The Temkin reactor concept was successfully extended to the high throughput operation mode and it could be considerably improved as compared to the original design with respect to an optimized gas flow pattern over the full size beads. This improved parallel reactor design was successfully used for the high throughput optimization of an innovative new class of physically coated VAM shell catalysts. Exploiting this novel, improved Temkin reactor concept allowed Süd-Chemie not only to optimize the multiparameter compositional space of noble metal and promoter loadings on the support spheres but for the first time to combine this "chemical optimization" with the high throughput improvement of catalytically decisive parameters as the active shell thickness, the metal distribution cross the shell, the pore diameters, and the pore volumes. This new class of physically impregnated VA catalysts, called VAM²ax, impress by its exceptionally high VA selectivity of above 94% at 50% oxygen conversion and the very high space time yields of > 1000 g VAM/l*h which easily can be reached over these shell catalysts with optimized mass and heat transport properties.


Computer aided inspection (CAI) systems need to be capable of integrating CAD, manufacturing and verification by automating the inspection process and moving it upstream in the manufacturing cycle. This paper discusses structured light systems that are used for obtaining range data of three-dimensional (3D) objects for verification and recognition using a triangulation method. The authors investigate field of view for three configurations of structured light systems and also describe visibility/occlusion for those configurations. Using a simplified camera calibration method, the authors describe how depth information of an object can be obtained using a closed-loop depth estimation method. Because of the system configuration and the properties of laser and camera this sensing method also generates errors. Thus in the paper, measurement errors are also analyzed.<<ETX>>


2D barcodes offer many benefits compared to 1D barcodes, such as high information density and robustness. Before their introduction to the mobile phone ecosystem, they have been widely used in specific applications, such as logistics or ticketing. However, there are multiple competing standards with different benefits and drawbacks. Therefore, reader applications as well as dedicated devices have to support multiple standards. In this paper, we present novel attacks based on deliberately caused ambiguities when especially crafted barcodes conform to multiple standards. Implementation details decide which standard the decoder locks on. This way, two users scanning the same barcode with different phones or apps will receive different content. This potentially opens way for multiple problems related to security. We describe how embedding one barcode symbology into another can be used to perform phishing attacks as well as targeted exploits. In addition, we evaluate the extent to which popular 2D barcode reader applications on smartphones are susceptible to these barcode-in barcode attacks. We furthermore discuss mitigation techniques against this type of attack.


A technique is presented for estimating the aspect of targets in SAR imagery for use in indexing, feature extraction and recognition. Aspect estimation is enhanced by combining multiple images of the same target. In order to properly combine the estimation of multiple passes, it is necessary to accurately register the images to a common coordinate frame. An algorithm for registering multiple high resolution SAR images, is presented. A global affine transformation derived from the sensor acquisition parameters is used to automatically register the images, followed by a refinement to correct for translational errors. The registered SAR images are used for improving the estimates of target orientation angles, detecting the presence of occlusion and indicating poor target segmentation.


We estimate the potential of present and future interferometric gravitational-wave detectors to test the Kerr nature of black holes through "gravitational spectroscopy," i.e., the measurement of multiple quasinormal mode frequencies from the remnant of a black hole merger. Using population synthesis models of the formation and evolution of stellar-mass black hole binaries, we find that Voyager-class interferometers will be necessary to perform these tests. Gravitational spectroscopy in the local Universe may become routine with the Einstein Telescope, but a 40-km facility like Cosmic Explorer is necessary to go beyond z∼3. In contrast, detectors like eLISA (evolved Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) should carry out a few-or even hundreds-of these tests every year, depending on uncertainties in massive black hole formation models. Many space-based spectroscopical measurements will occur at high redshift, testing the strong gravity dynamics of Kerr black holes in domains where cosmological corrections to general relativity (if they occur in nature) must be significant.


Oil leakage from submarine pipelines can cause severe environmental problems and economic losses. In this study, a two-phase immiscible flow model in porous media is proposed to simulate the migration of leaked oil caused by the leakage of a buried submarine pipeline in sandy sediment. The relationship between saturation, pore pressure, and relative permeability of different fluids in porous media is considered in present model, which is distinguished from previous studies. The spilled oil spreads radially from the leakage point into surrounding sediment driven by the leakage velocity. Moreover, it continues to migrate in sediment under the capillary pressure and gravity. Interestingly, the effect of wave-induced transient response on the ultimate migration of spilled oil in a sandy sediment is negligible. However, increasing sediment porosity can greatly enhance the upward migration of leaked oil based on systematically parametric analysis. Meanwhile, the migration rate of leaked oil decreases with increasing oil density or viscosity. The oil-contaminated area significantly expands with the increase of leakage rate. Fitting formulas between dimensionless time required for the leaked oil to reach the overlying seawater and non-dimensional influencing parameters are well established, which can provide useful guidelines for similar disasters.


The problem of sectarian violence is socio-ethical and it is basically stemmed from deteriorating social values. Encountering such an issue necessitates the participation of all socialization institutions, such as, family, mosque, school, university, as well as the social media, including Facebook for its various features and technological capabilities thatinfluence the cognitive, emotional and behavioral perspectives of the individual. However, many scientific studies have emphasized on the effective role of suchways of spreading images and scenes of violence in Publicandparticularly of sectarian violence among adolescents and youth. Whereas,other studies have reduced their impact considering them just among other factors that can contribute to an increase in violence along with other social, economic, political and religious factors that affect the society.


Recall and ranking are two critical steps in personalized news recommendation. Most existing news recommender systems conduct personalized news recall and ranking separately with different models. However, maintaining multiple models leads to high computational cost and poses great challenges to meeting the online latency requirement of news recommender systems. In order to handle this problem, in this paper we propose UniRec, a unified method for recall and ranking in news recommendation. In our method, we first infer user embedding for ranking from the historical news click behaviors of a user using a user encoder model. Then we derive the user embedding for recall from the obtained user embedding for ranking by using it as the attention query to select a set of basis user embeddings which encode different general user interests and synthesize them into a user embedding for recall. The extensive experiments on benchmark dataset demonstrate that our method can improve both efficiency and effectiveness for recall and ranking in news recommendation.


The objective of the present study was to assess the simultaneous removal of physiochemical parameters in moderate strength wastewater using a lab scale horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland (CW). The wetland was constructed using natural zeolite as a substrate. In this study, high-density polyethylene tanks (0.36 m) were planted with phragmites australis and scirpus maritimus. The system was subjected to two hydraulic retention times for (HRT) 4 and 3 days respectively. Averaged data reported coincided with the plant age (4 to 39 weeks) and covered the entire cold season and early part of the hot season. The physico-chemical characteristics of the wastewater changed significantly as the wastewater flowed through the respective wetland cells. Based on the 39 weeks of operation, the CW unit with zeolite achieved significantly higher removal for COD, ammonium and total nitrogen at 4 and 3 days HRT. This unit was highly effective in removing COD, NH4-N, TN, and TSS compounds which were found to be 89%, 99%, 96% and 956% respectively at 4 days HRT. At 3 days HRT, the removal was slightly changed to be 85 %, 99.6%, 91% and 91.3% for COD, NH4-N, TN, and TSS. A simple mineralogical survey of filter materials for the zeolites may render many installations of constructed wetlands successful. KeywordsZeolite; Constructed wetland; Hydraulic retention time; Horizontal subsurface flow; Nitrogen


Background: Bisphenol A (BPA) is a proven endocrine disruptor and has been found in the urine of 95% of Canadians. Though the chemical has been banned for use in certain applications, it is still common in items such as thermal paper used for receipts because the compound is heat stable. This study aims to determine if the levels found in thermal receipt paper are high enough to pose a public health concern. Methods: Samples of thermal paper used for receipts were tested for BP A by soaking and incubating lOOmg of the paper in lOmL of methanol for 3 hours at room temperature, and then overnight at 4°C. The resulting methanol solution was then analyzed by using an HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) system with fluorescence detection. Results: A total of 30 receipts were tested from various stores around the Lower Mainland, including retail stores and restaurants. Of the 30 samples, 13 tested positive for bisphenol A, and of those 13, the amount ranged from 0.124 to 871.17 mg BPA per kg paper. Using the provisional total daily intake (0.025mg/kg body weight/day) set by Health Canada in 1996, results indicate that there can be enough BPA present in a minimum of 2 grams of the paper to exceed the daily limit for a person weighing 70kg. However, the human body does not absorb all of the BPA it may come into contact with, nor does a person touch the entire surface of the paper; thus, more than 2 grams of thermal paper would be required to actually exceed the pTDI. Conclusion: Although the human body does not absorb all of the BPA it may come into contact with, thermal receipt paper can still be a significant source of BP A, especially for those who handle them frequently, such as cashiers. Public education on common sources of BP A, such as thermal receipts, would reduce exposure.


The ability of deciduous trees to sprout efficiently after cutting is problematic in young forests where the target is to cultivate coniferous trees for industry. Since the use of chemicals has been restricted, new alternatives are needed. One potential and environmentally friendly option is biological sprout control that is based on the use of a white-rot fungus, Chondrostereum purpureum (Pers. Ex Fr.) Pouzar. This method has been efficient in earlier investigations when performed manually, but efficient, fully mechanized devices which are able to cut and treat stumps with a fungus are still unavailable. Therefore, the efficacy of biological sprout control conducted with a Cutlink cleaning head equipped with a spreading feature was studied in two young Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) forests in central Finland.Sample plots for the control (cutting deciduous saplings only) and fungal treatment (cutting and spreading fungal inoculum on fresh stump surfaces) were established, and the ability of the Cutlink cleaning head in preventing sprouting of silver and downy birch (Betula pendula Roth and B. pubescens Ehrh., respectively) in the sample plots was investigated for two years.In the near vicinity of cultivated Norway spruce, the proportion of cut deciduous saplings varied from 50–60% after the Cutlink operation. The average mortality of silver and downy birch stumps in the fungal treatment plots was ca. 40%, while stump mortality in the control, i.e., cutting only, was only ca. 13%, after two years. Stump mortality increased up to 73% if the stumps did not include old branches, i.e., the stump was cut to a low enough height.These results confirmed that the Cutlink cleaning head is a potential tool in young stand management operation but further development will be needed in working methods in order to achieve lower stump heights (no branches on the stump) and also to increase the proportion of cut saplings.


The Bayesian optimal interval (BOIN) design is a novel phase I trial design for finding the maximum tolerated dose (MTD). With the BOIN design, phase I trials are conducted as a sequence of decision-making steps for assigning an appropriate dose for each enrolled patient. The design optimizes the assignment of doses to patients by minimizing incorrect decisions of dose escalation or deescalation; that is, it decreases the chance of erroneously escalating or de-escalating the dose when the current dose is higher or lower than the MTD. This feature of the BOIN design strongly ensures adherence to ethical standards. The most prominent advantage of the BOIN design is that it simultaneously achieves design simplicity and superior performance in comparison with similar methods. The BOIN design can be implemented in a simple way that is similar to the 3 + 3 design, but it yields substantially better operating characteristics. Compared with the well-known continual reassessment method, the BOIN design yields average performance when selecting the MTD, but it has a substantially lower risk of assigning patients to subtherapeutic or overly toxic doses. In this article, we present a command (optinterval) for implementing the BOIN design in a phase I clinical trial setting.


Cell pellets that have been stored in routine clinical cytogenetic fixative were studied for the presence of intact DNA. A method for the isolation of high molecular weight DNA from fixed cytogenetic preparations of human leukocytes, bone marrow, and cell hybrid cultures is presented. DNA preparations from fixed pellets were cleaved with restriction enzymes, transferred to nitrocellulose filters after agarose gel electrophoresis, and hybridized to radiolabeled probes to demonstrate that fixed cell pellets could yield DNA of sufficient quality for Southern blot hybridization analysis. This protocol may be useful for molecular analysis of DNA from fixed cell pellets of patients who are unavailable for additional sampling.


Thermodynamic irreversibility analysis of an air-to-water heat pump system is analyzed in this study. This analysis shows the distribution of irreversibilities(true losses in thermodynamic sense) through the system components and informs us of a potential improvements with the irreversibility factor decreases. The results show that the largest irreversibilities occur in the motor-compressor unit. The remaining irreversibilities are distributed relatively uniformly through the other parts including utilization system. The increase of performance can be attained through either the improvement of adiabatic efficiency of motor-compressor unit(η mc ) or the reduction of temperature difference(ΔT). With the decrease of utilization temperature(T u ) COPH also increases but the exergetic efficiency decreases. The increase of COPH of about 0.05 can be accomplished with 1K decrease of ΔT or T u .


Porphyromonas gingivalis, the pathogen of periodontal disease, is thought to be involved in various diseases throughout the body via gingival tissue blood capillaries. However, the dynamic analysis of the infection mechanism, particularly the deep invasion process of the gingival tissue, has not yet been elucidated because of the lack of both in vivo and in vitro models. In this study, we developed a vascularized three-dimensional (3D) gingival model with an epithelial barrier expressing cell-cell junctions using collagen microfibers (CMFs) to enable the dynamic analysis of the P. gingivalis invasion process. Lipid raft disruption experiments in the gingival epithelial cell layer demonstrated that P. gingivalis migrates into the deeper epithelium via the intercellular pathway rather than intracellular routes. P. gingivalis was shown to invade the 3D gingival model, being found inside blood capillaries during two days of culture. Notably, the number of bacteria had increased greatly at least two days later, whereas the mutant P. gingivalis lacking the cysteine proteases, gingipains, showed a significantly lower number of survivors. The secretion of interleukin-6 (IL-6) from the gingival tissue decreased during the two days of infection with the wild type P. gingivalis, but the opposite was found for the mutant suggesting that P. gingivalis infection disturbs IL-6 secretion at an early stage. By allowing the dynamic observation of the P. gingivalis invasion from the epithelial cell layer into the blood capillaries for the first time, this model will be a powerful tool for the development of novel therapeutics against periodontal infection related diseases.


Background
Healthcare reimbursement, which has traditionally been based on the quantity of services delivered, is currently moving toward value-based reimbursement-a system that addresses the quantity, quality, and cost of services. One such arrangement has been the evolution of bundled payments for a specific procedure or for an episode of care, paid prospectively or through post-hoc reconciliation.

Objective
To evaluate the impact of instituting bundled payments that incorporate facility charges, physician fees, and all ancillary charges by the State of Oklahoma HealthChoice public employee insurance plan.

Method
From January 1 through December 31, 2016, HealthChoice, a large, government-sponsored Oklahoma health plan, implemented a voluntary, prospective, bundled payment system with network facilities, called Select. The Select program allows members at the time of certification of the services to opt to use participating facilities for specified services at a bundled rate, with deductible and coinsurance covered by the health plan. That is, the program allows any plan member to choose either a participating Select facility with no out-of-pocket costs or standard benefits at a participating network facility.

Results
During 2016, more than 7900 procedures were performed for 5907 patients who chose the Select arrangement (also designated as the intervention group). The most common outpatient Select procedures were for cardiology, colonoscopy, and magnetic resonance imaging scans. The most common inpatient procedures for Select-covered patients were in 6 diagnosis-related groups covering spinal fusions, joint replacement surgeries, and percutaneous coronary artery stenting. The allowable costs were similar for bundled procedures at ambulatory surgery centers and at outpatient hospital facilities; the allowable costs for patients not in the Select program (mean, $813) were lower at ambulatory surgery centers than at outpatient hospital departments (mean, $3086) because of differences in case mix. Patients in the Select system who had outpatient procedures had significantly fewer subsequent claims than those who were not in Select for hospitalization (1.7% vs 2.5%, respectively) and emergency department visits (4.4% vs 11.5%, respectively) in the 30 days postprocedure. Quality measures (eg, wound infection and reoperation) were similar for patients who were and were not in the Select group and had procedures. Surgical complication (ie, return to surgery) rates were higher for the Select group.

Conclusion
The Select program demonstrated promising results during its first year of operation, suggesting that prospective bundled payment arrangements can be implemented successfully. Further research on reimbursement mechanisms, that is, how to pay physicians and facilities, and quality of outcomes is needed, especially with respect to which procedures are most suitable for this payment arrangement.


A framework of M-estimation based fuzzy C-means clustering (MFCM) algorithm is proposed with iterative reweighted least squares (IRLS) algorithm, and penalty constraint and kernelization extensions of MFCM algorithms are also developed. Introducing penalty information to the object functions of MFCM algorithms, the spatially constrained fuzzy C-means (SFCM) is extended to penalty constraints MFCM algorithms(abbr. pMFCM).Substituting the Euclidean distance with kernel method, the MFCM and pMFCM algorithms are extended to kernelized MFCM (abbr. KMFCM) and kernelized pMFCM (abbr.pKMFCM) algorithms. The performances of MFCM, pMFCM, KMFCM and pKMFCM algorithms are evaluated in three tasks: pattern recognition on 10 standard data sets from UCI Machine Learning databases, noise image segmentation performances on a synthetic image, a magnetic resonance brain image (MRI), and image segmentation of a standard images from Berkeley Segmentation Dataset and Benchmark. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithms in pattern recognition and image segmentation.


Summary

Ultrasonography is an easy and rewarding technique for the assessment of collateral ligaments of the distal interphalangeal joint (CL-DIPJ) desmopathies and enthesopathies. Comparison between ligaments of both feet and oblique incidence improve sensitivity and specificity of the ultrasonographic diagnosis. The main limitation of the procedure is imaging the distal part of the CL-DIPJ and corresponding fossa of the distal phalanx. Alone, or in combination with other imaging procedures, ultrasonography is valuable in the diagnosis of the injured structures, which may help to determine the corrective shoeing and the rehabilitation programme of the horse.


An experimental investigation of the steady-state low current air arcs in a dual-flow nozzle system is presented. The cold flow field with no arc was determined for various nozzle geometries, i.e. two- and three-dimensional and orifice nozzles, and nozzle pressure ratios. Supersonic flow separation and oblique and detached shock waves were observed in the flow field. Using a finite-element computer program, the Mach number contours were determined in the flow field for various nozzle-gap spacings and pressure ratios. In addition, the DC arc voltage and current measurements were made for an electrode gap spacing of approximately=5.5 cm and current levels of I approximately=25, 50, and 100 A for the three nozzle geometries. The arc voltage and arc power increased rapidly as the flow speed increased from zero to sonic velocity at the nozzle throat. The shock waves in the converging-diverging nozzles resulted in a decrease in the overall resistance by about 15%. >


Background With the advent of COVID-19, mortality rates of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) rose by 37% which makes its treatment an important part of healthcare. Arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is linked to higher patient survival rates. Cimino-Brescia fistula is the most effective vascular access technique, but it has a high rate of primary failure (PF) and a several-week maturation period before it can be used. The current study aims to verify the preoperative evaluation in improving survival among AVF patients. Methodology The current study is a retrospective analysis of the hospital database from Jan 2022 to July 2023, with patients of a mean age of 60.2 years. The sample size was around 700, including the patients indicated for long-term hemodialysis (HD) with an estimated GFR of less than 20 mm/min/1.73m². Following AVF surgery, post-operative outcomes, PF, and maturation time were considered. Results Among the 757 AVF procedures, 588 (82%) were new cases, and 112 (16%) had prior AVF history on the same side. PF was observed in 126 (18%) AVFs, while 574 (84%) achieved maturation. Age at surgery did not correlate with PF. Male sex and brachiocephalic AVF (BCAVF) had lower PF rates, while female gender, non-BCAVF, and vascular chronic kidney disease (CKD) were independent predictors. Proximal fistulas had a higher failure risk (32%). During surgery, the PF occurred six times more frequently in patients with veins and arteries under 2 mm and without a bruit. Conclusion AVF maturation aims to achieve a functional AVF for easy dialysis, requiring meticulous vein selection, doppler vascular mapping, and a standardized process to reduce PF rates. Factors determining PF include thrill and bruit, flow rates, and comorbidities. These findings can help clinicians make informed decisions and improve outcomes for patients undergoing fistula surgery.


The risk of perinatal mortality is the resultant of a large number of biological and social influences. Age, parity, social class, height, and past obstetric history are only some of the factors that should be taken into account in assessing the risk for any particular woman. This raises a difficult problem. In several factors she may be below average in risk while in others she is above average. She may, for example, be in Social Class I, but be 38 years old and having her fourth child. How should her risk be compared with that of another woman who is in Social Class V but is 23 years old and having her third child? Assessing the risk for any case requires estimating the specific effect of each factor and weighing these together to arrive at an overall value. This paper reports the development of a multiple regression method for evaluating perinatal mortality risks and identifying cases most likely to benefit from intensive antenatal care or hospital delivery. The data used for this study was collected by the Perinatal Mortality Survey (Butler and Bonham, 1963). During one week in March, 1958, the Survey directed by Dr Neville Butler obtained information on 16,994 single births, some 98 per cent. of all births during the week. Perinatal deaths (defined to include the entire 4-week neonatal period) of babies born during March, April, and May were also recorded. The 7,117 survey deaths represent an estimated 94 per cent. of all deaths at risk.


INTRODUCTION
Penetrating and perforating ocular trauma is often devastating and may lead to complete visual loss in the traumatized eye and subsequent compromise of the fellow eye. Enucleation is commonly utilized for management of a non-salvageable eye following penetrating and perforating ocular injuries. Recently, the use of evisceration for non-salvageable traumatized eyes has increased. As a technically easier alternative, evisceration offers several advantages to the ocular trauma surgeon to include faster surgical times, better cosmesis and motility, and improved patient outcomes. Debate still persists concerning whether or not evisceration is a viable option in the surgical management of a non-salvageable eye following ocular trauma given the theoretical increased risk of sympathetic ophthalmia and technical difficulty in construction of the scleral shell with extensive and complex corneoscleral lacerations. A retrospective analysis at a level 1 trauma center was performed to evaluate the practicality of evisceration in ocular trauma.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Eyes that underwent evisceration or enucleation following ocular trauma at San Antonio Military Medical Center, a level 1 trauma center, between 01 January 2014 and 30 December 2016 were examined. Factors evaluated include mechanism of injury, defect complexity, ocular trauma score, and time from injury to surgical intervention. Surgical outcomes were assessed.

RESULTS
In total, 29 eyes were examined, 15 having undergone evisceration and 14 enucleation. The average size of the scleral defect before evisceration was 20 mm in length, and 23 mm before enucleation. The mechanism of injury and characterization of the defects among the two groups were relatively similar and described. Overall comparison of the two study groups in terms of surgical outcomes and complications was also relatively similar, as demonstrated. No cases of postoperative persistent pain, sympathetic ophthalmia, infection, or hematoma were identified for either group.

CONCLUSIONS
The postoperative outcomes demonstrated for the evisceration group are comparable to enucleation, which is consistent with the recent literature. Defect size and complexity did not affect surgical construction of the scleral shell during evisceration. If consistently proven to be a safe and viable alternative to enucleation, evisceration can offer shorter surgical times and better cosmesis for patients. More research into the long-term complication rates and more cases of evisceration for use following ocular trauma should be assessed. Still, this analysis demonstrates that evisceration is a viable surgical alternative and perhaps superior to enucleation for the management of a non-salvageable eye following extensive ocular trauma in many cases.


The power of interactive 3D graphics, immersive displays, and spatial interfaces is still under-explored in domains where the main target is to enhance creativity and emotional experiences. This article presents a set of work the attempts to extent the frontiers of music creation as well as the experience of audiences attending to digital performances. The goal is to connect sounds to interactive 3D graphics that musicians can interact with and the audience can observe.


Interrelation was studied between vitamin C consumption and the prevalence of coronary heart disease and some risk factors in a non-organized male population in Kiev. A reverse relationship was established between vitamin C consumption, the prevalence of coronary heart disease and some risk factors, such as arterial hypertension, hyperlipoproteinemia and overweight.


Increasing evidence suggests that N6-methyladenosine (m6A) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in cancer progression and immunotherapeutic efficacy in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). In this study, we conducted a comprehensive ccRCC RNA-seq analysis using The Cancer Genome Atlas data to establish an m6A-related lncRNA prognostic signature (m6A-RLPS) for ccRCC. Forty-four prognostic m6A-related lncRNAs (m6A-RLs) were screened using Pearson correlation analysis (|R| > 0.7, p < 0.001) and univariable Cox regression analysis (p < 0.01). Using consensus clustering, the patients were divided into two clusters with different overall survival (OS) rates and immune status according to the differential expression of the lncRNAs. Gene set enrichment analysis corroborated that the clusters were enriched in immune-related activities. Twelve prognostic m6A-RLs were selected and used to construct the m6A-RLPS through least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox regression. We validated the differential expression of the 12 lncRNAs between tumor and non-cancerous samples, and the expression levels of four m6A-RLs were further validated using Gene Expression Omnibus data and Lnc2Cancer 3.0 database. The m6A-RLPS was verified to be an independent and robust predictor of ccRCC prognosis using univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses. A nomogram based on age, tumor grade, clinical stage, and m6A-RLPS was generated and showed high accuracy and reliability at predicting the OS of patients with ccRCC. The prognostic signature was found to be strongly correlated to tumor-infiltrating immune cells and immune checkpoint expression. In conclusion, we established a novel m6A-RLPS with a favorable prognostic value for patients with ccRCC. The 12 m6A-RLs included in the signature may provide new insights into the tumorigenesis and allow the prediction of the treatment response of ccRCC.


Abortion is the medical procedure of expelling a fetus from the uterus before it can result in a live birth. Several means are adopted to achieve this, either by taking medication or having a surgical procedure. 'Abortion' in the context of this research differs from 'miscarriage', a situation whereby pregnancy ends naturally without medical intervention, often referred to as spontaneous abortion. Reasons for abortion vary, ranging from health risks to economic factors, personal misadventure, socio-cultural factors and many others. Diverse justifications have been advanced both in favour of and against the liberalisation of abortion laws globally. Nigerian laws allow abortion only to preserve the life of the mother in the case of medical challenges; abortion done for any other contrary reason is proscribed and regarded as a crime. However, the recent experience ofthe Boko Haram insurgency resulting in humanitarian crises is novel to the existing legal framework. Abducted under-aged girls and women were severely and repeatedly raped and sexually abused, resulting in unwanted pregnancies. Upon being rescued, the traumatised victims' desire for elective abortion unfortunately is not captured in the nation's abortion laws. In this research the issues of rights to the life, sexual and reproductive rights and the economic implications of unwanted pregnancies are critically examined and the well-being of these victims is juxtaposed with the restrictive abortion laws in Nigeria predating the emerging trends. The article recommends an amendment allowing elective abortion in certain circumstances as this will create a new balance and reflect positive social change.


Introduction: Smoking is the most preventable cause of death. Although, woman started smoking in greater numbers later than man, she seems to have more difficulties in quitting cigarette than him. Aim: Evaluate the smoking intoxication rate in Tunisian woman and the effectiveness of smoking cessation intervention. Patients and methods: It9s a prospective study, including 100 women smokers treated for smoking cessation during the period from 2007 to 2010. We extracted data on smoking history, degree of nicotine dependence, strategies of smoking cessation and the most successful intervention after 3 and 6 months. Results: Mean age of women smokers was 43.6 +/- 13.3 years. The mean age of onset of tobacco use was 19.7 +/- 6.4 years. The mean duration of exposition was 23 +/- 12 years, with a mean of cigarettes consummation of 22 +/- 11 cigarettes /day. Tobacco dependence level was important in 65% of women. A half of them had a low level of education attained, and most of them (71.4%) had unfavourable socioeconomic status. According to HAD test, 20 patients were anxious and 45 patients were depressive. The principal reason of quitting cigarette smoking was health problems associated with cigarette (83.2%). Nicotine replacement treatment was the most strategy prescribed (98%). After the first counselling, 40% were lost of sight. Continuous cessation rate at 3 months was 65%. Only 15% stopped definitely smoking at 6 months. Relapses were especially due to greater withdrawal symptoms. Conclusion: This study illustrates the importance of tobacco dependence in Tunisian women. Smoking seems to become a phenomenon associated with poorer and less-educated people. Relapses were common after 6 months of smoking cessation assistance.


In chronic diseases, such as HIV infection, plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are rendered dysfunctional, as measured by their decreased capacity to produce IFN-α. In this study, we identified elevated levels of T cell Ig and mucin-domain containing molecule-3 (Tim-3)–expressing pDCs in the blood of HIV-infected donors. The frequency of Tim-3–expressing pDCs correlated inversely with CD4 T cell counts and positively with HIV viral loads. A lower frequency of pDCs expressing Tim-3 produced IFN-α or TNF-α in response to the TLR7 agonists imiquimod and Sendai virus and to the TLR9 agonist CpG. Thus, Tim-3 may serve as a biomarker of pDC dysfunction in HIV infection. The source and function of Tim-3 was investigated on enriched pDC populations from donors not infected with HIV. Tim-3 induction was achieved in response to viral and artificial stimuli, as well as exogenous IFN-α, and was PI3K dependent. Potent pDC-activating stimuli, such as CpG, imiquimod, and Sendai virus, induced the most Tim-3 expression and subsequent dysfunction. Small interfering RNA knockdown of Tim-3 increased IFN-α secretion in response to activation. Intracellular Tim-3, as measured by confocal microscopy, was dispersed throughout the cytoplasm prior to activation. Postactivation, Tim-3 accumulated at the plasma membrane and associated with disrupted TLR9 at the submembrane. Tim-3–expressing pDCs had reduced IRF7 levels. Furthermore, intracellular Tim-3 colocalized with p85 and IRF7 within LAMP1+ lysosomes, suggestive of a role in degradation. We conclude that Tim-3 is a biomarker of dysfunctional pDCs and may negatively regulate IFN-α, possibly through interference with TLR signaling and recruitment of IRF7 and p85 into lysosomes, enhancing their degradation.


We have carried out a broadband seismological study of the Hudson Bay region of northern Canada with the view to understanding better the reasons for the Bay's existence, and the nature of the tectonic processes that shaped the Canadian shield during Precambrian times. Our 2007–2011 seismograph network consisted of up to 12 CMG-3T Guralp instruments with a combination of Taurus and DCM data loggers recording data at 20Hz in both remote (solar powered) and community (mains powered) locations. Our work was carried out in conjunction with the Geological Survey of Canada who provided significant logistical and financial support beyond the scope of the original (2007-2009) NERC-funded proposal. Data quality from the HuBLE network was excellent, with percentage recovery good except during the long Canadian winters when stations powered down. A number of publications have resulted from analysis of the new dataset showing that: (i) the lithosphere in the region has retained a ∼1.8Ga fossil fabric, providing strong evidence that modern-day-style plate tectonics was in operation by Paleoproterozoic times (the Trans Hudson Orogen). (ii) Crustal formation of the Canadian Shield likely evolved from one characterised by a hot ductile regime during the Paleoarchean, to one more closely resembling modern-day-style plate tectonics by the Paleoproterozoic. (iii) Crustal stretching (not a mantle down-welling, eclogitised lower-crust, or incomplete glacial rebound) is likely responsible for the presence of the Bay. (iv) There is no evidence for thinning or thickening of the mantle transition zone, with the implication that the mantle beneath Hudson Bay is neither characterized by a cold downwelling (potentially responsible for the formation of the Bay), or elevated temperatures due to the thermally insulating effects of the thick Canadian lithosphere.


The objective of this study was to test the reliability and validity of a semistructured questionnaire concerning children's experience of muscular tension and its relation to daily life experiences and pain. The reliability of the questions were tested by the test-retest method, and the answers were validated in a sample of children. The answers in the test-retest procedure were the same or had virtually the same content in 8 out of 9 children (κ = 0.80). When asked about the sensation of bodily tension, 38 out of 42 children, aged 7 to 15, said that they had experienced this sensation, and 32 of them could give a more detailed description of it using words likejittery, stiff, tight, andunpleasant. These 32 children could also describe where in the body they felt the tension: Abdomen, head, legs, and arms were common locations. Thirty-six children described how the tension was triggered by life experiences that had to do with stress. In 14 of the 42 children, the tension induced pain in the areas of the body where they experienced tension, such as the stomach and the head. Thus, in a small sample of children, a semistructured questionnaire showed acceptable reliability and validity. This indicates, preliminarily, that children over 6 years of age can identify the sensation, location, and inducing factors of bodily tension and its relation to pain and describe these experiences in personal words.


Abstract. This article focuses on the selection of satellite infrared IASI (Infrared
Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer) observations in the global numerical
weather prediction (NWP) system ARPEGE (Action de Recherche Petite Echelle
Grande Echelle). The observation simulation is performed with the
sophisticated radiative transfer model RTTOV-CLD, which takes into account
the cloud scattering and the multilayer clouds from atmospheric profiles and
cloud microphysical profiles (liquid water content, ice content and cloud
fraction). The aim of this work is to select homogeneous scenes by using the
information of the collocated Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
(AVHRR) pixels inside each IASI field of view and to retain the most
favourable cases for the assimilation of IASI infrared radiances. Two methods
to select homogeneous scenes using homogeneity criteria already proposed in
the literature were adapted: the criteria derived from
Martinet et al. (2013) for cloudy sky selection in the French mesoscale
model AROME (Applications of Research to Operations at MEsoscale) and the
criteria from Eresmaa (2014) for clear-sky selection in the global
model IFS (Integrated Forecasting System). A comparison between these methods
reveals considerable differences, in both the method to compute the criteria
and the statistical results. From this comparison a revised method
representing a kind of compromise between the different tested methods is
proposed and it uses the two infrared AVHRR channels to define the
homogeneity criteria in the brightness temperature space. This revised method
has a positive impact on the observation minus the simulation statistics,
while retaining 36 % of observations for the assimilation. It was then
tested in the NWP system ARPEGE for the clear-sky assimilation. These
criteria were added to the current data selection based on the McNally and
Watts (2003) cloud detection scheme. It appears that the impact on analyses
and forecasts is rather neutral.


Marine mammals and humans have the strongest manifestations of what is apparently a vertebrate-wide tendency toward a rightward action asymmetry associated with routine behavior. Marine mammal asymmetries usually involve whole-body actions associated with feeding. The human-like strength of these asymmetries may result from a problem of external aquatic support for the reactive component of the demanding lateral maneuvers of large marine mammals in daily pursuit of prey. Our asymmetrical primate heritage may also have begun with a rightward whole-body asymmetry, in prosimians, perhaps also resulting from problems of support for the reactive component of action; in this case arising from the arboreal habitat (and paradoxically including left-handedness). Monkeys and apes (simians) subsequently added right-sided adaptations for manipulation, bimanual coordination, bipedalism, throwing, and manual communication, most importantly by distal elaboration of limb function. The strength of human right-handedness may result partly from further elaboration of these simian action adaptations and partly from an evolving cognitive superstructure for tool use and language.


A drum-shaped cage built up from six carbon and six boron atoms is proposed for the structure of 2 based on the comparison of experimental and calculated NMR chemical shifts. The novel arachno carborane 2 was obtained upon treatment of bis(diethylboryl)ethyne (1) with an excess of tetraethyldiborane(6) [Eq. (a)].


OBJECT
This study was conducted to determine the best position for the subdural drainage catheter to achieve a low recurrence rate after burr-hole irrigation and closed-system drainage of chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH).

METHODS
The authors studied 63 patients with CSDH in whom the drainage catheter tip was randomly placed and precisely determined on postoperative computerized tomography (CT) scans and 104 patients with CSDH in whom CT scans were obtained 7 days postsurgery. The location of the subdural drainage catheter, the maximum postoperative width of the subdural space, and the percentage of the ipsilateral subdural space occupied by air postoperatively were determined and compared with the postoperative recurrence and reoperation rates. Patients with parietal or occipital drainage had a higher rate of CSDH recurrence and much more subdural air than those with frontal drainage. In addition, patients with residual subdural air demonstrated on CT scans obtained 7 days postsurgery also had a higher recurrence rate than those without subdural air collections. Furthermore, patients with a subdural space wider than 10 mm on CT scans obtained 7 days postsurgery had a higher recurrence rate than those with a space measuring 10 mm or less.

CONCLUSIONS
The incidence of postoperative fluid reaccumulation seems to be reduced by placing the tip of the drainage catheter in the frontal convexity and by removing subdural air during or after surgery.


Urethral obstruction is common in castrated male small ruminants. Perineal urethrostomy is the recommended treatment in animals not intended for breeding; however, stricture formation is a common complication, and few surgical options are available once a stricture has formed. Prepubic urethrostomy has been used successfully in dogs and cats to treat urethral trauma or stricture formation, and in this report, use of prepubic urethrostomy in 2 small ruminants to treat urethral strictures that developed alter perineal urethrostomy is described. Both animals maintained urinary continence and were able to void urine normally. Complications after prepubic urethrostomy included recurrent cystitis in sheep and urethral stricture in goats. Prepubic urethrostomy may be considered in as an alternative for treatment of urethral disorders in small ruminants.


Features of brain interhemispheric asymmetry during solving the spatial figurative task (maze model) were studied in men and women with different intelligence quotients (IQ). It was shown that during task solving the rate of information processing was higher in the right brain hemisphere, and amplitude characteristics of the event-related potentials were higher in the left hemisphere. No gender and IQ differences in the character of interhemispheric interaction were found during the realization of the maze-model task. The results testify that the character of hemispheric interaction depends om the task rype rather than gender and intelligence level.


This study sought to determine the intestinal in vivo absorption of folic acid and methyltetrahydrofolate (MTHF) by jejunum surface at different times, after 20 weeks of 30% ethanol ingestion. The absorption results were compared with the data of control rats. In general after ethanol treatment jejunal folic acid absorption was higher than in control rats. When the folic acid concentrations in the perfusion medium were 0.5 microM an increase at later times in ethanol-fed rats was found. At 1 microM the folic acid absorption values were significantly higher at the earlier time. When the concentration assayed was 2.5 microM, significant modifications were only seen at 30 min. Results of MTHF absorption by jejunum of ethanol-fed rats were similar to absorption values of control rats. No significant differences between both groups were found. The results obtained in the present work suggested a different absorptive behavior of both substrates and a different effect of ethanol on folic acid and MTHF absorption in the jejunum.


Antipsychotics have been used in the therapy of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and several second generation antipsychotics (SGA) are already available in Hungary. The clinical trials' results are confusing in regarding the differences in the efficacy of the SGA's, but the differences in their side-effects are clear. Considering its most important side-effects, such as extrapyramidal symptoms, weight gain, metabolic syndrome and prolactin level elevation, quetiapine has a fairly good side effect profile, and can therefore be recommended especially in case of bipolar patients who are highly sensitive towards side effects.. In our case-report, we present four patients who were successfully treated with quetiapine for their psychotic mood elevation.


We describe the fabrication of filamentous hydrogel nanoparticles using a unique soft lithography based particle molding process referred to as PRINT (particle replication in nonwetting templates). The nanoparticles possess a constant width of 80 nm, and we varied their lengths ranging from 180 to 5000 nm. In addition to varying the aspect ratio of the particles, the deformability of the particles was tuned by varying the cross-link density within the particle matrix. Size characteristics such as hydrodynamic diameter and persistence length of the particles were analyzed using dynamic light scattering and electron microscopy techniques, respectively, while particle deformability was assessed by atomic force microscopy. Additionally, the ability of the particles to pass through membranes containing 0.2 μm pores was assessed by means of a simple filtration technique, and particle recovery was determined using fluorescence spectroscopy. The results show that particle recovery is mostly independent of aspect ratio at all cross-linker concentrations utilized, with the exception of 96 wt % PEG diacrylate 80 × 5000 nm particles, which showed the lowest percent recovery.


Background: Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is widely used in the outpatient setting for people with diabetes and has been limited to investigational use only for the inpatient population. In April 2020, the US FDA exercised enforcement discretion for the temporary use of inpatient CGM during the pandemic, thus hospitals were presented the opportunity to implement this technology. Methods: We sought to investigate the accuracy of CGM in hospitalized patients on general care floors and the intensive care unit (ICU) in attempts to decrease healthcare professional exposure to COVID-19 and ultimately improve glycemic management of patients affected by COVID-19. Point of care (POC) and laboratory (Lab) glucose values were matched with simultaneous CGM glucose values and measures of accuracy were performed to evaluate the safety and usability of CGM in this population. Our data are presented drawing a distinction between POC and Lab as reference glucose sources. Results: In 808 paired samples obtained from 28 patients (10 ICU, 18 general floor), overall mean absolute relative difference (MARD) for all patients using either POC or Lab as reference was 13.2%. When using POC as the reference glucose MARD was 13.9% and using Lab glucose as reference 10.9%. Using both POC and Lab reference glucose pairs the overall MARD for critical care patients was 12.1% and for general floor patients 14%. Conclusion: We determined, with proper protocols and safeguards in place, use of CGM in the hospitalized patient is a reasonable alternative to standard of care to achieve the goal of reducing healthcare professional exposure. Further study is necessary to validate safety, accuracy, and efficacy of this technology. Investigation and analysis are necessary for the development of protocols to utilize CGM trend arrows, alerts, and alarms.


This article uses recent US state level data to estimate the demand for cigarettes. The main contribution of this work is that, unlike previous studies, it takes into account both price and nonprice incentives behind the smuggling of cigarettes. The results show the demand for cigarettes to be elastic and greater than that found in the previous literature. The effects of greater literacy and income on smoking are insignificant. Also, the magnitude of own price elasticity seems affected by whether a correction is made for border prices. Comparing the price and nonprice influences on cigarette smuggling, it seems that price inducements remain the main force behind smuggling. Policy implications are discussed.


Uppingham, a small market town in the East Midlands, suffered repeated typhoid outbreaks in 1875-6, centred on its famous boarding school. A fierce battle developed between the school doctor and the local medical officer of health (MoH), with the Local Government Board (LGB) struggling to satisfy the various parties, many of which had a vested interest in controlling rate increases. Faced with ruin if nothing were done, the headmaster, Edward Thring, removed the school to the Welsh coast for an entire year. The town's shopkeepers, heavily dependent on the school, forced the Rural Sanitary Authority (RSA) to implement better drainage, while Thring and others set up a private company to supply water to the town. Writers such as Hamlin, Hennock and Wohl have already pointed to the formidable obstacles to public health reform facing authorities in urban areas. Uppingham's experience, unusually well documented for a small community, suggests that in rural areas these difficulties were equally great, and that local leaders were hopelessly ill-equipped for the task they faced.


As an attempt to assess the value of a medically-staffed mobile emergency care unit in Aarhus City, we carried out a seven-day experiment (17 hours per day) with an anaesthesiologist and a nurse on duty in a fully equipped vehicle. Aarhus City is an area of approximately 300 km2, with a population of 330,000. The unit responded to emergency calls in 106 patients (38% of all emergency calls during this week). In 31% of all cases the response-time was less than five minutes. Medical disease was diagnosed in 73 patients. Twenty-three patients were suffering from trauma and in three cases the reason for the emergency call was attempted suicide. Fifty-seven percent were treated immediately by the emergency unit, and in 4% of these the treatment was lifesaving. Twenty percent of the patients had their treatment completed outside the hospital. Eighty percent were brought to hospital, 47% with medical assistance. We conclude that there seems to be a basis for a medically-staffed mobile emergency care unit in Aarhus City.


Hanford Seismic Monitoring provides an uninterrupted collection of high-quality raw and processed seismic data from the Hanford Seismic Network (HSN) for the US Department of Energy and its contractors. Hanford Seismic Monitoring also locates and identifies sources of seismic activity and monitors changes in the historical pattern of seismic activity at the Hanford Site. The data are compiled, archived, and published for use by the Hanford Site for waste management, Natural Phenomena Hazards assessments, and engineering design and construction. In addition, the seismic monitoring organization works with the Hanford Site Emergency Services Organization to provide assistance in the event of a significant earthquake on the Hanford Site. The HSN and the Eastern Washington Regional Network (EWRN) consist of 42 individual sensor sites and 15 radio relay sites maintained by the Hanford Seismic Monitoring staff. The HSN uses 21 sites and the EW uses 36 sites; both networks share 16 sites. The networks have 46 combined data channels because Gable Butte and Frenchman Hills East are three-component sites. The reconfiguration of the telemetry and recording systems was completed during the first quarter. All leased telephone lines have been eliminated and radio telemetry is now used exclusively. For the HSN, there were 311 triggers on two parallel detection and recording systems during the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2000. Twelve seismic events were located by the Hanford Seismic Network within the reporting region of 46--47{degree}N latitude and 119--120{degree}W longitude; 2 were earthquakes in the Columbia River Basalt Group, 3 were earthquakes in the pre-basalt sediments, 9 were earthquakes in the crystalline basement, and 1 was a quarry blast. Two earthquakes appear to be related to a major geologic structure, no earthquakes occurred in known swarm areas, and 9 earthquakes were random occurrences. No earthquakes triggered the Hanford Strong Motion Accelerometers during the first quarter of FY 2000.


A quick and safe CT image-guided stereotactic thalamotomy technique that has proved ideal for alleviating medically refractory intractable pain due to malignant disease is described. A simple method of deriving cartesian coordinates for target points that facilitates functional neurosurgery using CT images and the Brown-Roberts-Wells stereotactic system is also described.


The existing use of summary statistics from co-occurrence matrices of images for texture recognition and classification has inadequacies when dealing with non-uniform and colored texture such as traditional `Batik¿ and `Songket¿ cloth motifs. This study uses the Tchebichef orthogonal polynomial as a way to preserve the shape information of cooccurrence matrices generated using the RGB multispectral method; allowing prominent features and shapes of the matrices to be preserved while discarding extraneous information. The decomposition of the six multispectral co-occurrence matrices yields a set of moment coefficients which can be used to quantify the difference between textures. The proposed method, when tested with a subset of the Vision Texture (VisTex) database and a collection of `Batik¿ and `Songket¿ motifs, yielded promising results of 99.5% and 95.28% classification rates respectively using the 3-nearest neighbor classifier.


Background and Objective: Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) is one of the leading human diseases causing high morbidity and mortality worldwide. The prevalent etiological agents and their antimicrobial resistance patterns differs, both geographically and over time. With emerging resistance of respiratory bacterial pathogens to commonly used antibiotics, it is imperative to study their recent trends for effective management of these cases. Materials and Methods: A retrospective, record based study was conducted on culture and sensitivity reports of lower respiratory samples obtained in the microbiology lab during 1 January 201531st December 2017. The samples were processed by standard methods for isolation and identification followed by antimicrobial sensitivity testing using Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method. Results: 288 (26.34%) of total 1093 samples were positive for bacterial culture. 244 (84.7%) were gram negative bacilli (GNB) and 44 (15.3%) were gram positive cocci. The predominant pathogen isolated was K.pneumoniae (31.1%) followed by P.aeruginosa (30.2%).The overall susceptibility of GNB was highest towards Imipenem followed by Amikacin and Piperacillin tazobactam with resistance rates of 11.5%, 26.2% and 31.6% respectively. Gram positive organisms exhibited highest susceptibility towards Vancomycin and Linezolid. 15.4 % of Staphylococcus aureus were Methicillin resistant (MRSA). Conclusion: Imipenem is the most sensitive antibiotic followed by Amikacin and Piperacillin tazobactam which can be used for empirical therapy for LRTI. The antibiotic therapy should be modified as per the culture and sensitivity report. Regular determinations of the type of bacterial pathogens and updation of antibiogram must be followed in every institution to aid in better patient management by helping the clinician in the judicious use of antibiotics.


This paper aims at exploring the use of closing utterances in conversation in one of Indonesian television program. The results show that there are three types of strategies implemented close conversation and all of it is the part of positive face-saving strategies. These three strategies are: positive comment, excuse (reason), and the imperative to end strategy (imperative to end the conversation). Positive comments applied if the speakers actually enjoy the conversation, but he or she had to end it for some reasons. Excuse strategy is used to close the conversation by providing an alternative motivation or alternative explanations for the hearer which potentially exposed to the threat of the face. Lastly, imperative to end the conversation strategy applied by the use of imperative words/sentences to close the conversation, but the speaker still trying to save his/her partner's face. In general, the positive face-saving strategies used by speakers to close the conversation also consider the feelings of the hearer, giving positive comments or express a reason why a conversation should end.


The arterial supply to the right hemiliver was studied in 80 liver casts. The arteries were divided into 10 groups according to their origin and branching pattern. The right hemiliver was supplied by one artery in 96% of cases and by two arteries in 4%. When there was only one artery it originated from the proper hepatic artery in 73/77 cases and from the superior mesenteric artery in 4/77 cases. The replacing right hepatic artery which originated from the superior mesenteric vessel supplied the whole right hemiliver in 5% of cases. The incomplete replacing right hepatic artery which supplied only a part of the right hemiliver was found in 4% of cases. The anterior section (segments 5 and 8) was supplied by one artery in 61%, by two arteries in 30% and by three arteries in 9% of cases. The posterior section (segments 6 and 7) was supplied by one artery in 66%, by two arteries in 31% and by three arteries in 3% of cases. Segments 5 and 7 were predominantly supplied by one artery, whereas segments 6 and 8 by two arteries.


Cell-free fetal nucleic acids in the maternal circulation can be broadly divided into fetal DNA and RNA that originate from apoptotic placenta cells. Cell-free fetal nucleic acids can be detected from 4-5 weeks gestation and are undetectable in the maternal circulation after delivery. Therefore, cell-free fetal nucleic acids have been proposed as a potential material for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD), which poses no risk to mother and child. The clinical applications of this technology fall into three categories: first, early sex determination in cases at high risk of X-linked disorders or congenital adrenal hyperplasia requiring follow-up testing or antenatal treatment; second, detection of specific paternally inherited monogenic diseases in families with high genetic risk; and third, routine antenatal care offered to all pregnant women, including prenatal screening/ diagnosis of aneuploidy, particularly Down syndrome. Fetal sex determination is already performed in routine clinical care for high-risk individuals in some countries. Many researchers have explored the possibility of cellfree fetal nucleic acids on NIPD of monogenic diseases and aneuploidy. Promising results have been reported from studies using the combination of markers and the application of various experimental methods. Although these technologies can raise ethical, social, and legal concerns, a reliable noninvasive test using cell-free fetal nucleic acids may in future form a part of national antenatal programs for detection of Down syndrome and other common genetic disorders.


We investigate a relation between surface densities (at a $\sim 1$kpc scale) of star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass ($M_{*}$) namely spatially resolved star formation main sequence (SFMS) at $z\sim 0$ and $z\sim 1$ of massive ($\log(M_{*}/M_{\odot})>10.5$) face-on disc galaxies and examine the evolution of the relation with cosmic time. The spatially resolved SFMS of $z\sim 0$ galaxies is discussed in a companion paper. For $z\sim 1$ sample, we use 8 bands imaging dataset from CANDELS and 3D-HST which provides a rest-frame FUV-NIR SED for galaxies at $0.8\lesssim z \lesssim 1.8$. We perform a pixel-to-pixel SED fitting to derive the spatially resolved SFR and $M_{*}$ distributions in a galaxy. We find a linear spatially resolved SFMS in the $z\sim 1$ galaxies that lie within $\pm 0.3$ dex from the global SFMS, while a "flattening" at high $\Sigma_{*}$ end is found in the spatially resolved SFMS of the galaxies that lie below $-0.3$ dex from the global SFMS. The "flattening" trend is consistent with a decline of the sSFR radial profile (sSFR$(r)$) in the central region of the corresponding galaxies. Comparison with the spatially resolved SFMS in the $z\sim 0$ galaxies shows smaller difference in the sSFR at low $\Sigma_{*}$ ($\sim 0.4$ dex at $\log(\Sigma_{*}[M_{\odot} \text{kpc}^{-2}])=7.0$) than that at high $\Sigma_{*}$ ($\sim 1.5$ dex at $\log(\Sigma_{*}[M_{\odot} \text{kpc}^{-2}])=8.5$). This trend is consistent with the evolution of the sSFR$(r)$ radial profile, which shows a faster decrease in the central region than in the outskirt, agrees with the inside-out quenching scenario. We then derive an empirical model for the evolution of the $\Sigma_{*}(r)$, $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}(r)$ and sSFR$(r)$ radial profiles. Based on the empirical model, we estimate the radial profile of the quenching timescale and reproduce the observed spatially resolved SFMS at $z\sim 1$ and $z\sim 0$.


Abstract Public health guidelines to prevent spreading COVID-19 place older adults at risk of loneliness and social isolation. Evidence suggests that participation protects older adults from such detrimental outcomes, therefore we aimed to identify the factors associated with participation in life roles among older adults living in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a telesurvey on a random sample of community-dwelling older adults living in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, between May and July 2020. Outcome measures included participation in life roles, physical function, physical activity, mobility, mental health, nutrition, and demographics. We conducted two multivariate regression analyses with the Late Life Disability Instrument's (LLDI) frequency and limitations scales as the dependent variables. Candidate factors were organized by International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) framework domains; personal factors, body functions and structures, activities, and environmental factors. A total of 272 older adults completed the telesurvey (mean age 78 ±7.3 yrs, 70% female). Age, using walking aids, driving status, household income, education, mental health, nutrition, physical function, and dwelling type explained 47.1% (p<0.001) of the variance observed in LLDI frequency scores. Using walking aids, driving status, receiving health assistance, mental health, and physical function explained 33.9% (p<0.001) of the variance observed in LLDI limitation scores. These findings highlight factors from multiple ICF domains that are associated with participation limitation and frequency among older adults during the pandemic. Our findings have implications for developing public health initiatives to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on the participation of older adults.


The framework for an image coding system based on embedded zerotrees consists of three stages: (i) wavelet transform (ii) embedded zerotree encoding and (iii) adaptive arithmetic encoding. In this framework, the selection of the wavelet filter becomes an important issue. In this paper, we present a modification to the scanning approach in the set partitioning algorithm proposed in Said and Pearlman (1996) to exploit the correlation in a local neighborhood. Two new criteria are proposed for evaluating the performance of wavelets in lossless image compression applications: zero tree count and monotone spectral ordering of subbands produced after the wavelet transform in a multiresolution scheme. We evaluate several wavelet filters to test the evaluation criteria and present experimental results to justify the proposed performance criteria.


The lipid membrane was once modelled as a homogeneous two-dimensional fluid, however, it is in fact a patchy, inhomogeneous state of matter. Inhomogeneities in membranes are now understood to be crucial to their function. These so-called lipid rafts are described as lateral lipid assemblies enriched in cholesterol, which have a greater degree of molecular order. They are believed to play a role in membrane bound protein insertion, sorting, and function. However, size, lifetime, and even the existence of rafts are still the subject of debate. This chapter discusses a role for lipid rafts in membrane homeostasis, experimental techniques to detect rafts, and our current physical models of how rafts may form. In particular, recent X-ray and neutron scattering experiments will be highlighted, which have revealed the lateral molecular ordering of cholesterol in lipid membranes, and have enhanced our understanding of lipid rafts. Those experiments, in particular, demonstrated that a drug, such as aspirin, can interrupt membrane homeostasis by influencing the formation of lipid rafts.


Objective To observe the effects of arsenic and the protective effects of 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate (2-APB) and dantrolene on the trabeculae of Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. Methods Thirty-six SD rats were randomly divided into a control group and an arsenic poisoning group. After 12 weeks of arsenic exposure, six rats in the arsenic poisoning group were randomly selected for sacrifice. The remaining rats were randomly assigned to four groups (n=6 per group): natural recovery after arsenic exposure, dantrolene intervention after arsenic exposure, 2-APB intervention after arsenic exposure, and 2-APB + dantrolene intervention after arsenic exposure. After 21 days of treatment by oral gavage every other day, the bilateral femurs and tibias of the rats were scanned using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) were isolated and cultured, and Ca2+ concentration and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of BMSCs was assessed. Results Compared with the control group, bone mineralization density (BMD), bone volume (BV)-to-total volume (TV) ratio (BV/TV), trabecular number (Tb.N), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), and degree of anisotropy (DA) decreased, while trabecular separation (Tb.Sp), trabecular pattern factor (TBpf), and structural model index (SMI) increased in the arsenic poisoning group (P<0.05); additionally, Ca2+ concentration increased and ALP activity decreased significantly in the arsenic poisoning group (P<0.05). Compared with the natural recovery group, after arsenic exposure, the indices of micro-CT recovered to some extent, the Ca2+ concentration of BMSCs decreased significantly, and the ALP activity of BMSCs increased significantly after intervention with 2-APB and dantrolene (P<0.05). Conclusion Arsenic can lead to significant changes in the structure of trabeculae and osteoporosis in rats, and these changes can be improved by intervention with 2-APB and dantrolene.


Objective: Recent studies have shown that today's college students more than ever are struggling with mental health and alcohol problems. While poor satisfaction with life and mental health problems have been linked to higher alcohol consumption, there is still a lack of studies examining in detail the shape and nature of the relationship between mental health and alcohol consumption. Aim: To investigate the associations between satisfaction with life, mental health problems and potential alcohol-related problems among Norwegian university students. The shape of the associations was also examined. Methods: Data were drawn from a 2018 national survey of students in higher education in Norway (the SHoT-study). Associations between satisfaction with life, mental health problems and potential alcohol-related problems (AUDIT; risky and harmful alcohol use) were investigated using logistic regression. Both crude models and models adjusted for age, gender and marital status were conducted. To investigate the shape of the associations, logistic regression with quadric and cubic terms was tested. Results: Decreased satisfaction with life and increased mental health problems were associated with potential alcohol-related problems. For satisfaction with life, a curvilinear association with risky alcohol use and a linear association with harmful alcohol use was identified. For mental health problems, curvilinear associations were found for both risky and harmful alcohol use. Conclusion: Many students report potential alcohol-related problems. Students with harmful alcohol use seem to be more at risk of reduced satisfaction with life and increased mental health problems than students with risky alcohol use. Educational institutions may be an ideal setting for raising awareness of mental health issues and responsible alcohol consumption among students. The present study contributes with important information about the shape of the associations between satisfaction with life, mental health problems and potential alcohol-related problems in the student population.


Several studies have a well-documented positive association between sense of humor and physical and mental well-being in later life. However, there is evidence to indicate that sense of humor declines with age. This study was conducted to examine humor training program on the sense of humor among older adults.

 This community-based randomized controlled trial study was conducted in 2019. There were 18 older adults in the intervention group and 20 older adults in the control group. The intervention group received the 7 Humor Habits Program in eight training sessions, whereas the control group was waitlisted. The Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS) was used to measure the sense of humor before and after the intervention. A series of paired samples t-tests and difference-in-differences approach using IBM SPSS Version 23.0 were conducted to assess changes from pre-test to post-test. The significance level of p ≤ .05 was considered for the statistical analysis.

 The mean age of the participants in the intervention and control groups was 66.50, (SD=6.14) and 67.60, (SD= 5.64) years, respectively. The results of a series of paired samples t-tests revealed a statistically significant increase in the total score of sense of humor from pre-test (M =77.28, SD = 13.62) to post-test (M=101.11, SD=17.06), (t= -6.77, p<.001), in intervention group. Other paired samples t-tests showed statistically significant changes from pre-test to post-test for subscales of humor including enjoyment of humor (t= -4.59, p<.001), laughter (t= -7.83, p<.001), verbal humor (t= -4.73, p<.001), finding humor in everyday life (t= -4.19, p<.001), laughing at yourself (t= -6.36, p<.01), and humor under stress (t= -2.54, P≤.05) in intervention group. Moreover, the results of the difference-in-differences approach revealed a significant increase in the sense of humor for the intervention group compared to the control group (F=43.54, p<.001). No statistically significant changes were observed in any outcome variables in the control group.

 The results of this study provided support that the sense of humor can be improved using a training program in later life.


The purpose of this study is to explore whether ADHD is associated with high creative ability. Sixty-seven children, ages 10 to 12 (33 ADHD and 34 controls) completed the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), Maier's Two-String Problem, and the Block Design and Vocabulary subsets of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III). The results show that there is no significant difference between the ADHD group's and control group's performance on either the TTCT, Maier's Two-String Problem, or WISC-III, suggesting that children diagnosed with ADHD are no more creative than children without the diagnosis.


The International Classification of Diseases Eleventh Edition (ICD-11), and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR), now include prolonged grief disorder (PGD). Since criteria for PGD in both classification systems differ from prior proposed grief disorders and each other, the validation of a single instrument to screen for prolonged grief (PG) symptoms of both new diagnoses is critical for bereavement research and care. Therefore, we evaluated the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the Traumatic Grief Inventory Self-Report Plus (TGI-SR+). Two-hundred and forty-eight bereaved parents completed questions about sociodemographic and loss-related variables, the TGI-SR+, and symptom measures of post-traumatic stress (PTS), depression and an older measure of PG symptoms, the Prolonged Grief Disorder-13 (PG-13). Confirmatory factor analyses showed that a one-factor model best fit DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 PG symptoms and the analyses of the internal consistency and inter-item correlations showed that these symptoms could be reliably assessed. In support of convergent validity, DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 PG symptoms correlated with symptoms of PTS, depression and PG assessed with the PG-13. In support of known-groups validity, DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 PG symptoms were higher among lower educated (vs. higher educated) participants and related negatively to time since loss. ROC analyses showed optimal cut-off score of ≥71 and ≥72 to determine probable caseness for DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 PGD, respectively. Results support the reliability and validity of the Swedish TGI-SR+ as a screening instrument for PG in research and bereavement care.


This paper presents an application of the trajectory sensitivity method to the voltage stability problem considering load uncertainty. The trajectory sensitivity method can be used to determine the system stability bound based on the base case system response and the various load parameter sensitivities calculated along the base case. Based on the evaluated stability bound, the size of various preventive control actions to maintain system voltage stability will exist within a specific range instead of being a fixed amount. The trajectory sensitivity method is also utilized to determine the various optimal preventive control strategies in terms of shunt compensation and generation rescheduling, for all potential operating points that are deemed to be unstable. The computational efficiency problem is also addressed. A new Jacobian matrix updating strategy is developed for the very dishonest Newton (VDHN) method. Using this Jacobian updating mechanism, the computation time is significantly reduced. The proposed method is applied to a large WECC test system.


The phytotelm-dwelling frogs from the genus Phyllodytes Wagler, 1830 have been characterized as specialist frogs regarding their diet strategy which is mainly composed by colonial insects. Herein, we used two species of ants ( Camponotus sp. and Gnamtogenys sp.) with distinct defensive mechanisms to test the predatory behavior of Phyllodytes luteolus . The experiment was conducted with frogs inhabiting a patch of 20 bromeliads ( Aechmea cf. blanchetiana ). Ants were offered randomly to the frogs until we obtained 10 observations of predation of each ant species. We observed and recorded the time that P. luteolus needed to keep each ant species inside its mouth before it could ingest it. Predatory behavior was highly distinct. While Camponotus were caught and swallowed within six seconds and without apparent discomfort, individuals of P. luteolus had more difficulty in swallowing Gnamtogenys individuals, the time of manipulation ranging from 57 to 177 seconds. The mean values of time of predation observed in each treatment was highly significant (p<0.001). We conclude that differences found in the time of manipulation are highly correlated with defense mechanisms of each species of ants.


No matter how much the phenomena of artistic creation are studied, there are still so many unsolved mysteries and strange problems that can be seen only in the example of the poetics of poetic unity, which is called a byte in classical poetry. Because often when we know the name of each poetic event and its general properties, we think in all places within the framework of these general concepts, views. However, the study of issues such as the formation of a small poetic unit, its requirements, its peculiarities, historical development and destiny requires a great deal of strength, knowledge and effort. One of the genres in Uzbek classical poetry, which consists of four lines based on bytes, is rubai. This genre consists of two bytes. The rubai tarona, that is, the rubai with four rhymes, has a structure of two musarra bytes, while the ordinary rubai consists of one musarra and one Aryan byte. the second criterion is that the Hajj sea is written in the ahram and akhrab trees, each consisting of twelve branches. Hence, in classical poetry, the rubai must be written in twenty-four weights.


Regional or granulomatous ileitis is a chronic bowel disease (Crohn's disease) that covers all the layers of the intestinal wall (transmural lesions), and sometimes spreads to the mesentery, regional lymph nodes affecting both the small and large intestines, but most often localized in the terminal section of a thin guts (regional, terminal ileitis). These diseases can be accompanied by damage to the peripheral joints, spine, or joints and spine. The clinical manifestations of the joint syndrome in both processes are the same. The pathogenesis of the intestinal process and joint damage has not been fully established, but it is believed that many mechanisms participate in it, and in particular, toxic, immune, autoimmune. In the blood of patients, antibodies to the cells of the intestinal mucosa, lymphocytotoxin antibodies, circulating immune complexes, in which, possibly, antigenic components of intestinal microbes, etc., are also present. In Crohn's disease, articular manifestations usually occur in childhood and adolescence. The development of peripheral arthritis in these diseases is usually not associated with the carriage of the histocompatibility antigen B27. Ankylosing spondylitis is more common in men than in women (3: 1). This disease usually develops in people who have HLA B27. Articular changes with regional ileitis occur more often in patients with other extraintestinal manifestations of the processes - with ulcers of the oral mucosa, exacerbate erythema nodosum, gangrenous pyoderma.


LPG is the second most commonly used fuel in the world in spark-ignition engines after gasoline. It has a wider operating range than gasoline and less harmful exhaust emissions are produced. However, when LPG is used as fuel instead of gasoline, the engine output power reduces approximately 5-10%. This is because, LPG occupies 15-20% a larger volume (compared to gasoline) in intake manifold. Since this lowers the energy density of the fuel-air mixture, power output of the engine reduces in parallel to the reduction in the amount of energy drawn into the cylinder at each cycle. Another parameter that reduces energy density hence the volumetric efficiency is the increase of the charge temperature of fuel-air mixture. Increase in the temperature of mixture causes decrease in the energy density in intake manifold and thus causes reduction in engine performance. In this study, an experimental system has been established to investigate the effect of LPG fuel temperature on engine performance and exhaust emissions. Experiments carried out in high speed under high load shown that, with increase in the LPG fuel temperature at regulator outlet; engine output power reduced by nearly 1.85% while NO emission increased by 7%.


Disinformation is currently an important threat to modern democratic societies and has a critical impact on the quality of public life. This article presents an organic approach to understanding of the issue of disinformation that is derived from the context of the Czech Republic. The approach builds on the various similarities with virology where disinformation is compared to a hostile virus that is spread in a certain environment and may penetrate the human body. Contribution is providing Czech experience in eight areas related to creation and spread of disinformation and analyzing obstacles for building disinformation resilience.


In this paper we analyze an experimental 1000 kWh/month distributed generation system in a tropical region connected to a point of common coupling in a low voltage grid that was characterized according to NTC 5001. This photovoltaic system has 7.8 kWp and uses 30 polycrystalline silicon-panels of 260 Wp each. Its maximum energy produced was 850 kWh/month, equivalent to 72.65% of the installed capacity. Finally, there was an increase of 2% with respect to the minimum voltage value that was recorded. The voltage unbalance decreases between 3.5 and 70% and voltage harmonics in each line increased by 7% on line U1, 0.8% on U2, 3% on U3 and current harmonics have a 22% increase. Likewise, the total active and reactive power were increased by 58% and 42% respectively, and the thermography study allowed to establish a temperature increase at the point of common coupling of 7.5%. Therefore, it is expected that this paper can serve as a reference for the application of Colombian law 1715 in solar energy.


This book should not be recommended to patients or their parents. Although many of the statements in the book are based on nutritional evidence, these are counterbalanced by dogmatic pronouncements based on beliefs, half-truths, or untruths. The casual reader may enjoy some new definitions, eg, antinutrient as a substance that increases the body's need for more nutrients and vitamins, "which are really concentrated foods." Some may enjoy such homilies as "children usually hate vitamins because the B vitamins especially taste like moldy dirt" or "certified raw milk comes from better-fed cows." Not so amusing or petty, however, are the author's "Five Levels of Health," the apparent basis of his doctrine. These are defined by general activity, irritability, how the child does in school, how the child cuts teeth, and others. Any parents whose child is not absolutely perfect can easily read that they are to blame for feeding the child


The universal phenomenon of virus persistence is considered to be a regular phenomenon primarily meeting the interests of the host. Examinations of 1112 patients with various diseases of the nervous system revealed a certain dependence of macroglobulin measles antibody upon the character of the disease and the intensity of demyelinization process. These data do not suggest the etiological role of the persisting measles virus in the genesis of multiple sclerosis and a large group of other nervous system diseases (SSPE). Similar results were obtained in analogous examinations of patients for macroglobulin mumps antibody. The results indicate the role of persisting viruses in the formation of solid specific immunity as well as their importance for nonspecific protection against other immunologically similar diseases. Virus persistence is considered to be a certain antiviral strategy of the body based on accumulation in the life course of a considerable number of persisting viruses on which both specific and nonspecific antiviral protection is founded. Congenital or acquired defects of immunity cause the development of the persisting infection and appearance of some chronic diseases of the nervous system.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term efficiency after abdominal sacrohysteropexy in women with uterovaginal prolapse.

STUDY DESIGN
We conducted a retrospective chart review at our tertiary referral urogynecology unit. Thirty women of childbearing age with uterovaginal prolapse who wanted uterine preservation underwent abdominal sacrohysteropexy between 1987 and 1999.

RESULTS
The mean age of the women was 35.7 years (range, 29-43 years). All women were parous. Thirteen women had grade 2 uterovaginal prolapse, and 17 women had grade 3 prolapse. In all women, the Burch procedure and posterior colporrhaphy were performed at the same time. Intraoperative and postoperative complications occurred in 2 patients (6.6%) and 4 patients (13.3%), respectively. The mean objective and subjective follow-up periods were 44.5 months (range, 2-156 months) and 94.6 months (range, 8-160 months), respectively. At the time of the last physical examination, there were two cases of recurrent uterovaginal prolapse (6.6%), which was symptomatic in 1 patient and required repeat surgical treatment. At the time of the last questionnaire, apart from the patient who underwent repeat surgery, no patients had any uterovaginal prolapse symptoms. Three women had pregnancies that were conceived spontaneously, which led to three early legal abortions.

CONCLUSION
The abdominal sacrohysteropexy is effective and safe in the treatment of uterovaginal prolapse in women of childbearing age. This procedure has a high success rate in correcting prolapse without a time-dependent decrease in efficiency.


AIM: This study aimed to identify models for the participation of the city council and municipality with the health system in selected countries. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This is a descriptive comparative study conducted in 2020 qualitatively. The countries studied were examined in terms of the following characteristics: type of political structure, type of health system, level of cooperation between local government and health system, municipal financing, type of financial participation of local government and health system, method or institution for participation Created, level of participation, local government influence on health system decisions, advantages and disadvantages of a partnership between local government and health system. Data were collected through valid databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Google Search engine) and website of the World Health Organization, local government, and the Ministry of Health of countries concerned and analyzed in a framework of analysis. RESULTS: Countries were divided into two groups in terms of a partnership between the health system and local governments, which had a distinct partnership between the health system and local government and without their participation. Factors that contribute to the creating and strengthening of partnerships include beliefs of health authorities and local government, the need for participation, transparency in participatory programs, designing a specific mechanism for participation, local authority, and financing joint participation plans. CONCLUSION: In countries with planned participation, citizens have better access to services. Citizens' participation, as well as the private sector, is greater in health issues. In these countries, participation in health financing by the private sector and other related agencies has increased. Planning and service delivery increases according to neighborhood needs. The variety of services provided and the use of new methods of service are more, and in these countries, the focus of the Ministry of Health on the preparation of strategies and monitoring the quality of services is increasing.


Background Bosentan (Tracleer®) reduces the number of new digital ulcers (DU) in subjects with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and ongoing digital ulcer disease (Korn at all 2004, Matucci et al. 2011). Bosentan also improves skin perfusion of hands in SSc patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (Rosato et al 2010). Whether SSc patients without PAH have the same benefit remains to be established. Objectives The objective of the HOME study was to evaluate the effect of 12 weeks of bosentan treatment on the blood flow in the hands of SSc patients with a clinically relevant reduction of blood flow in the hands, compared to healthy controls, as measured by laser Doppler imaging. Methods HOME was a national, multicenter, phase 4, randomized clinical trial. The blood flow in both hands was measured with the PeriScan PIM 3a laser Doppler (Perimed, Sweden) in 52 healthy controls and in 56 bosentan naive SSc patients, suffering from DU in the previous 2 years. The hand was divided into 3 separate regions: ROI1, distal to the PIP joint of the 3 middle fingers; ROI2, distal to the metacarpal joints and proximal to the PIP joint and ROI 3, the hand proximal to the metacarpal joints. Patients with a 50% reduced blood flow in ROI1 compared to mean blood flow in healthy controls were included in the study and were treated with bosentan twice daily for 12 consecutive weeks. The data was evaluated on an intention-to-treat basis. MEC approval was obtained for all sites. The trial was registered in clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01395732). Results 18 patients had more than 50% blood flow reduction in ROI1. Two patients refused treatment, so 16 patients were treated with bosentan (4 males, age 49±11 (mean ±stdev)). Three patients stopped the treatment after 5, 8 and 11 weeks (one adverse event and two reasons unrelated to bosentan treatment). In 1 patient with increased ALAT/ASAT, after up-titration, the dose was reduced to 62.5mg. The blood flow in the hand significantly increased from 34.2±10.1 (mean±stdev) before treatment to 42.4±15.4 and 46.5±19.8 at 4 and 12 weeks respectively (p=0.064 and p=0.027, paired sampled t-test). This increase was most profound in ROI1 and absent in ROI3. Conclusions Bosentan significantly increases the blood flow in the hands of SSc patients with a history of DU in the 2 previous years and a more than 50% reduction of blood flow in the hands compared to healthy controls. References Rosato et al. J. Rheumatol 2010; 37(12): 2531-9 Korn JH et all. Arthritis Rheum 2004; 50: 3985-93. Matucci et al. Annals Rheum Dis 2011;70:32-8. Disclosure of Interest H. Knaapen: None Declared, A. Voskuyl: None Declared, P. van Daele: None Declared, J. Bloemsaat-Minekus Employee of: Actelion PharmaceuticalsNederland B.V., M. Vonk: None Declared, A. Schuerwegh: None Declared


Synechocystis PCC 6803 is a photosynthetic bacterium that has the potential to make bioproducts from carbon dioxide and light. Biochemical production from photosynthetic organisms is attractive because it replaces the typical bioprocessing steps of crop growth, milling, and fermentation, with a one-step photosynthetic process. However, low yields and slow growth rates limit the economic potential of such endeavors. Rational metabolic engineering methods are hindered by limited cellular knowledge and inadequate models of Synechocystis. Instead, inverse metabolic engineering, a scheme based on combinatorial gene searches which does not require detailed cellular models, but can exploit sequence data and existing molecular biological techniques, was used to find genes that (1) improve the production of the biopolymer poly-3hydroxybutyrate (PHB) and (2) increase the growth rate. A fluorescence activated cell sorting assay was developed to screen for high PHB producing clones. Separately, serial sub-culturing was used to select clones that improve growth rate. Novel gene knock-outs were identified that increase PHB production and others that increase the specific growth rate. These improvements make this system more attractive for industrial use and demonstrate the power of inverse metabolic engineering to identify novel phenotype-associated genes in poorly understood systems.


There exists a widespread interest in the application of gas turbine Power Augmentation Technologies (PATs) in both electric power generation and mechanical drive markets. This interest is attributable to liberalization in the power generation sector, increased electric rates during peak demand period and need for a proper selection of the gas turbine in a given application.In the Part I of this study, a comprehensive literature review of the current technologies — investigating analytical, experimental, and practical aspects — is provided. Moreover, a schematic comparison, useful for the PATs selection, will be presented and discussed.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


Religious institutions have currently emerged as more powerful actors than ever before in many Muslim countries. This matter necessitates reassessing the role of organized religion in policy-making processes in such countries. This paper is a comparative study, analyzing the role of the religious institutions, as pressure groups, in government policy in Pakistan and Turkey. Since there have been very few research projects working on comparative studies on religious pressure groups in Muslim-majority countries, this paper seeks to fill the gap through secondary research. The findings indicate that in Turkey, the common aims and interests have bound the Islamic parties and institutions together, currently emerging as a powerful political actor, challenging the strict secular system of the country. Nonetheless, the Pakistani institutions have increasingly exchanged violence for the implementation of Islamic law. The Turkish Islamic movement have a more united structure than the Pakistani ones. Nonetheless, the role and status of such groups have significantly changed over time in both countries. Likewise, amongst the two countries' religious institutions, the Turkish mostly use civic tactics to gain power from the people, while the Pakistani ones undertake sabotage activities as leverage against the government.