The pharmacodynamic effects and pharmacokinetics of atorvastatin, a potent investigational inhibitor of HMG‐CoA reductase, were studied in 16 normolipidemic subjects after administration of 40 mg daily for 15 days in the morning or evening. Lipid and apolipoprotein parameters were determined, and plasma atorvastatin equivalent concentrations were measured according to a validated enzyme inhibition bioassay procedure. Atorvastatin was well tolerated by the participants. Overall, mean reductions of 34% in total cholesterol, 48% in low‐density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, 37% in very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol, 25% in triglycerides, 6% in apolipoprotein A‐I, and 34% in apolipoprotein B were observed. Changes in lipid and apolipoprotein values were similar after morning and evening administration of atorvastatin. In contrast, studies with other HMG‐CoA reductase inhibitors have consistently shown that evening administration results in larger reductions in total and LDL cholesterol than does morning administration. Rate and extent of equivalent absorption of atorvastatin were lower during evening than morning administration. Mean elimination half‐life values were similar, however, suggesting that there is no diurnal variation in disposition of this drug. Pharmacokinetic differences did not correlate with effects on serum lipids.


Abstract The rhizome is like the poem. The growth power of nature and the possibilities of culture simultaneously and reciprocally. It stretches from biological cell and level of particles to our universal dreams and thoughts about and with life. The rhizome as poem is thus a picture and image of the importance of context and movement, production of constant importance for each/other. The picture breaks all patterns always and always creates new, as points and lines affectively collapsing into each/other for each/other. The rhizome as poem — and the consciousness about the preliminarity of processes across preliminary boundaries, opens up for translations and interpretations beyond known vocabularies and in unfinished channels. It possibilizes the realization of more - than - human concepts such as the dissolution of subjectivity turning my identity into a collective: I contain multitudes and sing myself. 1 Knowledge creation and meaning making are thus connected with what situated knowledges makes possible and mobilize, and is about community, not isolated individuals; it is about productive connections and unexpected openings in which every concept is 'trapped' in experience. Informatically we are data subjects of an algorithmic nature. I oxymoronically and indirectly therefore ask how we can become materially identifiable subjects and what would it take to move from a mechanistic approach to education to a more machinic one? Further, are the abstractions one attempts to move from imitation to imagination abstract enough? I poem with the speculative process philosophy of Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) and Félix Guattari (1930–1992) to think the future, theory and practice in Environmental Education other. Taking part in polysemantic ambiguity becomes attractive as condition to side with the child and it might turn into a strong source of energy for learning and change, trans-scientific collaboration and sustainability. The rhizome is my cosmic writing machine, research design and model.


Abstract : The role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in regional politics, and the significance of the organization for U.S. interests, is widely misunderstood. The organization is emphatically not a military bloc, and yet engages in joint activities which resemble military cooperation to U.S. eyes. It is, in theory, open to new members; but at present is highly unlikely to accept any. Its rhetoric firmly opposes U.S. presence and activity on the territory of member states, and yet individual member states leverage basing agreements with the United States to their advantage. This monograph by Mr. Henry Plater-Zyberk seeks to explain the SCO through reviewing its history and stated aspirations, and measuring these against actual achievements. It concludes that with the notable exception of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), the great majority of SCO accomplishments are of little significance other than to provide an additional multinational vehicle through which China, and in particular Russia, can seek to counter U.S. and Western activity in Central Asia. Specific policy aims of the SCO, (or of Russia or China through the medium of the SCO), should not be analyzed according to U.S. policy criteria. It is not necessary for an event to take place that would be considered by the United States as a substantial policy achievement, in order for Russia to believe that the SCO has contributed to countering U.S. aims as part of an overall strategy. The Strategic Studies Institute therefore recommends this monograph as a key to understanding the real implications of development of the SCO for U.S. interests, and where and how these should be resisted.


The observations recorded in this paper are a continuation of work briefly alluded to in a previous article. 1 The purpose of this work is to discover whether or not the hydrochloric acid of the gastric juice is diminished in cases of infantile atrophy. In the article on the causation of atrophy referred to above, I suggested a theory of the cause of infantile atrophy based on the results of secretin determinations in atrophic and well-nourished infants. The secretin production from the cases of atrophy which I examined was much diminished compared with that from a limited number of well-nourished infants. The explanation for this diminution in secretin in atrophic infants was sought for higher up in the digestive tract. It seemed improbable that the condition was a primary one in the small intestines. The normal stimulus, according to Bayliss and Starling, which causes the transformation of prosecretin


The physical properties of metal nanoparticles are of considerable interest in both fundamental and technological aspects. Being the effective tool for the study of surfaces, interfaces, and nanostructures, optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) was used for investigating small silver particles in island films. In the present work, we study hyper-Rayleigh scattering from the three-dimensional disordered array of silver nanocrystals embedded in a dielectric matrix.


Background Yes-associated protein (YAP), a key player of the Hippo pathway, has been identified to have more and more important roles in tumorigenesis and may be an important biomarker for cancer therapy. YAP is important for bladder cancer cell migration, metastasis, and drug resistance; however, its function in bladder cancer stem cells remains unknown. Purpose The aim of this work was to examine the expression and role of YAP in bladder cancer stem cells. Materials and methods: We identified that the expression level of YAP was significantly enriched in bladder cancer stem cells compared to noncancer stem cell population. Moreover, the effect of YAP on stem cell self-renewal was examined in bladder cancer cells by siRNA silencing approach. In addition, we showed that YAP is required for aldehyde dehydrogenase activity in bladder cancer cells. Results RNAseq analysis and quantitative real-time PCR results showed that silencing of YAP inhibited the expression of ALDH1A1 gene. Conclusion Collectively, our findings for the first time elucidated that YAP serves as a cancer stem cell regulator in bladder cancer, which provided a promising therapy strategy for patients with bladder cancer.


BACKGROUND
Homozygous loss-of-function mutations in the FOXE1 gene have been reported in several patients with partial or complete Bamforth-Lazarus syndrome: congenital hypothyroidism (CH) with thyroid dysgenesis (usually athyreosis), cleft palate, spiky hair, with or without choanal atresia, and bifid epiglottis. Here, our objective was to evaluate potential functional consequences of a FOXE1 mutation in a patient with a similar clinical phenotype.

METHODS
FOXE1 was sequenced in eight patients with thyroid dysgenesis and cleft palate. Transient transfection was performed in HEK293 cells using the thyroglobulin (TG) and thyroid peroxidase (TPO) promoters in luciferase reporter plasmids to assess the functional impact of the FOXE1 mutations. Primary human thyrocytes transfected with wild type and mutant FOXE1 served to assess the impact of the mutation on endogenous TG and TPO expression.

RESULTS
We identified and characterized the function of a new homozygous FOXE1 missense mutation (p.R73S) in a boy with a typical phenotype (athyreosis, cleft palate, and partial choanal atresia). This new mutation located within the forkhead domain was inherited from the heterozygous healthy consanguineous parents. In vitro functional studies in HEK293 cells showed that this mutant gene enhanced the activity of the TG and TPO gene promoters (1.5-fold and 1.7-fold respectively vs. wild type FOXE1; p<0.05), unlike the five mutations previously reported in Bamforth-Lazarus syndrome. The gain-of-function effect of the FOXE1-p.R73S mutant gene was confirmed by an increase in endogenous TG production in primary human thyrocytes.

CONCLUSION
We identified a new homozygous FOXE1 mutation responsible for enhanced expression of the TG and TPO genes in a boy whose phenotype is similar to that reported previously in patients with loss-of-function FOXE1 mutations. This finding further delineates the role for FOXE1 in both thyroid and palate development, and shows that enhanced gene activity should be considered among the mechanisms underlying Bamforth-Lazarus syndrome.


Exercise based rehabilitation like intradialytic exercise program could improve the physical function through its contribution in maintaining electrolyte balance. The study was conducted with the aim to determine the effectiveness of intradialytic exercise on biochemical markers among patients on hemodialysis. Quasi experimental research design was embraced to conduct the study with 130 human samples who met the inclusion criteria in hemodialysis unit and samples allocated into experimental group (n=65) and control group (n=65) by convenience sampling technique. The demographic questionnaire was completed at the beginning of the study followed by pre-test for both the groups. Experimental group received intradialytic exercise during initial 2 hours of hemodialysis for 3months besides control group received the routine care. Post test was conducted at the end of 3rd month after the dialysis session. Data were analyzed using Sigma Plot 12 (Systat, USA). After 3 months of intradialytic exercise, a significant reduction was observed in serum creatinine, blood urea, serum potassium, serum phosphate and increase in serum calcium and hemoglobin at the level of p<0.001 in the experimental group. The study findings concluded that intradialytic exercise programme is safe, complementary intervention and do not cost the patient extra time and this effective care can be incorporated in the regular care of patients on hemodialysis.


The author defines probabilistic languages and probabilistic automata over a finite set of events. Operators under which the set of probabilistic languages (p-languages) is closed, thus forming an algebra of p-languages, are also defined. It is shown that the operators are continuous in it. Hence, recursive equations may be defined in this algebra using fixpoints of continuous functions. Thus, p-languages form a suitable theoretical foundation for specifying and analyzing probabilistic systems.<<ETX>>


What are the optimal climate policies when time preferences deviate from the standard exponential discounting and decision makers cannot commit to future policies? We show that, with time-declining discounting, the delay and persistence of climate impacts provide a commitment device to policy makers. We quantify the commitment value in a climate-economy model by solving time-consistent Markov equilibrium capital and emission taxes explicitly. The returns on capital and climate investments are no longer equal, leading to a large increase in the emission tax, compared to a benchmark with equalized returns. The commitment value increases the tax by a factor of 20 in our quantitative assessment.


Coding at the sample level in still image watermarking takes advantage of avoiding a non-optimum initial diversity stage, used in many watermarking systems for tailoring Gaussian channels with desired properties. Nevertheless, the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) encountered, due to the perceptual constraints imposed to the watermark, makes necessary the use of very powerful coding techniques as it happens in deep-space communications.We study the application of turbo coding to sample-level discrete cosine transform (DCT) domain watermarking. This near-optimum codification strategy is possible thanks to the existence of statistical models in the DCT domain, that also permit the computation of theoretical bounds for performance.


Human nasal polyps in outgrowth culture were used to study the adhesion of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to respiratory cells. By transmission electron microscopy, bacteria associated with ciliated cells were identified trapped at the extremities of cilia, usually as aggregates of several bacterial cells. They were never seen at the interciliary spaces or attached along cilia. Bacteria were also seen to adhere avidly to migrating cells of the periphery of the outgrowth culture. Using a model of repair of wounded respiratory epithelial cells in culture, we observed that the adhesion of P. aeruginosa to migrating cells of the edges of the repairing wounds was significantly higher than the adhesion to non-migrating cells and that adherent bacteria were surrounded by a fibronectin-containing fibrillar material. The secretion of extracellular matrix components is involved in the process of epithelium repair following injury. To investigate the molecular basis of P. aeruginosa adhesion to migrating cells, bacteria were treated with a fibronectin solution before their incubation with the respiratory cells. P. aeruginosa treatment by fibronectin significantly increased their adhesion to migrating cells. Accordingly, we hypothesize that during cell migration, fibronectin secreted by epithelial cells may favour P. aeruginosa adhesion by establishing a bridge between the bacteria and the epithelial cell receptors. Such a mechanism may represent a critical step for P. aeruginosa infection of healing injured epithelium.


V617F JAK2 mutation is a reliable molecular marker of polycythemia vera (PV), potentially useful to monitor the effect of treatments in this disease. In a phase 2 study of pegylated (peg) IFN-alpha-2a in PV, we performed prospective sequential quantitative evaluation of the percentage of mutated JAK2 allele (%V617F) by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The %V617F decreased in 24 (89%) of 27 treated patients, from a mean of 49% to a mean of 27% (mean decrease of 44%; P < .001), and no evidence for a plateau was observed. In one patient, mutant JAK2 was no longer detectable after 12 months. In 3 patients homozygous for the mutation, reappearance of 50% of wild-type allele was observed during treatment. The results seem to confirm the hypothesis that IFN-alpha preferentially targets the malignant clone in PV and show that %V617F assessment using a quantitative method may provide the first tool to monitor minimal residual disease in PV. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT00241241.


An 80-GHz six-stage common source tuned amplifier has been demonstrated using low leakage (higher VT) NMOS transistors of a 65-nm digital CMOS process with six metal levels. It achieves power gain of 12 dB at 80 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth of 6 GHz, noise figures (NF's) lower than 10.5 dB at frequencies between 75 and 81 GHz with the lowest NF of 9 dB. IP1 dB is -21 dBm and IIP3 is -11.5 dBm. The amplifier consumes 27 mA from a 1.2 V supply. At VDD = 1.5 V and 33 mA bias current, NF is less than 9.5 dB within the 3-dB bandwidth and reaches a minimum of 8 dB at 80 GHz.


We report on the design of a current-assisted photonic demodulator (CAPD) using standard 0.18-μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology and its electrooptical characterization. The device can perform both light detection and demodulation in the charge domain, owing to a drift field generated in the silicon substrate by a majority carrier flow. Minimum-sized 10 × 10 μm2 CAPDs exhibit a direct-current charge-transfer efficiency larger than 80% (corresponding to demodulation contrast larger than 40% under sine-wave modulation) at the modest power consumption of 10 μW and a 3-dB bandwidth of >; 45 MHz. An excellent linearity value with an error lower than 0.11% is obtained in phase measurements. CAPDs with optimized modulation electrode geometries are finally designed, aiming at an improved contrast-versus-power tradeoff.


Fluorescence based sensors are widely used in the field of biochemistry and medicine due to their high sensitivity and accuracy. But the cost and time required for each sample to be tested is high. If the diagnostic tools could be miniaturized, made simple to use and much less expensive, and readily available at the point of need such as emergency diagnosis, millions of people would be benefited from it. In this paper, we design a prototype of portable fluorescence detection system based on Fluorescence Filter Block and DAQ card which can emulate signal collection and processing functionalities. After the introduction of system structure and functional modules, we use a resolution approximation method to investigate the system performance. The evaluation shows that our prototype system has the sensitivity of 0.01 mMol/L (333.306 μg/mL) which meets most of the medical requirements.


Celebrating leading practice is the theme for this November issue of CA enews. We feature a range of exhibitions from around the country that demonstrate the sophistication Australian craft and design as part of the Craft Australia's continuing focus on the 40 year celebrations of the sector


Residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities constitute a population that is vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection; COVID-19 vaccination effectively reduces severe COVID-19 in these settings. To examine demographic differences in primary and up-to-date vaccination status against COVID-19 among LTC facility residents, a descriptive analysis of COVID-19 vaccination data from the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) COVID-19 vaccination data from October 31, 2022, to May 7, 2023, were analyzed. Being up to date was defined as having received a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine dose or having completed a primary vaccination series <2 months earlier. Geographic disparities in vaccination coverage were identified, with substantially lower prevalences of up-to-date status among LTC facility residents in the South (Region 6) (37.7%) and Southeast (Region 4) (36.5%) than among those in the Pacific Northwest (Region 10) (53.3%) and Mountain West (Region 8) (59.6%) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regions. Up-to-date status was lowest among Black or African American (39.9%) and multiracial (42.2%) LTC facility residents. Strategies to increase up-to-date COVID-19 vaccination among LTC facility residents could include and address these geographic and racial differences.


The objective of the study : to analyze the frequency of admission of tuberculosis patients to general medical units, to describe medical and social parameters of patients – sources of tuberculous mycobacteria which form a nosocomial center of tuberculosis infection. Subjects and methods . The following sources of information were used: Reporting Form no. 8 on Active Cases of Tuberculosis, data from the Annual Reporting Form on Analysis of Infectious Diseases Carrying drawn up by City Center for Medical Prevention in Yekaterinburg, Register of Infectious Diseases (Form no. 060/y), and 74 documents of Medical File of the Patient Receiving In-Patient Treatment (Form no. 003/y) for tuberculosis patients admitted to a therapy department of the city hospital. Results . Despite the decreasing tuberculosis incidence among Yekaterinburg residents, there was no significant decrease in the frequency of hospital admissions of patients with this disease to general medical units. Of all tuberculosis patients admitted to general medical units, 40.0 ± 2.7% were admitted to therapy departments. Duration of stay in a therapy department of tuberculosis patients excreting tuberculous mycobacteria made more than 7 days for 70% of such cases before they were discharged. The destruction phase was diagnosed in 56.8 ± 5.8%, 13.5 ± 4.0% had massive bacterial excretion documented by sputum microscopy. The frequency of TB/HIV co-infection made 43.2 ± 5.8%. Conclusion . In a therapy department, there is a high risk of getting infected with tuberculosis infection among patients and personnel who are exposed to a tuberculosis case.


Cardiac glycosides (CGs) are natural steroid compounds occurring both in plants and animals. They are known for long as cardiotonic agents commonly used for various cardiac diseases due to inhibition of Na+/K+-ATPase (NKA) pumping activity and modulating heart muscle contractility. However, recent studies show that the portfolio of diseases potentially treatable with CGs is much broader. Currently, CGs are mostly studied as anticancer agents. Their antiproliferative properties are based on the induction of multiple signaling pathways in an NKA signalosome complex. In addition, they are strongly connected to immunogenic cell death, a complex mechanism of induction of anticancer immune response. Moreover, CGs exert various immunomodulatory effects, the foremost of which are connected with suppressing the activity of T-helper cells or modulating transcription of many immune response genes by inhibiting nuclear factor kappa B. The resulting modulations of cytokine and chemokine levels and changes in immune cell ratios could be potentially useful in treating sundry autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. This review aims to summarize current knowledge in the field of immunomodulatory properties of CGs and emphasize the large area of potential clinical use of these compounds.


Abstract Pandemics have a history of interrupting civilisations. From the Greeks and Romans to the British Empire, pandemics have eroded political authority and caused economic instability. The twenty-first century has been hailed as the 'Asian century', with China's ascent as central to a reconfiguration of global capital and power. The COVID-19 pandemic, that began in 2019 and still rages as of this writing, started in China and was exacerbated by initial repression by the local government authorities before the central government could implement appropriate disaster response. Since then, COVID-19 has been one of the most devastating pandemics in the history of globalisation. Its mortality has been coupled with regulatory responses which at times have been debilitating to national economies, no less is this true for China's own regulatory response which has been anomalous across the world. This Special Issue explores the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Chinese overseas direct investment and the concomitant forms of capital (symbolic, social, and political). It features collaborative research and writing by early career experts from throughout the world, as part of the 'China, Law and Development' project, based at the University of Oxford. It examines how China, its trade partners, and transnational orders have responded to the pandemic through law and regulation across an array of fields: dispute resolution, legal services, immigration law and policy, digital surveillance, global health governance, and democratic fragility.


A model has been developed to study the effect of depletion and energy quantization at the poly-silicon/oxide interface on the behavior of a nanometer scale n-MOSFET. A model of inversion charge density, including the inversion layer quantization using the variation approach in the substrate, has also been produced. Using the exact calculations of the polygate potential under the depletion and quantization conditions, a C—V model has been developed. All the results have been compared with the numerical models reported in existing literature and they show good agreement.


Congenital abnormalities may occasionally escape detection during childhood and present in adulthood. In addition, given the advances in pediatric cardiovascular surgical techniques, catheter-based interventions, and advances in medical management, pediatric patients with congenital cardiovascular abnormalities are increasing living well into adulthood and therefore may be increasingly encountered in medical practice. Among congenital cardiovascular abnormalities that may present in adulthood, partial anomalous pulmonary venous return (PAPVR) is not uncommon. Typically incidental in nature, PAPVR may occasionally result in significant pulmonary-to-systemic and left-to-right shunting, and may also be associated with other congenital cardiovascular abnormalities, rarely in the context of particular syndromes, such as the hypogenetic lung syndrome. Hypogenetic lung syndrome, also known as pulmonary venolobar syndrome and "scimitar" syndrome, is an uncommon congenital anomaly characterized by PAPVR draining into the supradiaphragmatic or infradiaphragmatic inferior vena cava, associated with a hypoplastic right lung, ipsilateral pulmonary arterial hypoplasia, dextroposition of the heart, and systemic arterial blood supply to the affected lung, typically the right lower lobe. Hypogenetic lung syndrome may present in "infantile" and "adult" forms, and may occasionally be associated with other congenital cardiovascular abnormalities and abnormalities of the lung, the former including atrial septal defects, aortic coarctation, and others; the latter include horseshoe lung, pulmonary sequestration, and abnormalities of pulmonary lobation. The PAPVR associated with the hypogenetic lung syndrome produces a left-to-right shunt that may result in pulmonary hypertension, as in the patient presented.


Surface modification resist (SMR) process, which gives negative-tone image owing to the polysiloxane formation on exposed resist surface using chemical vapor deposition (CVD), was studied for ArF excimer laser lithography. The selective polysiloxane formation is based on the hyckolysis of alkoxysilane and subsequent condensation in the presence of a photo-induced acid catalyst and water. The selectivity of water sorption in the exposed region determines the selectivity in surface modification. We proposed a polymer system with a polarity change unit for improving an affinity for water. This polymer improved the selectivity in the surface modification as compared with a polymer without the polarity change unit. 0.13μm pattern fabrication was achieved by using this polymer for ArF lithography. Furthermore, the patterned polysiloxane layers below 0.20μm feature were stably formed in the delay time of several days from the exposure to the CVD treatment.


Mentoring is an effective way to orient new employees to an organization's work climate. Many colleges operating in multiple locations and providing programs for working adults through evening classes rely on the expertise of adjunct faculty to provide instructional methods. The research literature about mentoring in a higher education context mainly focuses on mentoring full time faculty members. Therefore, this case study is believed to address the gap as it focuses on understanding the mentoring of adjunct faculty. The researchers of the present study believe that utilizing videoconferencing as a tool to mentor new adjunct faculty could be beneficial in the context of any college serving in multiple sites.  The purpose of the study is to (a) to determine if videoconferencing is an effective tool in mentoring adjunct faculty, and (b) to determine if videoconferencing mediated mentoring (VMM) is effective for full time faculty in disseminating the strategies and skills to qualified adjunct faculty. VMM implemented in the study includes essential segments – pre-course professional development section, interim course hands-on training and support section, and the post course section to evaluate findings. Data analysis through mentor and mentee logs and surveys proved that VMM is a valuable medium to utilize for training purposes. This type of technology provides a platform for the full time faculty member to build a professional relationship and share the standard of excellence for a given field of study to new adjunct faculty member.


After reviewing the basic role of Lie's theory for the mathematics and physics of this century, we identify its limitations for the treatment of systems beyond the local-differential, Hamiltonian and canonical-unitary conditions of the original conception. We therefore outline three sequential generalized mathematics introduced by the author under the name of iso-, geno- and hyper-mathematics which are based on generalized, Hermitean, non-Hermitean and multi-valued units, respectively. The resulting iso-, geno- and hyper-Lie theories, for which the new mathematics were submitted, have been extensively used for the description of nonlocal-integral systems with action-at-a-distance Hamiltonian and short-range-contact non-Hamiltonian interactions in reversible, irreversible and multi-valued conditions, respectively. We then point out that conventional, iso-, geno- and hyper-Lie theories are unable to provide a consistent classical representation of antimatter yielding the correct charge conjugate states at the operator counterpart. We therefore outline yet novel mathematics proposed by the author under the names of isodual conventional, iso-, geno- and hyper-mathematics, which constitute anti-isomorphic images of the original mathematics characterized by negative-definite units and norms. The emerging isodual generalizations of Lie's theory have permitted a novel consistent characterization of antimatter at all levels of study, from Newton to second quantization. The main message emerging after three decades of investigations is that the sole generalized theories as invariant as the original formulation, the sole usable in physics, are those preserving the original abstract Lie axioms, and merely realizing them in broader forms.


Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common form of acute leukemia in adults, with an incidence that increases with age and a generally poor prognosis. This aggressive blood and bone-marrow malignancy is characterized by rapid and uncontrolled clonal proliferation of abnormal myeloid progenitor cells. Patients with R/R AML have very few approved effective treatment options, especially in the absence of a targetable mutation. Alrizomadlin is a novel, orally active, potent, small-molecule selective inhibitor that destabilizes the p53-MDM2 complex and activates p53-mediated apoptosis in tumor cells with wild-type TP53 and/or MDM2 amplification. In acute leukemia human wild-type TP53 AML cell lines and xenograft models, alrizomadlin potently inhibited tumor cell growth when administered alone or with concomitant chemotherapy.This US open-label study is evaluating the safety and tolerability of alrizomadlin, with or without 5-azacitidine, in adults with histologically confirmed R/R AML and adequate organ function. Eligible candidates will have AML with no known available therapies that are either indicated or expected to confer a durable response. In Part 1 of this trial, the safety and tolerability of alrizomadlin monotherapy are being assessed by evaluating the dose-limiting toxicity rate during the first 4 weeks of treatment, using a standard 3+3 design. The starting once-daily oral dose of alrizomadlin administered on Day 1 to 5 of every 28-day cycle is 100 mg, increasing to 150, 200, and 250 mg in each subsequent cohort. The severity of adverse events is being assessed using NCI CTCAE v5.0. Once the recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D) has been determined, 3 to 6 additional patients will be enrolled in the dose-expansion phase. In Part 2, alrizomadlin will be administered in combination with 5-azacitidine 75 mg/m2/day on Days 1–7 of a 28-day cycles. Alternatively, a 5-days-on, 2-days-off, 2-days-on schedule is allowed if consecutive day infusion is not available. A standard 3+3 design will also be implemented to determine the maximum tolerated dose/RP2D in the dose-escalation phase. Once the RP2D has been determined, there will be an expansion cohort of up to 15 patients. As of July 13, 2021, 2 patients have been enrolled in the alrizomadlin monotherapy dose-escalation phase. The overall estimated enrollment will be 69 study participants. Internal study identifier APG115AU101. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04358393.ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04358393


Cervical spinal stenosis may lead to cervical cord compression and represents the most important mechanical factor in pathophysiology of cervical spondylotic myelopathy. Medullar tissue is, however, rather resistant to compression and development of symp tomatic myelopathy occurs only when higher degree stenosis is present and in combination with other pathophysiological factors, mainly dynamic compression and trauma. Asymp tomatic spondylotic cervical cord compression (ASCCC) is a quite frequent fi nding in older population above the age of fi fty. However, reliability of the methods used to verify and quantify cervical stenosis and cervical cord compression is low and clear predictors of development of symp tomatic myelopathy and related indication of potential preventive surgical decompression in ASCCC have not been determined yet. The overview discusses the most frequently used methods to establish cervical spinal stenosis and cervical cord compression using imaging methods. Radiogram and especially computed tomography are important for verifi cation of cervical spinal stenosis, while magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a preferable method to detect cervical cord compression. The crosssectional spinal cord area and T2 MRI spinal cord hyperintensity are among the parameters considered to be the most closely correlated with clinical manifestation of spinal cord compression. Among newly introduced imaging modalities, MRI diff usion tensor imaging seems to be the most promising one. The presence of symp tomatic radiculopathy and abnormality of motor and somatosensory evoked potentials are among generally accepted predictors of symp tomatic myelopathy. The importance of imaging methods as predictors of symp tomatic myelopathy development as well as benefi ts of preventive surgical decompression in ASCCC individuals with high risk of developing symp tomatic myelopathy is to be established in future studies. Autoři deklarují, že v souvislosti s předmětem studie nemají žádné komerční zájmy. The authors declare they have no potential confl icts of interest concerning drugs, products, or services used in the study. Redakční rada potvrzuje, že rukopis práce splnil ICMJE kritéria pro publikace zasílané do biomedicínských časopisů. The Editorial Board declares that the manuscript met the ICMJE "uniform requirements" for


Abstract The change in internal pH in chromatophores from Rps. sphaeroides following short flash excitation has been investigated using the method of the fluorescence quenching of 9-aminoacridine. (1) A single turnover flash induced a fluorescence quenching of ≅ 0.4%. The fluorescence quenching was stimulated by valinomycin, and oligomycin, and inhibited by antimycin A. (2) The extent of the pH gradient generated by a single turnover flash at the external pH ≅ 8 was estimated to be less than 0.4 unit. (3) In a multiflash experiment the change in internal pH induced by each flash was found to be not linearly dependent on the number of protons which had been taken up after each flash from the external medium. We discuss the significance of the results with respect to the mechanism of phosphorylation. The release of H+ taken up outside the chromatophore into the membrane could not be excluded by the present results.


Current study explores the relationship between an organizational functioning variable i.e. organizational commitment of customer-contact employees (CCE) and quality of services delivered to the customers, by call centre employees. This research is an attempt to contribute to the growing body of knowledge establishing links between commitment of employees and services delivered to the customers in a pure service industry. This study expands the organizational commitment to include normative and continuance commitment, the neglected aspect of commitment in marketing literature. Data was collected from 150 customers and 150 CCEs customer contact employees of four call centers in the NCR region and customers (SERVPERF), with help of a structured self administered questionnaire. Data analysis was done using correlation and step wise regression analysis. Results of the study highlight that hypothesis of Linkage research applies to this relationship based industry as well. However the interesting output of the study was the relation between service performance quality and normative commitment. These results highlight that, if managed properly, in a relationship based service industry, human resource could be a source of core competence and inimitability through competitive ambiguity. Research results further suggest that service companies should develop human resource strategies for normative commitment targeted at younger and well educated people CCE.


Qualitative methodology is increasingly used to lead and support Ergonomics and Human Factors (E/HF) studies in a range of contexts. This chapter provides an insight into the practical use of qualitative methodology in E/HF and outlines the theory and principles which underpin the use of such methodologies. We present an overview of the main qualitative approaches and provide guidance on undertaking a qualitative project; to support this we describe the use of thematic analysis, including examples of computer-aided analysis, discuss validity, reliability and critical appraisal in relation to research design and analysis and introduce a qualitative data management software package (NVivo). A review of the use of qualitative methodologies in E/HF (Hignett, 2001) found early examples of methodological exploration including Exploratory Sequential Data Analysis (ESDA, Sanderson and Fisher, 1997:1472). ESDA was described as 'any empirical undertaking seeking to analyse systems, environmental and/or behavioural data (usually recorded) in which the sequential integrity of events has been preserved' and was used as an umbrella term to group established techniques rather than proposing new ones. Sanderson and Fisher suggested three E/HF traditions supporting the exploration of qualitative methodologies (ESDA): (1) the behavioural tradition using directly observable laboratory-based experimentation, (2) the cognitive tradition to model indirectly observed or symbolic behaviour, for example in human computer interaction, and (3) the social or naturalistic tradition of social sciences as a more recent development. The use of qualitative methodologies in E/HF has increased considerably since this chapter was first written in 2005, for example in inclusive design (Fisk et al, 2009), participatory ergonomics (Dixon and Theberge, 2011), organisational ergonomics (Berlin, 2011) and workplace analysis (Lundh et al, 2011). This reflects the maturation of the qualitative – quantitative debate and the appreciation of alternative epistemological (ways of knowing) perspectives giving new and critical insights for accepted practices (Symon and Cassell, 2004). One worrying trend has been the use of qualitative methodologies without a clear statement (and understanding) of the underpinning philosophy. Although projects can be carried out to a satisfactory level without reference to the relevant theory (ontology and epistemology) this can lead to problems with the quality of the project. Silverman (2006) views this as a failure in analysis with, for example, an emphasis on the exploration of a problem and very limited testing of the findings (explanation) or proof that contrary evidence has been sought. This will be further discussed in this chapter to set out both a generic process for qualitative projects and mechanisms to ensure that reliability and validity are considered and addressed.


In this paper, the goal was to identify a person's face in the acquired image by the proposed measures. We discuss the appearance of two types of noise together in an image. The acquired facial image quality was also assessed by two proposed measures, the histogram similarity measure and the histogram error mean measure. The histogram structural similarity measure is a previously described modified version of the information-theoretic structural similarity measure. It was merged with the structural similarity measure and the error mean measure, derived from the mean squared error, to get the proposed measures. The first proposed histogram similarity measure consists of merging histogram structural similarity with structural similarity measure, and the second proposed histogram error mean measure consists of merging histogram structural similarity with error mean measure. Finally, many algorithms for identification have recently been proposed to measure the similarity between two images. The results showed that the two proposed measures were better than existing methods. Different noises types (such as white Gaussian, speckle, and salt-and-pepper) are used with the proposed methods. Two facial image datasets were used in this paper. The AT&T database included color images of 92 x 112 pixels (px), and the Faculty of Industrial Engineering database included color images of 480 x 640 px. To evaluate performance and quantify the error, the structural similarity measure, histogram structural similarity, and error mean measure were considered. Noise ratios that depended on a peak signal-to-noise ratio were used in this experiment.


The Soil Management Assessment Framework (SMAF) was developed in the U.S.A. and has been used as a tool for assessing and quantifying changes in soil quality/health (SQ) induced by land uses and agricultural practices in that region and elsewhere throughout the world. An initial study using SMAF in Brazil was recently published, but additional research for a variety of soils and management systems is still needed. Our objective was to use data from five studies in southern Brazil to evaluate the potential of SMAF for assessing diverse land-use and management practices on SQ. The studies examined were: (i) horizontal and vertical distribution of soil properties in a long-term orange orchard; (ii) impacts of long-term land-use change from native vegetation to agricultural crops on soil properties; (iii) effects of short-term tillage on soil properties in a cassava production area; (iv) changes in soil properties due to mineral fertilizer and pig slurry application coupled with soil tillage practices; and (v) row and inter-row sowing effects on soil properties in a long-term no-tillage area. The soils were classified as Oxisols, with clay content ranging from 180 to 800 g kg-1. Six SQ indicators [pH(H2O), P, K, bulk density, organic C, and microbial biomass] were individually scored using SMAF curves and integrated into an overall Soil Quality Index (SQI) focusing on chemical, physical, and biological sectors. The SMAF was sensitive for detecting SQ changes induced by different land uses and management practices within this wide textural range of Brazilian Oxisols. The SMAF scoring curve algorithms properly transformed the indicator values expressed in different units into unitless scores ranging from 0-1, thus enabling the individual indicators to be combined into an overall index for evaluating land-use and management effects on soil functions. Soil sector scores (i.e., chemical, physical, and biological) identify the principal soil limitations and can therefore be used to establish priorities for specific management actions. The SMAF can be used as a tool for assessing SQ in Brazilian soils, thus helping farmers, land managers, and politicians make better decisions regarding sustainable land-use and management practices.


Objective: Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disease triggered by exposure to gluten-containing foods. IgA autoantibodies to tissue transglutaminase (TTG) are elevated in CD, but little is known about the gastrointestinal state before the appearance of TTG. Antibodies to wheat storage globulin Glo-3A have been studied in type 1 diabetes, and may be a marker of altered mucosal barrier and/or immune function. In the present study, we investigated antibody responses to Glo-3A in CD. Patients and Methods: In the Diabetes Autoimmunity Study in the Young, children were studied prospectively from birth for the appearance of TTG and CD. Fifty cases of CD were frequency matched with 50 controls on age (of TTG seroconversion in the case), sex, ethnicity, presence of a first-degree relative with type 1 diabetes mellitus, and human leukocyte antigen -DR3 genotype. In cases and controls, IgG antibodies to Glo-3A were analyzed in a blinded manner in the sample collected at the time of seroconversion to TTG positivity (or the matched sample in controls) and in all of the previous samples since birth (mean 4.5 samples). The association between Glo-3A antibody levels and CD case status was explored using t tests at the TTG-positive visit and when Glo-3A levels were highest, and mixed modeling to describe Glo-3A over time. Results: At the time of first elevated TTG (mean 4.9 years), patients with CD had higher Glo-3A antibody levels than controls (13.3 ± 17.2 vs 7.6 ± 11.7, P = 0.005). In both cases and controls, Glo-3A antibodies appear to peak at a mean age of 2.9 years, before mean age of initial TTG seroconversion. The peak Glo-3A antibody levels were higher in cases than controls (25.5 ± 21.8 vs 14.9 ± 18.3 P = 0.0007). Using mixed modeling to account for multiple visits per person, cases had higher levels of Glo-3A antibodies than controls at all ages from birth to TTG seroconversion (β = 0.53, P = 0.002). Conclusions: Compared with controls, CD cases have higher Glo-3A antibody responses in the beginning years, before initial detection of TTG.


Estimation of mechanical and physical rock properties is an essential issue in applications related to reservoir geomechanics. Carbonate rocks have complex depositional environments and digenetic processes which alter the rock mechanical properties to varying degrees even at a small distance. This study has been conducted on seventeen core plug samples that have been taken from different formations of carbonate reservoirs in the Fauqi oil field (Jeribe, Khasib, and Mishrif formations). While the rock mechanical and petrophysical properties have been measured in the laboratory including the unconfined compressive strength, Young's modulus, bulk density, porosity, compressional and shear -waves, well logs have been used to do a comparison between the lab results and well logs measurements. The results of this study revealed that petrophysical properties are consistent indexes to determine the rock mechanical properties with high performance capacity. Different empirical correlations have been developed in this study to determine the rock mechanical properties using the multiple regression analysis. These correlations are UCS-porosity, UCS-bulk density, UCS-Vs, UCs-Vp Es-Vs, Es-Vp, and Vs-Vp. (*). For example, the UCS-Vs correlation gives a good determination coefficient (R2= 0.77) for limestone and (R2=0.94) for dolomite. A comparison of the developed correlations with literature was also checked. This study presents a set of empirical correlations that can be used to determine and calibrate the rock mechanical properties when core samples are missing or incomplete.


Robots have entered human life, and closer relationships are being formed between humans and robots. It is desirable that these robots be flexible and lightweight. For this reason, we studied and developed an artificial muscle actuator using straight-fiber-type artificial muscles derived from the McKibben-type muscles, which have excellent contraction rate and force characteristics. However, these muscles have highly nonlinear characteristics, as well as high compliance and a strong hysteresis characteristic. Hence, it is difficult to control the artificial muscle manipulator. In this study, we developed nonlinear dynamics model of the artificial muscle, investigate nonlinear dynamics characteristics of the muscle. In addition, considering nonlinear dynamic characteristics of the artificial muscle, we implore control speck of 6-DOF artificial muscle manipulator.


Cochlear implants are a life‐changing technology for those with severe sensorineural hearing loss, partially restoring hearing through direct electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. However, they are known to elicit an immune response resulting in fibrotic tissue formation in the cochlea that is linked to residual hearing loss and suboptimal outcomes. Intracochlear fibrosis is difficult to track without postmortem histology, and no specific electrical marker for fibrosis exists. In this study, a tissue‐engineered model of cochlear fibrosis is developed following implant placement to examine the electrical characteristics associated with fibrotic tissue formation around electrodes. The model is characterized using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and an increase in the resistance and a decrease in capacitance of the tissue using a representative circuit are found. This result informs a new marker of fibrosis progression over time that is extractable from voltage waveform responses, which can be directly measured in cochlear implant patients. This marker is tested in a small sample size of recently implanted cochlear implant patients, showing a significant increase over two postoperative timepoints. Using this system, complex impedance is demonstrated as a marker of fibrosis progression that is directly measurable from cochlear implants to enable real‐time tracking of fibrosis formation in patients, creating opportunities for earlier treatment intervention to improve cochlear implant efficacy.


Background In the current era, where the number of new biologic targets and related therapies for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is rapidly increasing, identification of factors that predicts the response to biologic therapies is a key issue. Previous studies reported that an anti-CCP positive status is predictive of a good response to Rituximab (RTX) in RA. A quantitative approach could be a good way to better detect subset of individuals that are more likely responders. Objectives We investigated whether anti-CCP serum levels were predictive of the response to RTX at M6 in patients having active RA. Methods 114 RA patients treated with RTX were retrospectively included. The primary criterion was the decrease of DAS28 >1.2 at M6. Secondary efficacy criteria included the variation of DAS28 (ΔDAS), SJC, TJC, VAS pain, ESR, CRP and use of corticosteroids. Independent predictors of good response were investigated by using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results A total of 114 RA patients (81.6% of female, mean age 53.3 +/- 11.9 years and mean disease duration: 10.9 +/- 8.3 years, 75.2% RF+) were included. Anti-CCP antibodies were present in 81.6% of patients with a median level of 583 [195-1509] U/ml. A decrease of DAS28 >1.2 was observed in 38.6% of patients. In univariate analysis, high anti-CCP level was an independent factor associated with a response to RTX (median 1122 [355-1755] vs. 386 [143-800] U/ml, P=0.0059) at M6. Using the cut-off level of 1000 U/ml, multivariate logistic regression analysis, identified CCP+ patients with anti-CCP levels >1000 U/ml were 5 times more likely to achieve the decrease of DAS28 >1.2 ([OR: 5.10; 95% CI: 1.97-13.2], P=0.0008). High anti-CCP level was also predictive of a higher decrease of i) the DAS28 (P=0.0371) ii) TJC (P=0.0469), at M6. Conclusions High anti-CCP level is an independent predictive factor of response to RTX at M6 in RA patients. This factor is easily assessed in clinical practice, can help to a personalised medicine and to select the best candidates for RTX treatment. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Field experiments were conducted in 1999 and 2000 to evaluate and adapt the Herbicide Application Decision Support System (HADSS®) program for Texas Southern High Plains cotton production. Weed management systems (in glyphosate-resistant, bromoxynil-resistant, and nontransgenic cotton varieties) included trifluralin preplant incorporated (PPI) followed by (fb) HADSS postemergence-topical (POST) recommendations (PPI fb POST HADSS), HADSS recommendations alone (POST HADSS), and Texas Agricultural Experiment Station (TAES) recommendations for the Texas Southern High Plains. In both years, effective season-long weed control was achieved with all weed management systems in the glyphosate-resistant variety, but only the PPI fb POST HADSS and TAES weed management systems controlled Palmer amaranth and devil's-claw in the bromoxynil-resistant and nontransgenic varieties, compared with POST HADSS alone. No differences in cotton lint yield or net returns over weed control costs were observed with weed management systems across variety in 1999; however, in general, the glyphosate-resistant and nontransgenic varieties produced higher yields and net returns than the bromoxynil-resistant variety. In 2000, plots from the TAES weed management system produced higher lint yields than the plots of PPI fb POST HADSS recommendations in the glyphosate- and bromoxynil-resistant varieties, but plots of all management systems yielded similarly in the nontransgenic variety. In 2000, plots from the TAES system produced the highest net returns in the glyphosate- and bromoxynil-resistant varieties. In the nontransgenic variety, the PPI fb POST HADSS and TAES weed management systems produced higher net returns over weed control costs than the POST HADSS system. Nomenclature: Bromoxynil; glyphosate; trifluralin; Palmer amaranth, Amaranthus palmeri S. Wats. #3 AMAPA; devil's-claw, Proboscidea louisianica (Mill.) Thellung # PROLO; cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L. 'Paymaster 2326RR', 'Stoneville BXN 47', 'Paymaster HS26'. Additional index words: Computer decision aid, herbicide-tolerant cotton, HERB. Abbreviations: fb, followed by; HADSS, Herbicide Application Decision Support System; NHA, no herbicide application; PDIR, postemergence directed; POST, postemergence topical; PPI, preplant incorporated; PRE, preemergence; TAES, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.


Simon's goal is to demonstrate the relationship between physical and social change in urban development; his method is to examine the development of three neighborhoods. The study builds on three forces first identified by Sam Bass Warner: "the values and decisions of the subdividers, the impact and constraints of transportation developments, and the needs and aspirations of the potential inhabitants of the areas" (p. 6). Simon's discussion, however, would benefit from the use of tools developed by urban economists, particularly rent-distance functions and filtering. The study is based on a random sample of street blocks in four of Milwaukee's peripheral wards, and Simon does a good job of combining diverse sources into a cohesive data base. The discussion of neighborhood creation is divided into four distinct yet overlapping elements: subdividing the land, providing services (particularly streets, streetcars, water, sewers, and schools), creating a housing stock, and populating the area. His basic hypothesis is that "The needs, aspirations, and financial abilities of the subdividers, the builders, the city, and the new residents all influenced the speed of the process and the quality of the resultant environments. The framework within which the subdividers and builders made their decisions lay in the social and economic characteristics of the population most likely to move into the area" (p. 27). Throughout the monograph, Simon presents testable, empirical hypotheses; however, the data that have been culled so carefully are merely summarized by means and simple correlations. Simon provides perfectly reasonable answers to the questions he raises. Nevertheless, statistical hypothesis testing would contribute to the acceptance of conclusions such as: "Despite the larger lots, larger homes, and better services, the allocation of the housing stock within the ward remained a function of basic demographic variables— household age and size in particular—which were found elsewhere" (p. 53). Additional case studies are required before anything can be inferred about the general applicability of Simon's Milwaukee results. It is an important task and those who become involved will owe an intellectual debt to Simon's pathbreaking study.


Sideband laser cooling using stimulated Raman transitions is performed on trapped cesium atoms. The confinement is produced by a far–off-resonance dipole trap consisting of two crossed YAG beams which, by interference, create a one-dimensional optical lattice. In a pure intensity lattice, we measure a 1D temperature of T = 6 μK corresponding to a mean quantum vibrational number of about nv = 0.75. In a polarization gradient lattice, the final temperature is T = 3.6 μK corresponding to nv 2.4.


This study analyzes the performance of three common hot mix asphalt rehabilitation strategies on 149 pavements over a period of seven years. All three strategies place two-inch overlays on the pavement to be rehabilitated. The first strategy includes an overlay on the existing pavement after sweeping the surface and applying a tack coat. The second strategy places the overlay after removing two inches of the existing pavement by cold milling. The third strategy places the overlay after treating the existing pavement using the heater scarification process. Performance was evaluated with respect to PG binder temperature range, traffic volume, overlay nominal maximum aggregate size, and climate. Data analyzed in the study was obtained from a pavement management system that is updated annually with respect to pavement condition. Results of this analysis indicate that two of the rehabilitation strategies perform approximately equal with one performing slightly better than the other, and both performing significantly better than the third. Polymer modified asphalts enhanced pavement performance depending on which rehabilitation strategy was utilized. Pavements were generally rehabilitated before reaching the zero service life threshold. However, when fatigue cracking was present in the original pavements, this was not the case. These pavements were rehabilitated when the zero remaining service life threshold had been reached or when pavement condition exceeded this threshold. This indicates rehabilitation would have been warranted earlier in the life of these pavements. As a result, the expected life of the rehabilitation strategies utilized on these pavements may be shorter than could be expected had rehabilitation been done before distress reached this high level.


A series of experiments in stationary and moving passenger rail cars were conducted to measure removal rates of particles in the size ranges of SARS-CoV-2 viral aerosols, and the air changes per hour provided by existing and modified air handling systems. Such methods for exposure assessments are customarily based on mechanistic models derived from physical laws of particle movement that are deterministic and do not account for measurement errors inherent in data collection. The resulting analysis compromises on reliably learning about mechanistic factors such as ventilation rates, aerosol generation rates and filtration efficiencies from field measurements. This manuscript develops a Bayesian state space modeling framework that synthesizes information from the mechanistic system as well as the field data. We derive a stochastic model from finite difference approximations of differential equations explaining particle concentrations. Our inferential framework trains the mechanistic system using the field measurements from the chamber experiments and delivers reliable estimates of the underlying physical process with fully model-based uncertainty quantification. Our application falls within the realm of Bayesian ``melding'' of mechanistic and statistical models and is of significant relevance to environmental hygienists and public health researchers working on assessing performance of aerosol removal rates for rail car fleets.


Four digestion experiments with 5 wethers each (0, 15, 30 or 60 mg avoparcin per animal and day), three individual feeding experiments (28, 18 or 56 bulls per experiment; 0 and 150/200; 0, 250 and 500 or 0 and 200 mg avoparcin per animal and day in the experiments 1, 2 or 3) and two group feeding experiments (60 bulls and 161 heifers per experiment; salt lick stones without or with 2.5 g avoparcin per kg) were carried out in order to investigate the influence of avoparcin on apparent digestibility, figures of rumen fermentation, fattening and slaughtering results as well as protein, fat and energy retention. Avoparcin supplementation did not significantly influence the apparent digestibility of organic matter and crude nutrients. Concentration of acetate of rumen liquid was decreased (16 or 36) and that of propionate was increased (25 or 50 mmoles per mol) when 200 or 500 mg avoparcin per animal and day were added. Acetate:propionate ratio decreased from 4.2 to 3.5 and 3.1:1. Avoparcin did not influence feed intake, enhanced daily weight gain (37 to 174 g per animal and day) and improved feed efficiency (5 to 26%). Salt lick stones with avoparcin increased weight gain (58 and 96 g per animal and day). Slaughtering results and body composition of bulls were not influenced by avoparcin. Daily retention of protein, fat and energy was significantly increased (16 to 18%; P less than 0.05) when avoparcin was supplemented.


Collecting seafood animals (such as sea cucumbers, sea echini, scallops, etc.) cultivated in shallow water (water depth: ~30 m) is a profitable and an emerging field that requires robotics for replacing human divers. Soft robotics have several promising features (e.g., safe contact with the objects, lightweight, etc.) for performing such a task. In this paper, we implement a soft manipulator with an opposite-bending-and-extension structure. A simple and rapid inverse kinematics method is proposed to control the spatial location and trajectory of the underwater soft manipulator's end effector. We introduce the actuation hardware of the prototype, and then characterize the trajectory and workspace. We find that the prototype can well track fundamental trajectories such as a line and an arc. Finally, we construct a small underwater robot and demonstrate that the underwater soft manipulator successfully collects multiple irregular shaped seafood animals of different sizes and stiffness at the bottom of the natural oceanic environment (water depth: ~10 m).


Chapter 12 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code dealing with "family farmer" reorganization, temporarily extended 11 times since its original enactment, is made permanent by enactment of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, P.L. 109-8. It is amended to include "family fisherman" as well. This report surveys the highlights of this chapter


This study was aimed at examining the impact of entrepreneurial proclivity on business performance of SMEs in West Sumatera, Indonesia. The moderating variables of this study were role of market and technology turbulence. Data was collected from survey of selected managers or owners of SMEs and later analysed using Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA). Findings show dimensions of entrepreneurial proclivity have significant effects on business performance. There is no significant moderating effect of the role market and technology turbulence on entrepreneurial proclivity of SMEs. Therefore, this study contributes to literature by highlighting the relationship between entrepreneurial proclivity and business performance. Managerial implications are discussed as well.


The common side-hole (SH) fibers have high-pressure sensitivity K/sub P/. Yet, their temperature sensitivity K/sub T/ is also relatively high. In this paper, the class of certain structure SH fibers of various core ellipticity is analyzed. It was theoretically proposed and experimentally verified that fibers of low core ellipticity have a very advantageous K/sub P//K/sub T/ ratio, which permits the construction of pressure sensors that do not require temperature compensation. However, this type of fiber can only be used for high-pressure (above 3 MPa) sensor construction because for lower pressures, the beat length is too long.


The helium cryogenic system supplies supercritical helium cooling capacity at 4.5 K for the superconducting magnets in the EAST superconducting tokamak. Four low-temperature helium turbines are used in the 2 kW helium refrigeration system, and their performance and reliability are critical for the continuous operation of the tokamak. The turbines were made by the Helium Mechanics Company in Russia. The start-up process is very unstable, easily broken, and thus testing and improvements are needed. In this paper, we analyze the structure of the helium turbine, make improvements, and describe the testing process and results of the improved helium turbines. Some of the operational experiences during the start-up process and tests are also presented.


INTRODUCTION In early 1990, local people in Tau-Yuan County, Taiwan, noted surface radioactivity in Ta-han River valley. The contaminated area was said to be within 1 km from an outlet drainage from the government-owned Institute of Nuclear Energy Researches (INER). It was reported that accidents with spent nuclear fuel had occurred in the Institute in late 80's (1). About 6 years after the accident, the contamination in he valley was contained and part of the soil from contaminated area replaced. In order to make a more comprehensive evaluation of the contaminated area, we conducted a systematic sampling and tried to characterize Cs distribution in 1999.


The k nearest neighbor (KNN) query, an essential query for information processing in sensor networks, has not received sufficient attention in the research community of sensor networks. In this paper, we examine in-network processing of KNN queries by proposing two alternative algorithms, namely the GeoRouting Tree (GRT) and the KNN Boundary Tree (KBT). The former is based on a distributed spatial index structure and prunes off the irrelevant nodes during query propagation. The latter is based upon ad-hoc geographic routing and first obtains a region within which at least k nearest sensor nodes are enclosed and then decides the k nearest nodes to the query point. We provide an extensive performance evaluation to study the impact of various system factors and protocol parameters. Our results show that GRT yields a good tradeoff between energy consumption and query accuracy in static scenarios. On the other hand, KBT achieves better energy efficiency while being more tolerant to network dynamics.


Abstract. Applications for video data recorded with a setup of several cameras are currently attracting increasing interest. For such multi-view sequences, efficient coding is crucial to handle the enormous amount of data. However, significant luminance and chrominance variations between the different views, which often originate from imperfect camera calibration, are able to reduce the coding efficiency and the rendering quality. In this paper, we suggest the usage of histogram matching to compensate these differences in a pre-filtering step. After a description of the proposed algorithm, it is explained how histogram matching can be applied to multi-view video data. The effect of histogram matching on the coding performance is evaluated by statistically analysing prediction from temporal as well as from spatial references. For several test sequences, results are shown which indicate that the amount of spatial prediction across different camera views can be increased by applying histogram matching. Index Terms – multi-view video, video coding, image filtering


Introduction: Long-term disabilities are frequently related to postoperative complications on breast cancer patients. Objective: To assess the effect of breast cancer surgery on pulmonary function and respiratory muscle strength over the course of 60 days after the surgery. Methods: Prospective study with 32 women. Pulmonary function was evaluated using spirometry and respiratory muscle strength was evaluated using manovacuometry. The evaluations were performed in preoperative period, between 12 to 48h after surgery, 30 and 60 days after the surgery. Results: Vital capacity (VC) and inspiratory capacity (IC) were diminished 48h after surgery (VC: 2.18±0.63; IC: 1.71±0.49; p<0.01 vs baseline), returned to the baseline parameters after 30 days (VC: 2.76±0.60; CI: 2.16±0.57; p<0.01 vs PO48h) and were maintained after 60 days of the surgery (VC: 2.64±0.60; CI: 2.11±0.62; p<0.01 vs PO48h). No difference was observed in tidal volume over the evaluations, except when comparing 60 days to the 48h after surgery values (0.84±0.37 vs 0.64±0.19, respectively; p=0.028). Respiratory muscle strength was reduced 48h after surgery (MIP: -33.89±12.9 cmH2O; MEP: 39.72±21.0 cmH2O; p<0.01 vs basal) and returned to baseline values after 30 (MIP: -50.1±21.2 cmH2O; MEP: 59.86±24.7 cmH2O; p<0.01 vs PO48h) and 60 days of the surgery (MIP: -50.78±19.2 cmH2O; MEP: 61.67±23.4 cmH2O; p<0.01 vs PO48h). Conclusion: Breast cancer surgery does not impact pulmonary function and respiratory muscle strength 30 days after the surgery.


Recent work on distributed aggregation has assumed a benign population of participants. In modern distributed systems, it is now necessary to account for adversarial behavior. In this paper we consider the problem of ensuring verifiable yet efficient results to typical aggregation queries in a distributed, multi-party setting. We describe a general framework for the problem, including the threat model for adversaries that we consider. We then present a mechanism called a proof sketch, which uses a compact combination of cryptographic signatures and Flajolet-Martin sketches to verify that a query answer is within acceptable error bounds with high probability. When verification fails, we provide efficient mechanisms to identify any participants responsible for the perturbed result. We derive proof sketches for count aggregates, and extend them to proof sketches for verifiable random samples, which, in turn, can be used to provide verifiable approximations for a broad class of data-analysis queries, including quantiles and heavy hitters. In addition to our specific proof sketches developed here, we sketch a general framework for developing new proof sketches. Finally, we examine the practical use of proof sketches, tempering our worst-case bounds for detecting misbehavior: we observe that undetected, adversaries can often be reduced to much smaller violations than our worst-case bounds.


A gene encoding an Na+/H+ antiporter was cloned from vibrio parahaemolyticus into the plasmid pBR322 and expressed in Escherichia coli cells. The gene enabled mutant E. coli cells to grow in the presence of 0.2 M NaCl (or 10 mM LiCl). These cells were originally unable to grow under such conditions because of the lack of major Na+(Li+)/H+ antiporters. We detected Na+/H+ antiporter activity due to the gene in membrane vesicles. The gene was sequenced and the deduced amino acid sequence was found to be 72% identical to the NhaB Na+/H+ antiporter of E. coli.


Cutaneous mucormycosis is a rare fungal infection in children. It is commonly found in immunocompromised children. Early diagnosis is difficult and requires a very high degree of suspicion. Recommended mainstay of treatment has been amphotericin B and extensive surgical debridement which may at times require amputation if limb is involved. The authors share their experience of two cases of successfully treated cutaneous mucormycosis.


Background: This trial aimed to compare the efficacy of a multimodal analgesic regimen with gabapentin to a multimodal nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) regimen following cosmetic surgery. This was a prospective randomized study of 106 patients undergoing elective outpatient cosmetic surgery. Methods: Patients were randomly assigned to a multimodal regimen of postoperative acetaminophen, gabapentin, and oxycodone with an acetaminophen and gabapentin preload or postoperative ibuprofen and oxycodone-acetaminophen protocol without a preload. Data on compliance, number of narcotic pills consumed, duration of analgesic use, pain levels, patient satisfaction, time from incision close to postanesthesia care unit (PACU) admission, and incidence of bleeding-related complications were collected and analyzed. Results: Patients from both regimens reported equivalent postoperative pain control with the exception of pain in PACU. NSAID patients exhibited a 9.3% higher rate of compliance (P = 0.01), a 6.0% higher rate of satisfaction with pain control (P = 0.04), a 25.2% shorter interval between closure and PACU (=0.01), and an 8.2% lower rate of bleeding-related complications, all of which were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Both regimens are viable tools in combating opioid overprescription as they both effectively reduce postoperative pain. However, the NSAID protocol resulted in greater satisfaction related to pain management and was more cost-effective by reducing emergence time from anesthesia. As there were no hematomas associated with the use of NSAIDs and a significantly higher rate of compliance, the use of NSAIDs in enhanced recovery after surgery protocols is supported.


A multi-wavelength lidar system was used to detect free-flying birds passing over Athens, Greece. The location is strategically located in one of the important migratory corridors for birds migrating between Europe and Africa. Multiwavelength aerosol lidars are operated regularly across Europe in the frame of EARLINET. Here, the feasibility of using this existing infrastructure for assessing fluxes of migratory birds is explored. The backscattered lidar signals were detected at three elastic bands and one Raman band. The monitoring was extended over a period of three months covering predominantly the summer and early autumn period during which approximately 100 hours of lidar data was gathered.


In order to evaluate of physiological traits, related to drought tolerance, an experiment was carried out in controlled condition. The experiment was conducted to assess the effect of drought stress on photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence and photosynthetic pigments in two tolerant genotypes (MCC392 & MCC877) and two susceptible genotypes (MCC68 & MCC448) were grown in drought stress (25% field capacity) and control (field capacity) conditions in the seedling, early flowering and podding stages and so evaluated base on factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with four replications. Drought stress significantly decreased CO2 assimilation rate (A), transpiration rate (E), and PSΙΙ photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm) in all genotypes. Drought stress increased chl b in all investigated stages. In all investigated stages, water use efficiency (WUE), A and Fv/Fm were higher in tolerant genotypes than that of susceptible genotypes under drought stress. Our results indicated that water use efficiency, A and Fv/Fm could be useful markers in the studies of tolerance to drought stress and screening of adapted cultivars of chickpea under drought stress.


The fluid equations for an active plasma generated by electron impact containing more than one species of positive ion are examined in detail when the ionization frequencies are assumed to be spatially constant with a view to generalizing the Bohm Criterion. It is shown that in this specific situation the various ion spatial distributions and transverse ion speed distributions are geometrically similar and thus each species arrives at the sheath with its own Bohm speed, when the plasma is collisionless. The collisional situation is also examined with the conclusion that in that case as well, ion densities and ion speeds are again geometrically similar. The transition between the collisionless and collisional cases is discussed but not examined in detail.


Following several decades of unsuccessful attempts at locating breeding colonies of the Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus in Algeria, breeding was recorded on a natural islet of Garaet Ezzemoul, a seasonal salt lake near the town of Aïn M'lila in the Hauts Plateaux. This successful mass breeding event by at least 5 379 breeding pairs followed two failed attempts due to human disturbance at the same site during preceding years. Egg-laying started relatively late (mid-May) with precocious pairs nesting in the middle of the islet and at a higher nest density. Estimated breeding success was notably high (∼5 000 chicks) with apparent good hatching rate and chick survival. Ring sightings indicated that the breeding population was made up in part of adults born in Spain, France and Sardinia, supporting evidence of a metapopulation of nomadic birds breeding and wintering across the Mediterranean Basin. Garaet Ezzemoul does not benefit from any conservation status and is not labelled as a Ramsar site in contrast to some of the neighbouring wetlands. In the light of the key role played by this site, at the regional scale, its status should be reassessed and in view of the threats facing it, urgent conservation measures should be initiated. Local authorities have reacted swiftly in response to the discovery of the breeding colony of the Greater Flamingo, and administrative steps are being taken to formally protect Garaet Ezzemoul.


Mastodynia, which means painful breast, is part of the larger syndrome of premenstrual tension (PMS). It presents as a mammary dysplasia which is cyclical or as fibro-cystic disease of the breast. Numerous treatments have been advocated, all more or less founded on theories of the aetiology and pathology that have not yet been proven. This article tries to clarify the physio-pathological bases and the efficacy of the various therapeutic regimes which have been applied and the mechanism by which they act.


Introduction Adequate varroa control is a tool to reduce winter losses (Le Conte et al., 2010; Dainat et al., 2012; Rosenkranz et al., 2010). As beekeepers still fail to choose and implement varroa control methods, there is a need for a better understanding of the mode of action and consequences of the various control methods. This article provides an overview of varroa treatment and provides beekeepers with background information to make varroa control an integral part of beekeeping management. Each control has its efficacy, depending on in-hive conditions. Generally, a combination of control methods appears to be the most effective for year-round low varroa infestation pressure.


As a kind of new electric light source, electrodeless discharge lamps (EDL) are based on high-frequency electromagnetic induction and nonpolar gas discharge. Visible light is emitted as a result of Hg 253.7 nm resonance spectrum line inspiring phosphor. The influence of indium net position on the Hg 253. 7 nm resonance spectral line was studied experimentally by atomic emission spectral analysis. It was found that the relative intensity of Hg 253.7 nm resonance spectral line is strongest when the indium net is located at both ends of coupling coil, weaker at middle and weakest when far away from coupling coil. It was inferred that there is an optimum indium net position for EDL, and the corresponding lighting effect is maximal. The results were qualitatively analyzed from the standpoint of gas discharge theory, combined with the finite element simulation of Maxwell 3D, which has instructive value for pattern design and parametric optimization of EDL.


In elderly patients bipolar hip prostheses are often used for intracapsular fractures of the femoral neck and are often complicated by pain after a few years; this pain is frequently related to acetabular erosion seen on xray. In this study 18 bipolar hip prostheses were used in the treatment of a proximal femoral sarcoma in a young patient population (mean age: 39.6 years). Their quality of life was evaluated by TESS and MSTS scores, after a mean follow-up of 81.8 months (range 8-171 months). A radiologic grading system was used to assess acetabular erosion on plain xrays. The patients did not report significant pain, they enjoyed a very good quality of life, and they did not show any obvious acetabular erosion. The use of a bipolar implant appears as a good alternative to total hip replacement in the treatment of relatively young patients who have to undergo proximal femoral tumor resection procedures and have a normal acetabulum.


The aim of this study was to identify the acute effects of a differential-learning training program on football kicking performance and countermovement jump. Twenty youth Portuguese under-15 football players participated in this study. All players were exposed to two training approaches: i) traditional, in which the players performed a total of 36 kicks in a blocked and repetitive approach; and ii) differential learning, which consisted in the 36 kicks using differential variations in each kick. Football kicking impact and velocity were assessed using a Stalker radar gun, while the kicking accuracy was assessed by aggregating the total number of points achieved during 12 kicks into a goal, which was divided into quantifiable scoring zones. Lastly, leg power was measured using a countermovement jump. Measurements were performed at baseline, post-intervention, and following a 35-minute training match. The comparisons between the baseline and post-test revealed that the differential learning approach promoted a possibly ~5% increase in the countermovement jump (small effects) and a likely ~3% increase in the average velocity (small effects) when compared with the traditional training approach. From the accuracy perspective, there was a moderate decrease from the baseline to the post-test and post-match in accurate kicks into zone 1 (centre of the goal) and a moderate decrease from the baseline to the post-match in accurate kicks into zone 5 (lateral zones at short height) in the differential intervention. In turn, a small increase in the accurate kicks into zones 4 and 6 (lateral zones of the goal and nearest to the bar, respectively) was found from the baseline to the post-match in the differential intervention. Overall, the differential learning intervention was more beneficial than a traditional training protocol with respect to acute improvements in countermovement jump performance, football kicking velocity and higher scoring zones kicking accuracy.


In 2025, it is predicted that about 5 billions of people all over the world will face water shortage. In the case of Japan, on the other hand, it is thought that there are enough water resources in Japan. However, water is necessary not only for our daily life but also for the agricultural use. Considering these facts, it have come to clear that Japan actually imports a lot of water, about half of the needs. Therefore, effective uses of water resources are studied for the isolated islands such as Sakishima island, Okinawa, where water supply is almost constantly in iill-condition.Water resources are transported to the water-shortage isolated islands from other area where rhere are enough water by the use of MEGA-BAG made of fiber-reinforced rubber and stored in reservoir there. This constant supply of water resources would encourage the agricultural economy in this area. The possibility for the generation of electricity by the use of wind force and biomass was also examined.The keys technology for this study is the optimum design and manufacture of rubber materials.


With The Daily Show's popularity for late-night televised political satire, the infotainment genre has progressively turned into a major venue for mass-mediated political discourse in the US. Arguably, the show employs creative political memes in tandem with a plethora of multimodal strategies that all function in collegiality in revival of a journalism of critical inquiry showcasing how political dissent is negotiated and mitigated. Set against this backdrop, this paper argues for a new conceptualization of "digital memes" to incorporate the visuals integrated in talk show monologues. These visuals have undergone a shift from being merely "aesthetic-expressive" graphics to share many of the internet meme's features and hence make them mount to be a sub-genre of memes. More specifically, the study extends scholarship on political memes proposing a more nuanced methodological and analytical framework premised on meme-inherent news values and host-specific converging communication accommodation strategies. The paper is an attempt to introduce an inclusive approach that draws on various perspectives that can do better justice to the rich complexity inherent to memes. For the purpose, a corpus of 235 meme instances from January 2016 to December 2019 in The Daily Show with Trevor Noah's entertainment-based, ideologically-driven political commentary was examined. This is to capture how the intervention of memetic aesthetics in the topical monologue of the show as far as Trump's administration is concerned can alter the trajectory of political satire. Findings showcase that the emerging memes in the late-night show, particularly image macro memes, have superseded late-night television as the leading edge of political satire.


Low spectrum utilization and lack of spectrum for new wireless services led to think of unlicensed devices that may operate on spectrum holes as and when required with a constraint of preserving the rights of licensed users. Cognitive radios have been proposed as one of such promising solutions for increasing spectrum utilization and in turn helping to resolve spectrum scarcity problem. As the spectrum availability will differ in both time and space for such scenarios, dynamic spectrum allocation is considered as key enabling technique for the success of cognitive radios. This paper assumes a centralised architecture where the central controller maintains the record of all vacant spectrums and decides the spectrum to be allocated to particular users based on spectrum overlay strategy. We model the functionalities of media access based on distributed semi Markovian network of queues where the first queue is equivalent of sorting overlapped detections received from all SU in the network, updating its database, contention and conflict management. We call this queue as spectrum analysis queue. The requests once sorted will be considered for channel allocation which is modeled as channel allocation queue. This paper presents throughput analysis of unlicensed users for opportunistic spectrum access based bandwidth allocation where the paper first presents the formulation of access latency which is then used for evaluating the throughput of unlicensed users.


Fetal growth restriction (FGR) or intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) are the terms used for a fetus which has not attained its full growth potential for gestational age. FGR is a multifactorial syndrome responsible for increased fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality as well as long term adverse outcomes involving auxological, metabolic, organic and functional domains. Clinicians distinguish early and late onset FGR, in relation to specific fetal anthropometric parameters related to the possible primary etiology and to different patterns of placental and maternal cardiovascular pathologies. Delivery of an early onset FGR or growth impaired newborn with congenital pathology should be in tertiary care center, given the high perinatal morbidity. At hospital discharge the FGR infant should be enrolled, in a multidimensional individualized developmental follow-up. Subjects who have suffered from FGR should adopt a healthy lifestyle. © EuroMediterranean Biomedical Journal 2019


Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.), an important crop, containing over 50% inulin in its tubers on a dry weight basis is an agricultural and industrial crop with a great potential for production of ethanol and industrial products. Inulin is a good substrate for bioethanol production. Saccharomyces cerevisiae 6525 can produce high concentrations of ethanol, but it cannot synthesize inulinase. In this study, a new integration vector carrying inuA1 gene encoding exoinulinase was constructed and transformed into 18SrDNA site of industrial strain S. cerevisiae 6525. The obtained transformant, BR8, produced 1.1UmL inulinase activity within 72 h and the dry cell weight reached 12.3 gL within 48 h. In a small-scale fermentation, BR8 produced 9.5% (v/v) ethanol, with a productivity rate of 0.385 g ethanol per gram inulin, while wild-type S. cerevisiae 6525 produced only 3.3% (v/v) ethanol in the same conditions. In a 5-L fermentation, BR8 produced 14.0% (v/v) ethanol in fermentation medium containing inulin and 1% (w/v) (NH4)2SO4. The engineered S. cerevisiae 6525 carrying inuA1 converted pure nonhydrolyzed inulin directly into high concentrations of ethanol.


The ultrasensitive detection of 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) for environmental security is important but challenging. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is promising for the fluorescence sensing of TNP. It is highly desired to greatly promote the adsorption of TNP onto g-C3N4 for improving the fluorescence detection sensitivity. Herein, porous ultrathin g-C3N4 (∼1.3 nm) nanosheets were successfully synthesized via combining second calcination with HNO3 treating processes. Under the optimized conditions of the excitation wavelength (Ex = 350 nm) and solution pH value (pH = 3), the wide detection range of TNP from 4 μM to 54 μM was confirmed by the widely adopted normal Stern–Volmer equation (SVE). Interestingly, the limit of detection was as low as 0.04 nM according to the linear range from 0.1 nM to 4 μM by the generally neglected double logarithmic (DL) SVE, which is much competitive for TNP detection compared with previously reported results. Based on the isothermal adsorption curves and the time-resolved fluorescence and surface photovoltage spectra, it was confirmed that the multilayer adsorption of TNP on the resulting g-C3N4 at low concentrations mainly led to fluorescence quenching by the inner filter effect (IFE), while the monolayer adsorption at ultralow concentrations resulted in fluorescence quenching by the combined effects of IFE and photoinduced electron transfer. It was suggested that normal and DL SVEs are applicable to the fluorescence quenching processes determined by single and double factors, respectively. The obtained ultrasensitive detection was attributed to the greatly promoted adsorption of TNP via hydrogen bonding by enlarging the surface area from the porous nanosheet structure and by increasing the surface –OH sites from the HNO3 treatment. This work helps to deeply understand SVE related to the fluorescence quenching processes and provides a feasible route to develop a method for the ultrasensitive detection of TNP with g-C3N4 nanosheets for environmental water monitoring and security inspection.


Machine learning techniques have been widely applied in modern financial activities. Participants in the field are aware of the importance of data privacy. Vertical federated learning (VFL) was proposed as a solution to multi-party secure computation for machine learning to obtain the huge data required by the models as well as keep the privacy of the data holders. However, previous research majorly analyzed the algorithms under ideal conditions. Data imbalance in VFL is still an open problem. In this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving sampling strategy for imbalanced VFL based on federated graph embedding of the samples, without leaking any distribution information. The participants of the federation provide partial neighbor information for each sample during the intersection stage and the controversial negative sample will be filtered out. Experiments were conducted on commonly used financial datasets and one real-world dataset. Our proposed approach obtained the leading F1 score on all tested datasets on comparing with the baseline under sampling strategies for VFL.


This contribution solved the issue of simulation of board DC (AC) generator focused on its short circuit current. The method used by the engineering industry is that of the computer-based mathematical modelling bringing new quality into describing the systems attributes and its components and the educational process as well.


This study examines the association between family function and self-esteem of Chinese university students with grandparenting experience, and explores the moderating effects of social support in this link. Two thousand five hundred thirty university students (1372 males and 1158 females) from a Chinese university completed the Perceived Social Support Scale, the Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale, and the Family Assessment Device (FAD). Six hundred and forty-five (25.69%) students reported grandparenting experience and they reported lower scores on self-esteem and social support than the students raised only by their parents. The grandparenting group scored higher on such dimensions of family functioning as Communication, Role, Affective Involvement, Affective Responsiveness, and General Family Function (GF) than their counterpart group. For both groups, self-esteem scores were positively correlated with social support scores, while negatively correlated with FAD all sub-scale scores. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that for the students with grandparenting experience the social support moderated the relationship between GF and self-esteem. When students reported a high level of social support, those with low GF score reported higher scores in self-esteem than those with low self-esteem. However, in case of low social support, there were no differences in self-esteem between groups with high and low GF scores. These findings suggest that social support plays a positive role to relieve the adverse impact of poor family function on self-esteem of the adolescents with grandparenting experience. In addition, the significance and limitations of the results will be discussed.


A new generation of cryogenic light detectors exploiting Neganov-Luke effect to enhance the thermal signal has been used to detect the Cherenkov light emitted by the electrons interacting in TeO$_{2}$ crystals. With this mechanism a high significance event-by-event discrimination between alpha and beta/gamma interactions at the $^{130}$Te neutrino-less double beta decay Q-value - (2527.515 $\pm$ 0.013) keV - has been demonstrated. This measurement opens the possibility of drastically reducing the background in cryogenic experiments based on TeO$_{2}$.


In this paper a model of MOS transistor mismatch based on autocorrelation function of the statistical parameters is proposed. Firstly a statistical model which maps the statistical behavior of technological parameters considered as a source of errors, into the behavior of device parameters, which depends on device geometry (area and layout) and mutual distances between devices, is derived. Then particular forms for the autocorrelation function are proposed so that expressions for the parameter mismatch variance can be obtained. The model has also been used to analyze mismatch effect on interdigitated and cross-coupled structures.