The manatee kidney is composed of several closely apposed lobes. These are formed by cortical folds (plicae corticales) that completely isolate the medullae, except where the medullae of adjacent lobes are partially fused. The cortex is continuous; its folds usually are separated, but only partially, by interlobar septa extending from the renal capsule. The cortex makes up approximately 57% of renal mass in adults and 68% in the calf. There are about 3 million glomeruli per kidney. The average is somewhat less than that expected of an adult eutherian of equal mass. The glomeruli, however, are large; they form 7.38% +/- 1.33 of cortical mass, which is above that for at least ten unrelated adult eutherians. The number of glomeruli per gram of cortex is considerably greater in the calf than in the adult. The medullae are about 43% of renal mass. The cortico-medullary thickness ratio is 0.08 to 0.24. All terminal collecting ducts open at a crater (cratera cribrosa) of varying depth. Hair-pin loops occur at all levels of medulla, and apparently all loops bend at their thick segment. Cortical loops occur in the medullary rays. Vascular bundles were evident at the cortico-medullary border and thin tubules extended into the medulla from the central ends of the medullary rays (cortical) in seven out of the nine kidneys. The renal pelvis is separated from the central ends of the cortical folds by delicate fascia through which pass the interlobar vessels. There are no fornices and no infundibula. The collagenous tissue of the pelvic wall extends across most of the pelvic surface of the outer medulla.


The kernel polynomial method (KPM) is a powerful numerical method for approximating spectral densities. Typical implementations of the KPM require an a prior estimate for an interval containing the support of the target spectral density, and while such estimates can be obtained by classical techniques, this incurs addition computational costs. We propose a spectrum adaptive KPM based on the Lanczos algorithm without reorthogonalization, which allows the selection of KPM parameters to be deferred to after the expensive computation is finished. Theoretical results from numerical analysis are given to justify the suitability of the Lanczos algorithm for our approach, even in finite precision arithmetic. While conceptually simple, the paradigm of decoupling computation from approximation has a number of practical and pedagogical benefits, which we highlight with numerical examples.


The dynamic development of genetics in recent decades has opened a new era in medicine. Understanding molecular mechanisms of multiple human diseases has laid the foundations for targeted medical care, based on knowledge of the basic pathogenesis of these diseases. This breakthrough is particularly evident in oncology because knowledge of the molecular basis of cancer leads to a change in the paradigm of medical care for the patients. Gradually, classification and treatment based only on organ location and histopathologic diagnosis is becoming outdated, and so is the classification considering clinical stage and malignancy of the tumour. Personalized treatment for individual patients based on the profile of genetic changes is increasingly common. Defining the genetic aetiology of neoplastic diseases was an achievement that allowed for division of neoplasms into sporadic ones and those which develop due to hereditary predisposition. It also enabled establishment of the molecular classification of neoplasms and more and more frequently – targeted treatment and precise clinical prognosis. This article is the first one in a series of articles written by oncologists and geneticists. We hope that this series will be helpful for oncologists in understanding genetic problems and for geneticists – in understanding oncologic issues.


This paper deals with an embedded fault detection and isolation (FDI)-fault-tolerant control approach applied to an overactuated electric vehicle. This method is described in the following three major steps: 1) trajectory planning based on the inverse kinematic modeling of the vehicle; 2) model-based fault diagnosis of the traction system; and 3) vehicle control reconfiguration in faulty situations. Autonomous vehicles, as studied in this paper, are very suited to accomplish missions in confined space or in hostile environments (in radioactive environments and spatial programs), where the success of the mission is more important than the cost of the additional actuators. The proposed FDI approach provides an early detection of the faults, allowing safe reconfiguration of the system control. Cosimulation results using experimental data show the performances and advantages of the presented approach.


This paper researches the redeployment scheme for wireless sensor networks that consists of mobile sensor nodes and its nodes random deployment at first, and proposes an artificial immune systems based method to the problem that how to determine a movement plan for the sensor nodes in order to maximize the network coverage and minimize the total distance of sensors moving. The method proposed in this paper contains following steps; first, calculate the optimal positions for sensors according to the application requirements; then using AIS based method to calculate the appropriate positions for sensors to redeploy. In AIS based solution, the antibody is the assignment between nodes and optimal positions; the affinity is the total distance of mobile nodes moving. The simulation results show that the AIS based redeployment scheme (AISRD) can provide a shorter convergence time and less of the total distance than the genetic algorithm (GA) based scheme.


Dominant mutations at two newly identified loci, designated SRS1 and SRS2, that metabolically suppress the trimethoprim sensitivity of rad6 and rad18 strains, have been isolated from trimethoprim-resistant mutants arising spontaneously in rad6-1 rad18-2 strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The SRS2 mutations also efficiently suppress the ultraviolet light sensitivity of the parent strains. They do not, however, suppress their sensitivity to ionizing radiation or their deficiency with respect to induced mutagenesis and sporulation. Such observations support the hypothesis that RAD6-dependent activities can be separated into two functionally distinct groups: a group of error-free repair activities that are responsible for a large amount of the radiation resistance of wild-type strains and also for their resistance to trimethoprim, and a group of error-prone activities that are responsible for induced mutagenesis and are also important in sporulation, but which account at best for only a very small amount of wild-type recovery.


From conventional radiograph to magnetic resonance urography, imaging of urinary system has evolved with variety of investigations over the past several decades with each of them having advantages and limitations of their own. In the current era, computed tomography (CT) has emerged as a preferred investigations for evaluation of the urinary tract. There are various techniques involved in performing CT urography (CTU) with triple bolus technique (TB-CTU) currently drawing a special attention because of its low radiation exposure. This article aims to discuss the current techniques, indications, and clinical applications of CTU with illustrations.


Aim The aim of this study was to use Oxford Nanopore sequencing to characterise a Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli(STEC) O63:H6 responsible for a recent case of haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Methods STEC isolate 377323 and a comparator stxnegative E. coli isolate of the same lineage and serotype (382634) were sequenced on an Oxford Nanopore minION R9.4 flow cell and an Illumina HiSeq 2500. Nanopore FAST5 data were basecalled and demultiplexed by Albacore. Assemblies were generated using Unicycler and polished using Nanopolish, Pilon and Racon before screening for prophages using PHASTER. Results The Shiga toxin subtype was confirmed to be stx2f, which is rarely associated with the onset of HUS in STEC. Comparing the two genomes, the stxnegative isolate harboured five prophages compared to eleven prophages in the STEC isolate, with only one in common. Both samples contained an intact locus of enterocyte effacement pathogenicity island. The Shiga toxin encoding prophage was 42.5 kb in size and predicted to contain 71 coding sequences. 377323 also encoded an 85kbp IncFIB plasmid, not present in 382634. This plasmid encodes a traconjugation cassette and the virulence bfpcassette encoding for a type IV bundle forming pili. Conclusion Long read sequencing enabled the characterisation of a rare STEC and related E. coli IN relation to both prophage content and plasmid content and revealed significant differences in the pan-genome in addition to the acquisition of the novel Stx2f phage. This data contributes to the understanding of non-O157 STEC associated with HUS.


As a traditional Chinese medicine, rhubarb has been used in a variety of liver diseases and it is widely used in clinic to prevent and treat acute liver injury. Anthraquinone, as the main medicinal component of rhubarb, can reverse the further development of liver fibrosis caused by acute liver injury. In this study, metabonomics was used to explore the mechanism of different doses of rhubarb anthraquinone on acute liver injury in rats. Rhubarb anthraquinone was administered intragastric to rats at doses of 3.9, 7.8 and 15.6 mg/kg, respectively, for 7 days, and then 30% CCl4 was injected intraperitoneally at the dose of 1 ml/kg to replicate the acute liver injury model. The biochemical indicators content of ALT, AST, ALP, γ-GT, TG, TC, LDL, HDL in serum and GSH, Hyp, SOD, TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8 in liver tissue extract were tested respectively, and liver tissue was histopathologically analysis. At the same time, UPLC-Q-TOF-MS combined with non-targeted metabolomics were used to study the metabolites and metabolic pathways of rhubarb anthraquinone in treating acute liver injury. Compared with normal rats, the contents of ALT, AST, ALP, TG, TC, LDL, γ-GT in serum and Hyp, MDA, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α in the liver tissue extract were significantly increased in model rats (p < 0.05, p < 0.01), and the content of HDL in the serum was significantly decreased (p < 0.05); the activities of GSH and SOD in liver tissue extract were also significantly decreased (p < 0.05). After administration of rhubarb anthraquinone, compared with the model group, with the increase of dosage, some biochemical indexes showed opposite changes, and gradually approached to normal rats. 12 different metabolites were identified by metabonomics, and the biosynthesis and metabolism of phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan, the metabolism of amino sugars, nucleotide sugars and pyrimidines metabolism, and the biosynthesis of steroid hormone were identified based on the biomarker analysis. Based on the biochemical analysis and metabonomics analysis of rats with acute liver injury treated with different doses of rhubarb anthraquinone, combined with histopathological observation, the results show that the protective effect of rhubarb anthraquinone on acute liver injury is related to the dosage; Meanwhile, the metabolic pathway analysis suggested that rhubarb anthraquinone alleviate acute liver injury by regulating inflammation, oxidative stress and fibrosis disorders. This study explained the therapeutic effect of rhubarb anthraquinone on acute liver injury from both material basis and action pathway, and provided safe and effective research ideas for clinical application of rhubarb.


The purpose of the article is to show the possibilities of using blockchain in logistics. In the modern world, digital technologies are used in various fields including logistics. An important achievement of modernity is blockchain. Initially, its using was related to the field of cryptocurrencies, in particular, bitcoin. Based on analysis the article reflected the essence of the blockchain, features of its functioning, marked advantages and disadvantages. The directions of using blockchain in logistics are highlighted.


To develop Army psychiatry residents' skills in community and combat psychiatry, the 7th Infantry Division (Light) and Letterman Army Medical Center have begun a unique training program that is built on collaboration between academic medical departments and combat infantry battalions. This article outlines the program's development, its operation, and gives a qualitative assessment of its first year.


Intellectual disability (ID) is characterized by significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior, identified prior to the age of 18. In the present study we conducted personal interviews with parents to investigate personality traits of children with ID within the framework of the Five-Factor Model (FFM). We used two approaches (free descriptions and psychological questionnaire) and examined personality from two different perspectives (both parents). Although personality of normative children has been a subject of research over the last decades, it is understudied in children with ID. Personality traits may present some of the strengths in children with ID, have relatively high predictive value for important developmental outcomes, and are therefore recommended to be assessed. We explored personality traits with a sample of 100 children with ID from different regions of Slovenia, who were not institutionalized. The results were compared with those obtained with the sample of 111 normative children. The FFM was found useful in examining the personality of children with ID. A majority (70%) of the parental free descriptions of children with ID were coded in FFM categories, whereas responses outside these categories mainly referred to a child´s disability. The proportions of descriptions in the FFM categories for children with ID were significantly lower relative to their normative peers. In children with ID the desired traits (openness, conscientiousness and extraversion) and disagreeableness were rated lower in comparison to normative children. In the context of etiological approach, we mainly compared characteristics of children with Down syndrome (DS) and children with autism. For the two groups and also for a group of physically disabled children with ID, we developed profiles of parent-perceived expression of personality traits in comparison to other children with ID. Children with DS were more frequently described as more sociable and agreeable (amiable), and rated higher on sociability, conscientiousness and openness to experience when assessed with a questionnaire. The differential expression of traits revealed in this study refers to higher levels of positive emotions, consideration and organization. Children with autism are frequently described and rated as high in activity, their parents reported on lower levels of child conscientiousness, sociability and openness to experience in comparison to other children with ID. Expected frequencies of descriptions of children with autism as less agreeable and less emotionally stable were not empirically supported. Children with physical impairment and associated ID were rated lower on activity relative to other children with ID. The differences between etiological groups of children with ID were mainly significant for three FFM dimensions (extraversion, openness and conscientiousness) and their mid-level traits but not for disagreeableness and neuroticism. We discuss possible reasons for the observed differences, compare data with previous findings on the personality of the specific etiological groups of children with ID, and evaluate the work in terms of practical implications. Alongside with study limitations we offer suggestions for further research, since studies on personality of children with ID is scarce, especially in Slovenia.


Z-Source Inverters (ZSI) have been recently proposed as an alternative power conversion concept as they have both voltage buck and boost capabilities. ZSI is an unique X-shaped impedance network that couples the converter main circuit to the power source. Among various topologies of ZSI, the concepts of SwitchedInductor and Trans Z-Source topologies are integrated into the classical Z-Source impedance network and their performance characteristics are considered in this work. The resulting topologies have enhanced voltage boosting capability. Switched-Inductor ZSI increases voltage boost inversion ability significantly. Trans Z-Source impedance network also leads to an enhanced boost ability assisted by the transformer. In power electronics, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) have been the subject of intensive research and it is widely employed to control the output voltage of static power converters. Here, Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) is implemented, which is a controlling technique in modulation. SVPWM can optimize the output voltage waveform of the inverter. A comparative study of boosted input voltage of various inverter topologies and also different PWM techniques are observed. This work explores the application of PWM methods in the estimation of power electronic waveforms are simulated using MATLAB.


During a period of intense rainfall (May 2019), several specimens of land flatworms were collected from a private garden in Palazzolo dello Stella (Friuli Venezia Giulia, Udine, Italy: 45°47'40.5"N, 13°05'17.2"E). Planarians were found both in a cultivated part of the garden and in a part covered with gravel and with trees and shrubs (Pyracantha sp., Olea europaea, Pyrus communis). The animals were observed under branches, stones, tufa blocks, and pots close to a small artificial pond, but also in other parts of the garden, as well as inside buildings.


A fiber inline Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based on a microcavity with two symmetric openings in single-multi-single mode fiber (SMSF) structure is proposed. By using the finite difference beam propagation method (FD-BPM), the interference spectrum simulation result shows that the MZI can still have high-quality interference even if the microcavity deviates along the radial direction for 3 μm. Therefore, it allows a larger fabrication tolerance and tremendously decreases the fabrication difficulty. Then a microcavity with two symmetric openings in SMSF was fabricated by using femtosecond laser-induced water breakdown. The insertion loss of the microcavity immerged in water is only -8  dB, and the MZ interference peak contrast in the transmission spectrum reaches more than 30 dB. The MZI based on the microcavity in SMSF can be used as a practical liquid refractive index sensor as its high-quality interference spectrum, ultrahigh sensitivity (9756.75 nm/RIU), high refractive index resolution (2×10-5  RIU), good linearity (99.93%), and low-temperature crosstalk (0.04 nm/°C).


In this paper, a novel algorithm for microscopic color cell image edge detection based on Pulse Coupled Neural Networks (PCNN) is presented. Microscopic color image edge detection has proven to be a difficult task due to uneven brightness, cross-color existing between cell boundary and background caused by dyeing and noise. To solve these problems, this paper originally employs an improved PCNN model called multi-dimensional PCNN to implement edge detection of microscopic color cell image. PCNN is an advanced approach which aims at processing color images parellelly rather than separately dispose signal to every channel because it is characterized by synchronous neuronal burst and multi-dimensional convolution. To test the feasibility and effectiveness of multi-dimensional PCNN on edge detection of microscopic color cell images, experiments of several microscopic cell images are carried out. Empirical results show that multi-dimensional PCNN outperforms classical methods in terms of anti-noise and the accuracy of weak edge detection.


Current approaches to field phenotyping are laborious or permit the use of only a few sensors at a time. In an effort to overcome this, a fully automated robotic field phenotyping platform with a dedicated sensor array that may be accurately positioned in three dimensions and mounted on fixed rails has been established, to facilitate continual and high-throughput monitoring of crop performance. Employed sensors comprise of high-resolution visible, chlorophyll fluorescence and thermal infrared cameras, twohyperspectral imagers anddual 3D laser scanners. The sensor array facilitates specific growthmeasurements and identification of keygrowth stageswith dense temporal and spectral resolution. Together, this platform produces a detailed description of canopy development across the crops entire lifecycle, with a high-degree of accuracy and reproducibility. Additional keywords: data processing, computer vision, field scanalyzer, nitrogen, phenomics, scanalyzer. Received 28 April 2016, accepted 2 September 2016, published online 2 November 2016


The National Library of Medicine awards grants for the planning and development of Integrated Academic Information Management Systems (IAIMS). The goal is to create mechanisms in health institutions and organizations to more effectively manage the knowledge of medicine. A background and description of the IAIMS Grant Program is given with emphasis on the planning phase. General observations and comments are made about IAIMS activities to date. A brief discussion about IAIMS futures is also included. © 1988 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


The main objective for this research is to design an economical and robust swarm system to achieve phototaxis. The system combines swarm intelligence with centroidal Voronoi tessellations (CVT) to localize and track a dynamic moving light source. A small group of static mesh sensors is used to observe the environment while mobile actuators move according to their CVT. This paper also proposes a solution to decrease the number of sensors needed for CVT convergence with a light estimation algorithm. This new algorithm can find the approximate location of a light source by a general light distribution equation according to light sensor readings. Experiments are conducted both in simulation and on an actual mobile robot platform which show the flexible and robust nature of CVTs over other behavioral swarm algorithms. The complete phototaxis algorithm is presented in a specific swarm design procedure.


Importance Accurate long-term breast cancer risk assessment for women attending routine screening could help reduce the disease burden and intervention-associated harms by personalizing screening recommendations and preventive interventions. Objective To report the accuracy of risk assessment for breast cancer during a period of 19 years. Design, Setting, and Participants This cohort study of the Kaiser Permanente Washington breast imaging registry included women without previous breast cancer, aged 40 to 73 years, who attended screening from January 1, 1996, through December 31, 2013. Follow-up was completed on December 31, 2014, and data were analyzed from March 2, 2016, through November 13, 2017. Exposures Risk factors from a questionnaire and breast density from the Breast Imaging and Reporting Data System at entry; primary risk was assessed using the Tyrer-Cuzick model. Main Outcomes and Measures Incidence of invasive breast cancer was estimated with and without breast density. Follow-up began 6 months after the entry mammogram and extended to the earliest diagnosis of invasive breast cancer, censoring at 75 years of age, 2014, diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ, death, or health plan disenrollment. Observed divided by expected (O/E) numbers of cancer cases were compared using exact Poisson 95% CIs. Hazard ratios for the top decile of 10-year risk relative to the middle 80% of the study population were estimated. Constancy of relative risk calibration during follow-up was tested using a time-dependent proportional hazards effect. Results In this cohort study of 132 139 women (median age at entry, 50 years; interquartile range, 44-58 years), 2699 invasive breast cancers were subsequently diagnosed after a median 5.2 years of follow-up (interquartile range, 2.4-11.1 years; maximum follow-up, 19 years; annual incidence rate [IR] per 1000 women, 2.9). Observed number of cancer diagnoses was close to the expected number (O/E for the Tyrer-Cuzick model, 1.02 [95% CI, 0.98-1.06]; O/E for the Tyrer-Cuzick model with density, 0.98 [95% CI, 0.94-1.02]). The Tyrer-Cuzick model estimated 2554 women (1.9%) to be at high risk (10-year risk of ≥8%), of whom 147 subsequently developed invasive breast cancer (O/E, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.67-0.93; IR per 1000 women, 8.7). The Tyrer-Cuzick model with density estimated more women to be at high risk (4645 [3.5%]; 273 cancers [10.1%]; O/E, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.69-0.88; IR per 1000 women, 9.2). The hazard ratio for the highest risk decile compared with the middle 80% was 2.22 (95% CI, 2.02-2.45) for the Tyrer-Cuzick model and 2.55 (95% CI, 2.33-2.80) for the Tyrer-Cuzick model with density. Little evidence was found for a decrease in relative risk calibration throughout follow-up for the Tyrer-Cuzick model (age-adjusted slope, −0.003; 95% CI, −0.018 to 0.012) or the Tyrer-Cuzick model with density (age-adjusted slope, −0.008; 95% CI, −0.020 to 0.004). Conclusions and Relevance Breast cancer risk assessment combining classic risk factors with mammographic density may provide useful data for 10 years or more and could be used to guide long-term, systematic, risk-adapted screening and prevention strategies.


. Subject. This article is devoted to the relationship between the new tool for promoting innovation-oriented projects crowdinvesting, which is a promising direction for financing high-risk innovative projects, and the venture capital market in individual countries of the world, which is caused by the relevance and controversy of scientific views in solving emerging problems in the development prospects. this phenomenon in the modern economy. Crowdinvesting as a way of attracting capital-generating investments is a new phenomenon, which is practically unexplored in Russian science, which makes the topic of research particularly relevant. Intention. Analysis of the categorical approach of crowdinvesting, identifying its strengths and weaknesses, determining the prospects for the development of the domestic crowdinvesting market, taking into account foreign experience. Methodology. Used comparative analysis, scientific knowledge and methods based on logical reasoning. Results. A study of the types and forms of crowdinvesting and the foreign legal aspects of its regulation highlighted the advantages weaknesses and the role of crowdinvesting as a source of alternative financing for innovation. Analysis of European statistics allowed make a conclusion about the increased importance of alternative financial sources and, in particular, equity investments. In Russia, equity investing for now has not found wide application. Further development of equity investments is related to the organization secure payment systems, providing a regulatory framework and information support for alternative sources of funding. Findings. The study may be helpful in terms of how expanding the possibilities of financing innovation, and consider equity investments as a factor in macroeconomic growth.


This report reviews the author's experience and the results of a multicenter study with regard to the use of recombinant human erythropoietin (Epo) in predialysis patients. The data demonstrate that Epo corrects anemia and improves quality-of-life assessment and exercise capacity in patients who are not dialyzed, but who have renal insufficiency. The incidence of hypertension was 22% in the Epo-treated subjects and 19% in the placebo group. Within the Epo-treated group, there appears to be a greater frequency of hypertensive events in those subjects receiving the higher dosages. The concern that Epo might accelerate the deterioration of renal function is not substantiated by several clinical studies.


In order to measure the longitude difference between two distant sites, Inoh Tadataka and his technical team observed three lunar eclipses when surveying the Japanese Islands at the beginning of the 19 th century, and left some observation records. The local times when the partial eclipses began and ended were measured with a pendulum clock. By introducing the equation of time to the calendar date of the observations, the time difference can be obtained between the local time observed by Inoh and the lunar eclipse timetable of NASA shown in Japanese Standard Time at 135E degrees of longitude. Consequently, the accuracy of the longitude survey performed by Inoh Tadataka is evaluated in comparison to the precise map of the Geographical Survey Institute.


This article identifies deficiencies in the article of Bernauer et al. (2020) in performing and describing shake table and numerical (synthetic) testing of newly designed seismic instruments for recording complex translational and rotational motion. In my opinion, this is a result from a deficiency in referencing previously published peer-reviewed papers in this area. I also disagree with Bernauer et al. (2020) interpretation of the origin of errors in a vertical sensor's recording because the sensitivity of a vertical pendulum type sensor to small tilts is much lower than that of the horizontal. Complete differential equations of pendulum-type horizontal and vertical seismometers are presented and examples of previously performed numerical and shake table tests of seismic instruments are shown.


Few studies have addressed the potential changes in particulate matter (PM) exposure occurring in major metropolitan areas over substantial time periods, e.g., 5 or 10 years. The present study examined changes in the PM_(2.5) concentration and elemental composition between two monitoring campaigns carried out in 2002-2005 and 2010-2011 within the Greater Cincinnati area (USA). This area is recognized for high volume of diesel truck traffic (about 10 million trucks annually on regional freeways). The 24-hour filter samples were collected at four sites. General linear models were used to examine differences between the two data sets for elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), and EC/OC. The comparison was extended to the concentrations of PM_(2.5) and its relevant elemental constituents. At one site, which was previously identified as a particularly hot spot for traffic/diesel air pollution, the concentrations of most traffic related elements as well as EC and EC/OC ratio significantly decreased (p < 0.05) between the two campaigns. No significant differences between carbon data generated in the two campaigns were observed at the other three monitoring stations. These findings did not depend on whether the comparison model accounted for wind speed and direction. The EC/OC determined in the recent campaign across all sites showed no significant differences between the Summer and Fall data but Winter values were significantly lower. The site with the highest traffic influence revealed no significant seasonal difference in PM_(2.5) but essentially all relevant elements showed significant seasonal variations between the Fall (higher) and Winter (lower). The findings suggest that air quality and engine exhaust control policies implemented between 2005 and 2010 have not produced significant changes in metropolitan traffic air pollution levels. However, the decreasing trends in PM_(2.5), Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Zn, Br, and Pb, EC, OC, and EC/OC may become sustainable over a longer time.


Whereas network theorems are widely used for the reduction and simplification of networks of a substantial degree of complexity, they tend to be neglected when complex systems are to be solved on a network analyzer. The network analyzer has proved to be a very satisfactory tool for power network analysis, but a review of the situation is profitable for cases of large problems which may exceed the number of impedance units available. There are two main general aspects to the use of network theorems: 1. The use of theorems for the specific investigation of a portion of a network, or the relationship between two portions of a network, e.g., Thevenin's, or the compensation, theorem. 2. The use of techniques of successive reduction, e.g., mesh-to-star transformation.


BACKGROUND
Prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the injecting drug user (IDU) community can differ considerably. In Australia in 1997, HIV prevalence among attendees at Needle Exchange Programs was 1% while HCV prevalence was 50%. The impact that different needle-sharing behaviour and drug injecting use may have on the future levels of these viruses is uncertain.

METHOD
We develop a mathematical model of the number of people who inject drugs with each of these infections to determine their changes under different scenarios. The impact of transmission probabilities and needle sharing on the incidence and prevalence of HIV and HCV infections are assessed.

RESULTS
Critical levels of needle sharing, below which total infections would fall to minimal levels, were estimated to be 17 IDU partners per year for HIV compared with 3 IDU partners per year for HCV. Current average levels of needle sharing in Australia are estimated to be six IDU partners per year.

CONCLUSIONS
This analysis suggests that under current drug injecting behaviour, HIV prevalence in IDU in Australia should remain below 1% but that HCV prevalence will stay elevated.


1.2 Introduction and History The RTCA organization has supported the FAA for many years in developing DO-xxx type documents. From 2006-2012, the RTCA Special Committee (SC)-203 worked with the FAA to develop the standard to support UA flights within the NAS, including small UASs (sUASs). Using this initial work, the (SC)-203 made a presentation to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for a spectrum allocation.


Summary Bedsores (UPPs) should be viewed as a multifaceted problem, but the direct relationship which exists between these lesions and the pressure which is exercised between the surface one rests on and a zone having a prominent bone bears significant weight. Therefore, the following are some basic measures which can prevent bedsores: mobility posture changes, local protection and the use of special surfaces for the management of pressure.


PURPOSE
Cardiac manifestations of Takayasu's arteritis are rarely reported in the literature. However, these symptoms are not rare and when they do occur, they determine the disease prognosis. Due to its frequency, its severe nature, and even sometimes diagnosis failure, high blood pressure is the major cause of cardiac manifestations. More specific cardiac manifestations of either coronary, valvular, or more rarely, myocardial origin may also occur.

METHODS
Analysis of five cases of Takayasu's arteritis and a literature review allowed evaluation of both the frequency and characteristics of this disease.

RESULTS
Four female and one male patients presenting with symptoms of Takayasu's arteritis, according to Fiessinger's score, were evaluated. Diagnosis of cardiac disease was based on clinical, echocardiographic and angiographic criteria. Four patients had related high blood pressure. Valvular manifestations were present in all the patients. They included mitral insufficiency (1 case); aortic insufficiency (2 cases), and both mitral and aortic insufficiency (2 cases). Two patients showed clinical manifestations of a myocardiac disease, and another showed coronary signs. Treatment did not involve surgery, including only antihypertensive drugs, nitrites, and diuretics associated with digitalin in case of cardiac failure. The disease outcome, including a 5-18 year follow-up, involved symptom decrease in all the patients.

CONCLUSION
Despite the rarity of cardiac manifestations in patients suffering from Takayasu's arteritis, symptoms of this disease should always be investigated, as these manifestations alter the prognosis. Aortic insufficiency is the most frequently encountered cardiac manifestation.


Nano-silica is one of the most used nano-materials, and its use is rising 5.6% per year to reach a projected 2.8 million metric tons in 2016 with a value of $6.4 billion. The current production methods involve steps with high temperatures resulting in environmentally unfriendly and expensive process. The production of nano-silica by the dissolution of olivine is an interesting alternative to the existing commercial methods because of the good quality of the resulting silica and low energy requirements and CO2 emissions. Olivine nano-silica is produced in a very acidic environment, much more acidic than the isoelectric point of the silica. The particle and pore structure development of silica under these acidic conditions has only been studied by a few researchers. The main aim of this study is to develop a model about the particle and pore formation of silica in very acidic environments. Nano-silicas prepared via the olivine route were analyzed to determine their pore structure and SSANMR. The pore structure was determined using the nitrogen physisorption, NMR and PALS (positron annihilation spectroscopy) techniques. The development of the nano-silica structure during the olivine process can be described by the following steps: 1) initially, soluble silica nucleates and primary particles of around 2 nm are formed; 2) the silica particles grow via a condensation route, forming linear chains; 3) as the growth continues, the silica particles keep increasing in size, resulting in 3D networks; and 4) with time, the aggregates become bigger and more compact. The final result of the olivine process is agglomerates as big as 20 ?m. In addition, internal pores (also called closed pores) are developed with the reaction conversion degree as the result of condensation of two blocks of silica particles.


Miles Fletcher examines the role of the Japanese business community in helping the nation solve an unprecedented combination of economic challenges in the 1920s and 1930s: chronic trade deficits, world depression, rampant protectionism, and mobilization for war in Asia. Because of such severe crises, business executives changed their attitudes toward foreign trade and types of national economic policies needed to succeed in a global marketplace. After trade deficits began occurring in the 1920s, business leaders and business groups became obsessed with finding ways of expanding trade and ensuring a healthy balance of exports and imports. The onset of worldwide depression in 1930 brought trade barriers to Japanese exports in every major market, and the failure of the World Economic Conference in London in 1933 made prospects even more bleak. The idea that companies in each industrial sector would have to cooperate through national cartels began to take hold. Although the business community did not always operate as a unified interest group, its leaders in the interwar decades made progressively more effective attempts to secure a consensus on important proposals. As trade problems mounted, businessmen in many instances urged the increased national control of trade, with government officials and corporate executives working together to form policies. According to Fletcher, business attitudes toward foreign trade and the role of the government that developed during the economic crises of the 1920s and 1930s helped make Japan an economic power today. Japan is an economic power today because of the techniques developed during the period of economic crisis following World War I. After World War II, business leaders once again collaborated closely with the government to guide the nation to economic recovery and then to prominence as a trading power. Fletcher concludes that the travails of the interwar period forged a conviction that the Japanese business community has maintained well into the 1980s as a guiding concept: the task of expanding Japan's international trade resembles a form of competitive warfare demanding national strategies. Originally published in 1989. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.


Separation of fumaric acid from aqueous media with tridodecyl amine (TDA), which is a long chain aliphatic amine, was carried out at 298 K. Different categories of diluents, ketones (methyl iso butyl ketone (MIBK), 2-heptanone, and 2-octanone) and alcohols (isoamyl alcohol, 1-octanol, and 1-decanol) were used to dissolve TDA. Distribution coefficients (KD), extraction efficiency (E), and loading factors (Z) were obtained as a function of experimental results. The most operative diluent was determined as heptan-2-one with the highest distribution coefficient (KD) value of 26.00. In additional to experimental studies, the linear solvation energy relationship (LSER) modeling with included Hidebrand–Hansen solubility parameters was applied for alcoholic diluents. Predicted data by LSER gave good agreement with experimental data.


Speckle noise removal by means of digital image processors could improve the diagnostic potential of medical ultrasound. This paper addresses the speckle suppression issue within the framework of wavelet analysis. As a first step of our approach, the logarithm of the original image is decomposed into several scales through a multiresolution analysis employing the 2-D wavelet transform. Then, we design a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator, which relies on a recently introduced statistical representation for the wavelet coefficients of ultrasound images [1]. We use an alpha-stable model to develop a blind noise-removal processor that performs a non-linear operation on the data. Finally, we compare our technique to current state-of-the-art denoising methods applied on actual ultrasound images and we find it more effective, both in terms of speckle reduction and signal detail preservation.


Recent studies have shown that a hybrid of self-attention networks (SANs) and recurrent neural networks (RNNs) outperforms both individual architectures, while not much is known about why the hybrid models work. With the belief that modeling hierarchical structure is an essential complementary between SANs and RNNs, we propose to further enhance the strength of hybrid models with an advanced variant of RNNs – Ordered Neurons LSTM (ON-LSTM, Shen et al., 2019), which introduces a syntax-oriented inductive bias to perform tree-like composition. Experimental results on the benchmark machine translation task show that the proposed approach outperforms both individual architectures and a standard hybrid model. Further analyses on targeted linguistic evaluation and logical inference tasks demonstrate that the proposed approach indeed benefits from a better modeling of hierarchical structure.


We design an optimal grid pattern such that an observed image of a small portion of it can be matched to its corresponding position in the pattern easily. The grid shape is so determined that the cross ratio of adjacent intervals is different everywhere. The cross ratios are generated by an optimal Markov process that maximizes the accuracy of matching. Finally, we show a virtual studio application of our pattern.


Global pressure has intensified to reduce the use of R-404A due to high global warming potential and relatively high leak rates in supermarket systems. In Europe, several design modifications such as cascade systems and new refrigerant choices are being investigated. One of the new leading options is to utilize a hybrid cascade system using CO2 in low temperature refrigeration circuit and R-134a in medium temperature. R-134a has higher efficiency than R-404A and about one third the direct global warming potential (GWP). To make even greater gains in GWP reduction, a new lower GWP refrigerant has been developed that is retrofittable in the medium temp R-134a circuit with minimal system changes. This refrigerant has less than half the GWP of R-134a and is also non-flammable. This paper will show results of experimental calorimeter and supermarket system performance. A TEWI analysis will also be presented to demonstrate the significant reduction in environmental impact if XP10 is used in a hybrid cascade system with CO2.


This work uses a software package created at the University of Sheffield to examine the effects of uncertainties on acoustic emission responses. This software implements a finite difference scheme called the Local Interaction Simulation Approach (LISA) to numerically model acoustic emission waveforms in a given structure. Uncertainties are then introduced into the parameters of this algorithm and the effects on the acoustic emission responses are observed. Finally, acoustic emission testing is performed on a corresponding experimental test structure to ensure that the software predictions are accurate in the presence of uncertainties.


Do you have a vision? This issue of IEEE Potentials is about medical technology. I want to consider vision as a concept that encompasses more than just the physical ability to see or technology that helps with physical vision. Most organizations have mission and vision statements. A mission statement defines the organization's business, its objectives, and its approach to reaching those objectives, whereas a vision statement describes the desired future position of the organization. The mission statement describes what you want to do now, and the vision statement outlines what you want to be in the future. The IEEE's mission statement is "IEEE's core purpose is to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity."


In the present study the alpha 1 selective agonist phenylephrine (PE), the alpha 2 selective agonist clonidine (CLO) and the non-selective endogenous catecholamine norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA) were injected directly into the blood supply of the paravertebral sympathetic ganglia (PSG) of anesthetized open-chest dogs. Intra-arterial injection of all agonists produced dose-dependent decreases in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and femoral vascular resistance (FVR) but had no effect on heart rate. Their potency order was CLO greater than NE greater than PE greater than DA. Intravenous injections of the medium dose for NE and PE produced significant increases in MAP, while the medium dose of CLO injected iv produced a small decrease in MAP. The ganglionic blocking agent, hexamethonium (10 mg/kg iv) completely eliminated the hypotensive response to all agonists. Intra-arterial administration of the alpha 1 selective antagonist terazosin (0.5 mg) significantly reduced the decrease in MAP produced by the ganglionic actions of PE, but had no significant effect on the response to CLO. In contrast, the alpha 2 selective antagonist rauwolscine (100 micrograms) significantly reduced the decreases in MAP produced by ia CLO, but not that produced by ia PE. However, both antagonists inhibited the hypotensive effect of NE and DA. These findings suggest that both subtypes of alpha-adrenoceptors, alpha 1 and alpha 2, are present in the PSG and that both subtypes are inhibitory since their activation results in reduced transmission of impulses through the ganglia.


Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer amongst women worldwide, and numerous microRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are involved in the initiation and progression of breast cancer. The aim of the present study was to identify hub miRNAs and determine the underlying mechanisms regulated by these miRNAs in breast cancer. Breast invasive carcinoma transcriptome data (including mRNAs and miRNAs), and clinical data were acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Differential gene expression analysis, co‑expression network analysis, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and prognosis analysis were used to screen the hub miRNAs and explore their functions. Functional experiments were used to determine the underlying mechanisms of the hub miRNAs in breast cancer cells. The results revealed that low miR150 expression predicted a more advanced disease stage, and was associated with a less favorable prognosis. Through the combined use of five miRNA‑target gene prediction tools, 31 potential miR150 target genes were identified. GSEA revealed that low miR150 expression was associated with the upregulation of several cancer‑associated signaling pathways, and the downregulation of several tumor suppressor genes. Furthermore, miR150 independently affected overall survival in patients, and interacted with its target genes to indirectly affect overall and disease‑free survival. Functional experiments demonstrated that miR150 positively regulated B and T lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA), and the downregulation of miR150 and BTLA combined promoted cell migration. In conclusion, the present study revealed that low miR150 expression was associated with less favorable clinical features, upregulation of several carcinogenic signaling pathways, and poor patient survival. Additionally, a miR150‑BTLA axis was suggested to regulate cell viability and migration.


Imaging examinations are necessary in the various clinical situations of malignant tumors including lymphoma, which are differential diagnosis, staging, evaluation of response to treatment, prognosis prediction or early diagnosis of relapse. Generally morphologic imaging(such as CT, MRI and US) and functional imaging(such as gallium scintigraphy and FDG-PET) are used for malignant lymphoma. Especially, CT and FDG-PET have quite important roles for multicenter studies of treatment according to the response criteria of lymphoma. In this chapter, the features of each imaging examinations in lymphoma were explained. In addition, interim PET was mentioned at the end, which is considered as a promising biomarker for stratifying treatment of lymphoma.


Rhythmic {open_quotes}whooshing{close_quotes} sounds associated with rising bubbles are a characteristic feature of many fluidized beds. Although clearly distinguishable to the ear, these sounds are rather complicated in detail and seem to contain a large background of apparently irrelevant stochastic noise. While it is clear that these sounds contain some information about bed dynamics, it is not obvious how this information can be interpreted in a meaningful way. In this presentation we describe a technique for processing bed sounds that appears to work well for beds with large particles operating in a slugging or near-slugging mode. We find that our processing algorithm allows us to determine important bubble/slug features from sound measurements alone, including slug location at any point in time, the average bubble frequency and frequency variation, and corresponding dynamic pressure drops at different bed locations. We also have been able to correlate a portion of the acoustic signal with particle impacts on surfaces and particle motions near the grid. We conclude from our observations that relatively simple sound measurements can provide much diagnostic information and could be potentially used for bed control. 5 refs., 4 figs.


In a cohort of 99 families with a newborn infant in a multi-ethnic poor socio-economic municipality 35 mothers were depressed during the first year. While the clinical manifestations of depression in Australian-born and immigrant mothers were similar, there were differences in some aetiological factors. Immigrant mothers who had recently arrived in Australia, were unable to speak English and did not have a supporting social network had a significantly higher rate of depression. Depressed Australian-born mothers often had unhappy, unstable and insecure childhoods, having been reared in families with marital disruption, violence, alcoholism and desertion. Some also had previous depressive episodes. A strong supporting social network, especially by the father, and also by the extended family and friends, was significant in preventing depression. Behavioural problems in infants and preschool children were more common in families with depressed mothers.


Objective: To analyze the clinical effect of ultrasound-guided erector spinae block combined with pregabalin on post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) in the elderly. Methods: Sixty patients with post-herpetic neuralgia from January 2018 to January 2019 in the Department of Pain, First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College were selected. The patients were divided into two groups according to the random number table (n=30): group C and ultrasound-guided erector spinae block (ESPB) group. Group C was treated with the oral drug pregabalin. ESPB group was treated with ultrasound-guided erector spinae block combined with oral drug pregabalin. The digital rating scale (NRS) score, sleep quality score (QS), total pregabalin dosage, and correlation during treatment were recorded before and after treatment at 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 weeks after treatment. Results: Four weeks after treatment, the scores of NRS and QS in ESPB group were 2.00(2.00-3.00) and 1.00(1.00-2.00) respectively, which were significantly lower than those in group C 3.00(3.00-4.00) and 2.00(2.00-3.00). The differences were statistically significant (Z=-2.318,-2.533, all P<0.05). The dosage of pregabalin in ESBP group was 1.73(1.65-1.99)g, less than that in group C 7.28(7.28-7.28)g, and the difference was statistically significant (Z=-4.916, P<0.05). The NRS score and QS score of ESPB group at the 8th week of follow-up were 2.50(2.00-4.00) and 1.00(0.00-2.00), respectively, which were significantly lower than those of group C 4.00(3.00-4.00) and 1.00(1.00-2.00). The difference was statistically significant (Z=-2.426,-2.691, all P<0.05). The significant effective rate of ESPB group was 70.0%, which was significantly better than that of group C (36.7%). The difference was statistically significant (χ(2)=6.694, P<0.05). Adverse reactions were mild in both groups. Conclusion: Ultrasound-guided erector spinae block can effectively alleviate the pain of elderly patients with PHN in the chest, significantly reduce the dosage of oral drugs, improve the sleep quality of patients, and have higher safety.


Five cases of primary carcinoma of the trachea are summarized together with a review of 97 cases recorded at the Birmingham Cancer Registry between 1957 and 1974. Squamous cell carcinoma is the most frequent type (46.4%) followed by anaplastic and oat cell carcinoma (18.5%). The annual incidence rate is 0.15 per 100 000 in males and 0.06 per 100 000 in females. The mean age at presentation is 60.08 years and 63.89 years for males and females respectively. Although there has been an increase in the number of cases reported over this period, the increase in larynx (43%) and trachea (50%) has not kept pace with that for bronchial carcinoma (85%). Some experimental studies in animals and the results of treatment in 97 cases from the Cancer Registry are reported. A brief summary of methods of treatment for carcinoma of the trachea is included. In suitable cases, primary surgery with direct anastomosis offers the best survival rates, although the overall survival rate is poor.


Abstract Aims: A multisite study of term and near term infants readmitted in the first two weeks of life to 9 New York City area hospitals in 1995 was conducted to evaluate factors related to readmission, including length of newborn stay. Results: Of the 30,884 infants born at the 9 study hospitals 391 newborns were readmitted. The major admission diagnoses were infection, 40.7 %, hyperbilirubinemia, 39.1 %, and feeding and/or gastrointestinal problems, 10.5 %. In the first week, 65.1% of readmissions were for hyperbilirubinemia and 19.1% were for infection or suspected sepsis. In the second week, 67.8% of readmissions were for infection and 7.6% were for hyperbilirubinemia. Hyperbilirubinemia was the most frequent diagnosis for White and Asian infants, while infection was most frequent for African-American and Hispanic infants. Age at readmission was younger and the interval from discharge was shorter for infants with hyperbilirubinemia. Abnormalities which should have precluded early discharge included feeding difficulties, cyanotic congenital heart defects, hemolytic disease of the newborn, early jaundice or early high bilirubin levels. Conclusion: Attention to identification of infants at risk and programs such as lactation counseling and universal screening for bilirubin (with appropriate interpretation) prior to discharge could have reduced the necessity for readmission regardless of the newborn length of stay.


The Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks main objective is to support the next generation wireless communication systems. But most of the LTE approaches are suffer from decoding latency. Hence results in drop of data rate and this is not supported by the 4G LTE standards. To overcome this few parallel architectures has been introduced with the cost of power and silicon chip area. One promising decoding algorithm to overcome the decoding latency is Maximum a Posteriori (MAP) algorithm. The MAP has two computationally challenging α and β units. These two units have critical path and are to be reduced. A novel architecture for Add-Compare-Select (ACS) is proposed with clock gating techniques to reduce the unnecessary power dissipation across the recursive computational units. The proposed technique is applied with max-log MAP algorithm to precise the approximation. The overall design in implemented in a 45nm CMOS technology and results in 179.2mW of power dissipation which results in 34.6% less power compared to reported design while monitoring the moderate or same throughput level.


Four novel tetrathienyl-substituted boron-dipyrrin-type (BODIPY-type) complexes, 3-(R')-4,4-di(R')-8-R-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (4a, R = 2-T, R' = 2-T; 4b, R = 3-T, R' = 2-T; 5a, R = 2-T, R' = 3-T; 5b, R = 3-T, R' = 3-T; T = thienyl) have been prepared and fully characterized to explore patterns of stoichiometric Mn+ recognition in solution. Treatment of the respective parent BF2 dipyrrin with 2- or 3-thienyllithium gave the unexpected asymmetric tetrathienyl-substituted products in 8.5-35% yield. Compounds 4a and 4b bear a neutral "scorpionate"-like [SSS] tridentate binding pocket. Extensive NMR and UV-vis spectroscopic studies were performed on 4a-5b; 5a, 4b, and 5b were structurally characterized. The PhiF values for 4a-5b all decrease compared to the BF2-containing parent molecules (0.00058, 0.012, 0.00090, and 0.0051, respectively), with lambda(abs,max) values (epsilon, M(-1) cm(-1)) of 563 (44,000), 553 (29,000), 539 (33,000), and 531 (44,000) nm, respectively, and Stokes' shifts of 25-36 nm. Upon treatment with metal ion (Ca2+, Cs+, Mn2+, Co2+, Cu2+, Ag+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Hg2+, Pb2+) perchlorate salts, the solution of 4b undergoes rapid pink-to-clear switch-off behavior upon Cu2+ addition (10 microM scale) with smaller effects seen for 4a. Further, there were 2- to 19-fold Cu2+ fluorescence enhancements for these ligands. Cu2+- and Hg2+-L (L = 4a-5b) binding was modeled, and response patterns for Mn+-L 1:1 molar solutions upon Cu2+ addition were measured. Upon treatment with Hg2+, all ligand solutions show a significant fluorescence decrease accompanied by minor absorption increases. The UV-vis spectroscopic detection limit for Cu2+ and Hg2+ is approximately 270 ppb and approximately 1.7 ppm, respectively; the naked eye detection limit for Cu2+ with 4b (1.0 x 10(-5) M) is approximately 23 microM. DFT calculations gave HOMO-LUMO gaps of 478 (4a), 462 (4b), 448 (5a), and 442 nm (5b). Molecular orbital diagrams for 4a-5b revealed that the HOMO and LUMO electron density is distributed onto the 3-position-thienyl group and to a lesser degree the B(thienyl)2 moiety.


Due to the mobile nature of nodes comprising the vehicular networks in addition to interference and congested network traffic, the design of an efficient MAC network becomes challenging. Moreover, the latency constraints underlying safety application add complexity to this design. The TXOP (Transmit Opportunity) mechanism defined in the IEEE 802.11e is optimized to meet the requirements of a Multimedia Network (voice and audio) but not a vehicular network thus making it unsuitable to be used in a VANet environment. On the other hand, existing MAC algorithms for VANets are designed to overcome some challenges overlooking others. Hence, the merit of this paper lies in developing a MAC mechanism that incorporates in an integrated manner various VANet's challenges while modifying the 802.11e TXOP to meet vehicular conditions. In this work, we propose MoByToP (Mobility Based Dynamic TXOP for VANets). MoByToP is an enhancement mechanism added to the MAC layer to extend the operation of the medium reservation phase. The uniqueness of MoByToP lies in designing a dynamic TXOP to incorporate mobility and QoS (Quality of Service) while considering the transmit data rate of the source vehicle. The proposed protocol was implemented in OMNET++4.1 and extensive experiments demonstrated that the proposed MAC with MoByToP mechanism ensures the reception of QoS messages much faster, more efficient and reliable than existing VANet MAC protocols.


Communications play a dominant role in industrial network. But the performance of wireless link is very unstable in industrial environment. Some of the existing ?eldbus-protocols face serious degradations in their achievable deadlines when dealing with busty channels. Wireless signal is seriously interfered in industrial environment, and the link performance of wireless communications technology will appear larger variation in industrial environment than in business environment. The link budget model of IEEE 802.15.4 is deduced in this paper. The simulation system based on this budget model is established by Matlab. The simulation presents link performance of IEEE 802.15.4 at the industrial noise range (typically between 10dB and 60 dB) and security level (The IEC61508 defined standard- SIL1, SIL2 and SIL3).The result is used for research on industrial wireless network.


Background/Objective: In recent years, 2 circumstances have changed provider-patient interactions in ambulatory care: (1) the replacement of virtual for in-person visits and (2) the COVID-19 pandemic. We studied the potential impact of each event on provider practice and patient adherence by comparing the frequency of the association of provider orders, and patient fulfillment of those orders, by visit mode and pandemic period, for incident neck or back pain (NBP) visits in ambulatory care. Methods: Data were extracted from the electronic health records of 3 Kaiser Permanente regions (Colorado, Georgia, and Mid-Atlantic States) from January 2017 to June 2021. Incident NBP visits were defined from ICD-10 coded as primary or first listed diagnoses on adult, family medicine, or urgent care visits separated by at least 180 days. Visit modes were classified as virtual or in-person. Periods were classified as prepandemic (before April 2020 or the beginning of the national emergency) or recovery (after June 2020). Percentages of provider orders for, and patient fulfillment of orders, were measured for 5 service classes and compared on: virtual versus in-person visits, and prepandemic versus recovery periods. Comparisons were balanced on patient case-mix using inverse probability of treatment weighting. Results: Ancillary services in all 5 categories at each of the 3 Kaiser Permanente regions were substantially ordered less frequently on virtual compared with in-person visits in both the prepandemic and recovery periods (both P ≤ 0.001). Conditional on an order, patient fulfillment within 30 days was high (typically ≥70%) and not likely meaningfully different between visit modes or pandemic periods. Conclusions: Ancillary services for incident NBP visits were ordered less frequently during virtual than in-person visits in both prepandemic and recovery periods. Patient fulfillment of orders was high, and not significantly different by mode or period.


We develop a self-mixing laser interferometer for the measurement of displacements on a generic target surface. The measurement is based on the bright-speckle tracking, a technique we have recently proposed to solve amplitude fading associated with the speckle statistics when the displacement to be covered is well in excess of the speckle longitudinal size. We implement the dynamical tracking of speckle maxima with piezo actuators and a phase-sensing loop. Also, we use an automatic gain control, based on a liquid crystal attenuator, to improve the amplitude statistics. Details of digital signal acquisition with adaptive signal processing through a field programmable gate array are discussed. The resulting instrument offers sub- m resolution in the mea- surement of displacement up to 500 mm of total shift, has virtually no need for alignment, and has very relaxed target-surface requi- sites, yet works with a very simple and inexpensive set-up.


Eleven patients with burst fractures of the fifth lumbar vertebra were reviewed. The results of nonoperative treatment were compared with that of immediate surgery and stabilization with pedicle screw fixation. Five patients were treated nonoperatively and six patients underwent pedicle screw instrumentation and spinal fusion. Five patients had neurologic injury associated with their L5 burst fracture. Nonoperative treatment yielded excellent results in young patients with minimal canal compromise. Neurologic deficits responded more predictably to surgical decompression than to conservative treatment and internal fixation with pedicle screws restores spinal stability and allows early mobilization.


The biovolume and species composition of epipelic algae along sediment depth gradients were sampled seasonally in an acidic oligotrophic lake in the Adirondack Park in New York State. The epipelic algal community of Woods Lake (Herkimer Co., NY) was dominated by diatoms and cyanobacteria. Distinct depth zonation patterns of community composition were evident. Total algal biovolume increased with depth due to a dense cyanobacterial mat on the sediments in deeper water (5-8 m). This mat was dominated by a single species of cyanobacteria, Hapalosiphon pumilus (Kuetz). Kirchner, which accounted for the later summer maximum in total biovolume at 7 m. The shallower (1-4 m) epipelic communities were dominated by diatoms, which showed a spring maximum in total biovolume and were dominated by Fragilaria acidobiontica Charles, Navicula tenuicephala Hust, and N. subtilissima Cl.


In this paper, we examine the changes in innovation by US companies, non-US companies, and US universities during the 2007-8 financial crisis. Our theoretical framework describes their different solutions to the informational and control problems associated with innovation funding, and how a financial crisis affects their ability to attract funding. We hypothesise that the change in the amount of innovation undertaken during the crisis will be negatively influenced by external funding requirements and innovation uncertainty for companies, but positively influenced by them for universities. Our examination of patenting in the US finds agreement with our theoretical predictions. We also find that for US companies the effect of external funding requirements becomes positive as time since the crisis increases. Counterfactuals investigate the effect of US companies retaining their innovation portfolios but responding to the crisis the same way as non-US companies or US universities, and vice versa. US company responses are associated with larger reductions in patenting.


The lack of widespread adoption of condition monitoring systems (CMS) in wind turbines is due, in part, to the high total cost of ownership. After the initial purchase, there is installation, Information Technology (servers/database/software support) and knowledge creation cost. Knowledge creation refers to the ability of the CMS to provide the operator with actionable information. Presented is a CMS architecture which reduces the total cost of ownership by reducing hardware cost (MEMS based sensor and local processing), reducing IT cost by deploying to a compute cloud, and reducing the cost of knowledge creation by incorporating advanced digital signal processing and decision support algorithms into the CMS application.


A suitable dispersion of carbon materials (e.g., carbon nanotubes (CNTs)) in an appropriate dispersant media, is a prerequisite for many technological applications (e.g., additive purposes, functionalization, mechanical reinforced materials for electrolytes and electrodes for energy storage applications, etc.). Deep eutectic solvents (DES) have been considered as a promising "green" alternative, providing a versatile replacement to volatile organic solvents due to their unique physical-chemical properties, being recognized as low-volatility fluids with great dispersant ability. The present work aims to contribute to appraise the effect of the presence of MWCNTs and Ag-functionalized MWCNTs on the physicochemical properties (viscosity, density, conductivity, surface tension and refractive index) of glyceline (choline chloride and glycerol, 1:2), a Type III DES. To benefit from possible synergetic effects, AgMWCNTs were prepared through pulse reverse electrodeposition of Ag nanoparticles into MWCNTs. Pristine MWCNTs were used as reference material and water as reference dispersant media for comparison purposes. The effect of temperature (20 to 60 °C) and concentration on the physicochemical properties of the carbon dispersions (0.2–1.0 mg cm−3) were assessed. In all assessed physicochemical properties, AgMWCNTs outperformed pristine MWCNTs dispersions. A paradoxical effect was found in the viscosity trend in glyceline media, in which a marked decrease in the viscosity was found for the MWCNTs and AgMWCNTs materials at lower temperatures. All physicochemical parameters were statistically analyzed using a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), at a 5% level of significance.


A method amenable to computer programming is presented for minimizing the total amount of hardware required for realizing a partially specified multivalued logic function. The method modifies the Pomper-Armstrong algorithm (1981) for obtaining a direct cover for the function in three distinct ways. Then it extends each extendable cube in the cover toward every one of its vertices, whenever possible, so as to excite it maximally. Finally, instead of realizing a cube in the cover individually, it attempts to realize a number of cubes collectively whenever they have some specified properties. The proposed method yields an almost-minimal circuit.<<ETX>>


In this paper, we propose a novel routing metric, namely biased delivery probability (BDP), for measuring the wireless node's capacity of forwarding data packet to the destination. BDP essentially assigns different weights to the multipaths information associated with different hop counts. An theoretical theory is established to compute the weights for different scenarios. Using BDP routing metric, we design a prioritized random walk routing (PRR) protocol for multihop wireless network, which incorporates random network coding strategy, and can force the coded packet only randomly "walk" through the higher priority node set, instead of randomly encountered nodes. In such a way, it provides a loop-free random walk forwarding and guarantees the packets consequently go through the right "direction" step by step to the destination. Extensive simulation results show that the PRR protocol can dramatically improve the network performance over existing forwarding scheme, in terms of the throughputs, the end to end delay and the number of transmissions.


Aim: To determine the efficiency of erbium: Yttrium aluminum garnet (Er:YAG) laser with Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) and shear bond strength analysis as a method of recycling stainless steel orthodontic brackets and compare with other methods of recycling. Materials and Methods: Eighty samples of extracted premolar teeth bonded to SS brackets were tested for rebonded shear bond strength after recycling by four methods and compared with a control group of 20 samples. These 80 samples were randomized into four groups which were recycled by four methods, namely, sandblasting, thermal method, adhesive grinding by tungsten carbide bur, and Er: YAG laser method. After recycling, ESEM and shear bond strength analysis were used to analyze the efficiency of the recycling methods Results: Er: YAG laser group was found to be having the greatest bond strength among the recycled brackets (8.33±2.51 followed by the sandblasting at 6.12±1.12 MPa, thermal and electropolishing at 4.44±0.95 MPa, and lastly the adhesive grinding method at 3.08±1.07 MPa. The shear bond strength of Er: YAG laser group was found to be having no statistically significant difference with that of the control group (P>0.05 and had statistical signifance with sandblasting, thermal and electropolishing and adhesive grinding groups at P>0.001. ESEM analysis showed complete removal of adhesive from the brackets recycled with Er: YAG laser which mimicked that of the control group. Conclusion: Er: YAG laser (2940 nm) was found to be the most efficient method for recycling, followed by the sandblasting, thermal, and the tungsten carbide methods, which had the least shear bond strength value and is not fit for clinical usage.


Emerging antibiotic resistance against carbapenems is a serious issue
and urgent measures are required to curb such development of
resistance. There is paucity of data on the prevalence of carbapenem
resistance in the Indian literature. This study involves a
retrospective analysis of culture and sensitivity data on 174 clinical
specimens obtained from different hospitals in Kanpur. Of the
specimens, 15% grew bacilli which were resistant to at least one of the
carbapenems. Of these bacilli 92% were resistant to Meropenem and
sensitive to Imipenem. Only one specimen, that of urine grew E-coli
which was resistant to Imipenem but sensitive to Meropenem.
Staphylococcus aureus constituted majority (77%) of the resistant
bacilli. E-coli were the second most common resistant bacilli to be
isolated. Pseudomonas aeruginosa constituted 8% (2) of the resistant
bacilli. Mengiococcus isolated once from a cerebrospinal fluid specimen
was sensitive to Imipenem but resistant to Meropenem. Of the E-coli
isolates 3% (3) were resistant. Results indicate alarming increase in
the incidence of carbapenem resistance.


Prior research into multiple sclerosis prognosis has produced conflicting results. This paper presents an original approach in which the disease course is described by the movements of patients through well-defined disease states. A Markov model is proposed to describe these movements and to evaluate the effect of prognostic factors on transitions from state to state. The feasibility and applicability of this model is determined using data on the course of disease in 278 diagnosed patients from Lyon. Patients with older age at onset, females, and those with monosymptomatic onset are found to be at a higher risk of transition to a worse disease state.


Skeletal muscle troponin C contains four Ca(2+)-binding sites, two with a high affinity for Ca2+ that also bind Mg2+ competitively (Ca2+/Mg2+ sites) and two sites of lower affinity that are specific for Ca2+. We have characterized a monoclonal antibody (B9D9) that was produced against rabbit skeletal troponin C. The binding of this antibody to rabbit skeletal troponin C is sensitive to the binding of Ca2+. Increasing the Ca2+ concentration produces a decrease in the amount of antibody bound with a pK of approximately 6.9 which correlates with Ca2+ binding to the Ca2+/Mg2+ sites. Magnesium binding to rabbit skeletal troponin C had no effect on antibody binding. Thus the conformation of rabbit skeletal troponin C brought about by Ca2+ binding to these sites affects the antibody binding to its epitope. This epitope was unavailable for antibody binding in whole troponin. The antibody-binding site was localized in cyanogen bromide fragment CB9 of rabbit skeletal troponin C (residues 84-135). This antibody was also shown to cross-react with bovine cardiac troponin C, barnacle (Balanus nubilus) troponin C, bovine testis calmodulin and carp parvalbumin. In addition, the effect of Ca2+ on antibody binding seen with rabbit skeletal troponin C was also seen with bovine cardiac troponin C, and calmodulin. Thus these proteins appear to share a similar epitope and undergo similar structural changes. Wang and colleagues (1987) have presented evidence that rabbit skeletal troponin C at low pH has an elongated structure similar to that seen in the crystal structure and that at neutral pH its structure is more compact.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Different views on which standard demand distribution to choose when calculating safety stocks as well as on the importance of making an appropriate choice have been put forward in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the clarifica-tion of these issues and to provide guidelines for the practitioner. Six of the most commonly published and used distributions have been analyzed and compared. The results from the research show that the performance of a standard demand distribution is not just a consequence of the mean demand, the standard deviation of demand and its shape. It is also depending on which type of service level definition that is used and how high the target service level is. The results from the research also indicate, that the differences in performance between the various standard demand distributions measured as to what extent target service levels can be achieved are almost insignificant when taking into consideration all other inaccuracies and uncertainties present in inventory management. Considering the simplicity with which calculations can be carried out when the normal distribution is used and the vast experience of using it that exists, the normal distribution is concluded to be recommended in general. Exceptions may be relevant in cases with very lumpy demand.


Interleukin-12 p70 (IL-12p70) is a major dendritic cell (DC)-produced cytokine known to support type-1 T helper (Th1) cells and inflammatory-type immunity. While the ability of DC to produce bioactive IL-12p70 depends on both the DC subtype and the microenvironmental conditions of DC development, the relative contribution of each of these factors remains unclear. Here, we report that in contrast to spleen CD8alpha+ and CD8alpha- DC that show strong differences in their respective IL-12p70-producing capacities, CD8alpha+ and CD8alpha- DC isolated from the liver, a non-lymphoid organ, both efficiently produce IL-12p70 in amounts comparable to spleen CD8alpha+ DC. The IL-12p70-producing capacity CD8alpha+ and CD8alpha- DC from either location is greatly increased following their overnight culture in the presence of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. The elevated production of IL-12p70 by short-term cultured DC correlates with their enhanced expression of CD40 and other costimulatory molecules, and elevated T cell-stimulatory capacity. These data indicate that low IL-12-producing capacity is not an intrinsic property of the CDalpha8- DC subtype, and support the hypothesis that factors such as the site of DC development and maturation stage play a dominant role in defining DC function.


The presence of intolerant religious groups in MojolabanSukoharjo encourages civil society to voice harmony and peace. This research is a descriptive qualitative research with a sociology of religion approach. Data collection through direct observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. Its data analysis uses interactive analysis models including data reduction, data delivery, and conclusions. PSAP together with the interfaith communities of Pelita, Purwakanthi, and WaskithaSukoharjo as part of the civil society socio-religious movement that actively develops a culture of peace through continuous life dialogue with various activities. First, PSAP through the interfaith community actively builds communication and dialogue among religious people and advocates for humanitarian and religious issues at the lower levels of society. Second, PSAP becomes a space for interfaith community encounters with activities in it inserted discussions about religious, social, and cultural themes as a form of life dialogue. Third, PSAP and interfaith communities empower the community with the aim of building a peaceful and respectful life between religious people in Sukoharjo. Fourth, through peace education, it is hoped that the people of Sukoharjo can have a dialogue and experience firsthand the religious life of each religion. This peaceful education is expected to give them new experiences about religious life so that there is no prejudice and mutual suspicion. Peace education through the dialogue model developed by PSAP is a sustainable life dialogue by emphasizing an inclusive and even pluralist perspective towards peace in society. This perspective emphasizes religion as a social ethic and spirit for the transformation of society in the midst of the diversity that exists in Sukoharjo


The way we formulate headlines matters -- this is the central tenet of this thesis.

Headlines play a key role in attracting and engaging online audiences. With the increasing usage of mobile apps and social media to consume news, headlines are the most prominent -- and often the only -- part of the news article visible to readers. Earlier studies examined how readers' preferences and their social network influence which headlines are clicked or shared on social media. However, there is limited research on the impact of the headline text on social media popularity.

To address this research gap we pose the following question: how to formulate a headline so that it reaches as many readers as possible on social media. To answer this question we adopt an experimental approach to model and predict the popularity of news articles on social media using headlines. First, we develop computational methods for an automatic extraction of two types of headline characteristics. The first type is news values: Prominence, Sentiment, Magnitude, Proximity, Surprise, and Uniqueness. The second type is linguistic style: Brevity, Simplicity, Unambiguity, Punctuation, Nouns, Verbs, and Adverbs. We then investigate the impact of these features on popularity using social media popularity on Twitter and Facebook, and perceived popularity obtained from a crowdsourced survey. Finally, using these features and headline metadata we build prediction models for global and country-specific social media popularity. For the country-specific prediction model we augment several news values features with country relatedness information using knowledge graphs.

Our research established that computational methods can be reliably used to characterise headlines in terms of news values and linguistic style features; and that most of these features significantly correlate with social media popularity and to a lesser extent with perceived popularity. Our prediction model for global social media popularity outperformed state-of-the-art baselines, showing that headline wording has an effect on social media popularity. With the country-specific prediction model we showed that we improved the features implementations by adding data from knowledge graphs.

These findings indicate that formulating a headline in a certain way can lead to wider readership engagement. Furthermore, our methods can be applied to other types of digital content similar to headlines, such as titles for blog posts or videos. More broadly our results signify the importance of content analysis for popularity prediction.


The geographic distribution of health status across Italian regions shows a North-South gradient, with better conditions in the North for both males and females. Using data from the 2000 National Health Interview Survey, the authors first analyze the geographic variation in subjective health and presence of chronic conditions, with specific attention to the effects of individual and area-based socioeconomic conditions and their heterogeneity across regions. The results suggest the North-South gradient in health is mainly affected, at least for subjective health, by the different composition of macro-areas with respect to individual education, and is slightly influenced by contextual circumstances. Moreover, being less educated results in poorer health in some regions (mainly South and Isles) than in others (mainly Northeast). The authors next analyze the circumstances affecting the presence of more disadvantaged people in the South, to highlight features of the Southern context that might exacerbate social inequalities in health and features of Northern areas that might allay them. Indicators of inequalities, welfare, labor, and power resources were analyzed. The results confirm the disadvantage of the South in terms of social, economic, and cultural features, mainly revealing the compositional effects found in the first part of the study. However, the contextual predictive value of income inequalities, quality of care, and social cohesion can have a supplementary effect on health outcomes of disadvantaged persons.


This paper presents a French version of the FraCaS test suite. This test suite, originally written in English, contains problems illustrating semantic inference in natural language. We describe linguistic choices we had to make when translating the FraCaS test suite in French, and discuss some of the issues that were raised by the translation. We also report an experiment we ran in order to test both the translation and the logical semantics underlying the problems of the test suite. This provides a way of checking formal semanticists' hypotheses against actual semantic capacity of speakers (in the present case, French speakers), and allow us to compare the results we obtained with the ones of similar experiments that have been conducted for other languages.


Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods can be applied to social areas as well as economical and industrial areas. By using MCDM, we will obtain some social outcomes from this field. In this study, we analyse and compare some countries and Turkey in terms of specific aspects of the work culture and ethics by using the PROMETHEE method, a MCDM. The objective of the European Union (EU) is to achieve economic, politic and social integration. In this respect, work culture is an important dimension of social harmonisation and integration. Results of the study show that there are no homogenisation and harmonisation among Turkey and some of the countries considered. Turkey is distinguished from the other European countries in terms of gender and immigrant discrimination in the working life.


The objective of the IPTES (In-cremental Prototyping Technology for Embedded Real-Time Systems) project is to develop methodolo-gies, tools and theoretical results on distributed prototyping for real-time systems. IPTES is partially funded by the European Communities under the ESPRIT programme, project nos. EP5570 and EP7811. Abstract The IPTES toolset and methodology have been developed for supporting speciications, design and implementation of real time systems. Such systems are often used in safety critical applications and may thus require intensive testing and analysis before being released for their nal use. The IPTES toolset provides analysis mechanisms based on execution and animation of speciications. Such capabilities may be enough for extensive analysis of many hard real-time systems. However, in some cases, part of the system may require additional analysis. New techniques for the analysis of temporal properties based on the IPTES formal kernel model (High-Level Timed Petri Nets) have been studied and developed within the IPTES project. This report describes a rst prototype that automatically proofs temporal properties for High-Level Timed Petri Nets. It includes the description of the main design issued, an end-user manual and an experience report that describes the use of the prototype on some initial examples.


Chondroitin sulfate (CS) is used for the treatment of osteoarthritis and joint pain. The anti-inflammatory and chondroprotective properties of CS and their mechanisms have been demonstrated. However, the effect of CS on pain transmission remains unclear. Therefore, to gain this issue, we examined the effect of CS on the formalin-induced biphasic nociceptive behavior and subsequent long-lasting tactile allodynia in mice. 20 μl of a 2% formalin solution (0.74% formaldehyde in saline) was injected in the right hindpaw under the skin of the plantar using a 26-gauge microsyringe. Immediately after the injection, nociceptive behavior consisting of licking or biting of the injected paw was recorded for periods of 5 min during the first (0-5 min) and second (10-30 min) nociceptive phases. Tactile allodynia induced by formalin was measured using von Frey filament test. Expression of phospho-p38 MAPK and c-Fos in the lumbar dorsal spinal cord were determined by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry, respectively. A single oral administration of CS (300 mg/kg) 30 min before a formalin injection into the hindpaw did not affect the nociceptive response during either first or second phases. On the other hand, a repeated oral administration of CS (300 mg/kg, b.i.d. for 20 days) significantly ameliorated the formalin induced-tactile allodynia from day 10 after formalin injection. In addition, the phosphorylation of spinal p38 MAPK and subsequent increase in c-Fos-immunoreactive dorsal lumbar neurons on 14 after formalin injection were significantly attenuated by the repeated CS dosing. These findings suggest that repeated administration of CS attenuates formalin-induced persistent tactile allodynia through the inhibition of spinal p38 MAPK phosphorylation and subsequent up-regulation of c-Fos expression in the lumbar superficial dorsal horn neurons.


This study was performed prospectively on 144 randomly selected women carrying singleton uncomplicated pregnancies of 20 to 36 gestational weeks and 60 women with preterm labour matched for gestational age to determine the predictive value of transvaginal cervical measurements for evaluation of the response to tocolytic therapy. Cervical length and width and width of the cervical canal were measured and funnelling of internal os of the cervical canal was evaluated by transvaginal ultrasonography in each case. These measurements did not reveal any change depending on the gestational age in the control group. The mean values for cervical length and width, and width of cervical canal were 45.05+/-6.52 mm, 38.75+/-4.11 mm, 7.01+/-2.76 mm, respectively. Mean cervical length+/-standard deviations of the control group were used as cut-off values for the prediction of preterm delivery in the preterm labour group. When the cut-off value of the cervical length was accepted as 38.53 mm (-1 SD of the control group), the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for prediction of preterm delivery were 80.9%, 72.2%, 87.2%, 61.9%, respectively; whereas when this cut-off value was used in combination with the funnelling of the internal cervical os, the sensitivity and negative predictive value decreased to 40.5% and 41.9%, respectively; but the positive predictive value and specificity became 100.0% and 100.0%, respectively.


Xiangrong Cui 1 Hongping Liang Chonghua Hao Xuan Jing 1Reproductive Medicine Center, Children's Hospital of Shanxi and Women Health Center of Shanxi, Affiliated of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, People's Republic of China; 2Clinical Laboratory, Shanxi Provincial People's Hospital, Affiliated of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, People's Republic of China Background: Homer scaffolding protein 1 (Homer1) is a postsynaptic scaffold protein that regulates the structure and function of excitatory synaptic as well as its intracellular signal transduction. However, the role of Homer1 in colorectal cancer as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms has not been elucidated. Materials and Methods: To evaluate the alternations of gene expression during colorectal cancer, Homer1 expression was analyzed using the gene expression profiling interactive analysis and Oncomine analyses. The prognostic value of Homer1 expression was validated by our own colorectal cancer specimens using RT-PCR. Then, the cell viability, migration and invasion of colorectal cancer cell lines were detected by CCK-8 and transwell assay. Results: We obtained the following important results. (1) Homer1 expression was significantly higher in colorectal cancer than normal samples. (2) Among patients with colorectal cancer, those with higher Homer1 expression had a lower survival rate. (3) The major mutation type of Homer1 in colorectal cancer samples was missense mutation. (4) Homer1 was able to promote colorectal cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion through upregulating G3BP1 in vitro. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that Homer1 may play a role in malignancy of colorectal cancer mainly through the G3BP1 signaling pathway, which might be a potential indicator of poor prognosis.


The introduction of percutaneous nephrolithotomy and ureterolithotomy has greatly widened the therapeutical spectrum of urolithiasis. In this paper indications and contraindications of percutaneous stone removal will be discussed as well as techniques of this procedure. 210 percutaneous stone operations were performed after an initial training period primarily using local anesthesia (neuroleptanalgesia). This operative procedure allowed stone removal in patients otherwise inoperable because of increased operation risk or of advanced age. With increasing experience the success rate has been improved, though the stage of difficulties in nephrolithotomy and ureterolithotomy has increased too. Percutaneous operation primarily in connection with extracorporal shock wave lithotripsy is the first treatment modality for patients with staghorn stones. Possible complications (bleeding, perforation, injury to neighbouring organs) and their treatment are discussed.


Fast radio bursts (FRBs) have been suggested as an excellent celestial laboratory for testing the zero-mass hypothesis of the photon. In this work, we use the dispersion measure (DM)–redshift measurements of 23 localized FRBs to revisit the photon rest mass mγ . As an improvement over previous studies, here we take into account the more realistic probability distributions of DMs contributed by the FRB host galaxy and intergalactic medium (IGM) from the IllustrisTNG simulation. To better account for the systematic uncertainty induced by the choices of priors of cosmological parameters, we also combine the FRB data with the cosmic microwave background data, the baryon acoustic oscillation data, and type Ia supernova data to constrain the cosmological parameters and mγ simultaneously. We derive a new upper limit of mγ ≤ 3.8 × 10-51 kg, or equivalently mγ ≤ 2.1 × 10-15 eV/c2 (mγ ≤ 7.2 × 10-51 kg, or equivalently mγ ≤ 4.0 × 10-15 eV/c2) at 1σ (2σ) confidence level. Meanwhile, our analysis can also lead to a reasonable estimation for the IGM baryon fraction f IGM = 0.873+0.061 -0.050. With the number increment of localized FRBs, the constraints on both mγ and f IGM will be further improved. A caveat of constraining mγ within the context of the standard ΛCDM cosmological model is also discussed.


Abstract The quantitative reconstruction presented in this paper documents paleoecological trends of the northern Maracaibo basin (western Venezuela), during the Early Miocene, through pollen analysis of drill core samples from the La Rosa (shallow marine) and Lagunillas (coastal plain) formations. Palynological assemblages were grouped statistically into three assemblages representing mangroves, herbaceous back‐mangrove swamps, and inland palm/ fern swamps. Mangroves were the local vegetation during the deposition of La Rosa Formation and, after a regressive event, were replaced by herbaceous back‐mangroves during the sedimentation of Lagunillas Formation. The palynological assemblage representing palm/fern swamps dominates the entire sequence and is interpreted as a large background signal reflecting transport by rivers. Mangrove communities had few species, and represented a transitional phase in the mangrove community evolution, after the terminal Eocene biotic crisis.


The success of deep learning algorithms generally depends on large-scale data, while humans appear to have inherent ability of knowledge transfer, by recognizing and applying relevant knowledge from previous learning experiences when encountering and solving unseen tasks. Such an ability to acquire and reuse knowledge is known as transferability in deep learning. It has formed the long-term quest towards making deep learning as data-efficient as human learning, and has been motivating fruitful design of more powerful deep learning algorithms. We present this survey to connect different isolated areas in deep learning with their relation to transferability, and to provide a unified and complete view to investigating transferability through the whole lifecycle of deep learning. The survey elaborates the fundamental goals and challenges in parallel with the core principles and methods, covering recent cornerstones in deep architectures, pre-training, task adaptation and domain adaptation. This highlights unanswered questions on the appropriate objectives for learning transferable knowledge and for adapting the knowledge to new tasks and domains, avoiding catastrophic forgetting and negative transfer. Finally, we implement a benchmark and an open-source library, enabling a fair evaluation of deep learning methods in terms of transferability.