The utilization of marginal water resources for agriculture is receiving considerable attention. The lands irrigated with saline water are required to reduce salt accumulations through leaching and/or drainage practices. A field experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of saline irrigation and leaching fraction on barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) growth. For this purpose highly saline water was diluted to the salinity levels of 3, 6 and 9 dS m -1 and applied by drip irrigation at 0.0, 0.15, 0.20 and 0.25 leaching fractions (LF). The results of the experiment showed that both quantity and quality of water regulated salts distribution within the soil in the following manner: a) the salts were found higher near or immediate below the soil surface; b) an enhanced LF carried more salts down the soil horizon but there was no significant difference in plant yield between different treatments of leaching fractions. Salinity of water significantly impaired barley growth. The good drainage of sandy soil enhanced the leaching process and minimized the differences between leaching fractions. The increment in saline treatments (3, 6 and 9 dS m -1 ) added more salts and stressed plant growth. However, the conjunctive use of marginal water at proportional LF could be effective in enhancing the yield potential of crops in water-scarce areas.


This study aimed to compare some local melon (Cucumis melo L.) genotypes selected from the Lake Van Basin (65 ER 02, 65 ER 04, and 13 TAT 05) with some commercial melon cultivars (Ananas, Makdimon F1, and Rambo F1) for some yield and quality related traits observed in field and high tunnel conditions for two years. At the end of the study, it was determined that Makdimon F1 produced the highest early and total yields (14.76 and 30.51 t ha-1, respectively). While the locally selected melon genotype 65 ER 04 followed Makdimon F1 for the early yield (11.43 t ha-1), the locally selected genotype 65 ER 02 followed Makdimon F1 for the total yield (22.49 t ha-1). The cultivars Rambo F1 and Makdimon F1 had higher soluble solid contents than the others.


Since its appearance, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have received a lot of interest in the AI community. In image generation several projects showed how GANs are able to generate photorealistic images but the results so far did not look adequate for the quality standard of visual media production industry. We present an optimized image generation process based on a Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks (DCGANs), in order to create photorealistic high-resolution images (up to 1024x1024 pixels). Furthermore, the system was fed with a limited dataset of images, less than two thousand images. All these results give more clue about future exploitation of GANs in Computer Graphics and Visual Effects.


ABSTRACT Nations are generally understood to be territorial while the internet is commonly thought of as extraterritorial. The political activities of Eritreans in diaspora help to complicate both those assumptions. Exploring the diverse and shifting ways that Eritreans in diaspora have used websites to participate in national politics from outside the country sheds light on the dynamics of the space of cyberspace and its significance for politics. With regard to territory, I suggest that the significant feature of the internet is not its extraterritoriality but rather that the space of cyberspace is ambiguous and elastic, allowing it to support diverse constructions, alternative imaginaries, and multiple forms of territoriality, virtuality, and extraterritoriality. Diasporas, much like cyberspace, are altering the meaning of territorial locations and borders, disrupting prior configurations of society and territory, and making possible new spatializations of politics. Eritreans in diaspora are experimenting online in ways that show the internet cannot be defined by its quality of extraterritoriality or by its relation to territory in fixed terms. Their activities suggest ways of thinking about the internet in terms of various and shifting permutations of cyberspatial and territorial relations, that are always both grounded and virtual.


Chemical cues in the form of glandular secretions may play an important role in the location and selection of shelters in lizards. The present study investigated the possible existence and significance of a composite group signal in the group-living cordylid, Cordylus cataphractus . Cordylus cataphractus is very sluggish and probably extremely vulnerable during periods away from the crevice. A group signal would aid dispersing or lost individuals in locating groups of conspecifics in the shortest possible time. Choice experiments to determine shelter selection were conducted in the laboratory as well as in the field, in order to test specific predictions following from the group signal hypothesis. In the laboratory, there was a statistically significant preference for shelters marked with conspecific glandular secretions over unmarked shelters. In the field, individuals strongly avoided crevices occupied by conspecifics. It seems likely that a composite group signal does exist, and that such a signal may be used to locate groups of conspecifics. Whether an individual will actually join a group seems to be determined by the interaction of a number of complex factors.


The unprecedented growth in the area of QSAR has completely changed the landscape of drug discovery. QSAR techniques quantitatively correlate the associations between chemical structure alterations and respective changes in biological activity, thereby playing a major role in improving the potency, efficacy and selectivity of the lead compounds in drug design. In this review, authors have summarized the role of QSAR in drug discovery, especially with respect to lead optimization and drug-receptor interactions. The recent trends in the usage of 3D-QSAR to understand protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) have been explored. Specifically, the latest advances in the concepts of chemical Space (CS) and chemography have been examined in detail. Also, the authors have tried to present the current limitations and challenges in this field. The authors agree with the prevalent view that the models must be systematically validated both internally as well as externally to strengthen the hit rates in the experiments. It is important to apply the 'in cerebro-in silico' approach that entails choosing the method specific to the target-ligand system.


At present, two types of recombinant human interferon (IFN)-β are in clinical use. IFN-β1a is produced in genetically engineered Chinese hamster ovary cells, and its amino acid sequence and glycosylation pattern are identical to those of endogenous human IFN-β. The beneficial effect of IFN-β in multiple sclerosis (MS) probably results from different mechanisms of action, such as a direct effect on plasma cells modulating IgG synthesis, an increase of interleukin (IL)-10 levels, the inhibition of IL-1β and tumour necrosis factor α, the stimulation of IL-1 receptor antagonist production, the inhibition of proliferation of leukocytes, a decreased antigen presentation in microglia, a reduction of T cell migration into the brain by inhibition of the activity of T cell matrix metalloproteinases, and a downregulation of adhesion molecules. IFN-β1a has been shown by several multicenter controlled trials to be effective in relapsing-remitting MS. It reduces relapse rate by 30 – 50%, magnetic resonance imaging signs of disease activity in 30 – 80% and disability progression by 30%. It is also effective in preventing conversion to clinically definite MS when given at the time of a first demyelinating event (i.e., at the very beginning of the clinical disease). No clear evidence of the persistence of the efficacy over the long-term has stood out from a systematic analysis of published trials. A Cochrane review concluded that, in fact, the clinical effect beyond the first year of treatment is not clear. Finally, no efficacy has been shown in secondary progressive or primary progressive MS. However, IFN-β1a is very well tolerated and the most frequent side effects are mild (local skin reaction and flu-like symptoms) and decline in frequency or disappear after the first 3 – 6 months of treatment. Although the optimal frequency between once weekly or multiple weekly administrations is still controversial, all protocols require multiple monthly injections. Some patients might find it hard to cope with such a treatment regimen over the long term. Ongoing trials with new powerful immunomodulatory drugs, such as monoclonal antibodies, that require only monthly or bimonthly parenteral administrations will probably offer a better tolerated treatment option in the near future.


Debates on linkages between democracy and welfare remain fascinating issues in contemporary democracy studies, especially in Indonesia. Howeuer, mainstream studies on such issues were influenced, foremost, by political economy approaches and classic liberalism. Thus, mainstream studies pay less attentions on decontruct both the idea of democrary and welfare and tend to essensialize democracy and welfare. lt also insulate politics from conflict and social antagonisms. Rather than analysing pattern of linkages betwoeen welfare and democracy, this study inquire about 'welfare' itself –as common goods– is empty/floating signifier and then put emphasis on welfare –as articulatory social practices and discursiae reality– always been produced, presented and represented in and through political process or battle for hegemony. Moreover, whilst this study underline the primacy of political and discursive social practices, it strongly differ from model of deliberative democracy (liberal pluralist) since it re-emphasize agonistic model of democracy, that was introduced by post-marxist or radical pluralist thinkers. Last of all, agonistic model of democracy deem conflict, undecidability and social antagonism as virtue of democracy and main of political life.


This study evaluates the prognostic factors and causes associated with mortality in Chinese diabetic patients after lower extremity amputations. Medical records of all diabetic patients admitted to the National Taiwan University Hospital for leg amputations from 1982 to 1991 were reviewed. Demographic data, medical history, amputation levels and admission routines, including fasting plasma glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, urine protein and electrocardiograms, and bacterial culture done during the admission period were recorded. The vital status of the patients was followed by personal contact and mortality was ascertained from government computer records. The causes of death were recorded according to the death certificates. Univariate analysis and multivariate Cox's proportional hazards model were used to identify the prognostic factors associated with mortality. A total of 87 diabetic amputees, of whom 34 died, were found within this 10-year period. Cerebral infarction, infection and diabetes mellitus were the most commonly reported causes of death. Their calculated mortality was 5.95 times higher than the mortality rate of the age-comparable population in Taiwan. A history of hypertension and coronary heart disease were found to be the best indicators for predicting a fatal outcome with rate ratios of over two-fold. This study shows that post-amputational mortality is high in diabetic patients and that the major cause of death is cerebral infarction. The major cause of death in this study differs from that reported for Caucasians, for whom cardiovascular disease is the most important cause of death.


This review of Robert F Hefner's book begins with the relevance of this book's cover to the current pros and cons regarding school uniforms and their relation to religion. This book was published when issues and religious symbols strengthened in the electoral process in Indonesia, at least in the 2014 elections and the DKI Regional Head Elections. Even though the proponent of this issue lost, the influence of Islam in the way of life of the state is getting stronger. In historical terms, Islam has always been an important factor in socio-political life since the Dutch East Indies to Indonesia today. Studies on the Dutch East Indies (Indology) to studies on Indonesia (Indonesia studies) always place Islam as a strong variable. Starting from Snouck Hurgonje to Cliford Geertz who was a pioneer in the study of Islam and their work became a reference for subsequent studies. Hefner's edited book contributes to showing the role and influence of Islam in contemporary Indonesia, especially after the reformation. Although not specifically reviewing Islam and Indonesia, all existing analyzes on democracy, law, politics, and socio-cultural aspects related to media, entertainment and ethnicity are closely related to Islam, as well as gender and plural society.


This is a contribution to the symposium on Herman Cappelen's Fixing Language. Cappelen proposes a metasemantic framework—the 'Austerity Framework'—within which to understand the general phenomenon of conceptual engineering. The proposed framework is austere in the sense that it makes no reference to concepts. Conceptual engineering is then given a 'worldly' construal according to which conceptual engineering is a process that operates on the world. I argue, contra Cappelen, that an adequate theory of conceptual engineering must make reference to concepts. This is because concepts are required to account for topic continuity, a phenomenon which lies at the heart of projects in conceptual engineering. I argue that Cappelen's own account of topic continuity is inadequate as a result of the austerity of his metasemantic framework, and that his worldly construal of conceptual engineering is untenable.


Cytochromes of c‐type contain covalently bound haem and in bacteria are located on the periplasmic side of the cytoplasmic membrane. More than eight different gene products have been identified as being specifically required for the synthesis of cytochromes c in Gram‐negative bacteria. Corresponding genes are not found in the genome sequences of Gram‐positive bacteria. Using two random mutagenesis approaches, we have searched for cytochrome c biogenesis genes in the Gram‐positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Three genes, resB, resC and ccdA, were identified. CcdA has been found previously and is required for a late step in cytochrome c synthesis and also plays a role in spore synthesis. No function has previously been assigned for ResB and ResC but these predicted membrane proteins show sequence similarity to proteins required for cytochrome c synthesis in chloroplasts. Attempts to inactivate resB and resC in B. subtilis have indicated that these genes are essential for growth. We demonstrate that various nonsense mutations in resB or resC can block synthesis of cytochromes c with no effect on other types of cytochromes and little effect on sporulation and growth. The results strongly support the recent proposal that Gram‐positive bacteria, cyanobacteria, ε‐proteobacteria, and chloroplasts have a similar type of machinery for cytochrome c synthesis (System II), which is very different from those of most Gram‐negative bacteria (System I) and mitochondria (System III).


Synthesis of molecular containers capable of incorporating multiple fullerenes remains challenging. Reported here is that room-temperature mixing of metal ions with W-shaped bispyridine ligands featuring polyaromatic panels results in the quantitative formation of a peanut-shaped M2 L4 capsule. The capsule reversibly converts into two molecules of an ML2 double tube in response to changes in the solvent. Notably, the capsule allows the incorporation of two fullerene molecules into the connected two spherical cavities at room temperature. The close proximity yet non-contact of the encapsulated C60 molecules, with a separation of 6.4 Å, was revealed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. The resultant, unusual fullerene dimer undergoes sequential reduction within the capsule to generate (C60 .- )2 , C60 .- ⋅C60 2- , and (C60 2- )2 species. Furthermore, temperature-controlled stepwise incorporation of two C60 molecules into the capsule is demonstrated.


In multi-hop wireless mesh network (WMN), hidden node is one of the major problems when IEEE 802.11 DCF is used as a MAC protocol. It causes data packet collisions between the multi-hop links and significantly affects the network performance. In order to avoid this problem, a novel routing scheme is proposed in this paper. It uses a high sensitive sensing function utilized for cognitive radio. The purpose of this sensing function is used to detect the existence of the hidden node. This function is considered to construct a route from the source node to the destination node. In the proposed method, high sensitive sensing device is utilized in both route selection and in the MAC protocol. Throughput and delay are used for evaluation criteria. From the computer simulation it confirms that the proposed routing scheme will improve the throughput and the delay performance with a suitable sensing level comparing to the conventional systems.


The best methods of identification of the financial assets and liabilities with highest risk concentration on the example of pharmaceutical companies have been considered. It is well known, that significant risks are subject to disclosure in financial statements of organization, because they can influence management decisions. It is important for professionals to understand how to correctly identify and assess the risks, influencing the financial statements, as well as to form a list of assets and liabilities, that are more affected by them. The above questions can be answered by the approaches presented in the article to the identification, assessment and systematization of risks, their impact on the financial statements, as well as the conclusions, formulated by the authors as a result of the research.


This article focuses on the study of consumers with social anxiety who avoid relationships in commercial settings. While relationship marketing recommends fostering personal relationships with customers, our research shows that too much closeness can be a problem for people with social anxiety who are apprehensive about interacting with strangers. A qualitative study based on 17 in-depth interviews with individuals with social anxiety allows us to specify the contexts that give rise to social anxiety—physical closeness between consumer and salesperson, when the interaction is relatively long, in new situations, or in situations designed to be repeated. Our study shows that social anxiety has psychological, economic, and time costs for the consumer. Additionally, the study sets out the relational preferences of people with social anxiety, showing that they prefer neutral, distant or anonymous relationships, that they do not like or benefit from special treatment, nor do they like to be surprised by novelty. The conventional recommendations of relational marketing (e.g., creating a close relationship with customers) are partly called into question by this study, which shows that not all individuals necessarily want such relationships in a commercial context. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The authors of the article consider the problem of the formation of huge volumes of liquid toxic activated sludge in the biochemical method of the residential area wastewater decontamination. At present, there are no effective technical solutions and technologies in terms of eliminating the negative impact of activated sludge on environmental components. The article examines the technologies that allow to involve activated sludges in reuse and use them as fertilizers in agriculture. A resource-saving biotechnology for activated sludge dewatering and decontamination from ecotoxicants has been developed. The results of the study confirm the effectiveness of the process of heavy metal extraction from activated sludge.


In order to study the combined and separate effects of phosphorus fertilizer, phosphate-solubilizing bacteria and mycorrhizal fungus on adjusting and reducing the loss of yield resulting from drought stress during the stage of growth of grain corn (SC704) an experiment was performed in Aboureihan Campus of the University of Tehran, Iran, during 2007-2008. The experiment was conducted as split plot based on a randomised completely block design (RCBD) with four replications. Experimental factors were drought stress as the main-plot [irrigation after 50 [without drought stress], 100 and 150 mm evaporation from pan class A, and fertilizer compounds as the sub-plot (100% phosphorus (b5), 50% super phosphate triple+ mycorrhizal fungus + Phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (b2), mycorrhizal fungus + Phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (b1), 50% super phosphate triple + Phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (b3), and 50% super phosphate triple + mycorrhizal fungus (b4)). Drought stress happened after seedling establishment. Result of variance analysis showed that drought stress significantly affected plant height, stem dry weight, stem diameter, ear height, kernel number per row, 300 kernel weight, ear weight, ear length, ear diameter, cob diameter, kernel depth, cob percentage and total yield traits. Also, there was not significantly difference between fertilizer treatment for number of Leaf per plant, stem diameter and ear height traits. All the assessed traits in b2 inoculated treatment showed of higher values than other treats under water deficit stress condition. Furthermore, the investigated traits of b5 treat under severe water deficit stress were significantly less pronounced than normal irrigation and low stressed conditions. The results showed that all measured traits in seed inoculums with b2 under the low drought stress stood higher than other treats. Using stepwise regression was performed for grain corn in all conditions and in high stress conditions four traits have been extracted, which describe most 90% of yield variations. These results have completely coincidence with simple correlation analysis.


The work on intuitive Virtual Production tools at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg has focused on an open platform tied to existing film creation pipelines. The Virtual Production Editing Tools (VPET) started in a former project on Virtual Production funded by the European Union and are published and constantly updated on the open source software development platform Github. We introduce an intuitive workflow where Augmented Reality, inside-out tracking and real-time color keying can be applied on the fly to extend a real movie set with editable, virtual extensions in a collaborative setup.


Reducing Nicaragua's high maternal mortality rate of 150 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births is a priority in the Government's Health Plan and Poverty Reduction Strategy. Efforts to improve reproductive health face many challenges. Adolescent pregnancy rates are among the highest in the region (130 per 1,000 15-19 year olds). Fertility in rural areas (5.4 children per woman) and among poor women (6.6) is significantly higher than the Latin American average of 2.8 children per woman. Poverty, limited educational and employment opportunities, traditional gender roles and disempowerment of women, and poor access to distant health services across difficult terrain in remote rural areas are significant barriers. Maternal complications need immediate attention, are difficult to manage and often lead to the death of the woman (and/or child).


We address the problem of multi-robot area coverage and present a new approach in the case where the map of the area and its static obstacles are known and the robots have a limited visibility range. The proposed method starts by locating a set of static guards on the map of the target area and then builds a graph called Reduced-CDT, a new environment representation method based on the Constrained Delaunay Triangulation (CDT). Multi-Prim's is used to decompose the graph into a forest of partial spanning trees (PSTs). Each PST is then modified through a mechanism called Constrained Spanning Tour (CST) to build a cycle which is then assigned to an individual robot. Subsequently, robots start navigating the cycles and consequently cover the whole area. We show that the proposed approach is complete and robust with respect to robot failure.


Redocumentation and design recovery are two important areas of reverse engineering. Detection of recurring organizations of classes and communicating objects, called Software Patterns, supports this process. Many approaches to detect Software Patterns have been published in the past years. Most of these approaches need a pattern library as reference. Personal coding style and domain specific requirements lead to creating new patterns or adapting existing ones and make those approaches fail. The second problem is that the found patterns of those methods are presented without connection to the other patterns. To gain an overview of the whole system and its mechanisms, we propose to set the patterns in relation each other. Our work shows a method to detect Software Patterns using Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). The advantage of this approach is that no reference library is needed and the results are set in relation each other. FCA is a mathematical theory which detects the presence of groups of classes which instantiate a common, repeated pattern. Those found patterns are presented in a lattice, a partial order relation among the patterns, which allows us to explore the pattern which are in relation to them. We implemented a prototype tool ConAn PaDiwhich navigates with theFish Eye View technique over the patterns. For validation we applied this tool to three mid-sized Smalltalk applications.


Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia in mid- and late life. The 7-10% of the population over 65 and the 50-60% of the population over 85 are affected by this disease. In spite of its prevalence, the pathogenesis of the disease is not well defined and there is no effective neuroprotective therapeutic agent. Three predominant neuropathologic features of the brain in Alzheimer disease are: the intracellular neurofibrillary tangles consisting mainly of the hyperphosphorylated protein τ; the extracellular amyloid deposits (neuritic plaques) consisting of amyloid β peptide; and the extensive neuronal cell loss in the hippocampus and in portions of the cerebral cortex. The possible reason of the extensive neuronal cell loss can be the mitochondrial dysfunction observed in Alzheimer's disease. Beyond the uncertain pathogenesis, the causality of these characteristic neuropathologic phenomena are still unknown. In this study we present two hypotheses, one of the amyloid cascade and one of the mitochondrial cascade. We give an overview of these two hypotheses and discuss their correlations.


The governance of knowledge seems to be the Scientific Policy most able to creating value with regard of human and its evolution in cultures and civilizations. The duty of good governance is a consideration of the transfer of knowledge related to scientific and technological progress. Intrinsically, this process requires a system of knowledge organization and its management by implementing knowledge production and its influence in society. In the present case, rely across all paradigms, know-how and specific knowledge to scientific disciplines and especially those in Humanities and Social Sciences, allows finding a dynamic of Knowledge Organization for dissemination, sharing and enhancement of knowledge. This new transdisciplinary orientation allows including concepts, tools and singular perspectives in the digital field and information technology. With this new focus on the Knowledge Organization from the perspective of "Digital Humanities", the objective of the ISKO-Maghreb Chapter is to contribute in understanding the factors that organize knowledge and phenomena that affect the information society. Actions to be undertaken by the ISKO society must take into account socio-cultural, cognitive and economic in the strategic management of knowledge. Towards the knowledge society in line with the Digital Humanities, it should be seen in its dynamic, its content and its interaction with science, technology and transdisciplinary associated to universities, companies and politics. In this new context "Digital Humanities" related to aspects of the "Knowledge Organization" and modalities of its management", a first orientation is pedagogical trying to answer the question "What is known about the knowledge and its organization in the context of Digital Humanities? ". Then the question is evolving towards societal issues of knowledge, researches and applications, to provide clarifications towards the convergence of approaches and practices for the common use of digital platforms. Education, science, culture, communication and technology remain the major themes covered by ISKO Maghreb, for the development of the knowledge organization, collective intelligence and the perspective of the Digital Humanities. In a friendly atmosphere, hospitality and open to exchange, the international symposium ISKO-Maghreb was thought to enhance the Scientific Society "ISKO" with the universities, the practitioners in the Maghreb countries and the world. The international Symposium ISKO-Maghreb is organized in its sixth (6th.) edition in Morocco (Al-Hoceima) in May 11 – 13, 2017, after the five successful editions. This edition is organized by ENSAH (National School of Applied Sciences of Al Hoceima) - Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, FSTH (Faculty of sciences - Al-Hoceima), and sponsored by the Universities of Maghreb and Europe countries.


Timed Transition Models (TTMs) are event-based descriptions for modelling, specifying, and verifying discrete real-time systems. An event can be spontaneous, fair, or timed with specified bounds. TTMs have a textual syntax, an operational semantics, and an automated tool supporting linear-time temporal logic. We extend TTMs and its tool with two novel modelling features for writing high-level specifications: indexed events and synchronous events. Indexed events allow for concise description of behaviour common to a set of actors. The indexing construct allows us to select a specific actor and to specify a temporal property for that actor. We use indexed events to validate the requirements of a train control system. Synchronous events allow developers to decompose simultaneous state updates into actions of separate events. To specify the intended data flow among synchronized actions, we use primed variables to reference the post-state (i.e., one resulted from taking the synchronized actions). The TTM tool automatically infers the data flow from synchronous events, and reports errors on inconsistencies due to circular data flow. We use synchronous events to validate part of the requirements of a nuclear shutdown system. In both case studies, we show how the new notation facilitates the formal validation of system requirements, and use the TTM tool to verify safety, liveness, and real-time properties.


Geographic information system (GIS) is being increasingly used for decision making, planning and agricultural environment management because of its analytical capacity. GIS and remote sensing have been combined with environmental models for many agricultural applications on monitoring of soils, agricultural water quality, microbial activity, vegetation and aquatic insect distribution. This paper introduce principles, vegetation indices, spatial data structure, spatial analysis of GIS and remote sensing in agricultural applications including terrain analysis, soil erosion, and runoff potential. National Academy of Agricultural Science (NAAS), Rural Development Administration (RDA) has a spatial database of agricultural soils, surface and underground water, weeds, aquatic insect, and climate data, and established a web-GIS system providing spatial and temporal variability of agricultural environment information since 2007. GIS-based interactive mapping system would encourage researchers and students to widely utilize spatial information on their studies with regard to agricultural and environmental problem solving combined with other national GIS database. GIS and remote sensing will play an important role to support and make decisions from a national level of conservation and protection to a farm level of management practice in the near future.


Rational solutions of nonlinear evolution equations are considered in the literature as a mathematical image of rogue waves, which are anomalously large waves that occur for a short time. In this work, bounded rational solutions of Gardner-type equations (the extended Korteweg-de Vries equation), when a nonlinear term can be represented as a sum of several terms with arbitrary powers (not necessarily integer ones), are found. It is shown that such solutions describe first-order algebraic solitons, kinks, and pyramidal and table-top solitons. Analytical solutions are obtained for the Gardner equation with two nonlinear terms, the powers of which differ by a factor of 2. In other cases, the solutions are obtained numerically. Gardner-type equations occur in the description of nonlinear wave dynamics in a fluid layer with continuous or multilayer stratification, as well as in multicomponent plasma, and their solutions are used for the interpretation of rogue waves.


Czechoslovak legislation efficiently abolished the old privileges of the nobility in the interwar period. The abolishment pertained not only to the personal privileges but also to the marital property. It was a consequence of the abolition of the nobility as well as of the noble ranks and decorations in accordance with the 1924 act. The fee tail was among the repealed private law institutions which were connected with the privileged status of the nobility. It is common knowledge that the fee tail was one of the special forms of securing the property of the nobility which was accomplished through complexinheritance law. Its abolition was supposed to be connected with the political and social program of the Czechoslovak government. The aim of the changes was to implement a new and fairer division of land ownership. The following study aims its attention in the direction of the genesis of the fee tail on the lands of the former Kingdom of Hungary and its evolution in the Czechoslovak Republic. The present deliberations are based on the rich legal literature on the subject. Furthermore, the aim was to present the legal institution which occupied a central position in the system of property law, inheritance law and family law.


With rates of climate change exceeding the rate at which many species are able to shift their range or adapt, it is important to understand how future changes are likely to affect biodiversity at all levels of organisation. Understanding past responses and extent of niche conservatism in climatic tolerance can help predict future consequences. We use an integrated approach to determine the genetic consequences of past and future climate changes on a bat species, Plecotus austriacus. Glacial refugia predicted by palaeo-modelling match those identified from analyses of extant genetic diversity and model-based inference of demographic history. Former refugial populations currently contain disproportionately high genetic diversity, but niche conservatism, shifts in suitable areas and barriers to migration mean that these hotspots of genetic diversity are under threat from future climate change. Evidence of population decline despite recent northward migration highlights the need to conserve leading-edge populations for spearheading future range shifts.


The chick is a well‐understood developmental model of cerebellar pattern formation,but we know much less about the patterning of the adult chicken cerebellum. Therefore an expression study of two Purkinje cell stripe antigens—zebrin II/aldolase C and phospholipase Cβ4 (PLCβ4)—has been carried out in the adult chicken (Gallus domesticus). The mammalian cerebellar cortex is built around transverse expression domains ("transverse zones"), each of which is further subdivided into parasagittally oriented stripes. The results from the adult chicken reveal a similar pattern. Five distinct transverse domains were identified. In the anterior lobe a uniformly zebrin II‐immunopositive/PLCβ4‐immunonegative lingular zone (LZ; lobule I) and a striped anterior zone (AZ; lobules II–VIa) were distinguished. A central zone (CZ; ∼lobules VIa–VIIIa,b) and a posterior zone (PZ; ∼lobules VIIIa,b–IXc,d) were distinguished in the posterior lobe. Finally, the nodular zone (NZ; lobule X) is uniformly zebrin II‐immunoreactive and is innervated by vestibular mossy fibers. Lobule IXc,d is considered as a transitional region between the PZ and the NZ, because the vestibular mossy fiber projection extends into these lobules and because they receive optokinetic mossy and climbing fiber input. It is proposed that the zebrin II‐immunonegative P3‐ stripe corresponds to the lateral vermal B zone of the mammalian cerebellum and that the border between the avian homologs of the mammalian vermis and hemispheres is located immediately lateral to P3−. Thus, there seem to be transverse zones in chicken that are plausible homologs of those identified in mammals, together with an LZ that is characteristic of birds. J. Comp. Neurol. 518:2221–2239, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Aims: This review will focus on the rates, clinical characteristics, risk factors and methods of self-harm and suicide in different ethnic groups in the United Kingdom, providing an update synthesis of recent literature. Methods: Studies that met the inclusion criteria between 2003 and 2013 were reviewed using the following databases: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE and CINAHL. The methodological quality of each study was then assessed using a structured scoring system. Results: A total of 2,362 articles were retrieved, 10 of which matched the inclusion criteria were reviewed. Significant differences were found in the rates of self-harm between ethnic groups with Asian males being least likely to self-harm and Black females being most likely to self-harm. Also, Black and South Asian people were less likely to repeat self-harm. Factors that may help protect or predispose individuals to self-harm or attempt suicide (such as religion, mental health and coping styles) also differ between ethnic groups. Conclusions: There are clear ethnic differences in self-harm and suicide, which may be affected by factors such as cultural pressures and prevalence of mental illness. An awareness of these differences is vital to help prevent further attempts of self-harm and suicide. Further research into differences between ethnic and cultural groups and self-harm continues to be important.


Homo- and heterophilic binding mediated by the immunoglobulin (Ig)-like repeats of cell adhesion molecules play a pivotal role in cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. L1CAM is crucial to neuronal differentiation, in both mature and developing nervous systems, and several studies suggest that its functional interactions are mainly mediated by Ig2–Ig2 binding. X-linked mutations in the human L1CAM gene are summarized as L1 diseases, including the most diagnosed CRASH neurodevelopmental syndrome. In silico simulations provided a molecular rationale for CRASH phenotypes resulting from mutations I179S and R184Q in the homophilic binding region of Ig2. A synthetic peptide reproducing such region could both mimic the neuritogenic capacity of L1CAM and rescue neuritogenesis in a cellular model of the CRASH syndrome, where the full L1CAM ectodomain proved ineffective. Presented functional evidence opens the route to the use of L1CAM-derived peptides as biotechnological and therapeutic tools.


The effect of the actuation frequency on the manipulation of the global aerodynamic forces on lifting surfaces using surface-mounted fluidic actuators based on synthetic (zero mass flux) jet technology is demonstrated in wind-tunnel experiments. The effect of the actuation is investigated at two ranges of (dimensionless) jet formation frequencies of the order of, or well above, the natural shedding frequency. The vortical structures within the separated flow region vary substantially when the dimensionless actuation frequency F + is varied between O(1) and O(10). When F + is O(1), the reattachment is characterized by the formation of large vortical structures at the driving frequency that persist well beyond the trailing edge of the airfoil. The formation and shedding of these vortices leads to unsteady attachment and, consequently, to a time-periodic variation in vorticity flux and in circulation. Actuation at F + of O(10) leads to a complete flow reattachment that is marked by the absence of organized vortical structures along the flow surface


Understanding the relation between underlying matter distribution and biased tracers such as galaxies or dark matter halos is essential to extract cosmological information from ongoing or future galaxy redshift surveys. At sufficiently large scales such as the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale, a standard approach for the bias problem on the basis of the perturbation theory (PT) is to assume the " local bias " model in which the density field of biased tracers is deterministically expanded in terms of matter density field at the same position. The higher-order bias parameters are then determined by combining the power spectrum with higher-order statistics such as the bispectrum. As is pointed out by recent studies, however, nonlinear gravitational evolution naturally induces nonlocal bias terms even if initially starting only with purely local bias. As a matter of fact, previous works showed that the second-order nonlocal bias term, which corresponds to the gravitational tidal field, is important to explain the characteristic scale-dependence of the bispectrum. In this paper we extend the nonlocal bias term up to third order, and investigate whether the PT-based model including nonlocal bias terms can simultaneously explain the power spectrum and the bispectrum of simulated halos in N -body simulations. The bias renormalization procedure ensures that only one additional term is necessary to be introduced to the power spectrum as a next-to-leading order correction, even if third-order nonlocal bias terms are taken into account. We show that the power spectrum, including density and momentum, and the bispectrum between halo and matter in N -body simulations can be simultaneously well explained by the model including up to third-order nonlocal bias terms at k ≲ 0 . 1 h= Mpc. Also, the results are in a good agreement with theoretical predictions of a simple coevolution picture, although the agreement is not perfect. These trend can be found for a wide range of halo mass, 0 . 7 ≲ M halo ½ 10 13 M ⊙ =h (cid:2) ≲ 20 at various redshifts, 0 ≤ z ≤ 1 . These demonstrations clearly show a failure of the local bias model even at such large scales, and we conclude that nonlocal bias terms should be consistently included in order to accurately model statistics of halos.


The precise control architectures of Cu2O crystals are very crucial, which have a significant influence on their various performances. Herein, Cu2O crystals with diverse architectures were achieved via finely adjusting the concentration of NaOH. The intriguing results showed that the addition of specific amounts of OH− to the solution was crucial to tailor the morphology and size of the resulting microcrystals. We observed the evolution of the shapes of the Cu2O microcrystals, which change from a rhombic dodecahedron to spherical, octahedral-like and then to hexapod upon the increase in the NaOH concentration. Adjusting the volume of NaOH added provides a means to vary the particle size. Furthermore, density functional theory (DFT) may reveal that OH− ions serve as an efficient coordination agent selectively adsorbing onto different crystal faces of Cu2O crystals modifying the crystal energies, inducing the structure anisotropy on crystal growth. This work reveals that an effective and facile strategy has been developed for morphology-control of Cu2O crystals.


This paper deals with the design and implementation of a Grafcet editor and simulator, allowing to generate a directly executable program on an Arduino board from a Grafcet. This work is intended to be a solution to help carrying out automation laboratory exercises; and, more generally, to offer a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) development environment allowing to obtain low-cost PCLs based on Arduino modules, from the Grafcet formalism. Arduino boards are one of the most accessible and easy-to-use microcontroller boards and Grafcet is a well-known and essential model in the world of automated systems. All these reasons motivated the choice of these technologies. Finally, to achieve the set objectives, we started from a free Grafcet editor JGrafchart, developed in Java and that we adapted by including, amongst other things, the code generator for Arduino.


This paper explores episodes of provocative online articulations and the accompanying angry public reactions as part of the cultural politics of juvenile online resistance in contemporary Singapore. Rather than viewing such delinquency as 'youth deficits', this paper seeks a literary-culturalist standpoint in exploring the uninhibited audacity of these public online displays. We perceive such performances as reflecting the critical and socially unrestrained emotional subjectivities of 'youth mirroring deficits' of the 'Emperor's new clothes'. The authors propose to appropriate the colloquial Singaporean Chinese Hokkien term of Si Geena (brat), a label commonly used to describe these offending personalities, to frame the dynamics of youth resistance, and new media in Singapore. Si Geena are often un-social digital juvenile provocateurs baiting moral outrage and public indignation. In turn, societal responses to the Si Geena's episodic resistance reveal the contradictions, insecurities, and volatility of Singapore's reactive public.


Despite the existence of many algorithms for automated diagnosis of melanoma and other skin cancers, these remain almost inaccessible to public health service. A small number of publications on the efficacy of existing artificial intelligence systems marks the problems of their implementation into current examination routines in dermatology and oncology. New algorithms and software solutions as well as studies demonstrating their diagnostic accuracy on compatible and verifiable clinical material are still in demand.


1992 Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) target drugs to the lysosomes of antigen-positive cells. To exert their biological activity, these drugs must be cleaved from the antibody and then reach their cellular targets. We have used protease-sensitive linkers and non-cleavable linkers to tether the potent antimitotic agents monomethylauristatin E and F to reduced disulfides of the anti-CD30 monoclonal antibody cAC10. These ADCs are active against a wide variety of CD30 positive cell lines in vitro and in vivo. cAC10- maleimidocaproyl-valine-citrulline-p-aminobenzyloxycarbamyl-MMAE employs a protease-sensitive, self-immolative spacer that was designed to release MMAE. In cells, we find that MMAE is indeed released and that it is the exclusive cellular metabolite. In contrast, cAC10-maleimidocaproyl-MMAF has no obvious drug release mechanism but has potent cytotoxic activity. We have found that a prominent cellular metabolite is the cysteine adduct of maleimidocaproyl-MMAF. While cysteine-maleimidocaproyl-MMAF is weakly potent as a free drug, likely due to poor cellular uptake, specific intracellular delivery demonstrated that cysteine-maleimidocaproyl-MMAF is a potent intracellular metabolite, showing the value of antibody-targeted delivery. The source of the cysteine appears to be from the antibody following lysosomal proteolysis rather than from free intracellular cysteine. Additional non-cleavable drug-linkers attached through lysines and cysteines similarly released drugs in the form of lysine-linker-drug and cysteine-linker-drug, respectively. Despite the requirement for antibody degradation in the lysosome to release drug, we find this to be a rapid and efficient process. The amount of cellular ADC metabolism is not completely accounted for by cysteine-maleimidocaproyl-MMAF, and the balance might be from larger cysteine-containing antibody peptides linked to maleimidocaproyl-MMAF. These results demonstrate that a variety of cleavable and non-cleavable linkage systems can be used to build auristatin ADCs, and that upon internalization these ADCs are rapidly metabolized to discrete, high-potency cytotoxic agents.


We present an objective audio quality measurement scheme by using semi-fragile digital audio watermarking. The scheme is based on the digital wavelet transform (DWT) and quantization. The original audio signal is not needed. The watermark is a PN-sequence generated from a secret key. We also discuss the optimization of the quantization step for different audio signals by employing an adaptive control method.


Determining the network of physical protein associations is an important first step in developing mechanistic evidence for elucidating biological pathways. Despite rapid advances in the field of high throughput experiments to determine protein interactions, the majority of associations remain unknown. Here we describe computational methods for significantly expanding protein association networks. We describe methods for integrating multiple independent sources of evidence to obtain higher quality predictions and we compare the major publicly available resources available for experimentalists to use.


Green house gas (GHG) emissions have been tied to global climate change. One popular policy instrument that seems to have gained credibility with explicit mention of its application in the Kyoto Protocol is the use of permit trading and cap-and-trade mechanisms. Organizations functioning within this environment will need to manage their resources appropriately to remain competitive. Organizations will either have the opportunity to purchase emissions credits (offsets) from a market trading scheme or seek to reduce their emissions through different measures. Some measures may include investment in new technologies that will reduce their reliance on GHG emitting practices. In many countries, large organizations and institutions generate their own power to operate their facilities. Much of this power is generated (or bought) from GHG producing technology. Specific renewable energy sources such as wind and solar photovoltaic technology may become more feasible alternatives available to a large percentage of these organizations if they are able to take advantage and incorporate the market for GHG emissions trading in their analyses. To help organizations evaluate investment in these renewable energy technologies we introduce a real options based model that will take into consideration uncertainties associated with the technology and those associated with the GHG trading market. The real options analysis will consider both the stochastic (uncertainty) nature of the exercise price of the technology and the stochastic nature of the market trading price of the GHG emissions.


Importance
The association between psoriasis and risk of cancer remains debatable.

Objective
To evaluate the association and risk of cancer in patients with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, including risk of specific cancer subtypes.

Data Sources
Two databases (PubMed and Embase) were screened from inception to January 1, 2019, using the search string psoriasis or psoriatic and neoplasms or malignancy or cancer. The search was filtered to only include human participants and publications in English.

Study Selection
Observational cohort studies with a population of patients with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis were included. Studies had to be original and report the incidence or prevalence of cancer within this population. Studies evaluating pediatric populations and cancer types not included in the protocol were excluded.

Data Extraction and Synthesis
This study was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The search string, objectives, and study protocol methods were defined before the study was initiated. A total of 365 studies were included for full-text assessment. Owing to the heterogeneity of the included studies, a random-effects model was used.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Main outcome was cancer (overall and specific subtypes) and measures were prevalence, incidence, and risk estimate for cancer in patients with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis.

Results
Of the 365 studies assessed, 112 were included in the analysis (N = 2 053 932 patients). The overall prevalence of cancer in patients with psoriasis was 4.78% (95% CI, 4.02%-5.59%), with an incidence rate of 11.75 per 1000 person-years (95% CI, 8.66-15.31) and a risk ratio (RR) of 1.21 (95% CI, 1.11-1.33). There was an increased risk of several cancers, including keratinocyte cancer (RR, 2.28; 95% CI, 1.73-3.01), lymphomas (RR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.37-1.78), lung cancer (RR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.13-1.40), and bladder cancer (RR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.04-1.19). No increased risk of cancer for patients with psoriasis treated with biologic agents was found (RR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.85-1.10). Psoriatic arthritis was not associated with increased risk of cancer overall (RR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.97-1.08).

Conclusions and Relevance
Patients with psoriasis appear to have a slightly increased risk of cancer, particularly keratinocyte cancer and lymphomas. Data on treatment with biologic agents did not show an increased risk of cancer. Data on cancer in patients with psoriatic arthritis remain scarce, and further research is warranted in this area.


Treatment of chronic diseases, such as heart failure, requires complex protocols based on early diagnosis; self-monitoring of symptoms, vital signs and physical activity; regular medication intake; and education of patients and caregivers about relevant aspects of the disease. Smartphones and mobile health applications could be very helpful in improving the efficacy of such protocols, but several barriers make it difficult to fully exploit their technological potential and produce clear clinical evidence of their effectiveness. App suppliers do not help users distinguish between useless/dangerous apps and valid solutions. The latter are few and often characterised by rapid obsolescence, lack of interactivity and lack of authoritative information. Systematic reviews can help physicians and researchers find and assess the 'best candidate solutions' in a repeatable manner and pave the way for well-grounded and fruitful discussion on their clinical effectiveness. To this purpose, the authors assess 10 apps for heart failure self-care using the Intercontinental Marketing Statistics score and other criteria, discuss the clinical effectiveness of existing solutions and identify barriers to their use in practice and drivers for change.


This paper proposes a movable robot that can be used to deliver documents or small parcels (>2.0kg) between employees of an unstructured indoor office environment. The study reviews literature on robot navigation, apply promising techniques and test their accuracy in an unstructured indoor laboratory environment. There are many technologies available in robot navigation. We have selected free and open source software and inexpensive sensors and materials to build a low cost but accurate robot. Our system comprised of three units: first one that process sensor data, second one which is the navigating robot having sensors and actuators, and third one controlling part of office assistant robot system. We have used Robotic Operating System (ROS) indigo as the ground operating system in the background of Ubuntu Operating System. The experiment was conducted to examine the capabilities of the setup and studied its behavior, mapping and localization specifically according to the user commands. An unstructured indoor environment was selected with five users located on the sides. We considered both dark (55 lux – 60 lux) and bright (15 lux – 20 lux) illumination conditions in the room. Then, we allowed the robot to navigate autonomously according to the user commands between five users and monitored its accuracy by looking at the completion of the route to a target user. Results show that the robot has about 98.4% of accuracy of achieving the goal location on average in both lighting conditions and 98% and 98.8% of accuracies for bright and dark conditions respectively. Finally, this office assistant robot system could be practically used in an office environment in both bright and dark lighting conditions.


The article presents an analysis of the results of the ascertaining stage of the pedagogical experiment "Designing a cloud-oriented methodological system of training teachers of natural and mathematical subjects to work in a scientific lyceum." An analysis of recent research and publications has shown that scholars have sufficiently considered the problem of reforming teacher training courses. A separate issue is revealed in Ukrainian research on the design of cloud-based systems, but the proposed systems relate exclusively to certain specialties, or are entirely scientific. Currently, there is no cloud-based system that would become a tool in the further preparation of teachers of science and mathematics to work in the scientific lyceum. The following were selected as experimental sites: Rivne Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education (2019, number of respondents - 45) and Zhytomyr Polytechnic State University (2020, number of respondents - 824). The current state of use of services by teachers of natural and mathematical subjects during the preparation of educational materials was clarified; the readiness of teachers to perform personally and teach students to conduct research work is analyzed and the state of awareness of teachers about the functions and requirements of scientific lyceums is determined. The analysis of the survey showed that most teachers recognize the need for a teacher of a scientific lyceum in scientific activities. Most respondents do not use English-language resources and services due to their low level of language proficiency. It has been found that one of the most important ways to get involved in science, according to math teachers, is to participate in scientific conferences. Regarding the implementation and use of the obtained research results, teachers plan to choose the following ways: publication of methodological materials and self-implementation. The analysis of the results of the survey of educators showed that among the respondents 574 people (69.7%) prefer to use information and communication technologies on a local computer. Analysis of the results of the ascertaining stage of the pedagogical experiment shows that there is a problem of preparing teachers of natural sciences and mathematics to work in the scientific lyceum, which needs further solution through preliminary testing and implementation of a specially created cloud-based methodological system


An accurate absorbing boundary condition (ABC) is presented for three-dimensional time-domain finite-element (FEM-TD) analysis of infinitely periodic structures. The proposed ABC serves to truncate the computational domain in the nonperiodic directions and it is highly effective to absorb both the fundamental and the higher order Floquet modes. The formulation is applicable both for scattering and radiation analysis. Validation results are presented that demonstrate the ability of the FEM-TD to obtain highly accurate results over a broad frequency band that includes frequencies where a higher order Floquet mode is propagating (nonevanescent)


ABSTRACT Agricultural statistics are a fundamental reference for evaluating damage caused by natural disasters, estimating food supply and demand, and framing policies. A statistical table is usually prepared by an administrative district. Unfortunately, the Heilongjiang Statistical Yearbook of China was not completely prepared by such a district. Therefore, remote sensing technology is necessary for estimating the total area of agricultural lands in each administrative district. The test area is the Heilongjiang Province in China. The Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data acquired during and immediately after the rice-planting season around 2000 (1999–2002) were used for the land-use/land-cover classification. All possible data during or immediately after the rice-planting season (from the beginning of June to the beginning of July) were selected so that paddy fields could be detected accurately. Borders of prefecture-level cities were generated using borders of cities and prefectures derived from the Digital Map Database of China 1:1,000,000 International Version. The TM/ETM+ data with bands 3, 4 and 5 (red, near infrared and middle infrared, respectively) were prepared for the land-use/land-cover classification. These data were classified by the unsupervised method Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Technique. Land-cover classes were identified and reclassified into 12 classes, i.e., submerged paddy fields, overgrown paddy fields, bare dry cropland, overgrown dry cropland, bare ground, grassland, woodland, wetland, water, built-up, shade and shadow, and clouds. Some scenes including clearly misclassified paddy fields were image-processed or reclassified to reduce misclassification. The accuracy of detecting paddy fields was estimated to be in the range of 86.2–94.6%. The area of paddy fields in Heilongjiang Province was estimated to be 19.4 × 103 km2 and overestimated by 17.7% for the Heilongjiang Statistical Yearbook.


In many post 9/11 classrooms in the United States, the rhetoric of freedom has been usurped by a rhetoric of patriotism, which questions any speech or activity that dissents from the dominant discourse of American military might/right. Such an opening took the form of focused discussions in three classes on the relationship of patriotism and dissent, and their (perceived) intersection with religion, political party, and public personas. The cultural context was a statewide controversy when Michael Moore was invited to speak at a nearby educational institution. Students were asked to discuss what made Michael Moore (un)patriotic—and how they defined patriotism or its opposite. As a follow-up to the discussions, students in other classes were asked to write about what made students and faculty appear patriotic or not. In this paper I map what it means to perform various positionalities/discourses of patriotism versus nationalism in the classroom for both students and faculty, particularly when intextuated with the body politics of academic and student freedoms as heroic quests. More personally, I describe my own struggle to create Giroux's "emancipative rationality," which seeks social justice, when a "reflective inquiry" approach is the safer path. When all performances and positionalities are equal and uncontested, "democracy" remains safe as the status quo in a post 9/11 world and classroom.


Cancer case management provides consecutive care during the entire process through diagnosis to treatment and follow-up. We established an integrative information system with integration of the health information system. This integrative information system shortened the time spent on case screening, follow-up data management, and monthly data summarization of case managers. It also promoted the case follow-up rate. This integrative information system may improve the quality and effectiveness for cancer case management, one important part of cancer nursing.


A new procedure for the immobilization of tumoral pancreatic islet cells to a two-dimensional microsupport is presented. Tumoral islet cells of the RINm5F line (0.7x10(6) cells/ml) were immobilized to two-dimensional microcarriers (16.6 cm2/ml). Within 24 h of culture, and as judged from the number of cells, their protein or insulin content, less than 10% of the cells escaped immobilization. The metabolic response of the immobilized cells to D-glucose was well preserved, the paired ratio between D-[U-14C] glucose oxidation and D-[5-3H]glucose utilization being even significantly higher in immobilized than free cells. The advantages of this novel approach in the perspective of islet cell transplantation are underlined.


Two separate 12-week feeding trials were conducted to investigate the leucine requirement for maintenance and its utilization efficiency for growth of fingerlings of Oreochromis niloticus. In the first experiment, six diets (35% CP; 13.71 kJ g-1 DE) containing graded levels of leucine (0.71, 0.95, 1.26, 1.49, 1.72 and 1.95% dry diet) were fed to the fish (3.74±0.11 cm, 0.65±0.05 g) near to satiation to determine its leucine requirement. Highest performance in terms of absolute weight gain (AWG, 5.83 g fish-1), protein gain (PG, 1.02 g fish-1), leucine gain (LG, 82.19 mg fish-1), RNA/DNA ratio (4.74) and best feed conversion ratio (FCR, 1.51) were recorded at 1.49% dietary leucine. Quadratic analysis of AWG, PG, LG against varying levels of leucine indicated the requirement at 1.56, 1.61 and 1.57% dry diet, corresponding to 4.45, 4.60 and 4.48% dietary protein, respectively. In the second experiment, six experimental diets (35.0% CP; 13.8 kJg-1 DE) at 5, 25, 45, 65, 85 and 95% of optimum level of leucine determined in experiment I (1.58% dry diet) corresponding to 0.08, 0.39, 0.71, 1.03, 1.34 and 1.50 g of leucine 100g-1 of dry diet were given to the same sized fish under almost identical laboratory conditions to estimate the leucine maintenance requirement and its utilization efficiency which were calculated by solving the linear equations of protein gain and leucine gain data to leucine intake levels. The maintenance requirement based on protein gain and leucine gain calculated at Y = 0 amounted to 8.23 and 9.62 mg kg-1 BW 0.7day-1. Extrapolating the linear equations of protein gain and leucine gain to the Y intercept showed that zero leucine intake resulted in a net daily loss of 91.9 mg whole body protein and 5.65 mg whole body leucine kg-1 BW0.7. The maintenance need for leucine represented 6·07% of the total need for leucine. Slope of the leucine gain line showed that the efficiency of leucine utilization above the maintenance level is 58.7%.


Collisions between 1.05 MeV/amu Arq+ (q = 14, 10, 8 and 4) ions and CH4 molecules have been investigated using final charge-selected projectile-recoil ion time-of-flight technique. It is found that, in the overall ionization of target CH4 molecules, pure ionization processes without any change of the projectile charge is by far dominant over any other processes involving electron capture or loss of projectiles. Electron loss or capture processes of projectiles, though weak relative to pure ionization, are found to result in enhancement of the production of multiply charged atomic carbon ions. Another feature, probably not observed earlier, is the fact that in some electron loss and capture processes multiply charged carbon ions become more dominant than any other molecular ions, suggesting that such violent collisions result in nearly complete dissociation of the molecular ions.


ABSTRACT This research was motivated by a desire to help office workers change their sedentary behavior because a prolonged sedentary posture increases the risks of developing musculoskeletal injuries and chronic diseases, thus threatening their physical and psychological well-being. Regular breaks involving low-effort physical activities are effective in reducing the adverse impacts of inactive behaviors. In this article, we present the design of a posture-based interactive system called HealthSit, which was developed to promote a short lower-back stretching exercise during work breaks. Through a within-subject study involving 30 office workers, the effectiveness of HealthSit in facilitating the stretching exercise was examined by making comparisons between an interaction-aided, a guided, and a self-directed exercise mode. We also used HealthSit as a research probe to investigate the interactivity of the system in enhancing user experience and the psychological benefits of the fitness breaks. Compared with the other two modes, the interaction-aided exercise mode significantly improved the quality of the stretching exercise and enhanced motivation and emotional state. These results confirm the effectiveness of HealthSit in supporting fitness breaks as a new workplace technology. Based on our study, a set of design implications have been derived for technology-assisted fitness work breaks.


INTRODUCTION
The need for each chiropractic student to pass the National Chiropractic Board of Examiners (NCBE) exams is of great importance in their educational process. To date, no literature has evaluated the effectiveness of any outcome in predicting the success or failure on the NCBE exams. The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) was developed to assess students' learning and studying strategies. In this study, the LASSI and NCBE Part 1 scores and entering and cumulative grade point averages (GPAs) were used to assess any correlations related to NCBE scores.

METHODS
The LASSI was administered to a group of trimester-6 students at Texas Chiropractic College after their completion of Part 1 of NCBE exams. The scores were analyzed by computer and appropriate statistical procedures were performed.

RESULTS
Moderately high correlations were found with NCBE scores and each component of the LASSI. There were also moderately high correlations found with the NCBE scores and cumulative GPAs. Low correlations were found with NCBE scores and entering GPAs.

CONCLUSIONS
Because of the high correlation of NCBE scores and the LASSI scores, it is recommended that this test be introduced to first-trimester students and that follow-up correlations be performed with NCBE scores, GPAs and LASSI scores. An elective course for students that perform poorly on LASSI could be developed to aid students weak in study skills and strategies. The need for further studies includes the evaluation of students put through the LASSI and preparation course as it relates to their NCBE scores.


Compression of the fetal thorax by the uterine wall is one of the theories proposed to explain the mechanism of lung hypoplasia in association with oligohydramnios. However, the reduction in the intrathoracic space and the evidence of compression on the fetal thorax have not been demonstrated in detail. Therefore an experimental study was planned to determine the effects of oligohydramnios on available intrathoracic space and lung volume in the rabbit fetus. Amniotic fluid was shunted into the peritoneal cavity between 23 and 31 days of gestation. Intrathoracic space and lung volumes (TV and LV), and lung and body weight (LW and BW) values were measured in our study and control fetuses at term. Lung weight/body weight, lung volume/thorax volume, thorax volume/body weight ratios were calculated and the values of the fetuses with shunting and controls were compared. The difference between TV/BW ratios was not significant. LW/BW and LV/TV ratios were significantly reduced in experimental fetuses compared to the controls. Chronic drainage of amniotic fluid into the peritoneal cavity resulted in reduced LW/BW and LV/TV ratio, but did not effect TV/BW ratio. The low LV/TV ratio in the fetuses with shunting despite similar TV/BW ratio suggested that the diaphragm had been elevated. This is also an explanation for the observation of reduced chest circumference and chest circumference/abdominal circumference ratio in prolonged premature rupture of the membranes in vivo. The developing fetal lungs would undergo not only transthoracic but also trans-abdomino-diaphragmatic compression. However, it is unlikely in the tubular shaped rabbit uterus. In oligohydramnios amniotic fluid dynamics or physical characteristics with its contents should be disturbed. A previous experimental study with herniation of the amniotic sac causing lung hypoplasia through reduced intraamniotic pressure without oligohydramnios also questioned the role of fetal compression. Although fetal lung development was significantly impaired, the thoracic cage was not affected by amniono-peritoneal shunting. Therefore, we suggest that lung hypoplasia resulted from another mechanism rather than thoracic compression.


Seasonal flu is potentially more severe during pregnancy especially when it occurs in the last three months. Pregnant women were shown to be especially exposed to severe forms of the flu and death in the first weeks of the pandemic influenza A/H1N1v. For the first time in history, adequate vaccines were available in the early phase of the pandemic and recommended by WHO as a priority for pregnant women. In France, vaccination with the non-adjuvanted vaccine (Panenza ® ) was recommended after three months of pregnancy. However, the pandemic vaccines were discredited by the mass media and the population even before they were available. This was due to several factors, and especially to the lack of information on the vaccine and its potential toxicity and, in case of pregnancy, potential risk of adverse fetal events, despite the fact that available data shows the seasonal flu vaccine is effective and well tolerated in pregnant women. This article aimed to provide decisional elements for influenza A/H1N1v vaccination in pregnant women. © 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.


Recent years have seen increased discussion of the role of Market Information Systems (MIS) and Value Chains (VC) in economic development, especially in developing countries. This research attempts to identify how many farmers in Trinidad have used the Trinidad and Tobago National Agricultural Market Information System (NAMIS) and what are some of the key differences between users and non-users of NAMIS from a farmers' perspective. Using data collected from a survey conducted in 2010, the following criteria were used to develop and test several hypotheses to identify those factors that contribute to use or non-use of NAMIS – size of farm, decision making responsibility, educational level, gender and age. Recently, several other CARICOM countries have expressed an interest in adopting NAMIS or versions of it for use in their countries. It is hoped that by identifying some of the differences between users and non-users of NAMIS, better MIS can be developed in the region and a stronger link can be made between MIS and Value Chain Development (VCD) to help Caribbean farmers participate in high value agri-food value chains and make the transition to market oriented agriculture.


During the 1980s, university-based intellectuals came under heavy fire from both radicals and conservatives. They were accused by the former of betraying their public duty as general critics of society, and by the latter of promulgating radical ideologies and corrupting the young. In this work, the author counters both left and right, arguing that the professionalization of literary study was inevitable and fortuitous. Robbins undertakes close studies of such figures as Edward Said, Fredric Jameson and Raymond Williams, while considering the major trends in contemporary cultural studies and giving significant attention to relevant developments in such disciplines as ethnology and sociology. "Secular Vocations" ranges over materials from Britain, France and the US, knitting them together in a synthesis that places, in bold relief, many of the major controversies in contemporary intellectual life. It concludes with a plea for what Robbins calls "comparative cosmopolitanism" to displace the more militantly particularist projects that have come to dominate the human sciences.


We generalize Aztec diamond theorem (N. Elkies, G. Kuperberg, M. Larsen, and J. Propp, Alternating-sign matrices and domino tilings, Journal Algebraic Combinatoric, 1992) by showing that the numbers of tilings of a certain family of regions in the square lattice with southwest-to-northeast diagonals drawn in are given by powers of 2. We present a proof for the generalization by using a bijection between domino tilings and non-intersecting lattice paths.


L- Carnosine (beta-alanyl L-histidine), occurring abundantly in skeletal muscles, has been suggested to possess antioxidant and anti-aging properties. Using three different experimental approaches (microscopic, flow cytometric and ELISA for one of the markers of DNA oxidative damage) this study on rat embryonic fibroblasts demonstrates that L-carnosine at 30 mM concentration sustains the retention of cell morphology even during a nutritional insult for five weeks. Also, L-carnosine significantly reduces the formation of 8-hydroxy deoxyguanosine (8-OH dG) in the cells after four weeks of continuous culture. Thus it could be inferred that the anti-senescent effect of L-carnosine is probably linked to its inhibition of formation of intracellular 8-OH dG during oxidative stress.


The adhesive energies and forces between surfaces of identical simple metals (Al, Mg and Na) modelled by a semi-infinite stabilized jellium have been calculated self-consistently as functions of their separation. The calculated binding energies agree well with the experimental surface energies and a good agreement is found between the maximum adhesive forces and the empirical fracture strength.


In this work, we report the first exploration of cathodic photoelectrochemistry for the determination of the activity of DNA adenine methylation (Dam) methyltransferase (MTase). In this sensing system, potassium ferricyanide (K3[Fe(CN)6]) can greatly stimulate the photocurrent of a CdS quantum dot (QD) sensitized NiO (NiO/CdS) photocathode. After immobilization of the hairpin DNA probe on the electrode surface, its high steric hindrance and the electrostatic repulsion block the access of K3[Fe(CN)6] to the electrode surface, leading to depressed photocurrent of the photocathode. Once the hairpin DNA probe is methylated by Dam MTase, it can be recognized and cleaved by Dpn I, and then further digested by (Exo I), ultimately leading to the removal of the hairpin DNA probe from the electrode surface. This configurational change induces the decrement of steric hindrance/electrostatic repulsion effects and allows the efficient flux of K3[Fe(CN)6] to the photoelectrode for photocurrent stimulation. The cathodic PEC assay is presented in the "turn-on" mode, which can detect Dam MTase in the linear range from 0.04 to 100 U mL-1, with a detection limit as low as 0.028 U mL-1. In principle, the platform presents a promising method for probing various biomolecules that can lead to configuration or charge variations at the electrode surface, which may become a general strategy for versatile targets.


In this paper we consider a transmission system based on MC-CDMA, where signal spreading is performed entirely in the frequency domain. An extended space-time coding technique, the Double Alamouti, is evaluated considering a MIMO channel. This assessment is made against standard Alamouti coding, for two different Tx/Rx antenna schemes (2×1 and 2×2). Numerical results, attained through system model simulations, are presented for performance evaluation under realistic scenarios considering some typical system impairments. These results show that in practical systems significant improvements can be achieved by using the Double Alamouti coding scheme.


Abstract The turbulent bottom boundary layer for rotating, stratified flow along a slope is explored through theory and numerical simulation. The model flow begins with a uniform current along constant-depth contours and with flat isopycnals intersecting the slope. The boundary layer is then allowed to evolve in time and in distance from the boundary. Ekman transport up or down the slope advects the initial density gradient, eventually giving rise to substantial buoyancy forces. The rearranged density structure opposes the cross-slope flow, causing the transport to decay exponentially from its initial value (given by Ekman theory) to near zero, over a time scale proportional to f/(Nα)2, where f is the Coriolis frequency, N is the buoyancy frequency, and α is the slope angle. The boundary stress slowing the along-slope flow decreases simultaneously, leading to a very "slippery" bottom boundary compared with that predicted by Ekman theory.


A neural key exchange is a secret key exchange technique based on neural synchronization of the neural network. Since the neural key exchange is based on synchronizing weights within the neural network structure, the security of the algorithm does not depend on the attacker's computational capabilities. However, due to the neural key exchange's repetitive mutual-learning processes, using explicit user authentication methods –such as a public key certificate– is inefficient due to high communication overhead. Implicit authentication based on information that only authorized users know can significantly reduce overhead in communications. However, there was a lack of realistic methods to distribute secret information for authentication among authorized users. In this paper, we propose the concept idea of distributing shared secret values for implicit authentication based on the randomness of the public blockchain. Moreover, we present a method to prevent the unintentional disclosure of shared secret values to third parties in the network due to the transparency of the blockchain.


This paper reports on low-power and high-speed resistive switching of a Ti-doped NiO memory, which is based on the switching mechanism of the redox reactions in a filamentary conductive path. A small reset current of less than 100 muA was achieved by controlling the gate voltage of a cell transistor, which acts as an excellent current limiter in the set operation. A fast reset time of less than 5 ns was achieved by doping the Ti into the NiO film. Ti is thought to be effective to not only stabilize the reset process by forming an oxygen reservoir, but also to suppress the abnormal set phenomenon during the reset operation due to the formation of strong Ti-O bonds. Moreover, stable pulse switching with a large resistance change ratio has been successfully demonstrated using a unipolar voltage source of less than 3 V.


Perhaps the most fruitful dividend from research into the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in the past decade has been its establishment as a distinct disease entity. Though this knowledge is still not universally distributed throughout the medical profession, at least some of the veil of mystery and superstition has been lifted, and authoritative guidelines for the recognition and management of SIDS have been issued.
 Among the characteristics of SIDS, four deserve special emphasis, and serve as the basis for most of the research currently being conducted: (1) Most cases of SIDS occur between 4 and 16 weeks, suggesting some physiologic vulnerability during this age period.


Excerpt] Increasingly, today's organizations use computer technology to manage human resources (HR). Surveys confirm this trend (Richards-Carpenter, 1989; Grossman and Magnus, 1988; Human Resource Systems Professionals 1988; KPMGPeat Marwick, 1988). HR professionals and managers routinely have Personnel Computers (PCs) or computer terminals on their desks or in their departments. HR computer applications, once confined to payroll and benefit domains, now encompass incentive compensation, staffing, succession planning, and training. Five years ago, we had but a handful of PC-based software applications for HR management. Today, we find a burgeoning market of products spanning a broad spectrum of price, sophistication, and quality (Personnel Journal, 1990). Top universities now consider computer literacy a basic requirement for students of HR, and many consulting firms and universities offer classes designed to help seasoned HR professionals use computers in their work (Boudreau, 1990). Changes in computer technology offer expanding potential for HR management (Business Week, 1990; Laudon and Laudon, 1988).


An exploratory study of the Danonino brand in a cross-cultural perspective. Abstract Industrialisation of foods, the obesity pandemic and inadequate information available about food highlight the risks in modern food products. This explorative and qualitative paper creates a theoretical framework for understanding anxiety, food and advertising in the promotion of children's products and to explore how anxieties relating to children and food are dealt with in advertisements aimed at global markets. The analysis is based on a collection of 175 advertisements for the Danonino brand between 2001 and 2007 broadcast in six European countries. Results show that anxieties are at play in various ways in the «mother-child» relationship with regard to food, and that anxiety is enacted differently according to specific cultural backgrounds.


Although pregabalin has been shown to have preclinical and clinical efficacy in neuropathic pain, the mechanism of its antinociceptive action is still unknown in other pain states. This study aimed to evaluate the antinociceptive effect of pregabalin and its underlying spinal mechanisms related to mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in neuron and microglia following intraplantar injection of zymosan model. Zymosan evoked thermal hyperalgesia, mechanical hyperalgesia, and mechanical allodynia starting from 1 h and persistent until 5 h post-injection, which were dose-dependently reversed by oral pretreatment of pregabalin (3, 10, and 30 mg/kg). Pregabalin dramatically inhibited zymosan-induced Fos expression (a marker for neuronal activation) and microglia activation (using markers CD11b and ED1) in the spinal dorsal horn. Moreover, zymosan significantly increased phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) 1/2 (double labeling with neuron), ERK5 (double labelling with neuron and microglia) and p38 MAPK (double labeling with microglia) in the spinal dorsal horn, which overall elevations were reversed by pregabalin. These findings suggest that blockage of MAPKs activation in neuron and microglia might be closely related to the antinociceptive effect of pregabalin on zymosan-induced peripheral inflammatory pain.


Acute acetaminophen intoxication was studied in the dog to characterize pathogenesis and in the mouse as a model for antidotal research. In the dog, overt toxicity was manifested principally by cyanosis, facial and paw edema, gastrointestinal disturbance, and coma. Typical laboratory findings were methemoglobinemia, hemoconcentration, leukocytosis, and hepatic centrolobular necrosis. In the mouse, physical signs of acetaminophen overdose appeared to be central in origin; sequelae included anemia, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and hepatic centrolobular necrosis. The antidotal profile of acetylcysteine in mice was characterized. When acetylcysteine therapy was instituted early (one hour after acetaminophen overdose), it conferred dose-related protection from lethality coupled with hepatoprotection, as judged from transaminase activity. When acetylcysteine therapy was instituted relatively late (4 1/2 hours after acetaminophen overdose), its beneficial effect on survival persisted but was unaccompanied by distinct hepatoprotection, indicating that SGPT activity was an unreliable prognostic indicator. Acetylcysteine was well tolerated in mice even when administered in the presence of preexisting acetaminophen-induced liver damage.


Many workers have suggested that abfraction lesion formation is caused by the physical overloading of enamel. However, an alternative mechanism, involving undermining of the cervical enamel along the amelodentinal junction (ADJ), may be a more realistic explanation. The aim of this study was to examine what effect undermining of the buccal cervical enamel would have on the stress distribution in upper teeth. Two-dimensional plain strain finite element meshes of an upper incisor, canine and first premolar and the supporting periodontal ligament and alveolar bone were developed. Each tooth was loaded with an oblique 100 N load, and the nodal maximum principal stresses (MPS) along a buccal horizontal sampling plane 1.1 mm above the amelo-cemental junction was measured. A discontinuity between the cervical enamel and dentine elements was then introduced (0.1 mm wide) using gap elements. The vertical extent of this defect varied from 0.1 to 0.5 mm. The value of the MPS varied from 1.8 to 209 Mpa, and the lowest values were found for the intact teeth (range 0.6-30.3 MPa). The discontinuity caused a dramatic increase in the numerical values of the MPS, and in many instances these exceeded the known failure stress for enamel.


The propagation of magnetostatic surface waves (MSSWs) in a ferrite film magnetized by a nonuniform magnetic bias field in the shape of a magnetic valley or a magnetic ridge has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. The MSSW beam paths and the beam profiles have been studied at different frequencies for different angles of orientation of the input MSSW transducer relative to the direction of the bias magnetic field. It is noted that the results obtained can aid in the construction of microwave MSSW devices with nonuniform bias fields. >


Significance There is evidence that the 2007−2010 drought contributed to the conflict in Syria. It was the worst drought in the instrumental record, causing widespread crop failure and a mass migration of farming families to urban centers. Century-long observed trends in precipitation, temperature, and sea-level pressure, supported by climate model results, strongly suggest that anthropogenic forcing has increased the probability of severe and persistent droughts in this region, and made the occurrence of a 3-year drought as severe as that of 2007−2010 2 to 3 times more likely than by natural variability alone. We conclude that human influences on the climate system are implicated in the current Syrian conflict. Before the Syrian uprising that began in 2011, the greater Fertile Crescent experienced the most severe drought in the instrumental record. For Syria, a country marked by poor governance and unsustainable agricultural and environmental policies, the drought had a catalytic effect, contributing to political unrest. We show that the recent decrease in Syrian precipitation is a combination of natural variability and a long-term drying trend, and the unusual severity of the observed drought is here shown to be highly unlikely without this trend. Precipitation changes in Syria are linked to rising mean sea-level pressure in the Eastern Mediterranean, which also shows a long-term trend. There has been also a long-term warming trend in the Eastern Mediterranean, adding to the drawdown of soil moisture. No natural cause is apparent for these trends, whereas the observed drying and warming are consistent with model studies of the response to increases in greenhouse gases. Furthermore, model studies show an increasingly drier and hotter future mean climate for the Eastern Mediterranean. Analyses of observations and model simulations indicate that a drought of the severity and duration of the recent Syrian drought, which is implicated in the current conflict, has become more than twice as likely as a consequence of human interference in the climate system.


In May 2016, LANS announced that the Trident Laser Facility would cease operating effective September 15, 2016. That date was subsequently extended. The current plan is to operate for an additional, limited period in early CY 2017, and to leverage that activity to provide a training opportunity to the party that will redeploy the TLS. The TLS will then be disassembled and packaged for shipping to the new site, where it may be reconstituted and continue to be used by the physics research community. It is LANS' intent that Trident will be sited with an organization that will supply its own funding for TLS installation, calibration, and lifecycle operation. Ideally, the receiving party will plan to upgrade TLS with new capability. The equipment to be transferred includes the laser, its power supply, target station and chamber, and a suite of diagnostic instrumentation. Under a Joint Use Agreement it is anticipated that all equipment will remain property of the Laboratory and subject to on-site configuration verification.


Importance Varicose veins are common but rarely associated with serious health risks. Deep venous thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE), and peripheral artery disease (PAD) are also vascular diseases but associated with serious systemic effects. Little is known about the association between varicose veins and the incidence of other vascular diseases including DVT, PE, and PAD. Objective To investigate whether varicose veins are associated with an increased risk of DVT, PE, or PAD. Design, Setting, and Participants A retrospective cohort study using claims data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance program. Patients aged 20 years and older with varicose veins were enrolled from January 1, 2001-December 31, 2013, and a control group of patients without varicose veins were matched by propensity score. Patients previously diagnosed with DVT, PE, or PAD were excluded. Follow-up ended December 31, 2014. Exposures Presence of varicose veins. Main Outcomes and Measures Incidence rates of DVT, PE, and PAD were assessed in people with and without varicose veins. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate relative hazards, with the control group as reference. Results There were 212 984 patients in the varicose veins group (mean [SD] age, 54.5 [16.0] years; 69.3% women) and 212 984 in the control group (mean [SD] age, 54.3 [15.6] years; 70.3% women). The median follow-up duration was 7.5 years for DVT, 7.8 years for PE, and 7.3 years for PAD for patients with varicose veins, and for the control group, follow-up duration was 7.6 years for DVT, 7.7 years for PE, and 7.4 years for PAD. The varicose veins group had higher incidence rates than the control group for DVT (6.55 vs 1.23 per 1000 person-years [10 360 vs 1980 cases]; absolute risk difference [ARD], 5.32 [95% CI, 5.18-5.46]), for PE (0.48 for the varicose veins group vs 0.28 for the control group per 1000 person-years [793 vs 451 cases]; ARD, 0.20 [95% CI, 0.16-0.24]), and for PAD (10.73 for the varicose veins group vs 6.22 for the control group per 1000 person-years [16 615 vs 9709 cases]; ARD, 4.51 [95% CI, 4.31-4.71]). The hazard ratios for the varicose veins group compared with the control group were 5.30 (95% CI, 5.05-5.56) for DVT, 1.73 (95% CI, 1.54-1.94) for PE, and 1.72 (95% CI, 1.68-1.77) for PAD. Conclusions and Relevance Among adults diagnosed with varicose veins, there was a significantly increased risk of incident DVT; the findings for PE and PAD are less clear due to the potential for confounding. Whether the association between varicose veins and DVT is causal or represents a common set of risk factors requires further research.


AIM
The aims of this paper were: 1) to evaluate the feasibility of test for evaluating physical fitness (PF) in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN); 2) to investigate the effects of nutritional rehabilitation in this population of patients; and 3) to compare their level of fitness scores (at baseline and after weight restoration) with an age-matched healthy control group.

METHODS
PF was assessed with an adapted version of the Eurofit Physical Fitness Test Battery (EPFTB) administered to 37 consecutive female AN patients, at baseline and after weight restoration, and to 57 healthy age-matched females.

RESULTS
The inpatient treatment, based on cognitive behavior therapy, was associated with a significant improvement in BMI (from 14.5±1.5 to 18.8±1.1, P<0.001) and in 5 out of 6 EPFTB tests (P<0.05) in the AN group. However, both in pre and post, AN patients showed significant lower EPFTB than the control group (all P<0.001) with the exception of the Sit-Up score.

CONCLUSION
Results indicated that PF is lower in AN patients than in controls both at baseline and after weight restoration. Future studies should evaluate if the inclusion of an individualized health-enhancing physical activity program might improve the restoration of physical fitness.


Professional management training programs are offered by a great many universities in Latin America. Because the extent to which they coincide is unclear, this article offers a comparative analysis for a more holistic view of such programs at the Latin American level. The method implied a review and analysis of each program, taking into account its name, duration, type of certificate and intermediate output. The most significant results point to low coverage and considerable disparity in the titles of degrees or certificates, in the emphasis on training and its duration.