We aimed to evaluate the properties of a novel tissue conditioner containing a surface pre-reacted glass-ionomer (S-PRG) nanofiller. Tissue conditioners containing 0 (control), 2.5, 5, 10, 20, or 30 wt% S-PRG nanofiller or 10 or 20 wt% S-PRG microfiller were prepared. The S-PRG nanofillers and microfillers were observed using scanning electron microscopy. The ion release, acid buffering capacity, detail reproduction, consistency, Shore A0 hardness, surface roughness, and Candida albicans adhesion of the tissue conditioners were examined. The results indicated that the nanofiller particles were smaller and more homogeneous in size than the microfiller particles. In addition, Al, B, F, and Sr ions eluted from S-PRG were generally found to decrease after 1 day. Acid neutralization was confirmed in a concentration-dependent manner. The mechanical properties of tissue conditioners containing S-PRG nanofiller were clinically acceptable according to ISO standard 10139-1:2018, although the surface roughness increased with increasing filler content. Conditioners with 5–30 wt% nanofiller had a sublethal effect on C. albicans and reduced fungal adhesion in vitro. In summary, tissue conditioner containing at least 5 wt% S-PRG nanofiller can reduce C. albicans adhesion and has potential as an alternative soft lining material.


This paper investigates both community and household determinants of poverty among ethnic minorities in the Northwest region, Vietnam. Results of a fractional logit and a logit model show that some household factors such as fixed assets, education, land and off-farm employment have a reducing effect on both poverty intensity and incidence. Furthermore, some commune characteristics were found to be closely linked to poverty. Notably, the presence of means of transportation and post offices reduces both the poverty intensity and incidence. However, other commune and household factors affect only the poverty incidence or intensity, but not both. This suggests that previous studies that focused only on the determinants of poverty incidence using a logit/probit approach might not adequately evaluate or even ignored the impact of some factors on the poverty intensity. We draw both socio-economic household and commune level implications for poverty alleviation in the study area.


The concepts of goods and services innovation have been discussed extensively in the academic literature. The research has been both selective (dealing with specific attributes such as R&D, process innovation, measurement of innovation, and use of information technology) and specific (dealing with specific industries such as banking, insurance, biotechnology, nanotechnology). This paper examines the concept of innovation in the context of "goods" and "services." The comparisons made between the two sectors are based on three distinct areas — definition, process, measurement. This paper also presents a conceptual framework showing the interactions among the various variables inherent in some of the distinct areas. Previous papers have highlighted the differences in innovation between goods and services. What is missing is how the intervening variables invoked in the discussions are themselves related to one another. While this paper reinforces the conclusions reached by other studies with regard to innovation, it specifically highlights on an aggregate scale, the areas in which goods and services differ. Future research should take these distinctions into account, not as single items but collectively. It is critical to consider how these innovation variables interact with one another in the context of goods and services. Perhaps the most significant contribution of this paper is in its presentation of the framework for understanding the innovation process as it relates to the goods and services sectors.


In this study tried to investigate of some Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury mechanisms among male sport activities. Of course an understanding of the noncontact ACL injuries mechanism has lagged behind diagnosis and treatment. However, a growing research implicates hormonal, anatomic, environmental, and biomechanical factors that may predispose athletes to these injuries. For this study selected 839 athlete for assess ACL injury mechanism by two different method: (A)Questionnaire and (B) Interview that information collected among athlete who were play soccer, volleyball, futsall, basketball, wrestling, ski and gymnastics. Our results indicate 52.6% of injuries occur during practices and 47.4% during competition. It also became clear that 72.3% of injuries are due to noncontact mechanism, 4.7% by accidents and 23% with unknown mechanism. Furthermore Dynamic alignment at the time of the injury included: Knee-in & Toe-out 47.1%, Knee-out & Toe-in 17.7%, and Hyperextension 11.4%. The ACL prevents the femur from moving forwards during weight bearing. It also helps to prevent rotation of the joint. Injury of the ACL most often occurs when an athlete is pivoting, decelerating suddenly or landing from a jump. The injury can also be caused by another player falling across the knee. ACL injuries are, probably, the most common devastating knee ligament injuries amongst sports persons. Usually these injuries are isolated, mainly in noncontact sports, but may often be a part of more complex ligamentous injuries. They occur more often in contact sports, such as football, and road traffic accidents. These injuries are most likely to lead to the need for surgery. So that's why it seems necessary to understand the ACL mechanism injury.


Objective Incorporating high fibre ingredients into pig diets has the potential to reduce odour emissions from of pigs. The current study was carried out to determine effect of diets containing 0, 80 and 160 g/kg of each of lucerne hay, maize cobs and sunflower husks on the chemical characteristics and odours from pig slurries. Methods Twenty eight pigs averaging 18±2.0 kg were kept in individual cages, over four weeks. All pigs were fed ad libitum. Faeces and urine were collected, mixed in a 1:2.3 ratio (w/w), stored and fermented for 16 days in a temperature controlled room at 22°C±2.3°C. The slurry was sampled twice (on day 1 and on day 16) of the fermentation period and analysed for pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrogen and short chain fatty acids (SCFA) concentration, on wet basis. All samples were tested for odour offensiveness using 18 panelists. A scale of 1 to 5 was used to rank the odour severity, (1 = not offensive, 5 = extremely offensive). Results Slurry pH and COD varied with fibre source (p<0.05). On day 16, COD for lucerne hay, sunflower husk and maize cobs were 369, 512, and 425 (standard error of the mean = 34.2) mg of oxygen per litre. Total SCFA concentration was higher at day 16 than day 1 (p< 0.05). Odour offensiveness varied with fibre source across both incubation periods (p<0.05). Sunflower husks and lucerne hay-based diets were rated as less offensive (mean rank = 2.2) than maize cob diets (mean rank of 4.3) (p<0.05). Conclusion It was concluded that different fibre sources and incubation period influence chemical composition and odour of the slurry. There is, thereby, a need to incorporate locally available fibrous feeds in the diet of pigs because they have an economical and environmental relevance to pig management.


The increasing technology of high-resolution image airborne sensors, including those on board Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, demands automatic solutions for processing, either on-line or off-line, the huge amountds of image data sensed during the flights. The classification of natural spectral signatures in images is one potential application. The actual tendency in classification is oriented towards the combination of simple classifiers. In this paper we propose a combined strategy based on the Deterministic Simulated Annealing (DSA) framework. The simple classifiers used are the well tested supervised parametric Bayesian estimator and the Fuzzy Clustering. The DSA is an optimization approach, which minimizes an energy function. The main contribution of DSA is its ability to avoid local minima during the optimization process thanks to the annealing scheme. It outperforms simple classifiers used for the combination and some combined strategies, including a scheme based on the fuzzy cognitive maps and an optimization approach based on the Hopfield neural network paradigm.


We used two field experiments to examine the nature and effects of size-dependent interactions between two terrestrial salamanders, Plethodon cinereus and Plethodon glutinosus. We reared juveniles of P. cinereus in an enclosure alone, with a similarly-sized conspecific, with a similarly-sized P. glutinosus, and with a larger P. glutinosus. We also reared juveniles of Plethodon glutinosus alone. We found that both intraspecific and interspecific competition reduced growth in juveniles of P. cinereus, but the effect of intraspecific competition did not differ from that of interspecific competition. Interspecific competition reduced growth in juveniles of P. glutinosus. Size asymmetry did not appear to affect competition between juveniles. Size, not species identity, determined the use of the space beneath wooden cover objects placed in the enclosures. In the second experiment, we housed adults of P. cinereus and juveniles of P. glutinosus with similarly-sized conspecific individuals to simulate intraspecific competition. Adults of P. cinereus were also paired with similarly-sized, smaller, and larger individuals of P. glutinosus. Interspecific competition did not affect growth differently than intraspecific competition for P. cinereus, and the size of the competitor did not affect the growth of this species. Interspecific competition reduced the growth of P. glutinosus significantly more than intraspecific competition and had the greatest effect when competing individuals were similarly-sized.


In this paper the clustering methods with different similarity measures were used to classifying the intercepted signals generated by electromagnetic sources to one of the previously identified L classes in N-dimensional feature space. The quality of these methods performing technical objects recognition was examined by using the computer simulated date.


Human Fc receptor-like 6 (FCRL6) is discretely expressed by cytotoxic lymphocytes, has ITIM-based signaling potential, and interacts with MHC II. To investigate the biology of its counterpart in mice, a panel of FCRL6-specific monoclonal antibodies was generated. In contrast to its expression in humans, FCRL6 could not be detected on mouse NK or CD8+ T cells. Instead, the receptor marked a subpopulation of pro B cells in adult bone marrow. FCRL6+ cells were absent in Hardy Fr. A, but became evident in Fr. B, peaked in Fr. C, and diminished in Fr. C'. The developmentally regulated expression of FCRL6 was also indicated by the increased frequency of these pro B cells in RAG2-/- and λ5-/- mice. FCRL6+ pro B cells were slightly smaller by light scatter and expressed relatively lower levels of IL-7Rα compared to FCRL6- cells. In keeping with this phenotypic difference, FCRL6+ pro B cells responded less favorably to IL-7 stimulation. They also had relatively lower proliferative and cycling capacity. Exposure of purified FCRL6- pro B cells to cytokines important for early B lineage differentiation revealed that FCRL6 surface expression could be induced by IL-7 alone, but was augmented by the addition of SCF. Collectively, these results demonstrate that FCRL6 defines a unique subset of mouse pro B cells that competes poorly relative to cells lacking its expression and suggest that FCRL6 may distinguish a subset of biologically impaired pro B cells.


A new spinel CuMnCoO4 has been synthesized. Its crystal structure has been determined by the powder method. It is found that this compound is tetragonal with a*=8·31 A and c*=8·58 A. The oxidation states of the copper, manganese and cobalt ions appear to be two, four and two respectively, from crystallographic considerations and x-ray absorption spectroscopy.


Abstract:The language of Section 212(e) of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. §1182(f), contains a sweeping authorization of presidential discretion to suspend and restrict alien entry into the United States. Senator Pat McCarran (D-NV) first introduced the subsection in 1950 as part of the omnibus immigration bill drafted by his Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee. The specific origins of the language and the original intent behind the subsection remain missing pieces in the extensive scholarly literature on the 1952 INA and legislative history as explored by the courts. This article reveals that the subcommittee modeled the subsection on the sixth proviso of the 1917 Immigration Act, the May 1918 Wartime Measure, and a selective interpretation of Supreme Court precedent. The article reveals further that the original intent behind the subsection was to close perceived loopholes in existing law enabling entry by displaced persons and Communist governmental officials.


There are currently no approved disease-modifying osteoarthritis (OA) drugs (DMOADs). The aggrecanase ADAMTS-5 is key in the degradation of human aggrecan (AGC), a component of cartilage. Therefore, ADAMTS-5 is a promising target for the identification of DMOADs. We describe the discovery of GLPG1972/S201086, a potent and selective ADAMTS-5 inhibitor obtained by optimization of a promising hydantoin series following an HTS. Biochemical activity against rat and human ADAMTS-5 was assessed via a fluorescence-based assay. ADAMTS-5 inhibitory activity was confirmed with human aggrecan using an AGC ELISA. The most promising compounds were selected based on reduction of glycosaminoglycan release after interleukin-1 stimulation in mouse cartilage explants and led to the discovery of GLPG1972/S201086. The anticatabolic activity was confirmed in mouse cartilage explants (IC50 < 1.5 μM). The cocrystal structure of GLPG1972/S201086 with human recombinant ADAMTS-5 is discussed. GLPG1972/S201086 has been investigated in a phase 2 clinical study in patients with knee OA (NCT03595618).


We report on a bottom-up approach of the selective and precise growth of subnanometer wide straight and chevron-type armchair nanoribbons (GNRs) on a stepped Au(788) surface using different specific molecular precursors. This process creates spatially well-aligned GNRs, as characterized by STM. High-resolution direct and inverse photoemission spectroscopy of occupied and unoccupied states allows the determination of the energetic position and momentum dispersion of electronic states revealing the existence of band gaps of several electron volts for straight 7-armchair, 13-armchair, and chevron-type GNRs in the electronic structure.


There have been few contemporary extinctions in the sea, which suggests marine species are either less vulnerable to extinction than terrestrial species, or marine extinctions may have gone unnoticed. We consider whether a large conspicuous reef fish, the giant humphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum), is likely to have declined across much of its geographical range. Informal knowledge was used to determine the status of the giant humphead parrotfish. We first surveyed fishers' knowledge of this parrotfish at 12 lightly exploited islands in the Lau group, Fiji and then compiled a global inventory of available information. In the Lau islands, Fiji, fishers reported this parrotfish as previously abundant, but it had not been caught at six islands since at least 1990 and was considered rare at another four islands. The parrotfish had been captured recently (since the 1990s) at three islands where fishers did not target parrotfishes regularly. A compilation of giant humphead parrotfish records provided by local scientists at 39 locations in 31 Indo‐Pacific nations suggested this fish is locally common only inside areas where fishing is prohibited and that it is currently globally rare. Local densities of the giant humphead parrotfish were negatively correlated to a categorical scale of fishing pressure across six Indo‐Pacific locations. The retrospective discovery of local disappearances and global rarity of a distinctive and formerly prominent reef fish is consistent with the hypothesis that the capacity to detect disappearances of exploitation‐vulnerable species in the sea is lower than expected.


The Homotopy analysis method is applied to obtain the approximate solution of the Klein–Gordon–Schrödinger equation. The Homotopy analysis solutions of the Klein–Gordon–Schrödinger equation contain an auxiliary parameter which provides a convenient way to control the convergence region and rate of the series solutions. Through errors analysis and numerical simulation, we can see the approximate solution is very close to the exact solution.


The stability and point-to-point and rhythmic movements of a one-link sagittal arm are studied. The system is highly nonlinear. Its major physiological characteristics are simultaneous activation of a pair of nonlinear muscle-like actuators for control purposes, existence of nonlinear spindle-like sensors, and actions of gravity and loading. Transmission delays are included in the afferent and efferent neural paths to account for a more accurate representation of the reflex loops. An algorithm for computation of the actuator forces and the feedback signals in the system is provided. It automatically renders positive forces and positive neural signals. The positiveness of the forces represents the unidirectional character of muscular forces. The positiveness of the neural signals implies that these signals can correspond to firing rates. The system is designed to perform stable point-to-point movement. The effects of presetting the input signals, of the nonlinearities in the dynamics, actuators, and feedback signals, and of the delays and gain in the feedback loops in destabilizing the system, and the consequent undesirable oscillations, are studied by simulation.<<ETX>>


Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous vaccines have been developed for the disease. However, with large-scale vaccination has come the gradual emergence of immunological phenomena caused by these new vaccines. Herein, we report a 48-year-old female with a sudden onset of inferior visual field defects in the left eye following her first dose of the ChAdOx1 vaccine. Dilated fundus examination combined with optical coherence tomography and fluorescein angiography confirmed the diagnosis of branch retinal artery occlusion. Within 4 weeks following vaccination, symptoms associated with hearing impairment developed, and magnetic resonance imaging revealed leptomeningeal enhancement. The diagnosis of Susac syndrome (SS) was confirmed. The development of SS may be caused by endotheliopathy resulting from the molecular mimicry of the ChAdOx1 vaccine. Clinicians should be aware of the symptoms of SS, which may develop after COVID-19 vaccination. Further experimental surveillance and case–control studies are required to confirm this relationship.


This paper will address the incident in Antioch (Gal. 2:11-14) in the context of the challenges from Jews outside the Christian church in Jerusalem. Peter was afraid, not of the men James sent to Antioch, but of the message they brought him about threats from fanatically minded non-Christian Jews in Jerusalem. It has already been established (Burton) that the phrase phoboumenos tous ek peritomēs simply means "fearing the circumcised" – "the Jews" – rather than "converts from Judaism." Longenecker argues that the preposition ek denotes character, as in hoi ek pisteōs (Gal 3:7,9; Rom 3:26; 4:16). Thus, the "circumcision party" would not be Jewish Christians at all, but simply "the Jews" or "the circumcised" who are described earlier in Galatians 2:7-9. Thus, Peter did not fear the brothers, but the Jewish leaders from Jerusalem. The following considerations are the main point of this paper and support the distinction between "men from James" and "the circumcision party", and thus create quite a different scenario: (1) It is unlikely that James would send anyone to "audit" Peter's work in Antioch since Peter was probably the most prominent church leader in Jerusalem. Rather, James informed Peter of the Jewish pressure. (2) The ill advice the apostles gave Paul (Acts 21:20-24) shows how the Christian leaders in Jerusalem did not realize that they could never meet the expectations of the Jewish leaders. (3) The persecution in Jerusalem was very real to Barnabas and the Jewish believers in Antioch (Acts 11:19) which explains why they joined Peter.


The purpose with the study is to expand the knowledge on how international organizations conduct talent management, and asks the main question; ―What elements are central for the success of talent management in international organizations, and how do these elements affect their talent management?‖ Talent management is a set of HR practices, or an independent HR function, that has the main purpose of attracting, developing and retaining talents in the organization in alignment with the organizational strategy. Since every organization is unique in its operations; organizational culture, business conditions and organizational goals form and characterize the TM practices in the organization. Organizations can only contribute optimally to business performance if both top management and employees are aligned on its objectives and implementation in the organization. The thesis is a qualitative descriptive study, where six international organizations were sampled by the constituent and are interviewed about their talent management, with reference to best practices derived from literature. The conclusions, resultant from the empirical findings, and supported by literature, suggest that the main factors which affect talent management within the surveyed organizations' are; market situation, top management involvement, internal consistency within talent management and alignment with organizational strategy. In addition, sub questions are answered which concern difficulties with talent management, organizational link between talent management and strategy, organizational link between talent management and culture, as well as to which extent the organizations use best practices.


Fungi are the main cause of old manuscript deterioration since manuscripts provide carbon source and nutrient for fungal growth. Isolation of fungi from deteriorated old manuscripts from Banyumas was carried out and their morphology, xerophilic, and cellulolytic nature were investigated. Two deteriorated old dluwang manuscripts showed fungal spores, brown spots, and discoloured paper. Based on morphological characteristics, 31 fungal isolates belonged to five genera (Aspergillus Micheli, Cladosporium Link, Curvularia Boedijn, Penicillium Link, Ulocladium Preuss). These genera have been reported from deteriorated old manuscripts from several historical places in Indonesia. Xerophilic character was shown by 90% (28 isolates) as determined by growth in DG18 medium, which indicated the ability to grow in dry substrates such as old manuscripts. Cellulolytic character was shown by 93.5% (29 isolates) as determined by growth in dluwang paper and merang paper, which indicated that the papers were used as carbon sources and substrates. After 30 days-incubation, the dry weight loss of merang paper was 0.28-51.2%. Result from Scanning Electron Microscopy showed that the deterioration of merang paper were caused by the isolates as shown by the presence of fungal structures. These results showed that the fungal isolates were able to deteriorate old manuscripts from Banyumas, Indonesia.


Testicular biopsies were performed in hospital conditions on 451 patients by whom was diagnosed oligozoospermia (56,5%), azoospermia (41,9%), teratozoospermia (1,2%) and aspermia (0,4%). 95,5% of these biopsies were bilateral. Anatomic peculiarities as well as particularities and complications observed during the operations, and lastly postoperative complications were demonstrated in this contingent of patients. In order to obtain this result the clinical documents of the department of andrology of the university hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf were used. Adhesions of the tunical layers of the testis (28,3%), as well as hydroceles (35,7%), and increased vascularisation (20,9%) could be seen in the operation field. We considered as the most frequent intraoperative step a second skin cut (4,6%). In 3,0% of the cases it was not possible to obtain a testicular parenchyma. As complication during the operation the sliding of the epididymis was observed in 4,8%, and bleeding in 2,0% of the cases. The most frequent complication after operation was bleeding in the region of the skin's suture (1,2%). Patients who presented intraoperative complications bleeded most. Orchitis and epididymitis as postoperative complications were not observed. To prevent these complications the testicular biopsies should be done in hospital conditions by well experienced operation teams.


BACKGROUND
In collaboration with the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Standards and Technology issued a suite of botanical matrix Reference Materials (RMs) and Standard Reference Material® (SRM) for determination of isoflavones and toxic elements in kudzu dietary supplement ingredients.

OBJECTIVE
RM 8650 Pueraria montana var. lobata (Kudzu) Rhizome, SRM 3268 Pueraria montana var. lobata (Kudzu) Extract, and RM 8652 Kudzu-Containing Solid Oral Dosage Form were issued with values assigned for isoflavones (puerarin, daidzin, and daidzein), toxic elements (arsenic, cadmium, and lead), and selenium.

METHODS
Isoflavone values were assigned using liquid chromatography with UV absorbance or mass spectrometry detection. Element values were assigned using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and results from an interlaboratory comparison exercise.

RESULTS
Mass fractions for puerarin were (32.2 ± 3.2) mg/g, (128 ± 13) mg/g, and (68.2 ± 6.9) mg/g in RM 8650, SRM 3268, and RM 8652, respectively. Arsenic increases from (156 ± 14) ng/g to (849 ± 83) ng/g and cadmium decreases from (348 ± 14) ng/g to (82.1 ± 4.9) ng/g from rhizome to extract.

CONCLUSION
The kudzu RM/SRM suite complements previously issued soy-related SRMs with values assigned for isoflavones, which have been studied for their potential health benefits, and expands the analytical resource by providing values for puerarin, an isoflavone not found in soy.

HIGHLIGHTS
The three new kudzu materials are for use in the determination of isoflavones, toxic elements, and selenium. For the isoflavones, these new kudzu materials provide higher levels of daidzin and daidzein than existing soy-related SRMs, and they provide a value for an isoflavone not in existing SRMs (puerarin). Toxic elements in RM 8650 and SRM 3268 provide new botanical matrices for use by dietary supplement manufacturers for the verification of the safety of their raw materials.


This article examines the evolution of priorities, main directions and conditions of the Russian Federation's cooperation with Syria and Vietnam in the sphere of education, and it analyzes the historical experience of the cooperation between these states. The authors analyze the main tasks and areas of research for the cooperation of the Russian Federation with other states, the contextual priorities of their development, the needs of the labor market and the characteristics of the higher education systems. Particular attention is paid to a comparative study of the institutional and regulatory resources for the development of higher education systems of the countries under consideration. The authors emphasize the relationship between higher education and the national economy. The novelty of the research lies in rethinking the conceptual framework, objectives and key areas of interaction between countries that can together form the necessary basis for understanding the basic essence of cooperation between the Russian Federation and Syria and Vietnam in the field of educational policy, its state and development prospects. The authors identified features of the cooperation of the Russian Federation with Syria and Vietnam in the field of educational policy in the 2000s, which are expressed in their orientation to common priorities as expressed in international higher education documents, and the development of a consensus on the need to increase the volume of cooperation in the field of training highly qualified personnel in accordance with the requirements of the modern labor market.


The corneal endothelial cell count and central corneal thickness of 20 eyes of patients with pigmentary dispersion syndrome and 20 age-, sex-, and refractive error-matched control eyes were investigated in a masked fashion with a specular microscope and a pachometer. Despite the existence of glaucoma and different degrees of pigment dispersion with Krukenberg's spindles, there was no significant difference in the central corneal endothelial cell density and central corneal thickness between these two groups.


This article reviews the impact of good clinical practice (GCP) on clinical pharmacology with particular reference to the new European Union Clinical Trial Directive. The Directive will be applied to both commercial and noncommercial studies on medicinal products for human use. The Directive requires that GCP should be used in all clinical trials except noninterventional studies. GCP is likely to follow the International Conference on Harmonization GCP guidelines in many aspects. GCP will enforce tighter guidelines on ethical aspects of a clinical study. Higher standards will be required in terms of comprehensive documentation for the clinical protocol, record keeping, training, and facilities including computers. Quality assurance and inspections will ensure that these standards are achieved. The additional requirements of GCP are discussed and any advantage to the study subject. The impact of the new Directive within the Research Governance Framework of the UK Department of Health is reviewed.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are naturally occurring cancer-fighting T cells found within malignant tumors. After decades of research, patient-derived TIL populations have been successfully re-infused into melanoma subjects, and have produced impressive treatment effects in a subset of cases. To date, the successful generation and usage of TIL populations for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients has not been reported. Generating TILs from NSCLC tissue presents several challenges, as immune cell populations residing within the lungs are constantly exposed to numerous inhaled antigens and other particulate matter.

Here, we report the successful generation of TILs from three NSCLC specimens from subjects undergoing surgical resection for curative intent. Six distinct lung cancer tissue fragments were cultured in the presence of IL-2 for each of the three cases. Each fragment yielded a TIL population, although their proliferative rates differed substantially. Each TIL population was subjected to flow cytometry to identify the cellular subtypes, and these results were compared to the lymphocyte subset content measured in the original in vivo tumor specimen. Preliminary findings suggest that the ability to generate CD8+ enriched TILs is dependent upon the CD8+ content present in vivo. Low CD8+ content was associated with an abundance of either Tregs or NK cells. Greater than 70% of the CD8+ populations generated displayed an effector phenotype (CCR7-CD45RA+), regardless of the overall cellular composition of the specimen. However, these cells displayed heterogeneous levels of exhaustion markers (PD1, Tim3), which inversely correlated with proliferative rates.

Our results show that TIL populations can be successfully generated from primary human NSCLC specimens. Although the relative cellular content differed for each tissue fragment, we were able to generate at least one CD8+ effector population with low levels of exhaustion for each case. In vitro and in vivo studies to determine the tumor killing capacity of these TIL populations are currently underway.

Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting.

Citation Format: Kyoung-Hee Kim, Julia Kargl, Sylvia Lee, McGarry Houghton. Successful generation of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes from human non-small cell lung cancer specimens. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 463. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-463


Introduction: Preterm delivery is the delivery before 37 weeks of gestation are completed. The incidence of preterm birth ranges from 5 to 15%. Aims of the study were to determine the average body weight, Apgar score after one and five minutes, and the frequency of the most common complications in preterminfants.Methods: The study involved a total of 631 newborns, of whom 331 were born prematurely Aims of this study were to (24th-37th gestational weeks-experimental group), while 300 infants were born in time (37-42 weeks of gestation-control group).Results: Average body weight of prematurely born infants was 2382 grams, while the average Apgar score in this group after the fi rst minute was 7.32 and 7.79 after the fifth minute. The incidence of respiratory distress syndrome was 50%, intracranial hemorrhage, 28.1% and 4.8% of sepsis. Respiratory distresssyndrome was more common in infants born before 32 weeks of gestation. Mortality of premature infants is present in 9.1% and is higher than that of infants born at term.Conclusions: Birth body weight and Apgar scores was lower in preterm infants. Respiratory distress syndrome is the most common fetal complication of prematurity. Intracranial hemorrhage is the second most common complication of prematurity. Mortality of premature infants is higher than the mortality of infants born at term birth.


[1] El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the dominant mode of interannual variability in the tropical atmosphere. ENSO could potentially impact local and global aerosol properties through atmospheric circulation anomalies and teleconnections. By analyzing aerosol properties, including aerosol optical depth (AOD) and Angstrom exponent (AE; often used as a qualitative indicator of aerosol particle size) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer, the Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer and the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor for the period 2000–2011, we find a strong correlation between the AE data and the multivariate ENSO index (MEI) over the tropical Pacific. Over the western tropical Pacific (WTP), AE increases during El Nino events and decreases during La Nina events, while the opposite is true over the eastern tropical Pacific (ETP). The difference between AE anomalies in the WTP and ETP has a higher correlation coefficient (>0.7) with the MEI than the individual time series and could be considered another type of ENSO index. As no significant ENSO correlation is found in AOD over the same region, the change in AE (and hence aerosol size) is likely to be associated with aerosol composition changes due to anomalous meteorological conditions induced by the ENSO. Several physical parameters or mechanisms that might be responsible for the correlation are discussed. Preliminary analysis indicates surface wind anomaly might be the major contributor, as it reduces sea-salt production and aerosol transport during El Nino events. Precipitation and cloud fraction are also found to be correlated with tropical Pacific AE. Possible mechanisms, including wet removal and cloud shielding effects, are considered. Variations in relative humidity, tropospheric ozone concentration, and ocean color during El Nino have been ruled out. Further investigation is needed to fully understand this AE-ENSO covariability and the underlying physical processes responsible for it.


PREMISE OF THE STUDY
Drosera peltata var. nipponica, an element of the East Asia warm-temperate vegetation, and D. rotundifolia, a widely distributed boreal species, reach one of their northernmost and southernmost limits, respectively, on the Korean Peninsula. Because the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)-Holocene dynamics of warm-temperate and boreal paleovegetation differed considerably on the Peninsula, the population history of these two sundews is expected to be different, leaving differential imprints in their genetic structure.

METHODS
We investigated population genetic structure of D. peltata var. nipponica and D. rotundifolia in South Korea (10 populations of each for 20 allozyme loci) to infer their population history in this region. In addition, we compared the genetic variation harbored in the two sundews to those reported for other carnivorous and wetland plants.

KEY RESULTS
Drosera peltata var. nipponica showed no genetic diversity, whereas D. rotundifolia exhibited extremely low within-population variation (He = 0.005) and considerable among-population divergence (FST = 0.817).

CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that extant populations of D. peltata var. nipponica likely originated from a single ancestral population from southern Japan or southern China through postglacial dispersal. On the contrary, D. rotundifolia probably survived the LGM in situ, with extant populations derived from either one or several small source populations. We argue that separate conservation strategies should be employed, given that the two taxa have different ecological and demographic traits and harbor different levels of genetic diversity.


Background: Attitudes toward environmental risks may be a source of bias in environmental health studies because concerns about environmental hazards may influence self-reported outcomes. Objective: The main aim was to assess whether earlier observed associations between proximity to goat farms and self-reported pneumonia were biased by participants' attitude toward farming. Methods: We developed an attitude-score for 2,457 participants of the Dutch Livestock Farming and Neighbouring Residents' Health Study (veehouderij en gezondheid omwonenden) by factor analysis of 13 questionnaire items related to attitude toward livestock farming. Linear regression analysis was used to assess associations between attitude and potential determinants. The effect of attitude on the association between goat farm proximity and pneumonia was analyzed by evaluating (1) misclassification of the outcome, (2) effect modification by attitude, and (3) exclusion of participants reporting health problems due to farms in their environment. Results: In general, the study population had a positive attitude toward farming, especially if participants were more familiar with farming. Older participants, females, ex-smokers, and higher-educated individuals had a more negative attitude. Both self-reported respiratory symptoms and exposure to livestock farms were associated with a more negative attitude. Misclassification of self-reported pneumonia was nondifferential with regard to participants' attitude. Furthermore, no indication was found that the association between proximity to goat farms and pneumonia was modified by attitude. Excluding subjects who attributed their health symptoms to livestock farms did also not change the association. Conclusions: The association between goat farm proximity and pneumonia was not substantially biased by study participants' attitude toward livestock farming.


Background: Dexamethasone improves COVID-outcomes. Detailed glycemic profile for patients receiving dexamethasone for COVID-is lacking.
 Methods: Our hospital recommends routine blood glucose monitoring for patients with COVID-receiving dexamethasone 6mg daily. Subjects without prior history of diabetes admitted in a non-critical care setting over a 1-month period were identified and evaluated. The primary outcome was hyperglycemia post-dexamethasone, defined as glucose ≥10mmol/L.
 Results: Of 277 subjects (52% male, age 52±18 yrs, weight 90±26 kg, 7% with newly diagnosed diabetes [HbA1c ≥6.5%]) , hyperglycemia post-dexamethasone occurred in 51%, with peak glucose 12.4±2.3 (mean 2.2 tests/day) . Glucose excursions peaked 7-9 hours post-dexamethasone (figure) . Hyperglycemic subjects were older (58±17 vs. 45±7 yrs, p<0.001) , had higher HbA1c (6.1±1.0 vs. 5.6±0.9%, p<0.001) , higher initial venous glucose (6.7±1.7 vs. 6.0±1.5mmol/L, p<0.001) , lower initial eGFR (80±18 vs. 84±15mL/min/m2, p=0.02) , higher initial CRP (969±640 vs. 791±558nmol/L, p=0.01) and greater mortality (7.7 vs. 1.5%, p=0.01) . Age, HbA1c and CRP were independent predictors of hyperglycemia.
 Conclusions: Dexamethasone led to hyperglycemia in half of patients without prior diabetes admitted with COVID-19, with peak occurring 7-9 hours after dexamethasone. Older age, higher HbA1c and initial CRP predicted development of hyperglycemia.

 Y.J.Rhou: None. A.Hor: None. M.Wang: None. Y.Wu: None. D.R.Chipps: None. N.Cheung: None.


The contribution of leg muscle, pregnant uterine tissue and lactating mammary gland to overall energy utilization was determined in Merino ewes. Ewes were offered one of three diets based on chaffed oaten hay (7.9 MJ metabolizable energy per kilogram dry matter); chaffed lucerne hay (8.6 MJ/kg); or a 50:50 (w/w) mixture of chaffed oaten and lucerne hays (8.2 MJ/kg). Measurements were made during five different physiological states: dry (non-pregnant), at 94 and 125 days after mating, and at 20 and 50 days after lambing. Tissue energy use was calculated from oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide output obtained from measurement of blood flow and arteriovenous difference. Whole-body energy use was calculated from carbon dioxide energy rate. Energy use by leg muscle was 144 +/- 8 (mean +/- s.e.) kJ kg-1 day-1, and unrelated to metabolizable energy intake, but leg energy use increased with ewe body weight. On the basis that leg muscle was representative of all muscle, total muscle energy use accounted for 26 +/- 4% of whole-body energy expenditure in dry ewes. Uterine energy use per unit weight was respectively 348 +/- 53 and 254 +/- 23 kJ kg-1 day-1 at 94 and 125 days after mating. Milk production was highly correlated with weight of secretory tissue, and with blood flow to the mammary gland. The ratio of blood flow to milk produced was 473:1 in ewes producing from 200 to 1000 ml of milk per day. The mammary gland used energy to produce milk with an efficiency of 0.90 +/- 0.01, a value close to the theoretical estimate of 0.89. On the basis that metabolic rate does not increase during lactation, the efficiency of use of metabolizable energy for milk production was 0.51 +/- 0.05. Examination of energy use by different tissues indicated that energy use by muscle was related to weight, but energy use by remaining tissues (whole body less muscle, uterus and mammary gland) was related to metabolizable energy intake. The results reveal an increase in energy use by the remaining tissue in lactating ewes (8500 +/- 569 kJ/day) compared with dry (5634 +/- 216 kJ/day) and pregnant ewes (5815 +/- 393 kJ/day).


We encountered two chemotherapy (CDDP and 5-FU) cases related to mesenteric thrombotic occlusion. Case 1 was a 26 yo male with adrenal carcinoma recurrence. He had been treated by CDDP and 5-FU. Five days after completion of the second course, he suffered from acute abdomen. Laparotomy revealed thrombotic occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery. Most of the small intestine and a part of the ascending colon were necrotic. Case 2 was a 60 yo female with lung and hepatic metastasis from uretal tumor. CDDP based chemotherapy was initiated. Severe abdominal pain and melena occurred one day after completion of the second course of chemotherapy. The inferior mesenteric artery was occluded and the descending colon was necrotic. Recently, a variety of chemotherapy-induced vascular lesions, including thrombotic microangiopathy, myocardial infarction and cerebral infarction, have been reported. CDDP and 5-FU were shown to be related to the acute thrombotic occlusion of the major vessels. Although the incidence is rare, the prognosis is poor. Acute vascular obstruction should be taken into consideration as a possible course of chemotherapy-related complications.


Neutron stimulated emission computed tomography (NSECT) is being proposed as a non-invasive technique to diagnose iron overload in humans. It uses inelastic scatter interactions between incident neutrons and iron nuclei to stimulate gamma-ray emission from iron. Tomographic detection of the emitted gamma-rays yields information about the concentration and spatial distribution of iron in the liver. Early proof-of-concept experiments have shown that NSECT has the potential to quantify clinical quantities of liver iron overload through single-position spectroscopy. However, a tomography application for patient diagnosis has never been tested. This work uses a Monte-Carlo simulation of a tomographic NSECT system to investigate the feasibility of imaging the spatial distribution of liver iron through tomography. A simulation of an NSECT system has been designed in GEANT4 and used to tomographically scan a simulated human liver phantom with high-concentration iron lesions. Images are reconstructed with the MLEM algorithm and analyzed for pixel values within iron regions to determine the statistical significance of detection. Analysis results indicate that a wet iron concentration of 3 mg/g can be detected in surrounding liver tissue with p-value ≤ 0.0001 for neutron exposure corresponding to a radiation dose of 0.72 mSv. The research performed here demonstrates that NSECT has the ability to image clinically relevant distributions of iron through tomographic scanning.


Dynamics are fundamental to all aspects of chemistry and play a central role in the mechanism and product distribution of a chemical reaction. All dynamic processes are influenced by the local environment, so it is of fundamental and practical value to understand the structure of the environment and the dynamics with nanoscale resolution. Most techniques for measuring dynamic processes have microscopic spatial resolution and can only measure the average behavior of a large ensemble of sites within their sampling volumes. Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) is a powerful tool for overcoming this limitation due to its combination of high chemical specificity and spatial resolution that is on the nanometer scale. Adapting it for the study of dynamic systems remains a work in progress, but the increasing sophistication of TERS is making such studies more routine, and there are now growing efforts to use TERS to examine more complex processes. This Perspective aims to promote development in this area of research by highlighting recent progress in using TERS to understand reacting and dynamic systems, ranging from simple model reactions to complex processes with practical applications. We discuss the unique challenges and opportunities that TERS presents for future studies.


Motivation: Ancestral character state reconstruction describes a set of techniques for estimating phenotypic or genetic features of species or related individuals that are the predecessors of those present today. Such reconstructions can reach into the distant past and can provide insights into the history of a population or a set of species when fossil data are not available, or they can be used to test evolutionary hypotheses, e.g. on the co-evolution of traits. Typical methods for ancestral character state reconstruction of continuous characters consider the phylogeny of the underlying data and estimate the ancestral process along the branches of the tree. They usually assume a Brownian motion model of character evolution or extensions thereof, requiring specific assumptions on the rate of phenotypic evolution. Results: We suggest using ridge regression to infer rates for each branch of the tree and the ancestral values at each inner node. We performed extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of this method and have shown that the accuracy of its reconstructed ancestral values is competitive to reconstructions using other state-of-the-art software. Using a hierarchical clustering of gene mutation profiles from an ovarian cancer dataset, we demonstrate the use of the method as a feature selection tool. Availability and implementation: The algorithm described here is implemented in C++ as a stand-alone program, and the source code is freely available at http://algbio.cs.uni-duesseldorf.de/software/RidgeRace.tar.gz. Contact: email@example.com Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


While the 802.11 power saving mode (PSM) and its enhancements can reduce power consumption by putting the wireless network interface (WNI) into sleep as much as possible, they either require additional infrastructure support, or may degrade the transmission throughput and cause additional transmission delay. These schemes are not suitable for long and bulk data transmissions with strict QoS requirements on wireless devices. With increasingly abundant bandwidth available on the Internet, we have observed that TCP congestion control is often not a constraint of bulk data transmissions as bandwidth throttling is widely used in practice. In this paper, instead of further manipulating the trade-off between the power saving and the incurred delay, we effectively explore the power saving potential by considering the bandwidth throttling on streaming/downloading servers. We propose an application-independent protocol, called PSM-throttling. With a quick detection on the TCP flow throughput, a client can identify bandwidth throttling connections with a low cost Since the throttling enables us to reshape the TCP traffic into periodic bursts with the same average throughput as the server transmission rate, the client can accurately predict the arriving time of packets and turn on/off the WNI accordingly. PSM-throttling can minimize power consumption on TCP-based bulk traffic by effectively utilizing available Internet bandwidth without degrading the application's performance perceived by the user. Furthermore, PSM-throttling is client-centric, and does not need any additional infrastructure support. Our lab-environment and Internet-based evaluation results show that PSM-throttling can effectively improve energy savings (by up to 75%) and/or the QoS for a broad types of TCP-based applications, including streaming, pseudo streaming, and large file downloading, over existing PSM-like methods.


Sparse training is one of the promising techniques to reduce the computational cost of DNNs while retaining high accuracy. In particular, N:M fine-grained structured sparsity, where only N out of consecutive M elements can be nonzero, has attracted attention due to its hardware-friendly pattern and capability of achieving a high sparse ratio. However, the potential to accelerate N:M sparse DNN training has not been fully exploited, and there is a lack of efficient hardware supporting N:M sparse training. To tackle these challenges, this paper presents a computation-efficient training scheme for N:M sparse DNNs using algorithm, architecture, and dataflow co-design. At the algorithm level, a bidirectional weight pruning method, dubbed BDWP, is proposed to leverage the N:M sparsity of weights during both forward and backward passes of DNN training, which can significantly reduce the computational cost while maintaining model accuracy. At the architecture level, a sparse accelerator for DNN training, namely SAT, is developed to neatly support both the regular dense operations and the computation-efficient N:M sparse operations. At the dataflow level, multiple optimization methods ranging from interleave mapping, pre-generation of N:M sparse weights, and offline scheduling, are proposed to boost the computational efficiency of SAT. Finally, the effectiveness of our training scheme is evaluated on a Xilinx VCU1525 FPGA card using various DNN models and datasets. Experimental results show the SAT accelerator with the BDWP sparse training method under 2:8 sparse ratio achieves an average speedup of 1.75x over that with the dense training, accompanied by a negligible accuracy loss of 0.56% on average. Furthermore, our proposed training scheme significantly improves the training throughput by 2.97~25.22x and the energy efficiency by 1.36~3.58x over prior FPGA-based accelerators.


In our chromosome study of 97 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), six showed an unbalanced translocation between chromosomes 1 and 7 [−7, +der(1)t(1;7)(p11;p11)]. All of them had morphologic myelodysplasia in trilineage of bone marrow cells, and cytopenia was the major finding in the peripheral blood. All six patients had symptoms of infection at the time of diagnosis, and five showed immunologic abnormalities (polyclonal hypergammaglobulinemia in four and increased marrow plasma cells in three). None of the patients survived more than 11 months after the diagnosis; the median survival time was 4 months. Both of the two patients whose karyotypes were reexamined in the course of their disease showed karyotypic evolution accompanying the coincidental leukemic transformation. Six patients with MDS who had the same chromosome abnormality [t(1;7)] are described and their characteristic clinical features are presented.


In 1997, Cominco Ltd. initiated an environmental assessment and remedial program at its Bluebell Mine site which closed in 1972. An overview of the history of the mine and the complete project is provided in the companion paper titled Bluebell Mine Remediation of a Historic Mine Site. This paper focuses on the management of tailing, concentrates (process fines) and mine water discharge (MWD) fines present on the foreshore of Galena Bay associated with the former concentrator operation. It explores the rationale and planning of the remedial work, and the challenges associated with completing the project. The results of environmental assessments of the site determined that groundwater crossing the foreshore areas of Galena Bay was being impacted by process fines and MWD fines. The remedial plan called for the removal of these materials and subsequent reconstruction of a "self-cleaning" beach. When planning the remedial action, many factors were considered, including: sediment chemistry; physical properties of the sediment; ecological health of Galena Bay; hydrodynamics of the bay; alternative excavation methods; containment of suspended sediments generated by the remedial work; and monitoring the effectiveness of the environmental control systems during excavation. Protection of the aquatic environment was the most critical aspect of the remedial work. Containment of suspended sediments within the work area was achieved by the use of a dual floating silt barrier system. The systematic monitoring of water quality using field and laboratory methods was undertaken to track the performance of the control system. The sediment control system worked well but its performance could have been enhanced by moving the primary barrier further from the work area, improving the design of certain barrier components and having earlier routine underwater inspections.


In hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is initially a useful compensatory process that represents an adaptation to increased ventricular wall stress; however, it is also the first step toward the development of overt clinical disease. The Framingham study has shown that the prevalence of LVH, according to EKG criteria, is quite low in a general population sample (about 3%). Using the echocardiographic technique, it has been demonstrated that the prevalence of LVH in the Framingham population increases from 5% in subjects younger than 30 years to 50% in those older than 70 years. The Framingham study has also shown that the prevalence of echocardiographic LVH is 15n20% in mild hypertensive patients and increases further in patients with more severe hypertension [1]. The increase of LV mass with age might reflect the influence that other risk factors exert with time on the development of LVH. The relationship of echocardiographic LV mass with clinical blood pressure is usually weak. Twenty-four hour blood pressure recordings have shown a much closer correlation between LV mass and average daily blood pressure [2]. Non-haemodynamic factors, such as age, sex, race, body mass index, diabetes, or dietary salt intake may contribute to determining whom, among hypertensive patients, develop LVH and to what degree LVM is increased. In fact, the coexistence of hypertension with diabetes increases the prevalence of LVH. Moreover, insulin resistance and high insulin levels are associated with the development of LVH in hypertensive patients. Other major cardiometabolic risk factors, notably hypercholesterolemia and hyperglycaemia, may also modify the extent of LVM and the prevalence of LVH in the hypertensive population. Genetic factors might also exert a powerful modulation of LV mass; in fact, monozygotic twins have more similar LV mass values then dizygotic twins [3].


This Account focuses on fundamental aspects and applications of the concept of "electron and proton reservoirs". Permethylated electron reservoir iron sandwich complexes, which were known to be excellent reducing agents in their neutral 19e Fe(I) form, have recently been shown to be stable strong oxidants in their dicationic 17e Fe(III) form. Thermodynamic, mechanistic, and synthetic aspects of the redox chemistry of these and related organoiron complexes are summarized. Proton reservoir properties of these complexes are due to enhanced acidity in their cationic form and result in an original type of activation: perfunctionalization leading to dendritic cores and useful metallodendrimers of variable topology.


Background Radiation from CT (computerized tomography), poses risk of radiation associated cancer. Studies indicate a cumulative dose of 50mGy triples the risk of leukemia and a dose of 60mGy triples the risk of brain tumors in children. This study aimed to assess the application of "Justification and Optimization Principles of ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable)" in pediatric CT. Method A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2017 to July 2018 G.C at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital. CT request forms were reviewed. All pediatric patients listed for CT were included. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 25. Results Four hundred and twenty nine CT requests were reviewed, 246 (57.3%) were males and 183(42.7%) were females; 52(12.1%) were less than 1 year old, 153(35.7%) between 1 to 5 years, 113(26.3%) between 5 to 10 years and 111(25.8%) 10 to 14 years old. On the other hand, 28(6.5%) scan requests were rejected based on the ALARA justification principle, and from these, in 11(39.2%) MRI was recommended instead of CT, in 6(21.42%) US was recommended. Review of previous CT helped to reject 4(14.28%). Review of prior chest radiographs helped in rejecting 2(7.14%) requests. For 5(17.8%) and 19(4.4%), requests were optimized by applying principles of optimization to reduce received dose from CT. Conclusion Overall, 47(11%) patients were protected from unnecessary radiation exposure by applying the principles of ALARA. The use of other alternating imaging modalities is vital in pediatric patients who are more radiosensitive and have longer time to manifest radiation induced injury.


Quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QD-LEDs) have made great development in the performance. However, the efficiency droop at high brightness limits their applications in daylight displays and outdoor lightings. Herein, we systematically regulate the shell structure and composition, and the results indicate that CdSe-based QDs with ZnSe interlayer and thinner ZnSeS outermost layer as emitting layers (EML) enable high-performance QD-LEDs. Accordingly, the devices exhibit peak external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 22.9% with corresponding brightness of 67,840 cd/m2, and this efficiency can be still maintained > 90% of the maximum value even at 100,000 cd/m2, which satisfies the requirements for high-brightness display and lighting applications. This strong performance is mainly attributed to the ZnSe/ZnSeS graded shell that smooths the injection barrier between QD EML and the adjacent hole transport layers (HTL), and then improves the hole injection and charge injection balance, in particular at the high luminance and/or at high current density.


The disclosed method of cost-mask ventilation device used to combine the throat, comprising providing a mold, the mold (800) comprises an inner side wall defining (830) a hollow interior volume (820). Internal volume (820) comprises a first portion and a second portion. A liquid plastic material is injected into the mold (800), and then causes the die (800) is moved, is applied to the inner wall of the mold (830). Then the liquid plastic material such that curing occurs. After curing the plastic material is removed from the mold (800), and after curing the plastic material comprises a generally oval-shaped plate (440) and a cuff (460) on. The ferrule (460) made of plastic material coated on the inner side wall portion defining a first portion (830) of. Plate (440) is formed with a throat portion side surface (448), a pharyngeal side (444) and a central hole (442). At around the circumference of the inner periphery of the ferrule (460) is in the central bore (442) on a solid (448) is attached to the side of the throat plate (440). Solid plate attached to the vicinity of the outer periphery of the outer periphery of the ferrule (460) is in a flat plate (440) (440) on the side of the throat (448).


In this work, a modification of the sugarcane bagasse is performed, in order to obtain organic catalysts. The bagasse analysis is performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transformer Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), which indicated that characteristic peaks determined its chemical compounds. In addition, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) is used to know the morphology. Finally, a discoloration test is conducted on an azo compound (methylene blue) in an aqueous medium, obtaining an efficiency of 98.6%.


Abstraction is a powerful tool for designers in the conceptual design stage. Such abstractions take various forms, and little is known as to how a particular method of abstraction would support designers in specific design cases. A method is proposed which includes a deliberate step for divergent thinking. The method presents learners with an abstract representation of an existing artifact, and encourages them to explore potential concepts that are different in style but are based on the same or similar abstraction as that given in the representation. To evaluate how the method would help novice designers, a summer workshop activity of designing stylish corkscrews was conducted with twelve recent graduates from industrial design graduate programs. The students come from a variety of academic backgrounds. The processes for concept generation, making a prototype and a summarized statement are the main inputs used for activity assessment. Students proposed a total of 56 design concepts, with an average of 4.7 concepts per student. Design-related students (six participants) generated between 3 and 12 concepts, while students without a design background generated between 1 to 6 concepts. The concepts were divided into five classes based on appearance: human-like, animal-like, artificial product-like, plant-like, and phenomena-like. Of the 12 students, three produced mechanically functional prototypes. Based on student feedback, the pros of the instructional approach included support for the linking of concepts, encouraged learner engagement, and promoted specific thinking processes. Results suggested this method has potential for supporting positive learning outcomes, particularly in generating a range of stylish concepts based on an existing artifact within a limited time frame. However, prototype development would require additional support.


This study aimed to explore the feasibility of amide proton transfer weighted (APTw) imaging in discriminating fat-poor angiomyolipoma (AML) from clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). 19 ccRCC patients and 9 fat-poor AML patients were recruited for APTw imaging. ccRCC group showed significantly higher MTRasym compared to fat-poor AML group (P < 0.05). High AUC of 0.827 in ROC analysis validated the efficacy of APTw imaging in differentiating fat-poor AML from ccRCC. With these findings, APTw imaging may be considered an effective method providing added clinical value in differentiating fat-poor AML from ccRCC.


In order to improve the photocatalytic activities of layered MOF bismuth terephthalate, five multiple halide anion doped bismuth terephthalate composites were prepared by doping three or four halide anions each with a molar ratio of X−/Bi3+ (X = F−, Cl−, Br−, I−) at 0.25. The F−, Cl−, Br− codoped and F−, Cl−, Br−, I− codoped bismuth terephthalate composites exhibit 41 and 35 times higher photocatalytic degradation activities for RhB, 7 and 6 times higher for salicylic acid than that of bismuth terephthalate. Excellent photocatalytic activities could be ascribed to the microstructure of multiple halide anion doped composites, large specific BET surface area and effective separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. Incorporating multiple negatively charged F−, Cl−, Br−, I− into layered bismuth terephthalate can improve the photocatalytic and electrochemical activities of bismuth terephthalate. The composites presented in this study can be potentially applied in photocatalysis and electrochemical fields as multifunctional materials.


The purpose of this study was to determine the sources of sport self- confidence of Arab clubs for volleyball players, furthermore, to determine the effect of experience, player's duty and number of international participations on sources of self - confidence.
To achieve that, the study was conducted on (90) players, and Vealey et al. (1998) questionnaire was used for measuring sources of self - confidence.
The results indicated high level of all sources and of the total score. Furthermore, the results indicated significant differences in sources of self- confidence due to the number of international participations variable, while there were no significant differences found due to experience of player and player duty variables.
Based on the study findings, the researcher recommended that the volleyball coaches should increase the attention of situational favorableness and environmental comfort domains when training players.


B4 Introduction: Prostate cancer is the 2nd-leading cause of cancer death among men and is particularly common among elderly men. Screening for prostate cancer with the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test continues to be a contentious issue. Findings support the PSA test9s ability to detect early-stage disease, but no prospective study has investigated its benefit in the context of screening. Three observational studies have been published. One by Kopec et al. claimed a significant benefit that was only apparent in multivariable analysis (OR of 0.65). The study by Concato et al. with subjects from the Veteran9s Administration showed no benefit (OR of 1.08), and a third study by Weinmann et al. demonstrated protection from the digital rectal exam, but did not isolate any PSA effect. We now report the results of a new observational study of PSA screening. Methods: This was a case-control study using fatal cases ascertained from New Jersey death certificates. Population-based controls were individually matched to cases on race, age, and time for possible exposure to a PSA test as indexed by the date of suspected diagnosis in the case. Possible confounders (comorbidity and education level) were adjusted in conditional logistic regression models. Results: The frequency of screening in controls was very similar to that reported elsewhere for New Jersey males. Controls were moderately more educated than our cases but were similar for age, race, and number of comorbidities. The odds of dying having been screened with a PSA vs. not being screened was 1.07, 95% CI of 0.74 to 1.56 in our unadjusted analysis (conditional logistic regression accounting for the matching variables only). After adding educational level and comorbidity number, the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) was 1.03, 95% CI 0.70 to 1.53). We repeated the analysis using various restrictions for what we considered to be a "screening" PSA, and the results were quite similar. Conclusions: Our study using a population-based source of cases and controls does not show PSA screening to offer any protection from prostate cancer mortality. Possible limitations are the time frame for exposure to a PSA test and the possibility of missed PSA screens from the medical records. Strengths include the diversity of the population examined and the inclusion of sensitivity analyses of different criteria for identifying PSA "screens". This study adds to the knowledge base of the other three observational studies done for this screening modality. There are now two null studies for PSA testing, and one showing protection. Although there may be a benefit of PSA testing in certain subgroups, these results should remind clinicians to be circumspect and thoughtful when ordering a PSA test in the context of screening. We, as others, await the results of the two randomized trials.


Great attention is currently paid to protecting res-
idential areas from the noise pollution due to wind turbines.
A family of acoustic constraints was developed to assess it.
Maximizing electricity production under these constraints is
difficult as they rapidly evolve with weather conditions and
background noise. Today, this problem is addressed by computing
a curtailment plan involving fixed operating modes, but the
chosen modes are often suboptimal. In this article, we show
that this problem can be expressed as a non-linear knapsack
problem and we solve it using an efficient branch-and-bound
(B&B) algorithm that converges asymptotically to the global
optimum. The algorithm is initialised with a greedy heuristic
that iteratively downgrades the turbines with the best acoustical
to electricity loss ratio. The solution is then refined using a depth-
first search strategy and a bounding stage based on a continuous
relaxation problem solved with an adapted gradient algorithm.
The results are evaluated using data from 28 real wind farms.


Abstract The difficulties nation states face when attempting to use traditional legal means to cope with transnational phenom-ena such as environmental degradation, international labor conditions, and global trade have created an opportunity for the emergence of new types of regulations. These rules are often issued by organizations that produce voluntary measures such as standards and action plans to influence the behavior of individuals and institutions. These are in many cases meta-organizations that have other organizations rather than individuals as members. They are important links in the process of creating and diffusing dominant definitions in the "ideoscape" of influential policy concepts such as sustainable development. This article explores how two meta-organizations, Fairtrade International (FLO) and Organic Forum, shape the concepts of fair trade and organic food by providing ideas and content to the ideoscape of sustainable development. We argue that this process takes place by governance through bureaucratization in which fair trade and organic food become formalized, precisely defined, and made visible. This in turn determines how—or even if—the social dimension of sustainability can be made into policy. Furthermore, we find explanations in these processes as to why the social dimension of sustainability tends to be the most underdeveloped. We conclude that bureaucratization is also a form of politics, although not one that is as easily recognizable as an open power struggle.


Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most commonly diagnosed peripheral neuropathy due to entrapment. This syndrome is currently being diagnosed clinically, often confirmed through the use of neural conductivity studies (NCS). Over 25 percent of the cases are still missed using this method, while NCS also cause discomfort to the patient. This is why other methods of diagnosis are being sought after, among which ultrasonographic imagery. It is thought the enlargement of the median nerve at the level of the carpal tunnel plays a role in the development of CTS. To further investigate this claim, the characteristics of the median nerve at this level are being investigated. A former study has been conducted to establish average values of these characteristics. For this study transversal cine loops of the proximal side of the carpal tunnel have been obtained from a population of 50 patients with CTS and 23 controls. Using software developed by the Erasmus Medical Center, the median nerve has been evaluated by manually placing tracing points around its perimeter. This method yielded the perimeter, cross-sectional area and circularity of the median nerve. Manual tracing however proves to be very time consuming and incorporates elevated levels of interand intra-rater variability. The assignment for this graduation internship was to develop an algorithm to automatically determine the parameters mentioned above. Furthermore the reliability of this method had to be compared to the manual tracing method. The algorithm developed in this internship makes use of automated border detection, also known as minimal cost analysis or dynamic programming. To facilitate the process of development and testing, a database has been developed to store the results in a hierarchy of patients and trials. The area, perimeter and circularity found by the algorithm were evaluated on its differences compared to the manual tracing method. Furthermore the amount of overlap between the areas found by the algorithm and the manual tracing method was assessed. The areas found by the algorithm approximately overlap the manual tracing data by 80%. Furthermore a trend is perceived where smaller shapes are overestimated, while larger contours are underestimated. Based on these findings, a number of improvements have been suggested. First of all the average size of the median nerve should be taken into account when trying to find the nerve's contour in order to make a better estimate. The algorithm is applied iteratively, as to use the findings of earlier iterations as an approximation of the shape to be found. By adding an additional iteration, the algorithm's findings would come even closer to the actual shape. Finally, by evaluating mean intensity gradients instead of local intensity gradients, noise is removed. This would improve the outcome of the algorithm.


The mathematical description of liquid water flooding in the gas channel (GC) of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) at the macro scale has remained a challenge up to now. The mist flow assumption in the GC has been commonly used in previous numerical studies. In this work, a one-dimensional (down-the-channel) macroscale phenomenological model for the liquid water flooding in the cathode GC is developed based on several reasonable assumptions. We focus on the operating conditions with fully humidified inlet air on the cathode side. Some simplifications are introduced to obtain a manageable numerical model. A series of case studies are conducted to investigate the effects of droplets and various operating parameters on the liquid water flooding in the GC. The results show that the gas drag force at the film-gas interface significantly enhances the film flow along the GC corners. Based on a proposed droplet model, we can capture key scenarios of liquid water flooding in the GC under different operating conditions like varying stoichiometry, current density and cell temperature. We find that droplets in the GC mainly contribute to the gas pressure loss and water flooding in the GC, which should be depressed for better water management. At last, a proper selection of the GC sidewall contact angle is found to be critical to a better water management in the GC. © 2012 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/2.092206jes] All rights reserved.


The paper presents reviews of fundamental issues regarding valuation methodologies of mineral deposits: 1) recommended by mineral industry standards; 2) used for disclosures in financial statements and 3) adopted in national statistics. A discussion of historical developments of various regulations is supplemented by characteristics of key valuation methods. Differences and similarities are analysed and compared to current practices. A special attention is given to certain distinctive issues which are not shared by most of other types of assets like inclusion of decommissioning and rehabilitation costs or consequences of long duration of investment phase.


The present article reports the synthesis and self aggregation study of a novel dendrimer like star polymer based on β-cyclodextrin (β-CD), in which the primary alcoholic arms of β-CD have been linked to ABC type miktoarm star polymers. Initially, 6-heptaazido-6-deoxy-β-cyclodextrin (7N3-β-CD) has been clicked with alkyne terminated poly(methyl methacrylate) (alkynyl-PMMA-Br), which has been synthesized through atom transfer radical polymerization technique. Subsequently, azidation has been done in order to prepare β-CD(PMMA-N3)7. Parallelly, an amphiphilic block copolymer (alkynyl-PDLL-b-PNIPAAm), having an alkyne end group, has been synthesized by employing a mikto functional initiator having alcohol, xanthate and alkyne functionalities, in ring opening polymerization (ROP) of D,L-lactide (DLL) from –OH end, and reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) from xanthate end. Then, the desired star polymer has been synthesized by the click reaction between β-CD(PMMA-N3)7 and alkynyl-PDLL-b-PNIPAAm. The polymers have been characterized by 1H NMR, and gel permeation chromatography. Self aggregation of the star polymers has been investigated by 1H NMR and fluorescence spectroscopy. Size of the micelles formed has been analyzed by dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopic techniques.


Abstract This thesis aimed at characterizing complex mixtures of sugar beet pulp derived oligosaccharides, in order to be able to monitor and optimize the enzymatic saccharification of sugar beet pulp. Hydrophilic interaction chromatography with on-line evaporative light scattering detection and multidimensional mass spectrometry (HILIC-ELSD-MSn) was developed as a versatile technique for the characterization of a wide range of neutral and acidic plant cell wall derived oligosaccharides. It was shown that the separation capacity of HILIC for acidic oligosaccharides outperforms other techniques. HILIC-MSn enabled efficient sequence elucidation of oligosaccharides in complex mixtures. The enzymatic saccharification of sugar beet pulp was optimized to release the maximum amounts of monomeric galacturonic acid and arabinose with limited concomitant degradation of cellulose, using conditions that are feasible for industrial upscaling. The oligosaccharides that were obtained after hydrolysis were characterized, thereby enabling recognition of enzyme activities additionally needed for the full degradation of recalcitrant oligosaccharides. The in vitro fermentation characteristics of sugar beet pectic oligosaccharides (SBPOS) were studied using human and pig fecal inocula. The fate of the different classes of SBPOS, the production of short-chain fatty acids and the changes in human fecal bacterial populations during in vitro fermentation were described. Several modifications in the microbiota composition that are potentially beneficial to host health were observed. HILIC was also coupled to traveling-wave ion mobility mass spectrometry to enable the simultaneous separation and characterization of complex mixtures of various isomeric pectic oligosaccharides. The developed method was used to characterize isomeric sugar beet rhamnogalacturonan I derived oligosaccharides carrying a glucuronic acid substituent, thereby identifying novel structural features of sugar beet pectin.


Abstract Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) has received growing attention in the last few years. Due to public awareness, economic, environmental, or legislative reasons, the requirement of GSCM has increased. The Indian leather industry is considered to be the most polluted industry in India in terms of all forms of pollution, i.e. water, land, and air. In the recent past, the Indian leather industry has been changing basic assumptions. The world's largest exporter of leather is currently becoming a net importer of the bovine hide. Manufacturing industries have started adopting the green concept in their supply chain management recently to focus on environmental issues. However, industries still struggle to identify the relationship between internal and external barriers hindering green supply chain management implementation. In this context, this study aims to develop a structural model between internal and external barriers to implementing GSCM in the Indian leather industry. To assess the link between internal and external barriers to GSCM in the Indian leather sector, empirical research was carried out utilizing a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method called Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM). ISM is a useful approach for understanding the complex relationships between various internal and external barriers and their hierarchies in the context of green supply chain management (GSCM) adoption. It can be used to identify the key barriers that influence the effective adoption of GSCM in the Indian leather industry, as well as the interdependencies between these barriers. This can help GSCM decision-makers in the Indian leather industry to better understand the challenges and opportunities for implementing sustainable practices throughout their supply chain and to develop effective strategies for addressing them. Additionally, ISM can be used to identify the key drivers and barriers to GSCM adoption, which can inform the development of targeted interventions to promote sustainable practices in the Indian leather sector. The findings indicate that inconsistent quality and lack of motivational laws are the most crucial barriers to overcoming the remaining obstacles and implementing GSCM successfully in the Indian leather sector.


First-breath ventilatory responses to graded elastic (delta E) and resistive (delta R) loads from 10 people with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), 15 people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), and 80 able-bodied people were compared. The SMA and DMD groups produced equal tidal volume, respiratory frequency, inspiratory duration (TI), expiratory duration, mean inspiratory airflow, and duty cycle responses to both delta E and delta R. Thus SMA (primarily a motoneuron disorder) and DMD (primarily a muscle disorder) have the same net effect on loaded breathing responses. The SMA and DMD groups failed to duplicate the normal group's short expirations during delta E, long inspirations during delta R, and thus, extended duty cycles during both delta E and delta R. The deficit in load compensation therefore was due to impaired regulation of respiratory timing (reflecting neural mechanisms) but not airflow defense (reflecting mechanical and neural mechanisms). One-fifth of the normal but none of the SMA or DMD subjects actively generated an "optimal" TI response (defined theoretically as TI greater than 160% control during large delta R and TI less than 75% control during large delta E). This lack of optimal responses, which is the same abnormality exhibited by quadriplegic people, suggests that SMA and DMD also impair human ability to discriminate between large delta R and delta E. These findings support the hypothesis that neuromuscular disorders can lead to disturbances in respiratory perception.


ABSTRACT The northwestern populations in the dead-leaf-foraging Epinecrophylla haematonota complex of thamnophilid antwrens includes E. pyrrhonota, E. fjeldsaai, and E. haematonota. Their taxonomic position has been the subject of recent debate. Divergence in homologous vocalizations provides a principal measure of reproductive isolation and species status for thamnophilid antbirds under the biological species concept, but until recently their evaluation as species has been hampered by the paucity of recordings of E. fjeldsaai. That insufficiency has been remedied, enabling an analytic comparison of vocalizations of the 3 taxa. The results of this analysis led to the recommendation that the 3 taxa be ranked as subspecies of Epinecrophylla haematonota.


This article discusses the working life of a NGO worker in Kerala, South India, who researches, advocates and campaigns for the rights of India's most vulnerable communities. It draws on the personal narrative of an individual to explore the ways in which his life chances and experience of working in a professionalising civil society context have allowed him to construct his own notions of activism and work. This article engages with his life history to understand why he has made the decisions about how he and his staff work to tackle issues of injustice, inequality and exploitation. It analyses notions of activism, work and life history in a context shaped by class, gender and caste divisions.


Euclidian theories have it that there exist one or a small number of apex principles from which the entire fasciculus of rules of contract law can be logically deduced. Two arguments are marshalled against the Euclidian project. First, that it has been unsuccessfully attempted before – in the form of the nineteenth century contract law treatise which emulated the civil lawyer's rationalistic model, mos geometricus – cautioning us against setting much store by its present reincarnation. Second, that the common law's methodology makes it resistant to this form of theorising. Euclidian theory presupposes a picture of rules on which: a) cases involve an application of logically prior rules; b) rules are reliably identifiable by different actors in the legal system; and c) rules normatively range over an indefinite spectrum of future cases. It will be argued that the common law defies this picture of rules thus rendering Euclidian theory analytically impossible.


In today's competitive market, those producers who can quickly adapt themselves todiverse demands of customers are successful. Therefore, in order to satisfy these demands of market, Mixed-model assembly line (MMAL) has an increasing growth in industry. A mixed-model assembly line (MMAL) is a type of production line in which varieties of products with common base characteristics are assembled on. This paper focuses on this type of production line in a stochastic environment with three objective functions: 1) total utility work cost, 2) total idle cost, and 3) total production rate variation cost that are simultaneously considered.  In real life, especially in manual assembly lines, because of some inevitable human mistakes, breakdown of machines, lack of motivation in workers and the things alike, events are notdeterministic, sowe consideroperation time as a stochastic variable independently distributed with normal distributions; for dealing with it, chance constraint optimization is used to model the problem. At first, because of NP-hard nature of the problem, multi-objective harmony search (MOHS) algorithm is proposed to solve it. Then, for evaluating the performance of the proposed algorithm, it is compared with NSGA-II that is a powerful and famous algorithm in this area. At last, numerical examples for comparing these two algorithms with some comparing metrics are presented. The results have shown that MOHS algorithm has a good performance in our proposed model.


The real-time observation of chemical bond formation at the single-molecule level is one of the great challenges in the fields of organic and biomolecular chemistry. Valuable information can be gleaned that is not accessible using ensemble-average measurements. Although remarkably sophisticated techniques for monitoring chemical reactions have been developed, the ability to detect the specific formation of a chemical bond in situ at the single-molecule level has remained an elusive goal. Amide bonds are routinely formed from the aminolysis of N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) esters by primary amines, and the protocol is widely used for the synthesis, cross-linking, and labeling of peptides and proteins. Herein, a plasmonic nanocavity was applied to study aminolysis reaction for amide bond formation, which was initiated by single nanoparticle collision events between suitably functionalized free-moving gold nanoparticles and a gold nanoelectrode in an aqueous buffer. By means of simultaneous surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and single-entity electrochemistry (EC) measurements, we have probed the dynamic evolution of amide bond formation in the aminolysis reaction with 10 s of millisecond time resolution. Hence, we demonstrate that single-entity EC-SERS is a valuable and sensitive technique by which chemical reactions can be studied at the single-molecule level.


Hastelloy X is a potential structural material for use in gas-cooled reactor systems. In this application data are necessary on the mechanical properties of base metals and weldments under realistic service conditions. The test environment studied was helium that contained small amounts of H/sub 2/, CH/sub 4/, and CO. It is shown that this environment is carburizing with the kinetics of this process, becoming rapid above 800/sup 0/C. Suitable weldments of Hastelloy X were prepared by several processes; those weldments generally had properties similar to the base metal except for lower fracture strains under some conditions. Some samples were aged up to 20,000 h in the test gas and tested, and some creep tests on as-received material exceeded 40,000 h. The predominant effect of aging was the significant reduction of the fracture strains at ambient temperature; the strains were lower when the samples were aged in HTGR helium than when aged in inert gas. Under some conditions aging also increased the yield and ultimate tensile strength. Limited impact testing showed that the impact energy at 25/sup 0/C was reduced drastically by aging at 871 and 704/sup 0/C.


Regulatory agencies may require demonstrating a new therapy or device as noninferior to an existing method. For example, a new condom type must demonstrate noninferiority to existing latex condoms before consideration as an equivalent method of pregnancy prevention. Studies designed to assess condom effectiveness typically measure experimental and standard condom failure in a crossover trial, resulting in unbalanced correlated binary outcomes with low event proportions. We used simulations to evaluate the test size of a simple population average approach to noninferiority testing with the small event proportions, intracluster correlations, and sample sizes frequently found in condom studies. Results emphasize the importance of considering test accuracy when designing any study.


We investigate the physics laying behind landslide size distributions, by coupling slope stability analysis and scalesensitive fractal analysis of topography within a probabilistic approach. Slope stability analyses have been performed under ideal conditions, in order to highlight the control of slope angle, friction angle, and cohesion on the size distribution of landslides. We demonstrate that, for a given slope angle, cohesion exerts a primary control on both the depth and the length of landslides: the larger the cohesion, the deeper and longer the landslide. As a consequence, the landslide size distribution in cohesive materials is limited toward the smaller size. Scale-sensitive fractal analysis of topography have been performed by using the patchwork method, by applying triangular patches to virtually tile the topographic surface. The fractal behaviour of the topography is modelled by decreasing triangle sizes (i.e., scale of measurement), thus replicating the surface more and more precisely. We apply the patchwork method to study the fractal behaviour of two topographic datasets from Avisio river Catchment, Trento Province (Italy): an interpolated 10x10 m DTM and a Lidar 2x2 m DTM. The interpolated DTM shows a fractal behaviour in a range of area scale between 10-4 and 10-6 sqm. For smaller scale, we observe a rollover that is caused by artificial smoothing of topographic data due to interpolation algorithms. The Lidar DTM shows a fractal behaviour between 10-2 and 10-6. For smaller scales, the rollover seems to be related to a transition from a landscape composed of ridges and valleys to one composed of relatively smooth hillslopes. Results of slope stability analyses over idealized cases and topographic analysis have been used to derive a synthetic landslide size distributions, by applying few simplifying assumptions and a probabilistic approach. As a result, we show that: (1) the landslide size distribution of non cohesive materials does not show a rollover for smaller landslides; (2) the landslide size distributions of cohesive materials are limited for smaller scales, showing a slight rollover; (3) by combining cohesive materials with different properties (i.e., friction angle and cohesion) it is possible to replicate the rollover that have been observed in the actual landslide inventory. Nonetheless, the slope (i.e., power exponent) of synthetic inventories differs from the slope of actual inventory, thus suggesting that part of the physics is not fully explained by our simple model considering only a few association of material and slope characteristics.


The stress-shielding effect can be minimized by using porous materials with pre-determined implant stiffness. This study aims to design interconnected porous metal implants that resemble the stiffness variations in a bone. Our design is intended to innovate mechanical loading conditions at the peri-implant bone, promoting a more robust implant–bone interface. The positional variations of stiffness in the scaffold are designed based on the Hounsfield Unit of computed tomography (CT) scan data of that location. Finite element (FE) analysis evaluates porous implants' performance compared to solid implants. Porous metal implants were additively manufactured with Ti6Al4V for compression test and reconstructed the 3D model from the micro-CT scan to validate the FE model. FE results revealed that porous implants generated a strain profile at peri-implant bone closer to normal bone irrespective of material property or anatomical location compared to solid implants.


In this study we have examined the biochemical attributes of the redox systems that regulate human sperm function using 2-(4-iodophenyl)-3-(4-nitrophenyl)-5-(2,4-disulphophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium, monosodium salt (WST-1), lucigenin and luminol-peroxidase as probes. WST-1 was readily reduced by human spermatozoa in the presence of an intermediate electron acceptor (IEA) or NAD(P)H. The IEA-mediated activity resembled a previously described trans-membrane NADH oxidase in being inhibited by capsaicin, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and N-ethyl maleimide, but differed in its sensitivity to p-chloromercuriphenylsulphonic acid (pCMBS). The NAD(P)H-induced WST-1 reduction resembled the superficial oxidase described previously, in its sensitivity to pCMBS, but differed in its suppression by capsaicin. Lucigenin was reduced by human spermatozoa in a manner that could be inhibited by SOD and stimulated by NAD(P)H or 12-myristate, 13-acetate phorbol ester. A23187 also stimulated human spermatozoa via a diphenylene iodonium-sensitive pathway detectable with luminol-peroxidase but not lucigenin. Defective sperm populations recovered from the low-density region of Percoll gradients were characterized by high levels of redox activity that was only discernable with lucigenin. We conclude that human spermatozoa possess multiple plasma membrane redox systems that are involved to varying extents in the physiological control and pathological disruption of sperm function. Their distinct pharmacological profiles should significantly assist attempts to resolve and characterize these systems.


This study aims to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT)  and formulate coaching strategy of Adiwiyata schools in Sintang Regency. A qualitative descriptive method with IFAS and EFAS analysis technique were used. The results shows dominant strengths factor including vision, mission and objectives that are environmentally sound in Adiwiyata school team. Meanwhile dominant weakness factor involves the limited budget allocation for Adiwiyata development. The dominant factor of opportunity and threat including ability in followingcompetencies in other activities in the field of environment and mutations of school principals or teachers, respectively. Adiwiyata regency school positions based on IFAS and EFAS analysis are in quadrant II (23,-5). Thus the coaching strategy includes (1) capacity building, skills and knowledge of Adiwiyata team through seminars and training funded by local government; (2) Budget allocation proportionally for supporting activities of Adiwiyata both from schools and local government that is regularly enrolled every year; (3) Vision, mission and school objectives must accommodate local wisdom of the community in protecting the environment; (4) school principal and teacher mutations should consider tracking not on a pragmatic basis. To realize the coaching strategy needs to be done continuous cooperation between the schools with various stakeholders so as to increase the predicate Adiwiyata at a higher level. Keywords: Coaching strategy, Regency Adiwiyata , School management , Sintang Regency