Introduction:
Well-planned and executed pharmaceutical services (PS) are important for proper treatment of the population's health needs, thus enabling the access to essential drugs and promoting their rational use.

Objective:
To assess the situation of PS in the city of Uruguaiana (State of Rio Grande do Sul), Brazil.

Methods:
This cross-sectional study was applied to 650 interviews between June and September of 2013 in 11 Basic Health Units (UBS) and in the Main Pharmacy of the city. The indicators of prescription, of patient's care, and of service, were assessed according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).The Instrument of Self-Assessment for Pharmaceutical Services Planning (IAPAF) from the Brazilian Department of Health was used to assess the management and planning capacity of the PS, which was then applied in the Main Pharmacy and in the medicine stockroom.

Results:
The number of drugs per prescription varied from 1 to 10 (mean = 1.7). The percentages of prescribed drugs by generic name, and included in the City List of Essential Drugs (REMUME) were, respectively, 75.5 and 67.7%; antibiotics were prescribed in 9.7% of the medical appointments. The average time of medical appointment was 6 minutes; 51.4% of the users obtained their prescription; only 18.9% of the patients completely understood their prescriptions. Of the 24 items analyzed in the IAPAF, 12 were found in stage 1 (worst rating), 12 in stage 2, and none in stage 3 (ideal situation).

Conclusion:
Results seem to show the lack of PS in Uruguaiana with regard to planning, management, and patient's care. The absence of effective management may result in waste and incorrect use of drugs.


Background/Aim: While the characteristics of ascites in the setting of chronic pancreatitis are well established, little has been written about the characteristics of spontaneous, clinically apparent ascites in the setting of acute pancreatitis. Our aim was to define the characteristics of clinically apparent ascites complicating acute pancreatitis, particularly with regard to outcomes. Methods: We performed a search of our hospital's discharge records for ICD codes 577.0 (acute pancreatitis) and 789.5 (ascites). Clinical and laboratory variables in survivors and nonsurvivors were compared using a Mann-Whitney U test. Results: We identified 59 records of which 25 cases had ascites fluid analysis. Only the ascites amylase (p = 0.033) and the ascites to serum amylase ratio (p = 0.002) correlated with mortality. Setting a cutoff of 1, the ascites to serum amylase ratio achieved a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 92% as a predictor of mortality. Conclusions: The ascites to serum amylase ratio identifies 2 sets of patients with ascites complicating acute pancreatitis. In patients with a high ratio, ascites may result from a localized duct disruption. In patients with a low ratio, ascites may be secondary to comorbid conditions or a capillary leak. In acute pancreatitis with clinically apparent ascites, the ascites to serum amylase ratio may be a predictor of mortality.


AIM
The outcomes of patients affected by hematologic malignancies (HM) admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICUs) because of life-threatening complications are still considered to be poor. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence and impact of cardiac dysfunction on the outcome of these patients.

METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the records of the 48 patients (both adult and pediatric) with HM admitted in our ICU over the last four years, collecting data on admission diagnosis, type of HM, laboratory values and organ failure.

RESULTS
All patients were admitted with respiratory failure. The overall mortality rate was 50% and the mortality rates were similar among patients with different types of HM. Septic shock and multiple organ failure were the leading causes of death. The overall incidence of cardiac dysfunction was high (31%). Interestingly, the ICU mortality of this subgroup was 27%, while the mortality of the rest of the population was 61% (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
ICU patients with HM have high mortality. Respiratory failure caused by cardiac dysfunction seems to be associated with a lower risk of death.


Polycystin-1 (PKD1) mutations account for approximately 85% of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). We have shown previously that oocyte surface expression of a transmembrane fusion protein encoding part of the cytoplasmic COOH terminus of PKD1 increases activity of a Ca2+-permeable cation channel. We show here that human ADPKD mutations incorporated into this fusion protein attenuated or abolished encoded cation currents. Point mutations and truncations showed that cation current expression requires integrity of a region encompassing the putative coiled coil domain of the PKD1 cytoplasmic tail. Whereas these loss-of-function mutants did not exhibit dominant negative phenotypes, coexpression of a fusion protein expressing the interacting COOH-terminal cytoplasmic tail of PKD2 did suppress cation current. Liganding of the ectodomain of the PKD1 fusion protein moderately activated cation current. The divalent cation permeability and pharmacological profile of the current has been extended. Inducible expression of the PKD1 fusion in EcR-293 cells was also associated with activation of cation channels and increased Ca2+ entry.


Reperfusion of ischemic myocardium may result in further ultrastructural damage to cardiac fibers, a phenomenon known as reperfusion injury. We have recently shown that controlled reperfusion, with maintenance of reperfusion flow rates near preischemia levels, prevents much of this reperfusion damage. This observation suggests that mechanical damage to the myocardial microvasculature is important in the pathogenesis of reperfusion injury. In this study, we have used electron microscopy to examine the microcirculation of ischemic, reperfused pig myocardium under conditions of uncontrolled and controlled reperfusion. Animals receiving uncontrolled reperfusion (reperfusion flow 3-4 times preischemia levels) showed ultrastructural damage to myocardial capillaries after 1 hour of ischemia and 2 hours of reperfusion. This damage was manifested as depletion of endothelial cell pinocytotic vesicles, plugging of capillaries by erythrocytes, leukocytes, and fibrin-containing microthrombi, and perivascular microhemorrhages. None of these changes were found in animals receiving controlled coronary artery reperfusion. We conclude that mechanical damage to the myocardial microvasculature is important in the pathogenesis of reperfusion injury and that such damage is obviated under conditions of controlled coronary artery flow during reperfusion.


Abstract—Network traffic classification is the foundation of many network research works. In recent years, the research on traffic classification and identification based on machine learning method is a new research direction. Support Vector Machine (SVM) is the one of the machine learning method which performs good accuracy and stability. However, the traditional classification performance of SVM is not ideal. We proposed an optimized method which can improve the performance of SVM greatly. we extracted feature subset with wrapper approach and calculated the optimal working parameters automatically based on grid search algorithm. We applied this method to two-class SVM classifier. The simulation results validated that all of the flows' average accuracy reaches 99.64%, average feature dimension reduces 20% than original dimension and average elapsed time is shorter 98.88% than traditional SVM. The optimized method can reduce feature dimension, shorten elapsed time, improve the performance of SVM classifier obviously.


Patients charges form a very small part of NHS income. Governments have often used charges to emphasise their commitment to austerity. Knowledge of the effect of charges on public health, equity and eliminating waste is limited. Both Conservative and Labour health ministers have made attempts to abolish charges.


In this work, a mechanism of anomalous capacitance in p-channel low temperature polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors (LTPS TFTs) was investigated. In general, the effective capacitance of the LTPS TFTs was only dependent with the overlap area between the gate and source/drain under the off-state. However, the experimental results reveal that the off-state capacitance was increased with decreasing measurement frequency and/or with increasing measurement temperature. By fitting the curve of the drain current vs electric field under off-state region, it was verified that the trap-assisted gate-induced drain leakage (TAGIDL) consists of the Pool-Frenkel emission and thermal field emission. In addition, the charge density calculated from the C gsd -Vg measurement also has the same dependence with electric field. This result demonstrates that the anomalous capacitance is mainly due to the TAGIDL. To suppress the anomalous capacitance, a band-to-band hot electron stress was utilized to reduce the vertical electric field between the gate and the drain. The electric field simulation was also performed by TCAD software.


The objective of the present study was to clarify the characteristic pathognomonic features of middle ear lesions associated with tuberculosis and the approaches to their diagnostics under the present-day conditions. The study included 11 cases (18 ears) of tuberculosis otitis media and the related lesions of the mastoid process diagnosed with the use of clinical, roentgenological, cytological, bacteriological, pathomorphological, and molecular-genetic methods (including PCR diagnostics). The primary localization of tuberculosis in the middle ear was documented in 6 patients; in 5 patients, it was associated with pulmonary involvement. Five patients presented with smoldering exudative otitis media and the remaining six ones with suppurative perforating otitis media. The tuberculous process was diagnosed with the use of various methods including clinical examination, bacteriological (9%), cytological (27.3%), pathomorphological (18%) studies, and PCR diagnostics (55%). Diagnosis was made within a period from 1 month to 1.5 years after the application of the patients for medical assistance which suggests the difficulty of verification of tuberculous etiology of the disease of the middle ear. It is concluded that the high index of suspicion in the case of smoldering middle ear pathology facilitates its early diagnostics and successful treatment.


BACKGROUND
 Colonoscopy is used for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Extracting details of the colonoscopy findings from free text in electronic health records can be used to determine patient risk for CRC and colorectal screening strategies. We developed a deep learning model framework to extract information for the clinical decision support system to interpret relevant free-text reports, including indications, pathology, and findings notes.

 OBJECTIVE
 We developed and evaluated the accuracy of a deep learning model framework to extract information for the clinical decision support system to interpret relevant free-text reports, including indications, pathology, and findings notes.

 METHODS
 The Bio-Bi-LSTM-CRF framework was developed using Bidirectional Long Short-term Memory (Bi-LSTM) and Conditional Random Fields (CRF) to extract several clinical features from these free-text reports including indications for the colonoscopy, findings during the colonoscopy, and pathology of resected material. We trained the Bio-Bi-LSTM-CRF and existing Bi-LSTM-CRF models on 80% of 4,000 manually annotated notes from 3,867 patients. These clinical notes were from a group of patients over 40 years of age enrolled in four Veterans Affairs Medical Centers. A total of 10% of the remaining annotated notes were used to train hyperparameter and the remaining 10% were used to evaluate the accuracy of our model Bio-Bi-LSTM-CRF and compare to Bi-LSTM-CRF.

 RESULTS
 Bio-Bi-LSTM-CRF test set accuracy was 93.5% for indications reports, 88.0% for findings reports, 96.5% for pathology reports, 85.0% for number of polyps' entity, 81.0% for size of polyps' entity, 94.0% for locations of polyps entity, and 92.0% for poly removal procedure entity, and 96.5% for colon location of polyps. The accuracy of the Bio-Bi-LSTM-CRF methods between facilities ranged from 92.0% to 94.0%. The Bio-Bi-LSTM-CRF model's overall accuracy was between 8.0% and 13.0% points higher than the Bi-LSTM-CRF method in entity identification. The Bio-Bi-LSTM-CRF model achieved a higher accuracy for all outcomes for all four facilities.

 CONCLUSIONS
 Our experiments show that the bidirectional encoder representations by integrating dictionary function vector from Bio-Bi-LSTM-CRF and strategies character sequence embedding approach is an effective way to identify colonoscopy features from EHR-extracted clinical notes. The Bio-Bi-LSTM-CRF model creates new opportunities to identify patients at risk for colon cancer and study their health outcomes.


The study analyzes the effects of family of steel fibers on the thermo-mechanical, tribological and corrosive properties of Phenolic resin-based friction material. Tribological studies were performed on chase testing machine following SAE J661 standards. The brake seizure (corrosive stiction) due to corrosion is studied based on ISO 6315 test standard. The series of fibers used in this study include mild steel fibers, annealed steel fibers, and stainless steel fibers. The percentage by weight of fiber in all the composites was kept as constant at 12 % (Low metal series). For the purpose of comparison, another composite with 24 wt. % of stainless steel fiber was used in this study (High metal content). Experiments showed that the friction coefficient in general decreases with increasing temperature up to 300 °C and then was stable. Mild steel fiber reinforced composites fared better in fade and wear performance followed by annealed steel fibers. The highest friction (with poor consistency) and wear are found in the higher content of stainless steel fiber-based composite. Wear mechanism was studied by using scanning electron microscope.


This paper presents a new approach to prove termination of rewrite systems with the Knuth-Bendix order efficiently. The constraints for the weight function and for the precedence are encoded in proposi-tional logic and the resulting formula is tested for satisfiability. Any satisfying assignment represents a weight function and a precedence such that the induced Knuth-Bendix order orients the rules of the encoded rewrite system from left to right.


Direct visualization and imaging of nanomaterials under ambient conditions is of great significance for their characterization and application. In most cases, the observation of individual nanomaterials usually requires high-resolution electron microscopes under high vacuum. In comparison, an optical microscope is much more convenient due to its facile operation and open space. However, the resolution of optical microscopes is much lower than that of electron microscope-based tools. Therefore, effective visualization and imaging strategies for nanomaterials are required to realize their direct observation, accurate location and controllable manipulation. In this review, we summarized the progress of optical visualization and imaging strategies for nanomaterials in recent years, including vapor-condensation-assisted optical visualization, nanoparticle-assisted optical visualization, substrate-assisted optical visualization and fluorescence visualization, and the applications of these techniques were also introduced. We believe that this review will inspire further improvement in optical visualization of nanomaterials and drive the application of nanomaterials in a broader domain.


Gas turbine components subjected to high temperatures can benefit from improved designs enabled by metal additive manufacturing (AM) with nickel alloys. Previous studies have shown that the impact on fluid flow and heat transfer resulting from surface roughness of additively manufactured parts is significant; these impacts must be understood to design turbine components successfully for AM. This study improves understanding of these impacts by examining the discharge coefficient and the effect of the coolant delivery direction on the performance of additively manufactured shaped film cooling holes. To accomplish this, five test coupons containing a row of baseline shaped film cooling holes were made from a high-temperature nickel alloy using a laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process. Flow and pressure drop measurements across the holes were collected to determine the discharge coefficient from the film cooling holes. Temperature measurements were collected to assess the overall effectiveness of the coupon surface as well as the cooling enhancement due to film cooling. The Biot number of the coupon wall was matched to a value one might find in a turbine engine to ensure this data is relevant. It was discovered that the flow experienced greater aerodynamic losses in film cooling holes with greater relative roughness, which resulted in a decreased discharge coefficient. The effectiveness measurements showed that the film cooling performance is better when coolant is fed in a co-flow configuration compared to a counter-flow configuration.


Objective We aimed to measure cancer knowledge and feasibility of a screening colonoscopy among a cohort of individuals at higher risk of colon cancer. Methods This study was conducted as part of an ongoing screening cohort, in which first degree relatives (FDRs) of patients with colon cancer are invited to participate in a free of charge screening colonoscopy. We enrolled 1017 FDRs in the study between 2013 and 2014 measuring their data on demographics, cancer knowledge and colonoscopy uptake. A p value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results The relative's mean age was 48.7 years. Only about 28% of FDRs were aware of their increased risk for cancer, near 35.0% had ever heard about colonoscopy with 22% aware of the correct age to start screening. Comparing cancer knowledge of FDRs at high risk versus those at moderate risk, we recorded non-significant differences (p>0.05). Almost two-thirds of FDRs expressed willingness to undergo a colonoscopy and 49.2% completed the procedure, of which 12.8% had advanced neoplasm. Conclusions Our data indicated that remarkable numbers of FDRs were not still informed of their cancer risk or never received a physician recommendation for screening. The desirable uptake at first invitation, which would be higher over successive invitations, supports the feasibility of a family-based recruitment approach for early screening. This has promising implications to introduce targeted screening colonoscopy into the healthcare system in Iran and other developing nations.


Because of its association with longevity and reduced incidence of coronary heart disease, it becomes important to find out how elevated HDL-cholesterol levels are determined. Analyses of family data from Cincinnati initially suggested environmental factors common to sibs; however, some form of dominant inheritance could not be ruled out. Reanalysis of the Cincinnati data by Iselius and Lalouel concluded against a major locus, but did identify three families as possibly segregating for a major locus. Analysis of an additional 26 kindreds from the same population in Cincinnati by Siervogel and associates concluded that a major gene could be causing familial aggregation of high density lipoprotein in white kindreds. In this analysis, we pooled all the white Cincinnati kindreds (n = 31), and investigated the familial transmission using complex segregation analysis. We failed to obtain clear evidence for major locus determination. Under the parsimonious hypothesis of no major locus, the polygenic heritability and common sibling environmental correlation were estimated as 0.531 and 0.263, respectively, consistent with other evidence.


OBJECTIVE
Postural control naturally declines with age, leading to an increased risk of falling. Within clinical settings, the deployment of balance assessments has become commonplace, facilitating the identification of postural instability and targeted interventions to forestall falls among older adults. Some studies have ventured beyond the controlled laboratory, leaving, however, a gap in our understanding of balance in real-world scenarios.

METHODS
Previously reported algorithms were used to build a finite-state machine (FSM) with four states: walking, turning, sitting, and standing. The FSM was validated against video annotations (gold standard) in an independent dataset with data collected on 20 older adults. Later, the FSM was applied to data from 168 community-dwelling older people in the InCHIANTI cohort who were evaluated both in the laboratory and then remotely in real-world conditions for a week. A 70/30 data split with recursive feature selection and resampling techniques was used to train and test four machine-learning models.

RESULTS
In identifying fallers, duration, distance, and mean frequency computed during standing in real-world settings revealed significant relationships with fall risk. Also, the best-performing model (Lasso Regression) built on real-world balance features had a higher area under the curve (AUC, 0.76) than one built on lab-based assessments (0.57).

CONCLUSION
Real-world balance features differ considerably from laboratory balance assessments (Romberg test) and have a higher predictive capacity for identifying patients at high risk of falling.

SIGNIFICANCE
These findings highlight the need to move beyond traditional laboratory-based balance measures and develop more sensitive and accurate methods for predicting falls.


We present a case-based approach to character identification in natural language text in the context of our Voz system. Voz first extracts entities from the text, and for each one of them, computes a feature-vector using both linguistic information and external knowledge. We propose a new similarity measure called Continuous Jaccard that exploits those feature-vectors to compute the similarity between a given entity and those in the case-base, and thus determine which entities are characters or not. We evaluate our approach by comparing it with different similarity measures and feature sets. Results show an identification accuracy of up to 93.49%, significantly higher than recent related work.


The coordination properties of the ditopic oxa-aza macrocycles L1-L3 toward Ni(II) and Co(II) have been investigated by means of potentiometric and UV-vis spectrophotometric measurements. L1-L3 contain two triamine and/or tetraamine chains separated by two dioxa chains and form both mono- and dinuclear complexes in aqueous solution. In the [ML]2+ complexes, the metal ion is coordinated by one of the two polyamine moieties, while the other does not participate in the coordination. In the dinuclear complexes each metal ion is coordinated, almost independently, to a single polyamine moiety. Under aerobic conditions the binuclear Co(II) complexes of the ligands L1-L3 are able to bind molecular oxygen, with a bridging coordination of O2 between the two metals.


We examined, first, the relations between children's exposure to military violence and their aggressive behavior and the role of age and gender in that relation in two Palestinian samples. Second, we tested parenting practices as a moderator of the relation between exposure to military violence and aggressive behavior, and third, whether exposure to military violence of different nature (direct victimization versus witnessing) has specific associations with different forms of aggression (reactive, proactive and aggression-enjoyment). Study I was conducted in a relatively calm military-political atmosphere in Palestine-Gaza, and included 640 children, aged 6-16 years whose parents (N=622) and teachers (N=457) provided reports. Older children (> or =12 years) provided self-reports (N=211). Study II included 225 Palestinian children aged 10-14-year, who participated during a high-violence period of the Al Aqsa Intifada characterized by air raids, killing and destruction. Results showed that witnessing severe military violence was associated with children's aggressive and antisocial behavior (parent-reported) in study I, and with proactive, reactive and aggression-enjoyment (child-reported) in the study II. As hypothesized, good and supporting parenting practices could moderate the link between exposure to military violence and aggressive behavior. Aggr.


Extremely alkaline and extremely sodic soils have been described in the area known as the Yelarbon 'desert', in southern inland Queensland, Australia. The soils are formed on current and relict alluvia at the junction of two rivers, on the eastern edge of the Great Artesian Basin, and have been strongly influenced by the upwelling of NaHCO3 rich ground water. The land degradation observed in the Yelarbon area is in part related to the inherent suite of extreme soil properties, of which sodicity and alkalinity are key factors.


(School of Material Science and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, P. R. China; School of Marine Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, P. R. China; School of Science, Tianjin University of Urban Construction, Tianjin 300384, P. R. China; School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, P. R. China))


This work describes an efficient approach for flower classification that is suitable for deployment in mobile devices, allowing its use in a citizen science application for biodiversity monitoring. In the proposed system, geo-located images are uploaded by the user and segmented semi-automatically. We propose a classification method based on histogram comparison of color, shape and texture cues, using metric learning for feature weighting. Our method is tested on the Oxford Flower Dataset and we are able to achieve state-of-the-art accuracy, while proposing an approach that can run efficiently in mobile devices.


HASTE (half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo spin echo) is a sequence that enables T2 weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images to be obtained in a few seconds. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of this sequence in the diagnosis of fetal cerebral abnormalities. Five fetuses suspected of having cerebral abnormalities on ultrasound examination were studied by MR imaging using the HASTE sequence in utero. We compared the images with post-natal MR images or computed tomography (CT) scans. In four fetuses, the abnormality was diagnosed correctly, and the diagnosis was almost correct in the remaining fetus. This sequence is useful because it provides images of diagnostic quality in a very short scanning time.


textabstractDuring the last ten years, several investigators have reported that biological effects of
endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF; Furchgott and Zawadzki, 1980) are actually
activities of a signal molecule, nitric oxide (NO; Moncada el al., 1988). This molecule is
synthesised by endothelial vascular cells (Palmer el al., 1987, 1988; Ignarro, 1990).
Endogenous NO is involved in many biological processes. The horseshoe crab (Lilllulus
polypherus), that exists for 500 million years, synthesises NO from L-arginine to avoid
aggregation of its circulating haemocytes (Radomski el al., 1991), wltile the blood sucking
insect Rhodnius prolixus uses NO in its prey for vasodilatation and platelet anti-aggregation
(Ribeiro el al., 1993). The goldfish Carassius auralus (Bruning el al., 1995) and the frog
Xenopus laevis (Bruning and Mayer, 1996) use NO as a molecule for neuronal signalling.
Evidence has accumulated that endogenous NO regulates not only mammalian blood
vessels but many other systems (Moncada and Higgs, 1991). Almost every mammalian
cell/system is under influence of NO, involving endotheliumMdependent relaxation (Furchgott
and Zawadzki, 1980), neurotransmission (Garthwaite el al., 1988; Gillespie el al., 1989) and
cell-mediated ilmllune response (Nathan and Hibbs, 1991). Appropriately, NO was
proclaimed as a Molecule ojlhe Year for 1992 by the journal Science (Koshland, 1992).
In addition, the beneficial effects of glyceryl trinitrate in coronary heart disease, known
since 1867, have been recently explained through NO (Anggard, 1994). Alfred Nobel, who
invented nitroglycerine. used the drug himself to relieve his coronary heart problems (Snyder
and Bredt, 1992; HOlscher el al., 1995).
Recently, it has been found that NO can exert not only cytoprotective but also cytotoxic
effects in mammalian cells (Snyder and Bredt, 1992; Krencke el al., 1997). Moreover, it has
been demonstrated that clarification of the dual effect of NO might have implications for
clinical medicine with therapeutic opportunities (Snyder, 1993; Schmidt and \\Valter, 1994;
Vallance and Moncada, 1994). Thus, the main goal of this thesis is to highlight the
importance of this molecule, particularly in the neuropharmacology.


Context. The problem of automation synthesis of artificial neural networks for further use in diagnosing, forecasting and pattern recognition is solved. The object of the study was the process of synthesis of ANN using a modified genetic algorithm. Objective. The goals of the work are the reducing the synthesis time and improve the accuracy of the resulting neural network. Method. The method of synthesis of artificial neural networks on the basis of the modified genetic algorithm which can be implementing sequentially and parallel using MIMD – and SIMD-systems is proposed. The use of a high probability of mutation can increase diversity within the population and prevent premature convergence of the method. The choice of a new best specimen, as opposed to a complete restart of the algorithm, significantly saves system resources and ensures the exit from the area of local extrema. The use of new criteria for adaptive selection of mutations, firstly, does not limit the number of hidden neurons, and, secondly, prevents the immeasurable increase in the network. The use of uniform crossover significantly increases the efficiency, as well as allows emulating other crossover operators without problems. Moreover, the use of uniform crossover increases the flexibility of the genetic algorithm. The parallel approach significantly reduces the number of iterations and significantly speedup the synthesis of artificial neural networks. Results. The software which implements the proposed method of synthesis of artificial neural networks and allows to perform the synthesis of networks in sequentially and in parallel on the cores of the CPU or GPU. Conclusions. The experiments have confirmed the efficiency of the proposed method of synthesis of artificial neural networks and allow us to recommend it for use in practice in the processing of data sets for further diagnosis, prediction or pattern recognition. Prospects for further research may consist in the introduction of the possibility of using genetic information of several parents to form a new individual and modification of synthesis methods for recurrent network architectures for big data processing.


Introduction: Preeclampsia is a pregnancy‑related hypertensive disorder complicated with placental hypoxia and resistance. The hypoxia and hypertension can induce changes in the morphometric parameters of umbilical cord and its vessels that can further affect the blood flow to the fetus. Subjects and Methods: Umbilical cords were collected from new-borns of preeclamptic and normal mothers, length and diameter were measured. Further, cords were processed for histological examination. The diameter, luminal area and wall thickness of umbilical arteries were measured. Results: A shorter and narrower cord was observed in preeclampsia. The umbilical arteries in preeclamptic cases were dilated, whereas statistically significant changes were not observed in the thickness of wall. Conclusion: Dilated umbilical arteries would be an adaptation to the affected babies so as to ensure reduced resistance for fetal circulation.


Abstract Unhealthy lifestyle and eating behavior are associated with circadian rhythm disruption which contributes to numerous harmful outcomes. The relationship between circadian rhythm and eating behavior remains unclear. The study aims to investigate different types of eating behavior in middle-aged women and their variation in circadian rhythm. A descriptive, cross-sectional design was used. We recruited a convenience sample of 150 female aged 45 years or over from the community in southern Taiwan. Sociodemographic status, sleep diary and eating behavior were collected by questionnaires; behavioral circadian rhythm were monitored with the wrist-worn application. Four middle-aged participants were interviewed. Preliminary data show three main findings: (1) Sleep efficiency was decrease with age, (2) First meal within 2 hours after waking up was associated with higher amplitude (2.24 vs 1.43 log count), relative amplitude (0.92 vs 0.71), middle to vigorous physical activity time (101.22 vs 58.41 minute), lower lowest active 5 hr midpoint (2.63 vs 4.34 hour) and acrophase (13.67 vs 15.75), (3) Participants with morning chronotype have less sedentary behavior and higher most active 10 hr during wake time. Age and timing of first meal after waking up seem dominating circadian rhythm. Chronotype might be a significant factor for physical activity level. More data is needed to further confirm the association.


Maize processing industries is amongst one of the major industrial sector of the world. The basic purpose of this work is to provide grounds for better understanding of the OH&S issues in maize industry. Hazards recognition, evaluation and controls are also included in main objectives of this work. In the interviews and surveys it came to know that company had key focus on the safety and health of their employees as safe and healthy environment leads to greater efficiency of both the employees and the company. For every aspect of safety including chemical safety, electrical safety, Laboratory safety and physical safety etc., company was providing their employees a complete policy for their safety. During study OSHA-USA and NEQS standards were followed. It was noticed that noise, temperature, relative humidity and illumination levels do not follow the standards in some plant in wet starch section. Noise level being in range of 80-95 dBA against 85 dBA, illumination level is 178-190 LUX against 250 LUX, relative humidity level is 24-63 % against 40-60%, and temperature is 19-33°C against 20-25 °C.


Background A well-known complication of gout is an increased risk for nephrolithiasis (NL). The incidence rate of NL in the general population varies in different studies between 85 and 170/100 000 person-years, with a peak incidence in the ages 40–49 years. Several medications used in gout patients could affect the risk for NL, including allopurinol, losartan, thiazide- and loop-diuretics. Effect of these medications on risk of NL in gout patients, and the general population, has only scarcely been studied. Objectives In this cohortstudy we investigated: 1) overall incidence of NL in gout and general population (GP) controls 2) risk for first time NL in gout patients vs general population (GP) controls, and 3) predictors for first time NL in both groups separately. Methods Gout patients were identified from the regional health care database in western Sweden (VEGA), containing ICD10-codes for all regional Healthcare visits from 2000. Matched (birthyear, sex, county) GP controls were selected from the population register. National registers and VEGA were used to retrieve information on comorbidities, socioeconomic factors and current medications at start of follow-up. The study population had to be above 19 years of age, without NL prior to start of follow-up, and living in the Western Swedish Health Care Region (WSHCR). Follow-up began 2006–01–01, or at the first gout-diagnosis if this occurred later, and ended at death, emigration or 2012–12–31, whichever occurred first. Incidence rates (IR) per 1000 person-years and hazardratios (HR) were calculated. Possible predictors for NL were based on risk factors presented in the literature. Results 29,968 gout patients and 138,678 matched GP controls were included. In gout patients there were 678 NL-events (IR: 6.2 per 1000 pyrs at risk (95% CI: 5.7–6.6)) and in GP controls 2125 (IR 3.9 per 1000 pyrs at risk (95% CI 3.7–4.0)). Risk for NL was increased in gout (HR=1.49, 95% CI: 1.35–1.64), and was higher in men compared to women (P<0.0001) in all age groups for gout cases and controls. All comorbidities and medications were more frequent in cases compared to controls (p<0.0001) at start of follow-up. Risk-factors for NL such as kidney disease (KD), obesity, diabetes were 2–4 times more common in gout patients compared to GP controls. Predictor point estimates for NL were similar in gout cases and GP controls (Figure 1), except for losartan which increased the risk of NL in GP controls (HR=1,47, 95% CI: 1.01–2.13) but not in gout patients. Loop-diuretics appeared to decrease the risk for NL in both cohorts (P<0.0001), whereas other cardiovascular (CVD) drugs had no effect. Conclusions The risk for NL was increased by 50% in gout patients, compared to controls. Overall pattern of predictors was similar in gout patients and population controls. In patients with gout, male sex, diabetes mellitus (DM), obesity predicted NL, whereas use of loop diuretics was protective. Overall, the most commonly used CVD drugs did not increase the risk for NL in patients with gout. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Hybrid nanostructured materials comprised of amorphous carbon nanoneedles (CNN)-supported Co3O4 nanoparticles (Co3O4-CNN) were synthesized. The synthesis involved layer-by-layer nanocasting of cellulose nanowhiskers with precursors of cobalt oxide and silica, followed by pyrolysis of the core–shell–shell composite materials and etching of the outer silica shells from the carbonized materials. Notably, cotton-derived cellulose nanowhiskers were used as the carbon precursors, and also as the hard templates for needle-shaped carbons, in the synthesis. The effectiveness of the core–shell–shell nanoreactors, possessing the silica shell-entrapped cellulose nanowhiskers and Co(II) ions, in generating organized carbon nanomaterials with metal oxide nanoparticles, or otherwise, as a function of the loading of Co(II) ions was evaluated. Details of the synthetic method and the different materials in terms of composition and morphology it results in as a function of the relative amount of metal ions have also been discussed. The materials showed promising supercapacitive properties and electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The materials' double layer capacitance and performance for ORR electrocatalysis as a function of their Co3O4 content and particles size have also been discussed. The results indicated that the electrochemical properties of these hybrid materials are strongly related to the morphology of their carbon nanostructures. The synthetic method demonstrated here can potentially serve as a facile route to produce other metal oxide/carbon nanomaterials, with different morphologies and similar or better properties, using other carbon precursors.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that function as endogenous silencers of numerous target genes. Hundreds of miRNAs have been identified in the human genome. miRNAs are expressed in a tissue-specific manner and play important roles in cell proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation. Aberrant expression of miRNAs may also contribute to the development and progression of human hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers. Recent studies have shown that some miRNAs play roles as tumor suppressors or oncogenes in hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers. miR-122, let-7 family, and miR-101 are down-regulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), suggesting that it is a potential tumor suppressor of HCC. miR-221 and miR-222 are up-regulated in HCC and may act as oncogenic miRNAs in hepatocarcinogenesis. miRNA expression profiling may be a powerful clinical tool for diagnosis and regulation of miRNA expression could be a novel therapeutic strategy for hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers. In this review, we summarize current knowledge about the roles of important tumor suppressor microRNAs and oncogenic microRNAs in hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers.


BACKGROUND:
 In multiple myeloma (MM), deletion of TP53/17p (del17p), present in around 10% of patients, is associated with shortened survival. Lower incidence of del17p is reported in African Americans (AA) compared to European Americans (EA), alluding to possible contribution of disease biology to racial differences in outcome among AA and EA patients with MM. Our recent report of a significantly superior age-adjusted risk of death in AA compared to EA patients in the younger (<65) Veteran population also suggests that AA may have a genetic predisposition that renders them to have better therapeutic outcome or have more indolent subtypes of MM. Here we investigated the incidence and impact of del17p on outcome in AA and EA patients with MM at the VA.
 METHODS:
 We identified 2677 patients with MM from 1999 to 2017 using the VA's nationwide Corporate Data Warehouse for whom information on del17p was available. We extracted data on patients' age, race, ISS stage, therapy at induction and stem-cell transplant (SCT) utilization. Test results for del17p were extracted from lab panel and pathology reports. Our analysis is focused on patients with this data.
 RESULTS:
 Of the 2677 MM patients evaluated for del17p by conventional cytogenetics and/or FISH, self-reported race information was available in 2432 patients, among which AA constituted 35.6% (867) and EA 64.4% (1565). AA had a greater proportion of younger (<65) patients compared to EA (49.48% vs 33.87%, p<0.001). Overall, among those tested, del17p was reported in 7.4% of all patients, but the incidence was significantly lower in AA compared to EA (4.73% vs 8.82%, p<0.001), largely due to the difference in incidence of del17p in younger AA vs EA (3.73% vs 8.30%, p = 0.005). The rates of del17p across different ISS stages were not significantly different, nor did ISS stage differ across race.
 As expected, del17p was associated with shortened survival. In the full cohort, median survival was 2.26 years for patients with del17p and 4.27 years for those without (p<0.001). These differences were also observed within race (1.74 vs 4.95 in AA, p<0.001, 2.34 vs 4.13 in EA, p<0.001) and age groups (2.67 vs 5.49 in younger, p<0.001; 2.12 vs 3.5 in older, p<0.001).
 We found no significant racial differences in survival between AA and EA patients with del17p deletion (1.74 vs 2.34, p=0.47) regardless of age category. However, importantly we noted a significant racial difference in the median survival between younger AA and EA without del17p (7.75 vs. 4.87 years, p=0.006). In contrast, in older patients without del17p we observed no significant difference in survival across race.
 To understand the difference in survival between younger AA and EA without del17p, we compared ISS stage, ECOG status, and novel therapy (bortezomib, lenalidomide, and thalidomide) and SCT utilization between these groups. No significant differences were observed apart from a small difference in utilization of bortezomib in AA patients as compared to EA at induction (63.1% vs 58.3%, p = 0.029). To assess whether bortezomib utilization had any impact on survival, we compared survival among younger AA and EA without del17p after stratifying into three treatment regimens: bortezomib/dex (Vd), lenalidomide/dex (Rd), and RVd. We observed superior survival for AA as compared to EA across all three regimens (Vd: 5.82 vs 3.63 years, p=0.022; Rd: 8.15 vs 5.10, p=0.029; RVd: median not reached vs 6.95, p=0.72), suggesting that the difference in bortezomib utilization was not responsible for the observed difference in survival.
 Interestingly, among 198 patients with del17p for whom the percentage of cells with deletion was reported, we observed that higher (>55%) clonality was associated with lower median survival compared to those with low clonality (5-55%) (0.97 vs 2.42, p=0.049). The difference was even more significant with a threshold of 35% (p=0.015).
 CONCLUSIONS:
 Our large study identified significantly lower incidence of del17p in younger AA compared to EA. We found no racial disparity in survival among AA and EA with del17p regardless of age. In contrast, in the absence of del17p, younger AA demonstrated significantly better survival as compared to younger EA and better response to bortezomib- and lenalidomide-based doublet and triplet induction regimens, suggesting possible differences in disease biology other than del17p that may contribute to a more indolent course and increased sensitivity to therapy.

 Yellapragada: Celgene: Research Funding; Novartis: Employment, Other: Spouse Employment ; BMS: Research Funding; Takeda: Research Funding. Munshi:Takeda: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy; Oncopep: Consultancy; Takeda: Consultancy; Oncopep: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy; Amgen: Consultancy; Amgen: Consultancy; Abbvie: Consultancy; Abbvie: Consultancy; Adaptive: Consultancy; Adaptive: Consultancy.


This manuscript deals with two problems : the first one is a new problem of
 the system of variational inclusion that is called modified generalized
 system of variational inclusion problem(MGSVIP) and the other one is a
 hierarchical fixed point problem in the framework of real Hilbert space. We
 establish the important lemma that show the relation between fixed point of
 nonlinear mapping and solution of MGSVIP for proving the main theorem. To
 approximate the common solution of these problems, we design an iterative
 scheme under suitable conditions on parameters. A strong convergence result
 for the proposed iterative scheme is proved. Applying our main result, we
 prove strong convergence theorems of the modification system of variational
 inequalities problem and variational inclusion problem. Moreover, we give
 the numerical example for supporting our results.


In the pursuit of an uncooled THz sensor, we address the specific modeling and optimization method for micro-machined transistors for the implementation of antenna-coupled MOSFET bolometers. We discuss the degrees of freedom for maximizing the device's SNR, outlining also the trade-offs in relation to the requirements of an integrated read-out circuit. The methodology was applied to novel antenna-coupled THz sensors manufactured in a 0.18-μm SOI CMOS process. The theoretical results are supported by the measurements of these devices.


Alla Mullagildina Purpose: to reveal the influence of the level of development of sensorimotor coordination of gymnasts 8–9 years on technical preparedness in exercise with clubs . Material & Methods: tested ten gymnasts for 8 – 9 years on eleven test exercises with clubs, revealed the level of differentiation of muscular effort and reproduction of the time interval, statistical and correlation analysis of the data was carried out . Results : close correlation relations of the marks for the performance of the competitive exercise with clubs are revealed with accuracy of reproduction of the time interval (r=0,7); heteronymic circles: in front – a large facial, behind the head  – medium (r=0,7); with catching the clubs in two hands on the jump "touching" after throwing the left (r=0,7). Conclusion: to perform basic exercises with clubs gymnasts affect the ability to analyze spatial-temporal characteristics of motions, differentiation own muscular effort proprioceptive sensitivity and anticipation .


Reducing power dissipation is one of the most important issues in very large scale integration design today. Scaling causes subthreshold leakage currents to become a large component of total power dissipation. Multithreshold technology has emerged as a promising technique to reduce leakage power. This paper presents several heuristic techniques for efficient gate clustering in multithreshold CMOS circuits by modeling the problem via bin-packing (BP) and set-partitioning (SP) techniques. The SP technique takes the circuit's routing complexity into consideration which is critical for deep submicron (DSM) implementations. By applying the techniques to six benchmarks to verify functionality, results obtained indicate that our proposed techniques can achieve on average 84% savings for leakage power and 12% savings for dynamic power. Furthermore, four hybrid clustering techniques that combine the BP and SP techniques to produce a more efficient solution are also devised. Ground bounce was also taken as a design parameter in the optimization problem. While accounting for noise, the proposed hybrid solution achieves on average 9% savings for dynamic power and 72% savings for leakage power dissipation at sufficient speeds and adequate noise margins.


A 20-channel parallel optical receiver has been developed that achieves the data transfer rate of 1 GByte/s. Each channel takes a dc-coupled optical input and can be driven by a 250 MHz clock to have a data rate of 500 Mb/s/channel. This parallel optical receiver IC is an integral part of a low cost optical bus technology which was demonstrated to be cost competitive with copper interconnect technology. The power supply is 3.3 V to be compatible with system supply. The control inputs are CMOS logic compatible and data outputs are compatible with IEEE low-voltage differential signals. The chip has been fabricated in a 1.2 /spl mu/m GaAs MESFET technology.


In network coding, a flag code is a collection of flags, that is, sequences of nested subspaces of a vector space over a finite field. Due to its definition as the sum of the corresponding subspace distances, the flag distance parameter encloses a hidden combinatorial structure. To bring it to light, in this paper, we interpret flag distances by means of distance paths drawn in a convenient distance support. The shape of such a support allows us to create an ad hoc associated Ferrers diagram frame where we develop a combinatorial approach to flag codes by relating the possible realizations of their minimum distance to different partitions of appropriate integers. This novel viewpoint permits to establish noteworthy connections between the flag code parameters and the ones of its projected codes in terms of well known concepts coming from the classical partitions theory.


The contention that diversity in education is in the global arena and considered the norm is a relatively recent phenomenon. Pockets of consciousness about culturally responsive pedagogies have developed over time and the movement toward an equitable positionality for minoritised learners has been liberating of many indigenous societies' aspirations. It is not, however, without challenges. This paper sets out to describe a selection of 'classic' studies from the 1990s, and to discuss some key imperatives that rationalise their durability over time, and their relevance in the present. Attention is then turned toward research and policies related to the provision of Māori students' education generated in Aotearoa New Zealand during the past two decades. The paper concludes by reporting on a unique iwi-based (tribe-based) research project embedded in iwitanga (tribal protocols) while simultaneously nested within te ao Māori: the Māori world. This project sheds light on the reasons for some Māori secondary students' educational success, and suggests that the characteristics these students share will continue to bring them success in the future.


Machine learning pipelines are an essential component of modern data science. They play a crucial role in automating the development process of ML models. However, designing and configuring ML pipelines is a complex and time-consuming task. Furthermore, various challenges must be addressed to ensure a successful implementation. In this case study, a comprehensive approach for generating ML pipelines automatically is proposed, aiming to alleviate the burden of manual pipeline design and enable ML practitioners to focus more on model development and analysis. The ML practitioner should be able to provide a series of configurations that are used to generate an ML pipeline which could act as a base for the further ML workflow. For this, interviews with five experts from adesso SE were conducted to determine the components and quality requirements of ML pipelines in general as well as project specifications they might depend on. Using the results from these interviews and findings from related work, a prototypical approach was developed. In a second round of interviews with the same interviewees, the prototypical approach was evaluated using usefulness and ease of use as evaluation metrics. The results of the case study show that the interviewees deemed such an approach to automatically generate ML pipelines useful. The reduction in time to produce first ML models at the start of a project was highlighted. Based on these results, the prototypical approach could be developed further, becoming a useful tool in the ML workflow of every ML project.


The Brazilian Central Plateau is constituted of the two main geomorphic surfaces: the South American surface and the Velhas surface. These surfaces were developed during the Cretaceous Superior and Tertiary and are covered by deeply weathered Latosols. The South American surface is the oldest and occupies the highest position in the landscape (950 to 1,200 m altitude) with smoothly convex plane portions. The Velhas surface is composed by irregular and slightly sloping planes and occupies in the landscape (750 to 950 m altitude). It is connected to the South American surface by areas of steep hillsides.


Geophysical study of lithologies attribute was investigated in Isihor village of Edo State, Nigeria. These attributes include depth, thickness of  lithologies or rock types beneath the sea level or earth's surface.  Geophysical prospect of lithologies in this studied area is vital for many economic and environmental reasons for examples a large portion of the world's fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal are found in stratified  (layererd) rock types and much of the world's ground water are store in sediments or stratified rocks. This investigation actually entailed carrying out electrical resistivity survey of vertical electrical sounding (VES) employing Schlumberger array. Ten(10) VES, fairly distributed in six different stations of Isihor village was carried out. The software IPI2WIN utilizing computer iteration was used for interpretation of apparent resistivity data. The result of the electrical resistivity survey showed that the lithologies; top soil; laterite, sandy soil, sandy clay loose soil clay soil, and clean sand were intercepted at depths of (0.56-0.86)m, (1.92-13.64) m (12.48-52.78m) (12.58-25.72)m, (*20.04 -74.43)m, (1.20-4.28)m, and (80.76-115.09)m respectively below sea level. Their respective thicknesses were probably 0.56, 0.98m, 7.42m 6.42m, 6.40m, 0.64m and 5.10m. These results agreed very well with available borehole/drillers log records of the area.


This book seeks to formulate an IT policy for a University taking into consideration the IT policies already in place in major Universities both in the World as well as in other universities in Albania. The rationale behind writing this book is to formulate an IT policy for the university which would meet the current and future needs of the university. The consultancy project also aims to identify the best practices that would be followed by the university while dealing with IT issues. The core objective of this research work is to analyze the key factors that influence the design of a comprehensive IT policy for a university, and how it could help in the overall development of a university. This consultancy project recommends the benchmarks in information technology policy and procedures that institutions in higher education can adopt.


Alzheimer disease (AD) is a polygenic multifactorial disorder. Several studies suggested that the neuroprotective effect of estrogen was based on an APOE-dependent mechanism. The goals of the current study were to determine if the genes involved in estrogen metabolism were linked to the risk of AD and find out if there was an interaction between estrogen-metabolizing gene polymorphisms and the APOE Ε4 allele in the risk of prevalent AD. We investigated 66 patients with AD and 86 age- and gender-matched normal subjects. The polymorphisms of APOE and estrogen-metabolizing genes CYP17, CYP1A1 and COMT were examined. No association was found between each estrogen-metabolizing gene polymorphism and AD. However, the COMT HH genotype and APOE Ε4 allele had a synergistic effect on the risk of AD. Taking subjects with Ε4–Ε4–/HH– as reference, the risk of developing AD in subjects with one Ε4 allele (Ε4+Ε4–/HH–) was 2.6 (95% confidence interval, CI, 0.7– 9.1); however, the risk in subjects with both HH and one Ε4 (Ε4+Ε4–/HH+) increased to 3.6 (95% CI 1.2–10.6). The subjects with homozygous Ε4 still had the highest risk in developing AD (odds ratio 6.6, 95% CI 0.6–69.6). The p value of the linear trend test for this regression model was 0.004. It is possible that a high metabolism of estrogen by COMT may have reduced the protective effect of estrogen in AD. Further studies to clarify this interaction may improve our understanding of the generic risks for AD.


This paper presents a model aimed at measuring intellectual capital as the potential knowledge of a country and apply it to the European Union. The method consists of activating accountable expenses, assumed to generate knowledge. In order to do so, efficiency indicators are used, derived from a summary of variables of structural, human and technological capitals by means of factor analysis. The results of this study for the EU25 in 2006 explain why Northern Europe has greater intellectual capital potential. They are more productive, as they manage and apply new technologies better. In human capital, Eastern countries have strong potential. The paper concludes that, at the conceptual level, this information should be used to design convergence policies and balanced development strategies to ensure economic growth.


BACKGROUND Aquaporin (AQP) water channels play a significant role in mesenchymal microvascular proliferation and infiltrative growth. AQPs are highly expressed in malignant astrocytomas, and a positive correlation is observed between their expression levels and histological tumor grade. OBJECTIVE To examine the utility of aquaporin positron emission tomography (PET) for differentiating between astrocytoma grade III and grade IV using the AQP radioligand [11C]TGN‐020. METHODS Fifteen astrocytoma patients, grade III (n = 7) and grade IV (n = 8) and 10 healthy volunteers underwent [11C]TGN‐020 aquaporin PET imaging. Surgical tissues of astrocytoma patients were examined for histopathological grading using the WHO classification standard and expression of AQP1 and AQP4 immunohistochemically. RESULTS Mean standardized uptake values of astrocytoma grade III and IV (0.51 ± 0.11 vs 1.50 ± 0.44, respectively) were higher than normal white matter (0.17 ± 0.02, P < .001) for both tumor grades. Importantly, mean standardized uptake values of astrocytoma grade IV were significantly higher than grade III (P < .01). CONCLUSION Our study demonstrated that [11C]TGN‐020 aquaporin PET imaging differentiated between astrocytoma grades III and IV. We suggest its clinical application as a noninvasive diagnostic tool would lead to advancements in the management of these malignant brain tumors.


This thesis speculatively explores both the nature of Postdramatic dramaturgy and its impact upon the role of the contemporary audience, focussing in particular on the work of New Brutalists Martin Crimp, Sarah Kane and Mark Ravenhill. Through the analysis of their texts, Attempts on Her Life (1997), 4.48 Psychosis (1999) and Shopping and Fucking (1996), the shift in audience participation from one of passivity to one of activity is recognised and the techniques they utilize to achieve this identified. This is achieved further still through the comparison of their form with that of Postdramatic predecessors. This thesis argues the Postdramatic as a paradigm shift, its gravity significant within contemporary theatre having influenced the anticipated ontology of the audience and arguably revolutionised the very potential of theatre.


A case of hepatic amebic abscess is presented that was treated successfully by laparoscopy. The patient was fully worked up, including computed tomography (CT) scan, video-colonoscopy, and blood profiles. The laparoscopic surgical technique is fully discussed and proved to be a very useful tool in the management of this problem, obviating the need for a formal laparotomy and its potential complications.


The synthesis of AChR antibodies requires intervention of AChR-specific Th cells. Because of the paucity of anti-AChR Th cells in the blood of myasthenia gravis (MG) patients, direct studies of these autoimmune cells in the blood are seldom possible. Propagation in vitro of anti-AChR T cells from MG patients by cycles of stimulation with AChR antigens selectively enriches and expands the autoimmune T-cell clones, allowing investigation of their function and epitope specificity. Torpedo electroplax AChR was initially used for propagation of anti-AChR T-cell lines. Those studies demonstrated the feasibility of in vitro propagation of AChR-specific T cells. These are bona fide CD4+ Th cells, which stimulate production in vitro of anti-AChR antibodies by B cells of myasthenic patients and recognize equally well denatured and native AChR, suggesting the usefulness of synthetic human AChR sequences as antigens for propagation of the autoimmune Th cells. We used pools of overlapping synthetic peptides, corresponding to the complete sequences of the human AChR alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-subunits, to propagate AChR-specific Th cells from the blood of MG patients. The AChR sequence regions forming epitopes recognized by the autoimmune T cells were determined by challenging the lines with individual synthetic peptides, 20 residues long, screening the AChR subunit sequences. Although each line had an individual pattern of epitope recognition--as expected from their different HLA-DR haplotype--some peptides were recognized by most of all the CD4+ T-cell lines, irrespective of their DR haplotype. The existence of immunodominant regions of the AChR sequence was verified by investigating the response of unselected CD4+ cells from the blood of a relatively large number of MG patients to the individual peptides screening the human alpha-, gamma-, and delta-subunit sequences. Those studies confirmed that each patient has an individual pattern of peptide recognition. The studies also identified a large number of T epitopes of the human AChR and verified the existence of sequence regions immunodominant for T-helper sensitization, because a limited number of sequence regions, including all those immunodominant for the T-helper lines, were recognized by most patients. Anti-AChR CD4+ T lines could be propagated from some healthy controls only for a brief period of time. They recognized AChR sequences poorly, suggesting a low affinity of their T-cell receptors for the corresponding AChR epitopes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Advanced techniques in laparoscopic surgery have led to an increased need for appropriate training in instrument handling and dissection. Recent developments in computer video technology have facilitated critical analysis of surgical technique. Video deconstruction of oesophageal hiatal dissection during six laparoscopic fundoplication procedures was undertaken. The procedures were performed by surgeons with a wide range of surgical experience, and the investigators analysing performance were blinded to their level of training. Sequential five‐second video segments were analysed in detail by 3 investigators. A taxonomy list was developed to describe individual types of movement. The number and time per movement was assessed and a degree of efficiency was assigned. An efficient movement was defined as one that advances the dissection towards a recognised goal. The total oesophageal dissection time varied from 10 minutes (min) to 25 min (mean 16 min). The mean number of actions performed was 173 (range 120–272). A mean of 7 min was spent separating tissues (range 5–13), with 6 min spent grasping and positioning tissue (range 3–8). The amount of time spent in inefficient movement varied from 3 to 14 min (mean 7 min). The greatest variation between operators was seen in the efficiency of tissue separation when using dissecting instruments. Inexperienced operators spent a lot more time performing additional movements such as scope cleaning, observation and instrument exchange. This technique of video deconstruction can identify key areas for improvement. This could be used for trainee assessment and to provide constructive feedback. Future development in this area could enhance training in advanced laparoscopic techniques.


ABSTRACT Purpose: To evaluate choroidal structural changes in patients with multiple evanescent white dot syndrome (MEWDS) during the acute and recovery stages. Methods: Enhanced-depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT) scans of 16 patients with unilateral MEWDS were acquired during the acute and recovery stages in both eyes. Images were binarized with the ImageJ software to measure subfoveal choroidal thickness (CT), total choroid area, luminal area and choroidal vascularity index (CVI). Results: In the acute stage, subfoveal CT, total choroidal area and CVI were significantly higher in eyes with MEWDS compared to fellow eyes (371.2 ± 101.8 vs 317.1 ± 90.3 µm, p = .001; 2.826 ± 0.686 vs 2.524 ± 0.674 mm2, p = .014; 69.49 ± 3.51 vs 68.27 ± 3.41%, p = .044, respectively). In the recovery stage, subfoveal CT, total choroidal area and CVI in eyes with MEWDS significantly decreased to respectively 333.4 ± 90.5 µm, p = .007, 2.592 ± 0.570 p = .002, and 67.31 ± 2.74%, p = .014. Conclusions: Choroidal thickness and vascularity are significantly increased during the acute stage of MEWDS.


While many languages are in danger of extinction worldwide, multilingualism is being adopted for communication among different language groups, and is playing a unique role in preserving language and cultural diversities. How multilingualism is developed and maintained therefore becomes an important interdisciplinary research subject for understanding complex social changes of modern-day societies. In this paper, a mixed population of multilingual speakers and bilingual speakers in particular is considered, with multilingual defined broadly as zero, limited, or full uses of multiple languages or dialects, and an evolutionary dynamic model for its development and evolution is proposed. The model consists of two different parts, formulated as two different evolutionary games, respectively. The first part accounts for the selection of languages based on the competition for population and social or economic preferences. The second part relates to circumstances when the selection of languages is altered, for better or worse, by forces other than competition such as public policies, education, or family influences. By combining competition with intervention, the paper shows how multilingualism may evolve under these two different sources of influences. It shows in particular that by choosing appropriate interventional strategies, the stable co-existence of languages, especially in multilingual forms, is possible, and extinction can be prevented. This is in contrast with major predictions from previous studies that the co-existence of languages is unstable in general, and one language will eventually dominate while all others will become extinct.


Primary conjunctival tuberculosis is very rare in the developed countries. In an endemic country like India, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of any unusual conjunctival lesion with unilaterality, chronicity, and nonresolution of symptoms after steroid use. We present the case of a 52-year-old female who presented with unilateral itching and blurring of vision for 20 days. There were irregular nodular elevated areas with shrinkage of the lower palpebral conjunctiva. A biopsy of the lesion revealed necrotizing epithelioid cell granulomas along with Langhans type of giant cells. However, no acid-fast bacilli were seen on Ziehl-Neelsen stain. Systemic examination of the patient was normal, and there was no evidence of pulmonary tuberculosis. Polymerase chain reaction of conjunctival scrapings was positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The patient was started on antitubercular drugs. We present this very rare case of primary tuberculosis of the conjunctiva presenting with dryness of the eye.


We present an approach to automatic classification of spontaneously spoken voice messages. During overload periods at call-centers customers are offered a call-back at a later time. A speech dialog asks them to describe their concern on a voice box. The identified topics correspond to the supported service categories, which in turn determine the agent group the customer message is routed to. Our multistage classification process includes speech-to-text, stemming, keyword spotting, and categorization. Classifier training and evaluation have been performed with real-life data. Results show promising performance. The pilot will be launched in a field test.


Diurnal variation in trawl catches and its influence on energy efficiency of trawler operations are discussed in this paper, based on data on landings of a Japanese factory trawler which operated in the Indian waters during 1992-93. The factory vessel equipped for stern trawling had a length overall of 110 m, GT of 5460 and installed engine power of 5700 hp. Operations were conducted off west coast of India between 31 and 278 m depth contours, using a 80.4 m high opening bottom trawl with an adjusted vertical opening of 7.60.9 m. The catch data was grouped according to the median towing hour, by the time of the day. CPUE obtained was 3713.4 kg.h-1 for day time operations and 1536.6 kg.h-1 for night-time operations. Mean daily catches were 31367 kg.day-1 (SE: 2743) for day time operations and 9430 kg.day-1 (SE: 966) for night-time operations. Fuel consumption were 0.399 and 0.982 kg fuel.kg fish-1, respectively for day and night-time operations. Total catch and catch components such as threadfin bream, bulls eye, hairtails, trevelly, lizard fish showed significant improvement during day-time operations while swarming crabs showed a significant improvement in the night-time operations. The difference in catch rates between day and night could be attributed to diurnal variation in the spatial distribution and schooling behaviour of the catch categories, their differential behaviour in the vicinity of trawl systems under varying light levels of day and night and consequent effect on catching efficiency and size selectivity at different stages in the capture process. The results obtained in addition to its importance in the operational planning of trawling in order to realise objectives of maximising catch per unit effort and minimising fuel consumption per unit volume of fish caught, has added significance in the use of bottom trawl surveys in stock abundance estimates.


The research shows that in term of frequency of segment relation, the NS's text shows the dominant use elaborative relation. On the other hand, EFL text predomi-nantly employs List relation which is slightly higher from Causal relation which comes in the second place. The NS text also reveals lower degree of explicitness which is indicated by low occurrence of conjunction realized in unmarked way. Hypotaxis in the NS's text is almost equal in number as parataxis, and by comparison it has higher number of hypotactic relation compared with the EFL text. On the other hand, EFL text shows higher degree of explicitness, which is identified by higher number of conjunctions employment which is mostly realized in unmarked way. All of these features of text can be linked to the types of texts and linguistic and cultural background of the writers. The NS's text which predominantly uses elaborative relation can be linked to the writer-responsible theory. This is where the writers have responsibility to make their text become as comprehensible as possible. Elaborative relation is purposed to advance the flow of understanding of the text by readers by providing clarification and other relevant information. Higher number of hypotactic relations can be influenced by Aristotelian argumentation which encourages writers to argue their point of view. Low explicitness in NS's text reflects the higher English proficiency of the writers in making the text become coherent without heavily relying on conjunction. On the other hand, EFL text uses larger number of List and Causal relations which is expectedly found in an argumentative text. Its higher number of unmarked conjunction indicates the writer's heavy reliance on conjunction in making the text coherent. The lower degree of hypotactic relation is linked to politeness strategy and keeping harmony following the Confucianism tradition of writing. Consequently, paratactic relation is tended to be used to avoid aggressiveness in presenting a point of view.


Abstract. Purpose: Validation of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms in digital pathology with a reference standard is necessary before widespread clinical use, but few examples focus on creating a reference standard based on pathologist annotations. This work assesses the results of a pilot study that collects density estimates of stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) in breast cancer biopsy specimens. This work will inform the creation of a validation dataset for the evaluation of AI algorithms fit for a regulatory purpose. Approach: Collaborators and crowdsourced pathologists contributed glass slides, digital images, and annotations. Here, "annotations" refer to any marks, segmentations, measurements, or labels a pathologist adds to a report, image, region of interest (ROI), or biological feature. Pathologists estimated sTILs density in 640 ROIs from hematoxylin and eosin stained slides of 64 patients via two modalities: an optical light microscope and two digital image viewing platforms. Results: The pilot study generated 7373 sTILs density estimates from 29 pathologists. Analysis of annotations found the variability of density estimates per ROI increases with the mean; the root mean square differences were 4.46, 14.25, and 26.25 as the mean density ranged from 0% to 10%, 11% to 40%, and 41% to 100%, respectively. The pilot study informs three areas of improvement for future work: technical workflows, annotation platforms, and agreement analysis methods. Upgrades to the workflows and platforms will improve operability and increase annotation speed and consistency. Conclusions: Exploratory data analysis demonstrates the need to develop new statistical approaches for agreement. The pilot study dataset and analysis methods are publicly available to allow community feedback. The development and results of the validation dataset will be publicly available to serve as an instructive tool that can be replicated by developers and researchers.


Background: Lockdown measures were implemented in many countries to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, such restrictions could precipitate unintended negative consequences on lifestyle behaviors. The main objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence and determinants of unhealthy behavior changes during the COVID-19 lockdown among residents of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Methods: A cross-sectional web-based survey of adults residing in the UAE was carried out during lockdown (n = 2060). Using a multi-component questionnaire, the collected data included questions regarding the following lifestyle changes: Increased dietary intake, increased weight, decreased physical activity, decreased sleep, and increased smoking. An unhealthy lifestyle change score was calculated based on the number of unhealthy lifestyle changes each participant reported. In addition, sociodemographic and living conditions information was collected. Descriptive statistics as well as simple and multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine the prevalence and determinants of the unhealthy lifestyle changes considered in this study. Results: Among the unhealthy lifestyle changes examined, increased food intake was the most common (31.8%), followed by decreased physical activity (30%), increased weight (29.4%), decreased sleep (20.8%), and increased smoking (21%). In addition to identifying the correlates of each of the aforementioned lifestyle changes, the results of the multiple regression linear analyses revealed the following correlates for the overall unhealthy lifestyle change score: females (β = 0.32, CI: 0.22; 0.42), living in an apartment (β = 0.12, CI: 0.003; 0.23) and being overweight/obese (β = 0.24, CI: 0.15; 0.32) had higher scores, while older adults (>40 years) had lower scores (β = −0.23, CI: −0.34; −0.12). Conclusions: The COVID-19 lockdown has resulted in a high prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and practices among UAE residents. The findings of this study provided the evidence base for officials to design interventions targeting high-risk groups and aiming to improve healthy lifestyle factors among residents during the pandemic.


Several studies have investigated the effect of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) on fractured bone and bone cells. In general, positive results were reported, but they may vary depending on the LIPUS operational mode. In the present study, the effect of exposure duration associated with LIPUS insonification on osteoblasts was extensively investigated. In experiments, osteoblasts were insonified with LIPUS of 3, 5, 10, and 20 minutes, respectively. The employed LIPUS used a 1 MHz frequency, a 100 mW/cm 2 spatial-average-temporal-average intensity (ISATA), and a 20% duty cycle at a 1 kHz pulse repetition frequency. The effect of LIPUS on osteoblasts was assessed in terms of the growth and differentiation of cells corresponding to cell viability, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, mRNA expression of ALP and osteocalcin (OCN), and Alizarin red-S staining. Results demonstrate that the growth and differentiation of insonified osteoblasts increased with increasing exposure duration for durations of up to 10 minutes. Specifically, with 10 minutes of LIPUS insonification, the proliferation and ALP activity of osteoblasts increased to 1.07- and 1.31-fold than those of the control groups, respectively; OCN mRNA expression and the mineralization of osteoblasts increased respectively to 2.23- and 2.5-fold than those of the control groups. When the exposure duration of LIPUS was further increased to 20 minutes, the growth and differentiation of insonified osteoblasts did not increase. This indicates that the effect of LIPUS insonification on osteoblasts is exposure-duration-dependent. Furthermore, the temperature of the medium corresponding to LIPUS insonfication varied within 0.5 °C , verifying that the LIPUS insonification provides a non-thermal effect on the regulation of cellular growth and differentiation. Consequently, with appropriate LIPUS exposure duration, the proliferation, differentiation, and mineralization of insonified osteoblasts can be regulated, which could be beneficial for the treatment of bone-related diseases.


Cisplatin is one of the most broadly used chemotherapeutic agents. Several central nervous system toxicities have been attributed to this agent, among which is a rare clinicoradiological condition referred to as posterior reversible leukoen-cephalopathy syndrome (PRES) or reversible posterior leukoencephalopathy syndrome (RPLS). PRES is characterized by subacute onset of headache, visual disturbances, confusion, seizures and rarely, coma. This usually reversible syn-drome was associated in the past mainly with hypertension. Several reports have associated the syndrome with several immunosuppressive and chemotherapeutic agents suggesting a disruption of the blood brain barrier due to direct damage to the endothelium and vasogenic edema. This syndrome is readily diagnosed with Computed Tomography (CT) or Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies and quick withdrawal of the causative agent in conjunction with supportive care including rapid hypertension control and reduction of elevated intracranial pressure when needed, usually reverse the neurological symptoms with minimal or even no sequela within several days. In this brief report and review of the literature we describe two cases of PRES in two female patients that occurred a few days after receiving Cisplatin-based chemotherapy. We discuss the clinical presentation, diagnosis and treatment of this syndrome by reviewing the literature. The escalating number of clinical reports of PRES merit further studies of the mechanism of toxicity, appropriate treatment and awareness of physicians to this life threatening entity


Lansi adjustment is the ability to sustain their existence in both physical and spiritual changes and able to adapt to the surrounding environment, adjustment was also nerupakan individual's ability to adapt, acceptable environment for housing. The purpose of this research is to know the adjustment in elderly subjects with low socioeconomic status. In this study the researcher used the qualitative method, whereby the qualitative research the researcher is the main instrument. The data collection method used is, observation and interviews. Observations and interviews conducted over ten days all subjects. The subjects of this study consisted of three subjects, ie aged 67-84 years, consisted of two women and one man's widow widower male. Research conducted to get the result that, elderly adjustment in subjects with low economic status showed poor adjustment, this can be seen in accordance with aspects - aspects of adjustment are: 1. The existence of the right perception of reality or reality Adjustment of each - each subject (LK STI and YS) related to the fact or reality kehidupuan, respectively - each have the same problems, especially economic problems, where each - of the subjects found it difficult to make ends meet. 2. Able to cope with stress and fear in ourselves Of each - each subject was still able to cope with stress or problems encountered, how - how they were together in solving problems, to meet their needs always try for example by way of debt, if there is a problem talk (vent) to another person. 3. Can see yourself in a positive way Of the three subjects, LK, STI and Ys, respectively - each can assess themselves positively, this can be seen from how will those who continue to live life optimistically despite old age. 4. Ability to express emotions in oneself In expressing emotions, are classified as good and no problems but in a different address - different, yet - average they always talked to neighbors when there is a problem. 5. Having a good interpersonal relationship It can be seen here from the three subjects had a poor relationship, especially towards the environment, this can be seen from how they interact or interact only in their neighborhood only.


Cell therapy usually accompanies cell detachment as an essential process in cell culture and cell collection for transplantation. However, conventional methods based on enzymatic cell detachment can cause cellular damage including cell death and senescence during the routine cell detaching step due to an inappropriate handing. The aim of the current study is to apply the pH-responsive degradation property of poly (amino ester) to the surface of a cell culture dish to provide a simple and easy alternative method for cell detachment that can substitute the conventional enzyme treatment. In this study, poly (amino ester) was modified (cell detachable polymer, CDP) to show appropriate pH-responsive degradation under mild acidic conditions (0.05% (w/v) CDP, pH 6.0) to detach stem cells (human adipose tissue-derived stem cells (hADSCs)) perfectly within a short period (less than 10 min). Compared to conventional enzymatic cell detachment, hADSCs cultured on and detached from a CDP-coated cell culture dish showed similar cellular properties. We further performed in vivo experiments on a mouse hindlimb ischemia model (1.0 × 106 cells per limb). The in vivo results indicated that hADSCs retrieved from normal cell culture dishes and CDP-coated cell culture dishes showed analogous therapeutic angiogenesis. In conclusion, CDP could be applied to a pH-responsive cell detachment system as a simple and easy nonenzymatic method for stem cell culture and various cell therapies.


Sir, In a recent article by James' it was suggested that the relationship between birthweight and the gestational age of dizygous twins, as assessed by the Dubowitz method, could be explained by superfecundation. If this hypothesis is valid, there should be no consistent difference in the Dubowitz scores ofmonozygous twins. During a study of 66 twin pairs2 we carefully examined all placentas at birth. Monozygous twins were diagnosed if their placentas were monochorionic and demonstrated vascular anastomoses. Unlike-sexed twins were regarded as dizygotic. In the study sample there were 12 monozygous and 30 dizygous pairs of twins. In the monozygous pairs the heaviest twin had the highest total Dubowitz score on 10 occasions while the lightest twin had the highest score on only 2 occasions. In the dizygous pairs, 21 heavier and 9 lighter twins had the highest score. We conclude that the heavier twin scores higher than the lighter twin in both monozygous and dizygous twins. This suggests that birthweight and not superfecundation is responsible for the Dubowitz method giving a higher scored gestational age to the heavier twin.


The article deals with the debate which took place in 1931 in Paris and was published in the same year in  Cahier de la Quinzaine . The main adversaries were Jacques Maritain and Boris Vysheslavtsev. The French and the Russian philosopher discussed the nature and significance of Cartesian heritage for contemporary philosophy and culture. Maritain accuses Descartes of detachment from traditional philosophy, which resulted in a grave fallacy. Vysheslavtsev in turn argues that the 17th-century philosopher set forth a path on which it is possible to overcome the errors he is accused of. His reductive method led him towards the phenomenology of the "I" and the Absolute, revealing the specificity of the relation between the two. He stopped halfway, however, assuming the two sides of that relation to be separate elements. Thus he found himself in an ambiguous position, thinking in fact more than he was able to enunciate within the intellectual culture of his time. Referring to that polemic, Nikolai Berdyaev points out that, surprisingly, it is the French Neo-Thomist who formulates a severe indictment of Descartes, while the Russian philosopher attempts to defend him. The situation appears even more intriguing in view of the hostility that Russian philosophy has always shown towards all forms of rationalism, especially artesianism. Despite that, it is the Russian religious thinker who defends the creator of modern rationalism and even incorporates some of his philosophical intuitions into his own philosophical reflections. What then does this controversy consist in? And what is it in Cartesian philosophy that Vysheslavtsev appreciated and Maritain failed to notice?


The geometric and dynamic postulates for rays in inhomogeneous optical media lead succinctly to the two Hamilton equations in regions where the inhomogeneity is smooth; at a surface of discontinuity between two smooth media, they lead to two conservation laws. One of these is the Ibn Sahl (-Snell-Descartes) law of finite refraction. The transformation due to finite refraction can be in general factorized into two simpler root transformations. These conclusions apply for mechanical as well as optical systems.


Data collected by multiple methods or from multiple sources is called multi-view data. To make full use of the multi-view data, multi-view learning plays an increasingly important role. Traditional multi-view learning methods rely on a large number of labeled and completed multi-view data. However, it is expensive and time-consuming to obtain a large number of labeled multi-view data in real-world applications. Moreover, multi-view data is often incomplete because of data collection failures, self-deficiency, or other reasons. Therefore, we may have to face the problem of fewer labeled and incomplete multi-view data in real application scenarios. In this paper, a transductive semi-supervised incomplete multi-view TSK fuzzy system modeling method (SSIMV_TSK) is proposed to address these challenges. First, in order to alleviate the dependency on labeled data and keep the model interpretable, the proposed method integrates missing view imputation, pseudo label learning of unlabeled data, and fuzzy system modeling into a single process to yield a model with interpretable fuzzy rules. Then, two new mechanisms, i.e. the bidirectional structural preservation of instance and label, as well as the adaptive multiple alignment collaborative learning, are proposed to improve the robustness of the model. The proposed method has the following distinctive characteristics: 1) it can deal with the incomplete and few labeled multi-view data simultaneously; 2) it integrates the missing view imputation and model learning as a single process, which is more efficient than the traditional twostep strategy; 3) attributed to the interpretable fuzzy inference rules, this method is more interpretable. Experimental results on real datasets show that the proposed method significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. Index Terms – incomplete multi-view data, few labeled data, fuzzy systems, pseudo label learning, missing view imputation.


This paper reports on an illustrative human rights impact assessment (HRIA) of the Italian wine supply chains of Systembolaget, the Swedish monopoly alcohol retailer. The HRIA aimed to evaluate the actual and potential human rights impacts at the production stage of the value chain in Italy, to identify their root causes, and to provide recommendations to relevant stakeholders concerning their prevention, mitigation and/or remediation. The assessment took just over a year and consisted of five phases of analysis using a methodology aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). However, the onset of Italy's severe first wave of coronavirus in 2020 meant that the assessment team was unable to conduct the field study phase with the full rigour required of an HRIA. The field phase started in September 2019, with an initial assessment phase based on a literature review and a round of stakeholder interviews from September 2019 to March 2020. Further, limited, worker interviews were conducted from October 2020 to January 2021. The result is an illustration of the human rights risks that are present in the areas of Italy from which Systembolaget sources its wine.


In this article we provide a rationale for using alternative, aesthetic methods of qualitative representation (e.g., creative writing, art, music, performance, poetry) in qualitative family therapy research. We also provide illustrative examples of methods that bring findings to life, and involve the audience in reflecting on their meaning. One problem with such forms of data representation has been that, until recently, there have not been standards with which to evaluate them. We summarize evolving standards and explain when the forms are appropriate and when they are not. We also address issues of legitimacy and conflicting standards held by others.


There is an increasing utilization of multiple sensor fusion in many disciplines, but a general systematic formulation has not been well developed. An attempt is made to provide a guideline in applying data fusion techniques to a practical problem, the fusion of target identification (ID) attribute measurements. Formation of a consensus function is first presented, and is followed by construction of a hierarchical probabilistic network for computing a joint probability density function. An ID fusion method is described and then integrated into a generalized track/data association algorithm.<<ETX>>


Not all individuals who smoke cannabis report psychotic‐like experiences. Given that risk factors for psychotic disorders are multifaceted, precipitating factors to psychotic‐like experiences after cannabis are likely to be equally complex. Reduced neurocognitive performance is associated with both psychosis risk and cannabis use. Therefore, it is possible cognitive performance may differentiate those who report psychotic‐like experiences after cannabis from those who do not. We determined whether those reporting psychotic/dysphoric experiences after cannabis had reduced neurocognitive performance compared to those reporting primarily euphoric experiences.


Objective: To understand employers' perceived organizational strengths in addressing stress and resilience-building to help expand theoretical knowledge and guide interventions. Methods: Interviews and discussion groups with 46 employer representatives using grounded theory methodology for sampling and analysis of narrative data. Results: Participants detailed three levels of approaches: (1) preventing stress/building resilience; (2) providing information, resources, and benefits to employees; and (3) intervening actively with troubled employees. Preventing stress through trusting work relationships and trust in stability of organizational structures emerged as a core concept explaining effectiveness of these approaches. Results are discussed using positive organizational scholarship, systems, and well-being frameworks. Conclusions: Psychosocial distress has unfavorable effects on human health and work performance. Greater attention to the systemic development and maintenance of trust in workplace relationships and systems is suggested.


The development of universities in the future is expected to no longer rely on building facilities as a lecture center, but rather based on information technology. XYZ University has been established since 2012 and also participates in implementing e-learning systems to support learning facilities. Therefore, this study is used to measure perceptions of student acceptance of the ease and usefulness of the e-learning Coursera system at XYZ University. This study looks for factors that can influence the acceptance of e-learning Coursera systems in XYZ University. Indicators of the factors that become this are taken from various previous studies. The research model was then tested with data from the field empirically using questionnaires. In measuring perception, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) method is an option to see the effect of student acceptance and compile using SMART PLS 3. The method of collecting data using a questionnaire, which means it is very dependent on the quality of the answers of the respondents, namely students. Hopefully this research can provide information about the perception of student acceptance of the ease and usefulness of the e-learning Coursera system at XYZ University. Keyword: Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), e-learning, Coursera, SMART PLS 3


Context. Recent studies have uncovered evidence that the statistical properties of asteroids' physical parameters are a fundamental source of information on the physics of their collisions and evolution. The analysis of the spin rates and spin vector distributions helps us to understand the role of various known and new effects. The alignment of spin vectors and the correlation of spin rates are for the first time observed for ten members of the Koronis family. These unexpected non-random orientations of the spin axes and correlations of the spin rates, now known as Slivan states are interpreted in terms of a YORP effect and spin-orbit resonances. Aims. To study non-gravitational-effects, there appears to be a need for new observational campaigns devoted to determining the physical parameters of the asteroid families. Methods. We analysed the photometric observations of the asteroids, which are the most efficient method of studying asteroid physical parameters. Results. We report the results of a ten-year long observational survey of the light variations of objects in the Flora region. We present 544 individual lightcurves of 55 objects obtained at various observing geometries. These lightcurves yield new or refined synodic periods for 32 asteroids and confirm period determinations for 23 objects in our sample. To improve the statistics of the Flora family objects, we add to our dataset 91 objects with reliably determined periods. The distribution of rotation rates for the Flora family is nonMaxwellian at a confidence level of 94% and different from those of the Koronis and the Hungaria families. It seems to be consistent with the long-term influence of the YORP effect, although it is also indicative of a younger age for the Flora family compared to both the Koronis and the Hungaria families. Conclusions. Our new data is a foundation for the spin vector and shape determinations that will be the objectives of the second paper of the series. We search for spin vector and spin periods correlations in order to determine whether Slivan states exist in the Flora family.


The era of the Obama Administration draws to a close at the end of 2016, leaving behind a signature achievement in the form of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that became law in 2010. Beginning with that year, I have contributed an annual essay to the Journal of Allied Health describing various aspects of this legislation. The current essay initially will start down that same path, but then take a sharp detour to discuss related aspects of what is occurring in the broader health domain.