Article history: Received 23 July 2018 Received in revised form 9 September 2018 Accepted 22 September 2018 Available online 12 December 2018 The performance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) mostly relies on the electrolyte component, which is considered the heart of the SOFC. Since intermediatetemperature SOFCs (IT-SOFCs) have become popular, more consideration has been given to the performance of the electrolyte components for proton-conducting SOFCs (H-SOFCs). Potential electrolytes for H-SOFCs must meet the three basic requirements of good sinterability, high chemical stability and high ionic conductivity. Unfortunately, studies have shown that it is very difficult to find a material that meets all three requirements simultaneously. BaZrO3 and BaCeO3 are two common proton conducting electrolytes used in H-SOFCs. BaZrO3-based proton conductors showed perfect chemical stability in CO2 and H2O atmospheres but have poor sinterability, while BaCeO3-based proton conductors showed high proton conductivity and good sintering behaviour but could easily react with CO2 and H2O atmospheres. In contrast, SrCeO3 has low conductivity due to its lower rate of proton transport. Few literature reports describe efforts to improve the sintering behaviour and conductivity of electrolytes. Thus, this review highlights developing trends in electrolyte sintering behaviour and conductivity, which will support efforts to develop high-performance proton-conducting SOFCs.


SUMMARY Long-term (over 14 years) experiments on winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)–rice (Oryza sativa L.) crop rotations were conducted in Southwest China to investigate phosphorus (P) fertilizer utilization efficiency, including the partial factor productivity (PFP), agronomic efficiency (AE), internal efficiency (IE), partial P balance (PPB), recovery efficiency (RE) and the mass (input–output) balance. The seven treatments were Control, N, NP, NK, NPK, NPKM and NPKSt, representing various combinations of inorganic fertilizers (N, P and K), manure (M) and the application of rice straw (St). Without P application, the soil could supply c. 14·7–22·5 kg P/ha annually and produce, on average, c. 1·8 t/ha wheat and 6·0 t/ha rice. Phosphorus fertilization increased crop yields by 65·5 and 11·4% for wheat and rice, respectively, over the 14 years. The PFP values ranged from 80·2 to 177 kg grain/kg P fertilizer for wheat and from 222 to 255 kg/kg for rice in the NPK treatments. However, the mean AE over the 14-year period was 31·9 and 21·3 kg grain/kg inorganic P fertilizer for wheat and rice, respectively. The mean IE was 214 and 318 kg grain/kg P uptake for wheat and rice, respectively, during the cultivation period. The PPB for the whole rotation system over the 14 years ranged from 0·58 to 0·64. However, the mean RE of P fertilizer was 0·26 (varying from 0·22 to 0·29) in the wheat–rice cropping system over the 14-year period. For every 100 kg surplus P/ha per year, the concentration of soil P extracted by 0·5 m NaHCO3 at pH 8·5 (Olsen-P) would increase by, on average, 4·12 mg/kg in soil. For the wheat–rice cropping system, the current P application rate of 55–65 kg P/ha per year is able to sustain annual yields of about 3 t/ha for wheat and 7 t/ha for rice. This study suggests that, in order to achieve higher crop yields, the P fertilizer utilization efficiency should be considered when making P fertilizer recommendations in wheat–rice cropping systems.


This paper explores the failure of countries to coordinate climate policies as an equilibrium outcome of a game where countries optimize in the face of both unprecedented economic and environmental uncertainty. Because issues associated with climate change are historically unprecedented and thus policymakers do not have a prior distribution over possible outcomes, the usual theoretical framework based on governments maximizing expected utility may not be suitable for analyzing climate policy choice. Under an alternative plausible assumption that policymakers act strategically but choose the policy that incurs the highest possible gain in the worst-case scenario, this paper shows how coordination can be inferior to unilateralism in both carbon mitigation and economic loss minimization. In order to make progress in reaching a global agreement in this situation, additional restrictions that help to reduce uncertainty can lead to a coordinated outcome that benefits the environment and minimizes economic cost.


Skeletal muscle demonstrates a specific force deficit after repair of injured peripheral nerves, microneurovascular muscle transfer, and normal aging. Because atrophy cannot account for deficits in specific force, other, unknown, mechanisms are responsible for the resulting muscle contractile dysfunction under these circumstances. We tested the hypothesis that a subpopulation of denervated fibers is partially or completely responsible for the specific force deficit after partial denervation of the rat extensor digitorum longus muscle (EDL). Adult Fisher rats underwent either sham exposure or partial transection of 80% of the cross‐sectional area of the left deep peroneal nerve. After a 2‐week recovery period, maximum isometric force (F0) was measured in situ and maximum specific force (sF0) was calculated for EDL from both control (n = 8) and partial denervation (n = 7) groups. Innervated fiber cross‐sectional area (CSAinn) was measured directly from whole EDL cross sections after immunohistochemical labeling for neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM), a marker of muscle fiber denervation. A corrected specific force value (sF0‐inn) was calculated by normalizing F0 to CSAinn. Partial skeletal muscle denervation resulted in significant reductions in muscle mass, F0, and sF0. The percentage of muscle fibers expressing NCAM in the extrajunctional sarcolemma increased from 1.0 ± 0.8% in control to 49 ± 15% in partially denervated EDL muscles. A 62.7% deficit in EDL specific force was observed after partial denervation. Denervated muscle fibers accounted for 59.3% of this deficit, but sF0‐inn still differed significantly between control and partially denervated muscles, with a 25.5% difference between groups. In partially denervated muscles, the specific force deficit is partially but not fully explained by a subpopulation of noncontractile, denervated fibers. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 25: 31–38 2002


Japanese encephalitis (JE) remains endemo-epidemic in several countries in East, South-East and South Asia. The disease has been under control in Japan since the 1970s owing to mass immunization using mouse-brain-derived inactivated vaccine and to reduced vector mosquito populations. The vector density which was once reduced by wide spraying of insecticides in rice fields showed an increasing trend after the 1980s as a result of mosquito resistance. In the Republic of Korea, the number of JE cases showed a significant decrease after 1983 also because of mass immunization using mouse-brain-derived vaccine. On the other hand, large outbreaks of JE continued to occur in China, Viet Nam, Thailand, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. In China, a hamster-kidney cell-derived vaccine was developed and used for human immunization. Besides human JE, the fatal outcome of equine JE is an economic problem in China. Current JE vaccine derived from mouse brain is highly purified and its safety and efficacy have been proved by field-tests as well as laboratory experiments. In spite of slight antigenic differences among JE virus isolates, JE vaccine produced by a classical Nakayama strain was effective in preventing overt JE in a field study in Thailand. The technology of mouse-brain-derived inactivated JE vaccine production was transferred from Japan to India, Thailand and Viet Nam. The production of JE vaccine in these countries is still on a pilot scale and insufficient for mass-immunization of susceptible target populations.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The seabird tick Ixodes uriae parasitizes over 60 host species in the circumpolar regions of both hemispheres. To assess the impacts of these ticks on the growth and development of nestling seabirds, we used a logistic growth model to interpolate between successive measures of mass (g) and wing chord (mm) for 558 Cassin's auklet Ptychoramphus aleuticus and 344 rhinoceros auklet Cerorhinca monocerata chicks over 11 years (1997–2008, less 2003) on Triangle Island, British Columbia, Canada. From the model, we estimated the asymptotic measure and the age at inflection point for each chick's growth trajectory, and assessed their relationships with tick load relative to other sources of annual and seasonal variation in growth. Most chicks (72.4% of Cassin's auklets, 62.2% of rhinoceros auklets) hosted ≥ 1 ticks, and the median tick load on infested chicks was two in both species. Infestation rates varied by a factor of about two among years (0.42 to 0.87 overall), but were uncorrelated between species and with air temperatures over the preceding winter. The probability of hosting a tick declined strongly with chick age, mainly in the first 20 days after hatching, and to near zero by fledging. Asymptotic weights and/or wing lengths declined with tick load in both species, but at normal loads the reductions were minor relative to those imposed by other factors; only at very high loads, which were rare, were effects likely to be biologically relevant. Tick load and survival to fledging were unrelated in both species. While our study found little influence of ticks, we believe there is need for further study of the relationships between parasites and seabird demography, especially in light of ongoing environmental change.


Metal hydrides (MHs) can store hydrogen produced from biomass at low pressure and high volumetric energy density. However, the endothermic reaction that occurs during hydrogen discharge decreases the hydrogen flow rate, which prevents the generation of sufficient power for fuel cell (FC) devices. Because a previous study reported that the hydrogen capacity of MHs would drop by approximately 20% due to the hydrogen sulfide contained in hydrogen from biomass, the utilizable amount of hydrogen in MHs should be enhanced. In this study, MH utilization for an FC-assisted bicycle in consideration of waste heat recovery from MH to FC was investigated. The results show that the MH-based hydrogen storage system can weigh 8 kg or lower for the FC bicycle to travel twice the distance of a lithium-ion-battery-derived bicycle. Using the mathematical model of hydrogen discharge from the MH, the heat transfer of a small MH cartridge for the FC bicycle was investigated. The center of the cartridge cooled by approximately 20 K from the initial temperature, indicating the necessity of heat injection into the MH cartridge even if the initial and boundary temperatures were high. It was also concluded that 83% of the hydrogen charged in the MH could be utilized to maintain the hydrogen flow rate to run a 220 W FC.


Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID) flared-up as pneumonia for an unknown cause in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and was spread swiftly outside of Wuhan to other countries, later. Objective:  To find out the Chest X-ray's findings in positive cases for Covid-19. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Department of radiology, Farooq Hospital Lahore. 150 patients of different age groups were enrolled in this study with convenient sampling technique. We included only those patients in this study who were symptomatic and have positive PCR of Covid-19 virus while the asymptomatic were excluded. Results: All 150 patients were with the history of positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of COVID and were symptomatic. 85 (56.7%) males and 65 (43.3%) females were enrolled in this study. Out of 150 patients 54 (63%) patients presented with the history of fever, 103 (68.7%) had history of diabetes, 54 (36%) had history of hypertension, 57 (38%) had history of smoking, 69 (46%) had history of cough, and all patients presented with the history of loss of smell. On X-ray 87 (58%) shows Air Space Opacification, 98 (65.3%) shows Inflammatory Process, 46 (30.7%) shows Ground Glass Appearance, 52 (34.7%) shows Consolidation, 9 (6%) shows Pleural effusion, 15 (10%) has cardiomegaly, 15 (10%) has bronchitis and 8 (5.3%) has pulmonary edema. Conclusion: The chest X-ray is the basic modality for identifying patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and it is especially useful due to its low cost and low radiation exposure. Early changes in the lung parenchyma and consolidation and hazy pattern can be detected and that will help to reduce the rate of hospitalization due to Covid-19.
Key words: Chest X-ray, Covid-19, viral infection, pandemic disease, mortality


Abstract Bombax ceiba is a beautiful and deciduous tree with important economic and ecological values. Here, we sequenced the intact mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of B. ceiba on the PacBio sequencing platform (Pacific Biosciences, Menlo Park, CA). The mitogenome is 594,390 bp and is comprised of 35 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, and 25 tRNA genes. The phylogeny analysis suggested that B. ceiba was closely clustered with the genus Gossypium.


There are few studies addressing duodenal inflammation. This study was designed to investigate the effects of a recently developed biotechnological product, a nano-formulation of olmesartan medoxomil (OM) - olmesartan medoxomil zeinmersomes (OMZ) - for the treatment of indomethacin-induced duodenitis in rats. Adult male Wistar rats were given indomethacin (10 mg/kg/day) for four weeks. They were divided into a positive control group (PC, untreated) and two groups treated orally with 3 mg/kg per day of OM or OMZ for the last two weeks of the 4-week indomethacin-treatment. At end of the four weeks, blood and duodenum were collected. Duodenal homogenate was used for measurement of levels of myeloperoxidase, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), malondialdehyde, reduced glutathione (GSH), and cleaved caspase-3. Duodenal sections were stained with H&E. Gene expressions of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB p65), Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax), and B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) by RT-PCR, and protein expression of survivin by western blot were assessed. Plasma and duodenal olmesartan concentrations were measured by high performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. The duodenitis rats showed significantly higher duodenal levels of myeloperoxidase, TNF-α, IL-6, malondialdehyde, and cleaved caspase-3, a significantly lower GSH level, and histopathological alterations. Moreover, they showed upregulated gene expressions of NF-κB p65 and Bax, downregulated gene expression of Bcl-2, decreased Bcl-2/Bax ratio, and lower protein expression of survivin. OMZ was more effective in protecting the duodenum from indomethacin-induced injuries compared to OM due to improved delivery, higher bioavailability, and better anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiapoptotic effects. OMZ could be a better choice for hypertensive patients with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs-induced duodenitis.


Counting people in dense crowds is a demanding task even for humans. This is primarily due to the large variability in appearance of people. Often people are only seen as a bunch of blobs. Occlusions, pose variations and background clutter further compound the difficulty. In this scenario, identifying a person requires larger spatial context and semantics of the scene. But the current state-of-the-art CNN regressors for crowd counting are feedforward and use only limited spatial context to detect people. They look for local crowd patterns to regress the crowd density map, resulting in false predictions. Hence, we propose top-down feedback to correct the initial prediction of the CNN. Our architecture consists of a bottom-up CNN along with a separate top-down CNN to generate feedback. The bottom-up network, which regresses the crowd density map, has two columns of CNN with different receptive fields. Features from various layers of the bottom-up CNN are fed to the top-down network. The feedback, thus generated, is applied on the lower layers of the bottom-up network in the form of multiplicative gating. This masking weighs activations of the bottom-up network at spatial as well as feature levels to correct the density prediction. We evaluate the performance of our model on all major crowd datasets and show the effectiveness of top-down feedback.


Numerical simulations are performed to analyze effects that limit the combining efficiency in divided-pulse amplification setups. The model allows us to evaluate the impact of self- and cross-phase modulation between pulse replicas, Kramers-Krönig-related phase shifts, and inter- and intra-replica saturation effects. In particular, we show that when the energy per replica approaches the saturation energy, pulse reshaping induced by the gain saturation coupled with self-phase modulation imparts a temporal differential phase that decreases the combining efficiency. This effect limits the energy that can be extracted by a single replica, thereby providing design rules to scale the performances of short pulse laser sources using this technique.


ABSTRACT Excellence in higher education teaching has become a policy priority of governments worldwide in recent years. In the United Kingdom, for example, the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework in 2016 heralded an unprecedented focus on the quality of teaching. Set against the backdrop of such policy developments and wider global interest in teaching in the higher education sector, this paper discusses the conceptualisation and implementation of an innovative approach to observing teaching and learning as part of a faculty professional development project in an English university. It examines the attitudes, perceptions and experiences of academic staff involved. In reconceptualising and reconfiguring the application of observation as a method by removing it from an assessment domain, the paper argues that this approach has uncovered new opportunities for using observation as a tool of educational inquiry for professional development purposes. This has led to the transformation of observation into a catalyst for developing collegial understanding of what constitutes effective teaching and learning in higher education, as well as providing a collaborative forum for staff to reflect on and share ideas for improving their practice.


This study is going to consider the factors vital for comprehension. The Graded Salience Hypothesis is the framework for this study. Persian indirect requests will be tested and the relation between different contexts, familiarity level and reading times will be studied. At first, figurative and literal contexts were prepared. A software for measuring reading time in self-paced reading experiments was designed. In the first pretest, participants defined the familiarity of expressions. The second pretest aimed to confirm the sameness of context bias. In the first part of the main test, participants read each indirect request in a figurative context and reading times were recorded. In the second part, participants read each indirect request in a literal context and reading times were recorded. After comparing the reading times, it was concluded that Graded Salience Hypothesis predictions were not confirmed and sometimes, context was a more important factor than salience. Therefore, instead of a parallel process, a semi-serial process was witnessed. Therefore, among Persian Indirect requests, salient meaning in familiar and less familiar figurative expressions was figurative meaning. In unfamiliar indirect requests, the salient meaning was figurative and literal meaning. Therefore, literal meaning was not salient meaning and this finding challenges the modular-based views.


INTRODUCTION
Preeclampsia (PE) is a major contributor to maternal and foetal morbidity and mortality worldwide. It manifests as high blood pressure and proteinuria in women at more than 20 weeks of gestation. Abnormal levels of anti- and pro-angiogenesis factors are known to be associated with PE. In the present study, we aimed to determine the localisation of angiogenic factor with G patch and FHA domains 1 (AGGF1) in the placenta and to compare the expression levels of AGGF1 in the third-trimester placentas of preeclamptic and normotensive pregnancies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Placental tissue samples were collected from women with PE (n = 28) and without PE (n = 28). The normotensive controls without PE were matched for gestational age at delivery with the patients with PE. The expression levels of AGGF1 in the placental tissues were evaluated using immunohistochemistry, quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blot.

RESULTS
The immunoexpression of AGGF1 was localised in the syncytiotrophoblast tissue. Notable, the mRNA and protein expression levels of AGGF1 were decreased in preeclamptic placentas as compared with the normotensive control group (P < 0.05).

DISCUSSION
Our results suggest that the decreased AGGF1 in preeclamptic placentas may be related to the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.


Reports an experimental study of the fracture of concrete at "arious crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) rates with time to peak loads ranging from about 1 sec to 3 days (over five orders of magnitude). Tests were conducted on three-point bend specimens of three sizes in the ratio 1:2:4. Quasi-elastic fracture analysis, based on the effective modulus jrom creep theory, is used to evaluate the results according to the size effect method. The fracture toughness is found to decrease in agreement with the trend known for the dynamic range. The effective length of the fracture process zone is found to decrease with increasing rate, which implies increasing brittleness and a shift toward linear elastic fracture mechanics behavior for slow loading. Load relaxation at constant CMOD in the prepeak and post-peak stages of fracture tests was also investigated. The response tends to a straight line in the logarithm of elapsed time, and the post-peak relaxation is nearly twice as strong as the linear viscoelastic relaxation of unnotched specimens, The difference between these two relaxations must be caused by time-dependent processes in the fracture zone. The results reveal that in concrete there is a strong interaction between fracture and creep, which might cause the load-carrying capacity of structures with cracks to decrease significantly with load duration. However, extrapolations to loads beyond several days of duration would be speculative.


In confocal microscopy imaging, target objects are labeled with fluorescent markers in the living specimen, and usually appear as spots in the observed images. Spot detection and analysis is therefore an important task but it is still heavily reliant on manual analysis. In this paper, a novel shape modeling algorithm is proposed for automating the detection and analysis of the spots of interest. The algorithm exploits a Gaussian mixture model to characterize the spatial intensity distribution of the spots, and estimates parameters using a novel split-and-merge expectation maximization (SMEM) algorithm. In previous work the split step is random which is an issue for biological analysis where repeatability is important. The new split/merge steps are deterministic, hence more useful, and further do not impact adversely on the optimality of the final result.


Cross-language article linking (CLAL) is the task of finding corresponding article pairs of different languages across encyclopedias. This task is a difficult disambiguation problem in which one article must be selected among several candidate articles with similar titles and contents. Existing works focus on engineering text-based or link-based features for this task, which is a time-consuming job, and some of these features are only applicable within the same encyclopedia. In this paper, we address these problems by proposing cross-encyclopedia entity embedding. Unlike other works, our proposed method does not rely on known cross-language pairs. We apply our method to CLAL between English Wikipedia and Chinese Baidu Baike. Our features improve performance relative to the baseline by 29.62%. Tested 30 times, our system achieved an average improvement of 2.76% over the current best system (26.86% over baseline), a statistically significant result.


The exploration of the dimensions of digital activism was the objective of this work. A non-experimental study was carried out with a non-probabilistic selection of 150 students, considering their affiliation with student organizations. A four-dimensional structure was established; technological habitus, computational self-efficacy, diffusion of innovations and Internet mobilization that explained 48% of the total variance, although the design limited the results to the research scenario, suggesting the extension of the study and the inclusion of variables such as training, socialization and intention to use the devices and networks


ABSTRACT The environmental concerns caused by textile waste require technological development to support recycling and re-utilization. Incineration and landfill of textile waste are still widely used, and they lead to soil and water pollution as well as emissions of greenhouse gases. Recently, various research studies on textile waste treatment try to find appropriate technical means to realize environmental protection and sustainable recycling. Here, we summarize and discuss new ways to improve the treatment of textile waste, including its utilization value and transformation ways, to help remediation and lower environmental impacts. This paper comprehensively expounds on the current situation of textile waste treatment and the recycling value of different types of textile waste. This includes recycling composite materials, fillers, energy materials and carbonized adsorption material, which support sustainable development with social and economic benefits. Overall, this shows that textile waste needs to be separated at large scales globally to reduce the carbon footprint, improve socio-economic benefits and mitigate environmental pollution. Otherwise, there is a risk that the global warming and ecosystem transformations, due to pollution and urbanization, could lead to severe adverse effects such as cancer and global pandemics. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


Use of Meeting Facilities in Particuler Information Back Catalogue Library Unit Unima by Students. The existence of every college library is a very important tool in supporting the high university: education and teaching, training and community service, therefore Univercity library can not be separated from the duties and obligations of universitye that parent institution. According Sulistiyo Basuki (1993) argue that: library is aroom, of abuiding it self which is used to store books or other publications are usually stored according to specific arrangements to use usually stored according to specific arrangements to use the reader is not for sale. E.Martono (199:2) says that "The library is a working unit in the form of a place to collect, store, preserve library collections are maintened and systematically arranged in a cartain way to be used continuously by the wearer as a source of information. The research method used in this research is the method deskriptif.argus that Jalaludin Rachmat. This method only situations or events under study by describing and depicting the object at the same time based on facts. At the university library has function as : Storage research,educaticon, information,cultural in order to all students can determine the purpose and function of catalog as a representative summary dovument in the library catalog can also find the system thad applied in unit library UNIMA,the UNIMA library should conduct user education early in each school year to explain h-metters relating to the benefits of the use of the library. Keywords : Catalog, Library College, Student


As photovoltaic energy continues to gain market penetration, thanks in part to substantial cost reductions on the solar modules, attention is shifting to the balance-of-system performance and costs. This paper proposes an approach to explore the design limits of a module-integrated inverter by means of the component-level multiobjective optimization. A two-stage inverter along with an active filter to eliminate double-frequency content of the dc-link current is proposed for the topology of module-integrated inverter, and three candidate topologies were taken into account for the dc-dc stage. Efficiency, volume, and reliability of the converters are taken as objective functions, and comprehensive component modeling is performed. Pareto frontiers reveal that the limits of the system are illustrated, which help the designer to pick the most suitable topology and design for the entire converter. Experimental results show the validity of the modeling and optimization technique.


Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) is one of the most widely used nanotherapeutics for the treatment of advanced/metastatic breast cancer. PLD accumulates in tumors utilizing so-called the enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect. Nevertheless, therapeutic efficacy and long term survival remain variable due to the development of acquired resistance. Elucidating the mechanisms of acquired resistance to PLD shall help developing new strategies to improve therapeutic outcome. It has been largely overlooked that the transport of therapeutics across biological barriers can significantly affect the efficacy of cancer therapies. Previously, we showed that the transport of PLD to tumors depends both on the tumor type and organ site. This effect is controlled by the extent to which endothelial cells (ECs) are covered by the collagen type IV (Col4) in the basement membrane, which in turn is influenced by the levels of MMP-9. Here, we have developed 4T1 tumor model which develops acquired resistance to PLD and spontaneous lung metastases. Our objective is to elucidate the resistant mechanism by evaluating the changes in the transport of PLD to the sensitive and resistant/metastatic tumors. BALB/c mice bearing 4T1 cancers were treated with PLD intravenously when tumor volumes reached a size of approximately 100-200 mm3 . Tumor volumes in all mice decreased after initial PLD injections (sensitive). However, tumors started to grow again after 20 days and didn9t respond to the second/third injections (resistant). Furthermore, 13 out of 14 mice developed spontaneous lung metastases. To elucidate the mechanisms of the resistance, mice bearing sensitive or resistant tumors were sacrificed after 24 hours of PLD injection, respectively. PLD accumulation in tumors was evaluated by imaging fluorescence of doxorubicin. Immunofluorescence staining was performed to evaluate the expression of ECs, Col4, MMP-9, and efflux pump associated p-glycoprotein (P-gp) in the primary tumors, and the expression of ECs and Col4 were also evaluated in lung metastases. PLD accumulation was significantly decreased in the resistant tumors compared to the sensitive tumors, although P-gp expression was not increased in the resistant tumors. The amount of ECs and Col4 increased in the resistant tumors. Interestingly, ECs were covered more tightly by Col4 in the resistant tumors as compared with the sensitive tumors, which could decrease the EPR effect in the tumors. MMP-9 expression decreased in the resistant tumors, suggesting less degradation of Col4 in the basement membrane. Coverage of ECs by Col4 was similar between the metastatic lung tumors and uninvolved lung tissue as well as the resistant primary tumors, indicating the EPR effect is not increased in the metastatic tumors. In summary, ratio of ECs covered by Col4 is higher in the resistant/metastatic tumors as compared to that in the sensitive primary tumors. This structural change in the tumor microenvironment, impeding the sufficient PLD transport to the tumors after the initial PLD therapy, can be a cause of acquired resistance/development of lung metastasis. These changes should be taken into account to develop strategies for overcoming the acquired resistance and metastasis. Citation Format: Kai M, Liu YT, Saito Y, Ferrari M, Yokoi K. Changes in the tumor microenvironment develop acquired resistance to pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in breast cancer mouse model. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2015 Dec 8-12; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-06-07.


Two experiments were conducted to evaluate feedlot performance, lactational characteristics, and carcass composition and quality of heifers and the performance of their calves in a single-calf heifer (SCH) system. In Exp. 1, 13 [10 lactating (L) and 3 nonlactating (NL)] prenatally androgenized (PA) heifers, born to cows implanted with testosterone propionate (TP) and 19 (13 L and 6 NL) control (C) heifers, born to nonimplanted cows, were used. Heifers were calved and the pairs were placed in feedlot pens to evaluate the effects of PA on feedlot performance and lactation. Heifers were fed an 85% concentrate diet and fed to a compositional endpoint of 1.1 cm of subcutaneous fat cover, at which point calves were weaned and heifers slaughtered approximately 12 h later. The NL heifers consumed 17.0% less (P<0.01) dry matter and were 30.8% more (P<0.01) efficient in feed conversion. When calf performance was included, overall feed efficiency of L heifers was 26.9% greater (P<0.05; 0.151 vs 0.119) than that of the NL feedlot heifers. Prenatal androgenization had no effect on heifer performance. Four percent fat-corrected milk yield averaged 7.79 and 5.62 kg/d for PA and C heifers, respectively. The NL heifers had 11.0% greater (P<0.01) marbling score and yield grades were 3.77 and 3.03 (P<0.05) for NL and L heifers, respectively. Livers (P<0.01) and kidneys (P<0.05) as a percentage of shrunk weight were heavier for L heifers than for NL heifers. Two carcasses were classified as hard-boned (C-maturity) and 74% received a USDA Choice grade. The L heifers tended (P<0.10) to have lower taste panel tenderness scores; however, shearforce was similar (P=0.81) for L and NL heifers. In Exp. 2, 24 Angus × Holstein heifers were utilized in the single-calf heifer system, similar to Exp. 1. Calves were weaned from their dam between d 64 and 89 postpartum. Heifers that had their calves early weaned (EW) gained 44.2% faster (P<0.01) and consumed 10.8% less (P<0.05) DM than L heifers. The EW heifers were 60.0% more (P<0.01) efficient than L heifers. However, when calf performance was included with heifer performance, L heifers were 23.7% more (P<0.05) efficient than EW heifers. The EW heifers had 18.9% heavier (P<0.01) hot carcasses than L heifers. Backfat thickness was 1.07 and 0.66 cm (P<0.01) for the EW and L heifers.


Several breakthrough applications in biomedical imaging have been reported in the recent years using advanced photoacoustic microscopy imaging systems. While two-photon and other optical microscopy systems have recently emerged in portable and wearable form, there is much less work reported on the portable and wearable photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) systems. Working towards this goal, we report our studies on a low-cost and portable photoacoustic microscopy system that uses a custom fabricated 2.5 mm diameter ring ultrasound transducer integrated with a fiber-coupled laser diode. The ultrasound transducer is centered at 17.25 MHz, and shows ~ 45% and ~ 100% fractional bandwidths for ultrasound pulse-echo and photoacoustic A-line signals respectively. To achieve overall system portability, besides the imaging head, other back-end imaging system components need to be readily portable as well. In this direction, we have studied the potential use of compact pre-amplifiers, scanning stages and microcontroller-based data acquisition and reconstruction for photoacoustic imaging. The portable PAM system is validated by imaging phantoms embedded with light absorbing targets. Future directions that will likely help achieve a completely portable and wearable photoacoustic microscopy system are discussed.


This chapter will review the roles of protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) cells. PKC family proteins are central to many signalling pathways within cells, and some have been implicated in the oncogenesis of numerous cancers (Benimetskaya, et al., 2001;Keenan, et al., 1999;O'Brian, 1998). In CLL, inhibitors of PKC signalling have been shown to have cytotoxic effects on the malignant cells, and the ,  and  isoforms of PKC have been shown to have pathophysiological roles (Holler, et al., 2009;Nakagawa, et al., 2006;Ringshausen, et al., 2002). The aim of this chapter is to discuss whether PKC can be considered a drug target in the treatment of this disease. We will examine how inhibitors of PKCs have been used in past preclinical studies of CLL, and will discuss the roles of various PKC isozymes (namely PKCII, PKC, PKC and PKC) in the pathology of CLL. This chapter will end with the proposal that inhibition of PKC may be useful in combination therapy through a potential role in regulating Mcl-1 expression.


The paper unfolds a disappointing picture of the rights promised to the minorities through Article 30 and their implementation. The debates in the constituent assembly imply a tolerant rather than an encouraging approach of the state towards the minorities. This explains the stand of the Constitution-makers not to provide the promised fundamental rights automatically but to make the minorities assert their demands. As far as interpretation of Article 30 by the courts is concerned, one finds three trends. Firstly, the judgments are contextual, hence, many times, they are different, reflecting the personal convictions of the judges. This makes interpretation of the Article vague and subject to a constant struggle between the minorities and the state. Secondly, these judgments are more liberal with linguistic minorities than with the religious ones and, thirdly, they reflect a trend towards gradually reducing the scope of the Article, giving space to governmental regulations and control.


High Speed I/O interfaces (600) such as DVI, S-ATA or PCI-Express require expensive test equipment. Loop-back tests are widely used as one alternative, but lack coverage of timing-related defects. A system and method for on-chip jitter injection using a variable delay (203) with controllable amplitude (501) and high accuracy is provided that improves the coverage of loop-back tests.


Genome instability is a potentially lethal event for a eukaryotic cell, and a mutational force for genetic diseases such as cancer. DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) can drive genome instability and are sensed by the DNA damage checkpoint, a defined set of evolutionarily-conserved proteins that bind the DSB to signal a pause or arrest of the cell cycle and recruit proteins to repair the DNA lesion. Telomeres, the physical ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes, are specialized DSBs that suppress DNA damage checkpoint activation by an unknown mechanism(s), even though telomeres are bound by many of the DNA damage checkpoint proteins that signal cell cycle arrest. Carneiro et al. (Nature 467: 228-232) addressed this question using Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells that lack Taz1, the protein that binds to double-stranded telomere repeats. Telomeres in taz1{triangleup} cells have single-stranded DNA regions that are bound by checkpoint and DNA repair proteins, but cells do not arrest. Carneiro et al. found that the ortholog of the human DNA damage checkpoint protein 53BP1 (Crb2) found at DSBs was not recruited to telomeres. Crb2 can bind to dimethylated lysine 20 of histone H4 (H4K20me2) in nucleosomes. Carneiro et al. presented data that H4K20me2 was depleted near telomeres in wild type and taz1{triangleup} cells, suggesting a mechanism for checkpoint suppression. Our efforts to pursue this exciting result led to the discovery that H4K20me2 is not depleted near telomeres, indicating that checkpoint suppression occurs by some other mechanism(s).


The advantages to be gained in the operation of radar systems at very high frequencies have led to the use of frequencies of several thousand megacycles. Operation at these frequencies has imposed serious problems in obtaining suitable tube behavior. Because of the difficulty in obtaining amplification at the transmission frequency, the r.f. section of the usual radar receiver consists of a crystal converter driven by a beating oscillator and operating directly into an i.f. amplifier. Since the midband frequency of the latter has commonly been either 30 or 60 Mc., it has been necessary to provide beating oscillators operating at frequencies differing from those of the transmitter by only a few per cent. For radar systems intended to operate at approximately 3000 Mc., which were under development in the early days of the war, it was found that triodes then available gave unsatisfactory performance. Attention shifted to the possibility of using velocity-modulated tubes, and the particular form known as the reflex oscillator came into general use. In this paper the requirements on beating-oscillator tubes for radar systems will be discussed, and the design features which have made the reflex oscillator eminently satisfactory in this application will be pointed out. Problems encountered in such oscillators will be outlined, and the solution in a number of cases is indicated. In some instances military requirements and expediency were in conflict with the optimum performance, and hence certain compromises were necessary.


The AA. describe drug use and drug-related crime in the contemporary city. In this description, they adopt a notion of the city as a market-place, and more precisely as a «bazaar», for its multiplicity, incessant bargaining, trade and manoeuvre. In this bazaar legality and illegality intermingle, and moral boundaries are constantly negotiated. They also examine the metaphor of the «barricades», an important feature of the city in both literary and sociological accounts. Finally, they demystify the image of the drugs economy as somehow being a unique challenge to urban life. This demystification is based on noting similarities between illegal economies and characteristics of official, legal economies.


In a still ongoing open, randomized prospective trial the preliminary data of 50 intensive care patients on artificial ventilation were analysed. The evaluation included clinical and bacteriological efficacy and tolerance of ceftazidime alone or in combination with tobramycin versus azlocillin plus tobramycin. Artificially ventilated patients who had been treated in an intensive care unit for at least five days were selected to enter the study because of a high probability of colonisation with gram-negative bacteria. 16 patients were treated for bronchopulmonary infection with ceftazidime alone, and 17 each were treated with ceftazidime plus tobramycin or with azlocillin plus tobramycin. In the ceftazidime group nine patients were cured and three were improved (75% clinical success). Of the patients treated with ceftazidime plus tobramycin, 11 were cured and one was improved (75% clinical success); one patient died from very severe multiple trauma. In the azlocillin-tobramycin group, six patients were cured and two were improved (57% clinical success). Two patients from this group died from their underlying disease and another died from multiple organ failure due to septicemia.


The immunoprotective beta-mannan of Candida albicans occurs as part of the cell wall phosphomannan N-linked glycoprotein. This macromolecule is composed of an extended alpha1,6 linked mannopyranan backbone containing alpha1,2 mannopyranan branches, to which beta1,2 mannopyranan epitopes are attached. The synthesis of beta1,2-mannan disaccharides clustered on a glucose core has been achieved as a way to imitate the multipoint display of beta-mannans in the native glycoprotein. The clustered epitopes were conjugated to tetanus toxoid and bovine serum albumin. Rabbits immunized with tetanus toxoid cluster glycoconjugate gave good antibody titres for the disaccharide cluster or simple trisaccharide epitope (coupled to BSA). The anti-sera also showed strong cross-reactivity with a Candida albicansbeta-mannan cell wall extract. These immunochemical results are compared with data obtained with non-cluster disaccharide and trisaccharide glycoconjugate antigens. The same conjugates gave substantially lower antibody levels when used to immunize mice.


Aim: This paper aims to develop the Turkish version of the dental environmental stress (DES) scale that can evaluate perceived DES in Turkish dental students. Materials and Methods: A methodological study was conducted to adapt the DES scale to Turkish language in Gaziantep University, Faculty of Dentistry. The study group consisted of 392 students in the academic year 2018/19. The students were surveyed using the DES scale, translated into Turkish language. The demographic characteristics were analyzed by using descriptive statistical analyses. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity were employed to evaluate the suitability of the dataset. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to assess construct validity. Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 was used to predict the power of the scale. In reliability analysis, the instrument's internal consistency and corrected item-total correlation, Cronbach's α reliability were studied. Results: Content Validity Index of the scale items was found to have a high validity range of 0.97. Two items with an estimate value less than 0.4 were excluded and 30 items yielded five factor. Five factors having eigenvalues greater than 1.0 explained 52.299% of the total variance. Each factor showed adequate internal consistency. Factor loadings ranged from 0.46 to 0.77. In the concurrent validity, significant positive relationship was found between DASS-21 and Turkish DES. Conclusion: According to psychometric properties, the Turkish version of the DES presented good results, thus it could be a valid instrument to assess the perceived stress in Turkish dental students.


In this paper we compare several front-ends for Automatic Speech Recognition systems operating under noise conditions. The analyzed front-ends are based on standard MFCC parameterizations and include methods to compensate the effect of the noise over the representation of the speech signal. Three different compensation methods are considered in this work: Cepstral Mean Normalization, Spectral Subtraction and a novel method that we propose, based on a Statistical Compensation of the noise in the logarithmic Filter Bank Output domain. The considered front-ends are evaluated with Automatic Speech Recognition experiments using speech acquired in car environments. Making use of the French VODIS speech database (recorded in several cars running in real traffic situations) we have carried out recognition experiments to compare the different front-ends. The results show that the front-end including the Statistical Compensation of the noise outperforms the other considered methods.


PURPOSE
Primary neuroendocrine tumors of the bladder are rare and they include small and large cell variants. We reviewed our experience with treating these tumors with radical cystectomy to evaluate their histopathological characteristics and clinical outcomes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
From August 1971 to June 2004, 2,005 patients underwent radical cystectomy for primary bladder cancer at our institution, of whom 25 (1.2%) had neuroendocrine tumors of the bladder, including small cell carcinoma in 20 and large cell carcinoma in 5. Pure neuroendocrine-type histology was identified in 16 cases, including 1 with small and large cell features, while the remaining 9 had mixed histology, that is transitional cell carcinoma in 8 and adenocarcinoma in 1. Multi-agent chemotherapy was administered to 14 patients.

RESULTS
Median patient age was 68 years (range 40 to 82) and 19 patients were male (76%). A total of 19 patients (76%) had lymph node involvement, of whom 2 had small liver metastases found intraoperatively, while only 4 (16%) had organ confined tumors and 2 (8%) had extravesical, node negative disease. These tumors tended to have a flat, ulcerative gross appearance with lymphovascular invasion, carcinoma in situ and necrosis present microscopically. Median followup was 11.8 years (range 18 days to 15.1 years). Five-year overall and recurrence-free survival was 10% and 13%, respectively. There was no significant survival difference between small and large cell carcinoma. Mixed histologies tended to do better than pure neuroendocrine tumors, although this did not attain statistical significance (p = 0.064). Patients receiving multimodality therapy had significantly better overall (p = 0.051) and recurrence-free (p = 0.003) survival than those treated with cystectomy alone.

CONCLUSIONS
Neuroendocrine tumors of the bladder usually present with advanced pathological stage and portend a poor prognosis. Adjuvant chemotherapy protocols may provide improved survival compared with cystectomy alone.


ABSTRACT Background We investigated attachment behaviours of children with Down syndrome (DS) toward their preschool teacher and examined whether children's emotional expressivity predicted the incidence of attachment behaviours. We hypothesised that children with DS will show a low level of secure attachment to their teacher and that emotional competence will be associated with secure attachment. Method Forty-one children with DS (21 males, 20 females, M mental age = 34.6 months, SD = 11.9) were matched with 51 typically developing (TD) children (24 males, 27 females, M mental age = 32.2 months, SD = 17.5). Attachment and socio-emotional development were assessed for each child. Results Children with DS presented lower scores of attachment, affiliation, anger, and emotional competence compared to TD children. Affiliation in high-stress situations was predictive of attachment behaviours. Conclusions The findings show that children with DS were less attached to the teacher and less emotionally expressive compared to TD children.


Central to the success of any mining company is the ability to manage capital investment effectively so as to ensure acceptable stakeholder returns within an overall strategic context. Critical to this process is the effective selection and implementation of a strategically aligned project portfolio that enables optimal resource exploitation while operating within mandated bounds and identified constraints. Consideration is given to the strategic long-term planning process, an investment prioritization methodology and specific tools and techniques based on the discounted cash flow philosophy.


The effectiveness of antenatal intervention in women with increasing obesity is unknown. This study investigated whether there was a differential effect of antenatal intervention on diet, physical activity and pregnancy outcomes in women stratified by obesity class using data from the UK Pregnancies Better Eating and Activity Trial (UPBEAT) (n = 1555). The stratification was by World Health Organization classifications: Class I, II and III (30–34.9 kg/m2, 35–39.9 kg/m2 and ≥40 kg/m2). Using linear and logistic regression, adjusted for confounders, outcomes were assessed post-intervention (27+0–28+6 weeks' gestation) and in late pregnancy (34+0–36+0 weeks' gestation). Interactions between obesity class and the intervention were explored. Compared to the standard care arm, class III intervention women had lower gestational weight gain (GWG) (−1.87 kg; 95% CI −3.29 to −0.47, p = 0.009), and the effect of the intervention was greater in class III compared to class I, by −2.01 kg (95% CI −3.45 to −0.57, p = 0.006). Class I and II intervention women reported significantly lower dietary glycaemic load and saturated fat intake across their pregnancy. This differential effect of the intervention suggests antenatal interventions for women with obesity should stratify outcomes by obesity severity. This would inform evidence-based antenatal strategies for high-risk groups, including women with a BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2.


Jan Dullaert (1480-1513) was a direct student of John Mair and a teacher of Gaspar Lax, Juan de Celaya, and Juan Luis Vives. His commentary on Aristotle's Peri Hermeneias addresses the foundations of propositional logic, including a detailed analysis of conditionals (following Paul of Venice's Logica magna) and the semantics of logical connectives (conjunction, disjunction, and implication). Dullaert's propositional logic is limited to the immediate implications of the semantics of these connectives, i.e., their introduction and elimination rules. In the same context, he discusses several alternative treatments of semantic paradoxes, paying most attention to the approaches derived from Martin Le Maistre (based on the idea that sentential meaning is closed under entailment) and John Mair (based on the idea that self-falsifying sentences are false).


Summary form only given. It has been long believed that residual stress is the root cause of tin whisker formation on pure tin-plated component leads. However, tin whiskering also happens to a lesser degree on other tin-based alloys under certain conditions. In this study, the tin whisker phenomena were reported on Sn-Pb HASL coating layer inside plated through holes with press-fit complaint pins. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to monitor the nucleation and growth of whiskers in-situ. In additions, a nonlinear contact finite element analysis was carried out to theoretically calculate the stress/strain distribution on HASL coating inside PTH, which was under compression due to the inserted compliant pins. Experimental and theoretical calculation results show that the whisker initiation and growth to 20 micrometers could be achieved with a matter of 30 minutes at ambient temperature under certain stress conditions. The tin whisker initiation and growth were further studies at higher temperature at about 80 deg. C and at cold around -30 deg. C. Nano-indentation is performed to measure hardness and elastic modulus of the Sn-Pb coating layer where whiskers initiate, then compared to location where there is no whiskers observed. It is believed that establishment of a quantitative relationship between stress level, temperature, and whisker formation/growth could lead to better scientific methods for risk and reliability assessment with tin whiskers to safeguard a smooth Pb-free transition


The viability of preserved kidney is considered to be evaluated by mitochondrial function. We used the three experimental conditions of WIT 60 minutes (group I), 90 minutes (group II), and 120 minutes (group III) using rabbit. We measured the ATP value of renal tissue as a direct method before ischemia (control), immediately before recirculation, and at one hour, two hours, one day, two days, four days and seven days after recirculation, using isotachophoresis (Tachophor LKB 2127), and as an indirect method, serum pyruvic acid, lactic acid and LDH values were measured simultaneously. The ATP value in groups I, II, and III before recirculation were 1/10 lower than controls. However, as WIT became longer, the recovery speed was diminished. The serum P/L ratio reflected the mitochondrial function in group III. (p less than 0.05) The measurement of ATP value by this method, although it is somewhat invasive, is a useful method with a simple technique and a short analysis time. The serum P/L ratio is considered not to reflect the mitochondrial function directly, but can be measured adequately in WIT 120 minutes.


ABSTRACT The conversion of areas cultivated with sugarcane into eucalyptus forests can promote improvements in the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil. Within this context, the aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in the stocks and levels of carbon and nitrogen and soil-aggregate stability in an area of transition from sugarcane to eucalyptus in the State of Alagoas, Brazil. The study was carried out on a rural property, located in the district of Atalaia. The systems under evaluation consisted of four areas, one cultivated with sugarcane for approximately 20 years, taken as the reference area for the study, and three adjacent areas cultivated with eucalyptus forest, at 1, 3 and 6 years of age. Bulk density, the levels and stocks of carbon and nitrogen, and the soil aggregation index were all determined. The conversion of a sugarcane plantation under conventional tillage with straw burning into eucalyptus plantations promoted an increase in the levels and stocks of carbon and nitrogen in the soil; it also reduced bulk density and increased the water stability of aggregates. The results show that the conversion of sugarcane into eucalyptus in the Atlantic Forest region of Alagoas may be an alternative for promoting carbon sequestration and improving soil quality.


Quantifying the concordance between different cosmological experiments is important for testing the validity of theoretical models and systematics in the observations. In earlier work, we thus proposed the Surprise, a concordance measure derived from the relative entropy between posterior distributions. We revisit the properties of the Surprise and describe how it provides a general, versatile, and robust measure for the agreement between data sets. We also compare it to other measures of concordance that have been proposed for cosmology. As an application, we extend our earlier analysis and use the Surprise to quantify the agreement between WMAP 9, Planck 13, and Planck 15 constraints on the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\mathrm{CDM}$ model. Using a principle component analysis in parameter space, we find that the large Surprise between WMAP 9 and Planck 13 ($S=17.6$ bits, implying a deviation from consistency at 99.8% confidence) is due to a shift along a direction that is dominated by the amplitude of the power spectrum. The Planck 15 constraints deviate from the Planck 13 results ($S=56.3$ bits), primarily due to a shift in the same direction. The Surprise between WMAP and Planck consequently disappears when moving to Planck 15 ($S=\ensuremath{-}5.1$ bits). This means that, unlike Planck 13, Planck 15 is not in tension with WMAP 9. These results illustrate the advantages of the relative entropy and the Surprise for quantifying the disagreement between cosmological experiments and more generally as an information metric for cosmology.


The stability of the financial performance of financial intermediaries is one of the key determinants of the sustainable development of any country in the current world. Licensed Commercial Banks (LCB) and Licensed Finance Companies (LFC) are the main financial intermediaries in Sri Lanka. Lending is one of the primary incomegenerating activities in financial intermediaries. The credit risk arises due to the failure of borrowers to repay the loans or meet their contractual obligations. Among different types of risks facing LCB and LFC, credit risk is considered a significant determinant of financial performance. Even though numerous prior studies were conducted to examine the impact of credit risk management on the financial performance of LCB and LFC individually, there were very rare studies available that compared the impact of credit risk management practices on the financial performance of LCB and the LFC in Sri Lanka in parallel. Hence, the study aims to fill this empirical gap by investigating the impact of credit risk management on the financial performance of LCB and LFC. Further, the study investigated the level of credit risk management practices of Sri Lankan LCB sector and LFC sector by employing the CAMEL rating method. The sample comprises 15 LCBs and 34 LFCs and the examined period is from 2014 to 2019. The panel regression model to estimate the model. Data was collected through published annual reports. Descriptive analysis, Correlation, and Regression analysis were performed using EViews Statistical software. Based on the lowest CAMEL composite ranking LFC is ranked as the best sector of credit risk management. The findings of the study revealed useful insights for investors to invest their funds more accurately and earn higher profits with low risk. Based on the regression analysis, the study concludes that asset quality and capital adequacy significantly influence the performance of both LCBs and LFCs.


We hypothesized that one mechanical insult could affect cellular proliferation, matrix turnover, and the structural integrity of cartilage, and that these effects would be dose dependent and time dependent. One impact load of low impact (14.4 MPa ± 2.1 MPa), medium impact (22.8 MPa ± 5.8 MPa), or high impact (55.5 MPa ± 12.6 MPa) was administered to the posterior aspect of the medial femoral condyle of New Zealand White rabbits using a previously validated pendulum device. Animals were euthanized at 2, 6, and 12 weeks after impact, and the impacted and sham (contralateral limb) cartilage were harvested. Each specimen was assessed by light microscopy and by immunohistochemical methods. Although impacted specimens had greater loss of proteoglycan staining than sham cartilage, these changes were neither dose dependent nor time dependent. No structural damage, enzymatic proteoglycan or collagen breakdown, or cellular proliferation was identified in the different impact groups. Articular cartilage is a resilient tissue, particularly in situ, and can tolerate single impact loads of as much as 45% of the joint fracture threshold without considerable disruption or degradation.


ABSTRACT In this paper, experimental investigation on the carbosulphidation of alumina (Al2O3) for aluminium (Al) production and the sodiothermic reduction of aluminium sulphide (Al2S3) are presented. Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) was used as a reductant and source of sulphur. This work is the second of two-parts paper series. The experimental investigations of the Stage-1 process (Al2O3 carbosulphidation) were carried out at 1100–1600°C using a laboratory scale horizontal tube resistance-furnace. H2S gas, diluted with argon (5% H2S and 95% Ar), was reacted with pellets of a mixture of γ-Al2O3 and C powders (1:6 molar ratio) to produce Al2S3. The effects of gas injection rate, pelletizing pressure, temperature and reaction time on the conversion of Al2O3 to Al2S3 were investigated. The X-ray diffraction results confirmed the formation of Al2S3(s) in the reaction product above 1400°C. The conversion of Al2O3 to Al2S3 was found to be 99.5% at 1600°C and 12 h. The kinetics analysis of alumina sulphidation using Ginstling-Brounshtein diffusion model suggested the overall reaction was controlled by the diffusion of H2S gas through the reaction product (liquid Al2S3). The activation energy of the alumina sulphidation reaction was calculated to be 148.5 kJ mol−1. It has also been demonstrated in this study that Al can be extracted from Al2S3 by sodiothermic reduction using Na or NaH. In the case of Na, a level of Al conversion of 75% has been observed for reaction at 290°C.


Background Administration of treatment for cancer patients can require substantial health care resources and differences in administration burden between treatments are therefore important to take into account when comparing them. Besides the direct personnel and bed time, the administration can also have broader consequences on the organisation and process of care delivery, as well as on the patients. How to value differences in these parameters is however not straightforward. Nab-paclitaxel and paclitaxel are examples of two treatments with important differences in administration burden, and the objective of this study was to perform a time-motion study to compare time required for treatment administration. Material and methods Breast cancer patients vising the oncology day care unit at the department of oncology at Akademiska Hospital in Uppsala, Sweden, as part of their regular treatment-course with nab-paclitaxel (n=13) or paclitaxel (n=9) were included in the study. Time data collection was based on a questionnaire answered by hospital staff. Time for infusions and the total patient time in hospital were measured for each patient. Results Mean infusion times per administration of nab-paclitaxel and paclitaxel were 42.1 (Standard deviation (SD) 20.7) minutes and 104.3 (SD 43.3) minutes, respectively. Total patient times in clinic per infusion were 82.2 (SD 40.9) minutes and 183.9 (SD 34.8) minutes, respectively. A 12-week treatment course of nab-paclitaxel (every three weeks), nab-paclitaxel (weekly) and paclitaxel (weekly) would require in total 2.8, 8.4 and 20.9 hours of infusion time, respectively. The corresponding patient time in hospital would be 5.5, 16.4 and 36.8 hours, respectively. Conclusion There can be substantial differences in nurse and facility resources required for administration of chemotherapy, our data showed approximately a 7-fold difference in patient, personnel and facility time requirements between the compared treatments. In a time with shortage of both hospital personnel and facilities, the valuation of these resources is not easy and may have broader impact on the organisation and delivery of care. Monetary valuation using rent cost or salaries may in a time of resource shortage underestimate the true opportunity cost, and more research and discussions on how to prioritise use of these resources versus other costs are therefore needed. Citation Format: Nilsson A, Lundkvist J, Lindman H. Time and value of chemotherapy administration burden in a Swedish hospital. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2015 Dec 8-12; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-11-06.


We study the action of the mapping class group M(F) on the complex of curves of a non-orientable surface F. Following the outline of [1] we obtain, using the result of [4], a presentation for M(F) defined in terms of the mapping class groups of the complementary surfaces of collections of curves, provided that F is not sporadic, i.e. the complex of curves of F is simply connected. We also compute a finite presentation for the mapping class group of each spor adic surface.


Understanding the activation and regulatory functions of cyclin dependent kinases and their inhibitors is of great importance to cancer biology. Experiments from our lab and others have identified the Speedy/RINGO family of proteins as important regulators of mammalian cell cycle control. I show that Spy1 activates CDKs and stimulates p27Kip¹ degradation, thereby relieving an important cell cycle progression restraint. Using in vitro purified proteins in defined reactions, I demonstrate that Spy1 can directly activate CDK2 to phosphorylate p27 on Thr187, thereby targeting it for degradation and promoting S-phase entry. We also show that Spy1 is a component of the mammalian DNA damage response, preventing the DNA damage response and enhancing the survival of cells treated with DNA damaging agents. We show that Spy1 expression suppresses apoptosis in a p53- and p21-dependent fashion, allows for UV irradiation resistant DNA synthesis (UVDS), and inhibits the S- and G₂/M- checkpoints through inhibition of checkpoint response proteins. This leads to DNA damage tolerance and prevention of repair cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers through nucleotide excision repair suppression. Knockdown of Spy1 activates intrinsic damage responses, indicating that Spy1 is required to promote tolerance of endogenous and exogenous damage. The novel modes of CDK regulation by Speedy/RINGO proteins may be important during cell cycle transitions, in the tolerance of normal intrinsic damage or in response to exogenous DNA damage. Misregulation of FGFR signaling can lead to uncontrolled downstream signaling associated with many developmental syndromes and cancers. NF[kappa]B also regulates apoptosis and proliferation of many human cancers, and activation of inflammatory responses. Interestingly, our research identifies a novel link between FGFR signaling and the NF[kappa]B pathway. We show FGFR2 and FGFR4 interact with IKK[beta], a critical component of NF[kappa]B signaling. We demonstrate tyrosine phosphorylation of IKK[beta] resulting from FGFR4 or FGFR2 expression, and show suppressed NF[kappa]B signaling upon FGFR activation, which is dependent upon FGFR kinase activity. This work provides a unique model of NFkappaB inactivation and implicates FGFR4 as a tumor suppressor in prostate cancer and indicates FGFR2 may play dual roles as a tumor promoter and a tumor suppressor in breast cancer cell lines


Blithering idiot. You agreed to write an article-length review on the new book by Acemoglu and Robinson. Acemoglu has published more in the last five years than you have in your whole career. You're pretty sure Robinson was one of your letter writers. Hither have you come? What if you make a fool of yourself? What if you say something that upsets them? … You have to do this. Manoel Bittencourt flew you to Johannesburg. You drank his scotch while making him listen to the latest Soen album. You owe him. It's just a book review. You can do this.


Abstract. The delta of the Brahmani-Baitarani river basin, located in the eastern part of India, frequently experiences severe floods. For flood risk analysis and water system design, insights in the possible future changes in extreme rainfall events caused by climate change are of major importance. There is a wide range of statistical and dynamical downscaling and bias-correction methods available to generate local climate projections that also consider changes in rainfall extremes. Yet the applicability of these methods highly depends on availability of meteorological observations at local level. In the developing countries data and model availability may be limited, either due to the lack of actual existence of these data or because political data sensitivity hampers open sharing. We here present the climate change analysis we performed for the Brahmani-Baitarani river basin focusing on changes in four selected indices for rainfall extremes using data from three performance-based selected GCMs that are part of the 5th Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). We apply and compare two widely used and easy to implement bias correction approaches. These methods were selected as best suited due to the absence of reliable long historic meteorological data. We present the main changes – likely increases in monsoon rainfall especially in the Mountainous regions and a likely increase of the number of heavy rain days. In addition, we discuss the gap between state-of-the-art downscaling techniques and the actual options one is faced with in local scale climate change assessments.


E-money service as a new alternative for micro digital payment in Indonesia is growing in recent years. In fact, e-money service usage is limited only certain users, and also it is not as a priority for the micro-payment transaction. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between hedonic motivations, social influence on the behavioral intention of using e-money by payment habit as a mediator. This study is a survey study of 249 e-money users in Indonesia. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM). The empirical findings revealed that hedonic motivation and social influence have a significant impact on payment habit. Interestingly, we also found that hedonic motivation and social influence have a significant effect on behavioral intention through payment habit as a mediator. This research is a cross-sectional study. Hence, it will have a limitation in generalizability. Besides, this study only focused on Indonesia context. For future research, it can be expanded to a longitudinal study and extended to some Southeast Asia countries. This study has contributed to the mediating effect of payment habit on the link between hedonic motivation, social influence and behavioral intention of e-money usage using UTAUT2. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this link has been neglected in the previous studies.


Background: Sport consumers display a different set of values, attitudes and behaviors. Not all football consumers are equally passionate and fanatical. The purpose of this research is to examine the evangelistic attitudes of Turkish football fans towards the team brand and their intention to purchase the licensed sports products of the club. Method: The study group of the research consists of 633 volunteers who are supporters of Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray and Beşiktaş and live in various parts of Turkey. We used the Sports Team Evangelism (eFangelism) Scale-STES as a data collection tool in the research. STES was developed by Dwyer, Greenhalgh, and LeCrom (2015). Its Turkish validation and reliability tests were done by Yüksekbilgili (2017). We also used the "Purchase Intention Scale" developed by Kazançoğlu and Baybars (2015) based on the research of Kwon et al., (2007). Descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test were used in the analysis of the data. The sources of significant differences in the Kruskal-Wallis test results were distinguished using the Mann-Whitney U Test. Results: The level of evangelism and intention to purchase varied according to the gender of individuals, the team they support, and the amount of spending on licensed products. Conclusion: Our research shows that individuals with a high level of brand evangelism and intention to purchase buy the licensed products of their favorite team more than individuals with a low level of brand evangelism and intention to purchase. In addition, the level of efangelism and intention to purchase of male participants are higher than women. The level of efangelism and intention to purchase of Beşiktaş fans are higher than Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe fans. Keywords: Efangelism, intention to purchase, football fan


Difficulty administering oral corticosteroids to young children who are required to take these medications as part of their cancer treatment has been a concern among health care providers for many years. This problem is due in part to the bad taste associated with these preparations. Palatability is important to consider when prescribing a liquid corticosteroid. Seven members of a nursing research group in an academic pediatric setting evaluated palatability based on taste, aftertaste, texture, smell, and overall reaction to five different liquid corticosteroid formulations. These formulations included Pediapred® (Medeva Pharmaceuticals, Rochester, NY), Prelone® (Muro Pharmaceuticals, Tewksbury, MA), prednisone oral solution, prednisone intensol, and prednisone 10-mg tablet crushed in 10 mL of cherry syrup. The cost of each formulation was based on the cost to the participating institution. The results showed that the most palatable corticosteroid liquid formulation was also the most cost efficient. The results of this simple study have the potential to influence prescribing habits and provide caregivers with a palatable, cost-efficient corticosteroid liquid formulation.


A large norovirus outbreak affecting hospital patients and staff occurred during the winter of 2007. We administered a survey to affected staff to evaluate adherence to social distancing recommendations. Of the 102 survey respondents, 74 (73%) completed self-quarantine. Staff adherence was similar regardless of job responsibility. Incomplete adherence to recommendations could potentially accelerate and prolong infectious disease outbreaks.


An improved synthesis of N-phenylanthranilic acid using water as solvent can be achieved by ultrasound irradiation. A number of N-phenylanthranilic acids were prepared in good yields in a very short reaction time.


The given paper proposes a method to assess credit worthiness based on a continuous scale. This method in contrast to current methods that rely on a binary scale such as bad/good credit uses aggregated randomized indices. Its application may have certain practical benifits in real life, e.g. assessing the individual loan price of a particular person rather than setting a standard loan price for clients. The credit scoring model is based on set of private borrowers information that can be converted into quality function corresponding to a weighting coefficient. These weighting coefficients and quality functions then can be used to compute the quality of credit score on a continuous scale. Results based on data from German credit base have showed the feasibility of the approach. It was found that results of credit scoring with a different scales can not be correctly compared by probability of well classified borrowers.


An Evaluation on Richard Rorty The main purpose of this study is to examine Rorty's perception of pragmatism and its reconstructing effects on classical liberalism. The study begins with philosophical foundations of Rorty's thoughts followed by his analysis of pragmatism. It then discusses his reconstructing effects on classical liberalism. The article concludes that religion is equipped with a different function that that of classic liberalism in Rorty's perception of pragmatism and thus, it can be used as a tool to get the communities having trouble to form a modus vivendi beyond "gemeinschaft" into the liberal internationalism


Objectives Dedicated otolaryngology emergency rooms (ERs) provide a unique mechanism of health care delivery. Relative costs and willingness to pay (WTP) for these services have not been studied. This study aims to provide a cost-benefit analysis of otolaryngology-specific ER care. Study Design Cost-benefit analysis based on contingent valuation surveys. Setting An otolaryngology-specific ER in a tertiary care academic medical center. Subjects and Methods Adult English-speaking patients presenting to an otolaryngology ER were included. WTP questions were used to assess patient valuations of specialty emergency care. Sociodemographic data, income, and self-reported levels of distress were assessed. State-level and institution-specific historical cost data were merged with WTP data within a cost-benefit analysis framework. Results The response rate was 75.6%, and 199 patients were included in the final analysis. Average WTP for otolaryngology ER services was $319 greater than for a general ER (95% CI: $261 to $377), with a median value of $200. The historical mean cost per visit at a general ER was $575, and mean cost at the specialty ER was $551 (95% CI: $529 to $574). Subtracting incremental cost from incremental WTP yielded a net benefit of $343. Conclusion Dedicated otolaryngology ER services are valued by patients for acute otolaryngologic problems and have a net benefit of $343 per patient visit. They appear to be a cost-beneficial method for addressing acute otolaryngologic conditions. This study has implications for ER-based otolaryngologic care and direct-to-specialist services.


Restorative Justice (RJ) represents a holistic and humane alternative to punitive measures traditionally used in schools. The goal of RJ is to bring affected parties together following a conflict in order to identify a shared solution for reparation of damages. RJ has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing recidivism and improving community relations. The objective of the present study was to identify elements of RJ in middle school programs and curricula in Mexico. A documentary study was developed and implemented using a checklist as the primary data-collecting instrument. Results indicate the presence of some RJ principles in the curriculum of middle schools in Mexico. The findings suggest that while the principles of RJ are taught, essential components of RJ and school democratization are lacking, such as active student participation in conflict resolution and rule elaboration and school organization.


In this paper we focus on a sensor network scheme whose nodes are locally coupled oscillators that evolve in time according to a differential equation, whose parameters depend on the local estimate. The proposed system is capable, by self-synchronization, to reach the network consensus that coincides with the globally optimum maximum likelihood estimate, even though each sensor is only locally coupled with nearby nodes. Our main contribution is to study the effect of propagation delay on both the synchronization capability of the system and the final estimate. We provide delay-independent conditions for the proposed system to synchronize, and we derive closed-form expression of the synchronized state. Interestingly, the effect of propagation delays is simply to introduce a bias on the final estimate, that depends on the network topology and on the values of the delays. The analysis of this bias, suggest us how to design the coupling mechanism in order to alleviate it or even remove it


It is well-known that newborn infants are more susceptible to infection due to their immature host defence mechanisms However, in relation to the COVID-19 virus, it appears that the naivete of the neonatal immune system has afforded some protection against the inflammatory response experienced by adolescents and adults That said, COVID-19 and the associated changes in practice and policies implemented in response to the pandemic, has had an impact on the care of the baby during the perinatal and neonatal period This article is the second in a two-part series focusing on important care issues relating to the newborn baby specifically, taken from an integrative review of current literature within the maternal and neonatal field This paper analyses the emerging themes from selected literature to add to a developing body of knowledge;namely, physiological differences between the newborn baby and adult, neonatal management including, preterm labour and delivery, newborn resuscitation, investigations, care of the newborn, the importance of human milk and breastfeeding, and the implications of COVID-19 restrictions Finally, an overview of the World Health Organization guidance will be outlined for a global view and summary


In the "Post-epidemic" period, the public health crisis influences a lot to finance market and change some indexes. Therefore, what creates the change will have a different impact on the industry finance in the 21st century when the world faces a really different situation compared to the historical health crisis or finance repression. Thus, the article provides evidence for the change in stock market as well as talks about risk management in this case. Meanwhile, the article also will compare the historical crisis data (2008 finance crisis) from Bloomberg, and give a basic judgement for the stock market under this crisis and predict the future trend. This paper provides the evidence, and compare the historical crisis data. It can be concluded that in the " post-epidemic " , the industries finance tends to be more various, which has a large effect on market environment. The spread for underlying assets between intentional and technology industry increased a lot. Through studying the Microsoft stock and Nasdaq, S&P500 indexes changes and regress the GDP and underlying total trend, the spread is able to be analyzed in concrete amounts and it offers risk management of portfolio fantastic instruction. When the dot-com stock rapidly increases and "online-work corporation" apparently affects finance, risk management not only needs to be more early and adjust technology stock proportion in portfolio, but also investors should look for the new investment project for the industry appearing in "post-epidemic" like online healthy treating (no person touching) under "the health and finance crisis" environment. In this case , Studying the new period change and fix the financial model is essential for investment research .Therefore, this article will analyse the current global financial market and offer new instruction and advice for investment and risk management. Also, applying US finance to be the sample, the end of article provides useful method for solving portfolio problems under new period.


The pineal body is known to be a vital component in the regulation of seasonal reproduction. The pineal complex may consist of two parts in rats, i.e. the small deep pineal and the large superficial pineal. As commonly used techniques of pinealectomy remove the superficial pineal only, we illustrated the surgical technique for pinealectomy on our rat specimen in this report.


With the use of a variational method to solve the effective-mass equation, we have studied the electronic and hydrogenic impurity states in a corner under an applied electric field. The electron energy levels and the impurity binding energies are calculated. Our results show that, with the increasing strength of the electric field, the electron energy levels increase, and the impurity binding energy in the ground state increases at first, to a peak value, then decreases to a value which is determined by the impurity position in the corner. The dependence of the impurity binding energy on the applied electric field and impurity position is discussed in detail.


This volume, the thirty-eighth in Bretschneider's series on ancient objects and remains in the Veneto, is a useful catalogue of late-antique and medieval sculptures mainly incorporated into the churches on the Venetian island of Murano. The scope of the book is material from late antiquity until the twelfth century. The 233 objects listed and discussed are mainly reliefs (often very fragmentary) and capitals. For anyone working on the art and archaeology of Murano, or the Veneto generally, clearly this book will be a fundamental resource. Discussions are full and clear, while the black and white illustrations are of a high quality.


Abstract Aim The purpose of this study was to investigate whether significant difference exists on radiation dose delivered to organs at risks in megavoltage computed tomography (MVCT) verification using three predefined scanning modes, namely fine (2 mm), normal (4 mm) and coarse (6 mm). This will provide information for the imaging protocol of tomotherapy for the left breast. Materials and methods Organ doses were measured using thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD-100) placed within a female Rando phantom for MVCT imaging. Kruskal–Wallis test was conducted with p<0·05 to evaluate the significant difference between the three MVCT scanning modes. Results Statistically significant difference existed in organ absorbed dose between different scan mode selections (p<0·001). Relative to the normal scan selection (4 mm), the absorbed dose to the organs of interests can be scaled down by 0·7 and scaled up by 2·1 for coarse (6 mm) and fine scans (2 mm) respectively. Conclusions Optimisation of imaging protocols is of paramount importance to keep the radiation exposure 'as low as reasonably achievable'. The recommendation of undergoing daily coarse mode for MVCT verification in breast tomotherapy not only mitigates the radiation exposure to normal tissues, but also trims the scan-acquisition time.


ties of fluid necessary to replace accumulated deficits. Such patients may be more demanding of the nurses time than managing an intravenous infusion. It is not possible to comment upon the apparent lack of postoperative morbidity in the small group of patients studied. However, before changing current practice, perhaps a larger study should be made with reference to the problems associated with anaesthetic safety and documentation of adequate fluid intake during the first postoperative day. M R PARSLOE MB CLB Registrar in Anaesthetics StJames's University Hospital Leeds


A model-potential approach successfully employed in the past for describing potential curves of light alkali dimers is extended to calculate potential curves of Σ symmetry for the heavy molecular ions Rb2+, Cs2+ and RbCs+. The results are in agreement with those calculated using a pseudopotential method, except for the Cs++Cs(5d) dissociation limit. The limits of the present model-potential calculations and the ways of improving them are carefully analysed.


Received 29 May 2012; revised 8 August 2012; accepted 16 August 2012; published 4 October 2012. [1] We investigate the upper tropospheric distribution of methane (CH4) at low latitudes based on the analysis of air samples collected from aboard passenger aircraft. The distribution of CH4 exhibits spatial and seasonal differences, such as the pronounced seasonal cycles over tropical Asia and elevated mixing ratios over central Africa. Over Africa, the correlations of methane, ethane, and acetylene with carbon monoxide indicate that these high mixing ratios originate from biomass burning as well as from biogenic sources. Upper tropospheric mixing ratios of CH4were modeled using a chemistry transport model. The simulation captures the large-scale features of the distributions along different flight routes, but discrepancies occur in some regions. Over Africa, where emissions are not well constrained, the model predicts a too steep interhemispheric gradient. During summer, efficient convective vertical transport and enhanced emissions give rise to a large-scale CH4 maximum in the upper troposphere over subtropical Asia. This seasonal (monsoonal) cycle is analyzed with a tagged tracer simulation. The model confirms that in this region convection links upper tropospheric mixing ratios to regional sources on the Indian subcontinent, subtropical East Asia, and Southeast Asia. This type of aircraft data can therefore provide information about surface fluxes.


Embedded systems are becoming increasingly complex. Besides the additional processing capabilities, they are characterized by high diversity of computational models coexisting in a single device. Although reconfigurable architectures have already shown to be a potential solution for such systems, they just present significant speedups of very specific dataflow oriented kernels. Furthermore, reconfigurable fabric is still withheld by the need of special tools and compilers, clearly not sustaining backward software compatibility. In this paper, we propose a new technique to optimize both dataflow and control-flow oriented code in a totally transparent process, without the need of any modification in the source or binary codes. For that, we have developed a Binary Translation algorithm implemented in hardware, which works in parallel to a MIPS processor. The proposed mechanism is responsible for transforming sequences of instructions at runtime to be executed on a dynamic coarse-grain reconfigurable array, supporting speculative execution. Executing the MIBench suite, we show performance improvements of up to 2.5 times, while reducing 1.7 times the required energy, using trivial hardware resources.


Studies investigating compliance-gaining procedures have shown that the feeling that someone is free to comply or not with a request is a requirement to obtain compliance. In this study, participants were asked for money for a charitable organization. In the experimental condition, people first heard a sentence saying that they would probably refuse to help, and then they were asked to make a donation. In the control condition, participants were just asked for money. Findings showed that more participants complied with the request in the experimental condition. Reactance theory was used to explain these results.


Abstract Individual rains falling on Fayetteville, Ark., in 1973 were analyzed for sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. Compared to a drier year, 1955–56, the average concentrations of these elements were lower in 1973 but the fluxes higher, except calcium. Each element had a peak flux in the spring and fall, corresponding to the peaks in the amount of rainfall. Calcium concentration relative to the other elements was uniquely high during late winter and early fall suggesting more wind dependence for calcium. The elemental ratios are near those for crustal rocks not seawater. The monthly fluxes of sodium, potassium and magnesium were nearly constant with increasing rainfall up to six inches of rainfall per month then increased more steeply. Calcium monthly flux increased linearly with increasing rainfall. Extrapolation of the monthly flux to zero rainfall gives a measure of the dry fallout contributed to the fluxes obtained here with open collectors. Dry fallout and wet fallout (rain) are about equal.


Summary

Ninety accessions of non-tuber bearing Solanaceae were screened for (i) resistance to and (ii) stimulatory effect on juvenile hatch of potato cyst nematodes, and (iii) their growth under temperate climatic conditions. All plant species belonging to the genus Solanum tested induced hatching but this effect was most pronounced for plant species of the Solanum nigrum complex. Hatching of juveniles was hardly or not stimulated by other plant genera of the Solanaceae. Solanum sisymbriifolium combined a high hatching effect with complete resistance to both Globodera rosiochiensis and G pallida. Two S. nigrum varieties showed full resistance to G rostochiensis and a high level of resistance to G pallida. Moreover, S. sisymbriifolium and the two varieties of S. nigrum performed very well under Dutch field conditions and, therefore, they are suggested as candidate trap crops for the control of potato cyst nematodes.


Human Face detection plays important role in Video surveillance, face Recognition, Human computer Interface, Face search, Face data management etc. Face Region Usually forms inconsequential part of images. In this paper basically we are trying for face detection Using various color analysis base methods & compare that analysis on various parameters such as different background conditions, positions Scale & orientation in images from several photo collection & database. The proposed method better than other skin colour segmentation method such as Face detection in colour images using Adboost algorithm & High-speed Skin colour Segmentation for Real Time Human Tracking.


The MHC class I gene was amplified, cloned and sequenced in guinea fowl using the primers specific to BF2 gene in chicken. The nucleotide sequence of 571 bp partial CDS of BF2 gene includes 32 nucleotides of signal peptide (exon 1), complete " domain (270 nucleotides) and 269 nucleotides of " 1 2 domain. For " and " domain no sequence variation was observed within guinea fowl sequences, however, 1 high variability was observed within the other poultry species (15.93-28.03%) except chicken (7.95-9.16%). Between the guinea fowl and other poultry species, the " domain showed high nucleotide variability (29.261 43.70%). Among poultry species, guinea fowl showed least variability with chicken and maximum with duck. Among the substitutions, majorities were of non-synonymous (76.27%) with a ration of 1:3 between synonymous to non-synonymous substitutions. Guinea fowl showed lower genetic distances (Kimura 2parameter) with chicken and quail (0.211-0.215), while with duck and goose, it showed higher genetic distances (0.343-0.350). Phylogenetic tree, based these genetic distances revealed two major clusters, comprising of guinea fowl, quail and chicken in one with guinea fowl as separate branch, while duck and goose in other.


A female patient with some characteristic symptoms of Cockayne syndrome is presented; however, she has high intelligence, and is not a dwarf but is cachectic (30 kg): No characteristic neurological features were seen, and her menstrual cycle is regular. Her disease was thus considered to be Cockayne syndrome type III.


We reported a case of a twenty-nine-year-old male who presented a penile fracture associated with urethral injury caused by a sexual intercourse. An ideal anamnesis and a special physical examination were determinant to correct diagnostics. Ultrasonography and uretrocistography must be performed for confirmation. The treatment is based on the presence of associated urethral injury. The surgical repair of cavernous body and urethra can produce good results, with a favorable prognosis and minimal rate of complications.


Maximum likelihood (ML) data-aided frequency estimation in multipath Rayleigh fading channels with sparse impulse responses is investigated. We solve this problem under the assumption that the autocorrelation matrix of the pilot signal can be approximated by a diagonal matrix, the fading of different path amplitudes are independent from each other, and the additive noise is white and Gaussian. The ML frequency estimator is shown to be based on combining nonlinear transformed path periodograms. We have found the nonlinear function for the two cases: known and unknown fading variances. The new frequency estimators lead, in particular cases, to known ML frequency estimators for non-sparse multipath fading channels. Exploiting the sparseness of the channel impulse response is shown to significantly reduce the threshold signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at which the frequency error departs from the Cramer-Rao lower bound. However, precise knowledge of the channel sparseness is not required in order to realise this improvement. The assumption of a diagonal autocorrelation matrix is shown to affect the accuracy performance only at high SNRs which however can often be outside the SNRs of interest.


Abstract Promising outcomes of hip replacement interventions in this era of aging populations have led to higher demands for hip arthroplasty procedures. These require effective methods and techniques for the detection of postoperative outcomes and complications. Based on the presence or absence of radiographic findings, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) may be required to detect and further characterize different causes of failing implants. Yet metal-related artifacts degrade image quality and pose significant challenges for adequate image quality. To mitigate such artifacts in MRI, a set of techniques, collectively known as metal artifact reduction sequence (MARS) MRI, were developed that optimize the framework of the conventional pulse sequences and exploit novel multispectral and multispatial imaging methods such as Slice Encoding for Metal Artifact Correction (SEMAC) and Multi-Acquisition Variable-Resonance Image Combination (MAVRIC). Metal-induced artifacts on CT can be effectively reduced with virtual monochromatic reconstruction of dual-energy CT data sets, metal artifact reduction reconstruction algorithms, and postprocessing image visualization techniques.