Brazed aluminum plate‐fin heat exchangers are extensively used in gas separation processes including LNG, LPG, NGL, nitrogen rejection and olefins manufacture. In situations where mercury is a trace component of feed gas or liquid feeds to crackers, condensation of liquid or precipitation of solid mercury can occur in heat exchanger passes, even with functional mercury removal systems in place. Mercury in liquid phase causes, under certain well‐defined conditions, liquid metal embrittlement of susceptible metallurgy or amalgam corrosion of core fins, both of which can lead to sudden loss of pressure containment. Mercury‐contaminated aluminum heat exchangers require close scrutiny and quantitative risk assessment to allow safe operation, remediation or to justify replacement. The risk analysis procedure involves computational prediction of mercury deposition, inspection of critical areas, detailed assessment of metallurgy and fabrication, strain analysis of temperature changes during trips and shutdowns and oxide fatigue analysis. Assigning probability of equipment failure requires a complete understanding of the mechanisms of liquid metal embrittlement and amalgam corrosion that operate on aluminum plate‐fin heat exchangers. Statistical correlations to known failures are essential to assignment of probability‐based risk factors. Probabilities of leak and rupture failure modes can be estimated using amounts and locations of mercury deposits determined from focused inspection or calculated thermodynamically. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2009


Detection of moving objects is a key component in mobile robotic perception and understanding of the environment. In this paper, we describe a realtime independent motion detection algorithm for this purpose. The method is robust and is capable of detecting difficult degenerate motions, where the moving objects is followed by a moving camera in the same direction. This robustness is attributed to the use of efficient geometric constraints and a probability framework which propagates the uncertainty in the system. The proposed independent motion detection framework integrates seamlessly with existing visual SLAM solutions. The system consists of multiple modules which are tightly coupled so that one module benefits from another. The integrated system can simultaneously detect multiple moving objects in realtime from a freely moving monocular camera.


Composting is one of the solid waste management (SWM) methods where the organic component decomposed biologically under controlled conditions. In this study, a 0.166 m3 bioreactor tank was designed to compose 59.2Kg of simulated common municipal solid food waste having a bulk density, organic matter, organic carbon, pH, nitrogen content, C/N and nitrification index (NH4-N/ NO3-N) of 536.62 kg/m3, 62.34%, 34.76%, 6.53, 1.86%, 23 and 0.34 respectively. The bioreactor operated aerobically for 30 days, and anaerobically for 70 days, until the end of the composting process. Results proved that the composting process could reduce the mass of the waste by 69%.  Nitrogen content, C/N, nitrification index, NPK, and germination index (GI) were found to be 1.52%, 14.54, 0.31, 1.52%, 1.53%,0.85 % and 85.5% indicating that the obtained compost is stable and mature according to the standards. Twelve heavy metals of Zinc (Zn), Cupper (Cu), Molybdenum (Mo), Zirconium (Zr), Strontium (Sr), Rubidium (Rb), Manganese (Mn), Scandium (Sc), Iron (Fe), Titanium (Ti), Calcium (Ca) and Potassium (K) were detected by using Niton (XRF) device. Results of Cu and Zn were within the limits of the standards, while the rest were considered acceptable as standards did not restrict them.


BACKGROUND
Adolescents are more prone to develop health risk behaviors. Among these, early consumption of psychoactive drugs is relevant.

AIM
To assess the association between early consumption of illicit drugs, tobacco and alcohol, suicide behaviors, risky sexual behaviors, eating habits and physical activity in school age adolescents from Valparaiso, Chile.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The online world survey of scholar health to identify the health risk behaviors was answered by 550 adolescents aged 15 to 18 years, from a public educational institution at Valparaiso, Chile.

RESULTS
Early consumption of alcohol, smoking and illicit drug use was reported by 59, 57 and 44% of respondents, respectively. The frequency of psychoactive drug consumption during the last month, risky sexual behaviors and missing breakfast was higher among those with an early onset of alcohol and illicit drug consumption and smoking. The frequency of suicidal risk behaviors and low consumption of fruits and vegetables was higher among those with an early onset of illicit drug use and smoking. A low physical activity level was associated with early smoking onset. Health risk behaviors were associated with early onset of alcohol and illicit drug consumption and smoking.

CONCLUSIONS
Early onset of alcohol and illicit drug consumption and smoking is associated with health risk behaviors in Chilean adolescents.


In this study, four Korean black raspberry wines were developed using raspberries from different regions in Korea; Gochang (G), Hoengseong (H), Jeongeup (J), Sunchang (S). Sample wines were monitored for titratable acidity, ethanol, pH, reducing sugar content, color intensity, hue, total phenolic content, and organic acids during alcoholic fermentation and aging. After fermentation was complete, the pH levels in the four wines were in a similar range (3.43-3.52), while total acidity levels ranged from 9.98 to 16.2 g/L, which were significantly different among the four wines. During 120 days of aging, the ethanol content ranged from 15.8 to 16.40% which corresponds to a good conversion rate of sugars. Among the four samples tested, the wine made with Jeongeup raspberries showed the highest levels of total phenolic content, and other color values such as hue and intensity. The predominant organic acids were citric acids (3.30-4.89 mg/mL) and succinic acids (1.92-3.48 mg/mL). Overall the wine made with Jeongeup raspberries showed differencesin physico-chemical compositions compared to the other wines made with Gochang, Hoengseong, and Sunchang raspberries, respectively.


A comprehensive analysis of various techniques currently used for assessing microwave components' nonlinear distortion behavior is presented in this paper. The output of a third-order system subject to a two- or three-tone input is given, and then used as the comparison reference for studying the response to a general multitone or random excitation. Theoretical results thus obtained allowed the generalization of standard two-tone intermodulation (IMD) figures of merit, to multitone IMD ratio, multitone or noise adjacent channel power ratio, and noise power ratio (NPR). This approach proved that normal NPR tests produce optimistic results that can be as large as 7 dB when evaluating in-band co-channel power interference.


Increased globalization has generated a growth of globally distributed teams, which are characterized by geographical distance and used by organizations to increase innovation. However, to be able to collaborate effectively, teams are obligated to continuously conduct knowledge transfer (KT) between different geographical locations. Thus, this paper focused on identifying the main barriers that globally distributed teams face in conducting KT and how these barriers are unraveled. Based on an interpretative case study of a product development unit (PDU) in research and development (R&D) department of a telecom company, we identified eight main barriers that hinder the KT between globally distributed teams. These barriers are; knowledge embeddedness, knowledge accessibility and documentation gaps, knowledge complexity, knowledge problematic articulability, ICT tools reliance vs. face to face, inefficient ICT tools utilization, inefficient IT support, and lack of formal processes and guidelines.


The concept of a rare disease refers on its prevalence in general population, which is below the threshold of 1/2000. We will introduce the term of "rare hepatitis in children" for those having the same low prevalence in paediatric population. When the prevalence is under 1/10 000, we speak of an "ultrarare" hepatitis. Our aim is to realise a synthesis of rare hepatitis, with genetic and non-genetic origins, illustrating our clinical experience. Liver is suffering – primarily – in almost all inborn errors of metabolism: carbohydrates or fatty acid beta-oxidation disorders, hyper/dyslipoproteinemia, urea cycle disorders, hereditaries aminoacidopathies, disorders of biliary tract and bile acid synthesis, hemocromatosis, Wilson disease. Lysosomal strorage diseases is a chapter opening widely, with the progress of diagnosis tools: sphingolipidosis (e.g. Gaucher disease), glycogenosis (e.g. I, II), glycoproteinosis, mucolipidosis. Ultrarare hepatitis like peroxisomal or mitochondrial disorders are mentioned. Secondary liver involvement appears in genetic or non-genetic disorders: cystic fibrosis, alpha-1-antitrypsine deficiency, polycystic kidney disease (AR) and autoimmune diseases, respectively. We present clinical picture highlights for each entity, general or specific laboratory work-up, including the enzymatic assay and molecular diagnosis. Prognosis is mentioned in actual context, when DNA recombinant technology is developing, making possible the enzyme replacement or the biologic therapies. From our cohort of 380 cases, admitted in 9½ years (July 2006–January 2016), we have selected 85 non-infectious hepatitis: 33 were congenital hepatic fibrosis, 5 autoimmune hepatitis, 2 glycogenosis and 3 secondary liver involvement in cystic fibrosis. We present other 43 patients with cirrhosis, 9 secondary to biliary atresia, 7 primary biliary cirrhosis, 2 autoimmune and 2 in cystic fibrosis and 3 gangliosidosis. One child had propionic academia. We will refer especially to the rare causes, detailing 6 patients. Conclusion The etiopathogenic spectrum of child's hepatitis is changing. Rare diseases, especially inborn errors of metabolism and autoimmune causes are more frequently found. Diagnosis is complex, comprising a specific genetic workup. Prognostic depends on the moment of diagnosis, the neurological involvement and the availability of specific treatment.


Potato cyst nematodes (PCN), Globodera rostochiensis and G. pallida, are widespread in the ware potato-growing areas of the UK. Traditionally they were controlled by rotation but more intensive production methods have increased the PCN threat, especially from G. pallida. G. rosrochiensis has become less important since cultivars fully resistant to it were introduced but, where both species are present in a mixture, the G. pallida portion comes to dominate. It is possible to control G. pallida as effectively as G. rostochiensis if cultivars partially resistant to G. pallida are grown with nematicide treatment. Where nematicide is not used, control of G. pallida is more variable. In some years, some cultivars achieve good control but the results are not consistent. In general, G. pallida has increased on untreated plots about 5-fold in trials in the last 3 years.


Satellite communications present some significant advantages over terrestrial networks, such as flexibility and reconfigurability of the network, the possibility to establish point-to-multipoint links (broadcasting, mobiles…). Therefore communication satellites need to be integrated with terrestrial networks, and should provide high data rates. To carry such high data rates, higher frequencies should be considered, such as Ka-band (20 GHz - 30 GHz), V-band (40 GHz - 50 GHz) or EHFband (20 GHz - 45 GHz). These offer large bandwidths that are not available at L to Ku band. For some years, innovative satellite systems have been proposed, either in Ka or V band for civil applications (Cyberstar, Euroskyway, Skybridge 2, Skystation, Teledesic, West…) or in EHF band for military applications (ST3SII, GFSatCom, Skynet, Milstar).


Drone operation for civil purposes is a path-breaking innovation for all sectors of society. Drones, which were initially used for military purposes only, are currently widely applied for different civil purposes, such as recreational and commercial use, disaster relief, agriculture, construction management and other purposes. The drone industry is expected to employ more than 100,000 people and have an economic impact for more than €10 billion annually by 2025.2 To achieve their full potential, it is vitally important to assess the potential risks drones might pose considering their characteristics and how this risk could be eliminated. It is also globally acknowledged that drones need to be integrated into non-segregated airspace, without compromising the achieved standards of civil aviation for manned aircraft in any way. There are very important aspects linked to drone operation that are equally relevant to individuals both on the ground and in the air as well as to states and users of the airspace of interest for both manned and unmanned aircraft operation, among them is privacy. There are no direct instruments addressing privacy concerns related to drone operation. Therefore, existing treaties and regulations should be examined to determine whether these privacy issues are covered by national, regional and global regulatory frameworks of the EU. As stressed in the Riga Declaration: "Public acceptance is key to the growth of drone services". Therefore, addressing privacy issues sufficiently is a permanent force affecting the growth of the drone industry.


In the present study it has been found that hyperuricosuric calcium oxalate (CaOx) stone formers do not differ from idiopathic CaOx stone formers in their urines' potential to retard in vitro precipitation of CaOx. On the other hand, urines of hyperuricosuric patients with no history of CaOx stone formation have the same potential to inhibit CaOx precipitation as those of normal controls. Reduction of urinary uric acid concentrations by either incubation of specimens with sodium urate or by treatment of hyperuricosuric patients with allopurinol had no effect on the urines' potential to retard CaOx precipitation.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to estimate the reliability and provide evidence for the validity of the Spanish version of the Substance Dependence Severity Scale (SDSS). Methods: A total of 211 substance abusers recruited at a public center that provides treatment for substance-related disorders in an outpatient setting were assessed. Reliability was estimated by Cronbach's α and test-retest. Validity evidence was studied by analyzing the relationships with the European Addiction Severity Index (EuropASI) and Health-Related Quality of Life for Drug Abusers (HRQoLDA). Results: Adequate reliability coefficients were found for the dependence scales of all addressed substances (α = 0.737 to 0.877; test-retest r = 0.796-0.952). Low internal consistency was found for the abuse scales (α = 0.329-0.694), and adequate test-retest coefficients on alcohol, cocaine and heroin (test-retest r = 0.708-0.902). The reliability of the cannabis abuse scales was inadequate. The SDSS scores showed significant relationships with the EuropASI and HRQoLDA dimensions. Conclusions: The psychometric analyses validate the use of the severity of dependence scales. The SDSS abuse scales must be used taking the limitations detected into consideration.


The European textile and fibre based industries are typically in a transformation from labour intensive products to knowledge intensive products and consequently these industries have a great demand for innovative high-tech materials with special properties and added functionalities, like smart textiles. The paper will focus on potential of surface modification and functionalisation of textile materials using minimal application technologies such as digital inkjet technology. Digital inkjet technology will enable cost effective production of high end products, more flexible production, and increased productivity with improved ecological footprint (e.g. minimization of textile waste combined with reduced consumption of energy, water and chemicals). Digital inkjet technology allows deposition of different components (i.e. conductive materials, functional molecules, catalysts and biocatalysts) at a precise location on the fabric and if required even at the same location on the fabric. This enables the construction of complex patterns or of complex functional textile materials in a cost effective manner.


Host genetic variation in the immune factors has the potential to highlight individual characteristics of tumor risk, prognosis, and response to treatment. In locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) no predictive and prognostic factors are available to select patients for multimodality treatment comprising neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by radical surgery, and possibly adjuvant chemotherapy. This work aimed at identifying immunogenetic markers of prognostic significance in LARC patients treated by multimodality treatment. A panel of 192 tagging polymorphisms (SNPs) in 34 immuno-system related genes was selected and analyzed in a Veracode (Illumina) platform on 250 LARC patients (training set) treated with neo-adjuvant therapy, and followed up for at least 24 months after radical surgery. The primary clinical end-point of the study was 2-years recurrence status which has been reported to be the most reliable long-term prognostic factor in these patients. Significant SNPs were then tested on 10-years overall survival (OS). An independent validation set comprising of 63 rectal cancer patients was used to replicate the results. Training set analysis identified 4 markers significantly associated with 2-years recurrence status by multivariate logistic regression which were still significant after bootstrap validation, according to a dominant genetic model: three of them were risk factors, IL17F-rs641701 (P = 0.002), IL17F-rs9463772 (P = 0.009), TGF-beta- rs9867701 (P = 0.020); one of them was a protective factor, STAT3-rs8069645 (P = 0.025). Three of them were also associated to 10-years OS by multivariate COX regression: IL17F-rs641701 (P = 0.003); IL17F-rs9463772 (P = 0.002) were risk factors for death; STAT3-rs8069645 (P = 0.003) was a protective factor. The prognostic effect of IL17F-rs9463772 on 10-years OS was replicated using the validation set (P = 0.045). IL17F is a cytokine with onco-suppressing and anti-angiogenic effects, previously reported to be down-regulated in colorectal tumor as compared to healthy tissue. Although no functional data are available for the intronic rs9463772, it might be involved in the regulation of IL17F expression level affecting tumor prognosis. In conclusion IL17F-rs9463772 represents a validated prognostic marker of long term survival in LARC patients, further studies are warranted to provide functional evidence to support these findings. Citation Format: Cecchin Erika, Eva Dreussi, Sara Gagno, Chiara Zanusso, Marcella Montico, Claudio Belluco, Antonino De Paoli, Salvatore Pucciarelli, Luca Quartuccio, Salvatore De Vita, Vincenzo Canzonieri, Angela Buonadonna, Maria Luisa Friso, Sara Lonardi, Giuseppe Toffoli. IL17F-rs9463772 independently predicts long-term outcome in locally advanced rectal cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 1420.


In recent years, the association between portal vein thrombosis and liver transplantation has extensive attention from physicians worldwide. However, there is no available literature on bibliometric analysis in this research area. Herein, we aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis to identify the hotspots and frontiers of research related to portal vein thrombosis and liver transplantation. Documents published between 2002 and 2022 were retrieved and downloaded from the Web of Science Core Collection database. VOSviewer was utilized to generate a visualization network map of authors, nations, institutions, journals, and keyword co-occurrence/clustering. Additionaly, CiteSpace was used to analyze the keywords with the strongest bursts. A total of 1272 articles and reviews were extracted from the database. The author Marco Senzolo published the largest number of papers. The United States was the most prolific country, and Hope-Bochon (France) was the top productive institution. Liver Transplantation was the most prolific journal in the field. The most commonly identified keywords in the study were cirrhosis, risk factors, portal vein thrombosis, and management, as revealed by the keyword co-occurrence analysis. It is suggested that patients with cirrhosis, portal vein thrombosis prevention, and management measures for portal vein thrombosis have been prominet topics in recent years. Furthermore, an analysis of keywords with the strongest citation bursts highlighted pediatric liver transplantation, direct oral anticoagulants, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease as current research trends. Research in portal vein thrombosis and liver transplantation exhibits a general upward trend. The latest hot topics within this area of study involve pediatric patients and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.


Monitoring within-field crop variability at fine spatial and temporal resolution can assist farmers in making reliable decisions during their agricultural management; however, it traditionally involves a labor-intensive and time-consuming pointwise manual process. To the best of our knowledge, few studies conducted a comparison of Sentinel-2 with UAV data for crop monitoring in the context of precision agriculture. Therefore, prospects of crop monitoring for characterizing biophysical plant parameters and leaf nitrogen of wheat and barley crops were evaluated from a more practical viewpoint closer to agricultural routines. Multispectral UAV and Sentinel-2 imagery was collected over three dates in the season and compared with reference data collected at 20 sample points for plant leaf nitrogen (N), maximum plant height, mean plant height, leaf area index (LAI), and fresh biomass. Higher correlations of UAV data to the agronomic parameters were found on average than with Sentinel-2 data with a percentage increase of 6.3% for wheat and 22.2% for barley. In this regard, VIs calculated from spectral bands in the visible part performed worse for Sentinel-2 than for the UAV data. In addition, large-scale patterns, formed by the influence of an old riverbed on plant growth, were recognizable even in the Sentinel-2 imagery despite its much lower spatial resolution. Interestingly, also smaller features, such as the tramlines from controlled traffic farming (CTF), had an influence on the Sentinel-2 data and showed a systematic pattern that affected even semivariogram calculation. In conclusion, Sentinel-2 imagery is able to capture the same large-scale pattern as can be derived from the higher detailed UAV imagery; however, it is at the same time influenced by management-driven features such as tramlines, which cannot be accurately georeferenced. In consequence, agronomic parameters were better correlated with UAV than with Sentinel-2 data. Crop growers as well as data providers from remote sensing services may take advantage of this knowledge and we recommend the use of UAV data as it gives additional information about management-driven features. For future perspective, we would advise fusing UAV with Sentinel-2 imagery taken early in the season as it can integrate the effect of agricultural management in the subsequent absence of high spatial resolution data to help improve crop monitoring for the farmer and to reduce costs.


Background: Binge eating disorder (BED) is very frequently observed in patients considered for weight loss surgery and seems to influence their outcome critically. Literature highlights a global emotional overload in individuals with BED, but little is known on the mechanisms involved. The present study aimed to focus on emotion regulation, impulsivity, depression, and anxiety in people with and without BED and fulfilling inclusion criteria for bariatric surgery. Doing so, we sought to individualize factors related to BED. Then, we examined the contribution of depression, anxiety, emotion regulation difficulties, and impulsivity to inappropriate eating behaviors observed in patients with BED. Methods: A sample of 121 individuals (79.3% female, mean age: 40.82 ± 9.26, mean current body mass index (BMI): 44.92 kg/m2 ± 7.55) seeking bariatric surgery were recruited at the Champagne Ardenne Specialized Center in Obesity in Reims, France from November 2017 to October 2018. They were stratified as with or without BED according to the binge eating scale. Characteristics identified in univariate analyses as differentiating the two groups were then included in multivariable analyses. Results: Multivariable analyses showed that limited access to emotional regulation strategies was significantly associated with BED. Furthermore, inappropriate eating behaviors were independently associated with age, depression severity, anxiety, emotional dysregulation, and impulsivity in BED group. Conclusions: The present findings are indicative of an association between emotion deficit and BED in obese patients seeking bariatric surgery. Patients with BED could benefit from the addition of an emotion regulation intervention.


Background About 1.25 million people die globally every year as a result of Road Traffic Crashes(RTC's), and it is found to be the 9th leading cause of mortality amongst all age groups which is further predicted to become at the 7th leading cause of mortality by 2030. Around 90% of the world's fatalities due to RTC's occur in LMIC's and there exists gross disparity amongst LMIC versus HMIC's to the level of care received immediately post-crash.Pakistan is the 5th leading contributor Of Road traffic Crash Related deaths, worldwide and the rate of RTC's in Pakistan is about 14.2 per100,000 population(2013).Transfer of RTC victims to the right hospital at right time in golden hour of trauma is vital in preventing Mortality and lifelong disability Objective To Determine the difference in Impact of Direct Versus Interfacility Transfers on 30 day Mortality of Adult Road Traffic Crash Victims (>18 years of age), Presenting to ED settings of three Tertiary Care Hospitals in Karachi. Methods We performed a Prospective Cohort study at three tertiary care hospitals in Karachi, from April-August, 2016. All adult patients presenting with Serious Injuries (AIS≥3), were included in the study Data was collected through structured questionnaire 24/7 in the Emergencies of study sites. The primary exposure was Interfacility transfer and primary outcome of the study was 30 day Mortality on on Follow up. Results Out of 201 participants 14.2% had mortality in Exposed group and 15.4% had mortality in Unexposed group (a HR:1.01,CI:0.41–2.89). The Mean survival time amongst two groups turned out to be insignificant as well. Conclusion There existed no difference in 30 day mortality of Road traffic Crash victims with respect to Mode of transfer(exposure status) and the results can be implied in planning post-crash interventions while developing our trauma care systems.


Pulsed electron-electron double resonance spectroscopy (PELDOR or DEER) and single molecule Förster resonance energy transfer spectroscopy (smFRET) are recent additions to the toolbox of integrative structural biology. Both methods are frequently used to visualize conformational changes and to determine nanometer-scale distances in biomacromolecules including proteins and nucleic acids. A prerequisite for the application of PELDOR/DEER and smFRET is the presence of suitable spin centers or fluorophores in the target molecule, which are usually introduced via chemical biology methods. The application portfolio of the two methods is overlapping: each allows determination of distances, to monitor distance changes and to visualize conformational heterogeneity and -dynamics. Both methods can provide qualitative information that facilitates mechanistic understanding, for instance on conformational changes, as well as quantitative data for structural modelling. Despite their broad application, a comprehensive comparison of the accuracy of PELDOR/DEER and smFRET is still missing and we set out here to fill this gap. For this purpose, we prepared a library of double cysteine mutants of three well-studied substrate binding proteins that undergo large-scale conformational changes upon ligand binding. The distances between the introduced spin- or fluorescence labels were determined via PELDOR/DEER and smFRET, using established standard experimental protocols and data analysis routines. The experiments were conducted in the presence and absence of the natural ligands to investigate how well the ligand-induced conformational changes could be detected by the two methods. Overall, we found good agreement for the determined distances, yet some surprising inconsistencies occurred. In our set of experiments, we identified the source of discrepancies as the use of cryoprotectants for PELDOR/DEER and label-protein interactions for smFRET. Our study highlights strength and weaknesses of both methods and paves the way for a higher confidence in quantitative comparison of PELDOR/DEER and smFRET results in the future.


Introduction: This study explores the perceived humanistic burden of type 1 diabetes (T1D) across different age cohorts of adults (18-35 yrs., 36-64 yrs., and 65+ yrs.) in the US who are using continuous glucose monitors (CGM).
 Methods: Adult CGM users (≥18 years of age) with self-reported T1D diagnosis (≥ 5 yrs.) were interviewed to evaluate the impact of T1D on quality of life (QoL). Participants ranked the 'top 3' negative impacts of T1D on QoL using a "Wheel of Life" visual framework, which helped participants identify and describe the multi-faceted impacts of T1D on QoL. Interview transcripts were thematically analyzed. Subgroup analyses were conducted by age cohort.
 Results: Overall, 31 participants (18-35 yrs., n=10; 36-64 yrs., n=12; 65+ yrs., n=9) took part in the study. Participants were mostly female (74%) and married (81%), with a mean age at diagnosis of 28 yrs. and a reported mean HbA1c level of 7.1% (range: 5.0% - 9.9%); 42% reported having ≥ 2 severe hypoglycemic events (SHEs) in the past year. Impacts on physical health, mental health, sleep, relationships, leisure activities, work/studies, and sex life were reported by participants as affecting their daily lives. Physical health impacts were most frequently ranked in "top 3" negative impacts across age cohorts. Negative impacts on physical health, mental health and sleep were ranked as "top 3" for both the 18-35 yrs. and the 36-64 yrs. age cohorts, while negative impacts on physical health, leisure activities, and relationships were top ranked by the 65+ yrs. cohort.
 Conclusions: Despite use of advanced diabetes technologies, the humanistic burden of T1D persists across adults of different age cohorts. Participants in all age cohorts reported physical health as the leading negative impact to QoL, while other perceived negative impacts varied in rank order across age cohorts.

 P. Callahan: Employee; Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, Genesis Research. Consultant; Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Abbott Diabetes, HealthCore Inc., BMS. A. Boateng-Kuffour: None. K. Chandarana: Employee; Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. Stock/Shareholder; Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. J.L. Gaglia: Consultant; Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. Stock/Shareholder; Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. Consultant; Abata Therapeutics, Avotres Inc. Research Support; Avotres Inc. Advisory Panel; Dompé. Research Support; Dompé, Imcyse. Consultant; Current Health. M. Phinney: None. E. Guzman Ortega: Research Support; Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. R.N. Krupnick: Consultant; Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. M. Reaney: None. W.H. Polonsky: Consultant; Abbott Diabetes, Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly Alliance, Eli Lilly and Company, Insulet Corporation, Intuity Medical, Inc., MannKind Corporation, Provention Bio, Inc., Sanofi-Aventis U.S., Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated.


Most existing scene text detectors require large-scale training data which cannot scale well due to two major factors: 1) scene text images often have domain-specific distributions; 2) collecting large-scale annotated scene text images is laborious. We study domain adaptive scene text detection, a largely neglected yet very meaningful task that aims for optimal transfer of labelled scene text images while handling unlabelled images in various new domains. Specifically, we design SCAST, a subcategory-aware self-training technique that mitigates the network overfitting and noisy pseudo labels in domain adaptive scene text detection effectively. SCAST consists of two novel designs. For labelled source data, it introduces pseudo subcategories for both foreground texts and background stuff which helps train more generalizable source models with multi-class detection objectives. For unlabelled target data, it mitigates the network overfitting by co-regularizing the binary and subcategory classifiers trained in the source domain. Extensive experiments show that SCAST achieves superior detection performance consistently across multiple public benchmarks, and it also generalizes well to other domain adaptive detection tasks such as vehicle detection.


Inspired and guided by the nêhiyaw (Cree) wisdom concept of wâhkôhtowin, this paper frames walking as a life practice that can teach kinship relationality and help reconceptualize Indigenous-Canadian relations on more ethical terms. I argue that Indigenous-Canadian relations today continue to be heavily influenced by colonial teachings that emphasize relationship denial. A significant curricular and pedagogical challenge faced by educators in Canada today is how to facilitate the emergence of a new story that can repair inherited colonial divides and give good guidance on how Indigenous peoples and Canadians can live together differently. In my experience, the emergence of a new story can be facilitated through the life practice of walking.


Two years after COVID-19 pandemic starting, the studies of patient satisfaction with medical services quality become topical again. The article presents the results of three-year project (2019-2022) of studying level of loyalty (Net Promoter Score) of legal representatives of patients of one of municipal children polyclinics. It is established that in Moscow, with implementation of first restrictive measures level of loyalty in the children polyclinic increased from 45% to 70%. In following years, level of loyalty was fixed at the level of 60%. The four groups of factors determining such changes as high level of panic moods due to pandemic, changes in organization of polyclinic functioning, energetic activity of mass media and users of social networks in glorifying image of medical workers and cultural psychological characteristics of Russians. The "optimistic", "realistic" and "pessimistic" prognoses concerning further dynamics of level of loyalty are proposed. The conclusion was made that COVID-19 pandemic served as key factor of positive changes in assessments of patients (and their legal representatives) of functioning both of particular polyclinic and the Russian health care in general. As far as each following time coronavirus infection will cause less and less concern among Russians it can be expected the requirements presented to medical services will soon increase, that means workload of medical personnel will only intensify. The following prospective directions of organizing functioning of medical institutions are proposed: monitoring of psycho-social indicators of medical personnel, implementation of telemedicine technologies, transfer of part of functionality of physicians and nurses to specialists without medical education.


N-CART (the National Spent Nuclear Fuel Program Cost Analysis and Risk Tool) is being developed to aid in low-risk, cost-effective, timely management of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, and can therefore be used in management of mixed waste. N-CART provides evaluation of multiple alternatives and presents the consequences of proposed waste management activities in a clear and concise format. N-CART`s decision-aiding analyses include comparisons and sensitivity analyses of multiple alternatives and allows the user to perform quick turn-around {open_quotes}what if{close_quotes} studies to investigate various scenarios. Uncertainties in data (such as cost and schedule of various activities) are represented as distributions. N-CART centralizes documentation of the bases of program alternatives and program decisions, thereby supporting responses to stakeholders concerns. The initial N-CART design considers regulatory requirements, costs, and schedules for alternative courses of action. The final design will include risks (public health, occupational, economic, scheduling), economic benefits, and the impacts of secondary waste generation. An optimization tool is being incorporated that allows the user to specify the relative importance of cost, time risks, and other bases for decisions. The N-CART prototype can be used to compare the costs and schedules of disposal alternatives for mixed low-level radioactive waste (MLLW) andmore » greater-than-Class-C (GTCC) waste, as well as spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and related scrap material.« less


Anaerobic processes have been used for the stillage treatment, although the effluent of these processes still has a remnant of organic matter measured as Chemical oxygen demand (COD) and Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), which must be treated to reduce its environmental impact, and constructed wetlands are an opportunity to treat this effluent at low cost. In this study, the effect of the organic loading rate (OLR) on the adaptation and growth of Canna indica was evaluated in a horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland for stillage treatment during 131 days. The wetland was operated at OLRs ranging 0.13 to 1.32 kg m−3 d−1, reaching average efficiencies about 87% for BOD and 70% for COD, depending on OLR, however efficiencies decreased for OLRs above 0.88 kg m−3 d−1. Canna indica grew well in the wetland; the gradual increase in organic matter ensured the adaptation of plants. Height and growth of plants were more important near to the outlet of the wetland (zone 2), than near to the inlet (zone 1). This phenomenon is associated with the removal of organic matter and the increment in the bioavailability of organic matter and nutrients through the length of the wetland. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 411–415, 2016


Alkaline phosphatase (AP) is a phosphate transferase present in bacteria and eukaryotes. In previous studies, we have shown that AP is able to dephosphorylate lipopolysaccharide (LPS) at physiological pH levels. Because LPS is the causative agent of gram-negative sepsis, we hypothesize that AP might be used as a medication during early stages of LPS-induced septic shock. We have demonstrated protective effects of AP when this enzyme was administered simultaneously with LPS. However, a major question of anti-LPS therapies is whether they are also effective after systemic infiltration of whole bacteria and if they also act in later stages of the disease. To test this, we explored the protective effects of AP from human placenta (plAP) in a bacterial challenge model in Balb/c mice. AP was intravenously administered 20 min after a bacterial intraperitoneal inoculation of 2 to 5 × 107 CFU of Escherichia coli suspended in a 100-μL volume of saline. It was shown that AP attenuated the systemic host response upon E. coli. Body temperature was normalized as compared with untreated septic mice. Also, serum nitric oxide levels 24 h after the injection of bacteria were reduced almost to control levels in mice that received AP. Moreover, survival after 24 h was significantly higher in the AP-treated group compared with the nontreated control group.


Temperature-dependant characteristics of heterojunction diode made by n-ZnO nanorods grown on p-silicon substrates has been characterized and demonstrated in this paper. ZnO nanorods were grown onto the silicon substrate via simple thermal evaporation process by using metallic zinc powder in the presence of oxygen at approximately 550 degrees C without the use of any metal catalysts or additives. The as-grown ZnO nanorods were characterized in terms of their structural and optical properties. The detailed structural studies by XRD, TEM, HRTEM and SAED revealed that the grown nanorods are well-crystalline with the wurtzite hexagonal phase and preferentially grown along the [0001] direction. The as-grown n-ZnO nanorods grown on p-Si substrate were used to fabricate p-n heterojunction diode. The fabricated p-n junction diode attained almost similar turn-on voltage of approximately 0.6 V. The values of turn-on voltage and least current are same with the variations of temperature (i.e., 27 degrees C, 70 degrees C and 130 degrees C).


In this paper, we develop a DSGE model to study the implementation of macroprudential policy in low-income countries (LICs). The model features an economy with two agents; households and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are the borrowers in this economy and need capital as collateral to obtain loans. The macroprudential regulator uses the collateral requirement as the policy instrument. We compare two di⁄erent ways of implementing the macroprudential policy: permanently increasing the collateral requirement (passive policy) versus an active time-varying rule responding to deviations of credit from its steady state. Results show that with perfect information, an active approach is more e⁄ective in increasing (cid:133)nancial stability, without incurring in a long-run output cost. However, if the regulator is not able to observe the economic conditions perfectly, which is usually the case in LICs, a passive approach may be preferred.


Fiber-reinforced laminated composite materials are widely used in aircraft, modern vehicles and light-weight structures. With their high elastic modulus, high strength, and capability of being tailored for a several applications, these materials offer definite advantages compared to more traditional structural materials. However, their behavior under impact is of concern since those events may occur during manufacturing, normal operation or maintenance. The situation is critical for impacts that induce significant internal damage undetectable by visual inspection, which causes large reductions on the strength and stability of the structure. New standardized tests to assess the impact tolerance (ASTM D7136 and D7137) lose some of its appeal by its destructive nature as well as costs involved. Nondestructive techniques such as ultrasonic phased array or experimental modal analysis can be complementary in the evaluation of damage and structural integrity. The results of both destructive and non-destructive experiments carried out on forty-eight composite specimens are presented. A good correlation between incident impact energy and delaminated area as well as variation of eigenfrequencies is noticed. This study does not only provide a better understanding of the impact phenomenon but can also help in design and implementation of new test procedures for structural assessment.


This paper focuses on current developments and future prospects in developing electrochemical stripping methodologies for on-site monitoring of trace metals. Particular attention is given to the replacement of bulky electrodes and cumbersome cells with self-contained test strips. Coupled with a greatly simplified stripping operation and the introduction of high-quality, user-friendly, compact instruments, such innovative disposable metal sensors should accelerate the realization of decentralized clinical and environmental testing of toxic metals. Other stripping-based tools for in situ monitoring, including automated flow systems or remote indwelling electrodes, offer the option of continuous environmental surveillance. Recent examples, including in-office tests for blood lead levels and field screening of contaminated nuclear energy sites, will be discussed.


Gas6 and protein S are two homologous secreted proteins that depend on vitamin K for their execution of a range of biological functions. A discrete subset of these functions is mediated through their binding to and activation of the receptor tyrosine kinases Axl, Sky and Mer. Furthermore, a hallmark of the Gas6–Axl system is the unique ability of Gas6 and protein S to tether their non receptor‐binding regions to the negatively charged membranes of apoptotic cells. Numerous studies have shown the Gas6–Axl system to regulate cell survival, proliferation, migration, adhesion and phagocytosis. Consequently, altered activity/expression of its components has been detected in a variety of pathologies such as cancer and vascular, autoimmune and kidney disorders. Moreover, Axl overactivation can equally occur without ligand binding, which has implications for tumorigenesis. Further knowledge of this exquisite ligand–receptor system and the circumstances of its activation should provide the basis for development of novel therapies for the above diseases.


Thin films of La1-xSrxMnOz (x=0.15 and 0.175) have been successfully fabricated by pulsed laser deposition. Resistivity and magnetoresistance of the films have been measured. With increasing post-annealing time or oxidizing gas pressure, the resistivity initially decreases and then increases. The latter increase has been observed for the first time in the present study. The observed initial reduction is attributed to the decrease in the oxygen deficiency of the as-grown film and the latter increase is attributed to the increase in cation vacancies. Semiconducting behavior of the sufficiently oxidized film is attributed to the localization of carriers due to the random potential produced by the cation vacancies. The resistivity enhancement in the oxygen excess state is found to increase the magnetoresistance ratio considerably.


This experiment addresses the coordination of point of gaze (PG) and hand movements in a speeded aiming task to predictable targets of three different eccentricities (35, 40, and 45 cm). In each condition subjects moved the eyes, head, trunk, and hand freely. Performance was assessed on 5 blocks of 5 trials. Analyses were conducted for (a) frequencies for initiation order of PG and the hand, (b) correlation between initiation latencies of PG and the hand, and (c) initiation, movement, and response times of PG and the hand. PG always arrived on target in advance of the hand and at approximately 50% of the response time of the hand (proportional time).Varying eccentricity increased initiation time of PG but not of the hand. With learning there was an initial temporal improvement and decreased variability of response within the first 10 trials, and with additional practice response times were further reduced. The importance of proportional time and its relationship to the first submovement in aiming are disc...


This article looks at some interpretive issues regarding the so-called imprecatory psalms, focusing on the debate within reformed and evangelical circles. Introductory issues regarding these psalms abound, such as their definition and scope and the question whether they constitute a specific genre or subgenre within the Psalter. More important are hermeneutical issues regarding the rationale or motivation behind these psalms, namely the reasons why they were written in the first place. These issues also inform the relevance for the present day reader, specifically the New Testament reader, or vice versa: the perceived relevance informs the interpreter's stance on the rationale of these psalms. The article argues that reformed and evangelical scholars' interpretations of imprecation Psalms are largely led by their presuppositions about the relation between the Old and New Testament. The article concludes by suggesting that the deadlock in approaches could be resolved by an in-depth exegesis of the specific psalms taking into account the divergent presuppositions of contemporary interpreters.


Even though many studies have shown that radioactive caesium levels in fish caught outside of Japan were below experimental detection limits of a few Bq kg−1, significant public concern has been expressed about the safety of consuming seafood from the Pacific Ocean following the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident. To address the public concerns, samples of commonly consumed salmon and groundfish harvested from the Canadian west coast in 2013 were analysed for radioactive caesium. None of the fish samples analysed in this study contained any detectable levels of 134Cs and 137Cs under given experimental setting with the average detection limit of ∼2 Bq kg−1. Using a conservative worst-case scenario where all fish samples would contain 137Cs exactly at the detection limit level and 134Cs at half of the detection limit level (to account for much shorter half-life of 134Cs), the resulting radiation dose for people from consumption of this fish would be a very small fraction of the annual dose from exposure to natural background radiation in Canada. Therefore, fish, such as salmon and groundfish, from the Canadian west coast are of no radiological health concern.


1. Effects of inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP3) applied through a patch pipette to Xenopus laevis olfactory receptor cells (ORCs) were studied using the patch-clamp technique in conjunction with calcium imaging with fura-2. 2. InsP3 activated, first, a novel voltage-independent Ca2+ current (ICa) and, second, a nonselective cation current (Icat). 3. The activation of these currents occurred at different intracellular calcium concentrations, and the activation of either current led to a marked increase of [Ca2+]i in the dendritic knob. 4. The results suggest that InsP3 might act as a second messenger in vertebrate olfactory receptor cells by activating, through different mechanisms, a plasma membrane Ca2+ conductance (ICa) and a nonselective cation conductance (Icat).


Shared mobility services involving electric autonomous shuttles have increasingly been implemented in recent years. Because of various restrictions, these services are currently offered on fixed circuits and operated with fixed schedules. This study introduces a service variant with flexible stopping patterns and schedules. Specifically, in the electric dial-a-ride problem on a fixed circuit (eDARP-FC), a fleet of capacitated electric shuttles operates on a given circuit consisting of a recharging depot and a sequence of stations where passengers can be picked up and dropped off. The shuttles may perform multiple laps, between which they may need to recharge. The goal of the problem is to determine the vehicles' stopping sequences and schedules, including recharging plans, so as to minimize a weighted sum of the total passenger excess time and the total number of laps. The eDARP-FC is formulated as a nonstandard lap-based mixed integer linear programming and is shown to be NP-Hard. Efficient polynomial time algorithms are devised for two special scheduling subproblems. These algorithms and several heuristics are then applied as subroutines within a large neighborhood search metaheuristic. Experiments on instances derived from a real-life system demonstrate that the flexible service results in a 32%–75% decrease in the excess time at the same operational costs. Funding: This work was supported by the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [Project Data-Driven Logistics: Grant S007318N; Project Optimizing the Design of a Hybrid Urban Mobility System: Grant G020222N; and Grant OR4Logistics]. Y. Molenbruch is partially funded by the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [Grant 1202719N]. The computational resources and services used in this work were provided by the Flemish Supercomputer Center funded by the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek and the Flemish Government. Supplemental Material: The electronic companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2023.1208 .


This study attempted to determine the rural dwellers access to primary healthcare services in Oyo State. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select 120 rural household heads data were collected using interview schedule which were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (p=0.05). Results reveal that majority (92.5%) of the respondents were married, male (66.7%) and had diarrhoea (M=0.88), injuries (M=0.88) and headache (0.83) as ailments/health related challenges experienced. Community outreach (M=1.33), paediatric treatment (M=1.30) and family planning (M=1.29) were PHC services assesses most. Constraints to accessing PHC services were inadequate healthcare facilities (M=2.30), unfriendly behaviour of health care officers (M=1.89) and insufficient health care officers (M=1.75). At 0.05 level of significant relationship was established level of education (x2=1.020, p=0.001), constraints to accessing primary health care services (r=0.359; p=0.032) and access to primary healthcare services. Based on the foregoing it is recommended that there should be more deployment of health care officers and healthcare facilities to the rural areas. There is need for in-service training to ensure that healthcare officers adhere to the ethics of their profession.


Mollusks are one of benthic organisms that live on the sea bottom, often on the roots, stems, and leaves of plants. Hydroids (Aglaophenia cupressina), one constituent of coral reef organisms in the waters of Siladen Island, Manado, North Sulawesi, which is also an organism that has stingy nematocysts for divers in the region where they live, is a habitat of mollusks. Hydroids sampling was done by Scuba diving at 5 different depths, reef-flat, 5 m, 10 m, 15 m, and 20 m, respectively. All mollusks specimens were taken to the laboratory for species identification. Results found three species of epibiont mollusks on the hydroids, in which the bigger the hydroid size the larger the volume, and higher number was found. This results from that the mollusks use the hydroids as a shelter from predator attacks, strong currents and waves, and food search.


Objective: Today, different models and trademarks of HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) equipment have been used in screening for thalassemia. However, the agreement of the results of the analyses performed by these types of equipment are unknown. In this study, the aim was to investigate the agreement between the results of the analyses of thalassemia screening performed in two sets of HPLC equipment with the Agilent 100 (Chromsystems) and the new analyzer Tosoh HLC 723 G8 trademarks. Methods: This prospective study was included in 79 (32 males and 47 females) individuals performed thalassemia screening. Statistical correlations of hemoglobin A2 (HbA2) values, analyzed in each analyzer as a single analysis from each sample were evaluated using two-way random intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), Cohen's kappa coefficient, correlation coefficient (r) and regression analysis. Results: As a result of the analysis, 26 of the samples (32.9%) were detected as β-thalassemia carrier, 29 (36.7%) were diagnosed as anemic and 24 (30.3%) were detected to be normal. Correlation coefficients HbA2 values were found to be as r=0.902, ICC=0.831 (p<0.0001). Regression analysis for HbA2 values were found to be as Y=0.915+0.559X (p<0.0001). However, Cohen's kappa statistics were calculated as 1. Conclusion: According to the regression, correlation and other statistics analysis, agreement between the results HbA2 values measured in the two analyzers are found to be insufficient. However, considering the cutoff values, separation of thalassemia carriers were achieved in both systems. OZET Amac: Gunumuzde degisik marka ve modelde HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatog


Five undisturbed locations of sandy Oakville and Plainfield soils under oak forest in the heavily industrialized region of northwestern Indiana were sampled at four depths, to assess the nature and extent of Cd, Zn, Cu, and Pb contamination. The litter layer and top 2.5 cm of soil at a site within 5 km of the center of the industrial complex were highly contaminated with Cd, Zn, Cu, and Pb. Levels of Cd and Zn decreased rapidly with distance to the south and east, while Cu and Pb decreased more erratically, with all metals reaching nearly background levels at 18 km. Samples taken deeper in the profiles (30 to 36 cm) did not show elevated metal levels compared with a rural site 67 km to the south. Sequential extraction methods applied to the top 2.5-cm soil samples showed large amounts of relatively labile metals associated with exchange sites (KNO/sub 3/-extractable: 23, 10, 1 and 8% of total Cd, Zn, Cu, and Pb, respectively), bound by soil organic matter (Na/sub 4/P/sub 2/O/sub 7/-extractable: 21, 33, 24, and 41% of the total Cd, Zn, Cu, and Pb), and associated with carbonates and/or noncrystalline Fe oxides (EDTA-extractable: 12, 8, 26, and 28% of themore » total Cd, Zn, Cu, and Pb). Minimal amounts of the metals were within the small amount of crystalline Fe and Mn oxides present in these soils. Non-extractable (residual) metals ammounted to 26, 32, 23, and 4% of the total Cd, Zn, Cu, and Pb.« less


Manufacture and purification of recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAV) require development and optimization of processes to ensure the best possible quality of the final rAAV product. To do so, different strategies in upstream can be used to achieve the highest possible viral titer and lowest amount of impurities, both of which further influence down-stream. Second challenge involves removal of cell debris where different pre-treatments can be utilized. In the next step, optimized capture of rAAV on a cation-exchange chromatography should be developed to remove impurities and achieve a high recovery of rAAV. In the end, several chromatographic options are available to remove empty and defected capsids, so only functional viruses can be isolated. Here, the process of manufacturing and purification of rAAV has been designed using monolithic columns to achieve this important goal of preparing rAAV for the use in gene therapy.


Treacher Collins syndrome (TCS) results from defects in a nucleolar trafficking protein (Treacle) coded for by the TCOF1 gene.1 The purpose of this report is, firstly, to describe an isolated male with TCS associated with macular degeneration who also had a novel TCOF1 gene mutation and, secondly, to evaluate this mutation in a well characterised cohort of 95 patients with age related macular degeneration (AMD).

A 44 year old man presented with a 1 month history of metamorphopsia. He had minimal dysmorphic features but was noted to have an antimongoloid slant of the palpebral fissures with mild flattening of the midface. Sensorineural deafness had been diagnosed from childhood but the external ears were normal in appearance. Best corrected visual acuity was 6/9 (−2.25 DS) right eye and 6/24 (−1.50 DS) left eye. Ocular examination revealed bilateral posterior embryotoxon with adhesions between iris and Schwalbe's line, and iris hypoplasia. No eyelid colobomata were present. Posterior segment examination (fig 1) revealed atrophic macular degeneration in both eyes and a choroidal neovascular membrane (CNV) in the …


This is a fascinating book for anyone who is interested in the Vietnam war. Dr. Brass is an Australian physician who visited South Vietnam in 1966 as a special correspondent for the Medical Journal of Australia , and this book is a compilation of his experiences. It is most interesting to read how this basically American war strikes an Australian, since Australia is reputed to be our staunchest ally in Southeast Asia, and is a friendly ex-colonial sibling. Dr. Brass has accomplished several difficult tasks by producing a description of the joint "free-world" effort in the war in Vietnam, as well as detailing the many medical activities in Vietnam and also giving a lively and accurate picture of the Vietnamese country and people. His description of the war itself encompasses two large American campaigns: the war's effects on the people—physically and morally; and the "other war"—that of aid and assistance. He


Abstract 1680

Background. Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is characterized by the presence of the BCR-ABL1 hybrid gene. Different types of BCR-ABL1 fusion transcripts can be found, but the most frequent are the e13a2 (b2a2) and the e14a2 (b3a2). In the tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) era, few data about the prognostic significance of the transcript type in early chronic phase (ECP) CML are available. Three larger studies suggested that the e13a2 transcript may have an adverse prognostic impact in ECP CML patients treated with imatinib (IM): Vega-Ruiz et al. (251 patients, ASH 2007) reported inferior molecular responses; Lucas et al. (71 patients, Haematologica 2009) reported lower cytogenetic response rates and lower event-free survival (EFS); the GIMEMA CML WP (493 patients, EHA 2011) reported a slower time to major molecular response (MMR) with inferior EFS and progression-free survival (PFS). To our knowledge this is the first evaluation of the prognostic influence of the BCR-ABL1 transcript type on the responses and the outcome of ECP CML treated frontline with nilotinib (NIL).

Methods. The CML Italian Registry of Nilotinib includes 215 patients treated with NIL-based regimens. The patients were enrolled within 2 multicenter phase II studies conducted by the GIMEMA CML WP (ClinicalTrials.gov. [NCT00481052][1] and [NCT00769327][2]) or treated at the "S. Orsola-Malpighi" University Hospital (Bologna, Italy), with NIL 300 mg BID or 400 mg BID as initial treatment. All the registered patients were analyzed. Patients expressing rare transcripts and patients with both b2a2 and b3a2 transcripts were excluded: 201 out of 215 patients were evaluable, 81 (40%) with e13a2 transcript and 120 (60%) with e14a2 transcript. Differences between groups were tested using χ2 test, Fisher exact test or t-test, as appropriate. Response monitoring: conventional cytogenetic examination (bone marrow) and QPCR (peripheral blood). Definitions: MMR: BCR-ABLIS ratio <0.1% (International Scale); failures: according to 2009 ELN recommendations; events: failure or treatment discontinuation for any reason. The time-to-response and the outcome were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and compared by log-rank test.

Results. The baseline characteristics of the 2 groups were comparable (no significant differences in age, Sokal/Hasford/EUTOS score distribution, clonal chromosomal abnormalities in Ph+ cells, NIL dose), except for the percentage of basophils in the peripheral blood, higher in patients with e14a2 transcript (3.4% vs 2.3%, p=0.01). The median observation was 29 months (range 18–47); 92% of the patients had at least 2 year observation. The CCgR and MMR rates at 12 months were comparable in the 2 groups. The time to MMR was longer for patients with e13a2 transcript (6 months vs 3 months, p=0.04), but the overall CCgR rates (93.8 vs 91.7, p=0.79) and the overall MMR rates (85.1 vs 90.0, p=0.38) were not significantly different in patients with e13a2 or e14a2 transcript, respectively. The probability of Overall Survival (OS), Progression-Free Survival (PFS) and Failure-Free Survival (FFS) were comparable: 91.4% vs 95.8% (p=0.61), 90.7% vs 95.0% (p=0.51), and 90.7% vs 88.7% (p=0.40) in patients with e13a2 and e14a2 transcript, respectively.

Conclusions. In our experience, based on 201 early CP CML patients treated frontline with NIL with a minimum follow-up of 18 months, the BCR-ABL transcript type did not show any relevant prognostic impact. The time to MMR was longer in patients with e13a2 transcript, but no response and outcome differences have been observed so far. The number of observed events was low and a longer observation is required.

Acknowledgements. European LeukemiaNet, COFIN, Bologna University, BolognAIL

Disclosures: Castagnetti: Novartis Pharma: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Gugliotta: Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria; Bristol-Myers-Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria. Breccia: Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy. Cavazzini: Novartis Pharma: Honoraria; Bristol Myers Squibb: Honoraria. Turri: Novartis: Consultancy, Novartis Other; Bristol Myers Squibb: Bristol Myers Squibb, Bristol Myers Squibb Other, Consultancy. Soverini: Novartis: Consultancy; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy; ARIAD: Consultancy. Saglio: Novartis: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; BMS: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Pfizer: Consultancy. Martinelli: Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Bristol-Myers-Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Baccarani: ARIAD, Novartis, Bristol Myers-Squibb, and Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Rosti: Novartis Pharma: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Bristol Myers Squibb: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Roche: Speakers Bureau; Pfizer: Speakers Bureau.

 [1]: /lookup/external-ref?link_type=CLINTRIALGOV&access_num=NCT00481052&atom=%2Fbloodjournal%2F120%2F21%2F1680.atom
 [2]: /lookup/external-ref?link_type=CLINTRIALGOV&access_num=NCT00769327&atom=%2Fbloodjournal%2F120%2F21%2F1680.atom


We study supergravity solutions of Dp-branes in the time-dependent orbifold background. We show that worldvolume theories decouple from the bulk gravity for p less than six. Along AdS/CFT correspondence, these solutions could provide the gravity description of noncommutative field theory with time-dependent noncommutative parameter. Type II NS5-brane (M5-brane) in the presence of RR n-form for n=0,..., 4 (C field) in this time-dependent background have also been studied.


state of Creswell's library and its revelation of his methods and discipline quite apart from his passion for fine bindings. The library is in caring hands, and Teresa Fitzherbert gives a reassuring report on the photographic archive. Jonathan Bloom writes expertly on minarets and is highly critical of Creswell's conclusions on the subject. Human capacity is limited, and much art or architectural history develops, so to speak, on the rebound. The pioneer begins somewhere but it is certain that he will leave off in mid-flight. It is, for example, possible to be brought up short by Bloom's own reference to the origins of Ottoman minarets. John Warren writes on the non-Islamic origins of the pointed arch, about which Herzfeld and Creswell were mistaken. I am sorry to lose the latter's drain. Finally, one is glad of R. W. Hamilton's brief biography, written at the time of Creswell's death in 1974 at the age of 94. His was an extraordinary life like that of a whale. Pilot fish have been escorting him ever since.


Sputtered metal–nonmetal granular films tend to exhibit growth-induced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. In this work, Co/HfN multilayers were synthesized to suppress the development of columnar clusters along the deposition direction. The results reveal that a HfN interlayer thickness of less than 0.4 nm is insufficient to separate the columnar clusters; however, increasing the interlayer thickness to 0.8 nm with increasing the sputtering duration successfully led to typical in-plane magnetic anisotropy with a coercivity as low as 3 Oe. The Co(4 nm)/HfN(1.5 nm) multilayers exhibited high permeability of approximately 260 up to 1.6 GHz. The resonance frequency increased from 1.8 to 2.3 GHz with increasing annealing temperature, which is attributed to the increased magnetic anisotropy. Our results suggest that the multilayers still show high-frequency performance even after annealing at 450 °C, which would be a big advantage for complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication technology.


Outward Foreign Direct Investments (OFDI) from emerging economies have begun to increase significantly and have been growing at a faster pace than FDI from the developed world. The research seeks to assess the impact of Chinese acquisitions and their implications for the Made in Italy luxury sector and its firms. This paper presents the preliminary results stemming from a single case study on a Chinese acquisition in order to provide some in-depth insights over the influences and the motives driving Chinese firms to invest in the luxury Made in Italy, the patterns and modes of the Chinese acquisitions as well as the competitive strategies and the distinctive challenges that both investors and acquired firms have to face. From the findings, it emerges that both the investor and the acquired firm need to overcome several key challenges if they want to mutually benefit from the acquisition.


cBN/NiCrAl nanocomposite coating was deposited by cold spraying using mechanically alloyed composite powders. To examine the thermal stability of coating microstructure, the nanocomposite coating was annealed at different temperatures from 750 to 1000°C. The microstructure of composite coatings was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the nanostructure was retained in the coating when the annealing temperature was lower than 825°C which is 0.7 times of the melting point of NiCrAl matrix. The dislocation density significantly reduced when annealing temperature was higher than 750°C. The cBN particle growth became significant when the annealing temperature was higher than 825°C. The effects of crystal grain refinement and work-hardening strengthening mechanisms were quantitatively estimated as the function of annealing temperature. The effect of annealing temperature on the contribution of different strengthening mechanisms to coating hardness was discussed.


This study attempts to provide an answer regarding the utility of Hyperion imagery in mapping urban settings in developed countries. The authors present a novel method for extracting quantitative land cover information at the sub-pixel level from hyperspectral or Hyperion imagery. The proposed method is based on the multiple endmember spectral mixture (MESMA) proposed by Roberts et al. (1998b), but extends it to handle the high-dimensional pixels characterizing hyperspectral images. The proposed method utilizes a multiband multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (Multiband MESMA) model that allows for both spectral bands and endmembers to vary on a per-pixel basis across a hyperspectral image. The goal is to select an optimal subset of spectral bands that maximizes spectral separability among a candidate set of endmembers for a given pixel, and accordingly to minimize spectral confusion among modeled endmembers and increase the accuracy and physical representativeness of derived fractions for that pixel. The authors develop a tool to automate this method and test its utility in a case study using a Hyperion image of Central Cairo, Egypt. The EO-1 Hyperion hyperspectral sensor is the only source of hyperspectral data currently available for Cairo, unlike cities in Europe and North America, where multiple sources of such data generally exist. The study scene represents a very heterogeneous landscape and has an ecological footprint of a complex range of interrelated socioeconomic, environmental and urban dynamics. The results of this study show that Hyperion data, with its rich spectral information, can help address some of the limitations in automated mapping that are reported by previous studies. For this, proper bands and endmembers are selected and used within a multiple endmember, with a multiple-band SMA process to determine the best Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and abundance percentages. This results in a better mapping of land cover extricated from hyperspectral imagery (Hyperion). Keywords: Spectral Mixture Analysis, Hyperspectral Data, Hyperion Data, Cairo, Egypt


As software becomes increasingly important to all aspects of industry, there is a need to encourage practitioners to adopt best practice to improve the quality of the processes in use, and therefore achieve targets relating to time, budget and quality. The software development industry is dominated by small firms. The effectiveness of assessment-based software process improvement for small organisations needs to be evaluated. Following an extensive industry survey, a detailed evaluation of a process improvement program including eight key processes was carried out in 22 small firms. The study confirmed that there is wide variation in the extent of adoption of software development best practice. It also showed that small firms can benefit from a low cost process improvement program with a restricted scope, a short time frame to evaluation, and mentoring. The outcomes from this research will be of interest to software developers and managers as it has the potential to better equip practitioners and consultants to undertake software process improvement, hence increasing the success of small software development firms in domestic and global markets.


ABSTRACT The late Missourian Plattsburg Limestone in Wilson County, Kansas contains a well developed marine pisolite associated with a phylloid-algal mound complex. A striking feature shown by this pisolite is plastic deformation caused by compaction which preceded cementation. This deformation formed chains of pisoliths, connected by apophyses. at all angle to the bedding. Evidence suggests that the pisoliths resulted from several interrupted periods of accretion, and that various states of induration existed among and within the discrete bodies prior to lithification.


The decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing systems organize nodes into structured or unstructured networks. The advantages of the unstructured P2P systems are that they have lower maintenance overhead and can better adapt to node heterogeneity as well as network dynamics. However, the search process in unstructured systems is not as efficient as in structured P2P systems because the same search message may go through a node multiple times. To facilitate the complex search and improve the search efficiency, we propose a novel approach of assigning identifications to nodes in an unstructured system. Our method can prevent a node from receiving duplicate search messages and retain the low maintenance overhead for the system. The performance evaluations demonstrate that the proposed approach can improve the search efficiency of unstructured P2P systems while keeping the maintenance overhead at a comparable or even lower level, compared with the traditional unstructured systems.


This paper proposes a novel text region detection technique based on a hidden Markov model (HMM) for MPEG-encoded bitstreams. Although enormous number of techniques have been proposed for a detection or a localization of text regions, an HMM-based approach has not been proposed as far as the authors know. First, two kind of feature value, i.e., prediction-mode-based and bit-amount-based ones, are extracted as temporal sequences from a target MPEG bitstream, which are then combined together to be fed into an HMM. Frames containing text regions in the bitstream can be detected directly from the state transition sequence by the HMM. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed technique achieves a precision of 92% and a recall of 75%.


Standards or codes for defects assessment usually accompany their own design standards, such as, ASME BPVC section VIII and API 579-1/ASME FFS-1, GB 150 and GB/T 19624. The development of defects assessment standards should be adapted to the design requirements of pressure vessels. The consistency between fitness-for-service (FFS) procedures and design requirements of pressure vessels is discussed in this work. As a key link between FFS procedures and design standards, the required material fracture toughness not only depends on the methods of FFS procedures such as failure assessment diagram, but also on the design requirements. A procedure based on failure assessment diagram under design requirements is proposed to calculate critical crack sizes. The result can give some meaningful suggestions for the development of standards or codes.


Microwave-assisted processes have recognized advantages over more conventional heating techniques. However, the effects on the materials' microstructure are still a matter of study, due to the complexity of the interaction between microwaves and matter, especially at high temperatures. Recently developed advanced microwave instrumentation allows the study of high temperature microwave heating processes in a way that was not possible before. In this paper, different materials and thermal processes induced by microwaves have been studied through the in situ characterization of their dielectric properties with temperature. This knowledge is crucial in several aspects: to analyze the effects of the microwave field on the reaction pathways; to design and optimize microwave-assisted processes, and to predict the behavior of materials leading to repeatable and reliable heating processes, etc.


Bovine lymphocyte antigen DRB3.2 (BoLA–DRB3.2) gene encodes for the beta chain of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecule in cattle, which is a glycoprotein present on the surface of antigen-presenting cells. The objective of the present study was to genotype the BoLA-DRB3.2 locus in Holstein Crossbred cattle (n = 40) by PCR-RFLP. The 304bp amplified region was separately digested with restriction endonucleases Hae III and Bst YI. Seven BoLA-DRB 3.2 genotypes were detected by digesting with Hae III. The frequencies of the genotypes were: 0.475, 0.225, 0.050, 0.100, 0.050, 0.050 and 0.050 for the genotype AA, AB, AE, BB, DD, EE and II, respectively. Digestion with Bst YI yielded three genotypes AA, AB and BB with frequency of 0.050, 0.625 and 0.325. On the basis of the above results it can be concluded that the DRB3.2 gene was found to be highly polymorphic in the crossbred cattle population


Abstract. Cuicocha is a young volcano adjacent to the inactive Pleistocene Cotacachi volcano complex, located in the western cordilleras of the Ecuadorian Andes. A series of eruptions with intensive ash emission and collapse of the caldera occurred around 4500–3000 y BP. A crater 3.2 km in diameter and a maximum depth of 450 m was formed. Further eruptions of the volcano occurred 1300 y BP and formed four smaller domes within the caldera. Over the last few hundred years, a caldera lake has developed, with a maximum depth of 148 m. The lake water is characterized by sodium carbonate with elevated concentrations of manganese, calcium and chloride. Nowadays, an emission of gases, mainly CO 2 , and an input of warm spring water occur in Lake Cuicocha. The zone of high activity is in the western basin of the lake at a depth of 78 m, and continuous gas emissions with sediment resuspension were observed using sonar. In the hypolimnion of the lake, CO 2 accumulation occurs up to 0.2% saturation, but the risk of a limnic eruption can be excluded at present. The lake possesses monomictic stratification behaviour, and during overturn an intensive gas exchange with the atmosphere occurs. Investigations concerning the sedimentation processes of the lake suggest only a thin sediment layer of up to 10–20 cm in the deeper lake basin; in the western bay, in the area of gas emissions, the lake bottom is partly depleted of sediment in the form of holes, and no lake colmation exists. Decreases in the lake water level of about 30 cm y −1 indicate a percolation of water into fractures and fissures of the volcano, triggered by a nearby earthquake in 1987.


The complex and dynamic nature of the modern manufacturing environments place an additional burden on the management of system health and maintenance of machineries. In this paper, we propose an integrated solution to fault diagnostics and prognostics that aims to facilitate system health management in a manufacturing environment. The proposed solution addresses the drawbacks of the commonly adopted practice of reactive fault diagnostics approach, in particular: (1) the reusability of the previously developed diagnostics techniques; (2) the loss of time and efforts to revisit previous issues due to lack of central management system; and (3) the lack of mechanism to perform diagnostics knowledge retention. We achieve these objectives in our system through the use of two pronged approach: (1) the modularization of commonly used analytics algorithms; and (2) the abstraction of the analysis process. The applicability of our proposed solution is demonstrated on the fault diagnostics of a machine fault simulator. From the experimental results, we firmly believe that we have a viable system oriented solution to the underlying problems in providing diagnostics for modern manufacturing environment.


Dr van Melle and associates from the European Congenital Heart Surgeons Association (ECHSA) are to be congratulated on their multicenter study on the treatment of failed Fontan patients.1 With the Fontan operation now being 40 years old surgeons are seeing the full spectrum of Fontan circulation failures.2 Strategies (and outcomes) for treating these patients are critically important and the review from the ECHSA is very timely and helpful. The authors have divided the failed Fontan patients into three groups: those undergoing Fontan takedown early after the Fontan operation, those undergoing the Fontan conversion procedure, and those undergoing heart transplantation. These are all critically ill patients with high mortality rates in all three groups. A summary of their results is shown in table 1 (Results of Surgical Intervention for the failing Fontan).1 The immediate conclusion looking at these numbers is that all of the surgical 'rescue' strategies have a very high early and late mortality.

View this table:

Table 1
Results of surgical intervention (rescue) for the failing Fontan

There are multiple lessons to be learned from this analysis. At most centres all of the above operations are relatively rare occurrences. This collaborative effort helps demonstrate the power of multi-institutional studies. Aggregating the data from multiple centres helps clinicians and surgeons to understand the risks and benefits of these surgical strategies. The striking mortality in the three subgroups cries out for attention to optimise the strategies for care of these patients.

The operative mortality is particularly high for patients undergoing a Fontan takedown. Patients who have failed a Fontan operation in the early postoperative period are extremely ill. Some of this may be occurring because surgeons are attempting to 'push the envelope' and apply the Fontan procedure to increasingly complex patients with more and more risk factors for Fontan failure. We should keep in …


Using a 16 cmtimes20 cm medium field of view CZT camera and a compressible breast phantom containing deformable lesions of various sizes and activity concentrations, a detailed comparison is made between 2D, planar scintimammography utilizing various degrees of breast compression and fully 3D, dedicated, uncompressed breast SPECT, or emission mammotomography. A 700 mL compressible anthropomorphic breast phantom attached to a chest plate was developed in order to compare 2D and 3D emission (or transmission) imaging of a breast containing small lesions in the same phantom, while providing physical attributes that mimic realistic imaging conditions including hindrances that could limit otherwise ideal imaging of an isolated breast phantom. Thin walled, tillable, deformable lesions from 40 to 500 microL volume suspended on narrow polyethylene tubing are used so that their shape would change with different degrees of breast compression and also to provide minimal lesion wall and support thicknesses. Experiments were performed with low noise, and lesion-to-background concentration ratios range from 3:1 to 12:1. Scintimammography is performed for equivalent times for compression thicknesses from 6 cm to 12 cm (fully uncompressed) using a single medio-lateral view, and mammotomography is performed for the uncompressed breast for vertical axis of rotation, simple tilted parallel beam, and a trajectory based on a 3-lobed sinusoid projected onto a hemisphere. Image quality, based on lesion SNRs and contrasts, as well as degree of sampled breast volume are evaluated. Dedicated mammotomography appears to be nearly twice as effective as planar scintimammography under these measurement conditions


High-frequency uterine contractions (UC) at the time of embryo transfer have been shown to hamper the outcome of in-vitro fertilization (IVF). As UC are postulated to be hormone-regulated, we aimed to investigate the role of plasma oestradiol and progesterone concentrations on UC during ovarian stimulation for IVF. A total of 59 women were studied on the day of administration of human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) and embryo transfer. Plasma oestradiol and progesterone concentrations were measured, and 5 min ultrasound scans of the uterus were digitized with an image analysis system to assess UC frequency and direction. Cycles were sorted according to whether progesterone concentrations on the day of embryo transfer were < or =100 (n = 34) or >100 (n = 25) ng/ml. On the day of HCG, UC frequency was similar in both groups at 4.5+/-0.2 and 4.6+/-0.3 UC/min (mean +/- SE) respectively. On the day of embryo transfer, UC frequency remained steady in the low progesterone group, whereas it decreased (3.5+/-0.2 UC/min) in the high progesterone group (P < 0.001), and was negatively correlated with progesterone concentrations (r = -0.56; P < 0.001). No influence of oestradiol on UC was noticed. These observations confirm the utero-relaxing effects of progesterone in the non-pregnant uterus and support the administration of progesterone before embryo transfer to increase tissue concentrations and improve the outcome of IVF.


PurposeDue to the market trend of low-volume and high-variety, the manufacturing industry is paying close attention to improve the ability to hedge against variability. Therefore, in this paper the assembly line with limited resources is balanced in a robust way that has good performance under all possible scenarios. The proposed model allows decision makers to minimize a posteriori regret of the selected choice and hedge against the high cost caused by variability.Design/methodology/approachA generalized resource-constrained assembly line balancing problem (GRCALBP) with an interval data of task times is modeled and the objective is to find an assignment of tasks and resources to the workstations such that the maximum regret among all the possible scenarios is minimized. To properly solve the problem, the regret evaluation, an exact solution method and an enhanced meta-heuristic algorithm, Whale Optimization Algorithm, are proposed and analyzed. A problem-specific coding scheme and search mechanisms are incorporated.FindingsTheory analysis and computational experiments are conducted to evaluated the proposed methods and their superiority. Satisfactory results show that the constraint generation technique-based exact method can efficiently solve instances of moderate size to optimality, and the performance of WOA is enhanced due to the modified searching strategy.Originality/valueFor the first time a minmax regret model is considered in a resource-constrained assembly line balancing problem. The traditional Whale Optimization Algorithm is modified to overcome the inferior capability and applied in discrete and constrained assembly line balancing problems.


Virtual agents are increasingly used for delivering health information in general, and mental health assistance in particular. This paper presents a corpus designed for training a virtual counsellor in Cantonese, a variety of Chinese. The corpus consists of a domain-independent subcorpus that supports small talk for rapport building with users, and a domain-specific subcorpus that provides material for a particular area of counselling. The former consists of ELIZA style responses, chitchat expressions, and a dataset of general dialog, all of which are reusable across counselling domains. The latter consists of example user inputs and appropriate chatbot replies relevant to the specific domain. In a case study, we created a chatbot with a domain-specific subcorpus that addressed 25 issues in test anxiety, with 436 inputs solicited from native speakers of Cantonese and 150 chatbot replies harvested from mental health websites. Preliminary evaluations show that Word Mover's Distance achieved 56% accuracy in identifying the issue in user input, outperforming a number of baselines.


To provide more accurate solubility predictions in supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) using an empirical model employing density as an independent variable, the density of SC-CO2 at different temperatures and pressures has been calculated and compared with experimental densities. The average percentage deviation (APD) has been determined as an accuracy criterion and the obtained APD for the equations studied were between 1.3 (+/-1.4)-11.6 (+/-8.9)%. To show the effects of density values on solubility prediction, the solubility of 18 drug compounds in SC-CO2 has been calculated using an empirical equation with respect to temperature, pressure and density. The APD values for correlative analysis was 8.5 (+/-5.8)% for the most accurate density values calculated by BACK equation of state. A minimum number of experimental data (i.e. 6 points) has been used to train the model then the solubility at other temperatures and pressures has been predicted and the APD value for the most accurate densities obtained was 14.2 (+/-9.4)%. This prediction error could be considered as acceptable when it is compared with RSD values for repeated measurements (approximately 10%) and the proposed predictive method could be employed in industry to calculate the solubility of a drug using a limited number of experimental data.


It is commonplace to observe that digital technologies facilitate our access to information on a scale unimaginable in previous eras, leading many to call this the "Information Age." The vaunted advantages of unprecedented data flow obscure a dark corollary: the more modes of engaging with data are available to a people, the more modes are available for manipulating them. Whether through social media, blogs, email, newspaper headlines, or doctored images and videos, the public is indeed bombarded by information, and much of it is misleading or outright false. Much of it, in fact, is propaganda. As the methods for manipulating mass audiences continue to multiply, a clear understanding of the concept of propaganda has never been more relevant.

This Article constructs a precise, novel account of propaganda, incorporating notable scholarly insights into the concept as well as the overlooked lessons of the law's fragmented efforts to regulate it. To bring this new theoretical framework into focus and demonstrate its importance in the Information Age, the Article connects the underlying theory to contemporary communications practices, many of which are enhanced by the availability of new technology. Notably, in doing so, the Article also develops the first systematic account of political gaslighting, which properly understood (and counterintuitively, perhaps) constitutes a form of propaganda.


In this paper, we experimentally studied the effects of optical power of semiconductor laser on the electrical properties of silicon diode of an exposed device. The experimental results showed that the laser diode light of different optical powers (2, 3, and 4 mW) had effects on the silicon diode that are somewhat similar to those of thermal treatment. A shift in the current-voltage curve to the left side was also noticed, which led to a non-linear decrease of the barrier voltage of the diode by the effect of laser light. We also reveal a decrease by 344.8 nA/mW in the reverse saturation current of the silicon diode as a result of exposure to laser light. The forward resistance of the silicon diode decreased with increased incident optical power. The value of the maximum current of diode increased by 0.5 A/W with increasing the optical power incident on the diode.


Urban green spaces play an important role in promoting both biodiversity and human recreation. This thesis therefore attempted to link biodiversity and recreational values of urban green spaces through an interdisciplinary research of trade-offs and synergies between biodiversity conservation and human recreation.

The interdisciplinary research comprised a methodological review followed by three interlinked case studies in Helsingborg employing different methods and having different research questions, but conducted partly on the same sites. The review focused on biotope mapping where a biotope mapping model integrated with vegetation structure was developed as a further contribution to the methodology. In the first case study the modified biotope mapping model was tested to identify biodiversity values in an urban green space. In the second case study, different user groups' perceptions of urban green spaces were examined by self-reported identification of the eight perceived sensory dimensions and linked to the green spaces' biotope characteristics. The third case study was an in-depth and on-site exploration of the relationship between preference and biodiversity in an urban green space context adopting the Visitor-Employed Photography (VEP) method. The results suggest that

- Biodiversity values in urban green spaces can be indicated through modified biotope mapping involving vegetation structures.

- People can perceive recreational values in urban green spaces through eight sensory dimensions. Each dimension is furthermore associated with biotopes. The more diverse biotopes an urban green space encompasses, the more frequently the eight sensory dimensions could be perceived. Urban forests were more frequently perceived as nature and rich in species than open green spaces.

- Preference is not positively related to high biodiversity. The VEP study revealed on-site preference for biodiversity to be highly context-specific, mainly triggered by specific features rather than the overall scenery and character of the setting.

These results can be used for urban green space planning and management to maximize both biodiversity and recreational benefits in urban green spaces in practice.


Scent stations are assumed to be a simple and economical method to index furbearer populations, but recent literature challenges the reliability of this technique. We examined several variables that could affect visitation rates of 2 commonly indexed species. Raccoon (Procyon lotor) and bobcat (Felis rufus) visi- tation rates of scent stations were monitored on the Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge in western Tennessee during summer and fall 1991. Factors tested included placement from water and roads, attractant type, and within-habitat variability of scent-station visitation rates. Placement of scent stations near water (^10 m) increased visitation rates of raccoons. Attractant type (visual vs. olfactory) did not affect visitation rates of bobcats or raccoons regarding visual attraction to a scent station. Differences existed between sites within a habitat for raccoons. Variability did not increase with increasing visitation rates in raccoons and showed only a slight positive slope in bobcats. Reliability of scent station indices may depend on random locations and optimal placements and will require standardization of techniques for each species.


There is growing interest in the use of natural agents with antimicrobial (AM) and antioxidant (AOX) properties. Optimization of the AM capacity for mixtures containing carvacrol, grape seed extract (GSE) and chitosan, against gram-negative ( Pseudomonas aeruginosa ), gram-positive bacteria ( Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria innocua and Enterococcus faecalis ) and yeast ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae ) at 10 6 cfu mL -1 was studied. To observe the synergistic or antagonistic effect and find optimal combinations between the three agents, a simplex centroid mixture design was run for each microorganism, combining carvacrol (0-300 ppm, X 1 ), GSE (0-2000 ppm, X 2 ) and chitosan (0-2% w/v, X 3 ). Results of the response surface analysis showed several synergistic effects for all microorganisms. Combinations of 60 ppm-400 ppm-1.2% w/v (carvacrol-GSE-chitosan; optimal AM combination 1, OAMC-1); 9.6 ppm-684 ppm-1.25% w/v (OAMC-2); 90 ppm-160 ppm-1.24% w/v (OAMC-3) were found to be the optimal mixtures for all microorganisms. Radical scavenging activity (RSA) of the same agents was then compared with a standard AOX (butylated hydroxytoluene; BHT) at different concentrations (25, 50 and 100 ppm; as well as the optimal AM concentrations) by the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method. RSA increased in the following order: chitosan< carvacrol< BHT< GSE and for the OAMC: OAMC-2< OAMC-1< OAMC-3. The best RSA (OAMC-3) was applied as a coating in two different food matrices (strawberries and salmon). For strawberries, P. aeruginosa was more sensitive to the action of OAMC-3 than S. cerevisiae . For salmon, S. aureus was more resistant to the action of OAMC-3 than E. faecalis and L. innocua .