Aviation is among those industries that were most heavily impacted and disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The impacts were most severe in passenger traffic where the amount of seats offered dropped by 50% during 2020 causing airline revenue loss of 371bn USD. Air-traffic cuts exceeded 90% in some areas. Covid-19 pandemic had many indirect impacts on air travel services, including how staff training is carried out. Although the pandemic has had massive negative influences in different areas of life, it has opened doors to new innovations and developments as well. A giant leap forward has taken place in online education, which this study focuses on from the specific viewpoint of air travel service providers. Attempts to contain the spread of Covid-19 lead to school closures and by the beginning of April 2020 the pandemic had impacted over 90% of the world's total enrolled learners. Similarly 188 country-wide school closures took place globally. This led to boost in online education – possibly the greatest growth of all time was seen.
In aviation sector the impacts are evident as well, mostly reflected by the ways how staff training is delivered at airports. Organizations in air traffic chain had to adapt to the changed operational landscape, new health and safety risks and learn to comply with new regulations. Staff skills and competences were in the middle of this. This case study examines these developments in international air transport context during 2020 and 2021. We will look at various examples in aviation industry organizations related to staff training, focusing specifically on how training practices have changed due to Covid-19. From the basis of these findings and experiences, the paper attempts to draw a future scenario of digital transformation of training in the industry. Case studies are based on courses developed and provided by Airport College (AC) which is a private online training academy serving the global aviation sector with digitally enhanced training solutions.


A series of polymers containing1,2,4-triazole and tetrazole groups in their main chains were synthesized through several steps. Poly(acryloyl hydrazide) was first prepared and then subjected to a hydrazide reaction with phenyl isothiocyanate to give a 1,2,4-triazole ring (2). This polymer was introduced into a reaction with chloro acetylchloride to yield polymer (3), which was refluxed with sodium azide to give polymer (4). Polymer (5) was synthesized by the reaction of polymer (4) with acrylonitrile in the presence of NH4Cl as a catalyst. Finally, polymer (6) was synthesized by the electrochemical polymerization of polymer (5) using 316L stainless steel as an anti-corrosion coating. Polymer-coated and uncoated stainless steel was tested for corrosion safety in a solution of 0.1 M HCl, followed by Tafel and Potentiostatic procedures at a temperature of 293 K. Nano materials such as ZnO were applied to the monomer solution at different concentrations to enhance the corrosion resistance of the 316L stainless steel surface. The results showed that the performance values of corrosion protection for the polymer coating were increased with the introduction of the nano materials. Furthermore, 13C-NMR, 1HNMR, and FTIR were recorded to confirm the structures of the poylmers, while their physical properties were tested using atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM).


We have measured with positron emission tomography (PET) the regional distribution of extravascular lung water (EVLW) and hematocrit (HctL) in normal supine dogs. H2(15)O and C15O were used as total lung water (TLW) and intravascular water (IVW) compartment labels, respectively. An additional plasma volume label (68Ga-transferrin) was used to determine regional HctL. EVLW was calculated as the difference between TLW and IVW. In 13 dogs, EVLW was relatively constant along a gravity-dependent vertical gradient, although values in the most anterior regions were statistically less (P less than 0.05) than those in more posterior ones. The average value for EVLW (13 dogs) was 14.4 +/- 2.5 ml H2O/100 ml lung. When EVLW was compared with IVW on a regional basis, the EVLW/IVW ratio decreased significantly in a gravity-dependent direction from 1.95 +/- 0.28 to 0.88 +/- 0.18. In 7 dogs, no significant difference between HctL and systemic hematocrit (average ratio 1.01 +/- 0.08) was found nor was any significant variation of HctL within the lung detected. Thus, in contrast to gravimetric techniques, a hematocrit correction does not appear to be necessary when regional EVLW is studied by PET.


A numerical method is presented that models the coupled flow of heat, water, and solutes as unsaturated soil freezes. Input requires a general knowledge of the physical properties of the soil as well as the initial water, temperature, and solute distributions. Soil surface temperature or the heat flux across the soil surface drives the model. The method reproduces the observations of temperature and water movement in two nonsaline field studies previously reported in the literature. The analysis shows that increasing solutes can decrease frost heaving by reducing water flow to the ice lens. A method for measuring the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity in frozen soil is proposed.


The U.S. presidential election is over; the inauguration has come and gone. Now come the challenges of governing. President Obama, his leadership team, and the 111th Congress face daunting problems. Among the most stubborn in the United States are those related to providing a world-class education to all children, updating the knowledge and skills of their parents, and preparing all to face the threats and opportunities of the 21st century. The science community must take advantage of growing public dissatisfaction with the current education system and ask how science teaching and learning can be transformed. In short, scientists must mount the next campaign.


The Missouri River Basin is the largest single river basin in the United States, and, as such, it plays an important role in natural ecosystems as well as the country's economy, through agriculture, hydroelectric power generation, and transportation. Episodes of heavy precipitation can have a substantial negative impact on all these aspects of the basin, so understanding how well these episodes are simulated and projected to change in the future climate is important. We analyzed contemporary and projected mid-century behavior of heavy-precipitation episodes using an object-oriented analysis to diagnose short-term (≥5-day) and extended-period (≥30-day) events with substantial precipitation, using PRISM gridded, observed precipitation and RegCM4 regional-climate simulations that used outputs from two different GCMs for boundary conditions. The simulations were produced for the North American portion of the CORDEX program. A 25 km grid was used for the simulations and for aggregated PRISM precipitation. Overall, the simulated contemporary-climate events compared favorably with the PRISM events' frequency and duration. The simulated event areas tended to be larger than the areas in the PRISM events, suggesting that the effective resolution of the simulations is greater than 25 km. Event areas and durations change little going from contemporary to scenario climate. The short-term events increase in frequency by an amount commensurate with the increase in mean precipitation simulated for the basis. However, the extended-term events showed little change in frequency, despite the average precipitation increase. Roughly half the extended-period events overlapped with at least one short-term event in both the observations and the simulations. Extended-period events that overlap a short-term event generally have larger areas and longer durations compared to their counterparts with no overlapping short-term events. Understanding the climate dynamics yielding the two types of extended-period events could be useful for assessing future changes in the Missouri River Basin's heavy precipitation events and their impact.


Purpose

– Placement-based learning is claimed to benefit educational outcomes in undergraduate programmes, with students gaining employability skills and the application of skill-sets in "real world" situations. Most courses incorporate experiential learning; however, work placements remain exclusive to the aims of the academic programme. The purpose of this paper is to explore the changing learning motivations between students enroled on: a practical-based programme, involving work placement (BA adventure education (Ad Ed)); and a study-based programme (BSc sport and exercise science (SES)). In addition, motivation was examined between courses at each year.

Design/methodology/approach

– A 44 item Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire was completed by first and final year undergraduates studying BA Ad Ed and BSc SES courses in the academic year 2011/2012. Questionnaires were triangulated with focus groups, lecturer observations and statistical analyses.

Findings

– Learning motivation was influenced by: knowledge of academic grades; link between theoretical content and work experience; opportunity for reflection; and multidisciplinary nature of degree programmes. Furthermore, the majority of final year Ad Ed students showed understanding of the job market, degree transferability and career availability upon graduation.

Originality/value

– Where placement experience prepares British undergraduate learners for employment and provides insight into career demand, placements may also demotivate, particularly where careers do not necessitate degree qualification.


Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common form of primary vasculitis and it mainly involves large to medium sized vessels. It is also referred to as temporal arteritis as it primarily affects the temporal artery. Ocular involvement frequently occurs in GCA; if not promptly diagnosed, it can cause devastating ocular complications including complete vision loss and permanent blindness. In the majority of cases, it is unilateral; however, there are rare instances where bilateral ocular involvement is reported. In our report, we present the case of a patient presenting with bilateral sudden vision loss associated with GCA.


In the Philippines, as the population passes 100 million, issues of food security, clean energy access and natural resource use have come into sharper focus, as well as the growing threats from climate change. New and innovative agricultural systems are required to satisfy these critical challenges. For the past 20 years, the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Project in Mindanao has been developing solutions to some of these issues. Its conservation agriculture with trees (CAT) system has helped stabilize and build up soils, conserve water, and prevent landslides in the uplands, while increasing food productivity. However, the clean energy component, which is vital for both greenhouse gas mitigation and food security, has been missing. This paper describes the integration of bioenergy into the CAT system. It draws upon cutting edge bioenergy models in the Philippines and internationally to highlight the potential for an integrated food–energy system using agroforestry, livestock, and bioenergy. It outlines the feasibility and merits of such an approach in the upland farms of the Southern Philippines.


We have applied our approach for microseismic imaging to the data obtained from the German Continental Deep Drilling program (KTB project). This is a continuous data stream containing induced microseismicity data recorded at a single 3C geophone located at approximately 3.5 km depth. Using P and S time picks we have located 58 microseismic events using data from the borehole geophone and from near-surface stations. Since microearthquakes occur not at the same time, we have managed to separate continuous data stream recorded at the receiver to the number of 3C traces containing waveforms from different events. Using these traces we have produced seismic gather for the microseismicity cloud. We apply our approach to the produced seismic gather and construct 3D images of the seismic data between Pand Sdirect waves. There are two focused reflectors revealed within the microseismicity cloud which belong to SE2 reflector. In order to check consistency of the obtained results, we compare our results with seismic attributes obtained from the surface seismic 3D depth migrated image. Obtained result is consistent with seismic attributes by the location and dip, furthermore it provides with more detailed image of the fault zone fine structure.


Control of beam focus position is important in the regime choice of electron beam welding (EBW). It is known that the methods of electron beam focus control in electron beam welding are done according to the parameters of secondary current signal collected in plasma. The purpose of the study is to develop a method for operational control of the electron beam focusing during welding in the deep penetration mode. The method uses an additional informational parameter of collected current signal in beam/work-piece plasma. This parameter can be used for creating the operational control methods for exact electron beam focusing during the process of welding. In addition, uses of this parameter allow a better study of the keyhole processes.


Background and Aim: Foundations and mechanisms of auditory scene analysis (ASA) including segregation and integration were especially reviewed in the study. I focused on the related studies using event - related potentials ( ERPs). Recent Findings: P ublications on ASA using ERPs from 1971 to 2014 indicate neural mechanisms of ASA in central auditory system. Conclusion: ASA results in recognition of different sound stimuli in the competing sound environment. The neural mechanis ms of this process could be studied comprehensively using ERPs with good temporal resolution.


Growing carbon nanotubes (CNT) on the surface of high performance carbon fibers (CF) offers a means to tailor the mechanical properties of the fiber-matrix interface of a composite. In the context of this work, a floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (CVD) unit was utilized to grow CNT onto the surface of CF. The surface and mechanical properties of the resultant fibers, CNT density and alignment morphology were explained to depend on the CNT growth temperature, growth time, and atmospheric conditions within the CVD chamber. Single fiber/Epoxy composite coupons were fabricated by using both neat and CNT-coated CF to conduct single fiber fragmentation test (SFFT). It was observed that the coating of CNT onto CF surface improves the IFSS between CF and matrix when compared with neat-CF. Particularly, CF treatment condition for CNT-coating with 700 °C reaction temperature and 30 minutes reaction time has shown a considerable increase in IFSS approximately of 45% over that of the untreated fiber from which it was processed. The fiber-matrix adhesion was analyzed by using SEM on cryogenically fractured surface of both types of composites. The proper justification of fiber-matrix adhesion featured by composite interfacial properties was explained through IFSS.


Abstract A method for detecting cirrus clouds in terms of brightness temperature differences between narrowbands at 8, 11, and 12 µm has been proposed by Ackerman et al. In this method, the variation of emissivity with wavelength for different surface targets was not taken into consideration. Based on state-of-the-art laboratory measurements of reflectance spectra of terrestrial materials by Salisbury and D'Aria, it is found that the brightness temperature differences between the 8- and 11-µm bands for soils, rocks and minerals, and dry vegetation can vary between approximately −8 and +8 K due solely to surface emissivity variations. The large brightness temperature differences are sufficient to cause false detection of cirrus clouds from remote sensing data acquired over certain surface targets using the 8-11-12-µm method directly. It is suggested that the 8-11-12-µm method should be improved to include the surface emissivity effects. In addition, it is recommended that in the future the variation of sur...


Objective: Gait deficit after multiple sclerosis (MS) can be characterized by altered muscle activation patterns. There is preliminary evidence of improved walking with a lower limb exoskeleton in persons with MS. However, the effects of exoskeleton-assisted walking on neuromuscular modifications are relatively unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the muscle synergies, their activation patterns and the differences in neural strategies during walking with (EXO) and without (No-EXO) an exoskeleton. Methods: Ten subjects with MS performed walking during EXO and No-EXO conditions. Electromyography signals from seven leg muscles were recorded. Muscle synergies and the activation profiles were extracted using non-negative matrix factorization. Results: The stance phase duration was significantly shorter during EXO compared to the No-EXO condition (p<0.05). Moreover, typically 3-5 modules were extracted in each condition. The module-1 (comprising Vastus Medialis and Rectus Femoris muscles), module-2 (comprising Soleus and Medial Gastrocnemius muscles), module-3 (Tibialis Anterior muscle) and module-4 (comprising Biceps Femoris and Semitendinosus muscles) were comparable between conditions. During EXO condition, Semitendinosus and Vastus Medialis emerged in module-5 in 7/10 subjects. Compared to No-EXO, average activation amplitude was significantly reduced corresponding to module-2 during the stance phase and module-3 during the swing phase during EXO. Conclusion: Exoskeleton-assistance does not alter the existing synergy modules, but could induce a new module to emerge, and alters the control of these modules, i.e., modifies the neural commands indicated by the reduced amplitude of the activation profiles. Significance: The work provides insights on the potential underlying mechanism of improving gait functions after exoskeleton-assisted locomotor training.


Effects of wind velocity and slope on fire spread rate and flame length were examined. Fuel beds of vertical sticks (13.97 cm x 0.455 cm x 0.1 10 cm) and coarse excelsior were burned in an open-topped tilting wind tunnel. Mean fuel moisture content of sticks and excelsior was 11% and 12%, respectively. Mean surface area to volume ratio was 23 cm-! Five slopes (negative, positive, none) were combined with five wind velocities (heading, backing, none). Spread rate was measured with thermocouples; flame length was estimated from video imagery. Mean spread rate ranged from 0.001 to 0.06 m/s. Spread rate of downslope heading fires exceeded spread rate of no-wind/no-slope fires. Mean flame length ranged from 0.08 to 1.69 m; 0.25 m was the maximum observed for most backing fires. Increased fuel moisture reduced spread rate and flame length. Data indicate that the current formulation of an empirical wildland fire spread model is inappropriate.


Both the cellular- and population-level properties of involved neurons are essential for unveiling the learning and memory functions of the brain. To give equal attention to these two aspects, neural sensors based on microelectrode arrays (MEAs) have been in the limelight due to their noninvasive detection and regulation capabilities. Here, we fabricated a neural sensor using carboxylated graphene/3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene:polystyrenesulfonate (cGO/PEDOT:PSS), which is effective in sensing and monitoring neuronal electrophysiological activity in vitro for a long time. The cGO/PEDOT:PSS-modified microelectrodes exhibited a lower electrochemical impedance (7.26 ± 0.29 kΩ), higher charge storage capacity (7.53 ± 0.34 mC/cm2), and improved charge injection (3.11 ± 0.25 mC/cm2). In addition, their performance was maintained after 2 to 4 weeks of long-term cell culture and 50,000 stimulation pulses. During neural network training, the sensors were able to induce learning function in hippocampal neurons through precise electrical stimulation and simultaneously detect changes in neural activity at multiple levels. At the cellular level, not only were three kinds of transient responses to electrical stimulation sensed, but electrical stimulation was also found to affect inhibitory neurons more than excitatory neurons. As for the population level, changes in connectivity and firing synchrony were identified. The cGO/PEDOT:PSS-based neural sensor offers an excellent tool in brain function development and neurological disease treatment.


Background

 Eucommia ulmoides flavones (EUF), have been demonstrated to attenuate the inflammation and oxidative stress of piglets. This study was designed to test whether EUF could be as an antibiotic alternative to support growth performance and maintain intestinal health in weanling-piglets. Weaned-piglets (n = 480) were assigned into 3 groups and fed with a low-protein basal diet (NC), or supplementation with antibiotics (PC) or 0.1‰ EUF (EUF). Blood, intestinal contents and intestine were collected on d-15 and d-35, respectively.
Results

The results showed that the body weight on d-35, average daily gain and gain : feed from d 15 to d 35 and d 0 to d 35 in piglets of PC and EUF treatments were higher than (p < 0.05) these in NC treatment, whereas PC and EUF treatments decreased (p < 0.05) the diarrhea index of weanling piglets. Dietary supplementation of EUF significantly enhanced (p < 0.05) the serum concentrations of total protein, alanine transaminase and the immunoglobulin G on d-15 of piglets compared to piglets in NC treatment. EUF supplementation increased (p < 0.05) the jejunal and ileal villus height and the population of ileal lactic acid bacteria on d-15 but remarkable decreased (p < 0.05) the population of ileal coliform bacteria on d-15 and d-35.
Conclusion

These findings indicated the antibiotic alternative capacity of EUF in piglets exhibiting by improving growth performance and intestinal morphology, decreasing colonization of coliform bacteria and diarrhea index in weanling piglets.


The P+QA- and P+QB- charge recombination decay kinetics were studied in reaction centers from Rhodopseudomonas viridis reconstituted in phosphatidylcholine bilayer vesicles (proteoliposomes) and in chromatophores. P represents the primary electron donor, a dimer of bacteriochlorophyll; QA and QB are the primary and secondary stable quinone electron acceptors, respectively. In agreement with recent findings for reaction centers isolated in detergent [Sebban, P., & Wraight, C.A. (1989) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 974, 54-65] the P+QA- decay kinetics were biphasic (kfast and kslow). Arrhenius plots of the kinetics were linear, in agreement with the hypothesis of a thermally activated process (probably via P+I-; I is the first electron acceptor, a bacteriopheophytin) for the P+QA- charge recombination. Similar activation free energies (delta G) for this process were found in chromatophores and in proteoliposomes. Significant pH dependences of kfast and kslow were observed in chromtophores and in proteoliposomes. In the pH range 5.5-11, the pH titration curves of kfast and kslow were interpreted in terms of the existence of three protonable groups, situated between I- and QA-, which modulate the free energy difference between P+I- and P+QA-. In proteoliposomes, a marked effect of o-phenanthroline was observed on two of the three pKs, shifting one of them by more than 2 pH units. On the basis of recent structural data, we suggest a possible interpretation for this effect, which is much smaller in Rhodobacter sphaeroides. The decay kinetics of P+QB- were also biphasic. Marked pH dependences of the rate constants and of the relative proportions of both phases were also detected for these decays. The major conclusion of this work comes from the biphasicity of the P+QB- decay kinetics. We had suggested previously that biphasicity of the P+QA- charge recombination in Rps. viridis comes from nonequilibrium between protonation states of the reaction centers due to comparable rates of the protonation events and charge recombination. This hypothesis does not hold since the P+QB- decays occur on a time scale (tau approximately 300 ms at pH 8) much longer than protonation events. This leads to the conclusion that kfast and kslow (for both P+QA- and P+QB-) are related to conformational states of the reaction centers, existing before the flash. In addition, the fast and slow decays of P+QB- are related to those measured for P+QA-, via the calculations of the QA-QB in equilibrium QAQB- apparent equilibrium constants, K2.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Objectives To explore the stability of exposure to work stressors over time and to examine the impact of different approaches of estimating exposure on the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk estimation. Methods The Maastricht Cohort Study-Work Stressor Score (MCS-WSS) was used to assess work stressors at three consecutive time points among 6154 employees participating in the MCS. Incident CVD was assessed with questionnaires. Five approaches were used to estimate exposure as: e.g. single exposure assessment, cumulative exposure above a cutoff point, total exposure and average exposure. The association between work stressors and CVD was stepwise adjusted for age, gender, educational level, smoking, body mass index, hypertension, leisure physical activity and negative affectivity. Results The correlation between the work stressor scores assessed at the first and third time point was 0.58. Employees with a stable exposure above the highest quartile had a fully adjusted HR of 1.58 (95% CI: 0.93–2.72). Employees with the highest quartile total exposure had a fully adjusted HR of 1.22 (95% CI: 0.77–1.95) as compared to employees with the lowest quartile dose. Employees in the upper quartile of the average MCS-WSS had a fully adjusted HR of 1.26 (95% CI: 0.79–2.01) as compared to employees in the lowest quartile of the MCS-WSS. Employees with a single exposure assessment had a fully adjusted HR of 0.91 (95% CI: 0.62–1.33). Conclusions Employees with a stable exposure above the highest quartile score during a minimum of two years have the highest relative CVD risk.


Introduction Up to a quarter of all children globally live in single-parent households. Studies have concluded that children who grow up with continuously married parents have better health outcomes than children who grow up with single or separated parents. This is consistent for key health and development outcomes including physical health, psychological well-being and educational attainment. Possible explanations include higher poverty and time limitations of parental engagement within single-parent families, but these only represent a narrow range of mechanisms. We aim to identify and synthesise the evidence on how being born into and/or living in a single-parent household compared with living in a two-parent household as a child impacts health and development outcomes, healthcare use and factors that may be driving differences. Methods and analysis We will search PubMed, Scopus and ERIC and adapt our search terms for search engines and grey literature sites to include relevant conference abstracts and grey literature. We will restrict results to English language publications from 2000 to 2020 and screen against inclusion criteria. We will categorise main outcomes into five groups of outcomes: birth outcomes, mortality, physical health, mental health and development, and healthcare use. We will use the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale to assess the methodological quality of studies. Narrative synthesis will form the primary analysis in the review. Synthesis of effect estimates without meta-analysis will follow the Synthesis Without Meta-analysis guidelines. Ethics and dissemination All documents used are publicly accessible. We will submit results to a peer-reviewed journal and international social science conferences. We will communicate results with single-parent groups and relevant charitable organisations. This review will also be included in IL's PhD thesis. PROSPERO registration number CRD42020197890.


PURPOSE
To determine variability in measurements of Doppler blood flow parameters in central retinal artery in relation to sample volume location from the optic disc.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
Eighty central retinal arteries were examined using color Doppler ultrasonography in 40 healthy volunteers (22 female, 18 male), aged 45 +/- 9 with 7.5 MHz linear-array probe. The measurements of blood velocities and resistance indices in the arteries were obtained at points where distance from optic disc surface ranged from 1.5 mm to 6 mm.

RESULTS
Blood velocities increased significantly when sampled closer to the globe (r = -0.61, and r = -0.32 for peak-systolic and end-diastolic velocities, respectively). Mean peak-systolic velocities were 13.0 +/- 2.7 cm/s when distance 2.1 +/- 0.46 mm from optic disc, and 9.3 +/- 2.5 cm/s when distance 4.27 +/- 0.9 mm. Mean end-diastolic velocities were 4.3 +/- 1.2 cm/s and 3.6 +/- 1.1 cm/s, respectively. Resistance indices inclined to increase when the distance between the measurement site and the globe shortened. Resistance indices were 0.67 +/- 0.06 when measured closer to the globe and 0.60 +/- 0.06 when measured farther from it.

CONCLUSION
Position of sample volume in relation to optic disc has to be taken into account and defined if measurements of blood flow Doppler parameters of the central retinal artery are to be reproducible.


With rapid large online systems growth, the system deadlocks problem is becoming of major importance. Sharing on increasingly sophisticated set of services and resources among an increasing number of terminal users leads to an increase in the chance for deadlock occurrence.


The heat-sink interfacial reaction of Sn-90Pb, Sn-95Pb, Sn-37Pb solders are contrast with the Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder in vacuum soldering and reflow soldering in this paper, to find the matching solder combination. Results show that, Sn-90Pb, Sn-95Pb solders are not the good choices for Al2O3/MoCu in vacuum soldering. Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu and Sn-37Pb solders can be used in the vacuum soldering, and Sn-37Pb solder is the best choice as the leaded solders for space use.


Since the implementation of 'autism' as a diagnosable condition in the 1980s, the medical model has continued to dominate how we understand autism. More recently, there has been a rise in understanding autism through the neurodiversity model and the lived experiences of autistic people themselves. However, there is often misalignment between the medical model and the preferences of the autistic community. In particular, there are misalignments around the language we use in society to discuss autism and autistic people. Language misalignments are particularly important, with language playing an important role in conveying understandings of a group within society. This article highlights these nomenclature misalignments, focussing on (1) Asperger syndrome, (2) functioning labels, (3) severity assumptions, (4) the language of disorder and (5) identity-first compared to person-first language. The article discusses the difficulties that might present in healthcare settings as a result of these misalignments.


The paper deals with the increasing use of electricity as a source of power for operation of services in large transport aircraft. It outlines the advantages which are obtained from the use of medium-frequency a-c electricity and stresses the saving in weight which is obtainable from raising the present voltage (30 volts direct current) to around 200. Some suggestions are made in regard to form and layout for postwar installations in the case of both land airplanes and flying boats of the larger sizes.


Distributed generations (DGs) have significant benefits in the electric power industry, such as a reduction in CO2 and NOX emissions in electricity generation, improvement of voltage profile in distribution feeders, amending voltage stability in heavy load levels, enhancement of reliability and power quality, as well as securing the power market. Despite the numerous advantages of DG technologies, weak capability in dispatching and management of DGs is a major challenge for distribution system operators. Hence, during recent years, several studies about various aspects of control, operation, placement, and sizing of DGs have been conducted. This paper presents a novel application of multiobjective particle swarm optimization with the aim of determining the optimal DGs places, sizes, and their generated power contract price. In the proposed multiobjective optimization, not only are the operational aspects, such as improving voltage profile and stability, power-loss reduction, and reliability enhancement taken into account, but also an economic analysis is performed based on the distribution company's and DG owner's viewpoints. The simulation study is performed on the IEEE 33-bus distribution test system and the consequent discussions prove the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


Abstract Based on original data collected through an online experiment, evidence is provided in this paper that the interpretation of null subjects in a radical pro-drop language like Chinese relies on the topic criterion proposed for consistent and partial pro-drop languages (Frascarelli 2007 and Frascarelli 2018), thereby supporting the theory that the null subject parameter implies an information-structural strategy for interpretation. Nevertheless, radical Chinese shows specificities that must be integrated in this theory for a comprehensive account. In particular, even though silent topic can start chains (consistent with the topic criterion), data show a significant preference for overt and local topics as antecedents. This locality requirement thus integrates phonological visibility in a general syntactic condition (minimal overt link condition), proposing an interesting parallel with the properties shown by partial pro-drop languages (Frascarelli and Jimenez-Fernandez in press). The present investigation also contributes to outline the structural differences existing between adverbial clauses in Chinese, supporting a distinction between central and peripheral adverbial clauses (Haegeman 2012). Specifically, while temporal and conditional clauses show the properties of nonrestrictive relative clauses, this is not the case for concessive clauses, which merged as subordinate clauses in either the C-domain or the high split-TP area. Differences between temporal and conditional clauses are attributed to the presence of an overt operator in the latter, and the pre-matrix position of adverbial clauses is explained in the light of their discourse role as frame-setters (Krifka 2007).


Information on the spatial distribution and essential habitat requirements of fishes is important for developing management plans that balance resource extraction and conservation needs in marine environments. Spatially explicit modelling approaches provide the capacity to make predictions about where a particular species could be found based on existing seascape information. When compared to landscape applications, however, marine researchers have little guidance when choosing between competing methods because few comparative studies exist. This study compares six modelling methods for five commonly observed demersal fish species. We used presence-only data to fit models, and independent presence-pseudo-absence data to evaluate predictions. Species distribution data were based upon observations from towed underwater video footage. Thirteen seafloor-related variables were derived from multibeam sonar to define seafloor characteristics for model input. Bioclimatic envelope model (BIOCLIM; DIVA-GIS), DOMAIN (DIVA-GIS) and four habitat suitability algorithms (Median, Distance geometric mean, Distance harmonic mean and Minimum distance; Biomapper 4.06) were used for each species to build distribution models. Models were developed using 75/25% split of training and validation data. Area-Under-Curve (AUC) validation tests were used to assess predictive performance. Validation statistics for the test data found that across all species Median Distance, BIOCLIM, Harmonic and Geometric Mean models yielded the lowest predictive capabilities, although all differ from a purely random prediction (i.e. greater than 50%). The Minimum Distance and DOMAIN algorithms produced significantly better prediction performance, with Minimum Distance yielding highest predictive capabilities for four out of the five species investigated.


In 1983, Nei et al. reported that alcoholic chronic hepatitis (ACH)(chronic hepatitis induced tal area. Recently, the number of alcoholics patients diagnosed with ACH has been increased In this review, we discussed the characteristics of liver histopathology and blood chemistry of ACH patients. In ACH, pericellular fibrosis, ballooned hepatocytes and/or bridging fibrosis, and infiltration of mononuclear lymphocytes is decreased after 6 to 8 weeks of abstinence from results suggest that ACH could be one type of alcoholic liver disease. The precise mechanism by alcohol) as one type of alcoholic liver disease. Since then, it has been discussed whether alcohol abuse, suggesting that alcohol may play a role in the infiltration of mononuclear lym ACH is one type of alcoholic liver disease, because there could be infection of unknown hepatitis virus in alcoholics and it is not clear why mononuclear lymphocytes infiltrate into the porphocytes in portal region. After abstinence of alcohol, serum levels of AST, ALT, and γ-GTP in patients with ACH returned to normal as in other types of alcoholic liver disease such as alcoholic fatty liver, alcoholic fibrosis, alcoholic hepatitis and alcoholic liver cirrhosis. These results suggest that ACH could be one type of alcoholic liver disease. The precise mechanism of the infiltration of mononuclear lymphocytes into portal areas of ACH patients is not known. We propose that the reason for the infiltration of natural killer (T) cells into portal areas could be due to the influx of endotoxin into portal vein resulting from the increased permeability of gut induced by alcohol.


In recent years the term "precise forestry" has been used more and more often, referring to a modern and sustainable model of forest management. Functioning of such management of wood biomass resources is based, among others, on precisely defined and log-term monitored selected forest taxation parameters of single trees and whole forest stands based on modern geoinformation technologies, including Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) and digital photogrammetry. The purpose of the work was the analysis of the usefulness of the CHM (Canopy Height Model) generated from the image-based point cloud or ALS technology to define the number of trees using the method of the segmentation of single Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) crowns. The study was carried out in the Scots pine stands located in the Bory Tucholskie National Park (Poland). Due to the intentional lack of certain silviculture treatments, over the recent decades, these forest stands have been characterized by relatively high tree density, compared to managed forests. The CHM was generated from digital airborne photos (CIR composition; GSD 0.15 m) and on the other hand from the ALS point clouds (4 points/m; ISOK project). To generate point clouds from airborne photos using stereomatching method, the PhotoScan Professional (Agisoft) software was applied. The CHM coming from the Image-Based Point Cloud (CHM_IPC; GSD: 0.30 m) and ALS data (CHM_ALS; GSD: 0.75 m) were generated using FUSION (USDA Forest Service) software. The segmentation of tree crowns was carried out in eCognition Developer (TRIMBLE GeoSpatial) software. Apart from height models, also spectral information was used (so-called true CIR orthophotomaps; GSD: 0.3 and 0.75 m). To assess the accuracy of the obtained results, the ground truth data from 248 reference areas were used. The carried out analyses showed that in forest stands of younger age classes (< 120 years) better results were achieved applying the method of image matching (CHM_IPC), while in the case of older stands (> 120 years) the accuracy of the detection rate of tree crowns was the highest when CHM_ALS model was applied. The mean percentage error (defined by the number of trees, based on the detection of single pine crowns), calculated based on 248 ground truth areas was 0.89%, which shows a great potential of digital photogrammetry (IPC) and GEOBIA. In case of almost full nationwide cover in Poland of airborne digital images (present IPC models) and ALS point clouds


In the process of oocyte maturation, gonadotrophins are believed as main stimulators for oocyte meiosis resumption. However, which gonadotrophin (i.e. FSH or LH) is the key hormone in this process is still unknown. This study indicated a close relationship between LH and FSH on activating meiotic maturation of oocyte in vitro. FSH efficiently induced oocyte meiosis at concentration of 50 IU/L, while LH alone had no effect on oocyte meiotic initiation. Using RT-PCR and in situ hybridization, a tight corelationship between FSH-stimulated oocyte meiotic resumption and LHR mRNA expression in cumulus cells was found. LHR mRNA was present in cumulus cells of oocyte-cumulus cell complexes. Except the expression of LHRs was present in cumulus cells surrounding all maturing oocytes, low level expression was also detected in cells associated with oocytes that were still at GV stage. Its expression was enhanced by FSH stimulation before oocyte maturation. However, LHRs did not express in cumulus cells associated with oocytes that were completely arrested at GV stage by IBMX. Furthermore, increased progesterone concentration was found in the medium in which CEOs were cultured with FSH and LH, but not in those with FSH or LH alone. LHR expression in cumulus cells increases with time in culture, and the levels of expression are enhanced in the presence of FSH. Oocyte meiotic resumption may create conditions favorable for LHR expression. LHR expression may be considered as a potential marker for oocytes maturation initiation.


SUMMARY
NPR1 (for Nonexpressor of PR genes; also known as NIM1) is a positive regulator of systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in Arabidopsis, which controls the induction of Pathogenesis-Related (PR) genes by salicylic acid (SA). NPR1 interacts with members of two protein families, TGA transcription factors and NIMIN (for NIM1-interacting) proteins. In Arabidopsis, NIMIN1, NIMIN2 and NIMIN3 constitute a small gene family of structurally related, yet distinct members. To unravel the biological significance of NIMIN interaction with NPR1, we searched a tobacco yeast two-hybrid cDNA library for NPR1- and NIMIN2-binding proteins. One NPR1 cDNA clone and three clones encoding NIMIN proteins were isolated. Although clearly similar to At NPR1, Nt NPR1 does not interact with At NIMIN3. Furthermore, all Nt NIMIN proteins identified are structurally related to At NIMIN2, thus forming a small NIMIN2 subfamily in tobacco. cDNA clones encoding At NIMIN1 or At NIMIN3 homologues were not identified. The function of NIMIN2 proteins was studied by expression of Nt NIMIN2a chimeric genes in tobacco. While constitutive NIMIN2a over-expression delayed PR-1 protein induction, suppression of NIMIN2 transcripts enhanced the accumulation of PR-1 proteins. In both cases, the effects of altered NIMIN2 transcript levels became evident foremost early in SAR. Notably, Nt NIMIN2 gene expression is elevated prior to the induction of the PR-1a gene. Together, the data suggest that, in tobacco, NIMIN2 proteins control PR-1 gene expression, and that NIMIN2-mediated control is exerted through transient PR-1 repression before SAR has fully developed. Furthermore, although sharing conserved domains and functions, tobacco and Arabidopsis NPR1 and NIMIN proteins are clearly distinct.


The present article is part of a qualitative sociological study with Swedish young women labelled with an intellectual impairment. The aim is to present an exemplification of the social construction of the body, by focusing on how the body is constructed by critical looks. I focus on the experiences of critical looks by analysing the power dimensions (dis)ability, gender, and age. In the article how the body is made visible by being stared at, both to oneself and to others depending on place and interactions, is central, as are what emotions and strategies of resistance staring causes, and the categorical aspects of staring is analysed. To illustrate this complex process of intersections, I add the concept of an ableist environment. Being stared at is part of the young women's everyday life. The critical looks the informants describe may be understood as being different in character: mocking, judgemental, limiting, and desirable.


RNA modifications have been historically considered as fine-tuning chemo-structural features of infrastructural RNAs, such as rRNAs, tRNAs, and snoRNAs. This view has changed dramatically in recent years, to a large extent as a result of systematic efforts to map and quantify various RNA modifications in a transcriptome-wide manner, revealing that RNA modifications are reversible, dynamically regulated, far more widespread than originally thought, and involved in major biological processes, including cell differentiation, sex determination, and stress responses. Here we summarize the state of knowledge and provide a catalog of RNA modifications and their links to neurological disorders, cancers, and other diseases. With the advent of direct RNA-sequencing technologies, we expect that this catalog will help prioritize those RNA modifications for transcriptome-wide maps.


Background

Confronting with the outbreak of COVID-19, this cross-sectional study aimed to assess the differences of psychological status of temporomandibular disorders patients, orthodontic patients and the general population in China during the epidemic.

Methods

An online anonymous questionnaire was developed in Chinese, including the individual background information, the perception of the epidemic, and level of anxiety and depression through Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). The respondents were divided into Control group, ORTHO group and TMD group. Descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression modelling were performed.

Results

1241 valid questionnaires in total were collected, with 587 orthodontic patients and 220 TMD patients. The mean score of K10 was 18.65. When compared with the general population, TMD patients displayed statistically higher level of anxiety and depression (P<0.05), whereas orthodontic patients not (P>0.05). Multiple linear regression model also showed that age, gender, some concerns about the impact of epidemic were correlated with psychological status.

Conclusions

The overall mental health was severely worsened by the COVID-19 epidemic. TMD patients had higher level of psychological distress than orthodontic patients and the general population. Factors such as younger age, female, concerning about the isolation and psychological barriers and distrust were amongst the associations with a high level of psychological distress. Mental health care should be paid to patients when hospitals and clinics re-open after the COVID-19 epidemic, especially to patients with these relevant characteristics.


: The objective was to evaluate the effects of high-pressure processing (HPP) levels on retail color of dark-cutting beef. Eight USDA Choice (mean pH = 5.5; normal-pH beef) and 12 dark-cutting (mean pH = 6.3) strip loins were obtained from a commercial packing plant within 2 d of harvest. Dark-cutting loins were cut into equal sections, vacuum packaged, and randomly assigned to 0 (no HPP), 300, 450, and 600 MPa of pressure for 90 s using chilled water. Following 48 h of dark storage at 2°C, dark-cutting loin sections were cut into 1.9-cm-thick steaks, placed in Styrofoam trays overwrapped in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film, and placed in a simulated retail display for 8 d. The surface color readings were measured every 24 h using a HunterLab MiniScan XE Plus spectrophotometer, whereas a trained color panel ( n = 6) evaluated discoloration, paleness, and lean color on steaks. Lipid oxidation was evaluated on day 0, 4, and 8 of retail display, and structural changes were determined using light microscopy on day 0 of display. There was a significant HPP level × day of retail display interaction for all instrumental color measurements. Throughout the retail display, L * values of 450 and 600 MPa applied steaks were greater ( P < 0.05) than 300 MPa and controls. There was a significant pressure level × day of retail display interaction when panelists evaluated lean color and discoloration. Steaks treated at 300 MPa exhibited brighter red color and lower ( P = 0.0023) thiobarbituric acid reactive substance values than other pressure levels and normal-pH control steaks. Light microscopy analysis indicated that HPP increased space between muscle structures. In conclusion, low (300 MPa) and moderate (450 MPa) pressure levels can improve redness of dark-cutting steaks.


Quasar absorption lines have long been recognised to be a sensitive probe of the abundances, physical conditions, and kinematics of gas in a wide variety of environments including low-density intergalactic regions that probably cannot be studied by any other means. While some pre-Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations indicated that Mg II absorption lines arise in gaseous galactic halos with a large covering factor, many early QSO absorber studies were hampered by a lack of information about the context of the absorbers and their connections with galaxies. By providing access to crucial ultraviolet resonance lines at low redshifts, deployment of HST and the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer enabled detailed studies of the relationships between QSO absorbers and galaxies. The advent of large surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has also advanced the topic by greatly improving the size of absorber and galaxy samples. This paper briefly reviews some observational results on absorber-galaxy connections that have been obtained in the HST/SDSS era, including Mg II absorbers, the low$-z$ Ly$\alpha$ forest, Lyman limit and damped Ly$\alpha$ absorbers, and O VI systems.


SETTING
A novel patient-centered tuberculosis (TB) treatment delivery program, 'Sputnik', was introduced for patients at high risk of treatment default in Tomsk City, Russian Federation.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the effects of the Sputnik intervention on patient default rates.

DESIGN
We analyzed the characteristics of patients referred to the program, treatment adherence of Sputnik program enrollees before and during the intervention, and final outcomes for all patients referred to the Sputnik program.

RESULTS
For patients continuing their existing regimens after referral to the program (n = 46), mean adherence to treatment increased by 56% (from 52% of prescribed doses prior to enrolment to 81%). For patients initiating new regimens after referral ( n = 5), mean adherence was 83%. Mean adherence for patients with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB; n = 38) was 79% and for all others (n = 13) it was 89%. The cure rate was 71.1% for patients with MDR-TB, 60% for all others and 68% in the program overall.

CONCLUSION
The Sputnik intervention was successful in reducing rates of treatment default among patients at high risk for non-adherence.


We investigated whether polymorphisms in reduced folate carrier (SLC19A1 G80A) and gamma-glutamyl-hydrolase (GGH-401C/T) are predictive of methotrexate polyglutamate (MTXPG) levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with weekly low-dose methotrexate (MTX). Adult patients treated with MTX were enrolled in a multicentred study. Blood was drawn at the time of the visit, DNA was extracted and red blood cell (RBC) MTXPG levels (up to the penta-order of glutamation) were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorometry. A G80A polymorphism in SLC19A1 and a -401C/T promoter polymorphism in GGH were measured by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Multivariate linear and logistic regressions were used to predict long-chain RBC MTXPG3-5. In 226 adult patients receiving MTX (median 15 mg range: 5-25 mg) median RBC long-chain MTXPG3-5 was 56 nmol/l (range < 5-224 nmol/l). A total of 35 patients carried the SLC19A1 80AA genotype whereas 36 patients carried the GGH-401TT genotype. Weekly MTX dose, age, presence of the SLC19A1 80AA and GGH-401TT genotypes predicted independently and significantly MTXPG3-5 levels (global r = 0.38; P < 0.0001). Patients with the GGH-401TT genotype were 4.8-fold [odds ratio (OR) 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.8-13.0; P = 0.002] more likely to have MTXPG3-5 below the group median compared to patient carriers of the GGH-401CC or CT genotype. Conversely, those with the SLC19A1 80AA genotype were 3.4-fold more likely to have MTXPG3-5 levels above the group median compared to those with the SLC19A1 80GG or 80GA genotype (OR CI 95% 1.4-8.4; P = 0.007). These data demonstrate that polymorphisms in SLC19A1 and GGH affect polyglutamation of MTX.


Connect from secondary to higher vocational school is a new historical proposition of the development vocational education, which is a necessary requirement of the development of vocational education. The basic function of vocational education is to train technical skilled personnel, the purpose of training the different level of technical skilled personnel by secondary and higher vocational school is to serve social development. At present, the education of the secondary and higher vocational education cannot comply with the vocational education growing regulation in China. Development integration programs of the training skilled personnel through secondary to higher vocational school, resulting in a lack of hierarchy in training objectives, different caliber in professional setting, cannot achieve the continuity of the course, order and integration and result in the practical difficulties on convergence. Secondary and higher vocational education are two levels of education, Have relative independence and differences in personnel training goals and specifications and professional quality and comprehensive professional quality. Connect from secondary to higher vocational school must achieve progressive convergence on goals, level, professional and curriculum structure. Reasonable convergence of the course is the core issue. Course convergence not only follows the law from the prosecution to complex but also avoids content duplication, waste of resources. So setting reasonable course goals, course content, professional ability, appropriate teaching methods and evaluation system is important to reach convergence in the true sense. In this paper, body and comfort systems service vocational courses as an example to tell the study and practice of the curriculum Standards. International Forum on Management, Education and Information Technology Application (IFMEITA 2016)


Objective: New incretin-mimetics increased the treatment options for type 2 diabetes mellitus. Studies on the safety of incretin-based therapy showed a risk of hypersensitivity reactions, acute pancreatitis, renal failure, infection, thyroid and pancreas cancer. We contributed to safety assessment of these new drugs by evaluating the spontaneous adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reporting in Italy. Research and methods: Reports of suspected ADRs associated with incretin-mimetics were selected from the Italian Spontaneous ADR Reporting Database. For a subgroup of cases belonging to the Hospital of Cento (Ferrara), levels of pancreatic enzymes, amylase and lipase, before and after the therapy with the incretin-mimetics were available. Results: As of December 2012, the reports of ADR associated with hypoglycemic drugs (excluding insulin) were 2443, 1169 (47.85%) concerned the incretin-mimetics. A total of 90 reports described pancreatitis (44) and elevated pancreatic enzymes (46). Out of 90 cases, 34 were serious (37%). Data on amylase/lipase values for 10 patients were provided and an analysis of the published literature was performed. Conclusions: Our data from the daily clinical practice add up and confirm the information available on the association between incretin-mimetics and pancreatic damage and suggest caution in the prescribing of these new drugs and a close monitoring of exposed patients.


This paper deals with initiation and propagation processes of streamer discharges in water subjected to high-speed repetitive voltage pulse. The 50%-duty repetitive pulses were produced by the reciprocal traveling wave in a pulse forming cable which was connected with a point-plane electrode gap in a water-cell. Laue plot of time lag distributions for the streamer initiation indicated that the initiation probability during the second pulse application became much higher than that during the first pulse application. We concluded that the change in space charges distribution due to internal field during the rest-time after the first pulse enhanced the streamer initiation probability at the second pulse application. Temporal development in the positive streamers during the repetitive pulse application was observed using a gated image intensifies. When the pulse was relatively high, the streamer discharges started the propagation at the first pulse and then the discharge channel became long step by step at the subsequent pulse applications. It was also found that the periodical emission due to excitation of OH radicals was detected for a long period after the development of the streamer discharge in a spectroscopic measurement


Recent work demonstrates a bias in the GPT-3 model towards generating violent text completions when prompted about Muslims, compared with Christians and Hindus. Two pre-registered replication attempts, one exact and one approximate, found only the weakest bias in the more recent Instruct Series version of GPT-3, fine-tuned to eliminate biased and toxic outputs. Few violent completions were observed. Additional pre-registered experiments, however, showed that using common names associated with the religions in prompts yields a highly significant increase in violent completions, also revealing a stronger second-order bias against Muslims. Names of Muslim celebrities from non-violent domains resulted in relatively fewer violent completions, suggesting that access to individualized information can steer the model away from using stereotypes. Nonetheless, content analysis revealed religion-specific violent themes containing highly offensive ideas regardless of prompt format. Our results show the need for additional debiasing of large language models to address higher-order schemas and associations.


Abstract East Timor has been on the international community's agenda since 1975, and the events of 1999 have attracted worldwide attention to the island's fate. This article examines some of the legal issues which are relevant for the application of international humanitarian law to the conflict over East Timor. In particular, the author examines the international status of East Timor during the Indonesian occupation and after, with the arrival of the multinational military force and the administration set up by the United Nations. The status of those civilians who took refuge in West Timor from the explosion of violence, as well as the rights of Timorese detained by the provisional administration, are also extensively discussed. The author regrets that many legal issues have not been settled in a satisfactory manner by the various players involved in the international response to the drama, although clear answers may be found in international humanitarian law applicable to the situation prevailing in East Timor.


Recently, there has been enormous development due to advancements in technology. Industries and enterprises are moving towards a digital system, and the oil and gas industries are no exception. There are several threats and risks in digital systems, which are controlled through cyber-security. For the first time in the theory of fuzzy sets, this research analyzes the relationships between cyber-security and cyber-crimes in the oil and gas sectors. The novel concepts of complex intuitionistic fuzzy relations (CIFRs) are introduced. Moreover, the types of CIFRs are defined and their properties are discussed. In addition, an application is presented that uses the Hasse diagram to make a decision regarding the most suitable cyber-security techniques to implement in an industry. Furthermore, the omnipotence of the proposed methods is explained by a comparative study.


A multicompartment ventilation model has been presented for the calculation of airborne radioactive material concentrations internal to structures. The model was used to estimate the potential effectiveness of sheltering in reducing the dose due to inhaled radionuclides. The sensitivity of the model to parameter values and protection strategies was discussed. Using ''best estimate'' values for the model parameters, this analysis indicated that sheltered individuals received a reduction of 35 percent in the dose from inhaled radionuclides. Larger reductions would be possible if lower values of the ventilation rate n, could be achieved by either tighter building construction or emergency sealing of openings in the structure. Such emergency means could include taping windows, placing wet paper over cracks, etc. Further analysis indicated that the strategy of opening doors and windows, turning on ventilating systems, etc., in an attempt to ''air-out'' the structure after the cloud of radioactive material had passed will most likely not contribute significantly to reduction in dose due to inhaled radionuclides unless very low initial ventilation rates are achieved. Although the available data did not allow quantitative predictions of dose reductions afforded by basements or other appropriately sealed-off rooms, preliminary analysis indicated qualitatively that they could be significant.


BackgroundMotor Neurone Disease (MND) is a progressive, fatal neurological condition that leads to complex and variable difficulties for people living with MND (plwMND) and their families. Health and Social Care providers in the UK had to rapidly change the way they work and deliver care during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the experience and impact on plwMND and their families during this time is currently unknown. This study aims to explore the experiences for plwMND and their families and disseminate early findings to inform care delivery.MethodA simple mixed method design using an online data collection tool, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and purposive snowball sampling were employed following ethical approval in August 2021 (SHFEC2021–086) to allow plwMND and their families to express their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive statistical analysis of quantitative data and reflexive thematic analysis of narratives using NVIVO illustrates key early themes.ResultsTwenty plwMND and 14 family carers have participated so far, giving rich accounts of their experiences during the pandemic. The challenges encountered by plwMND and families during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK are explored. The main problems described occurred in the first and/or second wave, but some issues are described as ongoing. Communication needs assessment and virtual appointments are key themes. Family members also mentioned respiratory care, comfort care and financial issues. Family members who experienced bereavement during the pandemic described the support received as 'poor' or 'very poor' and only one family member so far was positive about the end-of-life care. Both groups mentioned lack of in-person care and isolation. Views on virtual appointments with clinicians are mixed.ConclusionMND care in the UK has been impacted negatively by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dissemination of these early findings aims to inform future care delivery during ongoing and subsequent waves.FundingA small grant from the Burdett Trust for Nursing.


The huge success of Run 1 of the LHC would not have been possible without detailed detector simulation of the experiments. The outstanding performance of the accelerator with a delivered integrated luminosity of 25 fb−1 has created an unprecedented demand for large simulated event samples. This has stretched the possibilities of the experiments due to the constraint of their computing infrastructure and available resources. Modern, concurrent computing techniques optimised for new processor hardware are being exploited to boost future computing resources, but even the most optimistic scenarios predict that additional action needs to be taken to guarantee sufficient Monte Carlo production statistics for high quality physics results during Run 2. In recent years, the ATLAS collaboration has put dedicated effort in the development of a new Integrated Simulation Framework (ISF) that allows running full and fast simulation approaches in parallel and even within one event. We present the main concepts of the ISF, which allows a fine-tuned detector simulation targeted at specific physics cases with a decrease in CPU time per event by orders of magnitude. Additionally, we will discuss the implications of a customised simulation in terms of validity and accuracy and will present new concepts in digitization and reconstruction to achieve a fast Monte Carlo chain with a per event execution time of a few seconds.


Kindler syndrome (KS) was first described by Theresa Kindler in 1954, and since then > 60 pathogenic variants have been identified in the FERMT1 gene for KS. Most FERMT1 variants associated with KS are null variants. We present the case of a child with poikilodermic changes on the forehead and cheeks, who was found to have a homozygous c.1676G>A mutation. To our knowledge, this is the first report of this mutation in a family with KS.


We present a novel language representation model enhanced by knowledge called ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through kNowledge IntEgration). Inspired by the masking strategy of BERT, ERNIE is designed to learn language representation enhanced by knowledge masking strategies, which includes entity-level masking and phrase-level masking. Entity-level strategy masks entities which are usually composed of multiple words.Phrase-level strategy masks the whole phrase which is composed of several words standing together as a conceptual unit.Experimental results show that ERNIE outperforms other baseline methods, achieving new state-of-the-art results on five Chinese natural language processing tasks including natural language inference, semantic similarity, named entity recognition, sentiment analysis and question answering. We also demonstrate that ERNIE has more powerful knowledge inference capacity on a cloze test.


We present a theory of vibrationally enhanced positron annihilation on molecules based on the projection operator formalism of Feshbach. Results are shown for a simple semiempirical model derived from the formal Zeff expression.


"Yuncha 1" was selected individually from the YunnanYuanjiang population. It is arbor type plant with early sprouting and disease resistance,and oblong leaf in green color. It is suitable for manufacturing green tea.


A model for prediction of alpha-helical regions in amino acid sequences has been tested on the mainly-alpha protein structure class. The modeling represents the construction of a continuous hypothetical alpha-helical conformation for the whole protein chain, and was performed using molecular mechanics tools. The positive prediction of alpha-helical and non-alpha-helical pentapeptide fragments of the proteins is 79%. The model considers only local interactions in the polypeptide chain without the influence of the tertiary structure. It was shown that the local interaction defines the alpha-helical conformation for 85% of the native alpha-helical regions. The relative energy contributions to the energy of the model were analyzed with the finding that the van der Waals component determines the formation of alpha-helices. Hydrogen bonds remain at constant energy independently whether alpha-helix or non-alpha-helix occurs in the native protein, and do not determine the location of helical regions. In contrast to existing methods, this approach additionally permits the prediction of conformations of side chains. The model suggests the correct values for ~60% of all chi-angles of alpha-helical residues.


In this work, lipid nanoparticles were used as pseudostationary phase, PSP, for protein separation in capillary electrochromatography, CEC. The aim of the work was to use a new analytical separation technique for future analysis of protein drugs by using lipid nanoparticles as a pseudo-stationary phase with conventional UV-detection. PSP-CEC was combined with UV-detection to study proteins elution. The tested proteins BSA, cytochrome c and insulin have been selected according to different hydrophobicities, sizes and isoelectric points (pI). A zwitter ionic buffer, MOPS, was used as an electrolyte at pH 7.4. The nanoparticles were tested for their compatibility with MALDI-TOF/MS (Matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight). MADI-TOF/MS works with a suspension of lipid nanoparticles in MOPS that contains insulin and it can be a future possible detection method for PSP-CEC. All three proteins were successfully eluted with PSP-CEC combined with UV-detection. Nanoparticles coated with silver might be studied with "surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy"-detection. (Less)


The ever-increasing nature of the information and communication technologies and the Internet along with their various advantages in the contemporary world has caused some serious concerns among parents and educational experts about the negative effects of these new media. The unfamiliarity or the limited knowledge of the virtual world or the cyberspace can cause serious harms on the students and also their families consequently. In this survey, a phenomenological approach has been used to reconstruct the students' perceptions semantically and by using a critical approach to represent some of the current disadvantages and also the threats of the Internet , it has been shown what the perception of the students are towards this phenomenon and how they evaluate it. In this survey attempts have been made to understand and perceive the understudy phenomenon in the students' points of view by using semi-structured interviews and also narrative data obtained from the interviews done with 30 students and finally the analysis of the phenomenon through using Colaizzi method. The analysis of the results shows that 90% of students play the online game "Clash of Clans" and their dependence on the Internet has resulted in the destroying and weakening the social and family relationships, undermining the religious beliefs, the academic failure, the violence, the Internet addiction and the physical damages


This paper presents a spectroscopic study of interfacial bonding and substrate gate dielectric reactions for crystalline Ge-high-K gate dielectric hetero-structures. A novel processing sequence has been developed for i) depositing HfO2 and Hf Si oxynitrides (HfSiON) onto N-passivated Ge(111) and (100) substrates in an attempt to prevent subcutaneous oxidation of the Ge substrate during dielectric deposition, and then ii) eliminating these Ge-N interfacial bonds during 650-800◦C rapid thermal annealing in Ar. This approach has been motivated by previous spectroscopic studies which have demonstrated that the band-gaps of GeO2 and Ge3N4 are reduced with respect to their Si counterparts, and cannot be used as interfacial layers (ILs) on n-type Ge substrates, or in n-metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (n-MOSFETs) in which a p-type Ge substrate has been inverted. Changes in interface bonding as a function of post-deposition annealing for Ge/HfO2 and HfSiON, and HfO2/HfSiON stacks have been studied by X-ray absorption and photoelectron spectroscopies, revealing i) intrinsic, or pre-existing conduction and valence band edge defects, and ii) process-induced changes in band edge defects as well. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2009.381]


Thirty guinea pigs were divided into three groups. The first group received intramuscular injection of streptomycin sulfate 400 mg/kg/day for one week; the second group received the same dosage for two weeks; the third group served as the control. The cochlea was dissected after treatment and the utricle observed under electron microscope. The nystagmus lasted 11.3 sec. clockwise and 12.75 sec. counter-clockwise before treatment, 10.75 sec. and 9.25 sec. after one week and 6.0 sec. and 5.5 sec. after two weeks. Histopathologic study showed the normal dark cells in the control group. In the one week group, the dark cell remained in cuboidal shape. On the luminal surface of the cell were a few microvilli and invaginations which were in the process of forming pinocytotic vesicles. In the apical cytoplasm, the coated pinocytotic vesicles, vacuoles and rough endoplasmic reticula markedly decreased. The crest of mitochondria was blur, coalescent and vacuous. The plasmalemma in the lower part of the cell reduced. In the two-weeks group, the cells became squamous with less cytoplasm and organelle. There was no pinocytotic vesicles and vacuoles in the apical cytoplasm. The luminal membrane of the cells were bulging out into the cavity. In case the membrane ruptured, the cytoplasmic organelle run into the endolymphatic space and the cell dissolved and damaged. The morphological changes indicated that streptomycin damaged the cytoplasmic granules and the plasma membrane of dark cells. These cytologic characteristics of dark cells which engaged in the fluid transport were similar to those of the secretory cells in other organs.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Different approaches towards one of main psychological questions "Menatility, what is it" are scrutinized in this article. The authors show, that recognition of the mentality to be non-material and unphysiologic formation, as well as its reduction to physiological processes, should be considered as deadlock directions of the psychological research. They pay attention to purposefulness of mentality definition as particular brain attribute, which doesn't provide the reflection of the objective reality, existing at present or which existed in the past, but the construction of the closest future, which has never been before and which doesn't exist at the moment. The authors give the scheme, illustrating the gist of the idea, forming the basis of this definition of mentality. The model of functioning of "complicated" neurophysiologic processes with psychological attributes, called "mentality" is suggested.


This final report to the Department of Energy for Task DE-AT26-97FT34343 covers the period from 1997 to April, 2005 and summarizes the larger research accomplishments, which can be divided in field and laboratory experiments. The geophysical and sampling field programs include 5 experiments conducted between 1998 and 2003 in the Gulf of Mexico (four cruises) and on the Blake Ridge (one cruise). Significant results from the Gulf of Mexico include advancing knowledge of gas hydrate as a potential hazard to drilling at a time when petroleum exploration and production move into deeper water on the continental slope. Anomalous bright reflections called high-reflectivity zones (HRZ's) were identified as possible seismic indicators of gas hydrate. Subsequent sampling through coring identified how methane flux changes from vent regions into mini-basins, and could explain the lack of a known Bottom Simulating Reflection (BSR) in much of the Gulf. In conjunction with the Chevron Gulf of Mexico JIP project, two site surveys were run to characterize gas hydrate prior to drilling in 2005, including detailed analysis of a BSR reflection at one of the sites. The one cruise to the Blake Ridge collected core samples to test the origin and age of the Blake Ridge collapse feature. While the cruise results were equivocal, they results raised new questions about the timing of methane release from hydrate in this well-studied natural laboratory field site. These field programs, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, helped further DOE goals of understanding gas hydrates in areas where deep-water drilling and production were likely to penetrate the gas hydrate stability zone. Laboratory experiments were generally integrated with field studies but addressed specific questions about methane hydrate behavior and properties. Studies in the Gas Hydrate and Sediment Testing Laboratory Instrument (GHASTLI) performed some of the first physical property measurements on hydrate-sediment mixtures at simulated in-situ temperatures and pressures. These experiments showed the importance of grain size to hydrate occurrence, and demonstrated how the technique for making hydrate can significantly affect hydrate occurrence in the sample. The thermal properties laboratory made comprehensive thermal characterization of synthetic hydrate demonstrating the linear and non-linear behavior of the material in certain parts of the hydrate stability zone. From the petrophysics laboratory came detailed measurements of physical properties of pure methane hydrate as compared to ice and other hydrocarbon hydrates. This laboratory also developed a cryogenic Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) capability that has been used to analyze samples returned from the field programs. Most laboratory experiments also included measurements in support of the major DOE-cofunded drilling programs (ODP Leg 204, Mallik, and Hot Ice). These laboratory studies also support DOE objectives of developing well-constrained parameters to use in modeling studies.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to clarify the porcelain firing temperature conditions that give strongest bonding strength of porcelain to zirconia to manufacture all-ceramic fixed dental prostheses (FDPs) with excellent long-term stability.

METHODS
Opaque porcelain samples (8.0 × 3.0 × 1.2 mm) were placed in the center of zirconia plates (25.0 × 3.0 × 0.5 mm) and fired at temperatures of 950°C, 1,050°C, 1,100°C, and 1,150°C. Schwickerath crack initiation tests, elemental analyses, and morphological changes of the samples were compared.

RESULTS
There was no difference in the bonding strength among all the groups of porcelain fired at different temperatures. Elemental analysis of Si and O2 at the interface between the zirconia and porcelain were observed in the 950°C, 1,050°C, and 1,100°C groups. No silicon was found in the 1,150°C group by elemental analysis, and the zirconia plate where the porcelain sample was placed had irregular shape changes.

CONCLUSION
It is suggested that silicon is also involved in chemical bonds due to firing at high temperatures.


Surgical site infections (SSI) are a significant burden to patients and health care systems. They increase mortality rates, length of hospital stays, and associated health care costs. ABSTRACT Surgical site infections (SSI) are a significant burden to patients and health care systems. We evaluated the use of Nanopore sequencing (NS) to rapidly detect microbial species and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes present in intraoperative bile aspirates. Bile aspirates from 42 patients undergoing pancreatic head resection were included. Three methods of DNA extraction using mechanical cell lysis or protease cell lysis were compared to determine the optimum method of DNA extraction. The impact of host DNA depletion, sequence run duration, and use of different AMR gene databases was also assessed. To determine clinical value, NS results were compared to standard culture (SC) results. NS identified microbial species in all culture positive samples. Mechanical lysis improved NS detection of cultured species from 60% to 76%, enabled detection of fungal species, and increased AMR predictions. Host DNA depletion improved detection of streptococcal species and AMR correlation with SC. Selection of AMR database influenced the number of AMR hits and resistance profile of 13 antibiotics. AMR prediction using CARD and ResFinder 4.1 correctly predicted 79% and 81% of the bile antibiogram, respectively. Sequence run duration positively correlated with detection of AMR genes. A minimum of 6 h was required to characterize the biliary microbes, resulting in a turnaround time of 14 h. Rapid identification of microbial species and AMR genes can be achieved by NS. NS results correlated with SC, suggesting that NS may be useful in guiding early antimicrobial therapy postsurgery. IMPORTANCE Surgical site infections (SSI) are a significant burden to patients and health care systems. They increase mortality rates, length of hospital stays, and associated health care costs. To reduce the risk of SSI, surgical patients are administered broad-spectrum antibiotics that are later adapted to target microbial species detected at the site of surgical incision. Use of broad-spectrum antibiotics can be harmful to the patient. We wanted to develop a rapid method of detecting microbial species and their antimicrobial resistance phenotypes. We developed a method of detecting microbial species and predicting resistance phenotypes using Nanopore sequencing. Results generated using Nanopore sequencing were similar to current methods of detection but were obtained in a significantly shorter amount of time. This suggests that Nanopore sequencing could be used to tailor antibiotics in surgical patients and reduce use of broad-spectrum antibiotics.


The acrosomal matrix of hamster spermatozoa was enriched and characterized. Acrosomal matrices were released from spermatozoa with shaking in a pH 5.2 buffer containing Triton X-100 and protease inhibitors, and enriched on a glass-bead column. Phase-contrast microscopy indicated that 70-80% of the acrosomal matrices were released from the spermatozoa and only minor contamination from sperm heads was detected. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed the low level of contamination in the preparation and revealed a bilaminar structure similar but not identical to that of guinea-pig acrosomal matrix. One- and two-dimensional SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed the acrosomal matrix to be a complex structure enriched for several polypeptides. Proteinase activity was demonstrated by gelatin-SDS-PAGE. The major activity corresponded to bands of relative molecular masses (Mr) of 56,000, 51,000 and 48,000 with two minor bands of Mr 30,000 and 28,000. The lectin Pisum sativum agglutinin (PSA) bound to the anterior head of spermatozoa and isolated acrosomal matrix as judged by fluorescence microscopy using FITC-PSA. Western blots of spermatozoa and acrosomal matrices followed by overlay with biotinylated PSA indicated that there are at least two PSA-binding glycoproteins of Mr 60,000 and 72,000.


Background: Shoulder pain is a common reason for visiting a physician. It is the third most common cause of musculoskeletal complaint after low back pain and cervical pain in the USA. No data is available on MRI findings among our local population with shoulder pain despite having an MRI machine in our country since 1996. Objective: To establish the pattern of findings seen at MR imaging among patients with shoulder pain at three imaging centers in Nairobi. Design: This was a cross sectional descriptive study. Methodology: The study was conducted for a period of six months between June 2008 and December 2008. Seventy patients referred for MR imaging were scanned at the three imaging centers. The date of scanning, age, sex and referring clinician were documented. The MR findings were documented. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS-Version 13.0). Results: There were 38 (54.3%) male and 32(45.7%) female patients scanned. The age ranged from 20 to 86 years. The mean age was 48 years. Majority of the patients were aged 46 – 60 years. Patients below 30 years were 9 (12.9%) and over 30 years were 61(87.1%). Most patients referred for examination had pathology in the right shoulder. The commonest lesion was tendinosis with 34 (47.2%) cases and was seen more on the right shoulder. There were 20 (27.8%) rotator cuff tears that mostly involved the supraspinatus tendon. Degenerative disease was found in13 (18.6%) patients. Conclusion: Among the patients examined the right shoulder had more pathology than the left. Tendinosis of the supraspinatus tendon was the commonest pathology. In rotator cuff tears, supraspinatus was more frequently involved.


A new tumor cell line (SUIT-4) derived from ascites of a patient with carcinoma of the pancreas has been established in tissue culture and in nude mice, and maintained for over 7 years. In tissue culture, the cells grew as a confluent monolayer with piling up of cells in some areas. The population doubling time during the exponential phase of the cell growth was 43.9 h in vitro. Chromosome count ranged from 63 to 68 with a modal number of 67. Subcutaneous injection of cultured cells into the flanks of nude mice resulted in tumor formation with a doubling time of 88.8 h. Histopathologically, xenografts in nude mice were moderately differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma, and the tumor cells showed spontaneous metastasis to the regional lymph nodes in 6 of 21 nude mice and to the lung in 4 of 21. Transmission electron microphotographs confirmed the ductal cell origin of the carcinoma and revealed that the cells had abundant mitochondria and lysosomes. SUIT-4 cells released carcinoembryonic antigen (3.08 × 102 ng/1 × 106 cells/24 h) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (4.75 × 104 U/1 × 106 cells/24 h) during exponential cell growth in vitro. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction studies revealed that SUIT-4 cells expressed matrix metalloproteinases 1, 3, 7, 10 and 14.


The need for a vast quantity of new buildings to address the increase in population and living standards is opposed to the need for tackling global warming and the decline in biodiversity. To overcome this twofold challenge, there is a need to move towards a more circular economy by widely using a combination of alternative low-carbon construction materials, alternative technologies and practices. Soils or earth were widely used by builders before World War II, as a primary resource to manufacture materials and structures of vernacular architecture. Centuries of empirical practices have led to a variety of techniques to implement earth, known as rammed earth, cob and adobe masonry among others. Earth refers to local soil with a variable composition but at least containing a small percentage of clay that would simply solidify by drying without any baking. This paper discusses why and how earth naturally embeds high-tech properties for sustainable construction. Then the potential of earth to contribute to addressing the global challenge of modern architecture and the need to re-think building practices is also explored. The current obstacles against the development of earthen architecture are examined through a survey of current earth building practitioners in Western Europe. A literature review revealed that, surprisingly, only technical barriers are being addressed by the scientific community; two-thirds of the actual barriers identified by the interviewees are not within the technical field and are almost entirely neglected in the scientific literature, which may explain why earthen architecture is still a niche market despite embodying all the attributes of the best construction material to tackle the current climate and economic crisis. This article is part of the theme issue 'The role of soils in delivering Nature's Contributions to People'.


Abstract Lakhan Kasyap Introduction  Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the 20th most common cancer in India with a crude incidence rate of 2.3 per 100,000 persons. Of note, it is relatively common in states which fall in the Gangetic plains. Patients often present in the advanced stage and have an unfavorable prognosis. Material and Methods  From January to June 2021, 170 treatment-naive GBC (adenocarcinoma) patients who were registered at a tertiary care cancer center in North India, were included. Data were extracted from electronic medical records and was analyzed with SPSS. Results  Median age was 56 years (range 32–77 years) and 65.5% ( n  = 112) were female. Incidental GBC was found in 20% patient ( n  = 34). Majority of patients (79.4%, n  = 135) had preserved performance status. Advanced GBC was present in 85.8% ( n  = 146) patients (locally advanced = 37.0% and metastatic = 48.8%). Biliary drainage procedure was performed in 24% of patients (68% of patients with obstructive jaundice). More than half of patients (53.5%) were lost to follow-up without any treatment. There were 33 patients (19.4%) who underwent surgery and 20 of them received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Adjuvant chemotherapy and adjuvant radiotherapy were received by 13 and 2 patients, respectively. Palliative chemotherapy was administered to 46 patients. The most common chemotherapy regimen was gemcitabine-cisplatin. At a median follow-up of 1.7 months (95% confidence interval, 1–2.4 months), 42 patients (24%) progressed and 24 patients (14%) died, with 6 months estimated progression-free survival and overall survival being 60.2 and 79%, respectively. Conclusion  GBC is an aggressive and lethal malignancy predominantly affecting females in the fifth decade with dismal outcomes. Improved access to health care, an aggressive approach in operable cases, and optimization of systemic and adjuvant therapy are the need of the hour.


To examine how computer technology can produce delicate, audience-inspiring presentations like "Noh", we attempted to create a Noh mask (Ko-omote) using a 3D computer graphics technique, by only referring to a carved wooden mask. It was possible to detect several characteristics of the mask's structure in the creation process. Rendering images showed the possibility that such a specific structure is closely related to effects of subtle facial expression changes. In order to bring more diverse effect to audiences, we also attempted to create a computer animation combining the mask model with story, movement and background images. This paper suggests the possibility of acquiring profound experiences with the perception and expression of "face" for both viewers and creators by using a computer graphics technique.


This paper describes a strategy for a robotic hand to pick up deformable 3D objects on a table. Inspired by human hand behavior, the robotic hand employs two rigid fingers to first squeeze such an object until it "feels" the object to be liftable. Such "feeling" is provided by a (virtual) liftability test that is repeatedly conducted during the squeeze. Passing of the test then triggers a lifting action. Throughout the manipulation the object's deformation and its state of contact with the fingers and the table are being tracked based on contact events. Deformable modeling uses the finite element method (FEM) while slip computation employs the homotopy continuation method to determine the contact displacements induced by finger movements. The experiment was conducted for everyday items ranging from vegetables to a toy. A simulation-based comparison between deformable grasping and rigid body grasping reveals why soft objects are easier to pick up than hard ones, and demonstrates how a rigid body grasping strategy may fail on soft objects in certain situations.


Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of low-dose aspirin for the treatment of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR). Patients and methods: Patients with classical or multifocal CSCR were treated with aspirin 100 mg per day orally for 1 month followed by 100 mg on alternate days for 5 months. Treated patients were compared with historic controls consisting of patients with classical or multifocal CSCR previously followed up at our institution. Results: Mean visual acuity in the group treated with aspirin started to improve after the first week of therapy and continued to improve throughout the following 3 months. Visual recovery was slower in the untreated control group than in the treated group and achieved better visual acuity between the first and third month from the onset of the disease. There were no adverse events related to the administration of aspirin. Conclusion: The results indicate that treatment with low-dose aspirin may result in more rapid visual rehabilitation with fewer recurrences in patient with CSCR compared with untreated historic controls. The effectiveness of treatment with aspirin supports our hypothesis regarding the role of impaired fibrinolysis and increased platelet aggregation in the choriocapillaris in the pathogenesis of CSCR.


In response to the existing environmental problems in Ethiopia, Ficus Thonningii is becoming an important component of the farming system in Gondar and Gojjam. Information regarding establishment and socioeconomic importance of this species was collected from Gondar Zuria district by interviewing 45 household heads within three villages. About 84.4% of them indicated that they have recognized its benefits and planted it in their landholdings in the homesteads, along farm boundaries and in pasture lots. Soil samples were also collected under the canopy of the tree and in the open land from four points from the base of trees at 0-10cm and 10-20cm soil depth. We found 1623.5 and 877 kg N ha-1 respectively under and outside the tree canopy in 0-10 cm soil layer. Similarly 945.5 and 847 kg P ha-1, and 24700 and 16800 kg C ha-1 respectively, were found under and outside the tree canopy, however there are no significant differences between the mean values of the under canopy and the open pasture soils. This study suggests that F. Thonningii can widely be used for soil fertility maintenance and fodder production by planting it in association with crops and pasture in agroforestry systems.


Seeds of Coreopsis tinctoria Nutt., Ipomopsis rubra (L.) Wherry, Linum perenne L., and Asclepias tuberosa L. were germinated under constant light at 155 ± 10 μEm−2sec−1 on a thermogradient plate to determine optimum temperatures for germination. Optimum temperatures were 30°C for C. tinctoria, 25° for L. perenne and 30° for A. tuberosa. I. rubra exhibited poor germination at all temperatures in light. C. tinctoria, L. perenne and A. tuberosa germinated within temperature ranges of 15° to 35°, 15° to 25°, and 25° to 35°, respectively. A. tuberosa was the slowest germinating of the 3 species.


The present state of the problem of the copolymerisation of unsaturated organophosphorus monomers is considered. Quantitative data on their reactivities in the radical polymerisation processes are surveyed and analysed critically, the place of these monomers among other types of unsaturated compounds is defined, and the organophosphorus monomers most promising from the standpoint of the modification of polymeric materials by copolymerisation methods are specified. The review is based on data published up to the end of 1978. The bibliography includes 132 references.


Aiming to establish the most frequent invertebrate taxa in drift at the small spatial scale within a moss-rich karst tufa-precipitating hydrosystem, we sampled drift among microhabitats differing in substratum type and flow conditions along a tufa barrier-cascading lotic reach. Additionally, we addressed the question of the contribution and the potential significance of meiofauna within the overall invertebrate drift at the small spatial scale. During the study period, a total of 60 invertebrate taxa were recorded in the drift. Six of these taxa belonged to the annelid/arthropod meiofauna and they represented 35% of total drift density. Macroinvertebrates found in drift were represented mainly by larval insects. The composition of the most abundant taxa in total drift was as follows: Alona spp. (Cladocera 26.7%), Riolus spp. (Coleoptera: Elmidae 13.2%), Simulium spp. (Diptera: Simuliidae 12.2%), Enchytraeidae (Oligochaeta 10.4%), Hydrachnidia (6.3%), Orthocladinae (Diptera: Chironomidae 3.9%) and Naididae (Oligochaeta 3.6%). Faunal drift densities and amounts of transported particulate matter (PM) were highest at the fast-flowing sites located at the barriers and lowest at the slow-flowing sites within pools. Similarly to the seasonal amounts of transported PM, faunal drift was lowest in winter, and peaked in autumn and in late spring/early summer. Correlation between flow velocity and PM-faunal drift densities suggested a significant effect of the dislodged PM, though a minor influence of discharge and flow velocity on faunal drift. We suggest that the small-scale habitat heterogeneity and the respective feeding and refugial strategies of the fauna, as well as faunal passive dislodgement initiated by the shear forces of the flow were the most important drivers of observed drift patterns.


Abstract : A majority of males exhibit a profound loss of fertility following spinal cord injury. While the mechanisms underlying this loss have been discussed for decades, recently my lab discovered that spinal trauma produces a significant loss in integrity of the blood-testis-barrier; a protective multi-cellular structure that maintains immune privilege of the highly-antigenic sperm and sperm cell-containing compartments within the testis. We also demonstrated that once failed, the BTB remains permeable, essentially for the life of the subject. The goal of our proposal has been two-fold: 1) to develop a greater understanding of the molecular, biochemical and structural pathologies underlying BTB breakdown post-SCI, and 2) to determine whether a novel therapeutic, recently identified in our laboratory, can help preserve BTB integrity when introduced during the acute phase of SCI using a clinically-relevant rat spinal contusion model. We have found that the drug, licofelone, preserves blood-spinal cord barrier integrity and enhances locomotor function in rats when given early following injury. During this second year, we have performed all planned spinal cord injuries (24 hour out to 90 day time points); collected testis tissues and have sent samples out for metabolomic analysis and gene array studies. We describe metabolomic, genomic and cellular pathologies occurring within the testes after SCI as well as data suggesting a beneficial role of licofelone in attenuating such changes.