For over forty years, researchers have attempted to refine the Fourier heat equation to model heat transfer in engineering materials. The equation cannot accurately predict temperatures in some applications, such as during transients in microscale (< 10 s) situations. However, even in situations where the time duration is relatively large, the Fourier heat equation might fail to predict observed non-Fourier behavior. Therefore, non-Fourier models must be created for certain engineering applications, in which accurate temperature modeling is necessary for design purposes. In this thesis, we use the Fourier heat equation to create a general non-Fourier, but diffusive, equation that governs the matrix temperature in a composite material. The composite is composed of a matrix with embedded particles. We let the composite materials be governed by Fourier's law and let the heat transfer between the matrix and particles be governed by contact conductance. After we make certain assumptions, we derive a general integrodifferential equation governing the matrix temperature. We then non-dimensionalize the general equation and show that our model reduces to that used by other researchers under a special limit of a non-dimensional parameter. We formulate an initial-boundary-value problem in order to study the behavior of the general matrix temperature equation. We show that the thermalization time governs the transition of the general equation from its small-time limit to its large-time limit, which are both Fourier heat equations. We also conclude that our general model cannot accurately describe temperature changes in an experimental sand composite. In loving memory of my grandpa, Frank Vogl


The article focuses on the defects of diagnosing atrial fibrillation in clinical practice. A series of clinical cases suggesting ECGbased overdiagnosis of atrial fibrillation and associated unreasonable therapy with oral anticoagulants is presented.


The article explains the historical origins of the naturalistic fallacy, it analyzes some critiques since a logical outlook, and finally, considering some ethical milestones in the history of philosophy, it evaluates the logical consequences in bioethics argumentation in contrast to the results of scientific research on human life.


This chapter proposes a recommendation mechanism to enhance the managerial training in ProjectOriented Organizations (POOs). The mechanism is presented within the framework of an innovative system used to provide support to POOs during the acquisition and implementation of training services. The recommender engine has, as inputs, the knowledge gaps of the employees given by an assessment system and the alignment in RDF/XML format between two ontological representations: one for the management documents provided by POOs and one for the training curriculum offered to the POOs. The recommender engine makes suggestions for adapting the training curriculum to the POOs' needs, by translating the ontology alignment result into a user-friendly form and by identifying Web resources suitable to fill up the knowledge gaps. The outputs are smart recommendations meant to personalize the training curriculum to POOs and, thus, to increase the competitiveness of POOs. Constanta-Nicoleta Bodea Academy of Economic Studies, Romania Maria-Iuliana Dascalu Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania Patricia Ordoñez de Pablos University of Oviedo, Spain DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4233-1.ch002


In the past few years, cross-modal image-text retrieval (ITR) has experienced increased interest in the research community due to its excellent research value and broad real-world application. It is designed for the scenarios where the queries are from one modality and the retrieval galleries from another modality. This paper presents a comprehensive and up-to-date survey on the ITR approaches from four perspectives. By dissecting an ITR system into two processes: feature extraction and feature alignment, we summarize the recent advance of the ITR approaches from these two perspectives. On top of this, the efficiency-focused study on the ITR system is introduced as the third perspective. To keep pace with the times, we also provide a pioneering overview of the cross-modal pre-training ITR approaches as the fourth perspective. Finally, we outline the common benchmark datasets and evaluation metric for ITR, and conduct the accuracy comparison among the representative ITR approaches. Some critical yet less studied issues are discussed at the end of the paper.


CD4+ T cells are critical orchestrators of immune responses against a large variety of pathogens, including viruses. The multifaceted roles of CD4+ T cells, including their help to innate cells, CD8+ T and B cells and their support for long-lived immunity rely on a profound functional heterogeneity. While multiple CD4+ T cell subtypes and their key transcriptional regulators have been identified, there is a lack of consistent definition for CD4+ T cell transcriptional states. In addition, the progressive changes affecting CD4+ T cell subtypes during and after immune responses remain poorly defined. Taking advantage of single-cell transcriptomics, efficient computational methods, and robust animal models, we characterize the transcriptional landscape of CD4+ T cells responding to self-resolving and chronic viral infections. We build a comprehensive atlas of virus-specific CD4+ T cells and their evolution over time, and identify six major distinct cell states that are consistently observed in acute and chronic infections. During the course of acute infection, T cell composition progressively changes from effector to memory states, with subtype-specific gene modules and kinetics. Conversely, T cells in persistent infections fail to transition from effector to memory states, and acquire distinct, chronicity-associated transcriptional programs. By single-cell T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing analysis, we characterize the clonal structure of virus-specific CD4+ T cells across individuals and T cell subtypes. We find that virus-specific CD4+ T cell responses are mainly private across individuals and that most T cells differentiate into all subtypes independently of their TCR, in both acute and chronic infections. Finally, we show that our CD4+ T cell atlas can be used as a reference to accurately interpret cell states in external single-cell datasets. Overall, this study describes a previously unappreciated level of adaptation of the transcriptional states of CD4+ T cells responding to viruses and provides a new computational resource for CD4+ T cell analysis, available online at https://spica.unil.ch.


Since the economic crisis of the 1980s, the SMB has increasingly become a focus of concern, displacing the large business that was the figurehead of the Fordist model during the Glorious Thirty Years. With SMBs now being seen as the sine qua non condition for economic growth, the training of their work force takes on an even greater importance. And yet, the first evaluations of the Law on the Development of Workforce Training in Quebec (Quebec, MESS, 2000 and 2002) reveal that, as is the case around the world, small businesses invest less than large business in workforce training. This article aims to reconsider the explanation for the low investment made by SMBs in terms of this being only an effect of size; we link this consideration to other factors which, taken together, determine the context in which the link of SMBs with training exists, and gives its meaning. Our starting-point is the idea that the social-economic environment of businesses (their status of sectional or territorial membership and the institutional mechanisms that surround them (laws, standards, etc.) are, along with individual characteristics (size, ownership, business structure), among the main factors which explain the relationship of businesses to training. A review of studies on this subject allows us first of all, to go beyond the idea that the propensity of businesses to provide training is "determined" only by the size of the business: other factors may play a role in the relationship the business has with training. For methodology, our research has chosen as its example a study carried out by the CEREQ in France (Bentabet, Michun and Trouve, 1999). This study set out to establish configurations of small businesses through linking a set of criteria to explain the relation of these businesses with training. As was the case for this ground-breaking study, by using as our basis Weber's ideal types obtained through accentuating the main traits observed in reality, we bring to light several typical figures for small and medium businesses, taking into account both their environment (sector, territory, laws and standards), their size, their ownership and their structure (independent businesses, concessions, banners, franchises, etc.) and also their production and workforce management to finally link these elements into the relationship with training.In all, among the 40 cases studied, our analysis leads us to identify three main configurations for SMBs in relationship to training: (1) the more traditional businesses which are based on the "family" model and give little training, or mostly informal training within the business – on-the-job training which is usually given by the manager; (2) on the other hand, more structured businesses (subsidiaries of large business groups or franchised businesses) which offer more structured training similar to large businesses and (3) between these two configurations, SMBs which are becoming structured and which are trying to review their organization, and beginning to give a higher priority to staff training. Even though a qualitative analysis of 40 businesses does not allow us to measure the influence of each of the factors taken into consideration, our analysis does allow us to at least reject the idea that SMBs form a homogenous group of businesses all having a low tendency to invest in training, and limiting themselves to only unstructured training provided a the work station.As well, on the practical level, the results of our investigation make it possible to understand how a SMB is led to structure itself and to modify its relation to training. If a SMB's structure may sometimes be the result of individual decisions made by managers (for instance, to place oneself under a banner with a view to company growth), it is nonetheless true that the individual actors are prevented from or encouraged to act by environmental factors. From this point of view, the change in training within SMBs could not only be the result of the action of individual actors any more than it could be the result of the rules imposed at an institutional level. The change in the relationship of SMBs with training would be, instead, the result of an interaction between individual choices and the institutional context. It would be more precisely the result of a transaction between the demand for training on the part of firms, and the institutional framework for offering training.Therefore, we can state that business training practices are a "social construction," that is to say, the needs of businesses, and their demand for training, do not exist in and of themselves; rather they are the result of the interplay between different institutional actors such as government organizations, sectional worker committees, local and regional organizations, including education establishments which, by means of their employment analysis, their analysis of the job situation or by their definition of training context and their service offer interact on the training relationship. Among the set of institutions, the intermediary organizations (sectional, local or regional) seemed more and more to us to play a leading role in initiating the structuring of training within businesses. These organizations could also be seen, according to our analysis, as the level at which the individual actors are put into relationship with the institutions in the negotiation of institutional compromise and new game rules. Thus, our conclusions are in line with the institutionalist approach in which the organizational choices made by companies do not only depend on the managers themselves, but these choices are "influenced" or even "constrained" by the characteristics of their institutional environment which establishes the framework within which the managers make their decisions.If our analysis has enabled us to show the importance which institutional mechanisms take on at all levels to stimulate training in SMBs, it also shows the necessity of a "systemic" consideration of the various institutional mechanisms, not only in the analysis but in the proposal of government policies. For this reason, if our analysis shows that the institutional context may increase the tendency of businesses to train or to improve the management of their training, this will not be achieved, according to our analysis, by reinforcing only one institutional mechanism. Laws, standards, intermediary organizations, and various levels of training mechanisms are all part of an overall system of manpower training in Quebec and all contribute together to provide a framework for the actions taken by businesses in worker training. This is what some have called "institutional complementarity."


The adsorption of Cl(2) at a low-coordinated oxygen site (edge or corner site) and vacancy site (terrace, edge, corner F, F(+), or F(2+) center) has been studied by the density functional method, in conjunction with the embedded cluster models. First, we have studied the adsorption of Cl(2) at the edge and corner oxygen sites and the results show that Cl(2), energetically, is inclined to adsorb at the corner oxygen site. Moreover, similar to the most advantageous adsorption mode for Cl(2) on the MgO (001) perfect surface, the most favorable adsorption occurs when Cl(2) approaches the corner oxygen site along the normal direction. A small amount of electrons are transferred from the substrate to the antibonding orbital of the adsorbate, leading to the Cl-Cl bond strength weakened a little. Regarding Cl(2) adsorption at the oxygen vacancy site (F, F(+), or F(2+) center), both large adsorption energies and rather much elongation of the Cl-Cl bond length have been obtained, in particular at the corner oxygen vacancy site, with concurrently large amounts of electrons transferred from the substrate to the antibonding orbital of Cl(2). It suggests, at the oxygen vacancy site, that Cl(2) prefers to dissociate into Cl subspecies. And the potential energy surface indicates that the dissociation process of molecular Cl(2) to atomic Cl is virtually barrierless.


In order to resolve mechanical limit in HDD, recently, the hybrid hard disk combining HDD and a flash memory was launched. In this paper, we propose a simulator for hybrid hard disk which considers redirection, flushing and spin-down function to complement the difference between HDD and hybrid hard disk. The simulator was implemented in linux kernel 2.6.20 by modifying system calls related with file system. The experiment shows that the power consumption of hybrid hard disk is 47% smaller than that of hard disk in laptop PC.


I present a set of cases that pose problems for existing theories of promissory uptake. These cases involve (i) a delayed receipt and/or acceptance of a promise, though the obligation arises before the receipt or acceptance has taken place; (ii) a delay or absence of agency on the part of the promisee—making it impossible to satisfy the various suggested uptake criteria, though promissory obligation is nonetheless generated; and (iii) the promise is made to someone, de dicto—that is, the person who will be the promisee has not yet been filled in at the time when the obligation begins. I identify clues within each theory of promising to determine the temporal and agency-related boundaries on promissory obligation. I then introduce the backward reach of uptake.


In this paper, we consider the problem of transmitting a delay-sensitive and bursty traffic over a time- varying MIMO Nakagami-ra fading channel, and optimize the delay performance of packet queuing at the data link layer. We use a statistical model to characterize the packet delay derived from a known large deviations result, and allows for analytical insights into transmission policy design. We derive power and rate adaptation policies for coded M-QAM modulation schemes that are implemented in conjunction with a MIMO diversity system; such that the packet delay probability is minimized subject to a prescribed channel packet error rate constraint. This is also equivalent to minimizing the system packet loss rate. The proposed adaptation policies depend not only on channel conditions but also on the quality of service performance at the data link layer. Numerical results show that the proposed cross- layer adaptation policies significantly improve the delay performance for delay-sensitive bursty traffic over MIMO fading channels, when compared to others adaptive solutions.


Summary
High concentrations of interfering component added to BHK cells infected with the Indiana strain of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) inhibited the synthesis of virus and interfering component. The inhibition was at an early stage in virus replication. Lower concentrations of interfering component led to the formation of interfering component and depression of virus synthesis. When virus replication was depressed with interfering component prepared from a second strain of VSV (Brazil strain) the RNA of the Brazil interfering component was also replicated at the expense of the Indiana virus. The proteins of the progeny interfering component particles were of the Indiana virus type. It is proposed that interference can take place at different stages during infection, depending upon the amount of interfering component present.


Ectodermal dysplasia may severely affect the development of jaw growth and facial appearance. This case report describes the treatment of two patients suffering from ectodermal dysplasia, both treated with dental implant-fixed restorations by means of computer-guided surgery. Two patients presented to our clinic with congenital malformation of the jaw as a manifestation of ectodermal dysplasia, showing oligodontia and alveolar ridge deficit. Clinical examination revealed multiple unattached teeth and a need for prosthetic therapy. For both cases, dental implants were placed based on a computer-guided planning. A surgical guide was used to determine the positioning of the dental implants according to the prosthetic planning, which allowed for a satisfactory aesthetic and functional outcome. Computer-guided implant placement allowed predictable treatment of complex cases with satisfactory aesthetic and functional results. Adequate surgical and prosthetic planning is considered critical for treatment success.


Xuebijing injection is a complex herbal medicine, and clinical and experimental studies have shown that it has a significant effect on acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. However, the majority of studies regarding Xuebijing injection have focused on serum inflammatory factors, and few studies have been carried out from the perspective of the protein and mRNA expression of inflammatory cytokines. In this study, 60 healthy rabbits of mixed gender were randomly assigned to a normal control group (CG), oleic acid group (model group; MG) and oleic acid + Xuebijing injection group (treatment group; TG). Rabbits of the CG were treated with normal saline through the ear vein, rabbits of the MG were injected with oleic acid (0.4 ml/kg) and rabbits of the TG received 0.4 ml/kg oleic acid + 10 ml/kg Xuebijing injection. Blood samples were collected from the common carotid artery of all rabbits of all groups 1 h after the ear vein was injected with the corresponding reagent, and was used to measure the arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2) and of carbon dioxide (PaCO2). The activity of myeloperoxidase (MPO) was tested, and the protein and mRNA expression levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-10 were determined. Rabbits of the MG exhibited evident respiratory dysfunction (PaO2 and PaCO2 were low), histopathological lung damage and overactive inflammatory responses (the expression of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 and the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 was increased at the protein and mRNA levels). Following the administration of the Xuebijing injection, the inflammatory response of the rabbits was significantly reduced. Xuebijing injection raised PaO2 and PaCO2, weakened the activity of MPO in the lung tissue, downregulated the expression of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 and further increased the expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. These results demonstrated that Xuebijing injection improved the respiratory function of rabbits with acute oleic acid-induced lung injury by inhibiting IL-6 expression and promoting IL-10 expression.


BACKGROUND
Many patients with persistent asthma need both long-acting bronchodilators and inhaled corticosteroids for optimal asthma control.

OBJECTIVE
Our purpose was to compare the efficacy and safety of salmeterol 50 microg combined with fluticasone 100 microg (in a combination dry powder product) with that of placebo, fluticasone, or salmeterol alone.

METHODS
A 12-week randomized, double-blind, multicenter study was conducted in 356 patients aged 12 years or older with asthma. After a 14-day screening period, patients were randomized to treatment with salmeterol 50 microg combined with fluticasone 100 microg (combination product), salmeterol 50 microg, fluticasone 100 microg, or placebo administered in the Diskus dry powder inhaler (GlaxoWellcome, UK) twice daily.

RESULTS
Mean change in FEV(1) at end point was significantly (P < or =.003) greater with the combination product (0.51 L) compared with placebo (0.01 L), salmeterol (0.11 L), and fluticasone (0.28 L). The combination product significantly increased (P < or =.013) area under the curve compared with placebo and fluticasone on day 1 and compared with placebo, salmeterol, and fluticasone at week 1 and week 12. Patients in the combination product group were less likely to withdraw from the study because of worsening asthma compared with those in the other groups (P < or =.020). The combination product significantly increased (P < or =.012) morning PEF (combination, 52.5 L/min; placebo, -23.7 L/min; salmeterol, -1.7 L/min; fluticasone, 17.3 L/min) and evening PEF at end point compared with the other groups. The combination product significantly (P < or =.025) reduced symptom scores and albuterol use compared with the other treatments and increased the percentage of nights with no awakenings and the percentage of days with no symptoms compared with placebo and salmeterol. All treatments were equally well tolerated.

CONCLUSION
Salmeterol 50 microg and fluticasone 100 microg combined in the Diskus powder delivery device offers significant clinical advantages over salmeterol or fluticasone alone at the same doses.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the risk factors of esophageal cancer (EC) in urban areas of Xi'an, and to correlate these risk factors with overexpression of P53 in EC.

METHODS
A hospital-based case-control study was performed. All cases (89) and controls (97) were permanent residents in urban areas of Xi'an. Tumor tissues and normal tissues adjacent to tumors of 65 cases, and 24 available normal esophageal tissues of controls were detected by P53 overexpression via immunohistochemical method.

RESULTS
Smoking and family history of EC were significantly associated with EC in Xi'an inhabitants. OR was 3.26 and 10.48, respectively. The laboratory findings indicated that P53 positive stain in Ec was 52.3% (34/65) and 6.1% (4/65) in normal tissues adjacent to tumor, but no positive stain was found in normal esophageal tissues of controls. Moreover, the results showed that P53 overexpression was closely related to smoking and family history of EC. OR was 3.89 and 17.28, respectively.

CONCLUSION
These findings suggest that smoking and family history of EC are important risk factors for EC, and the alteration of P53 gene may be related to smoking and inherited factor.


A battery of 26 auditory tests was given to groups of 30 blind, partially sighted, and sighted children. Primary factors defined by the tests corresponded closely to those previously found with a similar battery (Stankov & Horn, in press). Overall, the blind and sighted were equal on most of the abilities measured by the tests; however, differences could be observed if particular primaries were considered. Blind children performed better on tests measuring tonal memory but worse on tests of masking and rhythm. The partially sighted group demonstrated poorer performance than the other two groups; this was attributed to possible cognitive and/or personality problems in addition to those associated with reduced vision.


The purpose of this study was to reconstruct the personal history of Mikhail Zinovievich Vinokurov (1894-1983), one of the brightest representatives of the Russian intelligentsia of Yakutia, as a biographical narrative. The biography and heritage of M. Z. Vinokurov are considered in the historiography of the topic under study, publications of foreign and Russian researchers. The article reveals the American period of M. Vinokurov life in emigration, cites documents from his collection, transferred in 1983 to the State Library of Alaska (Alaska, USA), copies of which are stored in the National Library of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). M. Z. Vinokurov was a writer and public figure who devoted his whole life to enlightenment and creative activity for the benefit of his motherland. While in exile, being a librarian of the US Library of Congress, he initiated and implemented a global project to form the Russian collection of books, ethnographic sources of Siberia, manuscripts, photographs, letters related to Russian America, the Orthodox Church and the literary heritage of the Russian emigration. In this work, he saw his patriot mission. Introduction of Mikhail Vinokurov's biographical world to the scientific context dictates the need to turn to new archival, visual and personal sources. The article also presents materials on the perpetuation of the memory of M. Z. Vinokurov by the National Library of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in the form of publishing documents from his collection. The plan-prospect of the collection of documents "The Heritage of Mikhail Zinovievich Vinokurov" in 4 volumes was prepared and approved.The c ollection will become an important step in preserving and promoting the rich cultural heritage of Yakutia and Russia as a whole, as well as in further studying the history of Russian intelligentsia and culture.


Tandem duplication of a mitochondrial import leader sequence has been shown to markedly increase the efficiency of translocation of chimaeric precursors across mitochondrial membranes to the mitochondrial matrix. The principle of leader sequence duplication was applied to the protein secretion system of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and of Bacillus subtilis. The secretion signal sequences of yeast invertase and B. subtilis neutral protease were used to direct the secretion of human interferon alpha 4. Our results show that the duplication of these N-terminal signal sequences does not enhance secretion of interferon alpha 4 in either of the cell systems studied.


This article describes the development of a training course for nurses that focused on teach-back as a key strategy for patient education. It describes evaluative methods used to collect feedback and determine effectiveness of education based on nurses' perception and self-assessment of their patient educational skills and improvements made for future courses. Professional Development Specialists can use the concepts in this article to create similar programs to improve the quality of patient education.


The present study discusses about the information use pattern of Indian Geneticists. The study found that journals are heavily cited as compared to other forms of documents. It is evident from the study that the trend is towards team research. Multi authors lead over single author. United States contributes more number of articles in this subject. Around 48% of the journals cited are from United States. It is observed from the study that more number journals cited are of the period between 1996 and 2000 followed by 2001-2006 and 1990-1995. Therefore it can be deduced that current literature is more important for research in this subject field. It is observed from the study that "Genetics" is the most heavily cited journal followed by "Science", both are from United States. The Indian journal, Journal of Genetics is in the 14th place. Literature as old as 174 years have also been cited.


Using first principles calculations, we systematically study the elastic stiffness constants, mechanical properties, elastic wave velocities, Debye temperature, melting temperature, and specific heat of several thermodynamically stable crystal structures of Bi$_{x}$Sb$_{1-x}$ ($0 < x < 1$) binaries, which are of great interest due to their numerous inherent rich properties, such as thermoelectricity, thermomagnetic cooling, strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effects, and topological features in the electronic bandstructure. We analyze the bulk modulus ($B$), Young's modulus ($E$), shear modulus ($G$), $B/G$ ratio, and Poisson's ratio ($\nu$) as a function of the Bi concentration in Bi$_{x}$Sb$_{1-x}$. The effect of SOC on above mentioned properties is further investigated. In general, we observe that the SOC effects cause elastic softening in most of the studied structures. Three monoclinic structures of Bi-Sb binaries are found to exhibit significantly large auxeticity. The Debye temperature and the magnitude of the elastic wave velocities monotonically decrease with increasing Bi-concentration. We also discuss the specific heat capacity versus temperature data for all studied binaries. Our theoretical results are in excellent agreement with the existing experimental and theoretical data. The comprehensive understanding of the material properties such as hardness, mechanical strength, melting temperature, propagation of the elastic waves, auxeticity, and heat capacity is vital for practical applications of the studied binaries.


A retrospective clinico-pathological study was performed on 208 consecutively recruited patients (94 males, 114 females, median age 67 years) with idiopathic (primary) osteo-/ myelofibrosis (IMF). According to bone marrow histology (cellularity) as well as extent (semiquantitative grading) and quality (reticulin/collagen) of myelofibrosis, stages of the disease process were determined. At closure of this study (observation time 65 months) 133 patients were dead and 75 alive and median survival was 56 months. The wide spectrum of clinical signs and symptoms and laboratory data on admission was reflected by a corresponding variety of histological features. Significant differences of hematological values could be calculated between patients with or without early reticulin fibrosis (fiber scores 0 and 1) and advanced fibro-osteosclerotic stages (fiber scores 2 and 3). Evolution of disease features was elicited by longitudinal follow-up studies and sequential bone marrow biopsies. Morphometric assessment of fiber density in patients without preceding chemotherapy revealed an unpredictable and varying progression of myelofibrosis associated with alterations of certain laboratory parameters (hemoglobin level, spleensize, thrombocytosis). Differentiation from essential (primary) thrombocythemia (ET) was required in 25 patients who fulfilled the postulated diagnostic criteria. In fact, this group was consistent with hypercellular, early stages of IMF without relevant reticulin fibrosis and an excessively raised platelet count (> or = 1000 x 10(9)/1). Discrimination was only feasible by regarding histology carefully, particularly abnormalities of megakaryopoiesis and follow-up data. Parameters of predictive value indicating a significant loss in life expectancy in comparison with a sex- and age-adjusted normal population included: age (> or = 60 years), hemoglobin levels (< or = 10 g/dl), thrombocyte count (< or = 600 x 10(9)/1) and the presence of myeloblasts and promyelocytes. Statistical analysis disclosed that in the so-called early stages of IMF without relevant myelofibrosis, findings indicative for extramedullary hemopoiesis or generalization of the disease process exerted an unfavourable influence on survival.


Artificial molecular machines capable of converting chemical, electrochemical, and photochemical energy into mechanical motion represent a high-impact, fast-growing field of interdisciplinary research. These molecular-scale systems utilize a "bottom-up" technology centered upon the design and manipulation of molecular assemblies and are potentially capable of delivering efficient actuation at length scales dramatically smaller than traditional microscale actuators. As actuation materials, molecular machines have many advantages, such as high strain (40%–60%), high force and energy densities, and the capability to maintain their actuation properties from the level of a single molecule to the macroscale. These advantages have inspired researchers to develop molecular-machine–based active nanomaterials and nanosystems, including electroactive and photoactive polymers. This article will discuss the structures and properties of artificial molecular machines, as well as review recent progress on efforts to move molecular machines from solution to surfaces to devices.


Simple Summary Winter brassica crops such as kales and swedes are used to supply feed in times of seasonal shortage. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is little information about the fermentation characteristics of these forages in the rumen. This study assessed the nutrient concentration, in vitro fermentation and in situ rumen degradation characteristics of Brassica oleracea (L.) ssp. acephala (kales) and Brassica napus (L.) ssp. napobrassica (swedes). The kales and swedes both showed different nutrient concentrations and fermented fast and extensively in the rumen. However, in vitro fermentation of swedes resulted in lower acetate and greater proportions of butyrate and propionate. Varieties of swedes showed more differences in terms of degradation and fermentation in the rumen compared to kale varieties. Abstract The aim of the present study was to evaluate the nutritional value, the rumen in vitro fermentation, and the in situ degradation of Brassica oleracea (L.) ssp. acephala (kales) and Brassica napus (L.) ssp. napobrassica (swedes) for winter use. Five varieties of each brassica were used in three field replicates and were randomized in a complete block nested design. All forage varieties were harvested at 210 days post-sowing to analyze the chemical composition, in vitro gas production, volatile fatty acid (VFA) production and in situ dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) degradability. Kales presented higher DM and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) content (p < 0.01), whereas swedes showed higher CP, metabolizable energy (ME), glucose, fructose, total sugars, NFC, and nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) content (p < 0.01). The kale and swede varieties differed in their CP and sugar concentrations, whereas the kale varieties differed in their DM and raffinose content. The rates of gas production were higher for swedes than for kales (p < 0.01). No differences between the brassica species (p > 0.05) were observed in the total VFA production, whereas kales had a higher proportion of acetate and swedes had higher proportions of butyrate (p < 0.05). Only the swede varieties showed differences in VFA production (p < 0.05). The soluble fraction "a", potential and effective in situ DM degradability were higher in swedes (p < 0.01), but kales presented greater DM and CP degradation rates. Differences were observed between brassica species in the chemical composition, degradation kinetics, and ruminal fermentation products, whereas differences among varieties within species were less frequent but need to be considered.


The subject of my research interests in this article is a poem by Wojciech Kudyba titled "Dzie-sięć słów Ojca" (Ten words of the Father), whose philosophical and religious dimension directs our attention to the personalism which was close to John Paul II's convictions. Kudyba is a poet of reflection, philosophical and religious pondering on the meaning of existence. This is evidenced by clear allusions and references to the Bible, as well as the relational character of the work, focused on building a spiritual relationship. In the analyzed poem, there is a strong desire to establish a spiritual relationship, a deep, intimate relationship with God. The world of spiritual experiences presented in this way finds its peculiar expression in the language of poetic images. The desire to meet the Father somehow anchors faith in a dream. While interpreting Kudyba's poem, I will not be dealing with the problem of sacrum in literature. I will rather refer to the way in which the well-known archetypes and symbols function in poetry. I will be interested in the acts of creative consciousness, heading for sublimation, or creation of substitute reality. Since sublimation is the dominant and constitutive feature of poetry in the dimension of a peculiar experience of emotionally designed reality, I will try to enrich the leading structural analysis in this work with a few threads (or perhaps insights) derived from Gaston Bachelard's epistemology.


Background: Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of mortality and the most prevalent cancer worldwide. Most patients, who come with late-stage, have ineffective treatments and some side effects in chemotherapy. Aaptos suberitoides has potential anti-cancer effects due to its bioactive compounds such as aptamine. This study aimed to evaluate the migration inhibition effect of Aaptos suberitoides fraction in HCT-116 cell line.Methods: This study was an experimental study. Aaptos suberitoides specimen was taken in Tinjil Island and fractionated with ethyl acetate. HCT-116 cell line was added with Aaptos suberitoides fraction and cellular migration activity was observed in 48 hours of which the scratch assay was performed. The gap closure area was determined with ImageJ software.Results: The data showed that a low concentration of Aaptos suberitoides fraction inhibited migration activity in HCT-116 cell line as follow; 1 and 5 mg/L Aaptos suberitoides fraction inhibit 3-4 % cancer cell migration in 24 hours, and 10-11% inhibition in 48 hours, respectively. However, 10 mg/L fraction concentration only inhibited 7-14% of the migration effect.Conclusion: Aaptos suberitoides fraction suggests insignificant migration inhibition in colorectal cancer cells and only inhibits less than 15 % HCT-116 cell line.


In our prior work, we have demonstrated the effectiveness of a probabilistic reciprocity mechanism by which self-interested agents may learn to adopt a cooperative relationship with other similar agents. Reciprocative decisions were made based on the balance of help with another agent. In this paper, we expand that framework by making an agent explicitly model the help-giving procedure of the other agent. This learned model is then used to make decisions on requests for help received from that agent. We show that when asking for help consumes non-negligible time, the model based reciprocative agents can outperform the reciprocative agents who uses only balance of past transactions.


Biotin synthase (BS) is an S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet)-dependent radical enzyme that catalyzes the addition of sulfur to dethiobiotin. Like other AdoMet radical enzymes, BS contains a [4Fe-4S] cluster that is coordinated by a highly conserved CxxxCxxC sequence motif and by the methionyl amine and carboxylate of AdoMet. The close association of the [4Fe-4S]+ cluster with AdoMet facilitates reductive cleavage of the sulfonium and the generation of transient 5'-deoxyadenosyl radicals, which are then proposed to sequentially abstract hydrogen atoms from the substrate to produce carbon radicals at C9 and C6 of dethiobiotin. BS also contains a [2Fe-2S]2+ cluster located approximately 4-5 A from dethiobiotin, and we have proposed that a bridging sulfide of this cluster quenches the substrate radicals, leading to formation of the thiophane ring of biotin. In BS from Escherichia coli, the [2Fe-2S]2+ cluster is coordinated by cysteines 97, 128, and 188, and the atypical metal ligand, arginine 260. The evolutionary conservation of an arginine guanidinium as a metal ligand suggests a novel role for this residue in tuning the reactivity or stability of the [2Fe-2S]2+ cluster. In this work, we explore the effects of mutagenesis of Arg260 to Ala, Cys, His, and Met. Although perturbations in a number of characteristics of the [2Fe-2S]2+ cluster and the proteins are noted, the reconstituted enzymes have in vitro single-turnover activities that are 30-120% of that of the wild type. Further, in vivo expression of each mutant enzyme was sufficient to sustain growth of a bioB- mutant strain on dethiobiotin-supplemented medium, suggesting the enzymes were active and efficiently reconstituted by the in vivo iron-sulfur cluster (ISC) assembly system. Although we cannot exclude an as-yet-unidentified in vivo role in cluster repair or retention, we can conclude that Arg260 is not essential for the catalytic reaction of BS.


The literature data on chemiluminescence (CL) in cryogenic matrices have been classified and correlated for the first time. The role of studies on phosphorescence and CL at low temperatures in the development of cryochemistry is shown. The features of low-temperature CL in matrices of nitrogen and inert gases (fine structure of spectra, matrix effects) and the data on the mobility and reactivity of atoms and radicals at very low temperatures are examined. The trends in the development of studies on CL in cryogenic matrices, such as the search for systems involving polyatomic molecules and extending the forms of CL reactions, are followed. The reactions of active nitrogen with hydrocarbons that are accompanied by light emission and CL in the oxidation of carbenes at T ≥ 77 K are examined. The bibliography includes 112 references.


Electron localization and delocalization effects in the MNN Auger spectra of 4d transition metals have been studied. Based upon Auger peak energies, half widths and electron binding energies a semi-empirical model, similar to a model proposed by Lin Yin et al. [2] for 3d metals, has been used to characterize the M45N23N23 and M45N45N45 transitions. A basic parameter, δΔ, can be written as a difference between a holehole interaction and a relaxation term. The relaxation term expresses the net difference in relaxation between single- and double-hole final states. Large values of Δ mean large changes in the valence electron energy due to ineffective screening, a high degree of localization of electrons, and a quasi-atomic behaviour is expected. Quantitative estimates for the delocalization of the 4d electrons and the relaxation terms have been carried out. Analysis of measured Auger spectra of yttrium, molybdenum and silver has been combined with values deduced from published Auger spectra of the other elements of the second transition metal group. A clear trend through the group is observed. For the M45N23N23 transitions, involving core electrons, an almost constant relaxation is found indicating a high degree of electron localization. However, for the M45N45N45 transition, involving valence electrons, increase in the relaxation term with increasing charge number is found. This behaviour is interpreted as a high degree of electron delocalization in the beginning of the group and a quasi-atomic behaviour in the case of Ag.


Objective: Emerging evidence suggests associations between menopausal hot flashes and cardiovascular risk. However, whether hot flashes are associated with intima media thickness (IMT) or IMT changes over time is unknown. We hypothesized that reported hot flashes would be associated with greater IMT cross-sectionally and with greater IMT progression over 2 years. Methods: Participants were 432 women aged 45 to 58 years at baseline participating in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) Heart, an ancillary study to the SWAN. Measures at the SWAN Heart baseline and follow-up visit 2 years later included a carotid artery ultrasound, reported hot flashes (past 2 weeks: none, 1-5 d, ≥6 d), and a blood sample for measurement of estradiol. Results: Women reporting hot flashes for 6 days or more in the prior 2 weeks had significantly higher IMT than did women without hot flashes at the baseline (mean [SE] difference, 0.02 [0.01] mm; P = 0.03) and follow-up (mean [SE] difference, 0.02 [0.01] mm; P = 0.04) visits, controlling for demographic factors and cardiovascular risk factors. Reporting hot flashes at both study visits was associated with higher follow-up IMT relative to reporting hot flashes at neither visit (mean [SE] difference, 0.03 [0.01] mm; P = 0.03). Associations between hot flashes and IMT largely remained after adjusting for estradiol. An interaction between hot flashes and obesity status was observed (P = 0.05) such that relations between hot flashes and IMT were observed principally among overweight/obese women. Hot flashes were not associated with IMT progression. Conclusions: These findings provide some indication that women reporting hot flashes for 6 days or more in the prior 2 weeks may have higher IMT than do women without hot flashes, particularly for women who are overweight or obese. Further work should determine whether hot flashes mark adverse underlying vascular changes.


Bioceramics are widely used in bone tissue repair and regeneration due to their desirable biocompatibility and bioactivity. However, the brittleness of bioceramics results in difficulty of surgical operation, which greatly limits their clinical applications. The spicules of the marine sponge Euplectella aspergillum (Ea) possess high flexibility and fracture toughness resulting from concentric layered silica glued by a thin organic layer. Inspired by the unique properties of sponge spicules, flexible bioceramic-based scaffolds with spicule-like concentric layered biomimetic microstructures were constructed by combining two-dimensional (2D) bioceramics and 3D printing. 2D bioceramics could be assembled and aligned by modulating the shear force field in the direct ink writing (DIW) of 3D printing. The prepared spicules-inspired flexible bioceramic-based (SFB) scaffolds differentiated themselves from traditional 3D-printed irregular particles-based bioceramic-based scaffolds as they could be adaptably compressed, cut, folded, rolled and twisted without the occurrence of fracture, significantly breaking through the bottleneck of inherent brittleness of traditional bioceramic scaffolds. In addition, SFB scaffolds showed significantly enhanced in vitro and in vivo bone-forming bioactivity as compared to conventional β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) scaffolds, suggesting that SFB scaffolds combined both of excellent mechanical and bioactive characteristics, which is believed to greatly promote the bioceramic science and their clinical applications.


Tumor cells rely on aerobic glycolysis to generate ATP, namely the "Warburg" effect. 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) is well characterized as a glycolytic inhibitor, but its effect on cellular signaling pathways has not been fully elucidated. Herein, we sought to investigate the effect of 2-DG on ERK function in lung cancer cells. We found that 2-DG inhibits ERK phosphorylation in a time and dose-dependent manner in lung cancer cells. This inhibition requires functional LKB1. LKB1 knockdown in LKB1 wildtype cells correlated with an increase in the basal level of p-ERK. Restoration of LKB1 in LKB1-null cells significantly inhibits ERK activation. Blocking AMPK function with AMPK inhibitor, AMPK siRNA or DN-AMPK diminishes the inhibitory effect of 2-DG on ERK, suggesting that 2-DG—induced ERK inhibition is mediated by LKB1/AMPK signaling. Moreover, IGF1-induced ERK phosphorylation is significantly decreased by 2-DG. Conversely, a subset of oncogenic mutants of K-Ras, the main upstream regulator of ERK, blocks 2-DG—induced LKB1/AMPK signaling. These findings reveal the potential cross-talk between LKB1/AMPK and ERK signaling and help to better understand the mechanism of action of 2-DG.


This article is an attempt to show the close connection between a person's given name and their feeling of identity and self. This connection is very important - it has even been stated that the parents' choice of name for their child will have an influence on the development of the personality of the child. Moreover, personal names and place names are some of the most important tools of the author in the creation of credible characters placed in a literary universe that gives the impression of being authentic. Many authors from different countries have related their view of the significance of names and naming, not only as a source of information for the reader, but also as an important part of making the characters real to the authors themselves during the process of writing.


: Cross-striation pattern and sarcomere length in isolated myofibrils (both glycerinated and fresh) as well as isometric tension of glycerinated fibers of rabbit m. psoas are unaffected by an evaluation in ionic strength of CaCl2 up to 0.2 in the absence of ATP. An addition of MgATP (1 to 3mM) to the Ca2+ media induces the changes which have been shown to be characteristic of overrelaxation [1, 2]: A band shortening occurs followed by a complete plastification of the fibres. A tentative mechanism of the process is discussed in terms of spontaneous rearrangement of calcium myosinate packing in thick filaments that follows disrupting of rigor crossbridges with thin filaments under the action of ATP. Released calcium myosinate heads fail to form "active" bridges with actin; thick filaments undergo a conformational change resulted in their shattening due to increase in the equilibrium region of LMM tail overlap. The effects do not depend on ionic strength only: on replacing CaCl2 by KCl at equal ionic strength 0.2, an addition of ATP induces normal contraction instead of overrelaxation. A possibility is discussed that in a living muscle overrelaxation could provide a siding to prevent damage in case of emergency.


Multidetector row computed tomography with multiplanar (MPR) and 3-dimensional (3D) computed tomographic reconstructions is the method of choice in condylar fractures and in the presence of complications for all types of mandibular fracture. MPR and 3D images are the best diagnostic tools to evaluate mandibular fractures after surgical treatment, both after surgery and during follow-up. The conventional radiography is imprecise in the condylar region due to the complicated anatomical bone structures in the area, the lack of sharpness, and image distortion. Computed tomographic imaging enables the assessment of joint morphology and condyle position in the mandibular fossa 3-dimensionally in the absence of superimposed interfering structures. Moreover, it could evaluate functional of temporomandibular joint thought dynamic acquisition to close and open mouth.


The harmonic loss-minimized optimal PWM strategy for three-level inverters is investigated. The different PWM methods for low, middle and high speed regions are presented. It is shown that for three-level inverters, the optimized strategy in all speed regions differs from the optimal PWM strategy of two-level inverters. The developed optimal control ensures a minimum of motor harmonic losses for a predetermined number of commutations of three-level PWM inverters and for a given value of the fundamental harmonic voltage.<<ETX>>


Mobile technology is pervasive at institutions across the U.S. The study was framed with self-efficacy theory, self-directed learning theory, and the unified theory for acceptance and use of technology. The purpose of this study was to assess undergraduate students' behavioral intention towards mobile technology acceptance in agricultural education courses. The population was undergraduate agricultural leadership students (N = 687) in a department of agricultural education at a land-grant university. Random sampling was employed to assist the researchers in answering the study's objectives and to generalize findings to the target population. Survey research was employed as the data collection method and descriptive statistics, correlations, and multiple regression were implemented to analyze the data. Three hundred forty-four students were surveyed and 88.10% (n = 303) of the sample responded to the survey. Self-efficacy, level of self-directedness, and GPA explained 32% of the variance of students' behavioral intention to use mobile technology. The data suggested students are accepting the use of mobile technology in academic settings to enhance learning. By developing a better comprehension of factors that influence student's behavioral intentions with mobile technology, institutions may improve student learning and better assist institutions achieve strategic objectives through disseminating institutional information with mobile technology.


The physical nature of the X-ray/radio correlation of AGN is still an unsolved question. High angular resolution observations are necessary to disentangle the associated energy dynamics into nuclear and stellar components. We present MERLIN/EVN 18 cm observations of 13 X-raying AGN. The sample consists of Seyfert 1, Narrow Line Seyfert 1, and LINER-like galaxies. We find that for all objects the radio emission is unresolved and that the radio luminosities and brightness temperatures are too high for star formation to play an important role. This indicates that the radio emission in these sources is closely connected to processes that occur in the vicinity of the central massive black hole, also where the X-ray emission is believed to originate in.


Exact solutions are obtained for the mean-field spherical model, with or without an external magnetic field, for any finite or infinite number N of degrees of freedom, both in the microcanonical and in the canonical ensemble. The canonical result allows for an exact discussion of the loci of the Fisher zeros of the canonical partition function. The microcanonical entropy is found to be nonanalytic for arbitrary finite N . The mean-field spherical model of finite size N is shown to be equivalent to a mixed isovector/isotensor σ-model on a lattice of two sites. Partial equivalence of statistical ensembles is observed for the mean-field spherical model in the thermodynamic limit. A discussion of the topology of certain state space submanifolds yields insights into the relation of these topological quantities to the thermodynamic behavior of the system in the presence of ensemble nonequivalence.


Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is the leading cause of liver disease worldwide. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease has expansive extrahepatic morbidity and mortality including increased rates of both cardiovascular disease and venous thromboembolism. Derangements in primary, secondary and tertiary hemostasis are found in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease independent of those ascribed to end-stage liver disease. The abnormalities across all stages of hemostasis explain the increased rates of clinically relevant thrombotic events including pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis and portal vein thrombosis, which on an epidemiologic basis appear to be independent of obesity and other traditional venous thromboembolic risk factors. However, given the complex interaction between obesity, body composition and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and the potential for exercise to benefit all three, more research is needed to further define the role of each in contributing to the prohemostatic state of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in order to improve patient oriented outcomes.


The optimation of ozone production generator that used for cold storage has been done. Ozone generator was constructed by using Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Reactor with single pyrex dielectic. Plasma was generated by HV AC with voltage from 0.5 kV to 11 kV, and frequence of 1 kHZ. This research was conducted in two treatment namely control treatment and ozone treatment by tuna fish, milkfish and shrimp. Ozone treatment are stored into Cold Storage (2 m x 2 m x 2.5 m), temperature (2°C-8°C) with average concentration of ozone distributed into the cold storage for 24 points is 6.2 ppm ± 0,14 ppm. The result showed that the optimum to generate ozone by using variations of power input, air flow rate. we obtained that the highest efficiency of 320 grams / kWh and ozone capacity of 65 grams / hour at 15 L / min flow rate with an input power of 210 watts. The concentration of dissolved ozone in the water containing fish and shrimp is almost the same that is equal to 2 ppm ozone flow for 60 minutes with ozone generator production capacity of 65 gram/hour. We test proximate of milkfish, tuna fish, and white shrimp that storaged in cold room (2°C-8°C), and we found that until days 15 still meet SNI 01-2729.1-2006, as fresh fish and shrimp.


Electronic chirality near the Dirac point is a key property of graphene systems, which is revealed by the spectral intensity patterns as measured by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy under various polarization conditions. Specifically, the strongly modulated circular patterns for monolayer (bilayer) graphene rotate by ±90° (±45°) in changing from linearly to circularly polarized light; these angles are directly related to the phases of the wave functions and thus visually confirm the Berry's phase of π (2π) around the Dirac point. The details are verified by calculations.


Combining existing services to create new pervasive computing services involves special design considerations, including context awareness, contingency management, device heterogeneity, and user empowerment. Service composition is a natural concept around which to structure pervasive systems and individuate parts of them that are suitable for contingency management, application, storage, and so on. The notion of service composition also provides a natural frame for addressing systemic issues such as performance, usability, and security. In this case, such characteristics aren't determined by a particular service but rather by the software architecture-how services are combined.


M-health services are expected to become increasingly relevant in the management of emergency situations by enabling real-time support of remote medical experts. In this context, the transmission of multiple health-related video streams from an ambulance to a remote hospital can improve the efficacy of the teleconsultation service, but requires a large bandwidth to meet the desired quality, not always guaranteed by the mobile network. In order to deliver the multiple streams over a single bandwidth-limited wireless access channel, in this paper we propose a novel optimization framework that enables to classify the available video sources and to automatically select and adapt the best streams to transmit. The camera ranking algorithm jointly works with a cross-layer adaptation strategy for multiple scalable streams to achieve different objectives and/or tradeoffs in terms of number and target quality of the transmitted videos. The final goal of the optimization is to dynamically adjust the overall transmitted throughput to meet the actual available bandwidth, while being able to provide high quality to diagnostic video sequences and lower quality to less critical ambient videos. Numerical simulations considering a realistic emergency scenario with long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) connectivity show that the proposed content/context-aware solution is able to automatically select the best sources of information from a visual point of view and to achieve optimal end-to-end video quality for both the diagnostic and the ambient videos.


Abstract Recording earthquakes with borehole seismometers has become increasingly popular in recent years as the advantages in noise reduction and also the distorting effects of near-surface rocks, especially sediments, have become well known. Borehole recording can be extremely complex, involving active sensors, special cables, and downhole electronics. Such installations, however, are often not very reliable at the high temperatures reached in active tectonic areas at depths of 1 km and greater. Here we describe a simple and reliable system for 3-component recording of local earthquakes at single and multiple depths greater than 1.5 km and temperatures up to 120°C. Our system was designed and developed for experiments in the Cajon Pass Scientific Drillhole of Southern California. The borehole packages are made of titanium with spring-loaded clamping, allowing easy retrieval. Standard seven-conductor oil-well logging cables are used together with a specially designed cablehead. The data recorded have been used for investigating earthquake source scaling, attenuation in the mid-crust, and also near-surface site effects.


Computer-aided detection (CAD) is applied during screening mammography for millions of women each year. Despite its popularity, several large studies have observed no benefit in breast cancer detection for practices that use CAD. This lack of benefit may be driven by how CAD information is conveyed to the radiologist. In the current study, we examined this possibility in an artificial task modeled after screening mammography. Prior work at high (50%) target prevalence suggested that CAD marks might disrupt visual attention: Targets that are missed by the CAD system are more likely to be missed by the user. However, targets are much less common in screening mammography. Moreover, the prior work on this topic has focused on simple binary CAD systems that place marks on likely locations, but some modern CAD systems employ interactive CAD (iCAD) systems that may mitigate the previously observed costs. Here, we examined the effects of target prevalence and CAD system. We found that the costs of binary CAD were exacerbated at low prevalence. Meanwhile, iCAD did not lead to a cost on unmarked targets, which suggests that this sort of CAD implementation may be superior to more traditional binary CAD implementations when targets occur infrequently. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).


During the 1993 Alvin dive series to the TAG hydrothermal field, 50 measurements of conductive heat flow were attempted at the 50-m-high, 200-m-diameter TAG active mound. The 43 successful stations included gradient and thermal conductivity measurements made with the 5-thermistor, 0.6- or 1-m-long A/v/« heat flow probes, which with a few exceptions could be pushed into most locations on and off the sulfide mound. The stations were made in a variety of characteristic environments on and off the mound, and were transponder-navigated to an estimated accuracy of ±5 m relative to the 10-m-diameter central complex of black smokers. The distribution of these stations allows a reasonable mapping of coherent patterns in the conductive heat flux from the mound. As might be expected, conductive heat flow values are extremely variable (0.1-86 W/m ) within a few meters of the black smokers, where the station environments were generally pockets of sulfide debris amid larger sulfide rocks with widespread shimmering water indicative of diffuse hydrothermal flow. On the west side of the sulfide rubble plateau that surrounds the central black smoker peak, a coherent belt of very low heat flow ( 5 W/m2) on the sedimented terraces that form the slope down from the "Kremlin" area of white smokers, suggesting an extension of the fluid flow processes responsible for the white smokers. Heat flow is also high (0.3-3 W/m2) in the pelagic carbonate sediments on the surrounding seafloor within a few tens of meters of the southwest, northwest, and northeast sides of the mound. The distribution of these areas of high and low heat flow in general supports a possible schematic model of subsurface patterns of heat and fluid flow within the active mound (Tivey et al., 1995), and was used to guide placement of several of the holes drilled during Leg 158.


The Government of Kenya, nongovernmental organizations, and donors are dedicated to promoting and improving easily accessible, affordable, acceptable, and effective family planning methods. These efforts have apparently paid off as recent demographic, health, and fertility surveys show that knowledge of contraceptive use is nearly universal, and that over 90% of men and women are aware of at least one family planning method. However, the unmet need for contraception remains at approximately 26% in Kenya, suggesting that the right of Kenyan couples to access sufficient information concerning their preferred birth control method and the actual use of such methods have not been fully realized. This study focused on a cohort of women utilizing health facilities in West Yimbo Division, western Kenya. We concluded that cultural beliefs that equate family planning methods with interference in fecundity and fertility may argue against the use of these methods in the long term. Moreover, the desire to give birth and nurture children, fear of side effects, bride wealth presentations, and disapproval by couples and others may be stumbling blocks to contraceptive use in the study region.


We present a novel decomposition of nonnegative functional count data that draws on concepts from nonnegative matrix factorization. Our decomposition, which we refer to as NARFD (nonnegative and regularized function decomposition), enables the study of patterns in variation across subjects in a highly interpretable manner. Prototypic modes of variation are estimated directly on the observed scale of the data, are local, and are transparently added together to reconstruct observed functions. This contrasts with generalized functional principal component analysis, an alternative approach that estimates functional principal components on a transformed scale, produces components that typically vary across the entire functional domain, and reconstructs observations using complex patterns of cancellation and multiplication of functional principal components. NARFD is implemented using an alternating minimization algorithm, and we evaluate our approach in simulations. We apply NARFD to an accelerometer dataset comprising observations of physical activity for healthy older Americans.


By using intelligent agents to simulate instruction, agent-based learning environments can serve as a powerful research tool to investigate teaching and learning. The agent metaphor provides a way to operationalize and simulate the "human" aspect of instruction in a more ecologically valid way than other controlled computer-based methods. Additionally, from an architectural perspective, since agents are independent objects in the learning environment, it allows for more flexibility in research design. In particular, agent-based learning environments with multiple agents, such as MIMIC (Multiple Intelligent Mentors Instructing Collaboratively), allow for investigating the effect of multiple mentors or multiple perspectives on a learning topic. Preliminary results from MIMIC research indicate that multiple agents can serve to effectively operationalize instructional theory. In terms of overall impact, creating agent-based learning environments to investigate instructional issues is at the leading edge of revitalized research integrating artificial intelligence with education, and in exploring new paradigms for researching teaching and learning.


Recently, [Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 221501 (2023)] Jacobson and Visser calculated the quantum partition function of a fixed, finite volume of a region with the topology of a ball in the saddle point approximation within the context of Einstein's gravity with or without a cosmological constant. The result can be interpreted as the dimension of Hilbert space of the theory. Here we extend their computation to a theory defined in principle with infinitely many powers of curvature in three dimensions. We confirm their result: The partition function of a spatial region in the leading saddle point approximation is given as the exponential of the Bekenstein-Hawking or the Wald entropy of the boundary of the finite spatial region both in the case of zero and finite cosmological constant. In the latter case, the effective Newton's constant appears in the entropy formula. The calculations lend support to the holographic nature of gravity for finite regions of space with a boundary.


Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is one of the most frequently diagnosed autosomal dominant inherited disorders resulting in neurological dysfunction, including an assortment of learning disabilities and cognitive deficits. To elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying the disorder, we employed a mouse model (Nf1+/−) to conduct a quantitative analysis of ultrastructural changes associated with the NF1 disorder. Using both serial light and electron microscopy, we examined reconstructions of the CA1 region of the hippocampus, which is known to play a central role in many of the dysfunctions associated with NF1. In general, the morphology of synapses in both the Nf1+/− and wild‐type groups of animals were similar. No differences were observed in synapse per neuron density, pre‐ and postsynaptic areas, or lengths. However, concave synapses were found to show a lower degree of curvature in the Nf1+/− mutant than in the wild type. These results indicate that the synaptic ultrastructure of Nf1+/− mice appears relatively normal with the exception of the degree of synaptic curvature in concave synapses, adding further support to the importance of synaptic curvature in synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory. Synapse, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This article validates a conceptual model of the relationship among training, ability, and acceptance of information technology (IT) within organizations. Previously developed to explain the relationship for end users, the model is tested for information systems personnel as well. To examine these variables (training, ability, and acceptance) and their interrelationships, an instrument was developed, pretested, and completed by 232 employees at eight different organizations. Based on the results of this study, the model is validated for both IS personnel and end users of information technology, indicating that positive relationships exist between (1) the IT-related training of an individual and his/her ability to use IT, (2) an individual's ability to use IT and his/her use of IT, and (3) an individual's ability to use IT and his/her satisfaction with IT. The implications and possibilities for further research are discussed.


Hyperacusis is a recognized perceptual consequence of acoustic overexposure that can lead to debilitating psychosocial effects. Despite the profound impact of hyperacusis on quality of life, clinicians and researchers lack objective biomarkers and standardized protocols for its assessment. Outcomes of conventional audiologic tests are highly variable in the hyperacusis population and do not adequately capture the multifaceted nature of the condition on an individual level. This presents challenges for the differential diagnosis of hyperacusis, its clinical surveillance, and evaluation of new treatment options. Multiple behavioral and objective assays are emerging as contenders for inclusion in hyperacusis assessment protocols but most still await rigorous validation. There remains a pressing need to develop tools to quantify common nonauditory symptoms, including annoyance, fear, and pain. This review describes the current literature on clinical and investigational tools that have been used to diagnose and monitor hyperacusis, as well as those that hold promise for inclusion in future trials.


Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) (InSAR) systems allow 3-D reconstruction of observed scene. In this paper, an innovative approach for phase unwrapping and digital elevation model (DEM) generation using multichannel InSAR data is presented. The proposed algorithm, exploiting both the amplitude and phase of the available complex data, is able to unwrap and simultaneously regularize the observed data. In particular, the exploitation of amplitude data within the unwrapping chain helps in preserving sharp discontinuities typical of urban areas. As a result, the technique provides accurate DEM reconstructions. For this aim, a Markovian approach, together with a new graph-cut-based optimization algorithm, has been considered. The method has been developed specifically to work in urban areas with very high resolution InSAR image stacks, being able to automatically compensate possible phase offsets. Results on both simulated and real case studies are reported, showing the effectiveness of the method.


Background: The influence of PAD4 concentration and its polymorphisms in SAKI development are poorly evaluated. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate the PAD 4 concentration and PADI4 polymorphisms, as predictors of AKI development, need for renal replacement therapy (RRT), and mortality in patients with septic shock. Methods: We included all individuals aged ≥ 18 years, with the diagnosis of septic shock at ICU admission. Blood samples were taken within the first 24 hours of the patient's admission to determine serum PAD4 concentration and its polymorphism PADI4 (rs11203367) and (rs874881). Patients were followed during their ICU stay and the development of SAKI was evaluated. Among the patients in whom SAKI developed, mortality and need for RRT were also evaluated. Results: 99 patients were included in the analysis. SAKI developed in approximately 51.5% of patients during the ICU stay; of these, 21.5% required RRT and 80% died. There was no difference between PAD4 concentration (p = 0.116) and its polymorphisms rs11203367 (p = 0.910) and rs874881 (p = 0.769) in patients in whom SAKI did or did not develop. However, PAD4 had a positive correlation with plasma urea concentration (r = 0.269 and p = 0.007) and creatinine (r = 0.284 and p = 0.004). The PAD4 concentration and PADI4 polymorphisms were also not associated with RRT and with mortality in patients with SAKI. Conclusion: PAD4 concentration and its polymorphisms were not associated with SAKI development, the need for RRT, or mortality in patients with septic shock. However, PAD4 concentrations were associated with creatinine and urea levels in these patients.


As a group of economically important fish in China, groupers ( Epinephelus spp.) are facing with insufficiency of high-quality gametes and germ plasm resource degradation. This situation has severely restricted the healthy develop ment of grouper aquaculture. It is an inevitable choice to breed new varieties or species of groupers to solve these problems. Traditional hybridization and recently developed molecular breeding are effective ways to generate novel high-quality species of groupers. So far, several hybrid groupers have been cultivated in China with significant economic values. The important areas of molecular breeding include Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS) and transgenic breeding. At present, the molecular breeding of groupers in China is focusing on MAS breeding. We have constructed genetic linkage maps and carried out Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) analysis for a couple of groupers. Furthermore, we have cooperated with scientists at Sun Yat-Sen University to sequence the whole genome of orange-spotted grouper ( E. coioides ). All these works will provide a valuable resource for understanding the genetic regulation of growth and establishing the foundation for MAS breeding in groupers. because of rapid growth rates and better disease resistance in recent years [6]. The successful hybridization of groupers are mainly composed of E.


A method for solving a scheduling problem with many complicated constraints is proposed. For a case study of such problems, the authors deal with an optimal production ordering problem in the acid rinsing process of a steelmaking plant. Strong requirements assigned to the constraints usually deteriorate the objective value, and in many cases it is impossible to satisfy all the constraints completely. Therefore, fundamental constraints of the problem are treated as hard constraints, the other constraints as soft or relaxable constraints. The genetic algorithm is applied to this problem. A two-phase method is proposed in such a way that: in Phase 1, relaxable constraints conflicting strongly with the objective function are found; and in Phase 2, the Pareto optimal solutions for representing the tradeoff between the objective value and the relaxation of the constraints are obtained. This method is effective because the computation load for tuning penalty parameters is decreased. Furthermore, the method gives a better result than the real operation data.


Anthropoid images encode reliable biometric information in abundance. Recent research on image-based screening drives this effort to investigate the feasibility of interpreting the inherent nutritional state from multidimensional human body images. However, anthropometric databases are becoming increasingly essential and grow in parallel to achieve efficient system designs. This paper presents a novel imaging-based strategy in an augmented environment to quantify the human anthropometric features with blockchain-based learning to generate a diagnosis report. It includes evaluating the attributes such as height, weight, forearm, wrist, waist, Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC), Knee, Feet, head length from an image using the Augmented Reality and Blockchain-based Transfer Learning for diagnostic accuracy. We developed a novel skeleton known as FETTLE to determine the role of body measures for assessing nutritional conditions and body weight from human body images. It forms an instantly applicable technique aimed at evaluating children's growth patterns all through their initial ages. FETTLE app can also be operated on bedridden people as a screening mechanism to spot their risk of pressure ulcers and undernutrition, followed by a more structured examination. Our approach is superior in accuracy measures with consortium blockchain-based learning context with privacy-preserved medical data sharing and high-end user experience and interaction. Our framework is proved to gain about 97.26% validation accuracy on anthropoid images.


Thin film SOI is a key technology for wireless and RF applications. We demonstrate the successful transfer of a DriftMOS transistor from the 130 nm technology to the 65 nm one on thin SOI. The process option introduced in this node enables to achieve high device performance: due to the new well patterning strategy, the main transistor figure of merit is improved.


Background: OTX015 is a novel inhibitor of the bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) protein family. This synthetic oral small molecule targets the BET transcriptional co-activator proteins BRD2/3/4, which are potential cancer targets particularly in hematologic malignancies. A phase Ib study with OTX015 administered to patients with hematologic malignancies was performed including a pharmacokinetic (PK) investigation. The PK objectives of this study were to determine the PK profile and perform a PK/PD modeling of oral OTX015 using a population approach. Materials and Methods: A multicenter, dose escalation study is underway in cohorts of 3 to 6 patients with acute leukemia and other hematologic malignancies. Patients received oral OTX015 at a starting dose of 10 mg once daily (QD). PK blood samples from 7 time points were collected over 24 h post-administration (complete PK) on Day 1 for leukemia patients and 4 blood samples over 8 h post-administration were collected for patients with other malignancies (limited sampling PK). Plasma concentrations of OTX015 were measured using validated Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography with tandem Mass Spectrometry detection (UPLC-MS/MS) with a concentration range 1 - 250 ng/mL. Analyses and population PK (PPK) modeling were performed with the nonlinear mixed effect modeling software program Monolix version 4.2. Results: From January 2013 to January 2014, 36 patients were treated at four dose levels (10, 20, 40, 80 mg) QD and 40 mg BID. 302 plasma concentrations (289 + 13 BLQ) were analyzed. A 1-compartment open model adequately described the total OTX015 time-concentration curve. The PPK parameters obtained for the structural model were: Ka (absorption constant) = 1.12 h -1 ; V (distribution volume) = 68.6 L and CL (clearance) = 6.65 L/h with a relative standard error of 27%, 9% and 10% respectively. AUC values for all patients increased dose-proportionally (R²= 0.995). The absorption phase was linear and Tmax was between 1 and 4 hours. Mean elimination half-life of OTX015 for all patients was 7.16 h. The main covariate effects in PPK modeling were body weight (BW) which influenced CL, V. No significant gender influence on PK parameters was observed. Conclusions: The PK of OTX015 is best described by a one-compartment model. BW influenced significantly PK parameters of OTX015. AUC-dose proportionality was observed. Evaluation of glucuronidated metabolite concentrations is ongoing and will contribute to understanding the pathways involved in OTX015 metabolism. PK/PD modeling will be performed to describe toxicity and efficacy (6 experienced clinically meaningful activities) in terms of OTX015 PK. A comparison between QD and BID schemes will be performed in order to verify PK profile of OTX015 for each administration. Citation Format: Elodie Odore, Keyvan Rezai, Eugenia Riveiro, Fabrice Bourdel, Patrice Herait, Esteban Cvitkovic, Herve Dombret, Francois Lokiec. A phase I pharmacokinetic study of OTX015 for the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-231. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-LB-231


This study shows that the so-called Chinese problem in Indonesia, rooted in the hatred, prejudice between the Chinese, the indigenous and in the unjust social set-up that is established for the interests of the ruling regime. Related to this, the stories of Jesus' table fellowship in the Gospel of Luke could serve as divine vision for reconciliation between the Chinese and the indigenous. Hence the Indonesian churches should form the character of the Chinese and the indigenous to become persons of embrace, forgiveness, love and justice, by helping them to acquire, cultivate, and practice Christian virtues; by helping them to acknowledge conformation to Christ and the kingdom of God as their telos; by providing Christian narratives through which they can interpret the reality of the world and other narratives, by providing social practices by which they are enabled to recognize and perform Christian virtues. The Indonesian churches should also transform society by being the Church of the Incarnate Christ (the participating church); by being the Church of the Crucified Christ (the redeeming church); and by being the Church of the Risen Christ (the modeling church).


The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) viruses, A/California/07/2009 (H1N1) — like virus, has gone into the post-pandemic period on August 10, 2010. People still have some concerns the virus would likely mutate and become a new pandemic virus in the future. Here, we use MUSCLE program and graphic mapping method to look into the evolutionary characteristics of the 6219 hemagglutinin and 4860 neuraminidase full-length sequences from March 2009 to April 2012. The graphic and statistical analyses showed that the novel pandemic isolates, A/California/07/2009 (H1N1) — like virus, experienced several different times. During the early-pandemic period (03/2009-08/2009), the viruses have spread globally in several clusters and deviated slightly from the recommended vaccine strain, A/California/07/2009. During the pandemic period (09/2009-08/2010), new clusters began to emerge from Asia and North America, and further deviated from the recommended vaccine strain. During the postpandemic period (09/2010-08/2011) and the recent period (09/2011-04/2012), the original cluster with the recommended vaccine isolate, A/California/07/2009, has nearly disappeared. The deviation degree between the new clusters and the vaccine isolate became larger and larger. However, the deviation degree and the deviation speed were low. The WHO did not choose a new vaccine isolate instead of the original vaccine isolate, A/California/07/2009. Even so, it is necessary to monitor continuously the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) viruses.


Corrosion behavior of gas pressure sintered silicon nitride ceramics was investigated in sulfuric acid solution with respect to the effect of solution temperature and to the microstructure of corroded layer. Weight loss of samples after corrosion test was severe in boiling solution as compared with in 90°C solution. Nevertheless strength degradation occurred similarly in each solution. The gradual growth of corrosion is considered to be controlled by the dissolution reaction of grain boundary phase of silicon nitride ceramics in sulfuric acid solution. The drastic strength degradation at initial stage is considered to be ascribed to the relaxation of the residual compressive stress during corrosion which was introduced on surfaces of specimens by machining.


It was aimed to determine whether plasma processing could contribute to enhanced capacitance and energy density of activated carbon electrode based electrochemical capacitors, through the formation of additional surface charges. While an increase of up to 35% of the gravimetric capacitance, along with ~ 20% decrease in resistance, was obtained through optimal plasma processing, increased plasma exposure yielded a drastic reduction (/increase) in the capacitance (/resistance). It was also found that the capacitance and resistance modulation was a sensitive function of sample processing as well as electrochemical testing procedure. Considering the complexity of modeling realistic porous matrices, a metric to parameterize the reach of an electrolyte into the matrix has been posited.


In recent decades, an increased effort to increase private retirement savings can be observed, especially in countries where public pensions have been the main source of livelihood during retirement. To increase participation in occupational as well as individual pension plans, states often use financial incentives (personal income tax reductions, preferential tax rates, subsidies). However, experience from studies in various countries shows that these incentives may not be efficient and/or attract mainly high earners. Mobilizing Poles to save for retirement in light of the paradigm shift in pension security in Poland caused by the 1999 reform has proven to be a major challenge. Given the mediocre development of the private pension plan market, a new type of workplace pension plans based on automatic enrollment called Employee Capital Plans (ECP) began to be implemented in 2019. However, despite the plan's favorable funding mechanism, especially from the perspective of low- and middle-income earners, participation remains low. In the article, we argue that a change in the manner in which program participants are being reported their earned rates of return could increase interest in ECP participation. Following the investment performance of 60 FZDs, operating within the framework of ECP in Poland, we show that the total returns presented by the managers of FZDs and Polish FSA are lower than the returns measured from the perspective of participant contributions using the IRR method. Significantly higher results are also achieved by those with low earnings, who can make reduced contributions to ECP. Thus, we recommend the introduction of a standard for the presentation of ECP investment results from the participant's point of view, taking into account the ECP financing mechanism.


Eucalyptus is one of three species( Eucalyptus,poplar,pine) of fast-growing trees in China. Because Eucalyptus grows rapidly,afforestation of a Eucalyptus forest can be achieved in a short period of time making the species a very popular plantation species. China highly praises the use of eucalyptus,especially in Guangxi,Guangdong,Hainan,Fujian and other tropical and subtropical regions. Eucalyptus plantings have a long history and feature several favorable characteristics such as being well adapted to optimum growing conditions in the provinces that led to its popularity. Guangxi is a major area of eucalyptus plantations. The eucalyptus industry has become the one of the dominant and specialized industries of the province,and serves as a source of livelihood for rural people living in Guangxi. The promotion of the industrial development of eucalyptus plantations in Guangxi in this new century not only plays an important role in the overall economic and social development of the province,but also has great significance in the promotion of the sustainable development of the national timber industry and it supports the entire scale of economic and social development. The author reviewed the history of Eucalyptus plantations in Guangxi,which began in the early 19 thcentury from France. In the early19 thcentury,the area of Eucalyptus plantations was small and developed slowly. After the founding of the People' s Republic of China,development of Eucalyptus plantations went through three stages: an initial stage( 1949—1977),apromotional phase( 1978—2000) and a large-scale development phase( 2001—present). Currently, Eucalyptus plantations in Guangxi are widely distributed,cover a large area,exhibit high yield,are effective in providing timber and afforestation,and make great contributions to local economies; these give Eucalyptus a prominent position in forestry of the region. Eucalyptus plantations and forests in Guangxi are distributed in almost all regions with hills and mountains,or near villages and streets. In 2012,the area of Eucalyptus plantations reached 1. 87 million hm2. Currently,Guangxi eucalyptus timber production accounts for over 70% of the region' s total timber production. Eucalyptus plantations in Guangxi have sound economic,ecological,and social characteristics. The annual forest growth,annual harvest volume,and the net increase of forest volume in Guangxi all rank first in the country for Eucalyptus. Eucalyptus is the largest production base of wood in China and provides a strategic core wood supply for the national reserve base. In certain respects,Eucalyptus plantings have many positive ecological effects,such as carbon sequestration and oxygen release providing for e. g. a cleaner environment,forest protection,and climate regulation. The ecological benefits of planting Eucalyptus are significant. In other respects,the massive planting of Eucalyptus in Guangxi inevitably brings negative impacts on the environment. Largescale cultivation of Eucalyptus plantations in Guangxi cause several problems that need to be studied if solutions are to be found,including problems related to water and fertilizer consumption,toxic effects to livestock,as well as desertification,land degradation and disasters related to Eucalyptus plantations. Eucalyptus plantations have created an important industry that is characteristic of Guangxi,and currently provide a source of livelihood for local people. China needs to vigorously develop this industry to provide a source of livelihood for local people by implementing a western-style developmental strategy,and by promoting comprehensive,coordinated and sustainable economic and social development in Guangxi and other western provinces and autonomous regions. In this sense,the prospects for the development of the Eucalyptus industry are very broad. To enable rapid development of the Eucalyptus industry in the new century,we should follow three principles,the principles of enabling sustainable development,adapting to local conditions and developing the process gradually. We need to employ the following six specific measures: scientific planning,rational distribution on the landscape,optimization of the structure of plantations,using reasonable planning methods for the industry,improving conditions for local people,and including the development of technology.


Eschatological fantasies of divine judgment and retribution constitute a common feature of sacred literature and often serve to legitimate violence, both physical and rhetorical, against others. This paper examines allusions to Roman spectacles of violence—which operated part and parcel of imperialist strategies to dominate and intimidate subject populations—in descriptions of final judgment. It argues that these references constitute forms of colonial mimicry, which ambivalently appropriate Roman symbols of power for their own self fashioning. This process, however, is not uniform, but serves different purposes and strategies in different texts and contexts. This article explores examples of such mimicry and asks what it means for visions of the final judgment to reinscribe the very methods of domination that these fantasies seek to displace. Additionally, it considers the role of voyeurism implicit in public disciplinary displays and the implications that imagining eschatological justice as a blood spectacle has for theological conceptions of divine surveillance and control.


Background: 6MWD and FEV1 are used as a one-time measure of functional status, as predictors of morbidity and mortality, and for measuring the response to medical interventions. The additional value of ventilation (VE) monitoring during the 6MWT is unknown.

Aim: Evaluation of VE during the 6MWT and it's correlation with the validated parameters (6MWD and FEV1).

Method: Patients (P) and healthy subjects (H) performed two standard 6MWT (S6MWT) and one 6MWT with VE monitoring (V6MWT), at minimum 1 hour intervals. The inspiratory capacity (IC) was measured before and after the V6MWT. VE profile and correlations between parameters were assessed.

Results: 23P (15 COPD cases) and 5H performed the tests.

The baseline VE did not correlate with FEV1 and 6MWD nor with the baseline or end-of-test IC.

Most subjects reached a VE plateau within the first 3 minutes of the test. The time to a stable VE did not correlate with the V6MWD or FEV1, but with baseline IC (r 0.428).

The peak VE, as well as the difference between initial and final (delta) VE, did however significantly correlate with FEV1 (r 0.696 and 0.686 respectively) and 6MWD (r 0.515 and 0.476 respectively).

Strong correlations were found between FEV1, V6MWD and baseline and end-of-test IC (r > 0,7), but not with the delta IC.

The correlation of ventilatory parameters (IC, peak VE, delta VE) with the 6MWD was proven to be FEV1 dependent as, when controlled for FEV1, these correlations did not remain significant.

Conclusions: Some ventilatory parameters measured during the 6MWT did correlate with the 6MWD and FEV1. The importance of VE profile evaluation during the 6MWT needs further assessment.


Neuroprotection in glaucoma using epoetin beta (EPOβ) has yielded promising results. Our team has developed chitosan-hyaluronic acid nanoparticles (CS/HA) designed to carry EPOβ into the ocular globe, improving the drug's mucoadhesion and retention time on the ocular surface to increase its bioavailability. In the present in vivo study, we explored the possibility of delivering EPOβ to the eye through subconjunctival administration of chitosan-hyaluronic acid-EPOβ (CS/HA-EPOβ) nanoparticles. Healthy Wistar Hannover rats (n = 21) were split into 7 groups and underwent complete ophthalmological examinations, including electroretinography and microhematocrit evaluations before and after the subconjunctival administrations. CS/HA-EPOβ nanoparticles were administered to the right eye (OD), and the contralateral eye (OS) served as control. At selected timepoints, animals from each group (n = 3) were euthanized, and both eyes were enucleated for histological evaluation (immunofluorescence and HE). No adverse ocular signs, no changes in the microhematocrits (≈45%), and no deviations in the electroretinographies in both photopic and scotopic exams were observed after the administrations (p < 0.05). Intraocular pressure remained in the physiological range during the assays (11–22 mmHg). EPOβ was detected in the retina by immunofluorescence 12 h after the subconjunctival administration and remained detectable until day 21. We concluded that CS/HA nanoparticles could efficiently deliver EPOβ into the retina, and this alternative was considered biologically safe. This nanoformulation could be a promising tool for treating retinopathies, namely optic nerve degeneration associated with glaucoma.


This manuscript aims to find out the error in the operations of Fourier Transform (FT) and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) in digital image processing. We apply FT to transform the time-domain signal to the frequency domain signal. FT is a basic technique in the field of Mathematical and Engineering works. We use Fourier analysis in digital image processing. The Fourier analysis represents a lot of things such as filters, transformation, representation, encoding, data processing, and valid more fields. The FFT development in recent times is very important for the case of image processing. FFT is very exquisite and ubiquitous work in Enfield of digital image processing. In this paper, we study FT and FFT to demonstrate how it solves relative technology problems in the field of security of images. Also, we analyzed the error when changing the fraction order inside FFT, what changes in the mean square error, and on which fraction order our mean square error is obtained the least.