Abstract This work aims to identify articles published in open access journals registered in the Lattes Platform curricula. Currently, the curricular data from the Lattes Platform has been the source of several studies that adopt bibliometric metrics to understand scientific evolution in Brazil. However, when registering a publication in a curriculum, only basic information from the magazine is informed. Therefore, to quantify the publications made in open access journals, a strategy is proposed that uses data from the Directory of Open Access Journals, validating the publications and, thus, obtaining a process that allows identifying which publications were made in this communication format. Therefore, using the proposed methodology, which has a low computational cost, it was possible to quantify in an unprecedented way the publications of Brazilians in open access journals registered in the curricula of the Lattes Platform. In addition, having the authors' data of the publications, it was possible to understand how these authors are geographically distributed in the country, what their areas of operation are and how they have published the results of their research in open access. It is noteworthy that they are generally published in Portuguese and English. Over the last few years, the representativeness of publications in open access journals has increased.


One of the difficulties of being a patient is the way ordinary words are given medical meanings. "What are you complaining of?" means, to a patient, "What are you whining and moaning about?" To a doctor it means, "What's your problem?" Similarly, "The procedure was explained and the patient reassured" looks good on nursing notes, but would startle the patient who could not understand the explanation.

> Can't you, with such a superior service to offer, do the same?

The word "quality" is the new buzzword, with everyone in the health industry telling everyone else what quality is and how to achieve it. But who is talking to the patients, or, more importantly, listening to them? Their definition of quality does not necessarily match with yours.

The Patients Association collects the views of patients and offers them to healthcare professionals. I now offer them to you.

So, what does the word quality mean to us? In general terms we need to feel total trust in the system and the people in it …


Two different control configurations have been designed for the navigation and propulsion systems of CyberShip I, a scale model of an oil platform supply ship. The first configuration consists of two classical linear PID controllers (one for the navigation system and the other for the propulsion). In the second configuration, a nonlinear sliding mode controller provides the navigation control and a PI control regulates the propulsion. Both control methodologies have parameters that need to be tuned to improve their performance. These parameters have been optimised using genetic algorithms. The performance of these two control methods has been compared and their robustness has been evaluated through the simulation of environmental disturbances. This investigation has been carried out through computer-generated simulations based on a non-linear hydrodynamic model of CyberShip I.


We have synthesized the analogue 2'-deoxy-2'-thio-CTP (CTP-SH) and tested its ability to support RNA transcription in place of CTP. The modified nucleotide in a transcription reaction and in the absence of CTP generated the appropriately sized fragment when a mutant T7 polymerase (Y639F) was used. Wild-type polymerase was unable to generate RNA under the same conditions. Transcription was optimal around pH 7.5 and was dependent upon CTP-SH concentration. Transcripts containing the analogue were efficiently isolated using a thiol-activated sepharose column. Insertion of CTP-SH into the HDV ribozyme, replacing all cytidine residues with 2'-thiocytidine, appears to inhibit self-cleaving activity, even in the presence of manganese. The ability to introduce the CTP-SH analogue enzymatically into RNA opens the way for new structure-function studies where the 2'-hydroxyl can be efficiently replaced by a thiol group.


SiO2 doped TiO2 (SiO2 TiO2) nano structure thin films were prepared by dip coating method on glass substrates by varying the concentration of SiO2 and annealed at 400°C for 3 hours in a muffle furnace. The films were characterized by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), UVvisible spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with elemental (EDAX) studies techniques. UV light impairs photosynthesis and reduces size, productivity and quality in many of the crop plants. Increased exposure of UV light reduces total chlorophyll content in plants. Development of nano science and technology provides new ways for better treatment of UV resistant films and fabrics using Titanium dioxide (TiO2). TiO2 has good Ultra Violet (UV) blocking power and is very effective in applications because of advantages such as non-toxicity, chemical stability at high temperature and permanent stability under UV exposure. The main objective of this study was to analyze the performance of SiO2 doped TiO2 thin films as a protective layer to the chlorophyll contents present in medicinal plants Solanum nigrum (Manathakkali) and Solanum trilobatum (Thuthuvalai) from UV radiation. The study revealed that crystallite size and transmittance of films decrease with increase in SiO2 concentration. The thickness of the film increases with increase in SiO2 concentration. However, the chlorophyll content increases in accordance with increase in SiO2 concentration. This study showed that SiO2 doped TiO2 thin films are good absorber of UV light and protect the total chlorophyll content in medicinal plants.


The upgrades of the Belle experiment and the KEKB accelerator aim to increase the data set of the experiment by a factor 50. This will be achieved by increasing the luminosity of the accelerator which requires a significant upgrade of the detector. A new pixel detector based on DEPFET technology will be installed to handle the increased reaction rate and provide better vertex resolution. One of the features of the DEPFET detector is a long integration time of 20 μs, which increases detector occupancy up to 3%. The detector will generate about 22 GB/s of data. An FPGA-based two-level read-out system, the Data Handling Hub, was developed for the Belle II pixel detector. The system consists of 40 read-out and eight controller modules. All modules are built in μTCA form factor using Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA and can utilize up to 4 GB DDR3 RAM. The system was successfully tested in the beam test at DESY in January 2014. The functionality and the architecture of the Belle II Data Handling Hybrid system as well as the performance of the system during the beam test are presented in the paper.


A theory based on a simple model for resonant tunneling processes is presented to calculate the current in the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS). A simple expression of the current is given, which consists of three parts: one for the electron occupation, one for the change of the electronic states by admixtures between the tip and the sample, and the third for current from the surface to the electrode attached to the sample. It is shown that the surface states do not contribute to the tunneling current if they lie in the gap of the bulk band, because we can construct only evanescent waves in such an energy range. However when the surface states appear in a gap at certain wave vectors parallel to the surface but energetically degenerate to bulk states with different parallel wave vectors, they can be observed because the translational symmetry parallel to the surface is broken by the tip. The present theory can be applied to the detailed analysis of the tunneling current combined with suitable electronic state calculations.


We have found a significant improvement of pregnancy rates after pretreatment with an agonist of gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH-a). The pregnancy rate in patients treated with HMG/HCG was 17% per patient and 5.5% per cycle, in patients treated with buserelin, 25% per patient and 15% per cycle and in the triptorelin group 25% per patient and 22% per cycle. From 740 HMG/HCG cycles without GnRH-a only 66% were sufficient according to the analytical data. In 16% we found a premature LH discharge and in 18% an irregular LH fluctuation during stimulation. It is clear that gonadotrophin stimulation during pituitary suppression provokes a more intense ovarian reaction with respect to the number of follicles, as well as the endocrine activity. There are also some important practical advantages: ovarian stimulation can be started without any respect to a definite time of menstruation or of the cycle. Of further importance is the much greater flexibility in the timing of HCG administration. Finally, it will be favourable for all patients who need ovulation induction, especially for oocyte retrieval for IVF or GIFT, because no cycle has to be cancelled.


Using the error correction model, we link the long-run behavior of the Canada-US real exchange rate to its short-run dynamics. The equilibrium real exchange rate is determined by the energy and non-energy commodity prices over the period 1973Q1-1992Q1. However such a single long-run relationship does not hold when the sample period is extended to 2004Q4. This breakdown can be explained by the break point which we find at 1993Q3. At the break point, the effect of the energy price shocks on Canada's real exchange rate turns from negative to positive while the effect of the non-energy commodity price shocks is constantly positive. We find that after one year 40.03% of the gap between the actual and equilibrium real exchange rate is closed. The Canada-US interest rate differential affects the real exchange rate temporarily. The Canada's real exchange rate depreciates immediately after a decrease in Canada's interest rate and appreciates next quarter but not by as much as it has depreciated.


Iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms can reduce artifacts caused by filtered backprojection (FBP) or convolution backprojection (CBP). Recently, the computational effects required for IR of positron emission tomography (PET) studies have been reduced to make it practically appealing. We have made an implementation of the improved maximum likelihood-expectation maximization (ML-EM) algorithm. The transition matrix was generated based on the geometry of the instrument. Phantoms of 6 line sources and 19 line sources were used to test our accelerated ML-EM algorithms against the FBP method. The singles were used to calculate the random coincidence rates by a well known formula and were compared to the randoms obtained by another geometric method. We also designed a new model using two line sources to determine the ratio of random events to true events. The artifacts near those line sources were eliminated with the ML-EM method. With decay correction, the RC events were uniformity distributed in whole field after 10 iterations. The ML-EM reconstructed images are superior to those obtained with FBP. The patterns of randoms provide insightful information for random correction, which the hardware correction by the delay window can not provide. This information is particularly valuable when the delay window correction is not available in the old fashion PET scanner.


The effects of oxazaphosphorine cytostatics were studied on granulocytic/monocytic colony forming cells from mice bone marrow in methylcellulose culture. Cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, trofosfamide and two secondary metabolites show a weak activity in vitro (Inhibitory Dose--50% (ID50) between 5 X 10(-4) M and 5 X 10(-5) M). By contrast, a high cytostatic activity was observed with phosphoramide mustard and especially with hydroperoxycyclophosphamide (ID50: 2.5 X 10(-6) and 4 X 10(-7) M). These results suggest that these metabolites are active. The differentiation of the three types of colonies (granulocytic, monocytic and mixed) showed no specific effect of the drugs for a given series. After in vivo treatment, cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide and trofosfamide induce an important decrease of nucleated bone marrow cells. This decrease is maximum on the third day and regresses when the treatment is interrupted. On the first day of the culture an inhibition of the proliferation of granulocytic/monocytic progenitor cells is observed. An important statistically significant stimulation of these same progenitor cells is however noted later.


OBJECTIVE
To summarize the diagnosis and treatment of acute rejection after lung transplantation and to discuss optimized immunosuppressive therapy.

METHODS
Between November 2002 and June 2006, 16 patients underwent operations on lung transplantation, 7 cases on single-lung transplantation and 9 cases on bilateral-lung transplantation. Immunosuppressive therapy was new triple drug maintenance regimen including tacrolimus (Tac), mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and steroids, and (or) daclizumab.

RESULTS
Eight cases in new triple drug maintenance regimen with daclizumab. There is no acute rejection in 6 months. Except 2 of the 8 cases died of early post-lung transplantation sever pulmonary edema and dysfunction, 3 of the rest 6 cases underwent acute rejection incident about 21.4% (3/14).

CONCLUSION
In this group the new triple drug maintenance regimen including tacrolimus (Tac), mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and steroids, and (or) daclizumab acquired beneficial effect in preventing acute rejection after lung transplantation.


'The student experience' is a formulation that will be familiar to many reading this article; increasingly the term has come to stand in for an imprecise set of values and practices around higher education study. Despite the fuzziness that characterises its use, 'student experience talk' has gained traction in education policy and rankings, academic research, and amongst students themselves. After initially drawing from Raymond Williams to situate 'the student experience' as a keyword across policy, marketing and educational domains, we analyse contemporary usage of the term in: (1) students' own accounts of their engagements with the city in which they study; and (2) academic social science. A membership category when used by undergraduate students, the term serves to obfuscate a market logic in which achieving the student experience is an aspirational endeavour linking disparate place-based consumption practices in their university city. Drawing on the Bourdieusian distinction between categories of practice and categories of analysis, we argue that the contemporary deployment of 'the student experience' across popular and policy spaces does not mean that academics should import it uncritically into their analysis. On the contrary: the reification of this category of practice is precisely what has enabled the scramble for its attainment and management. Rather than allowing the embedding and normalisation of terms such as 'the student experience', the role of critical social science should be to unpack these muddled categories to avoid calling into being and reproducing what they seem to only describe.


Medication use during neonatal resuscitation is uncommon. The infrequent use of resuscitation medications has impeded rigorous investigations to determine the most effective agents and/or dosing regimens. The medications most commonly used during delivery room resuscitation include epinephrine, sodium bicarbonate, naloxone hydrochloride and volume expanders. The available evidence for each of these medications is reviewed in this article.


Lung cancer is second most common cancer in the world. Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) accounts approximately 80-85% of all lung cancer diagnosis. Traditional therapies of this disease were surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, alone or in combination. In addition, targeted therapeutic approach was based on the concept of discovering genetic alterations and the signaling pathways in cancer. Recently, to overcome the critical points for standard therapies, many groups were studied immunotherapeutic approaches, such as programed cell-death protein 1 (PD-1) antibody. However, rational use of these agents has been limited by the lack of a definitive predictive biomarker. Therefore, we identified new target, cancer immunotherapy related gene, CMG by shRNA libraries screening analysis on chemo-agents & target therapy resistant non-small cell lung cancer cells. First of all, we investigated CMG expression by immunohistochemistry in various tissue microarray (TMA). These results show that CMG highly expressed in Lung cancer, Liver cancer, and gastric cancer. We investigated target potentials on lung cancer, liver cancer, and gastric cancer cell lines using in vitro and in vivo assay system. Knockdown of CMG by CMG shRNA was induced cell death in various cancer cell lines. In addition, suppression of CMG was induced tumor size regression in CMG shRNA stable cell lines-derived xenograft model. Based on these results, we synthesized a novel series of CMG therapeutic antibody. CMG therapeutic antibody is a lead antibody for treating Lung cancer patients who express CMG gene. These antibodies have anti-cancer effects and immunotherapeutic effects in lung cancer (NSCLC), liver cancer, and gastric cancer. In addition, the in vivo efficacy of CMG antibody was assessed in mouse lung cancer derived syngeneic mouse model. The CMG antibody was tri-daily i.p. injected and the tumor volume was measured and compared between groups. Dramatic tumor regression was observed in CMG antibody treated group. These results were shown that these antibodies have immunotherapeutic potentials. In conclusion, CMG is a promising target for Lung cancer patients (chemo-agents resistant or PD-1 resistant Lung cancer patienrts). Our antibodies can be promising therapeutic agents for lung cancer, Liver cancer, and gastric cancer. Citation Format: Jai-hee Moon, Dae Hee Lee, Jae-Sik Shin, Joseph Kim, Yoon Sun Park, Seung-Woo Hong, So Hee Lee, Mi Jin Kim, Joonyee Jung, Chun-Ho Park, Sun-Chul Hur, Hyojin Kim, Hyebin Park, Sang Soo Park, Jun Ki Hong, Ji Hee Gong, Jieun Kim, Hyun Ho Lee, Il-Whea Ku, Dong-Hoon Jin. Development of new mechanism based therapeutic antibodies in non-small cell lung cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2909.


This research focuses on developing visual object categorization methodologies that are based on machine learning techniques and biologically inspired generative models of visual scene recognition. Modelling the statistical variability in visual patterns, in the space of features extracted from them by an appropriate low level signal processing technique, is an important matter of investigation for both humans and machines. To study this problem, we have examined in detail two recent probabilistic models of vision: a simple multivariate Gaussian model as suggested by (Karklin & Lewicki, 2009) and a restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) proposed by (Hinton, 2002). Both the models have been widely used for visual object classification and scene analysis tasks before. This research highlights that these models on their own are not plausible enough to perform the classification task, and suggests Fisher kernel as a means of inducing discrimination into these models for classification power. Our empirical results on standard benchmark data sets reveal that the classification performance of these generative models could be significantly boosted near to the state of the art performance, by drawing a Fisher kernel from compact generative models that computes the data labels in a fraction of total computation time. We compare the proposed technique with other distance based and kernel based classifiers to show how computationally efficient the Fisher kernels are. To the best of our knowledge, Fisher kernel has not been drawn from the RBM before, so the work presented in the thesis is novel in terms of its idea and application to vision problem.


Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) refers to the age-related expansion of specific clones in the blood system, and manifests from somatic mutations acquired in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Most CH variants occur in the gene DNMT3A, but while DNMT3A-mutant CH becomes almost ubiquitous in aging humans, a unifying molecular mechanism to illuminate how DNMT3A-mutant HSCs outcompete their counterparts is lacking. Here, we used interferon gamma (IFNγ) as a model to study the mechanisms by which Dnmt3a mutations increase HSC fitness under hematopoietic stress. We found Dnmt3a-mutant HSCs resist IFNγ-mediated depletion, and IFNγ-signaling is required for clonal expansion of Dnmt3a-mutant HSCs in vivo. Mechanistically, DNA hypomethylation-associated overexpression of Txnip in Dnmt3a-mutant HSCs leads to p53 stabilization and upregulation of p21. This preserves the functional potential of Dnmt3a-mutant HSCs through increased quiescence and resistance to IFNγ-induced apoptosis. These data identify a previously undescribed mechanism to explain increased fitness of DNMT3A-mutant clones under hematopoietic stress.

SIGNIFICANCE
DNMT3A mutations are common variants in clonal hematopoiesis, and recurrent events in blood cancers. Yet the mechanisms by which these mutations provide hematopoietic stem cells a competitive advantage as a precursor to malignant transformation remain unclear. Here, we use inflammatory stress to uncover molecular mechanisms leading to this fitness advantage. See related article by De Dominici and James DeGregori .


The IS475 collaboration conducted Coulomb-excitation experiments with postaccelerated radioactive 220Rn and 224Ra beams at the REX-ISOLDE facility. The beam particles (Ebeam ≈ 2.83 MeV/u) were Coulomb excited using 60Ni, 114Cd, and 120Sn scattering targets. De-excitation γ-rays were detected employing the Miniball array and scattered particles were detected in a silicon detector. Exploiting the Coulomb-excitation code GOSIA for each nucleus several matrix elements could be obtained from the measured γ-ray yields. The extracted ⟨3−||Ê3||0+⟩ matrix element allows for the conclusion that, while 220Rn represents an octupole vibrational system, 224Ra has already substantial octupole correlations in its ground state. An observation that has implications for the search of CP-violating Schiff moments in the atomic systems of the adjacent odd-mass nuclei.


Speaker identity is one of the important characteristics of human speech. In voice conversion, we change the speaker identity from one to another, while keeping the linguistic content unchanged. Voice conversion involves multiple speech processing techniques, such as speech analysis, spectral conversion, prosody conversion, speaker characterization, and vocoding. With the recent advances in theory and practice, we are now able to produce human-like voice quality with high speaker similarity. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art of voice conversion techniques and their performance evaluation methods from the statistical approaches to deep learning, and discuss their promise and limitations. We will also report the recent Voice Conversion Challenges (VCC), the performance of the current state of technology, and provide a summary of the available resources for voice conversion research.


Pulmonary Siderosis results from inhalation of iron dust or fumes. It falls into the group of pneumoconioses in which the pulmonary reaction is minimal despite a heavy dust load. Since fibrosis is not caused by inhalation of iron dust, the clinical course is benign and pulmonary function tests and blood gases are within normal limits. We report the first case of sideropneumoconiosis from Israel, in a 39-year-old iron welder. Since this condition is still not recognized as an occupational disease in Israel, the aim of this presentation is to bring it to appropriate medical attention.


Objectives Platelet (PLT) indices are predictive in many diseases and conditions. The relationships of these indices with proteinuria and progression of renal disease are not well known. This study aimed to assess PLT indices in patients with primary glomerular nephrotic range proteinuria (PGNRP), with and without chronic kidney disease (CKD), and to compare these indices with those of healthy individuals (His). Methods This cross-sectional study was performed from January 2015 to May 2015. HIs (n = 57) and patients with PGNRP (n = 41) were enrolled. PLT indices and blood biochemistry parameters were compared between HIs and patients with PGNRP, as well as between subgroups of patients with PGNRP who had CKD (n = 23) and those who did not have CKD (n = 18). Results There were no statistically significant differences in any PLT indices (i.e., platelet number, mean platelet volume, plateletcrit, and platelet distribution width) between HIs and patients with PGNRP, or between the subgroups of patients with PGNRP. However, patients with PGNRP who had CKD exhibited higher median C-reactive protein and mean albumin levels, compared with patients who did not have CKD. Conclusions Pathological processes in proteinuria and CKD are not associated with PLT indices.


This paper estimates the extent to which an exogenous change in income affects income tax
revenues. We focus on the case of Spain over the period 2003-2008, as income tax there
underwent a substantial reform in 2007. Using both an analytical method and a numerical
simulation, we find a significant increase in aggregate income tax elasticities from 1.4 for
2003-2003 to around 1.8 for 2007-2008. The sensitivity of results to the presence of housing
tax credits, non-equiproportional variations in income, changes in income inequality and
fiscal drag is also considered.


The short time between the launch of the first generation protease inhibitors (PIs) (Boceprevir and telaprevir) in 2011 and the recommendation to give up this treatment by both AASLD and EASL in 2014 in genotype 1 (GT-1) patients reflects the unique speedy 'discovery to cure' for HCV. Nevertheless, despite the short lifetime of these compounds we have learned a lot in term of efficacy, safety and patient's management. EFFICACY: The use of the first generation PIs in combination with pegylated interferon and ribavirin (PR) was a major step forward in HCV treatment efficacy with a 30% increase of sustained virological response (SVR) rate in na€ıve GT-1 patients and between 25%—60% increase of SVR rates in treatment-experienced GT-1 patients. Moreover the use of this combination in HIV/HCV co-infected patients, for the first time, gave SVR rates identical to mono-infected HCV patients, filling the SVR gap between these two populations. This increase in term of efficacy allows shortening of the duration of treatment to 24 weeks in at least 50% of na€ıve GT-1 patients and even to 12 weeks in some very well selected population (Na€ıve, IL28b CC). SVR rate was also increased in cirrhotic patients either na€ıve or treatmentexperienced prior relapsers or partial responders. Overall increased efficacy was observed in almost all GT-1 patients with milder benefit, if any, among prior null responder's cirrhotic patients. These benefits were confirmed in real life cohort, which were rapidly presented very soon after phase III program, and also demonstrated the benefit in special population such as the liver transplanted patients with severe HCV recurrence and hemodialysis patients. SAFETY: The use of the first generation PIs was associated with new side effects, such as dysgeusia with boceprevir and cutaneous rash with telaprevir and an increase incidence of side effects already known with PR such as anemia, which was observed in about half of the patients. Cutaneous rash was described in more than half of the patients on telaprevir but was severe in only less than 5% of patients. Early recognition of this side effect in phase II program leads to the institution of a rash management plan in phase III and IV, which helps physicians and nurses to manage correctly this side effect reducing adverse outcome worldwide. Anemia was more frequent with a more rapid onset with both PIs. However, prevention and management of anemia leads to a new paradigm. Early reduction of ribavirin dose on treatment appears to be the best way to prevent and manage this side effect without affecting SVR rate contrary to what we knew with anemia management with PR regimen. Real-life data on more advanced population, such as cirrhotic treatment-experienced patients in the CUPIC cohort, allows characterizing a subgroup of cirrhotic patients (baseline albumin level <35 g/L and platelets counts <100.000/mm3) in which treatment with triple regimen PI+PR is contraindicated according to a high rate of serious adverse events and a low rate of SVR. PATIENT'S MANAGEMENT: Baseline predictive factors of SVR have been slightly modified by DAA. Age, viral load fibrosis stage and IL28b remain predictive factor of response but their weights are lower. Rapid virological response on treatment remains the best predictive factor of response. Stopping rules on treatment have also been modified and adapted for each treatment (W4 and 12 for telaprevir and W8 and 12 for boceprevir). Drug-drug interaction is a new task that we have to manage with both drugs and the follow-up of the patients during treatments was more time consuming for nurses and physicians in relation with increase side effects. CONCLUSION: Boceprevir and telaprevir represent the first painful step of DAAs use in HCV. Fortunately we move today to IFN-free regimen with combination of DAAs with very high rate of SVR and very few side effects. We hopefully reach the beginning of the end for HCV cure.


Clinical Handbook ofPsychopharmacology edited by Alberto DiMascio PhD and Richard I Shader MD pp xii+395 $17.95 New York: Science House 1970 Books on psychopharmacology must these days stand comparison with the many others written on this subject and, judged by these standards, this handbook is frankly disappointing. Of American books I much prefer 'Drug Treatment in Psychiatric Disorders' by Kline & Davis, and also the two very different English books 'Chemotherapy of Psychiatric Disorders' by Dally, and 'Clinical Psychopharmacology' by Shepherd, Lader & Rodnight. This criticism largely stems from the division into twenty-four chapters by mainly different authors, which makes for a very patchy presentation and lack of continuity. For instance, Johnathan Cole gives a beautifully clear, though over-simplified chapter on antidepressive treatment; but biochemical effects, cardiovascular, endocrine and neurological side-effects and the application of antidepressive drugs to child and geriatric psychiatry are all in separate chapters scattered throughout the book. Similar criticisms apply to the 'antipsychotic' drugs, equally well introduced by Klerman, and to the anti-anxiety compounds. An attempt has been made to draw the whole thing together by a long last chapter surveying the whole of 'Drug Treatment in Psychiatry', and there is an excellent chapter on the interaction of pharmacology with total treatment, by Lehmann. The general standard is as for DPM students, but the price will surely be beyond their pockets.


We show that the spectral gap for the interchange process (and the symmetric exclusion process) in a d-dimensional box of side length L is asymptotic to π/L. This gives more evidence in favor of Aldous's conjecture that in any graph the spectral gap for the interchange process is the same as the spectral gap for a corresponding continuous-time random walk. Our proof uses a technique that is similar to that used by Handjani and Jungreis, who proved that Aldous's conjecture holds when the graph is a tree.


The green mantle of the earth! This metaphor is a poetic image that borrows from the vocabulary of weaving and epitomizes the Renaissance interest in "fashioning green worlds" in art and poetry. Here it serves as a motto for a cultural poetics that made representing living nature increasingly popular across Italy in the Early Modern period. The explosion of landscape art in this era is often associated with the rise of interest in the literary pastoral, narrowly defined, but this volume expands that understanding to show Green's broad appeal as it intrigued audiences ranging from the ecclesiastic to the medical and scientific to the humanistic and courtly. The essays gathered here explore the expanding technologies and varied cultural dimensions of verzure and verdancy in the Italian Renaissance, and thus the role of visual art in shaping the poetics and expression of greenery in the arts of the 16th-century and beyond.


Refractive error is the most common eye disorder and is the key cause behind correctable visual impairment, responsible for nearly 80% of the visual impairment in the US. Refractive error can be diagnosed using multiple methods, including subjective refraction, retinoscopy, and autorefractors. Although subjective refraction is the gold standard, it requires cooperation from the patient and hence is not suitable for infants, young children, and developmentally delayed adults. Retinoscopy is an objective refraction method that does not require any input from the patient. However, retinoscopy requires a lens kit and a trained examiner, which limits its use for mass screening. In this work, we automate retinoscopy by attaching a smartphone to a retinoscope and recording retinoscopic videos with the patient wearing a custom pair of paper frames. We develop a video processing pipeline that takes retinoscopic videos as input and estimates the net refractive error based on our proposed extension of the retinoscopy mathematical model. Our system alleviates the need for a lens kit and can be performed by an untrained examiner. In a clinical trial with 185 eyes, we achieved a sensitivity of 91.0% and specificity of 74.0% on refractive error diagnosis. Moreover, the mean absolute error of our approach was 0.75±0.67D on net refractive error estimation compared to subjective refraction measurements. Our results indicate that our approach has the potential to be used as a retinoscopy-based refractive error screening tool in real-world medical settings.


The hypodermic method of administering mercury has gained a distinct and deserved place in the therapy of syphilis. Not only has the technic been gradually improved, but preparations less irritating and better suited to our needs have been produced. For convenience of study this method readily admits of division into subcutaneous, intramuscular and intravenous injections. It is especially to the last that I desire to call attention. The introduction of mercury (sublimate solution) by means of intravenous injections was first recommended by Bacelli in 1892, though other drugs had been administered in this way several years earlier. Two reasons have prevented this method from gaining more than limited favor with the profession; first, the delicacy of the technic; second, the fact that it is regarded by some, many of whom have never used it, as dangerous. My experience with this method began about fifteen months ago and since then I


Recharging sensor networks using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) provides a possible method for increasing network lifetime. In this paper, we evaluate that approach, determining how much of a benefit it provides and under what conditions. We base our simulations and field experiments on data collected from charging with our UAV-based wireless power transfer system, which has similar transfer ranges and efficiencies as other such systems. We determine that a UAV can increase the network lifetime up to 290% compared to no recharging, that the UAV should recharge 30% of the sensor node battery capacity at one time for the maximum benefit, and that the UAV should recharge the lowest powered node until the network reaches a size of approximately 306 nodes at which point it should recharge the sink. We also examine how the sensor network can aid this through sink selection. The policy varies as network size increases, with a static approach working well until 200 nodes, and then either a perimeter or heuristic approach works best. These results inform future use of UAVs in recharging and working with sensor networks.


Very little is known about the circumstances that lead a terrorist group to cease their operations in one way rather than another. This study seeks to answer the question what impact the goal-structure of a terrorist group has on their disbandment. A new framework describes the structure of goals by differentiating operative and official goals of terrorist groups along their geographical scope, their final goal's extent, and the respective effectiveness this is accomplished by. I argue that strategic or abstract goal-structures determine the way a terrorist organisation ends. By applying a multinomial logistic regression model with a novel dataset on 155 groups' goal-structures, I show that a more strategic goal-structure increases the likelihood of splintering and victory, while an abstract goal-structure increases the likelihood of defeat by police or military force whilst also leading terrorist groups to join non-violent political participation.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of the lentiviral vector pGCL-GFP transferred connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) short hairpin RNA (CTGF-ShRNA) on CTGF expression, cell proliferation and collagen synthesis induced by hypoxia in rat cardiac fibroblasts (CFs).

METHODS
CTGF-ShRNA plasmids successfully constructed and screened. CFs of adult Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats isolated with the method of trypsin digestion and differential anchoring velocity which randomly divided into the control group, the hypoxia group, Hypo+pGCL-GFP group and Hypo+CTGF-ShRNA group. The mRNA and protein levels of CTGF were detected by means of semi-quantitative reverse transcriptional polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot 24 h later. Proliferation of CFs was observed by WST-1 coloricmetric assay and synthesis of collagen was observed by the hydroxyproline.

RESULTS
Successfully constructed and screened CTGF short hairpin RNA. Compared with control group, the expression of CTGF mRNA and protein levels induced by hypoxia in CFs were markedly up-regulated in Hypoxia, Hypo + pGCL-GFP and Hypo + CTGF-ShRNA group (P < 0.05). CFs proliferation and collagen synthesis in Hypoxia, Hypo+pGCL-GFP and Hypo+CTGF-ShRNA group were significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). In comparison to Hypoxia and Hypo+pGCL-GFP group, the CTGF mRNA and protein levels induced by hypoxia in CFs were markedly down-regulated in Hypo + CTGF-ShRNA group (P < 0.01). CFs proliferation and collagen synthesis in Hypo+CTGF-ShRNA group were significantly lower than that of the Hypoxia and Hypo+pGCL-GFP group (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION
CTGF mRNA and protein expression, CFs proliferation and collagen synthesis induced by hypoxia in CFs effectively inhibited by CTGF-ShRNA.


The periodic pulsations of stars teach us about their underlying physical process. We present a convolutional autoencoder-based pipeline as an automatic approach to search for out-of-distribution anomalous periodic variables within The Zwicky Transient Facility Catalog of Periodic Variable Stars (ZTF CPVS). We use an isolation forest to rank each periodic variable by its anomaly score. Our overall most anomalous events have a unique physical origin: they are mostly highly variable and irregular evolved stars. Multiwavelength data suggest that they are most likely Red Giant or Asymptotic Giant Branch stars concentrated in the Milky Way galactic disk. Furthermore, we show how the learned latent features can be used for the classification of periodic variables through a hierarchical random forest. This novel semi-supervised approach allows astronomers to identify the most anomalous events within a given physical class, significantly increasing the potential for scientific discovery.


Ionized porous media swell or shrink under changing osmotic conditions. Examples of such materials are shales, clays, hydrogels and tissues. The materials are represented as a multi-phase material consisting of a solid part and a fluid part with fixed charges embedded in the solid matrix and counter charges in the fluid. The presence of the so-called fixed charges causes an osmotic pressure difference between the material and surrounding fluid and with that prestressing of the material. The response of the material to load is dependent on the presence of the fluid, charges and cracks. Understanding the mechanisms for fracture and failure of these materials are important for the oil industry (such as hydraulic fracturing and borehole instability), material development (diapers, orthopaedic prosthesis and seals) and in medicine (intervertebral disc herniation and tissue engineering). The relation between presence of cracks and fluid flow has had little attention, but the relation between failure and osmotic conditions has had even less attention. The aim has therefore been to study with the Finite Element Method the effect of osmotic conditions on propagating discontinuities under different types of loads for osmoelastic saturated porous media. The work covers three parts. The first part is an analytical solution of a dislocation in a swelling medium, the second is the partition of unity modeling of a mode-II crack in a swelling medium and the third is the partition of unity modeling of a mode-I crack in a swelling medium. The analytical solution for a dislocation is used as a benchmark to verify the partition of unity modeling in the simplified situation of a non-propagating dislocation. The method through which fluid flow around the crack is modeled is essentially different for mode-I compared to mode-II. In mode-I, the pressure is assumed continuous in the crack area, while in mode-II the pressure is assumed discontinuous across the crack. The numerical results show that in mode-II, the crack propagation is reasonably mesh-independent. In mode-I the crack path is mesh independent, but the induced fluid flow and speed of propagation is not mesh-independent for low stiffness, low permeability cases. The reason for the mesh dependence is probably the insufficient capture of high gradients in the crack area, which require a very fine mesh around the crack. Step-wise crack propagation through the medium is seen. This is because the propagation of the crack alternates with pauses in which the crack-tip area consolidates. The consolidation results in a progressive transfer of the load from the fluid to the solid. As the load on the solid increases, the failure load is reached and the crack propagates again. This step-wise propagation is observed both for mode-II as for mode-I. Furthermore, propagation is shown to depend on the osmotic prestressing of the medium. The dependence is present for mode-II and mode-I. In mode-II the prestressing has an influence on the angle of growth. In mode-I, the prestressing is found to enhance crack propagation or protect against failure depending on the load and material properties. It is also found that osmotic prestressing in itself can propagate fractures without external mechanical load. This mechanism may be an explanation for the tears observed in intervertebral discs as degeneration progresses.


This study was conducted to evaluate traditional 'akara iwe' as prepared and eaten by the people of Uya Oron in
 Oron Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, compared with enriched 'akara iwe' prepared in the
 Home Economics Laboratory, University of Uyo, Uyo, using the blend of ground fish powder and groundnut paste.
 These products were chemically analyzed for proximate composition, minerals, vitamins, antinutrients and sensory
 evaluation. Standard microbiological technique was used to assess the microbiological quality of the product. The
 enriched 'akara iwe' had the highest value for protein [19.75%], ash [5.25%] and beta carotene [350.96mg/100g]
 than traditional 'akara iwe', with protein [5.8%], ash [1.30%] and beta carotene [239.46%]. Microorganisms
 isolated from both 'akara iwe' were Penicillum sp [7.1%], A. niger [14.3%], yeast sp [21.5%], B. subtilis [11.9%],
 S. aureus [19.0%], S. epidermidis [11.9%] and Lactobacillus [14.3%]. Other food nutrients will encourage
 improvement for growth, development in infant, children and maintenance of body for adults. It will foster supply of
 micronutrients in the body. However, care should be taken during handling, preparation and storage of the 'akara
 iwe' to prevent microorganisms and their problems to health. 'Akara iwe' should be stored and consumed within
 three days.


ABSTRACT During the papillomavirus (PV) life cycle, the L2 minor capsid protein enters the nucleus twice: in the initial phase after entry of virions into cells and in the productive phase to mediate encapsidation of the newly replicated viral genome. Therefore, we investigated the interactions of the L2 protein of bovine PV type 1 (BPV1) with the nuclear import machinery and the viral DNA. We found that BPV1 L2 bound to the karyopherin α2 (Kap α2) adapter and formed a complex with Kap α2β1 heterodimers. Previous data have shown that the positively charged termini of BPV1 L2 are required for BPV1 infection after the binding of the virions to the cell surface. We determined that these BPV1 L2 termini function as nuclear localization signals (NLSs). Both the N-terminal NLS (nNLS) and the C-terminal NLS (cNLS) interacted with Kap α2, formed a complex with Kap α2β1 heterodimers, and mediated nuclear import via a Kap α2β1 pathway. Interestingly, the cNLS was also the major DNA binding site of BPV1 L2. Consistent with the promiscuous DNA encapsidation by BPV1 pseudovirions, this DNA binding occurred without nucleotide sequence specificity. Moreover, an L2 mutant encoding a scrambled version of the cNLS, which supports production of virions, rescued the DNA binding but not the Kap α2 interaction. These data support a model in which BPV1 L2 functions as an adapter between the viral DNA via the cNLS and the Kaps via the nNLS and facilitates nuclear import of the DNA during infection.


Accounting profession is traditional profession and accounting rules and principles have been established and are the same for many years. However, globalization of business, stronger regulations and numerous technological solutions and innovations are not bypassing the accounting profession either. Challenges for the accounting profession are reflected in the need for rapid adaptation and transformation of business practice and business processes without abandoning away from basic accounting rules and principles. The aim of this paper is to analyze and systematize the key challenges that digitalization brings for the accounting profession. Research is based on the review of relevant and available professional and academic literature. The results are showing that accounting profession is faced with numerous challenges in the era of digitalization. Key challenges could be systematized in following: the use of big data in accounting and reporting, cloud computing and continuous accounting, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. The conclusion of this research is that changes in technology and digitalization will have a significant impact on the accounting profession in the coming period. Changes are moving toward reporting on a daily basis, difference on the way of preparing business and strategic plans, implementation of digital wallet and on-line accounting as well as outsourcing of accounting in distant countries. Education system is going to change in circumstances of growing digitalization of business. Also, users of accounting information in digital era are changing; they want accounting information right away when a business event occurs, not with time lag. Those changes will influence on the way accountants carry out their job, it will be necessary the knowledge of new skills especially in engineering, and, finally, that will lead to new types of the accounting professionals.


The steeping chip weighting waveforms are used in Multiple Access Interference cancellation by emphasizing the received spreading signal, therefore, that allows to solve the problem of orthogonality for the chip waveforms. The goal of this study was to elaborate a useful method based on fuzzy systems to determine the despreading sequences weighted by the steeping chip weighting waveforms for Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS/CDMA). The validity of the proposed method has been tested by numerical examples for an Additive White Gaussian Noise channels and shows that the parameter values of the chip weighting waveforms are good and the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of the system does not undergone any degradation.


Background Clinical studies have shown prematurity, birth via caesarean section (CS) and exposure to breastmilk impact the establishment of gut microbiota and immune system in early life and increase susceptibility to acute gut infections. This study aims to investigate the combined association of mode, timing of birth and breastfeeding with acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in early childhood. Method We conducted a population-based cohort study of 893,360 infants born in New South Wales, Australia, 2001–2011. Data was ascertained via record-linkage of administrative birth, hospital and death data. Follow-up was based on time between discharge at birth to first admission of AGE, sixth birthday, death or study end-date (30/06/2012). Multivariable Cox regression was used to estimate risk of AGE admission adjusted for maternal, obstetric and birth factors. Results In 2001–2011, there were 41,274 (4.6%) hospital admissions for AGE in childhood; two-thirds admitted. Conclusion Findings support the biological hypothesis of the importance of mode, timing of birth and breastfeeding in development of gut microbiota and immune system in early life. Spontaneous vaginal birth at 39+ weeks gestation with any exposure to breastmilk at birth minimises the risk of AGE hospital admission in early childhood.


Isospin singlet (pn) pairing as well as quartetting in nuclei is expected to arise near the symmetry line $N=Z$. Empirical values can be deduced from the nuclear binding energies applying special filters. Within the local density approximation, theoretical estimates for finite nuclei are obtained from results for the condensation energy of asymmetric nuclear matter. It is shown that the isospin singlet condensation energy drops down abruptly for |N-Z|~4 for medium nuclei in the region A=40. Furthermore, alpha-like quartetting and the influence of excitations are discussed.


Objectives. Endoscopic resection (ER) is commonly performed to treat gastric epithelial neoplasms and subepithelial tumors. The aim of this study was to predict the risk factors for surgery after ER-induced perforation. Methods. We retrospectively reviewed the data on patients who received gastric endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) or endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) between January 2010 and March 2015. Patients who were confirmed to have perforation were classified into surgery and nonsurgery groups. We aimed to determine the risk factors for surgery in patients who developed iatrogenic gastric perforations. Results. A total of 1183 patients underwent ER. Perforation occurred in 69 (5.8%) patients, and 9 patients (0.8%) required surgery to manage the perforation. In univariate analysis, anterior location of the lesion, a subepithelial lesion, two or more postprocedure pain killers within 24 hrs, and increased heart rate within 24 hrs after the procedure were the factors related to surgery. In logistic regression analysis, the location of the lesion at the anterior wall and using two or more postprocedure pain killers within 24 hrs were risk factors for surgery. Conclusion. Most cases of perforations after ER can be managed conservatively. When a patient requires two or more postprocedure pain killers within 24 hrs and the lesion is located on the anterior wall, early surgery should be considered instead of conservative management.


The combination of many kinds of renewable energy sources, such as solar power, wind energy with the integration of batteries and diesel generators in the system, is widely used as an alternative energy source in remote areas. Solar and wind energies are widely available in the Southeast Region of Turkey. Therefore, a province situated in the southeastern of Turkey can be autonomous and provide its needs from renewable energy resources. A study demonstrates that the electricity need of a small village located at a distance of four kilometers from Mardin is estimated at 5 kW. Supplying electricity with a Hybrid system was the main goal of this work. This system is constituted primarily by solar energy and wind energy and diesel generators when the consumption increases. The cost analysis of the hole system was done. As a first step, the setup cost of PV and wind turbine was calculated. Besides, it was compared with the cost of installing a line of the local electric network and it is concluded that the use of renewable energy sources cost less in short and long-term uses.


Information technology has changed the traditional ways of doing business to a digital and electronic way that has led to globalization. The banking industry has been forced by the wave of electronic payment system in the business environment to change from its traditional ways such as: long queues as customers waited to be served, delay in the clearing house as representatives of different banks waited to settle their dues and manual work that resulted to errors. The main purpose of the study was to determine the effect of electronic banking on the financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya. The specific objectives were to determine the extend of internet, mobile, automated teller machine and debit/credit card banking adoption and its effect on financial performance. The study covered a period of five years that is from the year 2011 to the year 2015 and adopted descriptive research design. The data collected was analyzed by the use of both descriptive and inferential statistics procedures. Primary and secondary data was collected from the 34 commercial banks that responded leading to a respond rate of 79.04% out of the 43 commercial banks. The trade analysis showed that internet banking was recognized and accepted by the Kenyan commercial banks and the Kenyans as a way of transacting. Electronic banking was found to be positive and significantly related to the financial performance of the commercial banks in Kenya. This was attributed by an R Square of 0.688 for Return On Assets, 0.63 for Net Profit and 0.277 for Return On Equity indicating that the independent variables in the study were able to give information of up to 68.8%, 63% and 27.7% respectively while the remaining 31.2%, 27% and 72.3% could not be explained in the study but could be explained using other variables outside the study. All the independent variables were (internet banking, Mobile banking, Automated Teller Machine banking and Debit/Credit banking) found to be positively and significantly related to the Return On Assets while only mobile banking and internet banking were found to be positively and significantly related to Net Profit since their p Values were less 0.05. Automated Teller Machine banking showed a positive relation that was insignificant with the Return On Equity.The study recommends that, electronic banking should be employed by commercial banks through proper management policies since it has shown improved efficiency and financial performance. For further studies, areas of crime technology, quality of banking services, electronic fund transfer and performing loans should be looked at.
This is an open-access article published and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License of United States unless otherwise stated. Access, citation and distribution of this article is allowed with full recognition of the authors and the source.


We attempt to describe what a methodology for situated action should do for students given problem solving in school settings. Working from an ecological account of perception-action, we propose that a methodology for understanding situated action should afford the instructional designer (often the classroom teacher), the methodologist, and the problem solver opportunities to co-construct coupling dynamics that operate on multiple space and time scales including "real time." With this goal in mind, we propose the use of the Jasper Planning Assistant (JPA), an online learning and assessment system that becomes part of the design-learning-research situation and serves as a scaffold for the learner. Through analysis of log-file data produced by the JPA, we illustrate that a methodology for situated action should be neither a purely quantitative nor qualitative account, but rather an inscription-an emergent visualization of the coupling dynamics between a student and his or her environment. We conclude that ideally this emergent inscription should reveal the multiple space times in which problem solving is occurring, yet be reductive in such a way as to create affordances for future action: Methodology should have functional value.


One hundred and sixty-six Staphylococcus aureus isolates from mastitic milk samples from different cows on 26 farms were investigated for staphylococcal enterotoxins(SEs) and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1(TSST-1) by polymerase chain reaction(PCR) and reverse passive latex agglutination assay(RPLA). SEs and the TSST-1 gene were detected in thirty-seven isolates based on a multiplex PCR; SEA was detected in 32 isolates, SEB in 3 isolates, SEC in 1 isolate, and SEA and the TSST-1 gene in 1 isolate. Of the 37 enterotoxigenic isolates, thirty-three isolates were enterotoxigenic according to RPLA, where 29 isolates produced SEA, 3 isolates produced SEB, and 1 isolate produced SEC. The enterotoxin-producing S. aureus isolates were further characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis(PFGE). A macrorestriction analysis revealed 11 PFGE patterns. Among the 33 enterotoxigenic S. aureus isolates, 45.4% exhibited the same PFGE pattern I. Accordingly, although the enterotoxin-producing S. aureus isolates from bovine mastitis were genetically diverse, 1 common genotype prevailed on the farms, indicating that PFGE pattern I isolates may be the most disseminated in Korea.


Background. The adaptive antiviral immune response requires interaction between CD8+ T cells, dendritic cells, and Th1 cells for controlling SARS-CoV-2 infection, but the data regarding the role of CD8+ T cells in the acute phase of COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 syndrome are still limited. Methods.. Peripheral blood samples collected from patients with acute COVID-19 (n = 71), convalescent subjects bearing serum SARS-CoV-2 N-protein-specific IgG antibodies (n = 51), and healthy volunteers with no detectable antibodies to any SARS-CoV-2 proteins (HC, n = 46) were analyzed using 10-color flow cytometry. Results. Patients with acute COVID-19 vs. HC and COVID-19 convalescents showed decreased absolute numbers of CD8+ T cells, whereas the frequency of CM and TEMRA CD8+ T cells in acute COVID-19 vs. HC was elevated. COVID-19 convalescents vs. HC had increased naïve and CM cells, whereas TEMRA cells were decreased compared to HC. Cell-surface CD57 was highly expressed by the majority of CD8+ T cells subsets during acute COVID-19, but convalescents had increased CD57 on 'naïve', CM, EM4, and pE1 2–3 months post-symptom onset. CXCR5 expression was altered in acute and convalescent COVID-19 subjects, whereas the frequencies of CXCR3+ and CCR4+ cells were decreased in both patient groups vs. HC. COVID-19 convalescents had increased CCR6-expressing CD8+ T cells. Moreover, CXCR3+CCR6- Tc1 cells were decreased in patients with acute COVID-19 and COVID-19 convalescents, whereas Tc2 and Tc17 levels were increased compared to HC. Finally, IL-27 negatively correlated with the CCR6+ cells in acute COVID-19 patients. Conclusions. We described an abnormal CD8+ T cell profile in COVID-19 convalescents, which resulted in lower frequencies of effector subsets (TEMRA and Tc1), higher senescent state (upregulated CD57 on 'naïve' and memory cells), and higher frequencies of CD8+ T cell subsets expressing lung tissue and mucosal tissue homing molecules (Tc2, Tc17, and Tc17.1). Thus, our data indicate that COVID-19 can impact the long-term CD8+ T cell immune response.


Two colleagues, a clinical nurse specialist and a chaplain, explain how they've dealt with patients who feel obligated to suffer for religious reasons.


Since just cause and other behaviors that exclude social harmfulness are not included in constitution of a crime, the distribution of burden of proof is not clear. Behaviors that exclude social harmfulness is the content of the defense of just cause in British and American double tier model and the burden of proof is clear. We cannot introduce or borrow the British and American double tier model to clearly exclude the burden of proof of behaviors which have social harmfulness for it could lead to the increase of the accused's burden of proof and therefore causes inability of proofing, the burden of proof of both the prosecuting and defending parties mixed and conflict, and no way for bearing the burden of proof for the accused.


This paper aims at exploring graduate students' research experience by investigating into their perception about different aspects of their pursuing research in a public University of Bangladesh. With response to that aim, it explains graduates' experience in six different aspects which together construct an effective research experience: a model proposed by Keith Trigwell and Harriet Dunbar-Goddet in 2005. It combines all the relevant findings from a rigorous quantitative study conducted with a sample of 101 graduates of that public university who graduated in the year of 2015 and 2016. Results ascertain that students' perspective of research experience is generally favourable and positive for four out of the six aspects. Additionally, considerable differences in perception were found with respect to different socioeconomic background of the students. Furthermore, overall student satisfaction with their experience for conducting academic research as graduates is found linked with some particular factors in juxtaposition with quality of thesis supervision, facilities and infrastructure of the university. Positive agreement on the availability of those factors significantly generates higher satisfaction with overall research experience. Therefore, the findings provide the evidences to initiate appropriate management strategies by the university administration with a view to facilitating students' research experience during graduate program. Additionally, the study introduces an effective approach evaluate research students' experience that combines both evaluation of the research facilities and scholastic actions.


Sediment samples were collected from a subarctic salt marsh on James Bay, Ontario in May 1976. Of 15 organochlorine compounds analyzed, trace amounts mainly of p,p-DDE and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were detected, but could not be quantitated.


Dense NiCuZn ferrites consisting of fine grains were prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 750°C for 3 min under a uniaxial pressure of 15 MPa. The powders were densified to >95% of theoretical density by the SPS process, and the average grain size of the prepared NiCuZn ferrite was < 1 /m. The saturation magnetization of prepared specimens (without further annealing treatment) was approximate 50.54 emu/g, which was slightly smaller than that of 52.21 emu/g for specimens prepared by conventional sintering at 980°C for 4 h. Phase identifications indicated that prepared NiCuZn ferrite existed impurity phase (Cu2O), and Cu2O would gradually transform to CuO when annealing temperature increased.


The analysis of globalization requires attention to the social and political units that are being variously undermined, restructured or facilitated by this process. Sociology has often assumed that the unit of analysis is society, in which economic, political and cultural processes are coterminous, and that this concept maps onto that of nation-state. This article argues that the nation-state is more mythical than real. This is for four reasons: first, there are more nations than states; second, several key examples of presumed nation-states are actually empires; third, there are diverse and significant polities in addition to states, including the European Union and some organized religions; fourth, polities overlap and rarely politically saturate the territory where they are located. An implication of acknowledging the wider range and overlapping nature of polities is to open greater conceptual space for the analysis of gender and ethnicity in analyses of globalization. Finally the article re-conceptualizes `polities' and `society'.


For monitoring natural landslide disaster, wireless sensing node network is so effective system. The sensing node is constructed by some sensors (acceleration, soil moisture, GPS and so on), data processing unit (micro processor) and wireless communication unit. The network topology we have constructed is mesh type. In the system, at sensing landslide, the node will transport the information to host system through the node network by using wireless communication. Generally, in natural field, the landslide is sensed as the changing of acceleration. But, it is so difficult to distinguish the landslide obviously. The acceleration of the sensing node will change by not only the landslide disaster but also collision with several hard blocks like stones. This paper describes the distinction method of landslide disaster by using only the signal of acceleration sensor mounted in the sensing node. The method focuses the time transition of frequency distribution of the acceleration signal. Observing the time transition, the situations of sensing node have been distinguished.


A hybrid approach, combining analytical sizing equations with long-term performance, for an optimal design of a stand-alone photovoltaic (PV)-battery system is proposed in this paper. This study explicitly examines the interaction of hourly variation of the load on the energy supplied from a stand-alone PV-generating source keeping the system 100% reliable, and a modification is proposed in the sizing algorithm to include the effect of loading profile. The correctness of the methodology is validated using an experiment exercise and by comparing it with other existing models. An adaptive feedback iteration technique, for fast convergence, is presented to obtain the best optimum combination for PV-battery configuration. A parametric analysis is carried out to examine the effect of load duration and charge controller low-voltage disconnect (LVD) on system sizing. A significant reduction of system requirements, i.e., up to 14%, is observed when the load is operating between 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. For a given condition, the optimum LVD of the charge controller is reported to be 11.4 V. The results of this study will serve any PV design engineer to decide the optimum system requirements and charge controller settings without compromising system reliability.


This paper presents the Part I in a two-phase research project to develop a fuzzy-linguistic expert system for quantifying and predicting the risk of occupational injury, specifically, cumulative trauma disorders of the forearm and hand. This aspect of the research focuses on the development and representation of linguistic variables to qualify risk levels. These variables are then quantified using fuzzy-set theory, thus allowing the model to evaluate qualitative and quantitative data. These linguistic risk variables may be applied to other potentially hazardous environments. The three phases of the knowledge acquisition and variable development are covered, as well as the feasibility of the linguistic variables.


Ecosystem services do not exist independently from human perceptions and recognition. They are socially, culturally, economically, and environmentally scale- and context-dependent. Socio-cultural services tend to be difficult to evaluate and invisible to policymakers and conservation practitioners. Based on six years'qualitative analysis of a floodplain fishery in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil, we bring an in-depth understanding of the socio-cultural ecosystem services in the region. We show that the inter- and intra-annual ecosystem dynamics variations in the flood pulse are closely associated with local people's governance structure, identity, and cosmological histories. All of them, to some extent, capture some of the unpredictable changes in the Pantanal. Our study uncovers part of the complex and rich social-cultural ecosystem service created from the interaction between local people and the ecosystem in which they are embedded. We also present the threats faced by these services in the face of current development projects in the Pantanal, such as the Waterway and Hydrometric Dams. We argue that the predicted outcome may jeopardize not only the social-cultural services in the Pantanal, but also the local people themselves and the environment that they are currently protecting.


This paper applied the commodity-specific gravity approach to investigate the influenced factors to China's rice export to its major trading partners after World Trade Organization (WTO) accession over 2001- 2014 period. The gravity model was augmented with factors from both exporter's and importer's sides. The empirical results revealed that, excepting distance, the remained variables including Gross Domestic Product, population, income, exchange rate, production and price had statistical significance and correlated with the total export as hypothesized. Among these variables, price and production reported as the best predictors, explaining 81.30% and 80.54% variation in China's total export, respectively. Moreover, the determinants of China's rice export highly depended on the components of exporter side than that of importer sides. This study results provide the statistical and practical significance for trade policy formulation to promote China's rice exports in world markets.


The mechanism of soil-geosynthetic interaction is usually complex and depends on the nature of the reinforcement, as well as on the characteristics of the surrounding soil. The strength parameters of the interface are the key for the design of reinforced soil slopes. Usually, these parameters are defined from laboratory pullout tests. The absence of test results implies on conservative assumptions and higher costs. The possibility of using computer programs for analyzing the load transfer mechanism arises as an attractive design tool. This paper presents the numerical simulation of pullout tests, conducted in large equipments. The numerical predictions of the load and displacement distribution along the geosynthetic length were compared to instrumented test results, available in the literature. The analyses revealed to be satisfactory and consistent with the experimental results. Thus, it becomes possible to reduce the uncertainties in the design of the anchorage length for the reinforcement by previously performing studies with computer programs that simulates stress x strain behavior of geotechnical problems.


Manuscript 1093c; Received 25 September 2003; Revised received 10 July 2004; Finally accepted 27 August 2004; © Zoo Outreach Organisation; www.zoosprint.org 1665 October 2004 The Regal Parachute Spider Poecilotheria regalis Pocock, 1899 is one of the 14 described large-bodied parachute spiders of the family Theraphosidae restricted to peninsular India and Sri Lanka, with seven described species each from the two countries. Although large in size, the group of parachute spiders is very poorly studied in the wild, but are sought after by pet traders in America and Europe. It is apparent that the community of pet traders/ hobbyists know more about these spiders than the arachnological community in the two countries. This was evident when we conducted a questionnaire survey in 1999/2000 amongst more than 250 biologists and arachnologists in India and Sri Lanka. Only four of the respondents had actually seen such a spider in the wild, while most respondents had not even heard of such spiders! To understand the distribution, taxonomy and basic knowledge on this group of spiders in India, a project was initiated in 2000, whereby information on distribution, natural history, habitat, threats and folklore on Indian theraphosids was gathered by the Wildlife Information & Liaison Development (WILD) Society and Zoo Outreach Organisation (ZOO) along with a group of collaborators.


Mutation of a cytochrome P450 (CYP) gene on the short arm of chromosome five, referred to as nsf1 or ben1, conditions sensitivity to certain P450-metabolized herbicides in corn (Zea mays L.). Previous research has shown that the sweet corn inbred Cr1 is sensitive to nicosulfuron, mesotrione, and at least seven other P450-metabolized herbicides with five different modes of action. Although the nsf1/ben1 CYP gene has not been sequenced from Cr1, a QTL that conditions cross-sensitivity to P450-metabolized herbicides was detected in a segregating population of Cr1 x Cr2 (herbicide tolerant) on the short arm chromosome five in tight linkage disequilibrium with the nsf1/ben1 CYP locus. Sweet corn hybrid cultivars and inbreds that had been identified in previous research as being susceptible to injury from P450-metabolized herbicides were tested in this study to determine if they were allelic with Cr1 for cross-sensitivity to nicosulfuron and mesotrione. These cultivars and inbreds were developed by 12 independent commercial breeding programs. These cultivars include sugary, sugary enhancer, and shrunken-2 endosperm types that are grown for processing and fresh consumption in markets throughout North America and in other temperate climates throughout the world. Each hybrid cultivar, their F2 progeny, and progeny from testcrosses of cultivars with Cr1 and Cr2 were evaluated for responses to mesotrione and nicosulfuron. Each inbred line, progeny from crosses of inbreds with Cr1 and Cr2, and F2 progeny from crosses of inbreds with Cr1 were also tested. Based on segregation of progeny from testcrosses with Cr1 and Cr2 and the F2 generation, 45 sweet corn hybrid cultivars and 29 sweet corn inbreds, including lines from each of the 12 breeding programs, appeared to be sensitive to nicosulfuron and mesotrione as the result of a gene that is the same as or very closely linked to the gene in Cr1. None of the cultivars or inbreds appeared to be sensitive to these herbicides as a result of other independent genes; however, additional genes that modify responses to these herbicides may be present in a few cases. The presence of a gene conditioning sensitivity to nicosulfuron and mesotrione, and probably to several other P450-metablolized herbicides, provides an explanation for varied levels of injury and inconsistent responses of sweet corn hybrid cultivars under differing environmental conditions. This information provides a basis from which an industry-wide concern with herbicide sensitivity in sweet corn can be addressed by various methods, including the elimination of an allele rendering germplasm sensitive.


Sperm preparation techniques in assisted reproduction technologies (ART) are potential generators of exogenous stresses that cause additional DNA damage. DNA fragmentation tests, such as the sperm chromatin structure assay, involve freezing sperm samples in the absence of cryoprotectant. Thermal, oxidative stress (OS) and freezing are detrimental to sperm DNA fragmentation and phosphatidylserine (PS) translocation. The primary aim of this study was to subject mature sperm to environmental insults that normally occur during ART. We tested the hypotheses that OS, thermal stress and freeze‐thawing caused sperm nuclear and membrane damage and that a positive correlation exists between PS translocation and DNA fragmentation. Sperm DNA integrity deteriorates in semen samples from men with advancing age and a sperm concentration of <15 m ml−1. The significant increase in sperm DNA fragmentation at 37 °C after merely 1 h is important clinically as semen liquefaction and short‐term sperm storage in an ART cycle involve incubating samples at this temperature. Freezing without a cryoprotectant significantly increases the level of sperm nuclear damage, so it is important not to freeze neat semen prior to DNA fragmentation testing. This study highlights the importance of minimising the production of exogenous stresses during sperm preparation in ART.


This paper deals with parameter estimation for stochastic volatility models. We consider a two-dimensional diffusion process (Y-t, V-t). Only (Y-t) is observed at n discrete times with a regular sampling interval. The unobserved coordinate (V-t) rules the diffusion coefficient (volatility) of (Y-t) and is an ergodic diffusion depending on unknown parameters. We build estimators of the parameters present in the stationary distribution of (V-t), based on appropriate functions of the observations. Consistency is proved under the asymptotic framework that the sampling interval tends to 0, while the number of observations and the length of the observation time tend to infinity. Asymptotic normality is obtained under an additional condition on the rate of convergence of the sampling interval. Examples of models from finance are treated, and numerical simulation results are given.


Callogenesis and somatic embryogenesis (SE) are influenced by several factors including climate and phenology. To assess such an influence, the percentage of callogenesis and SE variations depending on five climatic and two phenological parameters was measured for 2 years. Staminodes and petals from six hybrids and two clones ascontrols were cultured in bulk, onto three distinct calli induction media only differing in hormonal concentrations.From the results, it emerged that sole leaves flush does not vary from year to year. Maximal temperature and flowering level are the most stably linked. Non-linear regression provides the best R2-values of fitted curves. This shows that the link among climate, phenology, callogenesis and SE is not linear. In the first year, in control clones,climatic and phenological parameters explain 52.80% callogenesis variations, against 31.50% for SE. Therefore,climate and phenology significantly influence callogenesis, but not SE. For further industrial production of secondary metabolites such as butter, the obromin and chocolate aroma from calli, it would be desirable also to identify the favourable periods for calli production. Nevertheless, somatic embryos will continue to be produce all the year irrespective of period. Key Words: Cote d'Ivoire, petals, staminodes


The coalescence of compact objects is one of the most promising sources, as well as the source of the first detections, of gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors, such as advanced LIGO and Virgo. Generically, compact objects in binaries are expected to be spinning with spin angular momenta misaligned with the orbital angular momentum, causing the orbital plane to precess. This precession adds rich structure to the gravitational waves, introducing such complexity that an analytic closed-form description has been unavailable until now. We here construct the first closed-form frequency-domain gravitational waveforms that are valid for generic spin-precessing quasicircular compact binary inspirals. We first construct time-domain gravitational waves by solving the post-Newtonian precession equations of motion with radiation reaction through multiple scale analysis. We then Fourier transform these time-domain waveforms with the method of shifted uniform asymptotics to obtain closed-form expressions for frequency-domain waveforms. We study the accuracy of these analytic, frequency-domain waveforms relative to waveforms obtained by numerically evolving the post-Newtonian equations of motion and find that they are suitable for unbiased parameter estimation for 99.2%(94.6%) of the binary configurations we studied at a signal-to-noise ratio of 10(25). These new frequency-domain waveforms could be used for detection and parameter estimation studies due to their accuracy and low computational cost.


Innate lymphoid cells (ILC) not only are responsible for shaping the innate immune response but also actively modulate T cell responses. However, the molecular processes regulating ILC-T cell interaction are not yet completely understood. The protein butyrophilin 2a2 (Btn2a2), a co-stimulatory molecule first identified on antigen-presenting cells, has a pivotal role in the maintenance of T cell homeostasis, but the main effector cell and the respective ligands remain elusive. We analyzed the role of Btn2a2 in the ILC-T cell cross talk. We found that the expression of Btn2a2 is upregulated in ILC2 following stimulation with IL-33/IL-25/TSLP. In vitro and in vivo experiments indicated that lack of Btn2a2 expression on ILC2 resulted in elevated T cell responses. We observed an enhanced proliferation of T cells as well as increased secretion of the type 2 cytokines IL-4/IL-5/IL-13 following cocultures with Btn2a2-deficient ILC2. In vivo transfer experiments confirmed the regulatory role of Btn2a2 on ILC2 as Btn2a2-deficient ILC2 induced stronger T cell responses and prevented chronic helminth infections. Taken together, we identified Btn2a2 as a significant player in the regulation of ILC2–T cell interactions.


BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS
the use of endoscopic ultrasound-guided biliary drainage (EUS-BD) has increased in cases of failed endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and there are some concerns. The main aim of the study was to determine the role of EUS-BD in a palliative case cohort. The secondary aim was to compare the efficacy, safety and survival of EUS-BD and ERCP procedures.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
this was an observational study at a single tertiary institution, with a consecutive inclusion from January 2015 to December 2016. The inclusion criteria were unresectable tumors of the biliopancreatic region with an indication of BD. Statistical comparison analysis was performed between the ERCP and EUS-BD groups. The incidence between groups was compared using the Chi-square and Fisher exact tests. The log rank test was used to compare the risk of death.

RESULTS
fifty-two cases with an indication of palliative BD were included in the study. Transpapillary drainage via ERCP was possible in 44 procedures and EUS-BD was required in eight cases; 15.4% of the cohort and seven using lumen apposing metal stent (LAMS). The technical and clinical success of global endoscopic BD was 100% and 88.5% (ERCP: 84.6% and 78.9%; EUS-BD: 100% and 62.5%, respectively). Pancreatitis was the most frequent adverse event (AE) in the ERCP group (9.62%) and bleeding in the EUS-BD (25%). There were fatal AEs in ERCP (1.9%) and EUS-BD (25%) cases. Patient survival was higher with ERCP transpapillary stents compared to EUS-guided stents, which was statistically significant (p = 0.007).

CONCLUSIONS
the requirement of EUS-BD in palliative biliopancreatic pathology is not marginal. EUS-BD is associated with a lower survival rate and a higher rate of fatal AE, which argues against its use as a first choice procedure.


In this study we explored whether differences in sound quality existed between new advanced Bone Anchored Hearing Aids (BAHA). Three groups of subjects were tested. Two groups, those with normal hearing and those with sufficient residual cochlear hearing, were tested with Oticon's Ponto Pro to Cochlear's BP100. The third group had either mixed hearing loss or single-sided deafness and they compared the more powerful devices (Oticon's Ponto Pro Power and Cochlear's BP110). Some differences emerged within the normal hearing listeners and the power user's. However, no significant differences in sound quality were revealed in the non-power users of the Ponto Pro and BP100. These limited results most likely reflect a lack of power in the data due to the limited number of subjects per group. Continued data collection is warranted.


This study adopts case studies using open-ended questionnaires, pupils' notes, teachers' journals, science fair projects, photos, videos, and other materials in order to explore the use of argumentation in promoting students' elaboration of their science projects. The participants in this study are seven sixth-grade pupils from four different classes, comprising five girls and two boys. The results reveal that the use of argumentation in the elaboration process not only helps the students to examine the validity of science projects but also guides them to reflect on the consistency of the projects' objective, experimental design, results, and conclusion. It was also found that rebuttals are not evident in scientific projects, and though the data claim that warrants are key elements of the elaboration process in a science fair, their meanings are not easily understood by primary-school students. Teachers are required to continuously explain the importance of argumentation. In addition, formulating conclusions based on empirical data is difficult for students. On the other hand, collecting and refining data as evidence to support or disprove a given temporary conclusion are less complicated tasks for the students.


This paper proposes a fast, in situ demagnetization method for protection current transformers (CTs). Simulations show that the method can automatically demagnetize a CT within 300 ms in situ, i.e., while the CT is deenergized but still connected to the substation. Therefore, unlike existing methods that require the CT to be disconnected from the substation, this new method can be used to demagnetize a CT during a short interruption, e.g., the time it takes an autorecloser to operate, rather than requiring an extended outage of the substation. This will dramatically increase the number of opportunities for the demagnetization of protection CTs, which will alleviate the threat of remanent flux in the CT from causing saturation and compromising the performance of power system protection. Furthermore, by demagnetizing the CT in situ, the method avoids the risk of the improper reconnection of the CT, creating a source of hidden failure. The new method uses the existing dc voltage source in the substation to charge the CT and a parallel-connected inductor. An automatic control scheme is presented that manages the charge/discharge of the inductor, and thereby the demagnetization, by controlling three switches that reconfigure an RLC circuit. The additional hardware required by the method is the three switches, the switch controller, and the RLC circuit. The new method is tested for different hysteresis characteristics, levels of remanent flux, and errors in the assumed element parameters and measured hysteresis characteristics using EMTP-RV simulations. The results indicate that the proposed method can quickly and effectively demagnetize a protection CT in situ.


Drainage basins are for the most part ungauged or poorly gauged not only in Serbia but in most parts of the world, usually due to insufficient funds, but also the decommission of river gauges in upland catchments to focus on downstream areas which are more populated. Design discharges are needed for these rivers where no streamflow data are available, for various applications. Examples include river training works for flood protection measures or erosion control, design of culverts, water supply facilities, small hydropower plants, etc. This study deals with the application of freely available and open source software and datasets for automating rainfall–runoff analysis of ungauged basins, applying geographical information systems techniques and programming to methodologies currently in use in hydrological practice. The geomorphometric module was tested on more than 100 catchments throughout Serbia (using a digital terrain model) and compared to manually calculated values (using topographic maps). The discharge estimation module was tested on 21 catchments where data were available and compared to results obtained by frequency analysis of measured discharges. The geomorphometric module of the calculation system showed excellent results, saving a great deal of time that would otherwise have been spent on manual processing of geospatial data, while the discharge estimation module showed a need for improved hydrological models.


Load-resonant inverters drive their loads at the load's resonant frequency. The frequency control unit of this type of inverter may be implemented simply by using phase-locked loop-based tuning circuits. However, a problem is detected that may arise randomly in this type of frequency control scheme. When this problem occurs, the inverter's frequency jumps to a value unrelated to the load-resonant frequency and sticks there. Following the analysis of the underlying cause of the problem, it is understood that the problem is caused by the two-valued characteristic of a phase frequency detector. A correction circuit is presented in this paper. When the proposed correction circuit was incorporated into the existing tuning circuitry, the problem was eliminated in the experiments. This shows not only that the correction circuit works well but also that the mechanism of the malfunction was diagnosed accurately.


Online media is something that humans must adjust to live with, because it is related to their own lives as well to other people. The world society as a whole is involved in it no matter in which situation the society is in, online media is not in a standstill, but it is constantly changing. Buddhism has principles and guidelines for living in an online society. It must be based on understanding and respect for oneself and others. It is based on the principle of cause and effect which creates creative intelligence and leads to good actions for themselves and others.


This project focused on forecasting freight logistics needs and developing and analyzing capacity plans for INDOT to consider. The forecast timeframe ranges from the 2020 to 2045; the commodities considered are those used in the FHWA framework. We considered five SSP (Shared Socio-Economic Pathways) scenarios that are in sync with those used by the IPCC (International Protocol for Climate Change). We also use the IPCC forecasts of world GDP and FHWA forecasts to develop county-level freight forecasts by commodity. A survey of industry participants, primarily in manufacturing, suggests that Indiana industries are tied to the rest of the country and the world for supply of inputs as well as for demand markets. Finally, we focus on three different industries—the recreational vehicle (RV) industry in Elkhart County, the furniture industry in Dubois County, and the Honda plant in Decatur County—to illustrate the impact of bill of materials and growth forecasts on forecasted congestion and potential capacity mitigation. Our results suggest that proactive capacity planning can enable INDOT to anticipate and ease congestion and ensure continued economic competitiveness for Indiana industries.


This master thesis analyzes the effects of smallholder participation in contract farming on profits and adoption of new farming techniques in a tropical African context. We use a unique panel data set collected by the Danish Institute for International Studies to identify the effects of continued scheme participation for a group of smallholder coffee farmers relative to a control group of non-scheme farmers. Our results show that participation in the contract farming scheme between 2005 and 2008 has no statistically significant effect on profits from coffee production. However, project farmers respond to scheme trainings by applying more "good agricultural practices" in coffee production. Examiner: Chloé Le Coq Discussants: Sebastian Krakowski and Eric Ramstedt Date of presentation: 13 of January 2014


Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), a neuropeptide present in the peptidergic innervation of lymphoid organs and expressed in thymocytes and peripheral lymphocytes has been previously reported to modulate cytokine expression in T lymphocytes. In this study, we investigated the effects of VIP and of the structurally related neuropeptide PACAP-38 on the expression of IL-10 in murine lymphocyte cultures. Both neuropeptides inhibit IL-10 production by spleen cells or thymocytes activated via the TCR-associated CD3 complex in a similar dose-response manner. The inhibition is specific, presumably mediated through the VIP-R1, and maximum inhibitory levels are achieved within the first 5 to 15 min of exposure to VIP or PACAP-38. CD4+ T cells function as direct cellular targets for the two neuropeptides. The fact that VIP, PACAP-38, and forskolin, all known cAMP inducers, also inhibit IL-10 production, suggests the participation of cAMP in signal transduction. VIP and PACAP-38 regulate transcriptional expression of IL-10, since IL-10 steady state mRNA levels are significantly reduced by treatment with the two neuropeptides. These results expand the range of neuroendocrine-regulated cytokines and support the idea that neuropeptides such as VIP and PACAP, which are released or produced in the local lymphoid microenvironment and specifically modulate the expression of various cytokines, may participate in the intricate cytokine network controlling local immune responses.


The femoral head is supplied by the medial femoral circumflex artery and the obturator artery, and the supply is chiefly characterized by the prolonged intra-articular course of the vessels, partly in folds of the synovial membrane and partly in the ligamentum teres. The vessel branches to the head are comprised of parallel arteries and veins. Trochanteric fractures course lateral to the medial circumflex vessel, as distinguished from the fractures of the true neck, all of which are medial to this vessel. In the former type of fracture, therefore, this vessel with all its branches remains on the central fragment, while in neck fractures its branches must bridge the fracture in remnants of the synovial membrane.

[See figure in the PDF file]

The method described for the performance of intra-osseous phlebography of the femoral head in neck fractures makes it possible to study the residual vascularity of the head fragment in different types of fractures. The types of venograms in neck fractures are positive in which the circumflex and ligamentum teres veins are filled with contrast material, and negative, in which no venous filling occurs. The negative venogram indicates avascularity but a good position of the cannula is required to show this.

Non-displaced fractures differ from displaced fractures mainly in that in the former the remaining circumflex vascularization is considerably better. There are fewer cases of this type of vascularization among patients with displaced fractures and in these the circumflex vascularization is usually limited to the inferior retinacular vessels. In these displaced fractures there is instead a ligamentum teres type of vascularization to a large extent, especially in older patients.

Forty-three patients with displaced neck fractures examined venographically were followed. There were twelve negative venograms which all showed early signs of necrosis. There were thirty-one patients with positive venograms of whom ten eventually showed manifestation of necrosis but a different type than the necrosis found after negative venograms. The method herein described makes possible the early definitive diagnosis of avascularity in at least half of the patients in whom it will later occur.


Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is severe and often times rapidly progressive disease with fatal outcome. The concept of initial combination of PAH-specific therapies in high risk patients at baseline was first described in the European guidelines on pulmonary hypertension (PH) in 2009, and in low or intermediate risk patients at baseline in 2015. Interestingly, that in Cologne Experts Consensus, and then in the 6th World Symposium on PH medical community started considering initial combination therapy as one of the most important pillars in PAH treatment algorithms in 2018. As of August 2020, as many as 8 formulations of 7 reference PAH-specific drugs are licensed for medical use in the Russian Federation. On top of that, 6 abbreviated drugs (generics) have also become available few years ago. Unfortunately, intravenous and subcutaneous prostacyclin analogs (PCA) and tadalafil are not approved for PH patients treatment in the Russian Federation. In this narrative review paper we attempted to describe studies on initial dual combination therapy with PAH-specific drugs registered in Russia, i.e. ambrisentan and riociguat, macitentan and riociguat, macitentan and sildenafil in low or intermediate risk patients at baseline, as well as iloprost inhaled and sildenafil, iloprost inhaled and bosentan in high risk patients. Some beneficial pharmacological effects due to the synergy between ambrisentan plus riociguat, and inhaled iloprost plus sildenafil appear to be interesting and require further clinical confirmation. Other initial combinations of PAH-specific agents require large-scale clinical trials as well.


Characteristic mechanical qualities and possibly occurring complications are discussed in this paper. Noninvasive x-ray diagnostic with chest radiographex, fluoroscopy and 70mm camera makes possible an exact identification of any prosthetic valve. If there is any clinical suspicion, negative x-ray findings will not exclude malfunction of the prosthesis. Invasive diagnostic proceeding is necessary in such cases.


The patient was a 15-year-old adolescent male who was referred to a physical therapist for a chief complaint of worsening right medial foot pain. Given the worsening nature of the patient's right medial foot pain, palpatory findings, and a prior recommendation for computed tomography from a radiologist, the patient was referred to his physician. Subsequent computed tomography imaging of the right foot revealed a nondisplaced fracture through the dorsal-medial aspect of the navicular.