Abstract The technological constraints of the mobile phone gave rise to a texting (SMS) language with very distinctive linguistic features. This study examines whether SMS Afrikaans could be employed as language of advertising in the print media. Drawing on the Communication Accommodation Theory by Howard Giles (Gallois, Ogay and Giles 2005: 131) and the theoretical model on message form by Hoeken, Swanepoel, Saal and Jansen (2009), this paper examines how teenagers would perceive the writer and the message when print advertisements are written in SMS Afrikaans. Two different print advertisements were used: a product advertisement and a health communication message. These two print advertisements (in Standard Afrikaans) were 'translated' by teenagers themselves into their own texting language. Two separate experimental studies were conducted for the two types of advertisements. In each of the two experimental studies, the teenagers compared the standard Afrikaans version of the advertisement with the corresponding SMS Afrikaans version with regard to perceptions of the writer and the message. This study found that texting language did not have any effect on how the message was received. With regard to the perception of the writer, statistical effects were only found in the case of the health communication advertisement: Participants perceived the writer of the texting language advert to be a teenager. It was, however, the writer of the Standard Afrikaans advert who was perceived to be more socially attractive. From the coding of the responses to the open questions, the use of texting language (as opposed to Standard Afrikaans) in the product advertisement emerged as a more salient cue for shaping evaluations about the writer.


DRB1 (HYL1) is a double-stranded RNA binding protein involved in miRNA processing in plants. It is a core component of the Microprocessor complex and enhances the efficiency and precision of miRNA processing by DCL1 protein. In this work, we report a novel function of DRB1 protein in the transcription of MIR genes. DRB1 co-localizes with RNA Polymerase II and affects its distribution along MIR genes. Moreover, proteomic experiments revealed that DRB1 protein interacts with many transcription factors. Finally, we show that the action of DRB1 is not limited to MIR genes as it impacts expression of many other genes, majority of which are involved in plant response to light. These discoveries add DRB1 as another player of gene regulation at transcriptional level, independent of its role in miRNA biogenesis.


Faustino Taderera, the celebrity and towering figure, is one of the finest International Business and Marketing brains, icons and gurus nicknamed, "The Tom Peters of Zimbabwe, Africa and the Middle East." His students call him, "The Rumbler, the Caterpillar, the Rollercoaster and King Solomon." This book, Fundamentals of Marketing, his 47th book, is a breakthrough and unique companion for marketing students, professors and practitioners and has a lot of breakthrough research papers by the author and others. It is now accepted worldwide that good marketing management is only possible where there is good national governance, otherwise it will be wasted effort at firm or micro-level as corrupt and incompetent politicians destroy value. A zero tolerance to corruption is now necessary for every firm/organization. Faustino Taderera is now one of the world's most eminent and distinguished international marketing strategists. Faustino always says, "Golden fish have no hiding place. I am the Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Solomon and Joseph of my time, the Gift of Zimbabwe, Africa and the World." He is a much sought after global academic and professional BRAND.


During hospital renovations, medical processes are, oftentimes, in progress at the same time as construction processes are. As a result, construction work may interfere with ongoing medical work. These conflicts often have undesirable effects on the vulnerable medical processes, in particular in relation to patient safety. Hence, during hospital renovation planning activities medical and construction experts have to work closely together to devise sound construction plans that align these two processes. To support such planning activities, this paper presents a method to model hospital renovation activities using 4D models that link a virtual representation of the hospital and several temporary objects, such as dust barriers, with planned construction sequences. We developed the method in an action research effort working closely together with architectural and medical practitioners on a hospital renovation project in the Netherlands. Throughout this action research we iteratively generated 4D models of the project and applied these models by supporting decision and communication tasks of practitioners in the ongoing project planning process. Next to the method itself, the paper also reports about some these first applications of the model that we were able to observe. These applications show that the method allows construction managers and medical specialists to develop 4D models that help to mutually evaluate the effects of a chosen construction sequence on ongoing medical processes.


The change of electrical resistivity at the transition between the superconductive and the normal state in a longitudinal magnetic field has been investigated systematically. By successive elimination of a number of disturbing factors an experimental procedure has been developed which yields consistent and reproducible results. The metals lead, mercury and tin have been investigated in this manner. Contrary to the accepted view it has been found that under 'ideal' conditions the transition is not discontinuous. There exists a range of temperature and magnetic field in which the resistance changes gradually from normal to zero and vice versa. The extent of this transition region was found to grow' rapidly with increasing absolute value of the magnetic field. Under conditions closely approximating the 'ideal' longitudinal case transitions with hysteresis were never observed. However, it could be shown that resistance hysteresis and discontinuous resistive changes are produced by deviation from the longitudinal case owing to unsuitable geometrical shape of the specimen. The general conclusion has therefore been reached that the resistance of a pure superconductor in a longitudinal field changes continuously in transition between the superconductive and the normal state. The significance of the results has been discussed and further experiments have been proposed.


An integrated generator for 3-bit pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-8) is presented, supporting symbol rates above 30-GBaud. To optimize the generated pulses for a transmission, the digital input word is mapped to the binary-weighted segments of a digital-to-analog converter using the binary reflected Gray code, which minimizes the total bit error probability. The mapping is realized using full-rate digital logic based on exclusive-or gates. For validation, the circuit was fabricated in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology and measured on a PCB in combination with three pseudo-random bit sequence generators. At a symbol rate of 33.4-GBaud, the circuit can generate Gray-coded signals at 100.2-Gbit/s with PAM-8 and 66.8-Gbit/s with PAM-4.


Background Periodontitis (PD) is the most common chronic inflammatory disease caused by bacterial infection resulting in alveolar bone resorption and tooth loss.1,2 A main causative agent of PD is Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg). 3,4 This periodontopathogen produces peptidylarginine deiminase (PPAD) catalysing conversion of arginine to citrulline.5,6 PD shares common mechanism and risk factors with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Due to the presence of pathogenic autoantibodies reactive with citrullinated proteins in RA, citrullination of host and bacterial proteins by PPAD was proposed as a mechanistic link between PD and RA.7–9 The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a novel polymorphism identified in the PPAD gene on bacterial virulence and PD clinical status. Materials and methods Gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) from 20 patients with PD was plated on blood agar and Pg colonies re-cultured to isolate individual strains of the bacterium. From each strain the PPAD gene was cloned, sequenced and analysed. The native PPAD gene in the reference Pg ATCC33277 strain was substituted with the polymorphic gene. The phenotype of clinical isolates harbouring polymorphism, the mutated and native ATCC33277 strains was examined. Further, periodontal clinical parameters were compared amongst patients infected by Pg expressing PPAD with and w/o polymorphism. Results A three amino acid polymorphism (G231N, E232T, N235D) was identified in the vicinity of the PPAD catalytic His residue in Pg isolates obtained from 30% of PD patients. The PPAD activity of clinical strains with polymorphism and the ATCC33277 mutant was 2-fold higher in comparison to the reference strain. Gingival fibroblasts infection with strains carrying polymorphic PPAD caused significantly higher upregulation of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) than infection with native ATCC33277. Probing pocket depth (PPD) and clinical attachment level (CAL) assessment revealed that patients infected with Pg expressing polymorphic PPAD suffered from more severe disease than those carrying 'classical' Pg w/o polymorphism. Conclusions A three amino acid polymorphism of PPAD augments the virulence of Pg and severity of periodontitis apparently due to higher PPAD activity. The increased citrullination of bacterial and/or host proteins by Pg with the characterised PPAD genotype can trigger autoimmune response in RA. Acknowledgments National Science Centre, Poland (2012/07/B/NZ6/03524, K.G.), Foundation for Polish Science (TEAM, DPS/424-329/10, J.P.). References 1. Petersen PE, Bourgeois D, Ogawa H, et al.The global burden of oral diseases and risks to oral health. Bull World Health Organ 2003;83:661–69. 2. Eke PI, Dye BA, Wei L, et al.CDC Periodontal Disease Surveillance workgroup and representatives of the American Academy of Periodontology. Prevalence of periodontitis in adults in the United States: 2009 and 2010. J Dent Res 2012;91:914–20. 3. Socransky SS, Haffajee AD, Smith C, et al.Relation of counts of microbial species to clinical status at the sampled site. J Clin Periodontol 1991;18:766–75. 4. Holt SC, Ebersole J, Felton J, et al.Implantation of Bacteroides gingivalis in nonhuman primates initiates progression of periodontitis. Science 1998;239:55–57. 5. McGraw WT, Potempa J, Farley D, et al.Purification, characterisation, and sequence analysis of a potential virulence factor from Porphyromonas gingivalis, peptidylarginine deiminase. Infect Immun 1999;67:3248–56. 6. Rodriguez SB, Stitt BL, Ash DE.Expression of peptidylarginine deiminase from Porphyromonas gingivalis in Escherichia coli: enzyme purification and characterisation. Arch Biochem Biophys 2009;488:14–22. 7. Wegner N, Wait R, Sroka A, et al.Peptidylarginine deiminase from Porphyromonas gingivalis citrullinates human fibrinogen and α-enolase: implications for autoimmunity in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 2010;62:2662–72. 8. Lundberg K, Kinloch A, Fisher BA, et al.Antibodies to citrullinated alpha-enolase peptide 1 are specific for rheumatoid arthritis and cross-react with bacterial enolase. Arthritis Rheum 2008;58:3009–19. 9. Quirke AM, Lugli EB, Wegner N, et al.Heightened immune response to autocitrullinated Porphyromonas gingivalis peptidylarginine deiminase: a potential mechanism for breaching immunologic tolerance in rheumatoid arthritis. Ann Rheum Dis 2014;73:263–69.


: Scanner therapy in the treatment of patients having duodenal ulcer relapse combines high pharmacoeconomic efficiency with safety providing for clinical and endoscopic remission of the disease.


The time decay of the thermoremanent magnetization has been measured in Ag:Mn (2.6%) below Tg for a wide range of waiting and observation times. A scaling analysis of the ageing process has been applied and the curves obtained for different waiting times could be superimposed on a unique master curve. At each temperature, the master curve defines the response function of the system for a given age. At very small fields, this response function is well represented by the product of a power law and a stretched exponential.


This study was designed to measure taste sensitivity and the five basic senses by an educational classification instrument. The instrument was a rice kit that could use samples in a dry powder form or oil extract after long-term storage To test for taste, sucrose, salt, citric acid, and quinine sulfate were made at different concentrations and taste sensitivity was measured on a scale from level 1 to level 5. To obtain baseline data, an inspection tool for the five senses was used and randomly applied on 101 schoolchildren in the third and fourth grade in the city of Cheonan in Korea. The inspection tool was composed of 17 questions; 5 questions regarding visual characteristics and three questions each for characteristics regarding taste, hearing, smell, and touch. The average age of the schoolchildren was 9.5 years old and there were 49 third grade students (9 years of age), and 52 fourth grade students (ten years of age). There were slightly more male students than female students, 56 (55.4%) compared to 45 (44.6%), respectively. The average height of female students was higher than that of males, but the average BMI (body mass index) of the male students was slightly higher than that of female students (18.28 compared to 18.09, respectively). Female students were slightly more sensitive to salty tastes than male students (2.8 compared to 2.5, respectively). In the score distribution for each sense, touch sense was the highest at 7.59, sight sense was 7.49, hearing sense was 5.43, smell sense was 5.24, and taste sense was lowest at 3.69. Therefore, schoolchildren first tend to recognize and deem important the touch and sight of food before its taste.


Background: Foot complications are a serious and costly complication of Diabetes Mellitus. With about one third of Tanzanian diabetic patients likely to require hospitalization due to limb complications, with its high mortality, which can be prevented or decreased by proper limb assessment? This study aimed at determining the practice of foot assessment of diabetic patients and factors hindering it at the diabetic clinic in a Rural Tanzanian hospital.
Methods: A hospital based descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in the diabetic clinic of Shinyanga regional hospital. A patient knowledge assessment tool was developed and used for exit survey, and a separate provider tool adopted from National Diabetic association of Australia was also used on the last day of the study.
Results: A total of 268 patients were interviewed of whom 45% had poor knowledge on footcare. Only one third of patients had their feet assessed in spite of good knowledge mean score of health workers as regards diabetic footcare. Work overload was cited as the hindrance factor.
Conclusion: Poor quality of diabetic care still exists even after efforts to establish special clinics. A chronic care model should be developed and disseminated to all HCWs offering care to diabetic patients.

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Expression of the cytokine interleukin-13 (IL13) is critical for Th2 immune responses and Th2-mediated allergic diseases. Activation of human IL13 expression involves chromatin remodeling and formation of multiple DNase I-hypersensitive sites throughout the locus. Among these, HS4 is detected in the distal IL13 promoter in both naive and polarized CD4+ T cells. We show herein that HS4 acts as a position-independent, orientation-dependent positive regulator of IL13 proximal promoter activity in transiently transfected, activated human CD4+ Jurkat T cells and primary murine Th2 cells. The 3′-half of HS4 (HS4-3′) was responsible for IL13 up-regulation and bound nuclear factor (NF) 90 and NF45, as demonstrated by DNA affinity chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and gel shift analysis. Notably, the CTGTT NF45/NF90-binding motif within HS4-3′ was critical for HS4-dependent up-regulation of IL13 expression. Moreover, transfection of HS4-IL13 reporter vectors into primary, in vitro differentiated Th2 cells from wild-type, NF45+/−, or NF90+/− mice showed that HS4 activity was exquisitely dependent on the levels of endogenous NF45 (and to a lesser degree NF90), because HS4-dependent IL13 expression was virtually abrogated in NF45+/− cells and reduced in NF90+/− cells. Collectively, our results identify NF45 and NF90 as novel regulators of HS4-dependent human IL13 transcription in response to T cell activation.


The rise of fees paid to incumbent auditors for non-audit services (NAS) relative to audit fees has been actively debated by the accounting profession, investors, and regulators. Although accounting firms are banned by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act from providing non-auditing services to their auditees, the debate is far from over. Despite the negative publicity generated by NAS purchases, why do managers continue to purchase increasing quantities of NAS? We contribute to this debate by offering an alternative explanation on determinants of NAS purchase decisions. We find that (1) the association between NAS purchases and earnings management documented in extant literature is affected by the way top managers are compensated and by managers' shareholdings, and (2) NAS purchases are positively associated with the proportion of performance-based compensation paid to the top five executives and this association is more pronounced for firms with high investment opportunities.


Objective: To design and test a
treatment regimen which is clinically responsive, readily available, cost
effective, and applicable especially to children and women of child bearing
age. Design Setting: A
prospective cohort study. Setting: Two major postgraduate teaching hospitals: one in Tripoli, Libya
and the other in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Participants: Fifty-seven patients with 79 keloids, referred from Plastic
Surgery Units between April 1996 and January 2005. Main Outcome Measure: Degree of
flattening of the keloidal lesion and symptomatic recovery. Results: Result of treatment has been
analyzed using unified set criteria. Seventy-seven percent of this cohort had
complete response. 19% of cases had partial response, 50% acknowledged the
treatment outcome had been "satisfactory" and 44% had an "acceptable" outcome.
There was no significant acute or delayed reaction. Conclusion: The technique appears
universally adaptable, cost effective, and can safely be prescribed for
children and women of child-bearing age. In spite of prolonged treatment course, compliance was excellent.


Organometallic halide perovskites solar cells are fabricated on nano-scaled corrugated substrates using a sequential deposition method. The corrugated substrates are fabricated using colloidal lithography followed by reactive ion etching. The corrugated structure is found to accelerate the chemical reaction between the sequentially deposited lead iodide (PbI2 ) and methyl ammonium iodide layers to form stoichiometric perovskite films, and the corrugated morphology is preserved at the interface of the hole transport layer (HTL) and the perovskite layer. The shunt resistance of the corrugated devices is found to be higher than that of the planar devices, leading to a higher open circuit voltage (VOC ) and fill factor (FF) in the corrugated devices. Finite-difference time-domain simulation is carried out on both planar and corrugated devices. The results revealed that light absorption is enhanced in the corrugated devices due to the corrugated HTL/perovskite interface, resulting in a significantly higher short circuit current (JSC ) observed in the corrugated devices. As a result, the average power conversion efficiency increases from 8.7% for the planar devices to 13% for the corrugated devices.


We write down an asymptotic expression for action coordinates in an integrable Hamiltonian system with a focus–focus equilibrium. From the singularity in the actions we deduce that the Arnol'd determinant grows infinitely large near the pinched torus. Moreover, we prove that it is possible to globally parameterize the Liouville tori by their frequencies. If one perturbs this integrable system, then the KAM tori form a Whitney smooth family: they can be smoothly interpolated by a torus bundle that is diffeomorphic to the bundle of Liouville tori of the unperturbed integrable system. As is well known, this bundle of Liouville tori is not trivial. Our result implies that the KAM tori have monodromy. In semi-classical quantum mechanics, quantization rules select sequences of KAM tori that correspond to quantum levels. Hence a global labelling of quantum levels by two quantum numbers is not possible.


Aim. The aim of the study was to improve the results of treatment of esophageal anastomosis failure in esophagoplasty. Materials and methods. During 20 years, 262 esophageal resections with different variants of plasty for cancer and benign esophageal diseases were fulfilled. Anastomosis failure was developing in 65 % of cases (24,8 %). Results. More frequently anastomosis failure was developing after the posteromediastinal esophagogastroplasty in 43 patients (38,4 %). Following the proximal gastric resections with esophageal resection from laparotomy approach, complications were diagnosed 11 patients (24,3 %), gastrectomy with esophageal resection in 6 persons (16,2 %). Anastomosis failure occurred after Lewis surgeries in 5 cases (7,7 %). Twenty three (35,4 %) patients underwent the repeated surgeries. Thirty one patients died (11,4 %). Death caused by purulent complications following anastomosis failure was registered in 58,1 % of patients. Surgical circular stapling instruments CDH and CEEA used for the formation of anastomosis permitted to reduce its failure rate from 34,1 to 15,4 %, and experience of esophageal surgery to decrease lethality from 19,1 to 6,8 % for 20 years. Conclusions. Esophageal anastomosis failure more often occurs after the posteromediastinal esophagogastroplasty, rarely after Lewis surgery that is connected with peculiar features of transplant blood supply. Machine suture raises reliability of anastomosis.


This study investigates routing in a MPLS-based (multi-protocol label switching) IP network with heterogeneous holding time traffic (for example, an IP call versus an IP conference). Our basic idea is to exploit the large differences existing in the holding time of different types of traffic to make more efficient resource allocation decisions in the admission and routing processes. In particular, we investigate the concept of vacating, in which requests with short holding times vacate the bandwidth to requests with long holding times. Based on an analytical framework we developed, we analyze the vacating idea and propose several state-dependent routing schemes, namely preventive-vacating routing (PW), preemptive-vacating routing (PEV) and restricted-access routing (RAR). Both the analytical and simulation results indicate that within an effective range we found in traffic mix, our vacating schemes outperform the traditional LLR+TR (least loaded routing+trunk reservation) and Diff-SDR (differentiated dynamic shortest-distance routing scheme) S. Yang et al., (2001). Moreover, we deduce an approximated expression to compute the cost of accepting a long or short request, which leads to an approximated least cost routing (A-LCR) scheme. Through simulation study, A-LCR presents not only its good performing in network throughput, but also its particular flow control mechanism.


We conducted a field experiment to examine how seeding method, soil ripping, and soil characteristics affected the initial establishment and growth of seeded species and if differences among treatments persisted into the second growing season. We planted seeds into a compacted field plot where most of the topsoil had been removed. The native seed mixture of Artemisia californica, Eschscholzia californica, Eriogonum fasciculatum, Lupinus succulentus, Nassella pulchra, and Vulpia microstachys represented different seed sizes and life histories. Three seeding methods (hydroseeding, imprinting, and drilling) and three ripping depths (0, 20, and 40 cm) were combined in a factorial experiment. Soil organic matter and NO3− were used as covariates. For two years, we measured density, percent cover, mean size, and flower production of the selected species, and weed emergence. Only seeding method and soil variation affected initial establishment of natives. Small‐seeded species had higher density in imprinted and hydroseeded than drilled treatments, whereas large‐seeded species had higher density in imprinted and drilled than hydroseeded treatments. These patterns persisted with only slight modification into the second year. Weed density in year 1 decreased with soil ripping. In year 1, Vulpia height and Lupinus height and flowering were greater with drilling or imprinting than hydroseeding but were not affected by ripping. Eschscholzia, Lupinus, and Vulpia produced seeds in the first year, but only Vulpia reestablished successfully in the second year. Vulpia had high cover in the second year that increased with increasing NO3−, but did not vary by treatment. In year 2 perennial Nassella, and to some extent Eriogonum, grew largest, produced more inflorescences, and had their highest percent cover in the 40‐cm rip treatment. Size and inflorescence production also increased with increasing NO3−; sometimes this relationship was stronger than the effects of treatments. We found only positive associations between estimated biomass (density × height) of annuals and survival of shrubs. Potential for erosion control, as measured by total density in year 1 and total vegetative cover in year 2, was greatest in imprinted and hydroseeded treatments and increased with increasing NO3−. This relatively simple experiment yielded information critical to understanding optimum seeding methods and seedbed preparation and indicates that seeding method can be determined by seed size and germination biology. Although an experiment such as this enables some generalizations, it does not eliminate the need for site‐specific experiments prior to restoration.


Aluminium-based particulate reinforced composites were developed to enhance stiffness, wear resistance and mechanical properties. Their tensile and creep resistance at temperatures up to 250°C is generally limited due to reduced high temperature properties of the matrix alloys. However, scientific research is extremely active in this field and many fundamental research works are carried out in order to understand the effects of particulate addition on matrix high temperature behaviour. The aim of the present investigation was the evaluation of high-temperature creep damage properties of two Al6061-Al2O3 particulate reinforced composites having different reinforcement volume fractions (10 and 20 vol.%). Short- and medium-term creep tests were performed at 150 and 250°C. Fractographic analyses and microstructural observations on longitudinally sectioned samples were carried out in order to assess the existence and localisation of creep damage as well as to identify creep damage mechanisms. It was stated that creep of the two particulate MMC was mainly controlled by aluminium matrix deformation and that the mechanical interaction between matrix and reinforcement generally played a minor role. The matrix/particle interaction heavily affected the last stage of creep deformation, when the occurrence of microstructural damage led to the final fracture. Differences in the mechanical behaviour at 250°C of the two materials was explained by means of SEM analysis as the result of different microstructural damage mechanisms. In addition, the Rabotnov-Kachanov model was adopted to describe the damage evolution during creep of the two alloys. The model, which takes into account a simple damage parameter and which derives the material parameters from experimental creep curves, was able to clearly distinguish between the different damage evolutions related to interface debonding and particles fracture.


Glycyrrhizic acid (GA), also known as glycyrrhizin, is a triterpene glycoside isolated from plants of Glycyrrhiza species (licorice). GA possesses a wide range of pharmacological and antiviral activities against enveloped viruses including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus. Since the S protein (S) mediates SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) cell attachment and cell entry, we assayed the GA effect on SARS-CoV-2 infection using an S protein-pseudotyped lentivirus (Lenti-S). GA treatment dose-dependently blocked Lenti-S infection. We showed that incubation of Lenti-S virus, but not the host cells with GA prior to the infection, reduced Lenti-S infection, indicating that GA targeted the virus for infection. Surface plasmon resonance measurement showed that GA interacted with a recombinant S protein and blocked S protein binding to host cells. Autodocking analysis revealed that the S protein has several GA-binding pockets including one at the interaction interface to the receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and another at the inner side of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) which might impact the close-to-open conformation change of the S protein required for ACE2 interaction. In addition to identifying GA antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, the study linked GA antiviral activity to its effect on virus cell binding.


A new design method for a second-order bandstop filter is presented. The proposed filter is based on the source follower configuration with a partial positive feedback. The positive feedback is used to increase the quality factor of the filter, and the feed-forward paths are used to create complex zeros. The proposed bandstop filter has electronically tunable centre frequency, bandwidth and attenuation with low power consumption. The proposed design has been simulated in TSMC 180 nm CMOS technology. The filter achieves 5.8 nV / Hz input-referred noise density. For a 2 GHz input signal, the filter achieves a signal-to-noise ratio of 60 dB for 238 mV 0 − P , diff input signal amplitude. The simulated results show that the centre frequency tuning range is between 1.6 and 3 GHz and the bandwidth is tunable from 0.6 to 1 GHz. The filter consumes about 2.5 mW for a supply voltage of 1.8 V at a centre frequency of 2.3 GHz.


OBJECTIVE: To study children and adolescents victims of domestic violence treated at the Referenced Pediatric Emergency Unit of the Hospital de Clinicas of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas and its specialized outpatient clinic between January 2003 and December 2007, emphasizing sexual abuse. METHODS: The variables gender, age, origin, and classification were studied. For victims of sexual abuse, the following variables were also studied: type of abuse (rape), location (domestic/urban), duration (acute/chronic), perpetrator (known, incestuous), alterations at medical examination, notification to child protection agencies, and antiretroviral medication and serology (HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B and C). Patients were divided into two groups according to the type of abuse and type of perpertrator and they were associated with gender, age, and duration. For the comparison, chi-squared or Fisher's exact test were performed (significance p < 0.05), as well as raw prevalence odds ratio. RESULTS: Of the total cases of abuse (551), neglect (33.9%) and sexual abuse (31.9%) predominated; the victims were female in 55.9% of the cases, and 50% were up to 5 years of age. Of the sexual abuse cases (95), 80% were female, and 58.9% were between 5 and 10 years of age. Rape was observed in 39% and indecent assault in 59.6%; 72.6% occurred in the domestic area, 81.1% by known perpetrator; 31.6% were incestuous, 47.4% were chronic, and 76.5% had no clinical alterations. 81.1% were referred to child protection agencies. Antiretroviral medication was prescribed to 49.1% of patients, and serological tests (HIV in 46 [48.4%], syphilis in 42 [44.2%], hepatitis B in 44 [46.3%] and hepatitis C in 45 [47.4%]%), all of which were negative, were more frequent in rape victims (p = 0.00). There was an association between rape and age (10 and 15 years, p = 0.01) and between incestuous perpetrator and chronic duration (p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: Although this study does not reflect reality, it can be used as a warning to pediatricians.


Sotos syndrome is an overgrowth disorder of unknown etiology associated with a high incidence of congenital heart defects. Of 60 patients with Sotos syndrome treated in our hospital, 6 had congenital heart defects. We describe a case of successful total cavopulmonary connection at 30 months of age in a patient having pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum and a patent ductus arteriosus who had walking disability. The postoperative course was uneventful.


AbstractThis paper investigates Peter Pazmany's theory of mixtures from his exegesis of Meteorologica IV, in the context of sixteenth-century scholarship on Aristotle's Meteorologica. It aims to contribute to a discussion of Anneliese Maier's thesis concerning the incompatibility between hylomorphism and the theory of elements in the Aristotelian tradition. It presents two problems: (1) the placement of Meteorologica IV in the Jesuit cursus on physics and (2) the conceptualization of putrefaction as a type of substantial mutation. Through an analysis of these issues, it shows (1) how sixteenth-century exegesis imposes the hylomorphic thesis onto the subject matter of meteorology and (2) how the hylomorphic theory of substantial change can be adapted in order to accommodate the theory of elements. The case being made is that Meteorologica is a privileged place where hylomorphism and the theory of elements meet and that the late Aristotelian theory of mixtures sought to accommodate both theories of material substance.


Objectives: The study aims to assess the knowledge's of nurses on the use of heparin in the hemodialysis and determine the relationship between this knowledge's and demographic characteristics of the Nurses staff in departments of dialysis
Methodology: Descriptive study carried out during the period of December 2011 to May 2012 to assess the knowledge nurses on the use of heparin in hemodialysis study was conducted in a hospital Shahid Ghazi al-Hariri and Baghdad Teaching Hospital and Al Yarmouk Teaching Hospital and included a sample of the research (30) nurses working in hemodialysis departments. Where data was collected after it was built form questionnaire by researcher related to the purposes of the study and is composed of two parts. part one included user demographics and contains (5) items and part two included (13) items. The validity of the questionnaire was examined through (7) experts by calculating the correlation coefficient (Pearson), which was worth an acceptable statistically (r: 0.858) and collected data in a direct interview, then the data were analyzed through the application of descriptive analysis (frequency, percentage ) as well as deductive analysis of the data (arithmetic mean and weighted Pearson correlation coefficient) using statistical bag of Social Sciences, version 16
Results: The study showed that the majority of nurses are female and most of them aged between (26-30) and most of them graduates of Institute and they have working experience between (1-5) years and their knowledge of the drug heparin were moderate.
Recommendations: The study recommended that nursing specialization in hemodialysis station taking into account training session about the importance of using heparin in hemodialysis and how to deal with the complication according to special programs.
Conclusions: The result study finding that there is strong positive relationship between increased of expert and age, increased of training and age also training with expert and there is moderate relationship between the remaining variables.


[reaction: see text] Adjacent tris(cyclic ethers) and enol ethers have been synthesized in good yields for the first time via a triple olefin metathesis reaction using Grubbs' catalyst RuCl(2)(=C(H)Ph)(PCy(3))(2) (Cy = cyclohexyl), and the 1,3-dimesitylimidazol-2-ylidene ruthenium benzylidene catalyst RuCl(2)(=C(H)Ph)(PCy(3))(IMes) ((IMes) = 1,3-bis(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene). The latter proved to be the most efficient catalyst in these transformations.


Converging evidence suggests that economic values are rescaled as a function of the range of the available options. Critically, although locally adaptive, range adaptation has been shown to lead to suboptimal choices. This is particularly striking in reinforcement learning (RL) situations when options are extrapolated from their original context. Range adaptation can be seen as the result of an adaptive coding process aiming at increasing the signal-to-noise ratio. However, this hypothesis leads to a counter-intuitive prediction: decreasing outcome uncertainty should increase range adaptation and, consequently, extrapolation errors. Here, we tested the paradoxical relation between range adaptation and performance in a large sample of subjects performing variants of a RL task, where we manipulated task difficulty. Results confirmed that range adaptation induces systematic extrapolation errors and is stronger when decreasing outcome uncertainty. Finally, we propose a range-adapting model and show that it is able to parsimoniously capture all the observed results.


Human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) induces proliferation and sustains viability of the mouse interleukin (IL)-3 dependent lymphoid cell line BA/F3 expressing the hGM-CSF receptor. Caspase-3 like enzyme activity and DNA fragmentation were augmented by depletion of this factor from the cell, and exposure to gamma irradiation accelerated kinetics of these events. Anti gamma irradiation-induced apoptosis occurred through various mutant GM-CSF receptors and only the box1 region was essential while the C terminal region, including tyrosine residues which are required for MAPK cascade activation, was dispensable. Consistent with this notion, the addition of PD98059 had no effect on this activity thereby indicating that activation of MAPK is not essential for the activity. As expected, gamma irradiation increased p53 protein and bax mRNA levels and the presence of hGM-CSF dramatically modulated bax/bcl-X(L) ratio. The PI-3K specific inhibitor wortmannin did not affect hGM-CSF dependent anti gamma irradiation induced apoptosis nor bcl-X(L) induction, thus bcl-X(L) but not PI-3K pathway seems to be involved in hGM-CSF dependent anti gamma irradiation-induced apoptosis. It is well documented that the boxl region is essential for GM-CSF dependent activation of JAK2 and JAK2 specific inhibitor AG490 suppressed anti gamma, irradiation-induced apoptosis by hGM-CSF. An artificial JAK2 activating molecule in which extracellular and the transmembrane of beta(c) fused with whole JAK2 can sustain BA/F3 cells survival and proliferation mIL-3 independently, but these cells are susceptible to gamma irradiation. Furthermore GyrB/Jak2, which can activate STAT5 but not the MAPK cascade nor survival of BA/F3 cells, also could not prevent gamma irradiation-induced apoptosis. Although JAK2 is essential for hGM-CSF dependent anti gamma irradiation-induced apoptosis, it appeared that JAK2 does not seem sufficient for the activity.


Tailings are crushed and milled materials result of the mining production. Tailings need to be stored in facilities, usually tailings dams, for a long time period for mainly safety and environmental protection. In order to design tailings dams in a long term perspective not only current material properties is needed but also future changes of these properties due to e.g. weathering. On a particle level the weathering will result in shape changes and decomposition. By studying the changes in shape a prognosis of changes in properties of a tailings deposit may be established.
Tailings are site specific material and are not well investigated compared to natural geological materials such as soil. Tailings materials size ranges generaly from sand to silt and the particle shape by genesis or production processes. Based on laboratory tests tailings from the Aitik mine has been investigated through triaxial tests and particle shape quantification by two dimensions image analysis. The shape descriptors Aspect Ratio, Circularity, Roundness and Solidity are used in this study. These shape descriptors are evaluated based on how well these describes talings materials. The evaluated shape descriptors are used in previous published empirical relations between shape and friction angle. As reference are friction angles evaluated by triaxial tests on the material used.
The results show that the particle shape is affected by the size of the aggregates. Aggregates in small fractions are more elongated and less rounded, i. e. more angular, compared to larger. Furthermore, the Aspect Ratio and Circularity seems to be the most situable quantities to describe the tailings behaviour in relation with the empirical model. The accuracy in predicting the friction angle of the tailings by previously published relations based on uniformly graded sand material are low. But the systematic underestimation of the friction angle indicates that it would be possible to establish such empirical relations based on tailings material.


One of the determinants of the capture threshold of an endocardial pacing lead is the configuration of the electrode tip. To evaluate whether micro‐ and macroporous electrodes have better initial and chronic thresholds than nonporous electrodes, acute and chronic capture thresholds, stimulation impedance and sensing thresholds were determined in 22 patients in whom a ventricular ring‐tip electrode and a unipolar, dual chamber pacemaker with bidirectional teiemetry had been implanted. These values were compared to those obtained from 25 patients receiving an electrode constructed with a platinized groove surface at the time of implant of an identical pulse generator. The ventricular capture threshold at implant was 0.7 V ± 0.3 at 0.6 msec pulse width for both groups. The capture threshold was significantly greater in the ring tip electrode group at follow‐up periods of 1 month (1.1 V ± O.5 vs 1.6 V ± 0.6, P < 0.008), 4 months (1.0 V ± 0.2 vs 1.7 V ± 0.8. P < 0.002), and 10 months (1.2 V ± 0.4 vs 1.7 V ± 0.5, P < 0.04) following implantation. The stimulation impedance at the time of implantation was lower in the ring‐tip electrode group (530 ohms vs 603 ohms, P < 0.03), but thereafter no significant difference was seen between the two groups. The acute and chronic sensing threshoids ivere similar in both groups. While the microporous electrode had significantly lower chronic capture threshoids, the magnitude of this difference is small, and probably clinically inconsequential. Since three patients with ring‐tip electrodes and two patients with microporous electrodes had at least one chronic threshold exceeding 2.5 V, periodic threshold determination is prudent in all patients.


The popularity of Data Warehouses (DW)sfor data analysis has grown tremendously, asconventional transaction processing systems have matured, becoming faster and more stable. Conventionalsystems in universitiesworking in the same area, storedaily activities and display or report these events on a regular basis. Therefore, the establishment of the DWs will help the top management in the development of strategies and take appropriate decisions inthese universities.This paper addresses issues related to designing a DW for private university in Jakarta. The purpose of the project isto provide a process model that will enhance decision making capabilities ina private university in order to facilitate and improve academic activities.


In this paper we propose an intelligent adaptive retrofit reconfigurable controller in which the full system states are reliably measurable and available for feedback and diagnosis. The proposed approach retains the existing nominal controller and adds a suitably chosen signal that assures that the desired closed-loop performance is achieved despite the failure. The approach is based on the properties of the system controlled by the nominal controller, and judiciously chosen adaptation signals. Furthermore, some representative methods of intelligent reconfigurable control are introduced, especially intelligent fault diagnosis and intelligent reconfigurable control strategies based on adaptive neural networks and fuzzy reasoning has been discussed in details, which has ensure that the aircraft has retain its flying qualities to a satisfactory level even to the presence of severe control failures. The ability to control aircraft is shown through simulation results with the intelligent reconfigurable controller using the adaptive fuzzy-neural reasoning of the aircraft.


An important problem in fault detection is to verify whether a single-fault test set is able to detect all multiple-faults. This paper provides a solution to the above problem. It is known that a test set derived for the detection of some fault may fail this purpose in the presence of an additional fault. This phenomenon is called masking among faults, and is of great importance in the derivation of a test set which detects all multiple-faults. This paper investigates the masking relations among faults in a combinational logic circuit. For this purpose a transform for the circuit is defined and a model for fault analysis is constructed. This transform and model reduce the number of faults which have to be considered in order to achieve the detection of all multiple-faults. An algebraic procedure yields the derivation of the masking relations. A problem which arises, namely the existence of a set of faults forming a loop of masking relations is considered. An application is presented: starting with a test set derived under the single-fault assumption it is shown how to extend this test set so that it detects all multiple-faults. All of the results in this paper are valid for general multiple-output circuits. For simplicity in the exposition, the single-output case is examined.


Objective To evaluate the glutathione S-transferase genetic variants (GSTM1 and GSTT1) in pregnant mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and the degree of glycemic control. Background Previous research has declared that GDM affects both the mother and the baby during pregnancy and in the long term. Patients and methods To reach the goal of this research, a case–control study was designed. A total of 80 pregnant women were divided into two groups: (a) patients group (40 patients had GDM during the third trimester of pregnancy) and (b) control group (40 apparently healthy pregnant women). All participants were subjected to detailed history taking, complete general examination of all body systems, laboratory investigations, and molecular genetic study. Results We found that there was a statistically significant difference in GSTT1-0 null genotype rates between mothers with GDM and controls (P = 0.04). However, there was no difference in the frequencies of GSTM1 null genotypes between mothers with GDM and controls (P = 0.112). GSTM1 was more prevalent in infants of diabetic mothers (IDM), with a significantly difference between IDM and controls regarding GSTM1 null genotypes (P = 0.04). This difference was positively associated with higher levels of respiratory rates above normal limits and low 1 min APGAR score. Conclusion Our study reveals that GSTM1-0 null genotype in IDM was positively correlated with the unfavorable presentation among affected newborns who are carriers of this polymorphism.


The hydrogen (H)/sodium (Na) interface is of great interest in glass corrosion research. Time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF‐SIMS) is one of the few techniques that can provide nanoscale H and Na imaging simultaneously. However, the optimized condition for ToF‐SIMS imaging of H in glass is still unclear. In H depth profiling using ToF‐SIMS, H background control is a key, in which an analysis ion beam and a sputtering ion beam work together in an interlaced mode to minimize it. Therefore, it is of great interest to determine if an auxiliary sputtering ion beam is also necessary to control H background in ToF‐SIMS imaging of H. In this study, H imaging with and without auxiliary sputtering beams (Cs+, O2+, and Arn+) was compared on a corroded international simple glass (ISG). It was surprising that the H/Na interface could be directly imaged using positive ion imaging without any auxiliary sputtering ion beam under a vacuum of 2 to 3 × 10−8 mbar. The H+ background was about 5% atomic percent on the pristine ISG glass, which was significantly lower than the H concentration in the alteration layer (~15%). Moreover, positive ion imaging could show distributions of other interesting species simultaneously, providing more comprehensive information of the glass corrosion. If an auxiliary O2+ sputtering ion beam was used, the H+ background could be reduced but still higher than that in the depth profiling. Besides, this condition could cause significant loss of signal intensities due to strong surface charging.


Understanding how class switch recombination (CSR) is regulated to produce immunoglobulin E (IgE) has become fundamental because of the dramatic increase in the prevalence of IgE-mediated hypersensitivity reactions. CSR requires the induction of the enzyme AICDA in B cells. Mutations in AICDA have been linked to Hyper-IgM syndrome (HIGM2), which shows absence of switching to IgE as well as to IgG and IgA. Although isolated IgE deficiency is a rare entity, here we show some individuals with normal serum IgM, IgG, and IgA levels that had undetectable total serum IgE levels. We have analyzed the AICDA gene in these individuals to determine if there are mutations in AICDA that could lead to selective IgE deficiency. Conformational sensitive gel electrophoresis (CSGE) and sequencing analysis of AICDA coding sequences demonstrated sequence heterogeneity due to 5923A/G and 7888C/T polymorphisms, but did not reveal any novel mutation that might explain the selective IgE deficit.


The induction of labor in the high-risk patient is accompanied by an increased incidence of cesarean section partly due to failed induction. A series of 50 high-risk patients induced with intravenous prostaglandin F 2 alpha is presented. Forty-five were successfully induced, 35 of whom delivered vaginally. Failed inductions occurred in 5 patients. The overall success rate was 90%, and cesarean section rate was 25.5%. There was an increased incidence of late decelerations in the PGF 2 alpha groups as compared to spontaneous and Pitocin-stimulated labors. While the success was high, the use of a drug which itself may caused fetal cardiovascular changes is not desirable, especially in those pregnancies already at risk.


A dynamic hydrologic model was developed for the Örtülüakar Marsh in Turkey to investigate the causes of water-level decreases observed since the 1990s and to explore potential remediation and sustainability options. Örtülüakar Marsh is a sub-system of the Sultan Marshes ecosystem, a large wetland complex consisting of freshwater marshes and salt-water lakes in the Develi Basin of south-central Turkey. The wetland has experienced significant seasonal and long-term waterlevel changes after the construction of an irrigation project in the catchment. The model uses a monthly time scale and solves the unsteady water-balance equation. Inputs from precipitation, overland flow, springs and ground water, and outputs due to evapotranspiration and surface flow are represented in the model. The model was calibrated to fit monthly water-level measurements from 1997 to 2003. Sensitivity analyses showed that the model is highly sensitive to evapotranspiration and ground-water inflow. Simulations of several water allocation options suggest that ground-water use should be reduced in the Develi Basin to halt the decline in water level in the Örtülüakar Marsh.


This paper studied the effects of combined application of biogas slurry and chemical fertilizer under same N application rate on the quantities of bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi as well as the activities of urease, protease and catalase in winter wheat rhizosphere soil. With the growth of winter wheat, the quantities of test microorganisms and the activities of urease and catalase showed a trend of increasing after an initial decrease, while the protease activity showed an S-type change. Combined application of biogas slurry and chemical fertilizer increased the quantities of test microorganisms significantly, and improved the activities of soil urease and protease. Applying 50% biogas slurry N as basal plus 50% chemical N as topdressing and applying 25% biogas slurry N as basal plus 75% chemical N as topdressing had the best effect, while applying single conventional urea or biogas slurry had the worst effect. At all growth stages, the activity of soil catalase was the highest in treatments 25% biogas slurry N as basal plus 75% chemical N as topdressing and single biogas slurry, but had greater differences in other treatments among the growth stages. The results suggested that proper biogas slurry application combined with chemical fertilization could increase the microbial quantity and enzyme activities in winter wheat rhizosphere soil.


Overabundant populations of cervids have induced drastic negative effects on plant commu- nities in several regions worldwide. Antlerless deer harvest by sport hunters has been proposed as a potential solution to overabundance because the philopatric behavior of female deer is expected to limit recolonization of hunted zones. The efficiency of this method, however, has rarely been tested in the wild. Using a large- scale experimental design, we reduced white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) density within 5 20-km 2 areas on Anticosti Island (Quebec, Canada). Our objective was to harvest 50% of antlerless deer in each site during the first year of the study in 2002, and 30% from 2003 to 2006. We monitored deer density, vegetation abundance and growth as well as deer life-history traits during 6 years in these experimental sites and in 5 control sites where harvest rate was 5-7%. Overall, we achieved 93% of harvest objectives. Contrary to our expectations, however, deer density, vegetation abundance and growth, and deer life-history traits did not vary differently in experimental and control sites during the study period. They rather varied stochastically but synchronously. We discuss several alternative hypotheses that may explain these results, including 1) compensatory mechanisms, 2) biases in density estimates, 3) limited access to territory for hunters, 4) large target areas for localized management, 5) low hunter density, 6) recolonization by surrounding deer, 7) slow plant response under canopy cover, and 8) bottom-up mechanisms. Given the large efforts invested in this study, we conclude that the local control of abundant cervid populations through sport hunting may be difficult to achieve in many natural environments. 2012 The Wildlife Society.


Michel Foucault had discussed that the repression of sexuality was a manipulation of ideology by dominant group. He stated that sexual repression was nothing but a hypothesis that allowed the agencies of power (bourgeoisies, or males) to verbalize sexuality to satisfy their pleasures and desires. On the other hand, women repression has been long existed in popular music culture. The empowerment and independence of women, therefore, became a breakthrough in the history of popular music. However, the author made an assumption that the repressive hypothesis also occurred in this music-gender context. This paper critically analyzed Katy Perry's hit single "Teenage Dream" by applying Foucault's statements in finding the implication of the women repressive hypothesis. The study showed that the traditional context of sexual repression has been transferred to a masculinity-femininity conflict where the repression of womenwas only a hypothesis, raising a conclusionthat the liberation of women in popular music is the pleasures of the patriarchy.


We investigate pulsar timing residuals due to the coupling effect of the pulsar transverse acceleration and the Römer delay. The effect is relatively small and usually negligible. Only for pulsars in globular clusters, it is possibly important. The maximum residual amplitude, which is from the pulsar near the surface of the core of the cluster, is about tens of nanoseconds, and may hardly be identified for most globular clusters currently. However, an intermediate-mass black hole in the center of a cluster can apparently increase the timing residual magnitudes. Particularly for pulsars in the innermost core region, their residual magnitudes may be significant. The high-magnitude residuals, which are above critical lines of each cluster, are strong evidence for the presence of a black hole or dark remnants of comparable total mass in the center of the cluster. We also explored the timing effects of line-of-sight accelerations for the pulsars. The distribution of measured line-of-sight accelerations are simulated with a Monte Carlo method. Two-dimensional Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests are performed to reexamine the consistency of distributions of the simulated and reported data for various values of parameters of the clusters. It is shown that the structure parameters of Terzan 5 can be constrained well by comparing the distribution of measured line-of-sight accelerations with the distributions from Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the cluster has an upper limit on the central black hole/dark remnant mass of ∼ 6000 M
 ⊙.


Automatic generation of test programs plays a major role in the verification of modern processors and hardware systems. In this paper, we formulate the generation of test programs as a constraint satisfaction problem and develop techniques for dealing with the challenges we face, most notably: huge variable domains (e.g., magnitude of 264) and the need to randomly generate "well distributed" samplings of the solution space. We describe several applications of our method, which include specific test generators targeted at various parts of a design or stages of the verification process.


This paper describes the technologies, collaborative processes, and artistic intents of the musical composition Engravings for Prepared Snare Drum, iPad, and Computer, which was composed by Timothy Polashek for percussionist Brad Meyer using a jointly created electroacoustic and interactive musical instrument. During performance, the percussionist equally manipulates and expresses through two surfaces, an iPad displaying an interactive touch screen and a snare drum augmented with various foreign objects, including a contact microphone adhered to the drumhead's surface. A computer program created for this composition runs on a laptop computer in front of the percussionist. The software captures sound from the contact microphone and transforms this sound through audio signal processing controlled by the performer's gestures on the iPad. The computer screen displays an animated graphic score, as well as the current states of iPad controls and audio signal processing, for the performer. Many compositional and technological approaches used in this project pay tribute to composer John Cage, since the premiere performance of Engravings for Prepared Snare Drum, iPad, and Computer took place in 2012, the centennial celebration of Cage's birth year.


BACKGROUND
The red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a blood analyzer marker showing the peripheral blood erythrocyte volume heterogeneity parameters. It is a normal diagnosis index of many diseases. This study was performed to evaluate the relationship between the RDW and gastric diseases.

METHODS
A total of 189 patients with GC, 68 patients with gastric ulcers, 92 patients with chronic gastritis, and 157 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Each patient's RDW and other biomarkers were recorded. All of the statistical analyses and comparisons between each group were determined using SPSS16.0 software. The statistical significance level was set to a p-value < 0.05.

RESULTS
The RDW was significantly higher in those patients with gastric diseases when compared to the control group (p < 0.05). In addition, the RDW was independently correlated with the presence of GC and gastric ulcers. Significantly positive correlations between the RDW, platelets, and platelet distribution width (PDW) were observed in those patients with GC and gastric ulcers, although there were negative correlations with the red blood cells (RBCs), hemoglobin, and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) (p < 0.05). In the chronic gastritis group, elevated RDW values were closely associated with the hemoglobin, platelet, and MCV values (p < 0.05). The specificities of the gastric diseases groups were greater than 90%.

CONCLUSIONS
In cases of gastric diseases, the RDW values were increased and were associated with several laboratory parameters. These finding may have important clinical implications in predicting gastric diseases.


Objective: To determine the rate of occurrence of major malformations in infants whose mothers had taken the drug valproic acid (VPA) as monotherapy during the first trimester of pregnancy and had enrolled in the North American Antiepileptic Drug Pregnancy Registry. Methods: Data were collected from pregnant women throughout the United States and Canada through telephone-based interviews. Each woman was interviewed at enrollment, at 7 months' gestation, and postpartum. With her written permission, the medical records of each mother and her infant were obtained. The major malformations tabulated were those identified at or before 5 days of age. The prevalence of congenital malformations among offspring of monotherapy VPA-exposed women was compared with that among infants of women exposed to all other antiepileptic drugs (internal comparison group) and with that among newborns in the Active Malformations Surveillance Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital (external comparison group). Results: Sixteen affected cases were identified among 149 VPA-exposed women (proportion: 10.7%; 95% CI: 6.3 to 16.9%). The prevalence in the internal comparison group was 2.9% (95% CI: 2.0 to 4.1%; odds ratio: 4.0, 95% CI: 2.1 to 7.4; p < 0.001). Assuming a 1.62% prevalence in the external comparison group, the relative risk of having an affected offspring for VPA-exposed women was 7.3 (95% CI: 4.4 to 12.2; p < 0.001). Conclusion: Maternal exposure to valproic acid during the first trimester of pregnancy significantly increased the risk of major malformations.


The International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps touches a field of increasing importance: the consequences of disease. Three levels can be distinguished: Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps. Having define these three levels, we go on to show their significance and bring to light the relativity of the handicap, often according to non-medical data and having nothing to do with the handicapped person. The ICIDH broadens the medical evaluation by including these data and, in this way, fosters better understanding of handicaps. It should be more widely known in Switzerland.


The early stages of community development influence longer‐term establishment of species, traits, and ultimately ecosystem function. How this process varies with small‐ and large‐scale abiotic and biotic conditions is poorly studied in microbes. Here, we tested how different spatial scales influenced the rate at which taxonomic and functional composition of microbial communities changed over time in lake sediments, and whether these changes occurred synchronously across different environments given the same initial communities. We manipulated the small‐scale environment by creating sediments with different terrestrial organic matter (t‐OM) quantity and quality, and placing these in two lakes differing in trophic status to vary the large‐scale environment. We found that archaeal and bacterial communities, but not fungi, became taxonomically dissimilar over 2 months despite being derived from the same initial leaf material, primarily because of small‐scale environmental conditions. Sediment t‐OM quantity consistently explained changes in community composition both temporally within mesocosms and spatially between mesocosms in different lakes. Archaea, bacteria, and fungi also varied by up to 10 times in how quickly they changed, providing among the first evidence in the same study system that they respond differently over time to abiotic and biotic conditions. Finally, functional composition was influenced by both small‐ and large‐scale environmental conditions, with genes involved in t‐OM decomposition showing some of the largest changes in abundance after 1 yr. Our study highlights that future changes to both sediments and lake waters can modify how sediment microbial communities develop with consequences for important ecosystem functions like carbon cycling.


Two sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) genotypes ('Georgia Jet' and the breeding clone TI-155) were grown at 12-, 15-, 18-, and 21-h light/12-, 9-, 6-, 3-h dark cycles, respectively, to evaluate their growth and elemental concentration responses to duration and amount of daily lighting. Vine cuttings (15 cm long) of both genotypes were grown in rectangular nutrient film technique channels for 120 days. Conditions were as follows: photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) mean 427 μmolm -2 •s -1 , 28C day/22C night air cycle, and 70% ± 5% relative humidity. The nutrient solution used was a modified half-strength Hoagland's solution. Storage root count per plant and per unit area, yield (in grams per square meters per day), and harvest index increased, while production efficiency (in grams per mole) decreased with increased daily PPF. Stomatal conductance for both genotypes declined with increased daily PPF. Leaves were smallest for both genotypes at the 21-h light period, while storage root yield declined as leaf area index increased. Except for a linear decrease in leaf N and K with increased light period, elemental concentration was not significantly influenced.


The current rapid technological changes confront researchers of learning technologies with the challenge of evaluating them, predicting trends, and improving their adoption and diffusion. This study utilizes a data-driven discourse analysis approach, namely culturomics, to investigate changes over time in the research of learning technologies. The patterns and changes were examined on a corpus of articles published over the past decade (2006-2014) in the proceedings of Chais Conference for the Study of Innovation and Learning Technologies – the leading research conference on learning technologies in Israel. The interesting findings of the exhaustive process of analyzing all the words in the corpus were that the most commonly used terms (e.g., pupil, teacher, student) and the most commonly used phrases (e.g., face-to-face) in the field of learning technologies reflect a pedagogical rather than a technological aspect of learning technologies. The study also demonstrates two cases of change over time in prominent themes, such as "Facebook" and "the National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) program". Methodologically, this research demonstrates the effectiveness of a data-driven approach for identifying discourse trends over time.


Summary form only given. In a patient infected with Hepatitis B (HBV), the infected host cells replicate the entire virus and also the surface protein of the virus, the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). Because the HBsAg is present in greater concentrations than the actual virus in infected blood, it is used as the marker of choice for identifying patients with this disease. The purpose of our experiment was to detect small concentrations of purified HBsAg in a buffered salt solution. Such possibilities could be provided by means of optical spectroscopy which includes laser-induced self-luminescence and Raman spectroscopy. Luminescence spectroscopy under selective laser excitation is a very sensitive method to determine the presence and concentration of proteins in solutions.


The problem of determining a simple boundary from given Cauchy data is studied. This problem may be relevant in two-dimensional electrical impedance tomography where reconstructions of both the conductivity and the boundary are sought. It is found that under certain restrictions on the data, a one-parameter set of boundaries can be obtained in closed form. An immediate consequence of this result is that this problem does not have a unique solution. We make some comments on how to solve the problem with more generalized Cauchy data that do not necessarily obey the restrictions given.


Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate early changes of heart due to thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) suppressive levothyroxine (LT4) replacement in young athyrotic patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). Materials and Methods: Thirty young athyrotic patients with DTC, age ranged 20-39 years after radioactive iodine ablation therapy (RAIT), were selected prospectively. These patients had been receiving 200µg/day LT 4 replacement therapy starting from the third day of RAIT. Age, sex, body mass index (BMI), body surface area (BSA) and life style matched 23 healthy volunteers were recruited in the study. Clinical, thyroid hormones levels and Doppler Echocardiographic and Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) data were taken at baseline at two months of initiation of LT4 replacement in patients with DTC and in healthy volunteers. Echocardiographic data of patients with DTC were repeated at second visit after 6-12 months of RAIT and both data compared with control. Results: Diastolic parameters evaluated by Doppler Echocardiography and TDI were significantly different in patients with DTC compared to control. Early diastolic tissue velocity (Em) in patients with DTC showed higher value at second visit compared to control (Em, control subjects, 19±6 cm /sec, patients at second visit, 23 ± 4 cm /sec, p <0.03). Late diastolic flow (Am) of patients was higher at two visits (Am, at first visit, 15±5 cm/sec; at second visit, 19 ± 6 cm/sec) ( p <0.004) compared to control (Am, 9 ± 1.6 cm/sec). Modified Tei index was significantly increased (mean 0.48 ± 0.06) in second visit in patients with DTC compared to control (mean 0.33 ± 0.04) and at first visit (mean 0.31 ± 0.05, p <0.001) respectively. Conclusion: It is concluded that supraphysiologic dose of LT4 has side effects on heart even within short period of replacement. TDI is an important tool to evaluate the early changes in myocardium. Statistical analysis: The study was designed to compare patients with DTC with age; BMI and BSA matched normal healthy controls at the time of enrollment. Cardiac morphology and function by clinical examination, echocardiography and TDI at different time points were evaluated. Values were expressed as mean ± SD with 95% confidence intervals. Statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS, version 13 software packages for windows. One-way ANOVA was used to compare all the clinical, hormones, Doppler Echocardiographic and TDI data between control subjects and patients at first visit and second visit and between two visits. The post hoc covariates were analyzed at Tukey's HSD (honestly significant difference) test.


Zinc thermal spraying is widely used for steel coatings. In the present work, the morphology and the corrosion performance of the as-formed coatings is investigated. Initial observations took place with a low magnification stereoscope equipped with a CCD camera, while Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used for more detailed observation. Selected samples were also examined with High Resolution Electron Microscopy (HREM) in order to investigate the oxygene distribution which was detected by EDS analysis. Corrosion tests were accomplished in a Salt Spray Chamber (SSC) and the corroded samples were also examined with SEM. From this investigation it was deduced that the as-cast coatings are mainly composed by pure zinc. However, zinc oxide inclusions were also encoutered in the form of nanoparticles. Regarding corrosion, the samples exposed in the SSC were uniformly attacked. Nevertheless the substrate was effectively protected.


ABSTRACT Gastrointestinal (GI) bacteria sense diverse environmental signals as cues for differential gene regulation and niche adaptation. Pathogens such as enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), which causes bloody diarrhea, use these signals for the temporal and energy-efficient regulation of their virulence factors. One of the main virulence strategies employed by EHEC is the formation of attaching and effacing (AE) lesions on enterocytes. Most of the genes necessary for the formation of these lesions are grouped within a pathogenicity island, the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE), whose expression requires the LEE-encoded regulator Ler. Here we show that growth of EHEC in glycolytic environments inhibits the expression of ler and consequently all other LEE genes. Conversely, growth within a gluconeogenic environment activates expression of these genes. This sugar-dependent regulation is achieved through two transcription factors: KdpE and Cra. Both Cra and KdpE directly bind to the ler promoter, and Cra's affinity to this promoter is catabolite dependent. Moreover, we show that the Cra and KdpE proteins interact in vitro and that KdpE's ability to bind DNA is enhanced by the presence of Cra. Cra is important for AE lesion formation, and KdpE contributes to this Cra-dependent regulation. The deletion of cra and kdpE resulted in the ablation of AE lesions. One of the many challenges that bacteria face within the GI tract is to successfully compete for carbon sources. Linking carbon metabolism to the precise coordination of virulence expression is a key step in the adaptation of pathogens to the GI environment. IMPORTANCE An appropriate and prompt response to environmental cues is crucial for bacterial survival. Cra and KdpE are two proteins found in both nonpathogenic and pathogenic bacteria that regulate genes in response to differences in metabolite concentration. In this work, we show that, in the deadly pathogen enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7, which causes bloody diarrhea, these two proteins influence important virulence traits. We also propose that their control of one or more of these virulence traits is due to the direct interaction of the Cra and KdpE proteins with each other, as well as with their DNA targets. This work shows how EHEC coopts established mechanisms for sensing the metabolites and stress cues in the environment, to induce virulence factors in a temporal and energy-efficient manner, culminating in disease. Understanding how pathogens commandeer nonpathogenic systems can help us develop measures to control them. An appropriate and prompt response to environmental cues is crucial for bacterial survival. Cra and KdpE are two proteins found in both nonpathogenic and pathogenic bacteria that regulate genes in response to differences in metabolite concentration. In this work, we show that, in the deadly pathogen enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157:H7, which causes bloody diarrhea, these two proteins influence important virulence traits. We also propose that their control of one or more of these virulence traits is due to the direct interaction of the Cra and KdpE proteins with each other, as well as with their DNA targets. This work shows how EHEC coopts established mechanisms for sensing the metabolites and stress cues in the environment, to induce virulence factors in a temporal and energy-efficient manner, culminating in disease. Understanding how pathogens commandeer nonpathogenic systems can help us develop measures to control them.


Data fusion is an important tool for estimating urban traffic state when various traffic data are available. In order to get more accurate and comprehensive traffic state, this paper proposes an improved reliability revaluated Dempster- Shafer fusion algorithm (RRDSF) and a framework of real-time traffic state estimation system for fusing multi-source data, tests on the accuracy by real-world traffic data. The framework of real-time traffic state estimation system proposed in this paper shows the feasibility of developing advanced data fusion system for real-time traffic state estimation. The results report in this paper demonstrate that the proposed model can fuse data from loop detectors and probe vehicles to more accurately obtain traffic state estimation than using either of them alone and encourage us to do further work.


Mixed-metal molybdenum(II)/rhodium(II) tetra(trifluoroacetate) of the composition [(MoRh)(O2CCF3)4] has been obtained from the gas-phase reaction between volatile carboxylates, [Mo2(O2CCF3)4] and [Rh2(O2CCF3)4]. This is an interesting system for which a single-crystal X-ray investigation fails to provide an unambiguous evidence of whether the product consists of the initial homometallic or newly formed heterometallic paddlewheel units. In the solid-state structure both metal atoms occupy the same crystallographic position, while the M-M and M-O distances are averaged with respect to the parent homometallic compounds. Nevertheless, the results of mass-spectrometric and magnetic measurements clearly indicate that the title bimetallic carboxylate contains a statistical mixture of homometallic dimolybdenum and dirhodium units. The product can be considered as a result of cocrystallization of isomorphous paddlewheel molecules.


Full-dimensional natural arm manipulation is a challenging task in the field of model-based control due to its high degree of freedom and unknown dynamics of the given system. Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) offers a promising model-free approach for handling high-dimensional robotics problems. Although impressive results for the arm manipulation task have been reported, it still remains an open problem on how we can create human-like synergetic reaching motion using learning algorithms. In this study, we apply DRL for managing full-dimensional arm manipulation in a simulation study, and verify the relations among motion error, energy, and synergy emergence, to reveal the mechanism of employing motor synergy. Although synergy information has never been encoded into the reward function, the synergy naturally emerges along with feedforward control, leading to a similar situation as human motion learning. To the best of our knowledge, this is a pioneer study demonstrating the error and energy optimization issue exists behind the motor synergy employment in DRL for reaching tasks. In addition, our proposed feedback-augmented DRL controller shows better capability over DRL in terms of synergy development and the coupled criteria of error-energy index. This implies that feedback control can support the learning process under redundancy by voiding unnecessary random exploration.


We present alpha-expansion beta-shrink moves, a simple generalization of the widely-used alpha-beta swap and alpha-expansion algorithms for approximate energy minimization. We show that in a certain sense, these moves dominate both alpha-beta-swap and alpha-expansion moves, but unlike previous generalizations the new moves require no additional assumptions and are still solvable in polynomial-time. We show promising experimental results with the new moves, which we believe could be used in any context where alpha-expansions are currently employed.


The scientific research study scrutinized the correlation between social media and organizational performance among travel agencies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The research empirical study utilized a descriptive research design with a quantitative approach. A sample size of 358 participants were determined from 1320 people as study population. Data was gathered using survey questionnaires and examined using descriptive statistics such as tables, frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation. The researcher also used inferential statistics such as Structural Equation modelling (SEM) for establishing the relationship between the study variables. The SEM was used while using standardized coefficients (betas) to denote the relative strength of the statistical relationships in the study. The research findings established that there was a significant effect between social media usage and organizational performance among travel agencies in the UAE. The study concluded that the emergence of social media sites and widespread usage has changed the way businesses operate, especially in the marketing sector of organizational performance. The media usage has compelled travel and tour companies to embrace the change that has also created a better platform for them to market and advertise their services. From the study findings, the researcher recommended that the management of travel agencies in UAE can consider improving the performance of their organization by improving on the orientation efforts offered to their customers through feasible discussion sessions where customers can actually tailor their worries using media that do not expose negative perceptions recorded to the public. This can include messages through emails and close private chats in Facebook.


Spatial uniformity of an atmospheric-pressure microwave line plasma is evaluated from surface hydrophilicity treatment of polyethylene terephthalate film as well as observation of optical emission from the plasma. Prior to the experiments, the structure of the waveguide-based plasma source is optimized using a three-dimensional electromagnetic simulation to suppress standing-wave generation for the uniformity of plasma production. The spatial distribution in the longitudinal direction of the Argon (Ar) plasma is investigated by operating the microscope parallel to the slot and by irradiating film with the plasma to improve surface wettability of the film. Uniform profile of water contact angle is obtained in 40 cm with very high-speed processing.


Future software systems will be vast and impossible to rebuild. The tools engineers need to get them and keep them running need to take advantage of the best we have in static and dynamic languages---to begin with. Long-running systems must be repairable and extendable while they run. We can leverage this longevity by designing our languages and systems to learn about and create models for themselves, to hypothesize improvements on themselves, discover and propose new capabilities, and to conscientiously assist in their own upkeep and continual redesign. All while the system never stops. Our lives will depend on it.


Background: The incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is rising worldwide. South Asians are at higher risk, nearly 2-4 times greater than white Europeans, and tend to develop T2D at an earlier age and lower BMI. Prior studies have shown a potential advantage of incretin-based therapies in South Asians. The purpose of this study is to compare baseline characteristics of South Asians with T2D with those of other ethnic groups and to determine whether South Asians have a better glycemic response to incretin-based therapies in an urban United States diabetes center. Methods: Retrospective chart review of patients with T2D at the University of Maryland Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology from 2010-16 was performed. Adult patients (ages 18-85) with T2DM were included. A total of 43 South Asians (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) and 182 non-South Asians (further subclassified into black or Non-Hispanic white) were enrolled. Data on age of T2DM diagnosis, family history, BMI, diabetic medications, exercise, blood pressure, and presence of micro- or macrovascular complications were collected. Baseline characteristics were compared and tested for statistical significance by Chi-square test and student t-tests. Results: South Asians were diagnosed with T2D at a lower BMI (29 vs. 34; p Conclusion: South Asians are more likely to have T2D at a lower BMI than black or Non-Hispanic white patients in an urban United States setting. No significant difference in T2DM complications was noted among ethnic groups, and incretin-based therapies did not have a significant effect on in South Asians vs. non-South Asians. Disclosure A. Ahmed: None. W. Rahman: None. K.M. Munir: None.


Over the past decade technological advances have enabled molecular profiling of human cancers across distinct genomic domains and other "omes". The availability of such multi-omics datasets has in turn enabled the discovery of cancer subtypes characterized by distinct molecular patterns within and across different data modalities. Despite promising beginnings and the wealth of data, most efforts so far have focused on the discovery of new molecular taxonomies, enumerating novel cancer subtypes, and only subsequently projecting them into a biological context by leveraging knowledge on genetic and epigenetic variations, genomic alterations, gene expression patterns, and, in general, cell pathophysiology. A paradigmatic approach to omics-based cancer classification usually entails the i) discovery of novel molecular subtypes; (ii) the biological contextualization of such subtypes and their correlation with clinical phenotypes; and (iii) the development of predictors to detect these subtypes. Nevertheless, the direct clinical utility of such taxonomies is less evident. Some of the molecular subtypes, for instance, might not portend any different clinical behavior, or the underlying molecular pathways might not be actionable. Ultimately, existing biological knowledge enters the analysis only a posteriori to characterize and "label" the novel subtypes, rather than being leveraged a priori to guide the discovery process itself. To overcome such nearly universal absence of mechanistic underpinnings for the omics-derived signatures and develop clinically useful biomarkers, we have proposed to develop mechanistic predictive models by incorporating gene network and signaling pathway information directly into the statistical learning process used to detect the cancer phenotypes. Unlike the paradigm described above, we used omics data and prior biological information to directly detect and predict the phenotypes. We now further extend this concept and leverage biological knowledge also to constrain multi-omics data integration, by implementing predictive rules that mechanistically aggregate measurements across distinct genomic modalities, reproducing the natural flow of biological information in the cell: from genome to phenotype, through epigenome, transcriptome and proteome. To illustrate our approach and its impact on computational learning and cancer classification, we analyze clinically relevant cancer phenotypes using independent training and testing data. To this end we build our novel predictors using the Top Scoring Pair (TSP) algorithm, a two-gene parameter-free classifier, and its multi-pair extension kTSP. We then compare the classification performance of predictors derived from a single omics modality to those constructed by integrating multi-omics data according to mechanistic and biologically meaningful rules, revealing increased accuracy with the integrated classifiers. Citation Format: Luigi Marchionni, Donald Geman. Predicting cancer phenotypes with mechanism-driven multi-omics data integration. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 3754. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-3754


Asthma is associated with increased levels of eosinophils in tissues, body fluids, and bone marrow. Elevated levels of eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN) and eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) have been noted in asthma patients. Higher levels of EDN and ECP are also associated with exacerbated asthmatic conditions. Thus, EDN, along with ECP, may aid the diagnosis and monitoring of asthma. Several groups have suggested that EDN is more useful than ECP in evaluating disease severity. This may partially be because of the recoverability of EDN (not sticky, 100% recovery rate), as ECP is a sticky and more highly charged protein. In terms of clinical utility, EDN level is a more accurate biomarker than ECP when analyzing the underlying pathophysiology of asthma. As a monitoring tool, EDN has shown good results in children with asthma as well as other allergic diseases. In children too young to fully participate in lung function tests, EDN levels may be useful as an alter native measurement of eosinophilic inflammation. EDN can also be used in adult patients and in multiple specimen types (e.g., serum, sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and nasal lavage fluid). These results are repeatable and reproducible. In conclusion, EDN may be a novel biomarker for the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of asthma/allergic disease.


Power transformers are one of the important equipment in the electric power system. Power transformers are devices with the largest investment in a transmission and distribution substations. Currently, the use of power transformers at Marunda substations on average has reached 80% of rated load. Then require maximum of cooling transformers, to restrain the rate of the winding and oil temperature rise. Result of the research were obtained with the addition of water cooling at power transformers can be reduce the heat due to the high ambient temperatures. The results showed a decrease in temperature of 3°C, so can be used to add transformers loading of 2,51 MW. While of water consumption was 2,052 m3 per day.


A new emendation of Psilocybe zapotecorum is presented, based on a new study on the holotype and on the description of pseudocystidia, pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia, confusingly described previously. An extensive and careful review of all holotypes of synonyms, and the wide neotropical distribution is also presented. The traditions as sacred mushroom are analyzed based on a study of codices and anthropological pieces, where P. zapotecorum and related species as P. muliercula and P. moseri are identified. Some of the codices and anthropological pieces showed that the cult of Quetzalcoatl was related to the use of these mushrooms. The application and meaning of the words "teonanacatl" from Sahagun and "teotlaquilnanacatl" by Guzman are reviewed. Moreover, the relationship of P. mairei to the prehistoric mushroom depictions at Tassili in the Sahara Desert is discussed, and the first study of authentic material of this species from Algeria is presented, from where a neotype is selected. Finally, the relationship between a prehistoric mural in Spain and P. hispanica is also discussed.


Partial fuel stratification (PFS) is a promising fuel injection strategy to improve the stability of lean combustion by applying a small amount of pilot injection right before spark timing. Mixed-mode combustion, which makes use of end-gas autoignition following conventional deflagration-based combustion, can be further utilized to speed up the overall combustion. In this study, PFS-assisted mixed-mode combustion in a lean-burn direct injection spark-ignition (DISI) engine is numerically investigated using multi-cycle large eddy simulation (LES). A previously developed hybrid G-equation/well-stirred reactor combustion model for the well-mixed operation is extended to the PFS-assisted operation. The experimental spray morphology is employed to derive spray model parameters for the pilot injection. The LES-based model is validated against experimental data and is further compared with the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS)-based model. Overall, both RANS and LES predict the mean pressure and heat release rate traces well, while LES outperforms RANS in capturing the cycle-to-cycle variation (CCV) and the combustion phasing in the mass burned space. Liquid and vapor penetrations obtained from the simulations agree reasonably well with the experiment. Detailed flame structures predicted from the simulations reveal the transition from a sooting diffusion flame to a lean premixed flame, which is consistent with experimental findings. LES captures more wrinkled and stretched flames than RANS. Finally, the LES model is employed to investigate the impacts of fuel properties, including heat of vaporization (HoV) and laminar burning speed (SL). Combustion phasing is found more sensitive to SL than to HoV, with a larger fuel property sensitivity of the heat release rate from autoignition than that from deflagration. Moreover, the combustion phasing in the PFS-assisted operation is shown to be less sensitive to SL compared with the well-mixed operation.


Several cases of human illness with symptoms suggestive of Aujeszky's Disease (AD) at an outbreak of the disease in cattle and swine were evaluated during this study. Additionally serological studies of people in the group at high risk for illness caused by Aujeszky's Disease Virus (ADV) were carried out. In a herd of 180 bulls sudden clinical disease occurred with symptoms of muscular tremors, salivation, sweating and severe pruritus of the head. The clinical disease lasted two to eight hours and finished in death. In 7 days 10 bulls died and 60 were either killed or culled. A biological test for AD was positive. ADV was identified in the brain of a dead bull. Serological studies for the bulls were negative, however 92.9% on the premises farm were asymptomatically infected. On third to the fifth day of disease in the cattle clinical signs appeared in six of seven workers which had direct contact with diseased cattle. A pruritus of the palms, which spread onto the lower and upper arms, shoulders and back lasted several days.


The authors showed the necessity to develop a rear-wheel drive hybrid mobile agricultural vehicle with electric drive and power plant. (Research purpose) To develop and study a new kinematic scheme of a mobile vehicle based on a self-propelled tractor T-16 chassis, which provides increased reliability, comfortable working conditions for the operator, a significant improvement in the environmental situation, and better economic efficiency. (Materials and methods) The authors listed the advantages of the new hybrid vehicle kinematic scheme. They gave the comparative technical characteristics of a diesel engine and an asynchronous electric motor. They developed a new methodology for calculating gas turbine engine technical parameters and described the production process of an electric drive with a capacity of 11 kilowatts to drive the driving wheels. The authors gave a thermal design of the compressor parameters, turbine. They calculated the excess air ratio. According to the parameters obtained, a K27-145 turbocharger was chosen, which simultaneously served as a turbine and a compressor of a gas turbine engine. A kinematic diagram was created with a gas turbine electric generator, storage batteries, an asynchronous frequency-controlled motor and a mechanical gearbox. (Results and discussion) The authors proposed to use a mobile vehicle as a mobile power plant: an output socket with a voltage of 220-230 volts operated from an inverter connected to batteries; the second socket – with a three-phase voltage of 400 volts – from the generator of the power gas turbine plant. (Conclusions) It was proved that the proposed hybrid mobile vehicle design on a battery and a gas turbine was capable of operating throughout the entire working day, and to provide 16 horsepower of a diesel engine, it was enough to install an asynchronous electric motor with a capacity of 7.5 kilowatts. The authors calculated the compressor performance of the gas turbine engine, which was 0.178 kilograms per second. The geometric parameters of the combustion chamber and the technical characteristics of the turbocharger were determined.


This guide is designed to assist students in the Graphic Design program to find resources available to them in the Library and Learning Commons.


14-3-3 proteins are conserved multifunctional molecules, involved in many biological processes. Several 14-3-3 isoforms were recently shown to be cruciform DNA-binding proteins, which is a new activity ascribed to the 14-3-3 family. As cruciform-binding proteins, 14-3-3 proteins are putatively involved in the regulation of DNA replication. Inverted repeat sequences that are able to extrude into cruciform structures are a common feature of replication origins in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The involvement of cruciform structures in the initiation of DNA replication has been demonstrated. A leading model of 14-3-3 function proposes that they facilitate critical protein-protein interactions, thus serving as a central component of a wide variety of cellular processes.


The computation of stationary optical spectra of mol. systems based on a wavepacket propagation on excited potential energy surfaces (PES) is extended to the condensed phase case in utilizing the d. matrix theory. As an example, a one-dimensional model is studied for the photodissocn. of matrix isolated HCl. Emphasis is put on the interplay of the cage effect and the energy dissipation into the matrix. [on SciFinder (R)]