour, J.P. & Gagel, R.F. (1993) Calcitriol: the major humoral mediator of hypercalcemia in Hodgkin's disease and nonHodgkin's lymphomas. Blood, 82, 1383-1394. Seymour, J.F., Kouri. I.F., Champlin, R.E. & Keating. M.J. (1994) Refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia complicated by hypercalcemia treated by allogeneic bone marrow transplantation: case report and review. American Journal of Clinical Oncology. 17, 360-368.


Following the largest M&A wave in history, it is appropriate to assess the evidence on the profitability of this activity. One popular view is that merger activity is highly unprofitable. Does research sustain this view? This paper reflects on what it means for M&A to 'pay' and summarizes the evidence from 12 informal studies, 120 scientific studies from 1971 to 2003, and five surveys of the scientific evidence published in 1979, 1983, 1987, 1989, and 1992. This review comments on the several formal and informal research approaches and highlights findings for the broad activity as well as niches of special note. The mass of research suggests that target shareholders earn sizable positive market-returns, that bidders (with interesting exceptions) earn zero adjusted returns, and that bidders and targets combined earn positive adjusted returns. On balance, one should conclude that M&A does pay. But the broad dispersion of findings around a zero return to buyers suggests that executives should approach this activity with caution.


This contribution investigates the application of low frequency guided ultrasonic waves for monitoring fatigue crack growth at fastener holes in the 2nd layer of multi-layered plate structures, a common problem in aerospace industry. The model multi-layered structure investigated consists of two aluminum plate-strips adhesively bonded using a structural paste adhesive. Guided ultrasonic waves were excited using multiple piezoelectric discs bonded to the surface of the multi-layered structure. The wave propagation in the tensile specimen was measured using a laser interferometer and compared to numerical simulations. Thickness and width mode shapes of the excited flexural waves were identified from Semi-Analytical Finite Element (SAFE) calculations. Experiments and 3D Finite Element (FE) simulations show a change in the scattered field around fastener holes caused by a defect in the 2nd layer. The amplitude of the guided ultrasonic wave was monitored during fatigue experiments at a single point. The measured changes in the amplitude of the ultrasonic signal due to fatigue crack growth agree well with FE simulations.


Infantile diarrhea in France is usually benign and self limiting but in rare cases dehydration or malnutrition with continuing diarrhea can occur. Dehydration may almost always be prevented and treated with an oral solution containing glucose and electrolytes. Rapid feeding adapted to the age of the child can help prevent nutritional problems. The need for antibiotics and other medications is very limited. Intestinal infection is the cause of most cases of infantile diarrhea. 10-15% of cases are caused by bacteria of various types and the vast majority of the remainder by viruses with the rotavirus alone accounting for around 1/2 of cases. Oral rehydration can compensate for the exaggerated loss of water and electrolytes. No matter how serious the diarrhea or its cause some potential for absorption of water and sodium is always retained. Sodium absorption is facilitated by the concomitant presence of glucose in the intestines. Oral rehydration solutions commercially available in France have an electrolyte content adapted to the average fecal loss locally observed in acute diarrhea. Oral rehydration solution is offered to infants at short intervals in a bottle allowing the child to drink as the need arises. Significant quantities may be absorbed in the 1st 24 hours. Any vomiting usually ceases after administration of a small amount of glucose. Traditional dietary preparations for diarrhea such as carrot soup and products based on rice have essentially an absorbent power and do not diminish intestinal loss of water and electrolytes. In cases of severe dehydration with weight loss of over 10% and unconsciousness intravenous rehydration is indicated. Whether oral or parietal rehydration should always be rapid so that feeding can begin. Feeding should start after 24 or at most 48 hours of rehydration to maintain the nutritional state. Rapid feeding is usually well tolerated but there may be a transitory intolerance to lactose or a secondary sensitivity to proteins in cows milk. Breast feeding should not be interrupted but bottle feedings should be stopped for 24-48 hours and reintroduced for infants under 3 months with protein formula not based on cows milk and for those over 3 months with diluted formula.


The objective of the study was to determine the profile of verbally-abused store helpers, forms of verbal abuse they experienced, behavioral manifestations of learned helplessness, internal and external factors that led to learned helplessness, meaning of life, and extent in which learned helplessness influence the meaning of life among the helpers in Calamba Public Market. It adopted quantitative and qualitative research methods and employed self-constructed tests and in-depth interview in gathering data. Frequency was applied to interpret quantitative data and thematic analysis for qualitative data. There were four male co-researchers involved in the study who are in 17 to 20 years of age. Two of them are high school undergraduates while the other two are high school graduates. The results showed that the verbal abuses that these co-researchers experienced from their employers mostly include name-calling, criticizing, yelling, ridiculing, ordering, threatening, and belittling. Fear of being reprimanded, inhibited or constricted emotional reactivity, self-blame, acceptance on the nature of their work, feeling of inadequacy, passive resignation, and helplessness are the behavioral manifestations of learned helplessness. It was further found out that the internal factors that led to learned helplessness include feeling of inadequacy, passive resignation, and self-blame. In addition, contentment in life, good and wholesome character despite resentment towards their employers, providing needs for their loved ones, learning from life's adversities, perseverance, and persistence are the themes that depict the co-researchers' meaning of life. Lastly, providing the needs of their loved ones, having contentment, and learning from life's adversities are the factors that highly influence the helpers' meaning of life.


This opinion piece emerged from research for the book, Story Machines: How Com-puters Have Become Creative Writers , by Mike Sharples and Rafael Pérez y Pérez, published by Routledge. While thinking of ways to promote the book, I realised that students could employ AI story generators to write essays. That led me to research automated essay writing, write a Twitter thread that has garnered 43,000 engage-ments, and author a blog article (Sharples, 2022). The current piece is a revised and expanded version of that article.


Abstract The field of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery (FPRS) is an incredibly diverse, multispecialty field that seeks innovative and novel solutions for the management of physical defects on the head and neck. To aid in the advancement of medical and surgical treatments for these defects, there has been a recent emphasis on the importance of translational research. With recent technological advancements, there are now a myriad of research techniques that are widely accessible for physician and scientist use in translational research. Such techniques include integrated multiomics, advanced cell culture and microfluidic tissue models, established animal models, and emerging computer models generated using bioinformatics. This study discusses these various research techniques and how they have and can be used for research in the context of various important diseases within the field of FPRS.


Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a disease with multiple etiologies and is categorized into five broad groups. Of these groups, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is the most studied and, therefore, all of the currently available drug classes (prostacyclin analogs, endothelin receptor antagonists and phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors) were developed to treat PAH. Thus, limited treatment data exist for the less-studied non-PAH forms of PH. Pharmacogenomics can be a tool to better understand the pathways involved in PH, as well as to improve personalization of therapy. However, little pharmacogenomic research has been carried out on this disease. New treatments for PH are on the horizon, deriving from both repurposed currently available drugs and novel therapeutics.


In the nucleus, distinct, discrete spots or regions called "foci" have been identified, each harboring a specific molecular function. Accurate and efficient quantification of these foci is essential for understanding cellular dynamics and signaling pathways. In this study, we present an innovative automated image analysis method designed to precisely quantify subcellular foci within the cell nucleus. Manual foci counting methods can be tedious and time-consuming. To address these challenges, we developed an open-source software that automatically counts the number of foci from the indicated image files. We compared the foci counting efficiency, velocity, accuracy, and convenience of Foci-Xpress with those of other conventional methods in foci-induced models. We can adjust the brightness of foci to establish a threshold. The Foci-Xpress method was significantly faster than other conventional methods. Its accuracy was similar to that of conventional methods. The most significant strength of Foci-Xpress is automation, which eliminates the need for analyzing equipment while counting. This enhanced throughput facilitates comprehensive statistical analyses and supports robust conclusions from experiments. Furthermore, automation completely rules out biases caused by researchers, such as manual errors or daily variations. Thus, Foci-Xpress is a convincing, convenient, and easily accessible focus-counting tool for cell biologists.


AIMS
To evaluate the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease undergoing percutaneous revascularization.

METHODS AND RESULTS
In 13 randomized trials 22,922 patients were stratified (in kg/m2) as underweight (BMI <18.5), normal weight (18.5≤BMI<25, used as reference), overweight (25≤BMI<30), and obese (Class I [30≤BMI<35], Class II [35≤BMI<40], or Class III [BMI≥40]). The primary endpoint was all-cause death at 5 years. Secondary endpoints were cardiac and non-cardiac death, target (TLR) and non-target lesion revascularization (NTLR), myocardial infarction (MI), and definite/probable stent thrombosis. Despite adjustment for multiple confounders, overweight and Class I obesity were associated with lower all-cause mortality vs normal weight (HR 0.83; 95%CI 0.71-0.96 and HR 0.83; 95%CI 0.69-0.96 respectively); however, non-cardiac death was the major contributor to this effect (HR 0.77; 95% CI 0.63-0.94 for overweight). Conversely, cardiac mortality was higher in severely obese individuals (HR 1.62; 95%CI 1.05-2.51 for Class III obesity). Obesity was associated with higher rates of NTLR (HR 1.28, 95%CI 1.04-1.58 for Class II obesity) but not with TLR, MI and stent thrombosis.

CONCLUSIONS
Moderately increased BMI is associated with improved survival post-PCI, mostly due to lower non-cardiac but not cardiac mortality.


The biotransformation of amphetaminil to amphetamine was confirmed using 3H- and 14C-labelled ampehtaminil. The metabolites were isolated, identified and quantified from blood, brain, adipose tissue and urine. These studies showed that the intact molecule of amphetaminil passes into the circulation only to a very small extent. The time spent by the amphetaminil in the alimentary canal does not appear to be a critical factor in the stability and degradation of this substance. The proportion of unchanged amphetaminil represents no more than 2% of the total radioactivity in the blood. The amphetamine, which results from the cleavage of amphetaminil, enters the CNS and is excreted in the urine after hydroxylation and glucuronidation. The other cleavage product, benzaldehyde, seems to be rapidly converted into hippuric acid, which is excreted. Amphetaminil is enriched in adipose tissue, especially after i.p. injection; but this fraction will be cleaved upon re-entering the blood, and it can only enter the brain as amphetamine.


This paper investigates the relationships between firm organization attributes, namely a structure a la Chandler, and their inward looking or "exploitation" attitude in R&D and innovation. We argue that because of sunk costs and learning processes an inward looking behavior is a consequence of increases in firm size. However, it is also produced by an organizational model based on hierarchical managerial decisions, typical of the Chandlerian firms, that is not directly related to size. We find that the US States populated by larger firms show a higher share of patent self-citations normalized by their share of world patents. Even after controlling for firm size, a proxy for the extent of firm divisionalization in the States exhibits a significant effect on patent self-citations normalized by patent shares. This supports our point that the inward looking behavior of the Chandlerian firms is not just a consequence of size, but also of the Chandlerian organizational model. Among other things, this suggests that "exploration", which leads to the opening of new innovation trajectories, requires not only small firms, but also different organizational setups and decision processes.


Objective. To compare the safety and efficacy of a short course (5 days) of ceftibuten vs. azithromycin for 3 days for treatment of group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal (GABHS) pharyngitis in children. Methods. A multicenter, open label, prospective, randomized trial in which patients ≥3 to ≤16 years of age with proven GABHS pharyngitis were randomized to receive either once daily ceftibuten for 5 days or azithromycin for 3 days. Patients were evaluated for clinical outcomes and/or for adverse events at days 6 to 8, 13 to 15 and 33 to 35 posttherapy. Microbiologic assessments (pharyngeal cultures) were conducted at baseline and at each follow-up visit. Results. A total of 132 patients in the ceftibuten arm and 116 in the azithromycin arm were enrolled in the safety analysis, whereas 126 and 101, respectively, were enrolled for ceftibuten and azithromycin efficacy evaluation. Clinical success (cure or marked amelioration) at days 6 to 8 was recorded in 98 and 94% in the 2 groups, respectively. In the bacteriologic efficacy analysis at 6 to 8 days, the GABHS strain was eradicated in 76% of the patients treated with ceftibuten and in 76% of those receiving azithromycin. At 33 to 35 days, 84% of the patients in the ceftibuten arm and 71% in the azithromycin arm were GABHS-negative, and bacteriologic relapse was observed in 4 and 7% of the ceftibuten and azithromycin cases, respectively. Both treatments were well-tolerated by all patients. Conclusions. Ceftibuten and azithromycin allow simple treatment schedules (i.e. once daily administration, short duration of treatment). The somewhat higher eradication rate recorded after ceftibuten administration is consistent with the overall superior bactericidal activity of beta-lactams compared with macrolides vs. GABHS in vitro.


Academics employed in either public or private university in Malaysia may be subject to different contract of service and scheme of employment. Due to this variance, academics receive different employment benefits. Such variation can also create differences and imbalance between universities in the context of workloads assigned to academics in both types of universities. Thus, objective of this article is to analyze employment benefits (pecuniary and non-pecuniary) of academics in Malaysian universities and their satisfaction with the employment benefits that they receive. This article employs a mixed method approach i.e. qualitative and quantitative. For quantitative approach, a survey was conducted among academic staffs in Malaysian public and private universities. Qualitative approach by way of interviews were conducted among management of selected universities. The results show that all academic staff in public and private universities in Malaysia received pecuniary and non-pecuniary benefits. For public universities these benefits are mostly standardized. However, pecuniary and non-pecuniary benefits for academics in private universities are different from public universities and between themselves. The job specification which involves teaching, supervision, research, consultation and administrative works as found in the KPIs of all academics are not similar. It is recommended that to strike a balance between benefits (pecuniary and non-pecuniary) and workloads received by academics, the workloads of academics should be designed to have a particular focus on specification of work such as research and supervision, teaching and administration tracks. Therefore, this article suggests that the relevant authorities consider a new remuneration scheme and benefits based on tracks and yearly staff performance achievement for academics in Malaysia.


Two patients developed skin ulcers secondary to high doses of diagnostic-energy x rays received during localization procedures as part of brachytherapy treatments. Both were morbidly obese and diabetic. The obesity led to the delivery of estimated skin doses of 83 Gy in one case and 29 Gy in the other in attempts to produce readable images on localization radiographs. This report discusses the factors leading to the injuries, the progression of the injuries over time, and the variables involved in the localization procedures with the aim of preventing future mishaps. The greatest contribution to the large skin dose was the need, with the equipment available, to use multiple exposures to produce a single film, because of the effect of the resultant reciprocity failure.


Background and objective The isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) status of patients with World Health Organization (WHO) grade II or III astrocytoma is essential for understanding its biological features and determining therapeutic strategies. This study aimed to use radiological analysis to predict the IDH status of patients with lower-grade astrocytomas and to verify the pathological implications. Methods In this study, 47 patients with grade II (17 cases) or III astrocytomas (30 cases), based on 2016 WHO Classification, underwent methionine (MET) positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) on the same day between January 2013 and June 2020. The patients were retrospectively assessed. Immunohistochemistry showed 23 cases of IDH-mutant and 24 of IDH-wildtype. Based on fluid-attenuated recovery inversion (FLAIR)/T2 imaging, three doctors blinded to clinical data independently allocated 18 patients to the clear boundary group between the tumor and the normal brain and 29 to the unclear boundary group. The peak ratios of N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/creatine (Cr), choline (Cho)/Cr, and Cho/NAA and the tumor-to-normal region (T/N) ratio for maximum accumulation in MET-PET were calculated. For statistical analysis, Fisher's exact test was used to assess associations between two variables, and the Mann-Whitney U test to compare the values between the IDH-wildtype and IDH-mutant groups. The optimal cut-off values of MET T/N ratio and MRS parameters for discriminating IDH-wildtype from IDH-mutant were obtained using receiver operating characteristics curves. Results The unclear boundary group had significantly more IDH-wildtype cases than the clear boundary group (P<0.001). The IDH-wildtype group had significantly lower Cho/Cr (<1.84) and Cho/NAA (<1.62) ratios (P=0.02 and P=0.047, respectively) and a higher MET T/N ratio (>1.44, P=0.02) than the IDH-mutant group. The odds for the IDH-wildtype were 0.22 for patients who fulfilled none of the four criteria, including boundary status and three ratios, and 0.9 for all four criteria. Conclusions These results suggest that the combination of MRI, MRS, and MET-PET examination could be helpful for the prediction of IDH status in WHO grade II/III gliomas.


Both type I and type IV hypersensitivity reactions have been implicated in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis. Using monoclonal antibodies we have identified IgE on the surface of cutaneous dendritic cells in both lesional and nonlesional skin. Double immunofluorescence labeling demonstrates these cells to be antigen-presenting cells. Immunoglobulin E (IgE) was not identified on such cells either in atopic individuals with no history of dermatitis or in patients with a range of other dermatoses. Further studies are consistent with IgE being bound to the cell surface via an Fc-IgE receptor. We conclude that this finding is specific for atopic dermatitis and thus may provide a link between the two types of hypersensitivity reactions frequently observed.


A method is given for generating a bounded invariant of a differential system with a given set of initial conditions around a point $x_0$. This invariant has the form of a tube centered on the Euler approximate solution starting at $x_0$, which has for radius an upper bound on the distance between the approximate solution and the exact ones. The method consists in finding a real $T>0$ such that the "snapshot" of the tube at time $t=(i+1)T$ is included in the snapshot at $t=iT$, for some integer $i$. In the phase space, the invariant is therefore in the shape of a torus. A simple additional condition is also given to ensure that the solutions of the system can never converge to a point of equilibrium. In dimension 2, this ensures that all solutions converge towards a limit cycle. The method is extended in case the dynamic system contains a parameter $p$, thus allowing the stability analysis of the system for a range of values of $p$. This is illustrated on classical Van der Pol's system.


In this paper, we propose a new technique in direct sequence code division multiple access system using on-off key and modified prime sequence code, the scheme of this technique dubbed successive interference cancellation (SIC). The basic principle of SIC scheme is to subtract the strongest received signals from the original signal one by one till all users have been detected, and demodulated. In this analysis we take in account the possibilities of errors in previous cancellation. It has been shown that the proposal IC scheme with (-20dBm) effective power can suppress multiple-access interference (MAI), and improve the system performance significantly.


Pain, bad taste, and impaired daily activity after implant therapy are common sequelae. Concentrated growth factors (CGF) are a platelet concentrate with a favourable effect on wound healing, but there is still no evidence regarding its potential benefits for reducing postoperative pain and symptoms. Therefore, aim of this prospective comparative study was to determine the effect of CGF on quality of life (QoL) of patients after implant therapy. Fifty-two consecutive patients with one missing mandibular molar were included in the study and alternatively assigned to two groups. Control group received standard implant treatment, and test group received CGF associated with implants. Standard periapical radiographs were taken before and after procedure. Post-operative care consisted of 0.2% chlorhexidine digluconate solution twice daily for 10 days. A QoL questionnaire (OHIP-14) for bad taste, pain and limitation in daily activities was filled and returned one week post-operatively. Daily pain was also assessed through Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) on a 1-100 scale. Parametric test (chi-square) was performed to compare the results of the questionnaire between the two groups using STATA statistical software. All patients correctly filled and returned the questionnaire. Significantly higher proportions of patients of test group reported no bad taste, pain, and limited activity, (24/26, 13/26, and 25/26, respectively) respect to control. Postoperative pain with VAS score was significantly lower in the test group on day 1, 2, and 3 as compared to control. CGF positively influenced QoL when associated with implant rehabilitation of mandibular molars, minimizing post-operative discomfort.


Epigenetic variants of the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus called SARC have evolved heritable traits including extreme acid resistance, enhanced genome integrity and a conserved "SARC" transcriptome related to acid resistance. These traits appear to result from altered chromatin protein function related to the heritable hypomethylation of chromatin proteins Cren7 and Sso7D. To clarify how this might occur, ChIPseq and Affinity Purification Mass Spectrometry (AP-MS) were used to compare Cren7 and Sso7D genome binding sites and protein networks between lineages (wild type and SARC) and culture pH (pH 1 and 3). All SARC transcriptome loci were bound by these chromatin proteins but with invariant patterns indicating binding alone was insufficient to mediate the SARC traits. In contrast, chromosome association varied at other loci. Quantitative AP-MS was then used to identify protein interaction networks and these included transcription and DNA repair proteins implicated in the evolved heritable traits that varied in abundance between SARC and wild type strains. Protein networks included most of the S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) synthesis pathway including serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT), whose abundance varied widely with culture pH. Because epigenetic marks are coupled to SAM pools and oxidative stress in eukaryotes, occurrence of a similar process was investigated here. Archaeal SAM pools were depleted by treatment with SAM pathway inhibitors, acid or oxidative stress and, like eukaryotes, levels were raised by vitamin B12 and methionine supplementation. We propose that in archaea, oxidation-induced SAM pool depletion acting through an SHMT sensor, drove chromatin protein hypomethylation and thereby protein network changes that established the evolved SARC epigenetic traits. Significance Statement Archaea and eukaryotes share many molecular processes, including chromatin-mediated epigenetic inheritance of traits. As with eukaryotes, archaeal protein complexes were formed between trait-related proteins and chromatin proteins, subject to chromatin protein methylation state. Oxidation-induced depletion of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) pools likely resulted in chromatin protein hypomethylation. Subsequent chromatin enrichment of serine hydroxymethyltransferase as a response to oxidative stress could modulate methylation at specific genomic loci. The interplay between archaeal metabolism and chromatin appear consistent with patterns observed in eukaryotes and indicate the existence of an ancient oxidation signal transduction pathway controlling epigenetics.


Rice is one of the most important food crops in the world. However, stable rice production is constrained by various diseases, in particular rice blast, sheath blight, bacterial blight, and virus diseases. Breeding and cultivation of resistant rice varieties is the most effective method to control the infection of pathogens. Exploitation and utilization of the genetic determinants of broad-spectrum resistance represent a desired way to improve the resistance of susceptible rice varieties. Recently, researchers have focused on the identification of rice broad-spectrum disease resistance genes, which include R genes, defense-regulator genes, and quantitative trait loci (QTL) against two or more pathogen species or many isolates of the same pathogen species. The cloning of broad-spectrum disease resistance genes and understanding their underlying mechanisms not only provide new genetic resources for breeding broad-spectrum rice varieties, but also promote the development of new disease resistance breeding strategies, such as editing susceptibility and executor R genes. In this review, the most recent advances in the identification of broad-spectrum disease resistance genes in rice and their application in crop improvement through biotechnology approaches during the past 10 years are summarized.


Dear Sir, The Zika virus infection is an emerging arboviral disease that needs urgent control.[1,2] The information on the epidemiology of this infection is very useful. The seasonal change and fluctuation of many arboviral diseases such as dengue are known but it is not well clarified for Zika virus infection. Here, the authors review the previous data on seasonal variation of Zika infection case reports in Thailand. Of all six cases with complete data on exact time of occurrence in Thailand, 3, 2, and 1 cases occurred in summer, rainy season, and winter period, respectively. This can be seen that there is no specific season of disease free. Indeed, in the propical world, global warming significantly destroys the normal seasonal pattern and this might affect the abundance of vector and increased occurrence rate of arboviral disease in any seasons of the year.[3]


While exploring universal language, Penderecki has engaged with several compositional styles. He has explored a wide range of contemporary compositional techniques, notations, styles and genres including sonorism, serialism, as well as neo-Romanticism. In the course of the 1980s, he discovered his own musical pluralism, a chromaticism that is primarily polyphonic without tonality, but with themes and motifs that make a counterpoint interaction possible. With his ultimate craftsmanship, Penderecki comfortably incorporated such extremes into the mainstream of his personal musical language which is called "synthesis". He believes that synthesis re fers not only to a composition technique but it could also synthesis old themes with new musical techniques; or be a synthesis of modern and traditional techniques which would speak directly to audiences. The main purpose of this study is to investigate composer's creativity process towards the period of synthesis as well as to exemplify important aspects of chosen works under the circumstances of the style of synthesis.


Background: Flexible bronchoscopy is a useful diagnostic tool with a relative low rate of complications. Aim: To analyze post procedure risk of complications after flexible bronchoscopy with transbronchial or bronchial biopsy. Material and methods: The electronic database of a bronchoscopy unit at a general Hospital was analyzed. All procedures performed between 2009 and 2011 were reviewed and complications recorded. The primary outcome measure was the risk for complications defined as the percentage of procedures complicated by hemorrhage, pneumothorax, desaturation <80% and other complications. We used a logistic regression model to explore the association between each procedure characteristic and complication. Results: One thousand seventy nine procedures were included in the analysis. Eight percent had complications. Among these, the frequency of hemorrhage was 5.9% and pneumothorax was 0.3%. Factors associated with complications were exclusive use of topical anesthesia with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.72 (confidence intervals (CI): 1.04 – 2.86), regular or bad intolerance to the procedure with an OR 4.70 (CI: 3.00 –7.38) and performing biopsies of the upper lobes with an OR of 1.76 (CI: 1.04-2.97). Conclusions: Exclusive use of topical anesthesia, performing biopsies of the upper lobes and procedure tolerance were risk factors associated with complications Following bronchoscopic biopsies.


A three-year-old primiparous Saanen goat was presented to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sudan University of Science and Technology for pregnancy diagnosis. Transabdominal ultrasonography was conducted using B-mode real time scanner (Pie medical Easote, The Netherlands) equipped with switchable frequency (3.5-5 MHz) curvilinear transducer. Ultrasonographic findings revealed severely distended hypoechoic fluid filled compartmentalized uterus. Fetal parts and placentomes were not detected. The doe was diagnosed as having hydrometra and treated with intramuscular injection of Cloprostenol. The animal was returned to estrus 34 hrs post treatment. Rescanning 60 days post breeding revealed pregnancy with triplets which were confirmed at delivery. In conclusion ultrasonography was found to be a reliable and rapid method for diagnosis of hydrometra.


As the number of resources on chip multiprocessors (CMPs) increases, the complexity of how to best allocate these resources increases drastically. Because the higher number of applications makes the interaction and impacts of various memory levels more complex. Also, the selection of the objective function to define what \enquote{best} means for all applications is challenging. Memory-level parallelism (MLP) aware replacement algorithms in CMPs try to maximize the overall system performance or equalize each application's performance degradation due to sharing. However, depending on the selected \enquote{performance} metric, these algorithms are not efficiently implemented, because these centralized approaches mostly need some further information regarding about applications' need. In this paper, we propose a contention-aware game-theoretic resource management approach (CARMA) using market auction mechanism to find an optimal strategy for each application in a resource competition game. The applications learn through repeated interactions to choose their action on choosing the shared resources. Specifically, we consider two cases: (i) cache competition game, and (ii) main processor and co-processor congestion game. We enforce costs for each resource and derive bidding strategy. Accurate evaluation of the proposed approach show that our distributed allocation is scalable and outperforms the static and traditional approaches.


The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of different doses of sex steroid hormones on brain edema, BBB permeability, brain antioxidant enzyme activity, and MDA level after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in ovarectomized (OVX) rats. Female rats were divided into six (One sham and 5 TBI) groups including: vehicle, estrogen in physiologic (33.3 μg/kg) and pharmacologic (1mg/kg) doses, progesterone in physiologic (1.7 mg/kg) and pharmacological doses (8mg/kg). The results showed that compared to vehicle group, estrogen and progesterone groups showed significantly lower brain water content (P<0.001). Evans blue content was significantly lower in both estrogen doses and in progesterone physiologic dose (P<0.001). Evans blue content was significantly higher in progesterone pharmacologic dose (P<0.001). Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was significantly higher in estrogen and progesterone pharmacologic doses (P<0.001). Glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity was significantly lower in estrogen physiologic dose (P<0.001). It was concluded that the neuroprotective effect of different doses of sex steroid hormones after TBI, may be mediated by changes in oxidant agent activity.


Objective. The aim of this work was to define the prevalence of back pain in children and youth aged 10–19 from the southeast of Poland. Material and Methods. The cross-sectional study included 1089 students (547 girls and 542 boys) aged 10–19. The prevalence of back pain, its intensity, location, and situations in which it occurred were assessed with a questionnaire. Results. Among 1089 respondents, 830 (76.2%) admitted that they had experienced back pain at various frequencies within the year preceding the study. Back pain was located mainly in the lumbar segment (74.8%). Mild pains were dominant, which was declared by 44.7% of the respondents. Girls experienced back pain significantly more frequently than boys (52.2% versus 47.8%, P < 0.05). Conclusions. The research revealed that back pain is a common phenomenon. The prevalence of back pain in children and youth living in southeast Poland is similar to the frequency of occurrence of such complaints occurring in peers in other countries. It seems significant to monitor the remaining regions of Poland in order to define the scale of the problem and to look for the risk factors of back pain in children and youth to undertake efficient prophylactic actions.


This paper proposes a recurrent neural fuzzy network with the reinforcement improved particle swarm optimization (R-IPSO) for solving various control problems. The R-IPSO, which consists of structure learning and parameter learning, is also proposed. The structure learning is adopts several sub-swarms to constitute variable fuzzy systems and uses an elite-based structure strategy (ESS) to find suitable the number of fuzzy rules for solving a problem. The parameter learning is adopts an improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO). The examples have been given to illustrate the performance and effectiveness.


Background The clinical significance of extracellular volume (ECV) expansion in infarcted myocardium post-STEMI is unknown. Myocardial ECV can be estimated by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) using T1 MOLLI maps before and after contrast. We repeatedly measured infarct ECV in STEMI survivors, and assessed the relationships between ECV, peak troponin T and baseline infarct size. Methods Acute STEMI survivors were enrolled in a single-centre cohort study (BHF MR-MI study – NCT02072850). Contrast-enhanced CMR was performed at 1.5 Tesla (Siemens MAGNETOM Avanto) 2 days and 6 months post-MI. T1 mapping with MOLLI was performed before and 15 min after contrast (0.15 mmol/kg gadoterate meglumine). ECV analysis was performed by outlining regions of interest (ROIs) in infarcted myocardium and left ventricular (LV) blood pool. ROIs were representative of the infarct including microvascular obstruction. ECV was calculated as the relaxation rate (R1=1/T1) for myocardium and LV blood pool before vs. after contrast, corrected for haematocrit. Infarct size was measured using late gadolinium images and expressed as a percentage of LV mass. Infarct ECV at baseline and follow up was compared with peak troponin T measured at presentation and infarct size at baseline. Peak troponin T was log-transformed to improve normality and linearity. Results 201 STEMI patients (mean age 58 ± 11 years; 156 (77%) male) were enrolled. Infarct ECV was similar at baseline and follow-up (51.3 ± 9.5% vs. 50.3 ± 12.0%, p = 0.097). Peak troponin T was widely variable (4256.7 ug/L ± 4020.8 ug/L). Peak troponin T was positively associated with infarct ECV at baseline (p < 0.001) and follow-up (p < 0.001). Infarct size at baseline was 18 ± 13% of LV mass and was positively associated with infarct ECV at baseline (p < 0.001) and follow-up (p < 0.001) (Table 1). Abstract 4 Table 1 Association of infarct ECV at baseline and follow-up with peak troponin T and infarct size in linear regression analysis (n = 201) Characteristics Baseline Infarct ECV Follow-up Infarct ECV* Coefficient (95% CI) R2 p Coefficient (95% CI) R2 p Log peak troponin T 4.754 (3.473, 6.034) 0.293 <0.001 5.093 (3.688, 6.498) 0.612 <0.001 Infarct size 0.420 (0.307, 0.533) 0.284 <0.001 0.421 (0.298, 0.543) 0.600 <0.001 * Accounting for baseline infarct ECV Conclusion High peak troponin T and a large infarct size are predictors of higher infarct ECV at baseline and follow-up. Infarct ECV is associated with clinical and MRI measures of MI severity in survivors of STEMI.


Important medico-social and economic implications of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) are determined by its continuously growing prevalence, frequency and severity of complications related to inadequate glycemic control. Large-scale studies (UKPDS, VADT, ACCORD, ADVANCE) have demonstrated controversial effect of intensive glycemic control (estimated from HbA1c dynamics) on diabetic macrovascular complication. At the same time, epidemiological, experimental, and observational studies yielded conclusive evidence of postprandial glycemia (PPG) contribution to overall glycemic control and its role in the development of macrovascular complications. For this reason, PPG control is currently given as much attention as traditional parameters (HbA1c and fasting glycemia). Dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV) inhibitors are a new class of hypoglycemic agents that raise levels of incretins, glucagons-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) in blood by suppressing DPPIV activity. The resulting recovery of physiological insulin secretion promotes reduction of fasting and postprandial glycemia and HbA1c level.


An experimental study on the interaction of the internal wave field generated by oscillating cylinders in a stratified fluid with a pancake dipole is presented. The experiments are carried out in a salt-stratified water tank with constant Brunt–Väisälä frequency ($N$). Experimental observations of the deformation of the wave beams owing to the interaction with the dipole are presented. When the wave and the dipole propagate horizontally in opposite directions (counterpropagating case), the phase line of the gravity wave beam steepens towards the vertical as it enters the dipolar field and it may even reach a turning point where the wave is reflected. When the dipole and the wave propagate in the same direction (copropagating case), the wave beam is bent towards the horizontal and may be absorbed by the dipole. These observations are in good agreement with a two-dimensional ray-theoretic model, even if the flow is fully three-dimensional and, the vertical shear induced by the dipole being too strong, the hypothesis of slow variation assumed in the WKB approximation is not verified. When the waves encounter a critical layer, we show by rigorous measurement that momentum is transferred to the dipole. New three-dimensional effects of the dipolar velocity field on the propagating internal waves are also discussed. In particular, focusing and refraction of a wave beam occurring because of the horizontal structure of the background dipolar flow allow us to explain some of the observed features that cannot be accounted for through the two-dimensional ray theory.


OBJECTIVE
Daptomycin exhibits bactericidal activity against clinically significant Gram-positive bacteria despite being highly bound to human proteins. Evaluations characterizing the effect of protein on daptomycin pharmacodynamics are warranted.

METHODS
We utilized an in vitro pharmacodynamic model to simulate daptomycin regimens of 6 mg/kg/day under controlled conditions of pH, calcium and/or protein. Free concentrations were simulated in broth, whereas total concentrations were simulated in broth supplemented with human albumin. Bacterial density was profiled over 48 h for two methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and two vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREF) clinical isolates.

RESULTS
Daptomycin exhibited bactericidal activity against both MRSA isolates, with time to 99.9% killing occurring at 0.5 h and 8 h in broth and in albumin-supplemented broth, respectively. Initial kill was observed against both VREF isolates followed by regrowth. There was no statistical difference (P>0.05) in extent of bacterial kill at 24 or 48 h between the different media.

CONCLUSIONS
Although delayed, the extent of kill for daptomycin was unaltered against all isolates in albumin-supplemented broth. Further antimicrobial studies that incorporate protein are warranted to assess the influence of protein in the pharmacodynamic evaluation of antimicrobials.


Site selection analysis was carried out to find the best suitable lands for development activities in an example of promising coastal plains, southwestern Sinai, Egypt. Two GIS models were developed to represent two scenarios of landuse suitability in the study area using GIS Multi Criteria Analysis Modeling. The factors contributed in the analysis are the Topography, Land cover, Existing Land use, Flash flood index, Drainage lines and Water points. The first scenario was to classify the area according to various gradual ranges of suitability. According to this scenario, the area is classified into five classes of suitability. The percentage of suitability values are, 51.16%, 6.13%, 22.32 %, 18.49% and 1.89% for unsuitable, least suitable, low suitable, suitable and high suitable, respectively. The second scenario is developed for a particular kind of landuse planning; tourism and recreation projects. The suitability map of this scenario was classified intoto five values. Unsuitable areas represent (51.18%) of the study area, least suitable (16.67%), low suitable (22.85%), suitable (8.61%), and high suitable (0.68%). The best area for locating development projects is the area surrounding El-Tor City and close to the coast. This area could be an urban extension of El-Tor City with more economical and environmental management.


This is the first comparative study of the alpha and beta diversity of crabs from soft bottom areas nearby two coastal islands (Couves and Mar Virado Islands). Crabs were captured monthly from January 1998 to December 1999. The samplings were carried out with a shrimp fishery boat provided with double-rig nets within a marine protected area in Ubatuba off the north coast of São Paulo. The ecological indexes of diversity ( H′ ), equitability ( J′ ) and β-diversity were used to compare the variation in diversity between islands and years. In total, we captured 2221 brachyurans (570 in Couves and 1651 in Mar Virado), belonging to 42 species, 28 genera, and 13 families. Twenty species occurred in both islands, ten occurred only in Couves, and 12 were exclusive of Mar Virado. The three most abundant species were Callinectes ornatus , Hexapanopeus paulensis , and Hepatus pudibundus. There were statistical differences in equitability (between islands in the year of 1998) and abundance (among seasons in the autumn of 1999) ( p < 0.05). Although the two islands are geographically close to each other, they have distinct environmental features. Couves Island, for instance, is more affected by the water masses reaching Ubatuba than Mar Virado Island. These characteristics are probably driving the community composition of these islands.


A series of composites of commercial polyurethane (PU) and hybrid silica have been prepared by the sol-gel process through the in situ synthesis of hybrid silica in a solution of dichloromethane. Mechanical properties, small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) and differential scanning calorimetry measurements were performed to evaluate the effects that hybrid silica has on the properties of the resulting PU composites. A series of 13 different organosilane differing in polarity and alkyl chain length has been employed. Compared with pristine PU, composites bearing hybrid silicas were more likely to exhibit reductions in the yield stress and increase in the elongation at break. Samples also showed a negligible variation in the glass transition temperature and a reduction in the ΔCp. The enthalpy of the crystallization process showed a trend towards reduction. Based on the SAXS measurements, the composites showed a small reduction in the interdomain spacing, an increase in the degree of phase separation and a tendency towards reduction in the size of the interphase thickness between domains. These results can be better explained as being caused by the volume of the organic group from the organosilane rather than by the chemical interaction of the organic group with the PU organic moieties. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 41157.


This punchy and provocative book asks a simple but overlooked question: why do we have the political views that we do?

Offering a lively and original analysis of five worldviews - conservatism, national populism, liberalism, the new left and social democracy - Thomas Prosser argues that our views tend to satisfy self-interest, albeit indirectly, and that progressive worldviews are not as altruistic as their adherents believe.

But What's in it for me? is far from pessimistic. Prosser contends that recognition of self-interest makes us more self-reflective, allowing us to see humanity in adversaries and countering the influence of echo chambers.

As populist parties rise and liberalism and social democracy decline, this timely intervention argues that to solve our political differences, we must first realise what we have in common.


Plasma-based accelerators have achieved tremendous progress in the past few decades, thanks to the advances of high power lasers and the availability of high-energy and relativistic particle beams. However, the electrons (or positrons) accelerated in the plasma wakefields are subject to radiation losses, which generally suppress the final energy gains of the beams. In this paper, radiation reaction in plasma-based high-energy accelerators is investigated using test particle approach. Energy-frontier TeV colliders based on a multiple stage laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerator and a single-staged proton-driven plasma wakefield accelerator are studied in detail. The results show that the higher axial and transverse field gradients seen by an off-axis injected witness beam result in a stronger damping force on the accelerated particles. Proton-driven plasma wakefield accelerated electrons are shown to lose less energy compared to those accelerated in a multi-staged laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerator.


To remain globally competitive, there is increasing pressure for universities to incorporate a greater use of technology and innovation into their curriculum. In response, many higher education institutions have adopted a blended learning approach, which combines traditional face‐to‐face delivery with online teaching resources, to deliver course content. At Victoria University this is now policy and all units offered by the University are required to have an online presence by the first semester of 2009. Our first‐year core accounting unit is taught in Australia and overseas locations including Hong Kong, Malaysia and Beijing. There are a number of variations of how this blending occurs and the extent to which it is used may be influenced by a number or factors. These include the technical skills and time allocation of the teaching staff, professional IT support, student motivation, internet speed and access, explicit connection to assessment, and ease of use for assessment tasks. Some of these issues were addressed when this unit was moved to the online learning platform of WebCT. This paper documents the design and implementation of e‐assessment and online resources in this introductory accounting unit and monitors its impact on learning outcomes.


Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is associated with younger age and worse long-term survival. However, the characteristics and prognosis of different subtypes of breast cancer (BC) in young (<40 years) patients have not yet been elucidated. The present population-based study explored the clinical and pathological characteristics of young TNBC patients and investigated their long-term survival. We enrolled patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database younger than 40 years of age with primary BC. Cases were defined as patients with TNBC (hormone receptor [HR]−/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 [HER2]−), and controls were patients with other subtypes of BC (HR−/HER2+, HR+/HER2−, and HR+/HER2+). Demographic, pathological, and radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery data were extracted and the overall survival was the primary endpoint. We enrolled 14,234 young patients with BC in the present study, of whom 2798 (19.7%) had TNBC and 11,436 (80.3%) had another BC subtype. A higher proportion of TNBC patients than non-TNBC patients had a more advanced tumor-node-metastasis stage (II–IV 80.5% vs 73.1%, P < .001), and smaller proportions underwent radiotherapy (50.0% vs 53.3%, P = .002) and surgery (91.8% vs 92.9%, P < .001). TNBC was associated with significantly lower 5-year survival rates than other subtypes among patients with regional node positivity (0, 1–3, 4–9, ≥10: 54.2% vs 57.7%, 44.2% vs 55.9%, 31.0% vs 52.0%, and 27.7% vs 38.8%, P < .001) and those with different lymph node ratios (low, intermediate, high: 50.9% vs 56.0%, 34.6% vs 53.6%, and 24.8% vs 44.8%, P < .001). Our research is the first to investigate the relevant characteristics of young TNBC patients in comparison with those of young non-TNBC patients based on the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database. We found that young TNBC patients have a higher pathological stage and worse long-term survival than young patients with other BC subtypes. These findings have implications in identifying young patients with TNBC for aggressive therapy and further investigations should be performed to explore new multimodal treatments for such patients.