The internet facilitates the formation of the information society while also accelerating the viral spread of negative news and negative emotions, increasing public uncertainty and depression and impeding consensus, especially in the post-pandemic period. Mindfulness intervention, which has a positive effect on attention focus, self-regulation, and subjective wellbeing, is proven to mitigate negative emotional effects, and even alter mind patterns. The study aimed to give insight into the effect of mindfulness in the new media field, concerning trait mindfulness improvement, emotional arousal and regulation, and implicit attitudes from the perspective of intra-personal communication and positive communication. The study conducted a randomized pre-test–post-test control group design, with 3 (condition groups: mindfulness vs. placebo vs. control) × 2 (test times: pre vs. post). Participants who were exposed to negative news coverage with negative emotional arousal received 14 consecutive days of intervention. The results showed that mindfulness training can improve trait mindfulness effectively on the whole, especially in facets of describing, acting awareness, and non-judgment, and mitigate the negative effect from bad information coverage, while mindfulness intervention on mind patterns and expectations on controversial issues still awaited future empirical research. The present study intended to bridge the bonding between positive psychology and new media studies by focusing on individual attention improvement and negative emotion regulation, in the expectation that trait mindfulness can be beneficial in individual infodemic syndromes such as judgment bias and information exhaustion, and avoidance.


ABSTRACT Two experiments were used to measure the effects of prayer, contemplation or a control activity on attention resource capacity and attention bias. Results from a dual-task test in Experiment 1 indicated that allowing participants to pray about an issue in their lives improved subsequent task performance, but only for individuals who score highly on a measure of religiosity. Experiment 2 suggested that praying about a problem can bias attention in a word-search task. Similar effects were not observed for control activities. Thus, at least for people most likely to engage in religious behavior, praying about a problem appeared to liberate cognitive resources that are presumably otherwise consumed by worry and rumination, leaving individuals better able to process other information, and additionally to bias attention to favor detection of problem-relevant information. These effects suggest one cognitive process (attention) that may underlie how people come to perceive answers to prayers.


Background: Oral fluid (OF) is increasingly used as an alternative sample matrix in drug of abuse screening. Screening is commonly performed by immunoassays and results confirmed using laborious gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS)–based methods. Therefore, an easy to operate ion trap mass spectrometric (IT-MS) commercial screening method (Toxtyper; Bruker Daltronik, Bremen, Germany) combined with a laboratory-developed sample preparation procedure has been evaluated for their application to OF. Methods: OF samples were subjected to protein precipitation followed by HybridSPE-Phospholipid extraction. Chromatographic separation was achieved by ultra–high-performance liquid chromatography; MS2/MS3 spectra were recorded by IT-MS and analyzed using a library provided by the manufacturer (Bruker Daltronik). The lower limit of detection, linearity, imprecision, inaccuracy, and specificity (interferences and matrix effects) were investigated for methadone, buprenorphine, pregabalin, fentanyl, amphetamine, 3,4-methylendioxy-N-methylamphetamine, cocaine, acetylcodeine, and nordiazepam, after spiking drug-free OF with these test substances. In addition, concordance between IT-MS results and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, or immunoassay (buprenorphine) results was investigated. Results: No interferences or matrix effects were observed. The lower limit of detection for acetylcodeine, amphetamine, benzoylecgonine, methadone, and nordiazepam was below the common cutoffs for immunological screening assays and comparable to that of GC-MS. Imprecision and inaccuracy, both in- and between-series, were consistently <25%, except for buprenorphine. Toxtyper screening for pregabalin and fentanyl was less sensitive than a targeted liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry assay. A very good concordance was found between the previous analytical approach and the new IT-MS method. Conclusions: The Toxtyper IT-MS is easy to use and can be applied for the screening of drug of abuse and the qualitative confirmation analysis in OF in a clinical toxicology service. Although intended for qualitative analysis, performance data suggest that the methods investigated may also be applicable for semiquantitative longitudinal follow-up.


Rhaphidophora decursiva (Roxb.) Schott has been widely used among Chinese community in Malaysia for treating colon cancer. The study aims to evaluate the toxic effects of the methanol extract of R. decursiva after single dose toxicity study (14-day acute toxicity study), repeated 28-day subacute toxicity and 90-day subchronic toxicity study in male Sprague Dawley rats, and also to determine the anti-proliferative activity of R. decursiva extract on colon cancer cell lines (HT-29) and normal cell lines (3T3). For toxicity study, rats were divided into 4 groups consisting of 6 rats per group for each acute, subacute and subchronic toxicity evaluations, with a total number of 72 rats. All control groups received distilled water (vehicle). For the acute toxicity, the 3 treatment groups received oral single dose of the plant extract at 700 mg/kg, 2800 mg/kg and 3500 mg/kg, respectively, and sacrificed at day 14 post administration of the plant extract. For subacute toxicity, the 3 treatment groups received daily oral dose of the plant extract at 70 mg/kg, 140 mg/kg and 210 mg/kg for 28 days. As no lethality was observed in subacute toxicity, similar doses were used for the 3 treatment groups in 90-day subchronic toxicity. The toxicity of R. decursiva extract was evaluated by the incident of lethality, cage side observations, body weight measurement, absolute and relative weight for kidneys and liver, hematological parameters such as erythrocyte count (RBC), hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), leucocyte count (WBC) and platelet count (Plt), then serum biochemistry parameters such as urea, creatinine (Crea), albumin (Alb), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and histopathological analysis of kidneys and liver. No lethality or adverse toxic signs were seen during the experimental periods in all toxicity studies. Behavior, body weight, absolute and relative organ weight also showed no significant changes in all three toxicity studies. Hematological analyses revealed no statistically significant differences between groups in the studies. Serum biochemistry analyses showed no significant changes in acute and subchronic toxicity studies. Similar results were observed in subacute toxicity study. For histopathological findings, no significant changes (p>0.05) showed in liver tissue as well as kidneys tissues for all toxicity studies. Anti-proliferative activity of methanol extract of R. decursiva (Roxb.) Schott on HT-29 showed the highest sensitivity at 72 hours incubation period with IC50 value of 40 μg/mL, followed by 80 μg/mL and 260 μg/mL, respectively for 48 hours and 24 hours incubation period. Besides, the extract was found not to be cytotoxic on 3T3 (IC50 cannot be determined). In conclusion, based on clinical appearance, clinical pathological, organ pathology and histopathological results, the methanol extract of R. decursiva did not cause any toxic effects to male Sprague Dawley rats, and the oral lethal dose (LD50) of the extract is more than 3500 mg/kg, while the no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) for the extract is 210 mg/kg per day for 90 days. Besides, according to the ability of R. decursiva extracts to achieve 50% inhibition of HT-29 cell lines, the findings from this study suggest that R. decursiva extract is safe to be consumed as no toxic effect was found when tested both in in vivo and in vitro studies.


. The article presents the interim results of the project "Scientific and Methodological Support for Creating Electronic Open Access Journal for Publishing the Results of the Students` of the Minor Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Scientific Activity". The project is a part of the joint program of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine in 2021-2023. The expediency of training young researchers for publishing activities in professional journals is substantiated. The article presents a generalized brief analysis of the latest research on specialized education, publishing activities of researchers, theoretical and practical aspects of the use of open electronic journal systems. The article introduces the detailed stages of implementation of the project "Scientific and Methodological Support for Creating Electronic Open Access Journal for Publishing the Results of the Students` of the Minor Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Scientific Activity ". The selected publication model of the electronic open journal is described and its uniqueness in comparison with traditional scientific electronic publications is determined, which is based on the use of the principle of gamification that involves students in the double-blind review procedure. The possible obstacles than can encounter while preparation the young researchers for the activity of reviewers is determined and the solution of this problem is presented, the students` preparation on the created platform of distance learning NEO LMS is presented. It is presented the generalized structure of the created e-learning courses and the content of their modules for preparing future researchers for publishing: for the future authors of scientific publications, for the future reviewers of scientific publications and for the future editors of electronic open journal. The detailed structure and content of the e-learning courses for future authors of scientific publications is introduced. Methodical recommendations for the creation of e-learning courses on the NEO LMS platform are provided and scenarios for the use of gamification are described. The following gamification scenarios are described: automation of badges, certificates, team and individual games. The scenario of gamification application on the example of team project activity is specified. The advantages of using gamification tools on the NEO LMS platform are highlighted, which can qualitatively prepare young researchers for high standard publishing activities, the development of their scientific style of speech, formation of argumentation and interpretation skills. Discussion issues of the research are identified and possible prospects for the further scientific research are presented.


We tested the hypothesis that postnatal resetting of the carotid chemoreceptors is initiated by, and is dependent on, the rise in arterial PO2 (PaO2) which normally occurs after birth as air breathing is established. Previous studies had indicated that this resetting takes at least 24 h. We applied a technique for ventilation of the lungs of fetal sheep in utero to 3 groups of fetuses of 140-142 days gestational age: group 1 were exposed to normocapnic hyperoxia (mean PaO2 179.9 +/- 22.2 mmHg) for 27.4 +/- 0.9 h; group 2 were exposed to normocapnic hyperoxia (mean PaO2 229.4 +/- 77.5 mmHg) for 7.0 +/- 0.3 h; group 3 were ventilated for 21.6 +/- 3.3 h with a nitrogen/CO2 mixture to maintain PaO2 and PaCO2 within the normal fetal range. At the end of the ventilation period the fetuses were delivered by caesarean section, anaesthetized, paralysed and ventilation was continued. The responses of single or few fibre carotid chemoreceptor preparations to isocapnic hypoxia were then determined. To compare their response curves quantitatively, hyperbolic curves were fitted to the data. No significant differences between any of the groups were found in the vertical or the horizontal asymptotes. There was no difference in the slope of the hyperbolic line between group 2 and group 3. However, this slope was significantly greater for Group 1 than for either group 2 or group 3. Our results show that a period of hyperoxia of 24-31 h in utero, although not a similar period of normoxic ventilation, initiates the process of carotid chemoreceptor resetting.


The magnetostratigraphic analysis of the middle to late Miocene continental deposits from the Valles-Penedes basin, combined with its well-documented fossil mammal record, provides a well-resoluted chronology for the upper basin infill. It is based on the biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic cross-correlation of 18 sections throughout the alluvial and transitional/shallow marine sequences in the Western Valles area. The biostratigraphic framework consists of 24 mammal localities of upper Aragonian and Vallesian age. Correlation of the studied sections to the geomagnetic polarity time scale (GPTS) is based on the distinctive pattern of local magnetozones, as well as the radiometric age of the late Vallesian fauna from the Bicorp Basin (9.6 + 0.3 Ma) and the known relationship of the late Vallesian assemblages with marine beds belonging to the planktonic forarninifera N16 zone. It has led to an absolute dating of the faunal events and a precise chronostratigraphy of the Vallesian mammal stage in its type area. The Hipparion First Appearance Datum (FAD) defines the lower Vallesian boundary and is dated at 11.1 Ma, at the base of chron C5r. ln. It is in good agreement with radiometric ages from the early Hipparion bearing sites in the Vienna Basin (1 1.1+ 0.5 Ma) and the classic Howenegg locality in Germany (10.8 + 0.3 Ma). It also agrees with the age of the turkish localities of Yailacilar (1 1.6 + 0.25 Ma) and Yenieskihisar-2 (1 1.1 + 0.2 Ma) with absence of Hipparion. Al1 these support the isochrony of the dispersal of Hipparion throughout the Mediterranean region. A possible isochrony at a larger geographical scale (Old World, Mesogea) must await more reliable ages of the Hipparion FAD in Asia and Africa. The Cricetulodon FAD that defines the MN9a/MN9b boundary occurs at the middle part of C5n.Assuming an on average constantsedimentation rate, this datum has an age of approximately 10.4 Ma. The earlyllate Vallesian boundary is marked by one of the most distinct faunal events of the late Neogene: the dispersal of the muridae Progonomys into Europe and North Africa, which coincides with an important macromarnmal turnover. The first extensive appearance of Progonomys in Europe (MN9iMN10 boundary) is dated at 9.7 Ma (C4Ar3r), showing a remarkable diachrony with the Himalayan region. Finally, the FAD of Rotundomys bressanus occurs in the upper part of C4Ar.ln (9.2-9.3 Ma). The Vallesian spans 2.4 Myr, from 11.1 Ma (CSr.ln) to 8.7 Ma (C4An),and correlatesto the early Tortonian.


Until the IRA ceasefire in August 1994 Northern Ireland, which had just experienced its most severe year of violence in many years, seemed to have been a society unable to break out of its some 25-year cycle of violence which has claimed over 3,000 lives - a not inconsiderable toll in a population of 1.5 million. This situation appears to have changed now in light of the recent IRA ceasefire and the Joint Declaration of the Irish and British governments in Decemeber 1993. It is now the official policy of the British government that Northern Ireland may determine its own future within the limits of constitutional democracy. The Framework Document issued by the British and Irish governments on 22 February 1995 has provided a constitutional basis for the consolidation of peace. The principle of consent to secession will be enshrined for the first time in British Legislation. The most important provisions of the Framework Document are the creation of a new Northen Ireland Assembly with limited legislative powers, and end to the Republic's claims over Northern Ireland, a guarantee that the people of the province have the right to choose their own future in a referendum, increased cooperation between the Irish and British governments as well as the setting up of cross-border institutions.


Although the gas sensing properties of p-type semiconductors (such as Co3O4) generally are lower than those of n-type oxide semiconductors, high quality gas sensors can still be designed by various modified methods due to their distinctive surface reactivity. In the work, the rGO/Co3O4 composites with different formulations have been successfully synthesized by a facile hydrothermal reaction. The morphology, structure and composition of as-prepared composites were characterized by XRD, FESEM, Raman, TG, XPS spectrum and BET analysis, respectively. The sensing tests indicate that the 5 wt% rGO composite to toluene not only exhibits the highest response and excellent selectivity, but also has linear response in concentration lower 5 ppm, indicating the composite is a promising sensing material for detection of toluene. Furthermore, the mechanism of rGO enhanced composite gas sensing is also discussed in detail, which is attributed to rGO action in composite and the formation of p–p isotype heterojunction at the interface between rGO and Co3O4.


This review essay aims to present a range of syntactic facts from Arabic dialects as discussed in The Syntax of Arabic, provide an evaluative discussion of the authors' analyses of these facts, and, when needed, offer potential alternative accounts. More specifically, the essay focuses on a number of syntactic phenomena as varied as clause structure, word order alternation, the subjectverb agreement asymmetry, patterns of sentential negation, strategies for wh-question-formation, as well as their implications for general linguistic analysis. It is hoped that this review represents an example of the kind of syntactic argumentation and debate expected to be engendered by The Syntax of Arabic, and as such contributes to the ongoing research agenda on issues of Arabic syntax, which should be of empirical and theoretical value not only to Arabic linguists, but to typologists and syntacticians at large.


This paper analyzed the energy consumption characteristics of typical limestone-gypsum wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system which is widely used in power plant for SO x removal, and discussed its optimal operation. In the FGD system, booster fan; circulating slurry pump and oxidation fan are three major energy consuming devices. We established the mathematical models to disclose the relationship between the energy consumption and the desulfurization features of these equipments. On this basis, we obtained the performance curve of these equipments and proposed the optimal operation ways of the FGD system. The promising results obtained here provide a new approach for desulfurization with low energy consumption.


We introduce a topology on the space of all isomorphism types represented in a given class of countable models, and use this topology as an aid in classifying the isomorphism types. This mixes ideas from effective descriptive set theory and computable structure theory, extending concepts from the latter beyond computable structures to examine the isomorphism problem on arbitrary countable structures. We give examples using specific classes of fields and of trees, illustrating how the new concepts can yield classifications that reveal differences between seemingly similar classes. Finally, we use a computable homeomorphism to define a measure on the space of isomorphism types of algebraic fields, and examine the prevalence of relative computable categoricity under this measure.


The paper addresses discrete element (DEM) models of the heterogeneous particulate solids where the normal interaction bet we n two deformable spherical particles bonded via weaker solid interface is considered. Th e integral interaction model aimed for evaluation of the bond stiffness was developed, whe re analytical expressions of the stiffness parameters reflecting individual contribution of th e two particles and of the interface properties are derived. Application of the develope d DEM model to particulate solid with many particles is considered. The accuracy and the suitability of this approach are evaluated by considering refined 3D Finite Element analysis.


The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of four fat-modified diets on BP in 160 middle-aged subjects most of whom had mildly to moderately elevated serum total cholesterol levels and to analyse the relationship of BP to fatty acid composition of serum cholesterol esters. After screening, the subjects (74 men and 85 women) were randomised for the next six months into one of the four experimental diets: control diet (high in saturated fats) (35/14:10:4, indicating 35% of energy from total fat/14% from saturated, 10% from monoenes and 4% from polyenes in the actual diet), AHA (American Heart Association) type diet (32/10:8:8), monoene-enriched diet (34/11:11:5) and low-fat diet (30/12:8:3). Serum total cholesterol decreased significantly during the AHA type diet and monoene-enriched diet in both men and women. No significant changes were found in BP levels in any of the groups in the long-term when both sexes were analysed together but in men the AHA type diet resulted in a significant decline in SBP (-4.5 -7.9 mmHg, mean +/- SD) and a consistent reduction was also found in DBP (-2.1 +/- 8.4 mmHg). In contrast, control diet induced a significant rise (+5.5 +/- 14.3 mmHg) in both SBP and DBP (+3.4 +/- 8.4 mmHg) in men. In women, no persistent significant changes in BP levels were observed. An increase in the sum of proportions of myristic (C14:0), palmitic (C16:0) and palmitoleic acids (C16:1) of serum cholesterol esters was associated with the elevation of BP in men of the control group. Furthermore, at baseline, BP had significant positive correlations with C14:0, C16:0 and C16:1 of serum cholesterol esters in the entire study population whereas linoleic acid had an opposite effect on BP even after adjustment for body mass index and age.


Abstract. Glaciers in small mountain cirques on South Georgia respond rapidly and sensitively to changes in South Atlantic climate. The timing and rate of their deglaciation can be used to examine the impact that nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century climate change has had on the glacial dynamics and terrestrial ecosystems of South Georgia. As part of a reconnaissance study in Prince Olav Harbour (POH), South Georgia, we measured the size of lichens (Rhizocarpon Ram. em Th. Fr. subgenus. Rhizocarpon group) on ice‐free moraine ridges around two small mountain cirques. Our aims were twofold: first, to provide age estimates for lichen colonization, and hence, deglaciation of the moraine ridges, and second, to examine the potential of applying lichenometry more widely to provide deglacial age constraints on South Georgia. In the absence of lichen age‐size (dating) curves for South Georgia, we use long‐term Rhizocarpon lichen growth‐rates from recent studies on sub‐Antarctic Islands and the western Antarctic Peninsula to calculate likely age estimates. These data suggest ice retreat from the two outermost moraines occurred between the end of the 'Little Ice Age' (post c. 1870) and the early twentieth century on South Georgia. Lichen colonization of the innermost moraines is probably related to glacier retreat during the second half of the twentieth century, which has been linked to a well‐defined warming trend since c. 1950. Patterns of possible nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century glacial retreat identified in POH need to be tested further by establishing species‐ and site‐specific lichen age‐size (dating) curves for South Georgia, and by applying lichenometry to other mountain cirques across South Georgia.


ABSTRACT The compatibility between strains of Schistosoma mansoni from Egypt, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, the West Indies, and Zaire (two strains which came from Katanga and from Kinshasa), and various species and strains of Biomphalaria, i.e., Biomphalaria pfeifferi, B. alexandrina, B. glabrata and B. camerunensis was investigated. Data as mortality, rate of infection of the surviving snails, duration of infection, cercarial production per day per positive snail, etc., were observed. The main emphasis was placed on determining the total cercarial production per 100 exposed snails for each snail population. It was possible to infect all the tested populations of B. pfeifferi with the various strains of S. mansoni, but the observation as e.g. TCP/100 exposed snails varied greatly according to the population of snail and the strain of S. mansoni. The results for the remaining species of Biomphalaria varied greatly, depending on the combination, e.g. B. alexandrina was only susceptible to the local S. mansoni from Egypt. The highest TCP/100 exposed snails was more than 1 million for the strains of S. mansoni from Egypt, Kenya and the West Indies in B. alexandrina, B. pfeifferi and B. glabrata, respectively. The next group, with a TCP/100 exposed snails on 7 – 800 000 consists of S. mansoni from Sudan, Uganda and Zaire (Katanga) all in B. pfeifferi. The last tested strain of S. mansoni, Zaire (Kinshasa) yielded a cercarial production on 500 000 per 100 exposed snails in B. pfeifferi and B. camerunensis. The shortest prepatent period, 19 days, was observed for S. mansoni from Kinshasa, Zaire, in B. camerunensis, and the longest prepatent period, 25 days, was found for strains from Egypt and from the West Indies in B. alexandrina and B. glabrata, respectively. In general, a very long duration of infection, lasting up to 200 days, was observed.


This Innovative Practice Work in Progress presents a proposal to promote the use of information technologies for students through decision center visualizations in order to facilitate their analysis process of information related to real life problems. To improve the students' learning process, Tecnologico de Monterrey University designed and implemented a set of challenges and curriculum within the Tec21 educational model. It focuses on the creation and development of classes that allow students face real world challenges with the use of the different information technology tools available. As part of this, is the creation of the decision-making laboratory that seeks to support the analysis, visualization and interaction of information in a decision-making process. The decision-making laboratory, together with the department of computational sciences, designed a challenge that aims to carry out the analysis and visualization of open data concerning the urban mobility problem in the financial and corporate center of Mexico City. It was designed for students enrolled in the last third of the Computer Science major. This paper presents the implementation process and the encouraging results through the use of a decision-making laboratory to create and use specialized visualizations regarding an urban mobility problem in Mexico City.


: Openings in rock play a significant role in the performance of rock related structures. The well-established knowledge in this area can contribute to the engineering practices, for example, under-ground space design, planning and optimisation in Civil and Mining Engineering and wellbore stability in Drilling Engineering, among others (Gui et al. 2017). In this paper, a numerical study on the effect of non-banded openings, i.e., circular opening, on the rock mechanical behaviour is performed using UDEC. It is revealed that the proposed simulation method can reproduce reasonably the crack initiation and propagation, and predict well the change of the mechanical behaviour due to the openings.


The need to combine task planning and motion planning in robotics is well understood. The
task planner generates a plan to solve the problem while the motion planner executes the actions
of the problem. The previous framework is applied in many state machines that solve
complex problems. But in this project we want to present an interface that communicates the
task planner layer and the motion planner layer, and updates the geometric information of the
environment to inform the task planner. This framework allows to solve complex tasks with
basic information of the goal, and replan whenever the motion could not be executed. All the
information of the problems is modelled as logical predicates.
The objective of this project is to generate a generic model of the environment, with a set of
feasible motions of the robot, and use this interface to solve many different planning problems
involving those actions, by just giving simple goals. The result is to make the robot more autonomous
and allow that any user could use it by giving simple orders.
Moreover this project presents the different frameworks and algorithms used to simulate
those actions in the robot such as: Sequential Quadratic Programming optimization, Rapidly
Random Exploring Tree (RRT) or SBPL global planning. It also shows an introduction to PDDL
language used to model the problem and the actions, and the Fast-Froward (FF) solver that is
the responsible to translate the problem as a graph and solve it.
Finally we test it on different experiments in simulation, by using the TIAGo platform of PAL
robotics. The results are promising and allow to dream in service robots solving complex tasks
simply computing and modelling basic actions.


Article history Received: 22 April 2021 Accepted: 29 April 2021 Published Online: 31 May 2021 The study provided an empirical evidence on the use of improved goat production technologies among rural farmers in Abia State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to describe the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondent, ascertain the extent of use of improved goat production technologies, determine factors influencing use of improved goat production technologies and identify the constraint to access and use of improved goat production technologies in the study area. A multi-stage random sampling technique was adopted in selecting the sample size 120 respondents. Data for the study were collected through the use of questionnaire. The data collected for the study were analysed with both descriptive and inferential statistics. The result of the socioeconomic characteristics revealed the mean age of the respondents was 43 years, majority 69.16% of the respondents were married, about 45% had secondary education, a mean household size of 6 persons, majority 66.67% were farmers, mean years of arming experience at 5.7 years, mean income of #102,000, mean farm size of 11 goats and majority (78.33%) of respondents were nonmembers of cooperative societies. The result on extent of use of improved goat production technologies, revealed that the respondents highly used most of improved goat production technologies as affirmed with the grand mean of x= 3.20. On constraint to use of improved goat production technologies, all the respondents 100% agreed that lack of access to credit was a constraint to use, 100% agrees on lack of credibility from source of technological information, 99.2% agreed that they were afraid of taking risk, 93.3% agreed on difficulty in technology application among others. The OLS regression estimates of the influence of socioeconomic characteristics the respondents on the use of improved goat production technologies in the study area, revealed that age at 10%, education at 1%, household size at 1%, farming experience at 1%, farm size at 1%, income at 1% and access to credit at 5% were the determinants of use of improved goat production technologies in the study area and the null hypotheses rejected. In conclusion, greater use of available improved technologies will promote productivity, and therefore there is need for proper sensitization and awareness by relevant agencies. The study recommended that credit should be made available to farmers by relevant governmental and nongovernmental agencies to increase the level of use of available improved technologies.


History of literature held in darwin's embrace? The paper adumbrates Joseph Carroll's evolutionist literary theory positioning it against the developments in literary studies and humanities after postmodernism. The author discusses the ambivalence present in Carroll's neo-darwinian project, its possible power to revert the decline of literary studies through a return to tangibility and certainty after the dominance of postmodern speculative theories, but also its reductionist and anti-axiological- stance being a peril to the advancement of literary studies. The paper invites further discussion on the prospects of trans-disciplinary alliance between humanities and biological sciences in relation to the aesthetic specificity of literature.


A new 5'-nucleotidase inhibitor named nucleoticidin was produced by Pseudomonas sp. YM-3229G. It was isolated from a fermentation broth by trichloroacetic acid extraction, ethanol precipitation and Dowex 1 and DEAE-52 column chromatography. It inhibited 5'-nucleotidase activity of snake venom and rat liver membrane. It also showed antitumor activity against solid type Sarcoma 180.


STUDY OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) during the postpartum period, as part of a larger randomized controlled trial of CBTI on perinatal insomnia.

METHODS
179 women of 18 to 30 gestational weeks with insomnia disorder were randomized to CBTI or an active control (CTRL) therapy. Participants were assessed between 18-32 weeks of pregnancy at baseline, after the intervention during pregnancy, and at 8, 18, and 30 weeks postpartum. The primary outcome were the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and total awake time (TWT), defined as minutes awake during the sleep opportunity period, assessed with actigraphy and sleep diaries. Included in the analyses were women who provided data for at least one of three postpartum assessments (68 in CBTI; 61 in CTRL).

RESULTS
Piecewise mixed-effects models revealed a main effect reflecting reduction in ISI scores from 8 to 18 weeks postpartum (p = .036) and a non-significant increase from 18 to 30 weeks; significant effects for group allocation were present only in week 30 (p = .042). CTRL participants reported significantly longer time awake, excluding time spent caring for the infant, at each postpartum assessment; time awake at night caring for the infant did not differ between groups. There was no significant group difference in the postpartum trajectory of actigraphy measured TWT, the two diary measures of time awake (p-values > .05). CBTI participants with at least 50% reduction in ISI during pregnancy had consistently stable ISI scores (mean < 6) during the postpartum period; those in CTRL had variable ISI scores over time with large individual differences.

CONCLUSIONS
For women with insomnia disorder during pregnancy, CBTI initiated during pregnancy conferred postpartum benefits in terms of wakefulness after sleep onset (excluding time spent caring for the infant) and insomnia severity, though the latter emerged only later in the postpartum period. These findings underscore the importance of treating insomnia during pregnancy, a conclusion that is further supported by our finding that pregnant women who responded to insomnia treatment during pregnancy experienced better sleep in the postpartum period.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION
Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01846585.


Solutions of the simplified time-dependent Nernst-Planck electrodiffusion equations for various membrane models under the influence of a step voltage change are presented. Comparison of the results for a membrane with continuous sites to those for membranes with two, three or five intermediate sites shows little difference either qualitatively or quantitatively in the concentration of the diffusible ion inside the membrane, although some quantitative differences are evident in the calculated currents.


This paper analyzes how effective macroeconomic policy actions are in ending recessions. We also investigate which structural factors help the country to experience shorter recessions. We implement survival regression analysis and conclude that expansionary monetary policy significantly decreases durations of recessions whereas fixing the exchange rate does not have an effect on the durations of recessions. Expansionary fiscal policy has undesired effects and decreases the probability that recession will end, thus increasing the durations of recessions. The analysis of country specific factors indicates that emerging countries experience shorter recessions. Recessions in countries with higher trade openness last significantly longer. Financial openness and institutional quality do not have significant effects of recession durations. The empirical analysis takes into account alternative probability distributions and endogeneity of policy actions.


For their distinguished global warming potential (GWP100) and long atmosphere lifespan, CF4, SF6 and SF5CF3 were significant in the field of greenhouse gas research. The details of discharging character and the optimal parameter were discussed by using a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) reactor to decompose these potent greenhouse gases in this work. The results showed that SF6 could be decomposed by 92% under the conditions of 5 min resident time and 3000 V applied voltage with the partial pressure of 2.0 kPa, 28.2 kPa, and 1.8 kPa for SF6, air and water vapor, respectively. 0.4 kPa CF4 could be decomposed by 98.2% for 4 min resident time with 30 kPa Ar added. The decomposition of SF5CF3 was much more effective than that of SF6 and CF4 and moreover, 1.3 kPa SF5CF3, discharged with 30 kPa O2, Ar and air, could not be detected when the resident time was 80 s, 40 s, and 120 s, respectively. All the results indicated that DBD was a feasible technique for the abatement of potent greenhouse gases.


At the center of" In Dark Again in Wonder" are readings of Rene Char (1907-88) and George Oppen (1908-84). Both of these poets achieved recognition at a young age, Char among the French surrealists in the 1930s, Oppen among the American objectivists in the same decade. Both were independent individuals who, having found their way to communities of inventive writers, stepped back and shaped their own idiosyncratic paths. Both responded decisively to the social upheavals of the 1930s and 40s. Oppen committed himself to radical politics in the 30s, a decision that, as it turned out, led to his not writing poetry for nearly twenty-five years. Char fought in the Resistance in the '40s. Both, in their mature work, developed a kind of poetry that is at once a love poetry, a meditative poetry, and a poetry of encounter.The concluding chapter of the book places the questions raised by Char s and Oppen s work in a larger context, tracing the cultural history that shapes our modern experience of inhabiting a tension between an historical and a metaphysical horizon of experience, or, as this appears in a different but related light, a tension between a sociological and an existential understanding of our lives. Char and Oppen are both poets concerned with the old philosophical questions that are still with us the nature of spiritual freedom, the gathering of the self in relation to death, the meditation on the whole, the turn to Nature as the open space of the whole under the conditions of modernity, the clarification of the ground of vision in eros and love, and the search for the good life while at the same time they fully engage the social predicaments and promises of their world."A brilliant, philosophical, and aesthetic approach to twentieth-century poetry that casts important light on the great poetic works of Rene Char and George Oppen. Revealing the ongoing role of wonder in the post-Romantic tradition, it points to two remarkable poets whose work embodies imagination in the knowledge of inevitable loss, renewal in the awareness of despair. This is a book worth reading for its insight into two poets and the larger literary and philosophical currents in which they lived and worked." Sandra L. Bermann, Princeton University"This is a brilliant, erudite, beautifully written, and compelling book, one that makes an important contribution to our understanding not only of the two poets on whom it focuses but of the period they inhabit and that we, as their inheritors, continue to inhabit. Robert Baker wears his considerable learning lightly, but he has deep knowledge both of the history of European and American poetry and of the history of philosophy. He has thought deeply and passionately about poetry, philosophy, history, and the ways in which they intertwine." Henry Weinfield, University of Notre Dame"Robert Baker has written a fine and unusual book: a study of two remarkable poets, one French and the other American, and a concluding reflection of considerable literary and intellectual reach on the gap between history and metaphysics in which both poets found themselves and in which we still subsist. Bake'rs style is synthetic, magisterial, drawing on a capacious knowledge of literature and the history of ideas." Kevin Hart, University of Virginia"


Summary and Discussion
The mortality from tsutsugamushi disease (scrub typhus) in Niigata and Akita and Yamagata Prefectures in northern Japan, used to be high. Although it differed widely in the basins of the five rivers of the area, it was still much higher everywhere than in Formosa, the Philippines, the rest of South Asia and the South Sea Islands. This is probably due to differences in strain specificity and virulence. Since 1948, owing to the wide application of chemotherapy, the mortality from this disease in northern Japan has been reduced remarkably, and since 1952 no deaths have been reported.
The mortality is highest in children and old people. Males are attacked more frequently than females, but women have a higher case fatality rate than men. In northern Japan, cases are most frequent during July, August and September. Death occurs frequently between the tenth and fifteenth day, being most frequent on the thirteenth day.


Of the metre-wavelength solar radio bursts which have been recognized, those of type II are characterized by the most complex set of spectral features. Apparently acceptable explanations have now been put forward for most of these features. However, not all these explanations can be considered to be established. In particular the phenomenon of band splitting has been explained in different ways by Sturrock, by Tidman et al., by Zheleznyakov and Zaitsev. However, the theories of Sturrock and Tidman apparently require magnetic fields so strong as to preclude the formation of a magnetohydrodynamic shock wave by a disturbance moving at the velocity (<~ 1000 km/s) attributed to type II bursts. The same problem is encountered in other earlier theories of band splitting involving magnetic effects. The other theory does not involve the magnetic field strength. However, the details of this theory do not appear to have been properly worked out as yet.


In this study, nonlinear vibration analysis of a parametrically excited piezoelectric nano beam subjected to DC and AC voltages is investigated for biological sensor applications on the basis of the non-local continuum theory. Equations of the motion and boundary conditions of the nano beam are obtained by implementation of Hamilton's principle and the Galerkin approach. Hamiltonian solution namely Frequency-Amplitude approach is used for natural frequencies and mode shapes as a function of the piezo-layered nano beam characteristic non-local size scale parameter. The size effects on the vibration behavior (frequency and harmonic response) of the beam are studied and it is found that the non-local parameter has significant effects on the free vibration of system.


For more than eighty years, infrared spectroscopy research and applications have played an increasingly important role in science and technology. Infrared laser spectroscopy has yielded many important results using a variety of tunable laser-based sources, particularly lead salt diodes, color center lasers, difference frequency generation, optical parametric oscillators, and sidebands on fixed frequency gas lasers. Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are a much more recent tunable laser source of infrared light. The first QCL was invented and demonstrated [1] at Bell Labs in 1994; QCLs developed rapidly; for reviews of this earlier work see Refs. [2], [3] and the June 2002 issue of IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.


Cancer is a widespread and life-threatening disease and its early-stage diagnosis is vital. One of the most effective, non-invasive tools in medical diagnostics is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with the aid of contrast agents. Contrast agents that are currently in clinical use contain metals, causing some restrictions in their use. Also, these contrast agents are mainly non-specific without any tissue targeting capabilities. Subsequently, the interest has notably increased in the research of organic, metal-free contrast agents. This study presents a new, stable organic radical, TEEPO-Met, where a radical moiety 2,2,6,6-tetraethylpiperidinoxide (TEEPO) is attached to an amino acid, methionine (Met), as a potentially tumour-targeting moiety. We describe the synthesis, stability assessment with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and relaxation enhancement abilities by an in vitro nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and phantom MRI studies of TEEPO-Met. The new compound proved to be stable notably longer than the average imaging time in conditions mimicking a biological matrix. Also, it significantly reduced the relaxation times of water, making it a promising candidate as a novel tumour targeting contrast agent for MRI.


Within recent years, the field of plasmonics has exploded as researchers have demonstrated exciting applications related to chemical and optical sensing in combination with new nanofabrication techniques. A plasmon is a quantum of charge density oscillation that lends nanoscale metals such as gold and silver unique optical properties. In particular, gold and silver nanoparticles exhibit localized surface plasmon resonances-collective charge density oscillations on the surface of the nanoparticle-in the visible spectrum. Here, we focus on the fabrication of periodic arrays of anisotropic plasmonic nanostructures. These half-shell (or nanocup) structures can exhibit additional unique light-bending and polarization-dependent optical properties that simple isotropic nanostructures cannot. Researchers are interested in the fabrication of periodic arrays of nanocups for a wide variety of applications such as low-cost optical devices, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, and tamper indication. We present a scalable technique based on colloidal lithography in which it is possible to easily fabricate large periodic arrays of nanocups using spin-coating and self-assembled commercially available polymeric nanospheres. Electron microscopy and optical spectroscopy from the visible to near-infrared (near-IR) was performed to confirm successful nanocup fabrication. We conclude with a demonstration of the transfer of nanocups to a flexible, conformal adhesive film.


Hyaluronan (HA) oligosaccharides stimulate pro-inflammatory responses in different cell types by modulating both cluster determinant 44 (CD44) and TLR4. The activation of these receptors is also mediated by collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) that, via two different pathways, culminates in the liberation of NF-κB. This then stimulates the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including IL-18 and IL-33, that are greatly involved in rheumatoid arthritis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of 6-mer HA oligosaccharides on mouse synovial fibroblasts obtained from normal DBA/J1 mice or mice subjected to CIA. Compared with normal synovial fibroblasts (NSF), rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts (RASF) showed no up-regulation of CD44 and TLR4 mRNA expression and the related proteins, as well as no activation of NF-κB. Very low levels of both mRNA and related proteins were also detected for IL-18 and IL-33. Treatment of NSF and RASF with 6-mer HA oligosaccharides significantly increased all the parameters in both fibroblast groups, although to a greater extent in RASF. The addition of hyaluronan binding protein to both NSF and RASF inhibited HA activity and was able to reduce the effects of 6-mer HA oligosaccharides and the consequent inflammatory response.


Signals initiated by the precursor B cell receptor (pre-BCR) are critical for B cell progenitors to mature into precursor B cells. The pre-BCR consists of a homodimer of μH chains, the covalently associated surrogate L (SL) chain composed of VpreB and λ5, and the transmembrane signal molecules Igα and Igβ. One way to explain how maturation signals are initiated in late progenitor B cells is that the pre-BCR is transported to the cell surface and interacts from there with a ligand on stroma cells. To address this hypothesis, we first produced soluble Fab-like pre-BCR and BCR fragments, as well as SL chain, in baculovirus-infected insect cells. Flow cytometry revealed that, in contrast to Fab-like BCR fragments, the soluble pre-BCR binds to the surface of stroma and several other adherent cell lines, but not to B and T lymphoid suspension cells. The specific binding of the soluble pre-BCR to stroma cells is saturable, sensitive to trypsin digestion, and not dependent on bivalent cations. The binding of pre-BCR seems to be independent of the H chain of IgM (μH chain), because SL chain alone was able to interact with stroma cells. Finally, soluble pre-BCR specifically precipitated a 135-kDa protein from ST2 cells. These findings not only demonstrate for the first time the capacity of a pre-BCR to specifically bind to a structure on the surface of adherent cells, but also suggest that the pre-BCR interacts via its SL chain with a putative ligand on stroma cells.


A growing number of musicians are recognising the importance of re-thinking notation and its capacity to support contemporary practice. New music is increasingly more collaborative and polystylistic, engaging a greater range of sounds from both acoustic and electronic instruments. Contemporary compositional approaches combine composition, improvisation, found sounds, production and multimedia elements, but common practice music notation has not evolved to reflect these developments. While traditional notations remain the most effective way to communicate information about tempered harmony and the subdivision of metre for acoustic instruments, graphic and animated notations may provide an opportunity for the representation and communication of electronic music. If there is a future for notating electronic music, the micro-tonality, interactivity, non-linear structures, improvisation, aleatoricism and lack of conventional rhythmic structures that are features of it will not be facilitated by common practice notation. This article proposes that graphic and animated notations do have this capacity to serve electronic music, and music that combines electronic and acoustic instruments, as they enable increased input from performers from any musical style, reflect the collaborative practices that are a signpost of current music practice. This article examines some of the ways digitally rendered graphic and animated notations can represent contemporary electronic music-making and foster collaboration between musicians and composers of different musical genres, integrating electronic and acoustic practices.


The transparency of nanofibrous scaffolds is of highest interest for potential applications like corneal wound dressings in corneal tissue engineering. In this study, we provide a detailed analysis of light transmission through electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds. PCL scaffolds were produced via electrospinning, with fiber diameters in the range from (35 ± 13) nm to (167 ± 35) nm. Light transmission measurements were conducted using UV–vis spectroscopy in the range of visible light and analyzed with respect to the influence of scaffold thickness, fiber diameter, and surrounding medium. Contour plots were compiled for a straightforward access to light transmission values for arbitrary scaffold thicknesses. Depending on the fiber diameter, transmission values between 15% and 75% were observed for scaffold thicknesses of 10 µm. With a decreasing fiber diameter, light transmission could be improved, as well as with matching refractive indices of fiber material and medium. For corneal tissue engineering, scaffolds should be designed as thin as possible and fabricated from polymers with a matching refractive index to that of the human cornea. Concerning fiber diameter, smaller fiber diameters should be favored for maximizing graft transparency. Finally, a novel, semi-empirical formulation of light transmission through nanofibrous scaffolds is presented.


Phenology, the study of timings of natural events, is the longest written biological record in the UK. It has thus proved invaluable in revealing how species have responded to recent climate warming. I have played a major role in achieving Scientific 'legitimacy^ for the subject and there is a growing urgency to demonstrate y climate induced effects to both a scientific and a general audience. My phenological j0 publications fall into four broad areas. 1 . Utilising historic data. Many historic data sets have languished in obscurity for >50 years. Identification and examination of some of these data has revealed how biological events responded to past fluctuations in temperature. The typical response of c.6 days earlier for each 1°C warming has enabled a prediction of response to future climate. National data sets have given greater confidence in these results. 2. Bird phenology. Bird data, particularly that on migration timing, forms a huge resource of phenological material. I have examined the role of temperature in bird phenology and on migration patterns from various sources of data and have begun to extend these studies through international collaboration (two further papers 'in press'). In general, the response of birds is more variable and not as great as that of plants and invertebrates. 3Other taxa. Post-war changes have already taken place in the timing of a wide range of taxa. In some instances events are at least three weeks earlier. These results have encouraged me to resurrect a phenology network after a 50-year break (www.phenology.org.uk). 4. Increasing awareness. r Changes in phenology are readily understood by various sectors of the public and are a good vehicle with which to demonstrate climate change. The UK Government has now accepted phenological events as Climate Change Indicators.


Biomedical researches available to date indicate that Dengue viruses (DENV) could be among the etiologies of acute fevers in Nigeria. Dengue viruses are mosquito-borne and exist in four serotypes (DENV1 to DENV4) which immunologically do not cross protect but cross react. Dengue fever is clinically difficult to diagnose especially in the developing countries with no established diagnostic facility and could easily be mistaken for malaria and/or typhoid etc. The objective of this study is to determine whether Dengue Type-3 virus is circulating in this community; to determine its significance in febrile illnesses and also to encourage periodic surveillance work on the viral infection. The method adopted was: 256 serum samples from suspected cases of malaria and/or typhoid were collected from patients seeking for medical assistance at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. Cell culture-based Microneutrilization assay was used to test all the sera for DENV-3 neutralizing antibodies. Out of 256 samples 26 (10.1%) had neutralizing antibodies to DENV-3 virus. Among the seropositive patients, prevalence of DENV-3 antibodies was significantly higher in female patients (18.5%) compared to males (6.3%). The highest antibody titre recorded in this study was 1:320 while the lowest was 1:10. Majority of the seropositive patients were ≥ 20 years (14.5%). Co-circulation of dengue virus with malaria and/typhoid in North-eastern Nigeria has been suspected. The findings of this study suggest the need to conduct further research on dengue virus in order to confirm its involvement or exclude it from being responsible for febrile illnesses.


The discovery of alterations in the EGFR and ALK genes, amongst others, in NSCLC has driven the development of targeted-drug therapy using selective tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). To optimize the use of these TKIs, the discovery of new biomarkers for early detection and disease progression is mandatory. These plasma-isolated exosomes can be used as a non-invasive and repeatable way for the detection and follow-up of these biomarkers. One ml of plasma from 12 NSCLC patients, with different mutations and treatments (and 6 healthy donors as controls), were used as exosome sources. After RNAse treatment, in order to degrade circulating miRNAs, the exosomes were isolated with a commercial kit and resuspended in specific buffers for further analysis. The exosomes were characterized by western blotting for ALIX and TSG101 and by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis, the standard techniques to obtain biochemical and dimensional data of these nanovesicles. Total RNA extraction was performed with a high yield commercial kit. Due to the limited miRNA-content in exosomes, we decided to perform retro-transcription PCR using an individual assay for each selected miRNA. A panel of miRNAs (30b, 30c, 103, 122, 195, 203, 221, 222), all correlated with NSCLC disease, were analyzed taking advantage of the remarkable sensitivity and specificity of Real-Time PCR analysis; mir-1228-3p was used as endogenous control and data were processed according to the formula 2(-) (ΔΔct) (13). Control values were used as baseline and results are shown in logarithmic scale.


SIR,-In the BRITISH MEDICAL JOIURNAL of July 7th (p. 43) there is published an interesting letter from the Deputy Clerk to. the London County Council headed "Earlier notification of tuberculosis." I do not think many of those who have to do specially with tuberculosis would declare it as their belief that the failure on the part of medical practitioners to notify cases earlier is due to " wilful neglect or refusal to carry out the Tuberculosis Regulations " of the Public Health Act. It would have been, indeed, surprising if the conference between the Public Health Committee of the London County Council and representatives of the metropolitan borough councils had come to the conclusion " that prosecutions would be the most hopeful means for increasing the proportion of early notifications." The earlier notification of tuberculosis is dependent on earlier diagnosis, which again is dependent on the skill of the medical practitioner. A practitioner cannot yet be prosecuted for lack of skill in diagnosis, or which of us would escape prosecution at some time or other in the course of our professional careers? The real clue to the problem-how to obtain earlier diagnosis and therefore earlier notification-is mainly to be found in the final clause of the Deputy Clerk's letter, which appears as a sort of " addendum " or afterthought. He was instructed-he tells us-to invite the London Panel Committee and the British Medical Association " to direct the attention of their members to the fact that the services of the tuberculosis officers are available for consultation, etc." In the county area in which I myself work as tuberculosis officer it is unquestionably the fact that a majority of patients, by the time they come under official notice, are already in an advanced-or, at least, not an early-stage of the disease.. This, of course, does not necessarily imply that the medical practitioner has failed to diagnose the case earlier. It may simply be that the patient has put off goilng to his doctor month after month, until, when at last he goes, the disease has become already firmly established. Still there are undoubtedly many cases where patients attend their doctor for several weeks or even months for vague symptoms of " bronchitis," "catarrh," "colds," etc., who eventually prove to be cases of pulmonary tuberculosis; and if only all such cases were referred at an early period to the tuberculosis officer for examination, or a consultation with the tuberculosis officer were invited, a distinct rise in the number of cases diagnosed " early " would result. As the Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health says in his annual report (1920, p. 85):


A preliminary study was performed to estimate the effect of biosynthetic human insulin (BHI) produced by the Eli Lilly Company in comparison with purified pork insulin (PPI) from the same manufacturer. Immunologic studies were done using an intradermal skin test with both insulins and in vitro studies binding with sera containing preformed antibodies against bovine and pork insulin. The studies were undertaken in eight healthy volunteers aged 24–31 yr. Insulin was given subcutaneously in an amount of 0.1 U/kg and 3 days later intravenously in an amount of 0.03 U/kg injected slowly over 1 min. Blood glucose, insulin, C-peptide, and growth hormone were measured at different times between 0 and 360 min. It was shown that BHI and PPI behaved similarly in lowering blood glucose, suppressing C-peptide, and increasing growth hormone via hypoglycemic action. After s.c. injection, BHI was found to reach higher serum concentrations after 60 min than PPI. Correspondingly, the blood glucose curve was significantly lower after BHI than after PPI. This difference was not observed after the i.v. application of both forms of insulin.


This paper build two mathematics models to study the spread of the disease. In model 1, we collect the number of total cases and deaths of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from WHO's website. There is no vaccine or medication which can protect people from the disease in this period, so in order to describe the spread of Ebola virus accurately, we build improved SI epidemic model to estimate how many cases of Ebola will exist in these countries when the epidemic has been controlled (see Table 1). In model 2, we assume the effective medication is widely used to fight against Ebola, and we take patients in the incubation period into consideration. So we build improved SEIR epidemic model. We use the iterative method to obtain the numerical solution for its nonlinearity. We estimate that the number of recovered people is 6071 in Guinea.


This paper addresses the control of a hybrid wheel-legged system evolving on rough terrain. First, the posture and trajectory parameters are introduced. Then, a decoupled posture and trajectory control algorithm based on the velocity model of the robot is proposed. Last, the performance and feasibility of the control algorithm are evaluated through simulations and experiments with the Hylos robot.


The obligate intracellular pathogenic bacterium, Ehrlichia ruminantium, is the causal agent of heartwater, a fatal disease in ruminants transmitted by Amblyomma ticks. So far, three strains have been attenuated by successive passages in mammalian cells. The attenuated strains have improved capacity for growth in vitro, whereas they induced limited clinical signs in vivo and conferred strong protection against homologous challenge. However, the mechanisms of pathogenesis and attenuation remain unknown. In order to improve knowledge of E. ruminantium pathogenesis, we performed a comparative transcriptomic analysis of two distant strains of E. ruminantium, Gardel and Senegal, and their corresponding attenuated strains. Overall, our results showed an upregulation of gene expression encoding for the metabolism pathway in the attenuated strains compared to the virulent strains, which can probably be associated with higher in vitro replicative activity and a better fitness to the host cells. We also observed a significant differential expression of membrane protein-encoding genes between the virulent and attenuated strains. A major downregulation of map1-related genes was observed for the two attenuated strains, whereas upregulation of genes encoding for hypothetical membrane proteins was observed for the four strains. Moreover, CDS_05140, which encodes for a putative porin, displays the highest gene expression in both attenuated strains. For the attenuated strains, the significant downregulation of map1-related gene expression and upregulation of genes encoding other membrane proteins could be important in the implementation of efficient immune responses after vaccination with attenuated vaccines. Moreover, this study revealed an upregulation of gene expression for 8 genes encoding components of Type IV secretion system and 3 potential effectors, mainly in the virulent Gardel strain. Our transcriptomic study, supported by previous proteomic studies, provides and also confirms new information regarding the characterization of genes involved in E. ruminantium virulence and attenuation mechanisms.


Introduction Syderopenic anemia is prevalent in all children with congenital heart disease, especially in children with signs of heart failure. Objectives The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of sideropenic anemia in children with CHD and compares these results with data of health children less than one year in Kosova population. Methodology Between 2000 and 2010 4236 children were evaluated retrospectively clinically and by echocardiography for congestive heart failure (CHF) caused by CHD. CHD was diagnosed in 832 patients (19.6%) while 78 patients (1.84%). Also from the study have been exclude children with complex CHD caused central cyanosis. In all patients were analyzed heart failure symptoms, hemoglobin levels, age of diagnosis, duration of hospitalization per year and death during medical attendance. Results Anemia was present in 78% of children with CHD, and in 85% children with CHF. Hospitalization days per year in anemic patients had a significantly higher than in non-anemic patients (mean 32.5±39.6 days per year versus 12.3±14.3 days per year (p < 0.05). There was not found significant relation onset of heart failure symptoms and the risk of developing anemia between anemic and non-anemic patients. The evaluation showed also needed for the two times longer period of the treatment of patients with CHD with antianemic medication in compare with healthy anemic children. Conclusion Anemia is prevalent in pediatric patients with CHD especially patients with heart failure. Study showed no higher mortality in anemic patients.


This paper examines the intertemporal relation between risk and return for the aggregate stock market using high-frequency data. We use daily realized, GARCH, implied, and range-based volatility estimators to determine the existence and significance of a risk-return trade-off for several stock market indices. We find a positive and statistically significant relation between the conditional mean and conditional volatility of market returns at the daily level. This result is robust to alternative specifications of the volatility process, across different measures of market return and sample periods, and after controlling for macro-economic variables associated with business cycle fluctuations. We also analyze the risk-return relationship over time using rolling regressions, and find that the strong positive relation persists throughout our sample period. The market risk measures adopted in the paper add power to the analysis by incorporating valuable information, either by taking advantage of high-frequency intraday data (in the case of realized, GARCH, and range volatility) or by utilizing the market's expectation of future volatility (in the case of implied volatility index). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) has been shown to inhibit acute inflammatory reactions involving vascular permeability changes and subsequent tissue damage caused by immune complex deposition and other inflammatory mediators. These effects have been postulated to be due to functional changes induced in circulating neutrophils by PGE1. We evaluated the ability of PGE1 (1 to 100 microM) to protect endothelial cells (EC) from neutrophil injury induced by C5a or phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). The injury to endothelial monolayers was quantitated by 51Cr loss after an 18-h incubation. In the presence of PGE1, there was a concentration-dependent inhibition of C5a- or PMA-stimulated human neutrophil injury to EC. The protective effect was more effective by pretreatment of neutrophils than EC. Since neutrophil adherence to endothelial cells is thought to be an early event in the sequence resulting in injury to vascular endothelium, we next evaluated the effect of PGE1 on neutrophil adherence to plastic surfaces and EC. In a similar fashion, there was a concentration-dependent inhibition of neutrophil adherence to plastic and EC following stimulation with PMA (10 ng/ml), human C5a (5 micrograms/ml) or formyl-met-leu-phe (FMLP, 2 x 10(-7) M). To investigate a possible mechanism of inhibition of neutrophil adherence to plastic surfaces or EC, expression of the neutrophil surface protein Mo1, previously shown to be associated with increased granulocyte adherence, was measured by fluorescence flow cytometry. Although basal levels of Mo1 expression by unstimulated neutrophils were diminished by PGE1 treatment, there was no significant inhibition of PMA- or FMLP-stimulated Mo1 expression in PGE1-treated neutrophils compared with neutrophils stimulated in the absence of PGE1.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Fresh-cut leafy vegetables have been gaining importance in the human diet both for their nutraceutical proprieties and low calories content. The preparation procedures for fresh-cut production and the storage system may lead to severe leaf damages that may affect leaf colour and induce shortened shelf life. The aim of this work was to study the leaf pigment changes in cut and whole Swiss chard leaves under dark or light storage conditions. The effect of treatments was evaluated by chlorophyll, carotenoid and anthocyanin determinations. The leaf membrane integrity was estimated by electrolyte leakage. All measurements were performed until 12 days of storage. The chlorophyll reduction was statistically significant in cut Swiss chard leaves stored in darkness. Total carotenoids did not significantly decline. Anthocyanin content strongly declined in cut leaves in both dark and light storage conditions. Leaf electrolyte leakage increased after 8 days of storage and higher leakage was observed in Swiss chard stored in light conditions without any difference between cut or whole leaves. Results suggest that Swiss chard can be stored until 8 days without any visible changes. Dark storage seemed to preserve quality losses and reduce membrane permeability.


Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) resulting from indiscriminate use of antibiotics in various fields of agriculture such as livestock farming, aquaculture, and croup fields become an emerging catatroph for the health (human, animal) and environment. Among those, poultry farming has been considered as one of the major contributors of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria. Focusing this, the present research is designed for green synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuONPs) with the aim of their application in antibiotic-free poultry farming for curving use of antibiotics in that sector. For that, antibacterial CuONPs were nanoformulated to decrease the required doses of bulk CuSO4. We used a CuSO4·5H2O solution as a Cu2+ source and Citrus limon juice as a reducing agent as well as capping agent. Particle yield was initially confirmed by the λmax specific to CuONPs (295 nm) using UV-Vis spectroscopy. The presence of the Cu–O group during particle formation and crystallinity with the purity of yielded NPs was confirmed with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry. The round to spherical CuONPs of 92–155 nm average size was confirmed with atomic force, scanning electron, and transmission electron microscopy. The concentration of yielded NPs was calculated with the dynamic light scattering. The physical characterization tools indicated a maximum CuONPs yield with a 0.001 M ion source with 15% reducing agents after 12 h reduction. Antibacterial effectivity was tested against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and tetracycline- and beta-lactamase-resistant Escherichia coli, confirmed by PCR amplicon band at 163 bp, 643 bp, and 577 bp for the mecA, blaTEM-1 and tetA genes, respectively. An antibiogram assay of CuONPs showed a maximum zone of inhibition of 26 ± 0.5 mm for the synthesized particles. The minimum inhibitory and bactericidal concentrations were 1.6 μg ml−1 and 3.1 μg ml−1, respectively, for broad-spectrum application. Finally, the biocompatibility of CuONPs was determined by demonstrating a nonsignificant decrease of BHK-21 cell viability at <2 MIC doses for complying their future in vivo applicability.


Temporal analysis of the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire has been used to monitor treatment-induced changes in antigen-specific T cells in patients with cancer. However, the lack of experimental models that allow temporal analysis of the TCR repertoire in the same individual in a homogeneous population limits the understanding of the causal relationship between changes in TCR repertoire and antitumor responses. A bilateral tumor model, where tumor cells were inoculated bilaterally into the backs of mice, could be used for temporal analysis of the TCR repertoire. This study examined the prerequisite for this strategy: the TCR repertoire is conserved between bilateral tumors with the same growth rate. Bilateral tumors with equivalent size and draining lymph nodes (dLNs) were collected 13 days after tumor inoculation to analyze the TCR repertoire of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. The tumor-infiltrating T cell clones were highly conserved between the bilateral tumors, and the extent of clonal expansion was equivalent. In addition, the similarity between the bilateral tumors was equivalent to heterogeneity on one side of the tumor. The similarity of the TCR repertoire in the bilateral dLNs was markedly lower than that in the tumor, suggesting that tumor-reactive T cell clones induced independently in each dLN integrated during recirculation and then infiltrated the tumor. These findings suggest that our bilateral tumor model is suitable for temporal monitoring of the TCR repertoire to evaluate temporal and treatment-induced changes in tumor-reactive T cell clones. Significance Statement The bilateral subcutaneous tumor model, where tumor cells were inoculated bilaterally into the backs of mice, is a promising model for temporal analysis of the antitumor response in cancer immunotherapy. This study demonstrated a highly conserved TCR repertoire in bilateral tumors and provided the basis for using a bilateral tumor model for evaluating temporal and treatment-induced changes in tumor-responsive T cell clones in individual mice. In humans, accurate statistical analysis is hampered by various background factors, including cancer type and stage and history of treatment. Moreover, temporal tumor biopsy in patients is highly invasive. Our bilateral tumor model overcomes these clinical issues and is expected to be a valuable tool for the development of novel immune monitoring and therapeutic strategies.


An alternative and cost‐effective solution to building integrated PV systems is to use hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) solar systems. These systems consist of PV modules with an air channel at their rear surface, where ambient air is circulating in the channel for PV cooling and the extracted heat can be used for building thermal needs. To increase the system thermal efficiency, additional glazing is necessary, but this results in the decrease of the PV module electrical output from the additional optical losses of the solar radiation. PV/T solar systems with air heat extraction have been extensively studied at the University of Patras. Prototypes in their standard form and also with low‐cost modifications have been tested, aiming to achieve improved PV/T systems. An energetic and environmental assessment for the PV and PV/T systems tested has been performed by the University of Rome 'La Sapienza', implementing the specific software SimaPro 5·1 regarding the life‐cycle assessment (LCA) methodology applied. In this paper electrical and thermal energy output results for PV and PV/T systems are given, focusing on their performance improvements and environmental impact, considering their construction and operation requirements. The new outcome of the study was that the glazed type PV/T systems present optimum performance regarding energy, cost and LCA results. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Special Issue entitled "Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Chronic and Degenerative Diseases" contains eight articles: six original studies and two reviews [...].


In this paper substantiated for a differential equation of pseudo-parabolic type with discontinuous coefficients a contact-boundary value problem with non-classical boundary conditions is considered, which requires no matching conditions. Equivalence of these conditions boundary condition is substantiated classical, in the case if the solution of the problem in the izotropic S.L. Sobolev's space is found. The considered equation as a pseudo-parabolic equation generalizes not only classic equations of mathematical physics (heat-conductivity equations, string vibration equation) and also many models differential equations (Aller's equation, Manjeron equation, telegraph equation, moisture transfer generalized equation, Boussinesq - Love equation and etc.). It is grounded that the contact-boundary conditions in the classic and non-classic treatment are equivalent to each other, and such boundary conditions are demonstrated in geometric form. Even from geometric interpretation can see that the grounded non-classic treatment doesn't require any additional conditions of agreement type. Thus, namely in this paper, the non-classic problem with contact-boundary conditions is grounded for a pseudo-parabolic equation. For simplicity, this was demonstrated for one model case in one of S.L. Sobolev izotropic space Wp(4,4)(G).


We consider interaction-free measurement (IFM) with imperfect interaction. In the IFM proposed by Kwiat et al., we assume that the interaction between an absorbing object and a probe photon is imperfect, so that the photon is absorbed with probability 1-{eta} (0{<=}{eta}{<=}1) and it passes by the object without being absorbed with probability {eta} when it approaches close to the object. We derive the success probability P that we can find the object without the photon absorbed under the imperfect interaction as a power series in 1/N and show the following result: Even if the interaction between the object and photon is imperfect, we can let the success probability P of the IFM get close to unity arbitrarily by making the reflectivity of the beam splitter larger and increasing the number of the beam splitters. Moreover, we obtain an approximating equation of P for large N from the derived power series in 1/N.


The occurrence of nucleotide pyrophosphotransferase (ATP: nucleotide 5'-phosphate pyrophosphotransferase, EC 2.7.4) and the changes in its activity were studied during differentiation in cultures of two Streptomyces griseus strains grown on the surface of a solid medium. One of the strains does not sporulate and produce nucleotide pyro photransferase in submerged culture. Nucleotide pyrophosphotransferase could be detected, though in much differing amounts, in surface cultures of both strains.


We present a new method for image encryption on the basis of simplified fractional Hartley transform (SFRHT). SFRHT is a real transform as Hartley transform (HT) and furthermore, superior to HT in virtue of the advantage that it can also append fractional orders as additional keys for the purpose of improving the system security to some extent. With this method, one can encrypt an image with an intensity-only medium such as a photographic film or a CCD camera by spatially incoherent or coherent illumination. The optical realization is then proposed and computer simulations are also performed to verify the feasibility of this method.


We demonstrate synthesis of silicon nanowires of tens of nanometers via laser induced chemical vapor deposition. These nanowires with diameters as small as 60 nm are produced by the interference between incident laser radiation and surface scattered radiation within a diffraction limited spot, which causes spatially confined, periodic heating needed for high resolution chemical vapor deposition. By controlling the intensity and polarization direction of the incident radiation, multiple parallel nanowires can be simultaneously synthesized. The nanowires are produced on a dielectric substrate with controlled diameter, length, orientation, and the possibility of in-situ doping, and therefore are ready for device fabrication. Our method offers rapid one-step fabrication of nano-materials and devices unobtainable with previous CVD methods.


Magnetic Resonance finds countless applications, from spectroscopy to imaging, routinely in almost all research and medical institutions across the globe. It is also becoming more frequently used for specific applications in which the whole instrument and system is designed for a dedicated application. With beginnings in borehole logging for the petro-chemical industry Magnetic Resonance sensors have been applied to fields as varied as online process monitoring for food manufacture and medical point of care diagnostics. This great diversity is seeing exciting developments in magnetic resonance sensing technology published in application specific journals where they are often not seen by the wider sensor community. It is clear that there is enormous interest in magnetic resonance sensors which represents a significant growth area. The aim of this special edition of Sensors was to address the wide distribution of relevant articles by providing a forum to disseminate cutting edge research in this field in a single open source publication.[...]


M. C. Escher, a Dutch artist, created a series of lithographs presenting "impossible" objects and "impossible" motions. Although they are usually called "impossible", some of them can be realized as solid objects and physical motions in the three-dimensional space. The basic idea for these realizations is to use the degrees of freedom in the reconstruction of solids from pictures. First, the set of all solids represented by a given picture is represented by a system of linear equations and inequalities. Next the distribution of the freedom is characterized by a matroid extracted from this system. Then, a robust method for reconstructing solids is constructed and applied to the spatial realization of the "impossible" world.


The effect of liquid ventilation on pulmonary vascular resistance was studied in an isolated cat lung preparation in situ. Lungs were perfused with whole blood from a donor cat at a constant flow of 100 ml . min-1 kg-1. Pulmonary arterial venous pressures were measured, and pulmonary vascular resistance calculated during gas ventilation (control) and ventilation with fluorocarbon, FC-80. During control ventilation at a mean tidal volume (VT) of 28 +/- 1 (SEM) ml and lung volume of 108 +/- 8 (SEM) ml, pulmonary vascular resistance was 0.07 +/- 0.01 (SEM) PRU. During liquid ventilation at similar lung volumes, pulmonary vascular resistance increased by 62% to 0.12 +/- 0.03 (SEM) PRU (P less than 0.05). At greater liquid lung volumes reflecting optimum CO2 elimination, pulmonary vascular resistance increased by 115% over control values to 0.15 +/- 0.01 (SEM) PRU (P less than 0.005). These data demonstrate significant alterations in pulmonary circulation during liquid ventilation, and suggest that further studies should be completed before hyperbaric applications in human can be considered.


This essay explores the impact of Søren Kierkegaard upon the important Italian Thomist, Cornelio Fabro. Fabro rejected the caricature of Kierkegaard as an "irrationalist" and placed him firmly in the Christian tradition. By highlighting the influence of Kierkegaard upon a Thomist like Fabro, the relevance of Fabro's own thought is opened up for more contemporary debates in theology regarding the enduring legacies of German idealism, existentialism, and atheism.


The Festival "Zodchestvo of Eastern Siberia" was founded at the turn of the millennium. The first Festival was held in 2001 at Irkutsk Sibexpocenter and caused a massive outcry among the architectural community in Siberia and throughout the country. Later the Festival "Zodchestvo of Eastern Siberia" became one of the most important annual architectural events in Russia. The first participants of the Festival were the architects from Eastern Siberia (such cities as Irkutsk, Angarsk, Bratsk, Chita and Krasnoyarsk, republics of Buryatia, Tyva, Khakassia, as well as Ust-Ordynsky and Aginsky national districts of Buryatia). Since 2007 architects from Western Siberia (Omsk and Barnaul) have also participated in the Festival. The Festival becomes open. The most topical issues are discussed at the Discussion Club of the Festival. Among the most prominent experts are A. Rappaport, O. Vendina, L. Kogan, A. Vysokovsky, A. Gimelstein, A.Kaftanov, M. Rozhansky, V. Dyatlov, A. Ivanov, D. Fesenko, A. Sirina, A. Finogenov. Prominent Russian architects give master classes, which enjoy great popularity. Thanks to the Festival, within twenty years, Siberian architects have met with masters from the capitals: Y. Gnedovsky, A. Asadov, S. Kiselev, A. Skokan, A. Bavykin, V. Plotkin, A. Savin, A. Cheltsov, A. Pavlova, S. Skuratov, N. Yavein, T. Kuzembaev, M. Mamoshin, Yu. Zemtsov, A. Bokov, T. Bashkaev, S. Gnedovsky, N. Shumakov A. Chernikhov, V. Kuzmin, foreign architects M. Drahovsky, D. Dendra, G. Stanishev, as well as Siberian experts I. Popovsky, A. Myakota, P. Anisiforov, A. Dering and many other colleagues. The organizers consider the Festival to be a preparation stage for the International Festival "Zodchestvo" in Moscow."Zodchestvo of Eastern Siberia" is traditionally held in Irkutsk. However, in 2014 it was first held in Krasnoyarsk, and in 2017 Krasnoyarsk housed the Festival for the second time. In the same year, Altai architects proposed to hold the next Festival in Barnaul. Thus, the Festival went beyond the borders of Eastern Siberia. We decided to maintain the name of the Festival, filling it with a new geographical meaning: "Zodchestvo in Siberia". In 2018 the Festival was held in Barnaul, the capital of Altai, and in 2019 it was held in Tomsk. The twentieth event took place on the native land, the city of Irkutsk. . In 2021, the year of the 300th anniversary of Kuzbass, it was held in Kemerovo. This year, "Zodchestvo in Siberia 2022" is warmly hosted by Novosibirsk, the capital of the Siberian Federal District.


Surface etching by ion sputtering can be used to pattern surfaces. Recent studies using the high-spatial-resolution capability of the scanning tunnelling microscope revealed in fact that ion bombardment produces repetitive structures at nanometre scale, creating peculiar surface morphologies ranging from self-affine patterns to `fingerprint'-like and even regular structures, for instance waves (ripples), chequerboards or pyramids. The phenomenon is related to the interplay between ion erosion and diffusion of adatoms (vacancies), which induces surface re-organization. The paper reviews the use of sputter etching to modify `in situ' surfaces and thin films, producing substrates with well defined vertical roughness, lateral periodicity and controlled step size and orientation.


Primary care is responsible for the majority of children's healthcare contact, yet there is a dearth of research into the safety of care provided to children in this setting. Confidential Enquiries highlight the need for improved vaccination, better recognition of seriously unwell children, and improved management of children with chronic conditions. This thesis therefore aimed to explore deficiencies in the vaccination process and in the primary care provided to 'unwell' children.
A cross-sectional mixed methods study of paediatric safety incidents involving vaccination or 'unwell' children, from primary care between 2002-2013 was conducted. The free-texts of 3913 reports submitted to the National Reporting and Learning System were classified to describe: incident types, contributory factors, incident outcomes, and severity of harm outcomes. Additionally, a literature review was conducted to identify potential interventions to address problem areas identified.
Key vaccination-related failures included vaccination with the wrong number of doses, at the wrong time, or with the wrong vaccine. Documentation failures and staff mistakes frequently underpinned these incidents, and vulnerable groups appeared more prone to incidents.
Key incidents involving 'unwell' children were related to: medication provision; and failures of diagnosis, assessment, referral, and communication, primarily related to telephone assessments. Medication errors were often the result of staff mistakes and failing to follow protocols. Incidents related to telephone assessment of 'unwell' children were often precipitated by protocol problems such as failing to assess children using the appropriate protocol.
The findings presented in this thesis provide an overview of paediatric safety problems in primary care, in addition to offering recommendations for improvement. Example recommendations include building IT infrastructure to address vaccination-related documentation discrepancies; electronic transmission of prescriptions to community pharmacies to reduce dispensing errors; and adapting clinical decision software to improve paediatric telephone-based assessments. The hypotheses generated from this work will form the basis of future work.


Introduction: Gastric problems are the most common diseases seen in many countries for which majority of the population prefer Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI) and Histamine (H2) Blockers. They are prescribed most commonly for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), Dyspepsia, Peptic Ulcer Disease, along-with medications like Non-Steroidal Antiinflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) and other drugs. Concerns have been raised about the increasing costs associated with prescription of these drugs as they are often prescribed for minor symptoms and without clear indications. Prescribing pattern should be evaluated periodically to promote rational use of medicines. Aim: To assess the prescribing pattern of PPIs and H2 Blockers in Surgery and Medicine Department of a Tertiary Care Hospital. Materials and Methods: An observational study was conducted in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Karamsad over a period of one year from November, 2018 to October, 2019, among patients visiting to Out Patient Department (OPD) and In Patient Department (IPD) of Medicine and Surgery Department that were prescribed PPI and H2 Blockers. Total 1100 prescriptions and 1265 PPI, H2 Blockers were analysed. The data were analysed for socio-demographic variables along with details of PPI and H2 Blockers. co-prescribing drugs, Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs) and drug interactions of each prescription was analysed. Results: In the study, PPI and H2 Blockers were prescribed more in males (54.36%). The predominant age group was 18-40 years (42%). Among studied drugs, most commonly prescribed single drug was Pantoprazole and FDC was Ranitidine + Domperidone. The drugs were most commonly prescribed through oral route (90.9%). They were most commonly prescribed along with an NSAID for gastroprotection (28.9%). Pharmacokinetic drug interactions were observed more in the study. Conclusion: This study showed that physicians prescribe PPI and H2 Blockers as a co-medication for gastroprotection. There is a need to increase documentation for prescribing PPI and H2 Blockers.


Treatment-related mortality is common among children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated in poor-resource settings. We applied a simplified flow-cytometric assay to identify patients with precursor B-cell ALL (B-ALL) at very low risk (VLR) of relapse and treated them with a reduced-intensity treatment plan (RELLA05). VLR criteria include favorable presenting features (age ≥1 and <10 years), white blood cell (WBC) count of <50 × 109/L, lack of extramedullary leukemia, and minimal residual disease (MRD) levels of <0.01% on remission induction day 19. Except for two doses of daunorubicin, treatment for patients with VLR B-ALL consisted of a combination of agents with a relatively low myelotoxicity profile, including corticosteroids, vincristine, L-asparaginase, methotrexate, and 6-mercaptopurine. Cyclophosphamide, systemic cytarabine, and CNS radiotherapy were not used. Of 454 patients with ALL treated at the Instituto de Medicina Integral Fernando Figueira in Recife, Brazil, between December 2005 and June 2015, 101 were classified as having VLR B-ALL. There were no cases of toxic death or treatment abandonment during remission induction. At a median follow-up of 6.6 years, there were eight major adverse events: six relapses, one treatment-related death (from septicemia) during remission, and one secondary myeloid leukemia. The estimated 5-year event-free and overall survival rates were 92.0% ± 3.9% and 96.0% ± 2.8%, respectively. The 5-year cumulative risk of relapse was 4.24% ± 2.0%. The treatment was well tolerated. Episodes of neutropenia were of short duration. Patients with B-ALL selected by a combination of presenting features and the degree of early response can be successfully treated with a mildly myelosuppressive chemotherapy regimen.


2 person exhibition at Marianne Heller Gallery, Heidelberg Germany, with Svein Narum, Norway. Developed from 2011 'Intonation' series, presents a new body of work (12) exploring surface deconstruction of the ceramic form. New investigations for this body of work include technical investigation of new colours and application techniques to deconstruct the clay form through surface interrogation.Funded by the 'External Exhibitions' Grant of the Crafts Council of Ireland.Announced in current journal issue of 'New Ceramics' (issue 2 2012).


This paper aims to better understand the development of students' learning processes when participating actively in a specific Computer Supported Collaborative Learning system called KnowCat. To this end, a longitudinal case study was designed, in which eighteen university students took part in a 12-month (two semesters) learning project. During this time period, the students followed an instructional process, using some elements of KnowCat (KnowCat key features) design to support and improve their interaction processes, especially peer learning processes. Our research involved both supervising the students' collaborative learning processes throughout the learning project and focusing our analysis on the qualitative evolution of the students' interaction processes and on the development of metacognitive learning processes. The results of the current research reveal that the instructional application of the CSCL-KnowCat system may favour and improve the development of the students' metacognitive learning processes. Additionally, the implications of the design of computer supported collaborative learning networks and pedagogical issues are discussed in this paper. 1 * Corresponding author. Manoli Pifarré.


Kinetic patterns and thermostability of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, isolated from liver tissue of intact and thiamine-deficient rats, were analyzed. Distinct alterations were not found in the patterns studied. The data obtained suggest that a decrease in the enzymatic activity, observed after administration of oxythiamine into rats, occurred due to lowering in content of the protein active form.


This paper studies and compares the techniques commonly used to solve the Integer Lease Squares (ILS) problem. In general, ILS is a NP hard problem. However, by introducing some basis reduction algorithms and carefully designing the search strategy, much more efficient solving procedures (compared with blind search) can be developed. A general method is to reduce the basis first and then perform an exhaustive search within certain region. In this paper, several widely used basis reduction (or decorrelation) algorithms are presented, the Korkine-Zolotareff (KZ) reduction, LLL reduction, integer inverse Cholesky decorrelation (IICD) and integer Gaussian decorrelation (IGD). Their pros and cons are evaluated by the simulation results, which show that none of them can be uniformly superior than the others. Further, an efficient discrete search algorithm, which incorporates the Pohst strategy, Schnorr-Euchner strategy and shrinking strategy, is presented in great detail in the hope that the reader can implement it easily even without knowing the background knowledge.


This article addresses how an organization's customer relationship management (CRM) process affects customer equity drivers and, in turn, organizational performance. By raising a three-staged model including the CRM processes, customer equity drivers, and organizational performance, the authors assert that the customer equity drivers mediate between the CRM processes and organizational performance. The empirical analysis is based on a composite survey structure that gathers data from different types of informants according to the variables. Findings indicate that the expansion process has positive relationship with all the customer equity drivers. However, the acquisition process significantly influences both perceived value equity and brand equity, and the retention process significantly influences relationship equity only. In addition, the study shows that all the customer equity drivers influence the organizational performance given the existing customers. The relationship equity among the customer equity drivers has the strongest effect on the performance.