Lower urinary tract infection remains frequent particularly in women, despite improvement in therapeutic means. It seems likely to revisit bacterial epidemiology and therapeutic available strategies. To analyze elements in presence i.e. infecting bacteria and antibiotics still active or identification of acquired resistance mechanisms should permit to establish the evolution during the last 10 years. The study shows that bacterial epidemiology in urinary tract infection has not changed significantly, despite antibiotic selective pressure expected from overused antibiotics. However few enterobacteriaceae more resistant than Escherichia coli have emerged, but the latter remains predominant. Development of resistance has concerned Negram, amoxicillin and Augmentin, but several active molecules such as ciprofloxacin, Monuril remain available. Duration of treatments are still discussed but there is a tend toward short durations and even mono-doses. The control of lower urinary tract infections remains relatively easy provided that a good therapeutic choice is based on well documented bacteriologic data (infecting species susceptible to the available antibiotics).


Background

LncRNAs are reported to play an essential role in multiple tumors, including pancreatic cancer. LncRNAs could impact tumor growth via RNA-binding proteins, working as a coactivators of transcription factors or impacting their gene expression via posttranscriptional regulation. Our study aimed to elucidate the function and mechanism of lncRNA KCNK15-AS1 and its binding protein ACTR3B in PC progression. Our previous data indicated that KCNK15-AS1 is downregulated in PC tissues and cell lines compared to normal controls.
Methods

In this study, we overexpressed KCNK15-AS1 and ACTR3B in both BxPC-3 and Mia-PaCa-2 cells to detect the cellular phenotype in vitro and in vivo. RNA pulldown assays, mass spectrometry assays and RNA-binding protein immunoprecipitation assays were used to verify KCNK15-AS1 RNA binding protein ACTR3B. Luciferase reporter assay and ubiquitination assay were proceeded to detect the mechanism KCNK15-AS1 upregulated ACTR3B expression.
Results

Our results showed that overexpression of KCNK15-AS1 significantly inhibited the proliferation, colony formation and migration of PC cells. ACTR3B was screened by RNA pulldown and mass spectrometry assays. RNA-binding protein immunoprecipitation assays confirmed that KCNK15-AS1 physically bound to ACTR3B. Furthermore, mechanistic analyses demonstrated that KCNK15-AS1 promoted ACTR3B expression by inhibiting ACTR3B ubiquitin-mediated degradation and enhancing its promoter activity. Additionally, ACTR3B presented low expression in PC tissues and cell lines, and PC cell growth was significantly repressed when ACTR3B was overexpressed. Moreover, knockdown of ACTR3B in KCNK15-AS1-overexpressing cells reversed the effects of KCNK15-AS1 on PC cell growth via the cyclin D1/CDK4 axis.
Conclusion

Briefly, our study indicated that the lncRNA KCNK15-AS1/ACTR3B/cyclin D1/CDK4 axis may inhibit PC progression, which provides a potential therapeutic target for PC.


Coronary flow, heart rate, myocardial oxygen consumption and Walton strain gauge tension were determined in the isolated rabbit heart perfused with hemoglobin solutions of varying oxygen content. Perfusion was carried out under constant pressure and with the hemoglobin solution in equilibrium with 3% CO2 and 97% air under atmospheric tension. Oxygen content was varied from 2 to 18 vol. % by diluting hemoglobin with Ringer-Locke solution. Change from a higher to lower oxyhemoglobin concentration resulted in increased coronary flow; the reserve led to decreased flow. Heart rate, myocardial tension and oxygen consumption were constant at oxygen capacity above 2 vol. %.


The main nuclear medicine palliation treatment methods are radionuclide pain palliation treatment in cases of disseminated painful bone metastases and radiosynovectomy in inflammatory arthritis cases. Both methods can be easily administered and do not require long-term hospitalization. They are reliable with high palliation value and low complication rates.


Abstract Integrative oncology is being increasingly adopted in mainstream cancer care to strengthen anticancer effects and to control cancer-related symptoms. The objective of this study is to identify the characteristics of patients with lung cancer treated at an integrative cancer center in Korea and to determine the effects of integrative cancer treatment (ICT) on survival outcome in traditional Korean medicine (TKM). We reviewed medical records for lung cancer patients who visited a single integrative clinical setting, East-West Cancer Center, between January 2014 and December 2015. We classified the patients into groups according to their ICT and whether or not they underwent anticancer traditional Korean Medicine treatment with a multiherbal formula containing Panax notoginseng Radix, Cordyceps militaris, P ginseng C.A.Mey., and Boswellia carterii BIRDWOOD (HangAmDan-B), with a herbal formula containing Rhus verniciflua Stoke, or with cultivated wild ginseng pharmacopuncture. A descriptive analysis of the characteristics and a survival analysis using the Kaplan-Meier curves with log rank test and a Cox proportional hazard model were performed. A total of 91 patients were included, and the majority had advanced-stage cancer. Of those patients, 45.1% were in the mono-TKM group and 39.6% were integrative group. Patients with advanced stage had significantly higher mortality than patients with early stage (crude hazard ratio [HR]: 4.41, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.56–12.5; adjusted HR: 6.31, 95% CI: 1.24–32.1). In the unadjusted model, for patients in the integrative group, the mortality rate was reduced by 50% compared to mono-TKM group with statistical significance. After adjusting confounders, the mortality rate of integrative group was reduced by 6% compared to mono-TKM group, suggesting positive effect on survival probability of integrative group. The results suggest that integration of TKM and conventional cancer treatment may have survival benefits in patients with lung cancer. Even though this study has limitations including heterogeneity between treatment groups, the study results suggest that ICT has positive effect on survival probability. To clarify the impacts of ICT for lung cancer and other cancers on survival outcome, further prospective study with a rigorous study design is required in multiclinical setting.


Abstract. The endemic argan tree (Argania spinosa) populations in South Morocco are highly degraded due to overbrowsing, illegal firewood extraction and the expansion of intensive agriculture. Bare areas between the isolated trees increase due to limited regrowth, but show lower soil quality than their neighbouring tree areas. Hypothetically, spatial differences of soil quality of the intertree area should result from translocation of litter or soil particles (by runoff and erosion or wind drift) from canopy-covered areas to the intertree areas. 385 soil samples were taken around the tree from the trunk along the tree drip line (within and outside the tree area) as well as the intertree area between two trees in four directions (upslope, downslope and in both directions parallel to the slope) and analysed for soil moisture, pH, electrical conductivity, percolation stability, total nitrogen content, content of soil organic carbon and C / N ratio. 74 tension-disc infiltrometer experiments were performed near the tree drip line, within and outside the tree area, to measure the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. We found that the tree influence on its surrounding intertree area is limited, with e.g., Corg- & N-content decreasing significantly from tree trunk to tree drip line. However, intertree areas near the tree drip line differed significantly from intertree areas between two trees, yet only with a small effect. Trends for spatial patterns could be found in eastern and downslope directions due to wind drift and slope wash. Soil moisture was highest in the north due to shade from the midday sun, the influence extended to the intertree areas. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity also showed significant differences between areas within and outside the tree area near the tree drip line. Although only limited influence of the tree on its intertree area was found, the spatial pattern around the tree suggests that reforestation measures should be aimed around tree shelters in northern or eastern directions with higher soil moistures, N- or Corg-content to ensure seedling survival.


This study aims to analyze the role of the financial technology industry (fintech) in the growth of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. The study adopted descriptive research using a qualitative approach. Sources of data were obtained through literature studies, including published research results and expert opinions. The study results found that the presence of the fintech industry would easily overcome some of the problems that MSMEs often face. MSMEs were fast-growing and developing because they could optimize the fintech platform according to their needs. This study illustrates the services provided by fintech companies as being able to be a catalyst in the growth of their businesses. Services that specifically catalyze MSME growth in Indonesia include the Peer to Peer (P2P) Lending platform, equity crowdfunding (ECF), e-wallet, and personal finance. This research's implications include that MSME actors experience several benefits, such as effectiveness in finding sources of funds, ease of transaction processing, expanding market access, and faster preparation of financial reports.


Meaning-making plays a central role in how we deal with experiences of suffering, including those due to mental disorder. And for many, religious beliefs, experiences, and practices (hereafter, religious engagement) play a central role in informing this meaning-making. However, a crucial facet of the relationship between experiences of mental disorder and religious engagement remains underexplored—namely the potentially positive effects of mental disorder on religious engagement (e.g. experiences of bipolar disorder increasing sense of God's presence). In what follows, I will present empirical findings from two recent studies of mine which shed light on the extent to which participants experienced these positive effects, specific components of these effects, and how they fit into their understanding of their mental disorder and its relationship to their religious identity. In doing so, I will draw on and expand Tasia Scrutton's Potentially Transformative view (2015a, 2015b, 2020) according to which mental disorders may provide opportunities for spiritual growth. My empirical results align with and help deepen an account according to which mental disorders are potentially spiritually transformative by providing further insight into such instances: specifically, which symptoms and internal and external factors are often involved, as well as which religious beliefs, experiences, and/or practices are often affected. After presenting these results and articulating their relevance for a potentially transformative view of mental disorder, I will then address some potential objections to the theoretical account as well as some limitations of the empirical work, before sketching possible promising directions for future research.


Over the years, early detection of forest and land fires has been conducted using hotspot data provided by the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN), based on its interpretation of satellite images. The hotspot data have tremendously helped firefighting efforts and further enforcement. However, the system has several shortcomings, especially due to its inability to distinguish forest and land fires from other hot surfaces or fires caused by common human activities. Furthermore, this method also requires labor-intensive verification, and heavily relies on human factors for advanced analysis and validation. Recently, the DG of Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (DGLE MoEF) has been piloting a new approach through advancement in artificial intelligence, called Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI). By utilizing recorded satellite image data from 2017 - 2019, the machine has been trained to recognize the pattern and tone of the image in burnt areas so that it can validate the presence of the burnt area based on the history of Sentinel-2 imagery for the past week at each cluster. DGLE MoEF found that the burnt area data processed by GeoAI has better accuracy than the hotspot count for forest and land fire identification. Moreover, GeoAI may ease forest and land fire analysis and verification by automatically overlaying forest area and company concessions at the burnt area. GeoAI's innovation in forest and land fire monitoring can produce more accurate and complete early detection data of forest and land fires than currently available hotspot data. The results of hotspot clustering that detect fires may assist firefighters in rapidly extinguishing the fire, and support law enforcement officers in determining the appropriate target location. Therefore, GeoAI technology may increase the effectiveness and efficiency of resources allocated by law enforcement officers in providing better and more responsive public services.
Keywords: GeoAI, geospatial technology, artificial intelligence, forest fire, hotspot


The modern way of life, which is characterized by insufficient movement, most often leads to poor posture. Children and young people exercise less and less and spend more and more time in passive sitting and lying positions. Such habits take them away from their natural needs for movement (hypokinesis) and significantly reduce most of their physical and functional abilities. The question is why do so many children sit with such poor posture? Habit is one of the main reasons, but not the only factor of poor posture when sitting. The article especially discusses the environment factors that may indicate the causes of improper posture, and occur during school: several hours of sitting in school desks, a large number of classes, short breaks, dysfunctional and inadequate classroom furniture, insufficient lighting of the work surface, heavy school bags and improper way of carrying one. Due to the influence of various factors: family, preschools, schools, and others in the formation of proper posture, it is necessary to create a system of preventative measures from an early age, which includes educating children. Prevention not only affects school success but also changes the attitude towards oneself, peers, and other people, which contributes to the development of positive traits and characteristics of the person and their successful socialization.


Background and Aims This study was set up to compare two forms of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). Lavage with diluted surfactant in saline, and lavage with saline only. Methods Fifteen term neonates with severe meconial aspiration syndrome (MAS) (needing mechanical ventilation in the first hour and inspiratory oxygen fraction more than 30%) were divided into two groups: I group (surfactant group, n=8) treated with BAL using diluted surfactant (6mg/ml), and II group (saline group, n=7), treated with BAL using saline. Both groups were treated with surfactant after BAL. Results Mean gestational age, Apgar score in the first and the fifth minute, and birth weight did not differ significantly between groups (p>0.05). Duration of mechanical ventilation did not differ between groups (12.5 days vs 17.29; p>0.05), as well as the length of mean length of oxygen therapy (Igroup 6.57 days and 4.57 II group, p>0.05). Also, there was no significant difference in the length of hospital stay (12.5 days vs 17.29; p>0.05). Conclusion Diluted surfactant BAL and saline BAL in the first hours of life combined with a dose of surfactant have the same effect on the length of mechanical ventilation length of oxygen therapy and length of hospital stay.


In the corporative environment, two of the most important corporative mega trends, have had a strong impact: The globalization and the rigorous technologic change. In fact, these changes make the necessary adoption of good corporative practices, which allows to the economics' organisms, to get best utilities, greater levels of efficiency and appropriate result for different interest groups. As a result, the value chain's logistic administration has become an important key for corporative successful and allow a corporative adjustments according with the goals input by the mega trends.


Nationally representative studies consistently report significant gender and racial differences in youth smoking rates, although little research has been done to explain why. In this paper we examine one possible source for this variation: differences in youth responsiveness to changes in price or tobacco control policies. Using data from the 1992-1994 Monitoring the Future surveys, we find that young men are much more responsive to changes in the price of cigarettes than young women. The participation elasticity for men is almost twice as large as that for women. Further, we find that smoking rates of young black men are significantly more responsive to changes in price than young white men. In addition, we find significant differences in responsiveness to particular tobacco control policies. Smoking rates among white youths are responsive to anti-tobacco activities and clean indoor air restrictions, while smoking rates among black youths are significantly influenced by smoker protection laws and restrictions on youth access.


The technique to produce pulp has improved and become more complex throughout the years. The purpose of pulping is to liberate the wood fibers and it can be done in two ways, either by chemically or mechanically separating the fibers. This thesis will focus on the commonly used kraft pulping process for eucalyptus and especially on the impregnation stage and how it affects kappa number and alkali consumption. This is done by studying the alkali charge, impregnation time and temperature for the impregnation stage while maintaining constant cooking parameters. This project has shown that the impregnation temperature affects the alkali consumption more than the impregnation time. A correlation between alkali consumption in the impregnation and the kraft cook was seen. When the consumption is high in the impregnation stage, a lower consumption was observed in the cooking stage.


This study is aimed at, first, producing a complete inventory of the vascular flora of the Taormina Region; second, identifying and mapping the species of high naturalistic value. The vascular flora of this area consists of 624 specific and infraspecific taxa, of which four are endemically restricted to this part of the Peloritani Mountains, namely, Colymbada tauromenitana, Limonium ionicum, Limonium tauromenitanum and Brassica raimondoi. The families most represented are Asteraceae (77 taxa), Fabaceae (73 taxa), Poaceae (63 taxa), Orchideaeae (23 taxa), Lamiaceae (23 taxa), and Apiaceae (23 taxa). The life-form spectrum of the vascular flora indicates the predominance of therophytes (40%), with hemicryptophytes (27%) and geophytes (14%). From a chorological viewpoint, most of the species show a Mediterranean distribution (316 taxa). A large number of surveyed taxa are endangered, of which 31 are included in the IUCN Regional Red List, 23 species of Orchidaceae are protected by the CITES and one in the EU 92/43 Habitat Directive. The analysis of the habitats revealed that rare taxa are most abundant on cliffs and dry grasslands.


Three salts of phenylenediammonium diperchlorate have been prepared and characterized by X-ray crystallography. Their thermal decomposition has been studied by thermogravimetry (TG), differential thermal analysis (DTA), and explosion delay (DE) measurements. The kinetics of thermal decomposition was evaluated by model fitting and isoconversional methods using TG data. The oxidation-reduction reactions near the surface of thermolysing perchlorates may be responsible for the decomposition followed by explosion. The possible pathways of thermolysis have also been proposed.


Abstract Background Due to its interesting life cycle, vulnerability and conservation importance, the butterfly Phengaris teleius is one of the most studied insects in Europe. It was discovered in Serbia only in 2012 and there were no data on its distribution from the south of Hungary. New information Phengaris teleius was recorded for the first time in four localities in Hungary and in additional locality in Serbia. This suggests that the local populations are more interconnected than previousely thought and that conservation efforts should be done in collaboration between the two countries. All localities are inside protected areas and management measures for preserving several target species already exist. This represents a solid base for the conservation of newly discovered populations of P. teleius.


(57) ABSTRACT A linear position measuring system (10) and a method for determining a position of a carriage in relation to a slide rail (12), with an incremental scale (14) placed along the slide rail (12) and a scanner secured to the slide scale. The Scanner is designed to scan a plurality of incremental markings along the incremental scale (14), wherein the incremental markings can be scanned as an essentially analog signal progression. The scanner is designed to Scan the incremental markings with a variable scanning frequency. The scanning frequency can be adaptively varied in relation to a currently acquired frequency of the analog signal progression, wherein the vari able scanning frequency measures at least twice the currently acquired frequency of the analog signal progression.


The MIC and the highest concentration enabling bacterial growth (CEG) of the antibiotics contained in two selective media were determined for Brucella abortus, B. melitensis, and B. ovis. The nalidixic acid and bacitracin contained in Farrell's selective medium were responsible for the inhibitory effects observed.


Background: Physical therapy is a growing profession with emphasis on continuous improvement of knowledge and skills. Physical therapy educators have to be vigilant enough to stay up to date as they are the role models of the students. These educators also face certain hurdles which can affect their performance badly.
Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the level of satisfaction among educators about current physical therapy education in Pakistan.
Methodology: A cross sectional survey was designed to carry out the study from October 2013 to April 2014. Purposive sampling technique was used to recruit sample. A self structured pre tested questionnaire was distributed among 150 educators working in various teaching institutes in Federal Capital Islamabad, and four provincial capitals. Out of 150 educators, 123 educators filled and returned the questionnaire.
Results: According to the results of the study, 105 (86%) participants were dissatisfied because they believed that physical therapy institutes should be affiliated by health universities only, 120 (98%) participants were dissatisfied because of the non availability of certified faculty in the teaching institutes. All the physical therapy educators showed dissatisfaction due to the absence of physical therapy council to set standards for physical therapy education.
Conclusion: It is evident from the results of study that physical therapy educators are not currently satisfied with education system due to not certified faculty available in the physical therapy institutes and an absence of licensing and regulatory authority to set standards for physical therapy education and clinical practice. Improvement is needed in current physical therapy education standards in the country.


During many years of experience with the use of induced malaria for the therapy of neurosyphilis, it has been possible to observe the course of malarial infections in patients with known previous history of infection by the same and different strains and species of Plasmodium. This report presents the effect of prior infection on subsequent infection in regard to immune response of the host, clinical symptoms, parasitaemia, transmissibility and chemotherapeutic measures. These studies have shown that in no case was it impossible to induce additional infections in patients. However, in all homologous-species reinoculations, there were significant modifications of the infections, which were enhanced if both exposures were to the same strain. Variable results (ranging from no apparent effect to a fairly substantial modification) were seen after reinoculation of patients with a heterologous species of Plasmodium.The use of immunofluorescent methods may provide a clearer understanding of the mechanism of partial immunity as it affects reinfection. The relationship of this partial immunity to the epidemiology and chemotherapy of the disease in endemic areas is of importance, in that these infections in semi-immune persons provide a continuing and unapparent source of reinfection of the community.


Quercus dentata (Thunb. ex Murray) is a major tree found in dry habitats such as limestone areas of Korea. In order to characterize the ecological traits of Q. dentata, we treated Q. dentata saplings under four gradient levels of major environment factors such as light, soil moisture and nutrients for 5 months in a glass house. We then measured and analyzed growth differences among them. Regarding light, aboveground, below ground and plant biomass were highest at a high gradient and lowest at a low one. The root/shoot ratio was highest at the highest light gradient. Regarding moisture, no measured items were significantly affected by the moisture gradient. Regarding nutrients, aboveground, belowground and plant biomass were the highest at a slightly high gradient and the lowest at a gradient lower or higher than this. The root/shoot ratio was not significantly affected by the nutrient gradient. From these results, it was shown that the growth of Q. dentata was more affected by light and nutrients in the environment than moisture.


Adverse events and therapeutic effects were analyzed in patients with pharyngeal or advanced laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas(SCCs)receiving concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) with S-1 or weekly CDDP between 2004 and 2007. Low-dose CDDP (25 mg/m2) was administered once a week and S-1 (65 mg/m2) was administered for 3 weeks with one-week rest during conventional radiation with 2 Gy/fraction. Both of the two CCRT regimens showed little toxicity with grade 4 toxicities in less than 5%of the patients. However, CCRT with S-1 more frequently induced grade 3 and 4 oral mucositis than CCRT with CDDP. As a result, the completion rate of CCRT with S-1 was lower than that of CCRT with CDDP. The two regimens achieved a similar complete response rate of the primary sites, local control rate(LCR)and larynx preservation rate; the LCR for T1 and 2 disease was more than 70%. However, the LCR for T3 or 4 disease by the two regimens was less than 50%. CCRT with S-1 showed significantly higher LCR in patients with poorly or undifferentiated SCCs than those with well or moderately-differentiated SCCs. It is suggested that the two CCRT regimens are useful treatment modalities for patients with locally(primary site)non-advanced pharyngeal or laryngeal SCCs, and that CCRT with S-1 is highly sensitive to poorly or undifferentiated SCCs. In order to achieve local control and larynx preservation, more intensive CCRT might be necessary for patients with locally(primary site)advanced pharyngeal or laryngeal SCCs.


In this paper, a bandpass filter is proposed with dumbbell shaped defected ground structure in ground plane of a 50Ω Microstrip line and a closed loop resonator in the conducting strip. This arrangement provides better coupling in pass band. Using DGS structure, forward transmission loss (S21) is -1 dB and return loss (S11) is -20 dB at the centre frequency 3.2 GHz with bandwidth of 200 MHz. A conventional parallel coupled line bandpass filter has also been implemented with exactly same design goals for the sake of comparison. The proposed bandpass filter with DGS is quite promising with 28% size reduction.


In eukaryotes, cellular functions are tightly controlled by diverse post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins. One such PTM affecting many proteins is the deimination of arginine to citrulline. This process, called citrullination is catalyzed by a group of hydrolases called protein arginine deiminases (PADs), of which five isoforms have been identified. Hypercitrullination, as a result of increased PAD expression or activity, is associated with autoimmune diseases e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Alzheimer's disease, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, and certain cancers. Three common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the PADI4 gene have been described, namely rs874881, rs11203366, and rs11203367, which are thought to affect PAD4 expression and activity. We here compared the suitability of four methods for the screening of SNPs in the PADI4 gene: (i) SYBR-green based real-time polymerase chain reaction followed by high resolution melting curve analysis (HRM-PCR); (ii) PCR followed by detection of restriction fragment length polymorphisms (PCR-RFLP); (iii) conventional tetra-primer amplification refractory mutation system PCR (ARMS-PCR); and (iv) real-time PCR based on the one-step ARMS-PCR. Of these, ARMS-PCR proved to be the most suitable method regarding handling, duration, and cost of experiments. Using the method with SYBR-green based real-time PCR reagents further diminished handling steps and thus potential sources of error.


Background and Objective: The production of Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamases (ESBLs) by Escherichia coli is the main cause of resistance to Cephalosporins. In the past decade, CTX-M enzymes have become the most prevalent ESBLs in Europe, Canada, and Asia. In this study, the frequency of ESBL-producing E.coli and molecular detection of the CTX-M-I group was investigated. Materials and Methods: A total of 400 urine samples were collected from both hospitalized and out-patients in Khoys hospitals between November 2009 and April 2010. Out of these samples, 188 were identified as E.coli by standard biochemical tests. The antibiotic Susceptibility tests to 10 antibiotics were performed by the-disk-agar diffusion (DAD) method. ESBL production was screened by phenotypic test that including disk diffusion agar and combined disk as recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). Screened isolates were investigated by PCR assay for detection of CTX-M-I group genes. Results: The results show that out of 188 E.coli isolates identified, 56 (29.8%) were producing ESBls by phenotypic test. All isolates were sensitive to imipenem. Overall, 49 (87.5%) isolates were confirmed as CTX-M-I producer by PCR. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that about 30% of the identified E.coli were producing ESBl. Therefore, we recommend to use molecular methods in such researches.


Rats maintained on a copper-deficient diet supplemented with a copper-chelating agent, triethylenetetramine tetrahydrochloride, for 8 to 10 weeks show marked involution of pancreatic acinar tissue. The present study deals with the possible mechanism of pancreatic acinar cell involution during copper deficiency. Sequential light and electron microscopic observations during the copper-depletion regimen, suggest that apoptosis is the main cause of progressive loss of acinar cells. At 4 weeks of copper deficiency, the apoptotic index was 2 +/- 0.6/1,000 cells. By 6 weeks, the apoptotic index reached a maximum of 95 +/- 25/1,000. By 8 weeks, there was almost total loss of acinar cells. The earliest change of apoptosis was characterized by condensation and margination of chromatin against nuclear membrane. Subsequently, several apoptotic bodies displayed pyknotic nucleus and eosinophilic cytoplasmic condensation. Apoptotic bodies were extruded into the interstitium or phagocytosed by unaffected acinar cells. No associated pancreatic inflammation was present. These results indicate that apoptosis is the process involved in pancreatic involution caused by copper deficiency. The molecular mechanism(s) by which copper deficiency causes apoptosis remain unclear.


Fourteen cases of farmer's lung, which were clinically and pathologically defined, were reported. The incidence of disease in Hokkaido was estimated to be 1-2% and its geographical distribution was uniform. It was stressed that there is a considerable number of undiagnosed patients with farmer's lung.


Due to its geographical position, events in the Middle East, the Sahel, and Europe have consequential effects on the Maghreb (Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia). Hence, recent economic, political, and cultural changes are more or less inspired or encouraged by those developments taking place in the surrounding environment. Together with Mauritania, the four countries founded in 1989 the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), which aimed at regional integration. Unfortunately, the UMA remains a distant wish; the conflict over Western Sahara and the political differences between Algeria and Morocco have prevented the UMA's advance. Each Maghrebi country witnessed particular events and reacted differently to identical stimuli. Undoubtedly, the countries' distinctive historical experiences provide a valuable understanding of the internal logic of the processes they have undergone and the way they sought to tackle them. This article will review the salient developments that occurred within each of the four Maghrebi countries and analyze the ways through which the regimes seek to resolve the challenges they are faced with. The main contention in the article is that the regimes in place have yet to open up the political space and allow genuine democratization to take place, for despite some genuine transformations in a few areas, the old rulers are still reluctant to loosen their grip over power. While they succeed in reestablishing order, the roots that generate cyclical uprisings remain intact. Civil society has yet to fulfill its full potential and enjoy genuine citizen participation.


We aim to explain the dynamics enabling spikes in hate crimes by examining the underlying social-psychological processes behind it. We see these as captured in empowerment processes amongst racist who see themselves as "victims" and their position strengthened by majority support from the public for their actions. Building on previous research, we investigated the role social norm misperception (false consensus and pluralistic ignorance), following elections plays as a possible, generally occurring mechanism, which particular focus on Republican Party supporters. In a two-wave panel study, we surveyed Democrat and Republican supporters on social norms misperception, as well as collective empowerment, and xenophobic behavioural intentions. While we could replicate and strengthen our arguments and establish robust group-dependent effects for social norms misperception and illustrate that an unexpected outcome of the election led to disempowerment amongst Republicans, we found null effects for changes in social norms misperception, and behavioural intentions. Our study contributes to understanding social norms misperception as associated with group membership. Deriving from that, the study results indicate that the perception of a majority agreeing with one´s approval is potentially less influenced by external factors, in contrast to feelings of joy and group efficacy – collective empowerment. Practical implications of group differences regarding post-election collective actions are discussed.


BACKGROUND
 More than 1 in 4 people in the United States aged 65 years and older have type 2 diabetes. For diabetes care, medical nutrition therapy is recommended as a clinically effective intervention. Previous researchers have developed and validated dietary assessment methods using images of food items to improve the accuracy of self-reporting over traditional methods. Nevertheless, little is known about the usability of image-assisted dietary assessment methods for older adults with diabetes.

 OBJECTIVE
 The aims of this study were (1) to create a food record app for dietary assessments (FRADA) that would support image-assisted dietary assessments, and (2) to evaluate the usability of FRADA for older adults with diabetes.

 METHODS
 For the development of FRADA, we identified design principles that address the needs of older adults and implemented three fundamental tasks required for image-assisted dietary assessments: capturing, viewing, and transmitting images of food based on the design principles. For the usability assessment of FRADA, older adults aged 65 to 80 years (11 females and 3 males) were assigned to interact with FRADA in a lab-based setting. Participants' opinions of FRADA and its usability were determined by a follow-up survey and interview. As an evaluation indicator of usability, the responses to the survey, including an after-scenario questionnaire, were analyzed. Qualitative data from the interviews confirmed the responses to the survey.

 RESULTS
 We developed a smartphone app that enables older adults with diabetes to capture, view, and transmit images of food items they consumed. The findings of this study showed that FRADA and its instructions for capturing, viewing, and transmitting images of food items were usable for older adults with diabetes. The survey showed that participants found FRADA easy to use and would consider using FRADA daily. The analysis of the qualitative data from interviews revealed multiple categories, such as the usability of FRADA, potential benefits of using FRADA, potential features to be added to FRADA, and concerns of older adults with diabetes regarding interactions with FRADA.

 CONCLUSIONS
 This study demonstrates in a lab-based setting not only the usability of FRADA by older adults with diabetes but also potential opportunities using FRADA in real-world settings. The findings suggest implications for creating a smartphone app for an image-assisted dietary assessment. Future work still remains to evaluate the feasibility and validity of FRADA with multiple stakeholders, including older adults with diabetes and dietitians.


Depression, anxiety disorders and phobias are common mental health problems associated with considerable occupational and interpersonal impairment. Although there is substantial evidence to support the use of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) in the treatment of these disorders, access is limited. Computerized cognitive behaviour therapy (CCBT) is one of a variety of aids to self-management that offer patients the potential benefits of CBT with less therapist involvement than therapist led CBT (TCBT). In this systematic review of the efficacy of CCBT, 16 studies were identified. Of these 11 were RCTS and the remaining 5 were pilot or cohort studies. The quality of studies ranged from poor to moderate (although the criteria used precluded the highest rating). In the studies comparing CCBT with TCBT, five studies showed CCBT have equivalent outcomes to TCBT. One study of depressed inpatients found TCBT to be significantly more effective than CCBT. Four studies found CCBT to be more effective than treatment as usual (TAU). Two studies found CCBT to be no more effective than TAU. Two studies compared CCBT with bibliotherapy. Of these, one study found CCBT to be as effective as bibliotherapy and one found bibliotherapy to be significantly more effective than CCBT on some outcome measures. Although the results of this review are not conclusive, CCBT is potentially useful in the treatment of anxiety disorders, depression and phobias. From the results of this review, we make three recommendations to improve the quality of research in this field, and suggest four areas requiring further research.


Model Based Predictive Control (MBPC) or only Predictive Control is one of the control methods which have developed considerably over a few past years. It is mostly based on discrete models of controlled systems. Model of a controlled system is used for computation of predictions of the systems output on the basis of past inputs, outputs and states and designed sequence of future control increments. This paper is focused in comparison of various approaches to computation of multi - step ahead predictions using a multivariable input - output model. Computational aspects of derivation of predictions can be limitting especially in adaptive predictive control.


A nationwide interdisciplinary intervention study in 106 German organic dairy farms was carried out in order to develop preventive animal health management strategies for mastitis and metabolic disorders and to implement and validate this concept. After an initial farm visit focusing on the health situation and the potential risk factors includ-ing housing, herd management, feeding and forage production, individual evidence-based advice was provided by the project team. Intervention measures to improve herd health were implemented and their effectiveness was monitored for two years. Udder health regarding milk somatic cell count and treatment incidence for mastitis improved significantly, whereas the percentage of dry-off-treatments with antibiotics and internal teat-sealers increased significantly. Considering indicators of metabolic health, there was an improvement in treatment incidence of milk fever and ketosis, but the percentage of cows with a fat-protein-ratio above 1.5 in the first 100 days in milk -as indication of subclinical ketosis- did not change.


AIM
to assess impact of anemia on chronic heart failure (CHF) course in elderly patients in primary care setting. Methods. We examined 164 outpatients (n=164) aged 60-85 years with clinically stable CHF due to ischemic heart disease and arterial hypertension. All patients underwent clinical, laboratorial evaluation, ECG, EchoCG measurements, 6 min walk test. Patients were categorized according to the presence of anemia, as defined by the WHO criteria (hemoglobin levels <13 g/dl in men and <12 g/dl in women). Median duration of follow up was 1.85 (1.0-4.75) years. Results. Anemia was found in 32.9%, cardio-renal anemic syndrome (CRAS) in 23.2% of patients. In all patients anemia was mild (Hb>9 g/dl). It was associated with diabetes mellitus (odds ratio [R] 2.2, 95% CI 1.03-4.69, =0.041), high creatinine level (R 2.76, 95% CI 1.25-6.12, =0.012) and chronic kidney disease (R 5.66, 95% CI 2.51-12.77, <0.001). During follow-up mortality rate was similar among anemic and non-anemic patients (27.8 vs 30%, =0.768). Patients with CRAS had worse survival compared with patients of the same age without anemia and preserved kidney function (=0.004). Age >75 years (R 3.58, 95% CI 1.59-7.99, =0.002), diabetes (R 2.68, 95% CI 1.19-6.04, =0.018), history of myocardial infarction (R 2.7, 95% CI 1.24-6.04, =0.013), systolic blood pressure <110 mm Hg (OR 2.49, 95% CI 1.09-5.71, =0.030), complete left bundle branch block (LBBB) (OR 2.79, 95% CI 1.26-8.22, =0.012), creatinine >130 mmol/l (OR 3.53, 95% CI 1.51-8.22, =0.004) were predictors of mortality of elderly patients with CRAS. Conclusions. CHF patients with and without anemia had similar survival but survival of those with CRAS was worse compared with patients without anemia and preserved kidney function. Age >75 years, diabetes mellitus, history of myocardial infarction, low systolic blood pressure, complete LBBB, high creatinine level were predictors of mortality in patients with CRAS.


Background/aims The efficacy of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist eplerenone to treat chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) has been established. However, previous studies have been limited by small cohort size and short follow-up duration. This study aims to report 3-year clinical outcomes of patients treated with eplerenone for chronic CSCR. Methods Institutional review board-approved retrospective chart analysis at a single institution from 2012 to 2018. Baseline best-corrected visual acuity and anatomical measurements related to degree of subretinal fluid (SRF) were collected at eplerenone initiation. Follow-up data were collected at the closest date to 12, 24 and 36 months. Results Data were obtained for 100 eyes of 83 patients at 1-year (mean 11.18 ± 4.00 months), 49 eyes at 2-year (24.01 ± 3.33 months) and 33 eyes at 3-year (mean 35.5 ± 7.89 months) follow-up visits. The rate of complete SRF resolution was 31%, 28% and 33%, respectively. At final follow-up, logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution visual acuity change from baseline was +0.10 ± 0.24 (p = 0.130). Average change from baseline at final follow-up for central subfield thickness was −97 ± 140.6 µm (p < 0.001), cube volume was –1.07 ± 1.71 mm3 (p < 0.001), macular thickness –28. 5 ± 47.5 µm (p < 0.001), maximum SRF height was −95.6 ± 160.5 µm (p < 0.001) and maximum SRF diameter was −1169.0 ± 1638.7 µm (p = 0.008). Conclusion Anatomical improvement occurs primarily within the first year of eplerenone treatment for chronic CSCR.


The diruthenium compound [Ru2(O2CMe)4]3[Cr(CN)6] contains two weakly coupled, ferrimagnetically ordered sublattices occupying the same volume. Due to the weak, antiferromagnetic dipolar interaction Kc ≈ 5 × 10−3 meV between sublattices, a small magnetic field Hc ∼ Kc/μB ≈ 800 Oe aligns the sublattice moments. Powder neutron-diffraction measurements on a deuterated sample confirm an earlier prediction that the sublattice moments are restricted by the anisotropy of the diruthenium 'paddle-wheels' to the cubic diagonals. Those measurements also suggest that quantum corrections to the ground state are significant.


Mounting evidence shows that functional constipation contributes to increased healthcare utilization, impairment in quality of life, and lost work productivity. Among those with functional constipation, relatively small dietary changes may alleviate symptoms and result in considerable constipation-related healthcare cost savings. The study objective was to estimate the economic impact of increased dietary fibre consumption on direct medical costs associated with constipation from a payer perspective. A decision-analytic spreadsheet model was created to perform the analysis. Literature searches identified sources for input parameters, including prevalence of functional constipation, dietary fibre intakes, proportion of the population meeting recommended intakes, and the percentage that would be expected to benefit from increased dietary fibre consumption. The model assumes that 25% of adults make no change in fibre intake, 25% increase intake by 3 g/day, 15% increase intake by 4 g/day, 25% increase intake by 5 g/day, and 10% increase intake by 11 g/day. A dose-response analysis of published data was conducted to estimate the percent reduction in constipation prevalence per 1 g/day increase in dietary fibre intake. Annual direct medical costs for constipation were derived from the literature and updated to 2014. Sensitivity analyses explored robustness of the model. Under base case assumptions, annual cost savings were estimated at ₤127,037,383 in the United Kingdom, €8,791,992 / ₤7,244,513 in Ireland, and €121,699,804 in Spain. Increasing dietary fibre consumption is associated with considerable cost savings, with these estimates being conservative given the exclusion of lost productivity costs in the model.


The main goal of this paper is to situate current trade policy debates in a proper historical context by analyzing the main trade policy milestones of the 21st-century. It does not attempt to offer an extensive historical overview of trade policy, which has been done masterfully by other scholars, but to analyze the events that have led to a stagnation of the multilateral trade system and rising protectionism. This paper begins with the winding road of trade liberalization since World War II, briefly tracing how we arrived from the early stages of the Bretton Wood System to the current moment of stagnation of the multilateral system and rising protectionism. It then turns to four key events to understand the current new reality: China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008 to 2009, the trade war between the United States and China, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in trade policy dynamics. It concludes with some final comments on the relevance of understanding current trade debates from a historical perspective.


Twenty-three patients with nonresectahle, recurrent cancer of the cervix were treated with a combination of cis-platinum and Mitomycin C. The overall response rate was 35% in 20 cvaluahle patients. Four patients (20%) achieved a complete response with a median duration of 9 months. Three patients (15%) achieved a partial response with a median duration of 11 months. The objective response rate was 33.4% for tumors within previously irradiated sites and 45% for distant metastases. The overall median survival was 10.3 months, and median progression-free interval was 6.7 months. Toxicity with this regimen was acceptable and consisted of nausea, vomiting, marrow suppression, and peripheral neuropathy. We conclude that this regimen is well tolerated with a low incidence of toxicity and can be safely administered on an outpatient basis. However, the superiority of this combination over cis-platinum alone remains to be determined.


The leaves of Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth. (Lamiaceae) are the source of patchouli essential oil, which is - with an annual production of about 1300 tonnes - an important and unique commodity in the fragrance industry. All the literature pertaining to patchouli was critically reviewed with an emphasis on the qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis of the oil but also harvesting, fermentation, drying, distillation, used analytical techniques, sensory aspects including molecules responsible for the odour, adulteration and toxicological aspects, i.e., skin sensitisation, are discussed. In total 72 constituents have been convincingly identified in the oil and another 58 tentatively. The main constituent is the sesquiterpene patchoulol. For this review over 600 papers were consulted and in the supplementary information all patchouli-related references not relevant enough to be cited in the paper itself are listed.


When a large earthquake occurs, many people are presumed to have difficulty in returning home. However, no research has been achieved yet to discuss the congestion of supporting facilities for stranded people in terms of site, the number and spatial distribution. In this study, we construct a simulation model, which describes people's behavior such as returning home or going to other facilities after an earthquake occurs. Using the model, we estimate the congestion of facilities which varies according to day of the week or the time when the event occurs, and demonstrate the effective methods for reducing the congestion, which include offering information for people and cooperation of private institutions.


Advanced techniques for manipulation of internal states, standard in atomic physics, are demonstrated for a charged molecular species for the first time. We address individual hyperfine states of rovibrational levels of a diatomic ion by optical excitation of individual hyperfine transitions, and achieve controlled transfer of population into a selected hyperfine state. We use molecular hydrogen ions (HD+) as a model system and employ a novel frequency-comb-based, continuous-wave 5  μm laser spectrometer. The achieved spectral resolution is the highest obtained so far in the optical domain on a molecular ion species. As a consequence, we are also able to perform the most precise test yet of the ab initio theory of a molecule.


In this study we evaluate the suitability of two methods of RNA conservation in blood samples, PAXgene and RNAlater, in combination with variable shipping conditions for their application in multicenter studies and biobanking. RNA yield, integrity, and purity as well as levels of selected mRNA and microRNA species were analyzed in peripheral human blood samples stabilized by PAXgene or RNAlater and shipped on dry ice or at ambient temperatures from the study centers to the central analysis laboratory. Both examined systems were clearly appropriate for RNA stabilization in human blood independently of the shipping conditions. The isolated RNA is characterized by good quantity and quality and well suited for downstream applications like quantitative RT-PCR analysis of mRNA and microRNA. Superior yield and integrity values were received using RNAlater. It would be reasonable to consider the production and approval of blood collection tubes prefilled with RNAlater to facilitate the use of this excellent RNA stabilization system in large studies.


M and M-like proteins are major virulence factors of the widespread and potentially deadly bacterial pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes. These proteins confer resistance against innate and adaptive immune responses by recruiting specific human proteins to the streptococcal surface. Nonimmune recruitment of immunoglobulins G (IgG) and A (IgA) through their fragment crystallizable (Fc) domains by M and M-like proteins was described almost 40 years ago, but its impact on virulence remains unresolved. These interactions have been suggested to be consequential under immune conditions at mucosal surfaces and in secretions but not in plasma, while other evidence suggests importance in evading phagocytic killing in nonimmune blood. Recently, an indirect effect of Fc-binding through ligand-induced stabilization of an M-like protein was shown to increase virulence. Nonimmune recruitment has also been seen to contribute to tissue damage in animal models of autoimmune diseases triggered by S. pyogenes infection. The damage was treatable by targeting Fc-binding. This and other potential therapeutic applications warrant renewed attention to Fc-binding by M and M-like proteins.


—This letter proposes a mobile quad-arm robot: ARMS that unifies wheel-legged tripedal mobility, wheeled mobility, and quad-arm manipulation. The four arms have different mechanics and are designed to be general-purpose arms to enable the wheel-legged hybrid mobilities and manipulation. The three-degree-of-freedom (DOF) front arm has an active wheel, which is used for wheel-legged tripedal walking and wheel driving with passive wheels attached to the torso. The three-DOF rear arms are series elastic arms, which are used for wheel-legged tripedal walking, object grasping, and manipulation. The two-DOF upper arm is used for manipulation only; its position and orientation are determined by coordinating all arms. Each motor is controlled by an angle controller and trajectory modification with angle, angular velocity, angular acceleration, and torque constraints. ARMS was experimentally validated on the basis of the following four tasks: wheel-legged walking, wheel-driving, wheel-driving with grasping, and carrying a bag.


This paper concerns non-causal normative explanations such as 'This act is wrong because/in virtue of__' (where the blank is often filled out in non-normative terms, such as 'it causes pain'). The familiar intuition that normative facts aren't brute or ungrounded but anchored in non-normative facts seems to be in tension with the equally familiar idea that no normative fact can be fully explained in purely non-normative terms. I ask whether the tension could be resolved by treating the explanatory relation in normative explanations as the sort of 'grounding' relation that receives extensive discussion in recent metaphysics. I argue that this would help only under controversial assumptions about the nature of normative facts, and perhaps not even then. I won't try to resolve the tension, but draw a distinction between two different sorts of normative explanations (one concerning 'bearers', the other concerning 'sources' of normativity) which helps to identify constraints on a resolution. One distinctive constraint on normative explanations in particular might be that they should be able to play a role in normative justification.


There has been much concern recently on whether foreign arbitration institutions may administer arbitrations with the seat in mainland China. This article makes a legal analysis of the potential problems on this matter, demonstrates the judicial attitudes towards enforcing awards rendered in mainland China administered by foreign arbitration institutions, and further analyzes the legal obstacles in the enforcement of such awards.


Abstract The present paper focuses on the analysis of the possibilities of using integral transforms for measuring and evaluating the differences of compared images (car silhouettes) with the purpose of a correct car body categorization. Approaches such as the light intensities frequency change, the application of discrete integral transforms without the use of further supplementary information enabling automated data processing using the Fourier-Mellin transforms are used within this work. The calculation of the several metrics was verified through different combinations that implied using and not using the Hamming window and a low-pass filter. The paper introduced a method for measuring and evaluating the differences in the compared images (car silhouettes). The proposed method relies on the fact that the integral transforms have their own transformants in the case of translation, scaling and rotation, in the frequency area. Besides, the Fourier-Mellin transform was to offer image transformation that is resistant to the translation, rotation and scale.


Galen's discussions of philosophical issues show a complete mastery of the school debates of his time. Galen, however, is not a school philosopher: his philosophical allegiance is controversial and he refers to philosophical theories and debates for specific purposes that pertain to his views about the status of medical knowledge. The extant fragments of his lost treatise On Demonstration  offer an interesting example of this attitude. The present paper focuses on some passages from Galen's lost On Demonstration  book 4, which deal with the generation of cosmos and its incorruptibility. They are preserved in John Philoponus' On the Eternity of the World  and in al-Rāzī's Doubts on Galen . Galen's argument relies heavily on philosophical sources such as Plato, Aristotle and the Platonic philosopher Atticus. Galen's treatment of the topic, however, is highly original and can plausibly be seen as a discussion pro et contra  the eternity of the cosmos, which aims to show the limits and fallacies of speculative knowledge. Key words: Galen - Cosmogony - On Demonstration


We investigated the compliance of Korean patients using tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and identified potential predictors associated with treatment discontinuation. The study population comprised 114 RA and 310 AS patients treated with TNF inhibitors at a single tertiary center for at least 1 yr from December 2002 to November 2011. Of the 114 RA patients, 64 (56.1%) discontinued their first TNF inhibitors with a mean duration of 18.1 months. By contrast, 65 of 310 patients (21.0%) with AS discontinued their first TNF inhibitors, with a mean duration of 84 months. Although the survival rate did not differ among the three TNF inhibitors in the AS patients, the etanercept group had a lower discontinuation rate than the infliximab group in the RA patients. In addition, RA patients who received corticosteroids in combination with TNF inhibitors were more likely to discontinue their TNF inhibitors. The independent predictors of drug discontinuation in AS patients were male gender and complete ankylosis on radiographs of the sacroiliac joint. Our results provide further evidence that real-life treatment outcomes of RA and AS patients may be different from those observed in randomized clinical trials. Graphical Abstract


During the knitting process it is important to cont-rol and detect defects and quickly remove them. Existent optical and mechanical devices react to broken threads, hook, butt, latch of needles, holes of fabrics, but they do not give any information about knitting process.For this aim the method of measuring threads ten-sion during knitting was proposed. When the needle hook, heel, latch are broken, the yarn tension decreases. This reaction depends on yarn feeding method, static thread tension, knitting speed, linear density and mechanical characteristics of threads.In this paper, the research of needle defects during knitting with passive yarns input was made and it was de-termined, that the biggest influence on reducing threads tension to defect had input tension. The influence of knit-ting speed and linear density was small. Reducing yarn tension in percentage of average maximum tension showed, that the decrease of yarn tension is higher when the speed of knitting and tension is smaller for the investi-gated polyester, polyamide and cotton threads. Decrease of tension for cotton thread in all cases was less than for other investigated threads.The results of experiments for the determination of dynamic rigidity modulus and dynamic viscosity modulus show, that both values of modulus for cotton yarns were lower than polyester threads, when the threads tension was 10 cN and were similar at tension values from 20 cN till 30 cN.That enabled to explain, why the Cotton yarn have least reaction to the needle defect, when the yarn in-put tension during knitting was small.


We found that the laser irradiated surface of copper substrate becomes fine structure, which we named "surface fine crevice structure". Liquid bismuth on " surface fine crevice structure " of copper substrate occurs " unusual wetting " . In the present work, we investigated the wettability of "surface fine crevice structure" of iron substrate by liquid tin, indium and bismuth. "Unusual wetting" appears on laser irradiated surface of iron substrate in case of liquid indium and tin. Whereas, liquid bismuth does not show "unusual wetting" on laser induced iron surface under the present experimental conditions.


It's a comic book, the clue's in the title. The idea is to tell a story about how a research project took place focusing not on the data that was generated, or even so much on how we generated the data, but on the way we actually tried to manage the project. Generally the academy likes to draw a veil over the messy bits which make scholars look like idiots and allows outsiders to question whether or not projects should have been funded in the first place. But if you're willing to sail your academic reputation out to sea on a long boat and set it on fire then you might illuminate the dark corners of the black box in which these processes normally reside. Project management can be a crucial, highly creative, part of the process of generating new academic knowledge. We argue that acknowledging these processes is every bit as important as acknowledging the research 'position' from which the field data were collected and analysed. Plus there's a sex scene.


The anxiety is an important, if not the bigger, stress component of the odontologic patients. The administration of tranquillizing oral drugs has being used previously to the oral surgery. The benzodiazepinics are the most used drugs in this type of situation, however they present undesirable effects. The literature shows us that the Valeriana officinalis is efficient against anxiety, anguish, light disequilibria of the nervous system and does not have contraindications. Differently of the benzodiazepinics, is basically exempt from collateral effects when used in the recommended doses. It is interesting that odontology researchers seek for greater information on the mechanism of action of this substance through clinical assays, therefore perhaps it should be a viable alternative for the surgeon-dentists who make use of the pre-medication, considering that it has its medicinal virtues elucidated since IX century and does not cause discomfort for the patient after the intervention.


New generation mobile devices, and their app stores, lack of a methodology to associate a level of trust to applications to faithfully represent their potential security risks. This problem is even more critical with newly published applications, for which either user reviews are missing or the number of downloads is still low. In this scenario, users may not fully estimate the risk associated with downloading apps found on on-line stores. Hence, here we propose a methodology for evaluating the trust level of an application through an adaptive, flexible, and dynamic framework. The evaluation of an application trust is performed using both static and dynamic parameters, which consider the application meta-data, its run-time behavior and the reports of users with respect to the software critical operations. We have validated the proposed approach by testing it on more than 180 real applications found both on official and unofficial markets by showing that it correctly categorizes applications as trusted or untrusted in 94% of the cases and it is resilient to poisoning attacks.


Continuous wave (CW) and time-resolved (TR) EPR spectra of triplet Cao with partial and full 13C enrichment in methylcyclohexane solutions after UV irradiation were obtained. Line broadening from 1% satellites was observed. The I3C hyperfine coupling constant was determined to be 0.06 G. Fourier transform EPR (FTEPR) experiments with a resolution of 20 ns were carried out, and TI was found to be 0.8 f 0.1 p s by fitting the intensity of the free induction decay signal to the modified Bloch equations. The relaxation time from FT-EPR is in excellent agreement with estimations from the line width of CW-EPR. Because the 13C hyperfine coupling constant is so small, no distinct satellite lines were observed with I3C in natural abundance at 200 K.


Throughout most of the 20th century the brain has been studied as a reflexive system with ever improving recording methods being applied within a variety of sensory and behavioural paradigms. Yet the brains of most animals (and all mammals) are spontaneously active with incoming sensory stimuli modulating rather than driving neural activity. The aim of this thesis is to characterize spontaneous neural activity across multiple temporal and spatial scales relying on biophysical simulations, experiments and analysis of recordings from the visual cortex of cats and dorsal cortex and thalamus of mouse. Biophysically detailed simulations yielded novel datasets for testing spike sorting algorithms which are critical for isolating single neuron activity. Sorting algorithms tested provided low error rates with operator skill being as important as sorting suite. Simulated datasets have similar characteristics to in vivo acquired data and ongoing larger-scope efforts are proposed for developing the next generation of spike sorting algorithms and extracellular probes. Single neuron spontaneous activity was correlated to dorsal cortex neural activity in mice. Spike-triggered-maps revealed that spontaneously firing cortical neurons were co-activated with homotopic and mono-synaptically connected cortical areas, whereas thalamic neurons co-activated with more diversely connected areas. Both bursting and tonic firing modes yielded similar maps and the time courses of spike-triggered-maps revealed distinct patterns suggesting such dynamics may constitute intrinsic single neuron properties. The mapping technique extends previous work to further link spontaneous neural activity across temporal and spatial scales and suggests additional avenues of investigation. Synchronized state cat visual and mouse sensory cortex electrophysiological recordings revealed that spontaneously occurring activity UP-state transitions fall into stereotyped classes of events that can be grouped. Single visual cortex neurons active during UP-state transitions fire in a partially preserved order extending previous findings on high firing rate neurons in rat somatosensory and auditory cortex. The firing order for many neurons changes over periods longer than 30-minutes suggesting a complex non-stationary temporal neural code may underly spontaneous and stimulus evoked neural activity. This thesis shows that ongoing spontaneous brain activity contains substantial structure that can be used to further our understanding of brain function.


Background: Advance care planning aims to ensure that care received during serious and chronic illness is consistent with the person's values, preferences and goals. However, less than 40% of people with dementia undertake advance care planning internationally. Aim: This study aims to describe the perspectives of people with dementia and their carers on advance care planning and end-of-life care. Design: Systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative studies. Data sources: Electronic databases were searched from inception to July 2018. Results: From 84 studies involving 389 people with dementia and 1864 carers, five themes were identified: avoiding dehumanising treatment and care (remaining connected, delaying institutionalisation, rejecting the burdens of futile treatment); confronting emotionally difficult conversations (signifying death, unpreparedness to face impending cognitive decline, locked into a pathway); navigating existential tensions (accepting inevitable incapacity and death, fear of being responsible for cause of death, alleviating decisional responsibility); defining personal autonomy (struggling with unknown preferences, depending on carer advocacy, justifying treatments for health deteriorations); and lacking confidence in healthcare settings (distrusting clinicians' mastery and knowledge, making uninformed choices, deprived of hospice access and support at end of life). Conclusion: People with dementia and their carers felt uncertain in making treatment decisions in the context of advance care planning and end-of-life care. Advance care planning strategies that attend to people's uncertainty in decision-making may help to empower people with dementia and carers and strengthen person-centred care in this context.


In synthetic aperture sonar (SAS), the platform position must be known sufficiently accurately for signals to be added coherently along the synthetic aperture. Often, the onboard navigation system is insufficiently accurate by itself, so corrections are needed. A well-known method is the displaced phase center antenna (DPCA) procedure for correcting platform position using seabed echoes. DPCA methods have the advantage of insensitivity to changing interference patterns, moving specular reflection, and changing occlusion, with aspect. However, when seabed echoes are unusable, either because they are too weak, or because they are corrupted by multipath, the seabed DCPA method may fail. Therefore, we present an alternative DPCA method using sonar echoes from a suitable navigation fix, based on an object detected after standard beamforming. In our proposed system, look angle is obtained by tracking the centroid of the rectified image of the fix object. When the standard DPCA correction equations are modified for a fixed reflector, it turns out that they provide incremental range and look-angle errors, precisely the values required when the target itself is used as the navigation fix. Moreover, the values obtained are then self-compensating for errors in estimating seabed depth or forward motion of the platform. The navigation fix is selected by bracketing in range, and beamforming overlapping subsets of the receiver array. In this paper, we present experimental results at transmitter frequencies of 25 and 100 kHz where our method enabled well-focused SAS images to be generated with little recourse to other navigation information. Hence, SAS can be carried out, even when a sophisticated inertial navigation system (INS) is not available.


This Article argues that in response to the United States Supreme Court's 2011 decision in Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., state legislators should refrain from enacting prescription confidentiality laws and instead implement policies supporting academic detailing, a form of continuing medical education in which trained health professionals such as physicians, registered nurses, advanced practice nurses, and pharmacists provide evidence-based information about prescription drugs to prescribers. According to Sorrell, pharmaceutical companies may freely use physicians' prescribing data to better promote, or "detail," products to physicians without government interference. While pharmaceutical companies may profit from detailing drugs to physicians, detailing increases health care costs for patients and negatively affects patient health outcomes. These problems motivated Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to enact prescription confidentiality laws that banned the use of information about the prescribing habits of physicians to help market drugs to physicians. Recent state attempts to stop drug detailing to physicians have been found to violate the First Amendment. This Article provides a history and background on the pharmaceutical-detailing process and analyzes recent legal decisions relating to prescription confidentiality. It concludes that academic detailing is a viable solution to the negative effects of pharmaceutical detailing and is consistent with the First Amendment.


Depression is a global mental health condition that affects all cultures. Despite this, the way depression is expressed varies by culture. Uptake of machine learning technology for diagnosing mental health conditions means that increasingly more depression classifiers are created from online language data. Yet, culture is rarely considered as a factor affecting online language in this literature. This study explores cultural differences in online language data of users with depression. Written language data from 1,593 users with self-reported depression from the online peer support community 7 Cups of Tea was analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), topic modeling, data visualization, and other techniques. We compared the language of users identifying as White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and Asian or Pacific Islander. Exploratory analyses revealed cross-cultural differences in depression expression in online language data, particularly in relation to emotion expression, cognition, and functioning. The results have important implications for avoiding depression misclassification from machine-driven assessments when used in a clinical setting, and for avoiding inadvertent cultural biases in this line of research more broadly.


Living Qur'an is a variety of forms and models of reception practices and community responses in treating and interacting with  Qur'an in the midst of community life. The purpose study is to describe how the history and practice of reading the surah Ar Rahman in the Al Manshur Islamic Boarding School Popongan Klaten and to find the meaning tradition of reading the Surah Ar Rahman for those who implement them include caregivers, administrators, and students. To find out more details, the writer uses qualitative research methods to understand what phenomena experienced by research subjects by describing in the form of written or oral words from the implementation of the tradition of reading the surah Ar Rahman. For the method of data collection techniques, the authors use interviews, notes, and documentation. The tradition of reciting surah Ar Rahman has been started since the old generation's predecessor, in 1978. For the way the recitation is done in a quiet voice, it must be polite and tawadlu'. The meaning of reciting surah Ar Rahman is to get syafa'at, facilitate all matters, get sustenance, and always get the blessing of Allah.


Astra International Limited social responsibility is corporation commitment through putting aside some of its profit for people-in-need social welfare professionally. This study is to describe on several efforts that have been done by Nurani Astra to give social service for natural disaster victims. The approach of the study is descriptive. Data are gathered through interviews and documentary analysis. The study finds that Astra International Limited, through Nurani Astra Program, has done a lot for corporate social responsibility (CSR) through fund distribution. The program reaches directly natural disaster victims through emergency funding, food, and beverage needed by the victims. CSR through Nurani Astra is continued in reconstruction and rehabilitation phases at the effected areas. The program is stated as a vision of Astra International Limited, as a will and philosophy, that the existence of Astra International limited is not just profit oriented but also giving benefit and added value for the nation through economy, social, an environment contribution. Based on the study is recommended that social corporate responsibility should be developed and spreaded out for the people in need, especially CSR from the financially capable.


The enhancements of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) are still bellow expectations. The great number of false positives (false alarms) and false negatives (undetected intrusions) has survived in recent versions as well as in the old ones. This may be -in part- caused by the shortage of an effective, unbiased evaluation and testing methodology that is both scientifically rigorous and technically feasible. The complexity of the environments where Intrusion detection systems operate, makes the evaluation process itself a nontrivial task. For this reason, ad-hoc evaluations often produce results that don't correspond to real world. In this paper, we propose a framework for evaluating IDSes as well as some new metrics. This systematic methodology follows an engineered approach to manage the complexity of the evaluation process and takes into account both environment and IDS characteristics.


^{\dag}$ The work of this laboratory is supported in part by the National Science Foundation, Grant Number G-19637. $^{\ddag}$ The work of this laboratory is supported in part by the U. S. Army, Navy, and Air Force under Contract DA-36-039-AMC-03200(E).


To investigate the effect of individual formulations of oral contraceptives (OCs) on the risk of breast cancer in women, the authors analyzed case-control data from the Cancer and Steroid Hormone Study of the Centers for Disease Control. The cases were 4711 women ages 20-54 with breast cancer diagnosed between December 1, 1980-December 31, 1982 through 8 population-based tumor registries located throughout the US. The controls were 4676 women of the same ages selected by the random digit dialing of households with telephones in the same geographic regions covered by the registries. Women were interviewed in the home according to a pretested standardized questionnaire. A photobook of all OCs marketed in the US since 1960 and a calendar were used to assist in the recall of the use of OCs. Compared with women who had never used OCs, women who had used them had a relative risk of breast cancer of 1.0. Women who used OCs for up to 5 years, 6-9 years, 10-14 years, and longer than 14 years had relative risks of 1.0, 1.0, 1.1., and 0.6, respectively, when compared with women who had never used OCs. Among women who had used only 1 OC formulation, the relative risks of breast cancer ranged from 0.6-1.6. Women who used combination OCs containing only mestranol or only ethinyl estradiol as the estrogen component had relative risks of 1.0. Similarly, analyses according to the specific progestin component in combination OCs (ethynodiol diacetate, norethindrone, norethindrone acetate, norethynodrel, and norgestrel) did not suggest an increased risk of breast cancer. Women who had used combination OCs before their 1st fullterm pregnancy had a relative risk of breast cancer of 1.0, compared with parous women who had never used OCs. Finally, the relationship between the use of combination OCs and the risk of breast cancer did not appear to be modified by menopausal status or a family history of breast cancer. These findings provide further support for the contention that OC use does not increase the risk of breast cancer in women. (author's)


The conduction of heat (or electricity) through a stationary random suspension of spheres is studied for a volume fraction of the spheres (c) which is small. The work of Maxwell (1873) is extended to calculate the flux of heat exactly to order c2 by using the method of Batchelor (1972), which reduces the problem to a consideration of interactions between pairs of spheres while avoiding the usual convergence difficulties. The result depends on the way in which pairs of spheres are distributed with respect to each other; for the case of all possible pair configurations being equally probable the coefficient of c2 is found explicitly for all values of the ratio of conductivities of the two phases. The results also apply to permittivities and permeabilities of suspensions.


We study the scattering of optical field by a hybridized metamaterial with properly imprinted gain. We predict that an occasionally real-eigen valued singularity in the interaction matrix of the coupled dark-bright meta-molecule would produce a high-Q resonance. This effect is demonstrated in full-wave three-dimensional finite element optical simulation. Field is efficiently amplified at this resonance. Further investigation shows that the resonance is associated with an exceptional point. The difference of this exceptional singularity from other high-Q resonances such as the spectral singularities in the scattering or transfer matrixes of parity-time symmetric systems and the bound states in the continuum is discussed. The non-Hermitian nature of the exceptional singularity promises some nonlinear applications.


Objectives:Galantamine is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and an allosteric modulator of the &agr;4&bgr;2 and &agr;7 nicotinic receptors. There are several case reports describing the potential benefits of galantamine for negative symptoms associated with schizophrenia. This secondary analysis describes the effects of galantamine on psychopathology in people with schizophrenia. Methods:Subjects with clinically stable chronic schizophrenia were randomized to adjunctive galantamine (24 mg/d) or placebo in a 12-week double-blind trial. Symptomatology was assessed with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and the Clinical Global Impression Scale. The Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) was used to measure negative symptoms. Results:Eighty-six patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder taking a stable dose of antipsychotic medications were randomized to adjunctive treatment with study drug (galantamine, n = 42; placebo, n = 44); 73 subjects completed the study (galantamine, n = 35; placebo, n = 38). No significant differences were found on BPRS total score (P = 0.585) or BPRS subfactor scores. Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms total scores also did not decrease significantly (P = 0.106) in either group; however, galantamine treatment was associated with a greater benefit in the SANS subfactor, alogia (P = 0.007). Conclusions:The lack of robust significant effects of galantamine on negative, and other symptom domains, may be due to the relatively low baseline level of these symptoms in the tested population. Galantamine may have some benefit on certain negative symptoms, particularly alogia. Studies specifically designed to address the issue of the efficacy of galantamine for negative symptoms are needed to confirm this observation.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify aging anxiety and influencing factors of middle-aged adults. Methods: Descriptive correlation design was used. Three hundred and three middle-aged adults participated in the study and completed the questionnaires in the period from September 11 to October 15 of 2011. The data was analyzed using independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Scheffetest, Pearson correlation coefficients, and hier- archial multiple regression analysis. Results: Aging anxiety of middle-aged adults was higher than a moderate level. Socio-demographic variables such as age, religion, education, economic level, perceived health status and experience of living with older adults influenced significantly on aging anxiety. In contrast, general self-efficacy, aging knowledge and attitude toward older adults were negatively correlated with aging anxiety. Hierarchial multi- ple regression analysis incorporating these variables showed an explanation rate of aging anxiety at 21%. And religion, perceived health status, attitude toward older adults, and general self-efficacy were statistically significant among variables that influence on aging anxiety. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that senior prepa- ration programs that can enhance self-efficacy, induce positive attitude on older adults and promote health should be implemented to reduce aging anxiety of middle-aged adults.


The past two years have witnessed an explosion of a new generation of livecast services, represented by Twitch.tv, GamingLive, and Dailymotion, to name but a few. With such a livecast service, geo-distributed Internet users can broadcast any event in real-time, for example, game, cooking, drawing, and so on, to viewers of interest. Its crowdsourced nature enables rich interactions among broadcasters and viewers but also introduces great challenges to accommodate their great scales and dynamics. To fulfill the demands from a large number of heterogeneous broadcasters and geo-distributed viewers, expensive server clusters have been deployed to ingest and transcode live streams. Yet our Twitch-based measurement shows that a significant portion of the unpopular and dynamic broadcasters are consuming considerable system resources; in particular, 25% of bandwidth resources and 30% of computational capacity are used by the broadcasters who do not have any viewers at all. In this article, through the real-world measurement and data analysis, we show that the public cloud has great potentials to address these scalability challenges. We accordingly present the design of Cloud-assisted Crowdsourced Livecast (CACL) and propose a comprehensive set of solutions for broadcaster partitioning. Our trace-driven evaluations show that our CACL design can smartly assign ingesting and transcoding tasks to the elastic cloud virtual machines, providing flexible and cost-effective system deployment.


Author(s): Czeszumska, Agnieszka Anna | Advisor(s): Norman, Eric B; Scielzo, Nicholas D | Abstract: The β-delayed neutron (βn) emission decay mode, prevalent in a vast number of neutron- rich nuclei, influences abundances calculated in the r-process nucleosynthesis models, affects nuclear reactor safety analysis calculations, and can illuminate aspects of nuclear structure. This thesis describes a newly developed recoil ion detection technique that was applied for high-precision βn branching ratio and neutron energy measurements of 137−138I and 144−145Cs. The recoil ion measurement approach avoids difficulties associated with direct neutron detec- tion by instead detecting the daughter ion recoiling from neutron emission. The radioactive ions of interest are held in near-rest with the use of an ion trap, from which they leave the trap upon β or βn decay. The detector array surrounding the trap measures the time-of- flight of the recoil ion, as well as several associated decay products. Measuring the recoil ion's time-of-flight determines the recoil energy, from which the emitted neutron's energy can be deduced. Detecting other decay products gives rise to three different methods of measuring the βn branching ratio, which helps expose systematic effects. The technique builds upon a previous proof-of-principle experiment, and was expanded for the present measurements to include twice as many improved detectors, an upgraded ion trap, and a stronger source. This thesis also examines various backgrounds and detailed detector characterizations. The experimental campaign presented here serves to probe the limits of applying the recoil ion technique to explore further into the neutron-rich region.


In the presence of secondary alcohols, electrospray ionization of dilute methanolic solutions of nickel(II) salts and 1,1'-bis-2-naphthol (BINOL) leads to complexes of the formal composition [(BINOLato)Ni(CH3CH(OH)R)]+ (BINOLato refers to a singly deprotonated (R)- or (S)-1,1'-bis-2-naphthol ligand; R=CH3, C2H5, n-C3H7, n-C4H9, n-C5H11, n-C6H13, c-C6H11, and C6H5). Upon collision-induced dissociation, each mass-selected nickel complex either loses the entire secondary alcohol ligand or undergoes bond activation followed by elimination of the corresponding ketone, as revealed by deuterium labeling. When enantiomeric BINOLato ligands (R or S) are combined with chiral secondary alcohols (R or S), differences in the branching ratios between these channels for the two stereoisomers of the secondary alcohols provide insight into the chiral discrimination operative in the C--H- and O--H-bond activation processes. For saturated alkan-2-ols, the chiral discrimination is low, and if any preference is observed at all, ketone elimination from the homochiral complexes (R,R and S,S) is slightly favored. In contrast, the diastereomeric (BINOLato)Ni+ complexes of 1-phenylethanol exhibit preferential ketone losses for the heterochiral systems (S,R and R,S).


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of Tongnao Huoluo Acupuncture (THA) therapy on acute cerebral infarction (ACI).

METHODS
Adopting multi-centered, randomized and controlled method, 397 ACI patients from 10 hospitals subjected to the study were treated according to the initiating time (IT) of disease during hospitalization: the 138 patients of stage-1 with IT < or =6 h, were randomly assigned to three groups, treated respectively with THA (Group A), thrombolysis with urokinase (Group B) and Batroxobin (Group C); the 140 patients of stage-2 with IT within 6-48 h, and 119 patients of stage-3 with IT within 48 h-14 d were randomly assigned to three groups, treated respectively with THA (Group D) body acupuncture (Group E), and conventional treatment (Group F). Therapeutic effect was evaluated by NIHSS scores estimated at the day 1, 3, 7, 14, 28 and 90 of treatment, and the Barthel Index (BI) measured at day 14, 28 and 90.

RESULTS
Effect in Group A was insignificantly different from that in Group B (P > 0.05), but was different from that in Group C significantly (P < 0.01). At day 90, the percentage of patients with high BI (HBI%, patients with BI >95%) was insignificantly different in Group A vs. B (P > 0.05), but was significantly different in Group A vs. C (P < 0.01). Comparisons between Group D, E and F showed that the therapeutic effect in Group D was equivalent to that in Group E (P < 0.05), but better than that in Group F (P < 0.01), and HBI% in Group D was superior than that in the other two groups (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
THA therapy shows favorable effects in reducing the crippling rate and improving the living capacity of ACI patients.


Noise is unwanted sound of activity in a particular time and levels that can cause health problems and environmental comfort. Sound or sound is heard as the stimulation on the auditory nerve cells in the ear by a wave of longitudional caused the vibration of the sound or sound source and the waves propagate through the medium of air or any other conductor. Threshold noise received by normal human beings that is 85 dB, when the normal threshold above can lead to damage to the auditory system when not using protective tools in conducting activities. The noise can be avoided by way of designing construction work. In addition noise can be minimised with soundproofing materials. During this suppressor used i.e. from rubber, plastic and metal, but the materials used nowadays are not yet are biodegradable. Therefore, to minimize noise with materials that are biodegradable with composite materials. One effort in selecting materials that are biodegradable with coconut plant utilization have been known by the wider community wastes a lot of cocopeat i.e. we encounter in a craftsmen coir because its existence is underutilized by craftsmen. Natural fibers are biodegradable they have opportunities to be developed further into a composite reinforcement materials that have high performance as an alternative replacement of artificial fiber materials based compounds, hydrocarbons or metal.Methods used i.e. experimental methods, with chemical treatment of cocopeat aims to separate dirt and the lignin contained in the cocopeat so cocopeat can bind matrix that would have a high performance in the muffle the sound so that it can reduce noise. After treatment with alkali, creating a noise test specimens in accordance with the design of the mold. Then the noise testing was performed using a sound pressure level to know the ability of mute and SEM photographs to find causal in a composite able to absorb sound.The results showed, the percentage composition of the powder of coconut fibres (cocopeat) have an influence in absorbing sound. In this study the composition of the powder of coconut fibres (cocopeat) 60% has a high sound absorbency. Desible votes after going through the composite powder coconut fibres 60% has a value of 102.73 db at a distance of 50 cm, 100 db at a distance of 91.57 cm and 80.23 db at a distance of 150 cm. And sound absorbency coefficient on the composition of the powder of coconut fibres 60% has a value of 0.144 on a distance of 50 cm, 100 cm at a distance of 0.237 and 0.331 approximately 150 cm. Whereas in terms of surface morphology of SEM photo of that on the composition of the powder 60% coconut fibers have more porosity percentage which has absorption ability voice more effectively so that the sound after passing the composition of composite lower. Keywords: noise, Biodegradable Composite, cocopeat, SEM.


Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a T-cell mediated autoimmune disease characterized by the destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic islet β-cells. An understudied area is the role of lipid signaling. We find that the Ca2+-independent phospholipase A2β (iPLA2β) is induced under a diabetic milieu and that mitigation of iPLA2β activity attenuates β-cell death. iPLA2β hydrolyzes the sn-2 substituent from glycerophospholipid substrates to yield a free fatty acid. When the fatty acid is arachidonic acid, it can be metabolized to bioactive eicosanoids, many of which are pro-inflammatory. To address our overarching hypothesis that iPLA2β-derived lipids (iDLs) contribute to T1D development, we investigated the role of immune cell-iDLs in this process by utilizing a splenocyte adoptive transfer protocol. Splenocytes were prepared from 12-week-old female spontaneous diabetes prone non-obese diabetic (NOD, WT) and NOD.iPLA2β+/- (HET) donor mice and transferred into 5-week-old female immunodeficient (NOD.scid) recipient mice. Our overall findings revealed that: (1) splenocyte-iPLA2β mRNA in HET donor mice was ca. 40% of that in WT donor mice, (2) temporal IPGTTs revealed that the recipient mice of the HET genotype were more glucose tolerant, compared to recipients of the WT splenocytes; (3) weekly blood glucose monitoring revealed that all WT recipient mice developed diabetes between 11-16 weeks of age. In contrast, onset of diabetes in the HET recipient mice was delayed 3 weeks and by 16 weeks of age, 50% of these mice remained diabetes-free, (4) HET donor T-cell differentiation to Th1 phenotype is mitigated, (5) HET donor T-cell production of select pro-inflammatory lipids (i.e., 6-keto PGF1α, PGE2, and DHETs) is decreased, relative to WT donors, and (5) similar lipid signatures are evident in the terminal plasma of recipient mice. These findings suggest that immune T-cell-iPLA2β is a critical contributor to T1D development and could be targeted for therapeutics. Disclosure T. White: None. C. Chalfant: None. S. Ramanadham: None. Funding National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK110292); National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R21AI146743)


The NIS Directive and sector-specific cybersecurity regulations require the reporting of (security) incidents to supervisory authorities. Following the risk-based approach adopted in the NIS Directive, the NIS 2 Directive enlists as a basic security element the reporting of significant incidents that (i) have caused or (ii) are capable to cause harm, as well as (iii) notifying the service recipients of cyber threats. Although during the interinstitutional negotiations between the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European there was consensus that the NIS Directive's reporting framework needs to be reformed, views on the determination of what needs to be reported varied. This paper outlines and analyses the different concepts of a report-worthy significant incident that have been proposed during the legislative procedure for the NIS 2 Directive from a legal and policy perspective. Irrespective of further motives that may inhibit reporting, legal compliance is difficult to achieve where legal requirements are vague. In that regard, the difficulties to determine the reporting thresholds in the past and in the future are addressed. In consideration of the increased attack surface and threat scenario, it is argued that incidents where no harm has materialized should not be treated any different than incidents that have actually resulted in harm in order to acquire the envisaged full picture of the threat landscape and create value for business and society.