Electrocardiographic conduction disturbances and nonspecific interval changes are not uncommon during hypokalemic periodic paralysis. Although premature ventricular contractions may occur during the paretic episodes associated with hyperkalemic, normokalemic, and hypokalemic periodic paralysis, ventricular tachycardia is rare; to my knowledge, ventricular fibrillation has not been previously reported. In 1977 a 40-year-old man of Puerto Rican descent was resuscitated from ventricular fibrillation and subsequently received a diagnosis of thyrotoxic hypokalemic periodic paralysis. Following thyroid suppression the patient has been asymptomatic; ambulatory ECG monitor, maximal exercise stress test, and echocardiograms have been normal. This case documents the occurrence of ventricular fibrillation in thyrotoxic periodic paralysis.


Critical non‐structural equipments, including life‐saving equipment in hospitals, circuit breakers, computers, high technology instrumentations, etc., are vulnerable to strong earthquakes, and the failure of these equipments may result in a heavy economic loss. In this connection, innovative control systems and strategies are needed for their seismic protections. This paper presents the performance evaluation of passive and semi‐active control in the equipment isolation system for earthquake protection. Through shaking table tests of a 3‐story steel frame with equipment on the first floor, a magnetorheological (MR)‐damper together with a sliding friction pendulum isolation system is placed between the equipment and floor to reduce the vibration of the equipment. Various control algorithms are used for this semi‐active control studies, including the decentralized sliding mode control (DSMC) and LQR control. The passive‐on and passive‐off control of MR damper is used as a reference for the discussion on the control effectiveness. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Quetiapine, a dibenzothiazepine derivative, is an atypical antipsychotic, multireceptor antagonist that has a preclinical profile similar to clozapine. Randomized studies have demonstrated the efficacy of quetiapine relative to placebo in the treatment of acute relapse and the longterm management of schizophrenia. Quetiapine is generally well tolerated relative to other antipsychotic medications, although sedation, orthostatic hypotension, anticholinergic and metabolic side effects were reported. Three patients who developed sinus tachycardia during quetiapine therapy are presented in this case report.


Bone metastasis was observed in 16.1% or in 14 of 87 male autopsy cases of hepatocellular carcinoma. The primary tumor within the liver was located in the right lobe in all but one case. There were six patients who first presented with signs attributable to bone metastasis, and lung metastasis subsequently became evident in five of them. These 6 patients lived significantly longer as compared with 8 other patients with bone metastases and 73 patients without. The possible route by which hepatocellular carcinoma cells were carried to the bone is discussed.


An improved YOLOv5 algorithm for the efficient recognition and detection of asparagus with a high accuracy in complex environments was proposed in this study to realize the intelligent machine harvesting of green asparagus. The coordinate attention (CA) mechanism was added to the backbone feature extraction network, which focused more attention on the growth characteristics of asparagus. In the neck part of the algorithm, PANet was replaced with BiFPN, which enhanced the feature propagation and reuse. At the same time, a dataset of asparagus in complex environments under different weather conditions was constructed, and the performance variations of the models with distinct attention mechanisms and feature fusion networks were compared through experiments. Experimental results showed that the email@example.com of the improved YOLOv5 model increased by 4.22% and reached 98.69%, compared with the YOLOv5 prototype network. Thus, the improved YOLOv5 algorithm can effectively detect asparagus and provide technical support for intelligent machine harvesting of asparagus in different weather conditions and complex environments.


Person based restrictions on combination of two internal argument clitics known as the Person Case Constraint (PCC) show two types of variation: (i) Different languages and different groups of speakers within one language allow differ combinations of person on the two internal argument clitics, and (ii) languages differ on which of the two arguments is realized differently when cliticization of both is blocked by the PCC. Two types of proposals exist within the larger literature on person based restrictions for how the first type of variation arises. Multiple Agree analyses locate the variation in the parametrization of the operation Agree. Cyclic Agree analyses on the other hand locate the variation in the properties of the functional lexicon, specifically the feature content of the probe and its syntactic position. Case studies of Central Catalan and Classical Arabic demonstrate here that a Cyclic Agree analysis using different feature specifications on the probe can account for variation of the first type between the Strong PCC and the Ultrastrong PCC within each of the the two languages. Cyclic Agree thus offers a unified analysis of such variation in the PCC and in person restrictions between subjects and objects where it was originally proposed (Bejar & Rezac 2009). The second type of variation is shown to arise from the different underlying structures that cause PCC in Central Catalan and Classical Arabic. A Cyclic Agree analysis offers a way of understanding this variation in terms of the different positions of the probes, different locality patterns of Agree as a function thereof and the presence of other processes of movement and Agree. The alternative strategies used when the PCC blocks cliticization are argued to follow from independent derivational processes, rather than a Last Resort mechanism. The analysis of the PCC is also shown to extend to restrictions on combinations of third person pronouns that are not typically analyzed in the PCC literature. Cyclic Agree thus accounts for some of the variation of the first type, plus the second type and restrictions on combinations of third person pronouns. This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/ vol19/iss1/28 Locating Variation in Person Restrictions


An ecomorphological study of extant small carnivorans demonstrates that dietary groups can be distinguished using quantitative morphological characters. Small (<10 kg) modern carnivorans were divided into three dietary classes: carnivores, insectivores and omnivores/hard-object feeders. Statistical analyses revealed differences between these classes including longer carnassial blades in carnivorans, as opposed to larger molar grinding areas, larger post-canine dentitions, and wider fourth premolars in omnivores/hard-object feeders. Insectivores are not consistently distinguished from other dietary types, although they do tend to have weaker dentaries and shorter temporalis muscle moment arms. These trends can be used to help interpret morphologies of taxa of uncertain ecologies, including fossil taxa.


Mullis and Roberts formulated the second-order interpolation problem of digital filters in 1976, and provided the fundamental Proposition 1 concerned with its solvability [1]. The present correspondence gives three examples which show items b) and c) of Proposition 1 provided by them are not correct. It also presents a necessary and sufficient condition of the solvability of the second-order interpolation problem.


Application of carbostimulin, the preparation stimulating CO2 fixation in tissues, in a complex therapy of diabetes mellitus patients rises the CO2 level, restores the total content of alpha-ketoacids and free amino acids in blood, increases (within the physiological normal limits) the urea content in blood and urine of diabetes mellitus patients.


Contrary to what was previously considered to be the case, the emergence of the legend that the apostle Andreas had founded the Church of Byzantium, or rather of Constantinople, can – at the very earliest – be dated back to the closing of the 8th century (therefore, not to the 7th century, or even earlier, as has so often been claimed). The apostle Andreas (equated with the Byzantine Church) was conceived as the counterpart to the apostle Peter, upon whom, according to Matthew 16:18, the Roman Church rests. An analogue to the apostolic foundation of »Roman legal space« was created for the Eastern Church. Almost all of the texts extensively treating the so-called Andreas legend stem from the first half of the 9th century. This, of course, raises the question about the historical causes. These are seen as part of a general trend toward »apostolic foundation« of various archbishoprics in the western Mediterranean world (and in France as well). In particular in southern Italy and Sicily, whose bishoprics were subjected to the rule of the patriarchy of Constantinople after the mid-8th century, a »race« began to be elevated to archbishopric (which till then had not existed in the region). A further impulse that shaped the legend of Andreas very likely has to do with the coronation of Charlemagne as emperor (Christmas 800) – where the head of the Roman church, making use of the apostolic legitimation of sovereignty, could even appoint an emperor. After the 9th century in Byzantium, reference to the legend was much less common. Most likely, this had to do with the realisation that the historicity of the legend was simply too fragile to serve as a serious and substantial argument when dealing with the papacy (at least since the 11th century).


Fermilab E791, a very high statistics charm particle experiment, recently com-pleted its data taking at Fermilab's Tagged Photon Laboratory. Over 20 billion events were recorded through a loose transverse energy trigger and written to 8mm tape in the the 1991-92 fixed target run at Fermilab. This unprecedented data sample containing charm is being analysed on many-thousand MIP RISC computing farms set up at sites in the collaboration. A glimpse of the data taking and analysis effort is presented. We also show some preliminary results for common charm decay modes. Our present analysis indicates a very rich yield of over 200K reconstructed charm decays.


This paper examines the peculiar nature of buyer‐supplier relations from a value chain perspective in the UK aerospace sector. A detailed examination is made of buyer strategies in terms of acquisition, management and exploitation of supplier product, process and marketing technologies. Porter's value chain framework was evaluated and subsequently found to be the most useful one for structuring the initial stage of data collection. The discussion is based on a three‐year programme of observation of the aerospace sector. In this paper we present the results of in‐depth research at one large aerospace contractor who is acting as a buyer and three firms who are supplying to it. The research investigation suggests that problems to relationship building can arise from the buyer's perceptions of the product and the technologies held by the suppliers. These are the tendencies of the buyer to focus their attention inwards, a neglect of external sources of potential core products (technologies) and a desire to resist any disruption to the existing system of supplier management. This research contributes to buyer‐supplier relationship theory by developing a preliminary model, which links value chain integration to the nature and form of supplier relations.


T cells depend on the careful regulation of apoptosis for normal development, homeostasis and immune response. The Bcl-2 family of proteins has been shown to play critical roles regulating T cell apoptotic pathways. The anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and Mcl-1 each display a unique expression pattern throughout the lifespan of a T cell and both have been shown to be essential for T cell survival at multiple stages. However, it is unclear whether these proteins function in the same or separate molecular pathways. Here, we use genetic models to show that Mcl-1, through antagonism of Bak, has a unique function from Bcl-2 at multiple stages of thymocyte development. Loss of Bak rescues the death of Mcl-1-deficient thymocytes at the double negative and single positive stages. Loss of Bax, however, does not rescue Mcl-1-deficient thymocytes. Neither over-expression of Bcl-2 nor loss of the BH3-only protein Bim rescues the death of Mcl-1-deficient thymocytes. Interestingly, loss of Bak does not rescue activated T cells in an in vitro Mcl-1 deletion system, thus mechanisms may differ at different stages. These data indicate non-overlapping and distinct roles for Mcl-1 and Bcl-2 in T cells.
 This work was supported by grants from the NIH.


Hydrothermal vents and cold seeps are fascinating and unusual marine ecosys− tems which are fuelled by inorganic che− mical reactions (chemosynthesis) rather than sunlight−dependant photosynthesis. The aim of this volume is to summarise key developments over the past 10 years in hydrothermal vent and cold seep research, which means that the fourteen chapters span a wide range of disciplines, from molecular phylogenetics to geoche− mical modelling to palaeoecology. The volume begins with an account of the paradigm−changing discovery of hydrothermal vents and associated fauna at the Gala− pogos Rift (Corliss et al. 1979) and the realisation that this ecosystem was driven by chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis. This intro− duction provides an essential background and context for the remain− ing thirteen chapters, which describe selected areas of hydrothermal vent and cold seep biology in detail. Many of the chapters deal with aspects of chemosymbiosis— the interactions between vent and seep invertebrates and chemo− synthetic bacteria which live within their body tissues (endosym− bionts) or externally (episymbionts). For example, Chapter 2 de− scribes the genetics and evolution of chemosythetic bacteria and their invertebrate hosts with a focus on the consequences of differ− ent modes of transmission of endosymbionts. This is illustrated by examples drawn from studies of vesicomyid clams, vestimentiferan tubeworms and bathymodiolin mussels. Vent and seep mussels and their multiple bacterial symbioses are the subject of Chapter 6, while Chapter 5 focuses on those chemosymbiotic bivlaves not cov− ered in detail elsewhere in the volume, namely Solemyidae, Nuci− nellidae, Thyasiridae and Lucinidae. Chapter 3 is concerned with episymbiosis between bacteria and the hydrothermal vent inverte− brates Alvinella pompejana and Rimicaris exoculata, as revealed by in situ measurements and microanalysis of mineralogical proxies combined with geochemical modelling. Many chapters consider both modern and fossil fauna, but Chapters 7, 10, 11, 12, and 13 focus on the present day. Chapter 7 contains a systematic overview of vent and seep gastropods. Useful appendices are included, notably a list of all modern seep and vent gastropods described up to the end of 2009. The unusual habitats and organisms associated with the cold seeps of the Gulf of Mexico including brine pools, asphalt flows and barite chimneys and the "iceworm" Hesiocaeca methanicola are described in Chapter 10. An overview of biological communities at marine shallow−water vent and seep sites, defined here as less than 200 m water depth, is presented in Chapter 11. Chapter 12 investigates similarities and connectivity in megafaunal communities between modern hydro− thermal vent and cold seep sites around Japan, using a statistical ap− proach. Chapter 13 considers the role of "foundation species" in providing and modifying habitats for other species within vent and seep communities. Vent and seep palaeontology is represented by an overview of the fossil record of vent and seep molluscs (Chapter 8) and brachio− pods (Chapter 9) and a description of the "Eldorado for Palae− ontologists" that is the seep−rich western part of Washington State, USA (Chapter 14). An overview of microbial chemofossils in marine hydrothermal and cold seep settings is presented in Chapter 4. Following an over− view of the biogeochemistry at vents and seeps, the biomarker con− cept is introduced and aspects of the structure, occurrence, stable isotope signature and utility of lipid biomarkers for elucidating geobiology are discussed. Subsequent sections are devoted to de− scriptions of the lipid biomarker record at modern and fossil hydro− thermal vents and cold seeps, with modern cold seeps exemplified by Black Sea deposits. Throughout the volume, but for this chapter in particular, the accompanying diagrams are of great assistance to the reader in clarifying complex information. Due to the structure of the volume and the range of different au− thors, there is unavoidably some overlap in content between chapters and considerable differences in writing style. Covering such disparate subjects for individual chapters, it is difficult, if not impossible, to give the book a sense of cohesion. However, since readers will most likely use this book to refer to specific chapters, rather than reading it from cover to cover, this is not a major drawback. In general, this is an excellent volume for anyone who works on or studies any aspect of hydrothermal vent or cold seep ecosystems. It will be especially valu− able for specialists in a given area in search of an up−to−date summary of the state of knowledge in another area, or in vent and seep ecology as a whole. Occasionally, technical terms are used without adequate explanation, which makes the text less accessible to the non−expert in that particular field. In some chapters, lack of clear structure means that potentially interesting and useful information is not as easily available to the reader as it could be. The aim of the Topics in Geobiology series, as described by the series editors, is to provide high quality, scholarly volumes of origi− nal research, with a focus on the interplay between the history of life and the changing environment. In this volume, this aim has cer− tainly been achieved.


ABSTRACT Purpose: Tendon overuse injuries are prevalent conditions with limited therapeutic options to halt disease progression. The specialized extracellular matrix (ECM) both enables joint function and mediates mechanical signals to tendon cells, driving biological responses to exercise or injury. With overuse, tendon ECM composition and structure changes at multiple scales, disrupting mechanotransduction and resulting in inadequate repair and disease progression. This review highlights the multiscale ECM changes that occur with tendon overuse and corresponding effects on cell-matrix interactions and cellular response to load.Results: Different functional joint requirements and tendon types experience a wide range of loading profiles, creating varied downstream mechanical stimuli. Distinct ECM structure and mechanical properties within the fascicle matrix, interfascicle matrix, and enthesis and their varied disruption with overuse are considered. The pericellular matrix (PCM) comprising the microscale tendon cell environment has a unique composition that changes with overuse injury and exercise, suggesting an important role in mechanotransduction and promoting repair. Cell-matrix interactions are mediated by structures including cilia, integrins, connexins and cytoskeleton that signal downstream homeostasis, adaptation, or repair. ECM disruption with tendon overuse may cause altered mechanical loading and cell-matrix interactions, resulting in mechanobiological understimulation, apoptosis, and ineffective repair. Current interventions to promote repair of tendon overuse injuries including exercise, targeting cell signaling, and modulating inflammation are considered.Conclusion: Future therapeutics should be assessed with regard of their effects on multiscale mechanotransduction in addition to joint function, with consideration of the central role of ECM.


The research leading to these results has received funding from the
European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–
2013) under grant agreement no. 609687.


In the age of information clouds DDOS attacks pose a huge threat to hosted services and may cause the loss of revenue for the companies that use these services. Hosting and web application providers are often targets of DDOS attacks.
Herein, I describe the process of detection and prevention of the consequences of DDOS attacks and present the protocols, tools and methods that the network engineers use on a daily basis to manage the communication networks. I have used these protocols and open source tools to establish a solution for DDOS detection and prevention, which is suitable for a small internet service provider (ISP). The solution includes a monitoring system to monitor the key elements of the network in anticipation of the attack. I use the proposed solution on a fictional network in which I simulate DDOS attacks of three different scales using UDP flooding. I demonstrate the attacks mitigation with RTBH method. I analyze the obtained results with the aid of graphs obtained with described tools. The obtained graphs indicate that the attacked server is almost unreachable for ICMP packets during the attack. The routers in the network also have significantly higher CPU utilization than normal. After mitigating the attack, the network load indicators return to their original state. The proposed open source tools are dedicated to the environment of smaller ISPs. Their development depends on the open source community. Moreover, the operation and maintenance of these tools depends on the engineers employed by the ISP. In the case of commercial solutions, the development, operation and maintenance is provided by the vendor of the solution. On the other hand, the problem of such solutions is the price inaccessibility for smaller ISPs.


Three new patients with the Baller-Gerold syndrome bring the number of reported cases to 20. In addition to craniosynostosis involving various sutures and preaxial reduction defects of variable severity, affected patients may have anal, urogenital, cardiac, central nervous system, and vertebral defects. Autosomal recessive inheritance is supported by the presence of affected sibs and parental consanguinity.


We consider a star-topology wireless network for status update where a central node collects status data from a large number of distributed machine-type terminals that share a wireless medium. The Age of Information (AoI) minimization scheduling problem is formulated by the restless multi-armed bandit. A widely-proven near-optimal solution, i.e., the Whittle's index, is derived in closed-form and the corresponding indexability is established. The index is then generalized to incorporate stochastic, periodic packet arrivals and unreliable channels. Inspired by the index scheduling policies which achieve near-optimal AoI but require heavy signaling overhead, a contention-based random access scheme, namely Index-Prioritized Random Access (IPRA), is further proposed. Based on IPRA, terminals that are not urgent to update, indicated by their indices, are barred access to the wireless medium, thus improving the access timeliness. A computer-based simulation shows that IPRA's performance is close to the optimal AoI in this setting and outperforms standard random access schemes. Also, for applications with hard AoI deadlines, we provide reliable deadline guarantee analysis. Closed-form achievable AoI stationary distributions under Bernoulli packet arrivals are derived such that AoI deadline with high reliability can be ensured by calculating the maximum number of supportable terminals and allocating system resources proportionally.


The Geelong Osteoporosis Study (GOS) began as a population-based study designed to investigate the epidemiology of osteoporosis in Australia. Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease characterized by low bone mineral density (BMD) and micro-architectural deterioration of bone tissue, with a consequent increase in susceptibility to fracture. Fragility fractures at the spine, hip, wrist and other sites are a major public health problem in both sexes because these fractures are responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality. Fractures cost the Australian community an estimated $7 billion annually and this is expected to increase in absolute terms because of the ageing population. The cohort was recruited to address the need for definitive data on the prevalence of osteoporosis, to describe age-related changes in BMD and to characterize the risks for osteoporosis and fracture. Initially the GOS comprised only women; men were recruited later. In addition to the cohort study, the GOS has developed a comprehensive fracture register for the study region and has also conducted case–control studies to investigate risk factors for fracture. Only the cohort study will be described here.


We report on fluorescence experiments by apertureless near-field optical microscopy. We develop a simple model that demonstrates the importance of non-radiative transfer and that takes into account the dependence of non-radiative transfer on tip geometry. This process is in competition with field enhancement and it is a key process to understand the observed fluorescence enhancement factors. The analysis of the different factors involved in the global fluorescence enhancement or quenching leads to new strategies to reach resolution down to a few nanometers by apertureless fluorescence microscopy.


Abstract We study the dynamics of viscous capillary rising in small corners between two curved walls described by a function $y=cx^n$ with $n \ge 1$. Using the Onsager principle, we derive a partial differential equation that describes the time evolution of the meniscus profile. By solving the equation both numerically and analytically, we show that the capillary rising dynamics is quite universal. Our theory explains the surprising finding by Ponomarenko et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 666, 2011, pp. 146–154) that the time dependence of the height not only obeys the universal power-law of $t^{1/3}$, but also that the prefactor is almost independent of $n$.


The studies of GPDs and TMDs with polarizations at 6 GeV at Jefferson Lab have already shown great promises. The 12-GeV spin program will significantly advance our knowledge about the three-dimensional structure of the nucleon in the valence quark region, and the QCD dynamics responsible for the structure. With the possibility of a future electron ion collider with polarized beams, the next frontier of QCD will be reached. This proceeding paper will focus on future studies of TMDs using polarizations.


Establishing dense correspondences across semantically similar images remains a challenging task due to the significant intra-class variations and background clutters. Traditionally, a supervised learning was used for training the models, which required tremendous manually-labeled data, while some methods suggested a self-supervised or weakly-supervised learning to mitigate the reliance on the labeled data, but with limited performance. In this paper, we present a simple, but effective solution for semantic correspondence that learns the networks in a semi-supervised manner by supplementing few ground-truth correspondences via utilization of a large amount of confident correspondences as pseudo-labels, called SemiMatch. Specifically, our framework generates the pseudo-labels using the model's prediction itself between source and weakly-augmented target, and uses pseudo-labels to learn the model again between source and strongly-augmented target, which improves the robustness of the model. We also present a novel confidence measure for pseudo-labels and data augmentation tailored for semantic correspondence. In experiments, SemiMatch achieves state-of-the-art performance on various benchmarks.


A 47-year-old woman diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, was studied at our institution with palpitations, progressive dyspnoea and cyanosis over a 3-year period. Her haemoglobin saturation was 76.1%.The transthoracic echocardiogram showed that both right atrium and ventricle were dilated, with diffuse akinetic and hypokinetic areas. Radionuclide scintigraphy, angiography and magnetic resonance imaging showed dilated and severe dysfunction of the right ventricle, with depressed ejection fraction (0.16), and bulging at the level of the right ventricular anterior wall areas. Doppler examination revealed a right-to-left interatrial shunt through a patent foramen ovale. Contrast transoesophageal echocardiography confirmed the right-to-left shunting. Considering the clinical symptoms were severe and refractory to medical treatment, she was referred for cardiac transplantation. Unfortunately the patient died suddenly a few weeks later.


Polarization maintaining single-mode optical fibers are key components in the interferometry of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). LISA's measurement principle relies on the availability of space qualified fibers of this type which influence the phase of light with a wavelength of 1064 nm passing in opposite directions through them with differences smaller than 6 prad/. We present a measurement scheme suitable to sense these non-reciprocal phase changes, as well as results obtained using this setup on samples of commercially available fibers. The experimental setup for the fiber characterization consists of a quasi-monolithic interferometer which constitutes a representative cut-out of the local interferometry on-board LISA concerning the fiber. Several noise sources are identified and improvements to the setup are presented to overcome them. The noise level achieved using this setup is between approximately 40 prad/ and 400 prad/ in the frequency range between 1 mHz and 1 Hz. It is also verified that this noise level is limited by the setup and not introduced by the fiber.


In 1990 the Schatz Energy Research Center (SERC) installed a PV array comprised of 192 ARCO M-75 modules. Prior to installation, Zoellick carefully measured module performance and reported average peak power at normal operating cell temperature (NOCT) to be 39.88 W, which was 14.1% lower than the 46.4 W nameplate rating. For the past 11 years the array has been exposed to and employed in a cool, marine environment. Of the original 192 modules, 191 were tested in order to re-evaluate their performance. This paper describes the equipment, conditions, and procedure used in retesting the modules, and reports module performance results. Notable results are that average module short circuit current and maximum power production at NOCT have decreased by 6.38% and 4.39%, respectively.


We used cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet to examine in detail 1O2 generation in water. ESR with 2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3-pyrroline-3-carboxamide, a secondary amine probe, was used for the detection of 1O2. Nitroxide radical formation was detected after cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet irradiation of a 2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3-pyrroline-3-carboxamide solution. An 1O2 scavenger/quencher inhibited the ESR signal intensity induced by cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet irradiation, but this inhibition was not 100%. As 2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3-pyrroline-3-carboxamide reacts with oxidizing species other than 1O2, it was assumed that the signal intensity inhibited by NaN3 corresponds to only the nitroxide radical generated by 1O2. The concentration of 1O2 produced by cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet irradiation for 60 s was estimated at 8 μM. When this 1O2 generation was compared to methods of 1O2 generation like rose bengal photoirradiation and 4-methyl-1,4-etheno-2,3-benzodioxin-1(4H)-propanoic acid (endoperoxide) thermal decomposition, 1O2 generation was found to be, in decreasing order, rose bengal photoirradiation ≥ cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet > endoperoxide thermal decomposition. Cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet is presumed to not specifically generate 1O2, but can be used to mimic states of oxidative stress involving multiple ROS.


Research on crane reintroductions within the last 15 years has produced information necessary to effect a successful reintroduction of a migratory whooping crane (Grus americana) flock. There are 4 main problems to solve for such a reintroduction: (1) inducing a high survival rate of the reintroduced cranes, (2) encouraging normal reproduction with conspecifics, (3) teaching the reintroduced cranes the migration route, and (4) inducing fear of humans in the reintroduced cranes. Use of an isolation-rearing method by the author, using puppets, sounds, and costumes, has led to a consistent, over 80%, survival rate for the reintroduced young cranes after 1 year and migration. Such reintroduced sandhill cranes (G. canadensis) have followed wild cranes on the migration route and returned to their release area. They have learned to fear humans from their wild counterparts and have bred normally, raising fledged young. Results of 5 groups of experiments are reviewed: (1) cross-fostering has failed due to sexual imprinting on the wrong species, (2) releases of sandhill cranes have been successful and the survival rate has increased markedly with the costume method of rearing, (3) releases using the costume/isolation-rearing method have enhanced other programs, (4) creation of a nonmigratory flock of whooping cranes has met with some success but proper use of the costume method would enhance survival rates, and finally, (5) motorized vehicles have been used to teach young sandhill cranes a selected migration route. Recommendations for creating a migratory whooping crane flock include: (1) using as gentle a release as possible, (2) using young post -fledged chicks as the best candidates, (3) using developmental periods for enhancing releases, (4) using costumes to control the released chicks' behavior, (5) using costumes to enhance conspeci:fic breeding, (6) considering habitat site imprinting, (7) avoiding human contact and consequent imprinting, (8) using the parent model and isolation-rearing for enhancing following of ultralight aircraft by the chicks, and (9) considering cost effectiveness in the reintroduction process. Procedures for effecting a successful reintroduction are elaborated. PROCEEDINGS NORTH AMERICAN CRANE WORKSHOP 8:85-95


Little has been written about the maturation of multihospital systems and the demands or challenges this process places on system managers. This article reviews particular developmental concerns within the context of a generic life cycle model and discusses the unique management challenges that arise as a system develops and matures.


Summary

Plate tectonics theory is used to develop a least squares method for finding all the relative motions of any n interacting plates simultaneously. The method ensures internal consistency of results and allows full use to be made of data on relative movement of plates. The least squares fitting criteria are chosen to avoid ambiguity. Relative motions of eight major plates of the world are calculated in preliminary form, and regional and global rates of creation and destruction of lithosphere are derived from these motions.


Low dimensionality and high flexibility are key demands for flexible electronic semiconductor devices. SnIP, the first atomic‐scale double helical semiconductor combines structural anisotropy and robustness with exceptional electronic properties. The benefit of the double helix, combined with a diverse structure on the nanoscale, ranging from strong covalent bonding to weak van der Waals interactions, and the large structure and property anisotropy offer substantial potential for applications in energy conversion and water splitting. It represents the next logical step in downscaling the inorganic semiconductors from classical 3D systems, via 2D semiconductors like MXenes or transition metal dichalcogenides, to the first downsizeable, polymer‐like atomic‐scale 1D semiconductor SnIP. SnIP shows intriguing mechanical properties featuring a bulk modulus three times lower than any IV, III‐V, or II‐VI semiconductor. In situ bending tests substantiate that pure SnIP fibers can be bent without an effect on their bonding properties. Organic and inorganic hybrids are prepared illustrating that SnIP is a candidate to fabricate flexible 1D composites for energy conversion and water splitting applications. SnIP@C3N4 hybrid forms an unusual soft material core–shell topology with graphenic carbon nitride wrapping around SnIP. A 1D van der Waals heterostructure is formed capable of performing effective water splitting.


INTRODUCTION. The aim of this study is to present the efficacy and safety of non-penetrating phaco-deep sclerectomy (PDS) with implantation of an absorbable sodium hyaluronate implant (SkGel/Corneal). MATERIALS AND METHODS. In a prospective case series study 219 procedures were performed on 176 subjects receiving PDS with SkGel implantation. Indications were uncontrolled primary-open angle glaucoma (POAG) and operable cataract. Data collected included best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), intraocular pressure (IOP), and number of hypotensive medications. Follow-up examinations were performed one and seven days after procedure, then one, three, and six months after, and thereafter every six months. Complete and qualified success (without and with hypotensive medications) was assessed for IOP ≤ 18 mm Hg and IOP ≤ 12 mm Hg. RESULTS . The mean follow-up was 48.3 } 12.8 months. At 24 months, mean IOP decreased from 19.9 ± 5.0 mm Hg to 13.4 ± 3.1 mm Hg ( P < 0.001) (31.8% reduction) and to 13.3 ± 2.7 mm Hg ( P = 0.003) and after 60 months (33.2% reduction). At the 24-month follow-up, the average number of anti-glaucoma medications was reduced from 2.3 ± 0.8 to 0.62 ± 0.88 (p < 0.001). Complete and qualified success rates for IOP ≤ 18 mm Hg were 70.1% and 93.0%, respectively. Goniopuncture (23.8%), suturolysis (20.1%), and needling (18.3%) were performed. The most common complication was transient hypotony (36.07%). CONCLUSIONS. PDS with SkGel leads to an effective decrease in IOP over a long-term follow-up. The profile of the complications indicates that it is a safe procedure.


OBJECTIVE
Renal and cardiovascular function improves in preterm newborn lambs after a single prenatal betamethasone treatment. We hypothesized that multiple betamethasone exposures would further improve renal and cardiovascular adaptation.

STUDY DESIGN
Pregnant ewes were chosen randomly to receive saline solution, one dose of 0.5 mg/kg betamethasone at 104 days of gestation, or three doses of 0.5 mg/kg betamethasone at 104, 111, and 118 days of gestation. Lambs were delivered at 125 days of gestation (preterm) or 145 days of gestation (term). Renal and cardiovascular responses to phenylephrine were evaluated at 2 hours of age.

RESULTS
The preterm single and multiple betamethasone-treated lambs comparably increased glomerular filtration rate, urinary flow and osmolar clearance, and sodium excretion in response to phenylephrine. Term responses were similar and not influenced by betamethasone exposure.

CONCLUSION
Multiple courses of betamethasone do not further improve renal and cardiovascular responses from a single betamethasone dose. Renal and cardiovascular function at term is not affected by early prenatal betamethasone exposure.


Large-scale biogeographic provinces of Cretaceous ammonoids, as currently defined in the literature, were delimited using qualitative assessments of taxonomic inventories. Using aggregated species occurrences in the Paleobiology Database, we generated a geographic network to quantify connectivity of Albian epicontinental basins and used the flow-based Infomap algorithm to delineate bioprovinces. Despite taxonomic, stratigraphic, and geographic limitations of the data, the Infomap bioprovinces are largely concordant with the traditional, qualitatively derived biogeographic model, including the Boreal-Pacific Subrealm, Arctic Subrealm, Tethyan Realm, and Austral Realm. An agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis applied to the same occurrence data failed to replicate the Infomap bioprovinces or reproduce the traditional qualitative model. The observed asymmetrical distribution of the Infomap bioprovinces is consistent with the known hemispheric differences in paleogeographic and oceanographic features of the Albian Earth. The geographic network derived from ammonoid data is twice as dense as the one derived for Albian benthic marine invertebrates and thus more effective in delineating global biogeographic units. The network-based approach establishes a reproducible quantitative framework for delineating geographic boundaries of marine bioprovinces, tracking biogeographic changes over evolutionary time scales, and identifying biotic and abiotic factors that influence global partitioning of marine biodiversity.


Gheisari H.R., Moller J.K.S., Adamsen Ch.E., Skibsted L.H. (2010): Sodium chloride or heme protein induced lipid oxidation in raw, minced chicken meat and beef . Czech J. Food Sci., 28: 364-375. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the salt (NaCl) level (0%, 1% and 6%) or the addition of metmyoglobin (MetMb) in the amount twice that in the natural muscle content on the oxidative stability of minced chicken meat or beef. The minced meat samples with the added NaCl or added MetMb were stored for 3 weeks during which the analyses of TBARS, peroxide value, and volatiles coming from lipid oxidation were assessed together with the quantification of vitamin E and fatty acid profiles. Heme pigment and indices of lipid oxidation were higher for beef than for chicken, except the volatile octanal regardless of the pretreatment. Peroxide value (POV) and TBARS increased significantly over storage in both minced chicken meat and beef. The minced meat added 6% salt group had the highest contents of TBARS and POV in both species. Vitamin E values decreased significantly over storage time in chicken meat and beef. 6% salt group had the lowest vitamin E content and salt had an increasing effect on hexanal content. At the end of the storage time, 6% salt group had the highest total content of saturated and the lowest one of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Added MetMb group showed no significant differences in lipid oxidation indices in comparison with those of the control group. In conclusion, higher lipid oxidation rate and total saturated and lower polyunsaturated fatty acids were observed in the salt groups. In contrast, adding MetMb had no increasing effect on lipid oxidation in chicken meat and beef.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive age-related neurodegenerative disorder. accumulation of α-synuclein aggregates, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and lipid metabolism disturbance are thought to be the key impairments underlying PD pathogenesis. Despite long-time research, the causes of PD have not yet been clear. We investigated the influence of diazepinon, a new derivative of benzodiazepine, on liver tissue respiration (lTR), serum lipid content and behavioral parameters of rats with modeled PD induced by intraperitoneal injections of 2.0 mg/kg rotenone (ROT) within 28 days. lTR was assessed using the polarograph lP-9. Blood samples for biochemical analysis were collected from the inferior vena cava. The behavioral parameters of rats were studied by the open field test. We showed that in rats with ROT – induced PD, the coefficient of liver oxygen consumption was decreased by 33.5% (P < 0.001), the serum content of phospholipids, cholesterol, cholesterol esters, free fatty acids and triglycerides was reduced by 21.4% (P < 0.001), 28.8% (P < 0.001), 26.8% (P < 0.001), 30.3% (P < 0.01) and 41.5% (P < 0.001), respectively and the motor disorders were detected. Diazepinone application resulted in a full restoration of lTR, serum concentration of phospholipids, partial recovery of serum free fatty acids and triglycerides content and significant improvement of motor behavior. However, diazepinone did not affect the reduced concentration of cholesterol and cholesterol esters in the serum of rats with simulated PD.


This study aimed to quantify the adsorption affinity of neutralized 10-methacryloyloxydecyl dihydrogen phosphate (10-MDP-N) toward hydroxyapatite (HA) and dicalcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD) at pH 7.0 by employing the Langmuir isotherm model. Furthermore, the effects of inorganic phosphate (Pi) and fluoride (F(-) ) ions on the adsorption of 10-MDP-N onto HA and DCPD were examined. Fixed amounts of HA and DCPD powders were suspended in different concentrations of 10-MDP-N solutions and were incubated for 18 h. Equilibrated concentrations of 10-MDP-N were measured by spectrophotometry and the adsorption affinity was estimated using the Langmuir model. Moreover, the adsorption was examined by zeta-potential analysis. The results indicated that significant Langmuir correlation was noted in both substrates, along with an increasing negative zeta-potential; however, in DCPD the correlation was less strong. The addition of 1.0 mM Pi slightly delayed the adsorption of 10-MDP-N onto both substrates, whereas 3.0 mM Pi drastically delayed adsorption onto HA but completely inhibited adsorption onto DCPD. Up to 50 ppm, F(-) enhanced the adsorption onto HA, and the adsorption plateaued at higher concentrations of F(-) , whereas no obvious influence of F(-) on the adsorption onto DCPD was noted.


Background: A history of diabetes mellitus in first degree relatives is a major risk factor for diabetes mellitus (DM) and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM). The underlying disorders in DM and GDM are known to have genetic predispositions. The pregnancy state is a stressor that reveals underlying metabolic derangements particularly with respect to glucose and lipid metabolism. We investigated if the lipid profile and insulin resistance in pregnant women with family history of DM is different from those without such history. Methos: Glucose, insulin and lipids (total cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein and low density lipoproteins) were measured at 26 to 32 weeks of pregnancy in fasting blood samples obtained from 75 pregnant non diabetic women (Twenty five with a history of first degree relative with DM and fifty women without such history). The insulin resistance was assessed using Homeostatic Assessment Model (HOMA-IR). Results: The ages of the subjects ranges from 20 to 40 years with a mean (S.D) of 30.6 (4.8). The mean gestational age of the subjects was 28.2(1.2) years. The mean fasting glucose, fasting insulin and Total Cholesterol, Triglyceride, High Density Lipoprotein, Low Density Lipoprotein and HOMA-IR were not significantly different in both groups. Family history of DM was significantly associated with severe insulin resistance (P<0.05). Conclusion: The underlying pathophysiologic derangements in diabetes may well be ongoing in women with family history of DM. A strict follow-up plan should be instituted for this category of pregnant women during and after pregnancy.


Ab initio and density functional calculations are used to analyse the interaction between a molecule of the cyanuric acid and one, two and three molecules of water at B3LYP/6-311 þþ G(d,p) and MP2/6-311 þþ G(d,p) computational levels. Also, the cooperative effect (CE) in terms of the stabilisation energy of clusters is calculated and discussed. Depending on the geometry of clusters under study, the cooperative, non- or anti-CE was found with an increasing cluster size. Red shifts of NZH and CvO stretching frequencies illustrate a good dependence on the CE. The atoms in molecules theory is used to analyse the CE on topological parameters.


A striking clinical response of hairy cell leukemia (HCL) to alpha-interferon (alpha-IFN) has recently been reported. To explain its efficacy on HCL, we investigated the ultrastructural changes caused by alpha-IFN in hairy cells. Mononuclear cells (MNCs) were separated from the peripheral blood of eight HCL patients in the leukemic phase. Aliquots of 1 X 10(6) MNCs in 2.5 ml of RPMI 1640 medium were cultured with a recombinant DNA-derived alpha-2 interferon (RD alpha 2-IFN) for 1, 3, and 7 days. The concentrations of IFN added were 10, 100, 1,000, and 10,000 IU/ml culture medium. Electron microscopic examination revealed that RD alpha 2-IFN induced the formation of tubuloreticular structures in cultured hairy cells and increased the frequency of hairy cells having annulate lamellae (ALs), probable precursors of the nuclear pore. Hairy cells from various patients showed a variability in the extent of tubuloreticular structure (TRS) formation. Excellent clinical responses, as judged by hematologic parameters, were observed among patients whose leukemic cells were susceptible to RD alpha 2-IFN with respect to TRS formation in vitro. from these findings, we propose that the induction of TRS formation, in combination with the increase of ALs, may be a morphologic expression of a direct antitumor action of IFN on malignant cells.


An extension to the peaklist optimization procedure is proposed, in which one overall phase refinement cycle consists of tangent expansion, E-map, peaksearch and elimination of peaks to achieve a maximum correlation coefficient between E o and E c . This procedure appears to be able to solve large structures from random phases given data to atomic resolution. The power of the method can be substantially increased by starting with slightly better than random phases, obtained for example from threefold Patterson vector superposition minimum functions or rotation searches using a fragment of known geometry. These two sources of phase information require expansion of the data to the space group P1, which also appears to be a useful strategy when starting from random phases. This real/reciprocal space recycling procedure was successful in solving two small known proteins and three unknown 200+-atom small-molecule structures. An investigation of the influence of the resolution on the peaklist optimization algorithm shows that there is a marked deterioration in the effectiveness as the resolution of the data is truncated, the deterioration being particularly marked between 1.2 and 1.3 A


Several unicellular algae were exposed to artificial UV-B (280-320 nm) radiation after adaptation to high (43 W m-2) and low (19 W m-2) visible light. UV-B radiation had different effects on rates of photosynthesis. motility and absorption spectra for these species. Photosynthesis of Euglena gracilis and the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornum was more sensitive to UV-B inhibition than that of the dinoflagellates Heterocapsa triquetra and Prorocentrum minimum. Not only UV-B radiation but light had a photoinhibitory effect on photosynthesis in all four organisms. The effect on photosynthesis was observed both on the quantum yield and on the light saturation rate of photosynthesis


Purpose: This paper is a report of an analysis of the concept of pro-environmental health behavior. Methods: Rodgers' method of evolutionary concept analysis was used to analyze the concept. A literature search using keywords 'pro-environmental health behavior, 'environmental health behavior', and 'eco-friendly health behavior' was conducted using PubMed, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and RISS and utilizing the results published from 1983 to 2011. Database and bibliographic searches yielded 84 records. Results: Four critical attributes of pro-environ- mental health behavior were identified as 'prevention and protection', 'internal process', 'altruism', and 'alternative'. Antecedents to pro-environmental health behavior were climate change, environmental pollution, and health risk. The consequences of pro-environmental health behavior were individual and social behavioral changes. Conclusion: The concept of pro-environmental health behavior developed in this project may offer information to be considered as the concept is further develop and efforts are made to measure the attributes of pro-environmental health behavior.


"Fifty years ago, the name of Chin Peng was feared almost as much as Osama bin Laden is today". So wrote the Hong Kong-based journalist, Philip Bowring, in 2003. Fifty years ago the British empire, in the view of Field Marshal Montgomery, was locked in a struggle "between the East and West, between Communism and Democracy, between evil and Christianity". It was a time when Chin Peng was Britain's enemy number one in Southeast Asia. A measure of his importance is the size of the reward offered in May 1952 for his capture: M$250,000 was equivalent to first prize in the Social Welfare Lottery and a huge sum compared with the wage rates of Malayan workers. Chin Peng is Malaya's Ho Chi Minh, but a Ho Chih Minh manqué. Like Ho Chi Minh, Chin Peng was a communist who, having played a key part in local resistance to the Japanese occupation, led the struggle against the post-war restoration of European colonialism. Yet, whereas Ho Chi Minh established the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Chin Peng was thwarted in his attempt to create a socialist state in Malaya. Consequently, while the one became a national hero, the other has been cast out from the land of his birth and until recently has been without a voice in its history. The publication of his memoirs in 2003, however, enables us to reappraise Chin Peng's part in the achievement of Malayan independence.


A novel clustering based Short Term Load Forecasting (STLF) using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to forecast the 48 half hourly loads for next day is presented in this paper. The proposed architecture uses the historical load and temperature to forecast the next day load. It is trained using back propagation algorithm and tested. The daily average load of each day for all the training patterns and testing patterns is calculated and the patterns are clustered using a threshold value between the daily average load of the testing pattern and the daily average load of the training patterns. The results obtained from neural network are presented and the results show that the clustering based approach is more accurate.


Purpose: This paper examines whether agency costs predict disciplinary takeover likelihood for UK listed companies between 1986 and 2015. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using survival analysis, our approach is to identify candidates for disciplinary takeover on the basis of Tobin's Q (TQ), which is consistent with the approach advocated by Manne (1965). We then examine how indicators of agency costs affect takeover likelihood within the set of disciplinary candidates. Findings: We provide evidence of the effectiveness of Tobin's Q, rather than excess return, in identifying disciplinary takeover candidates. Takeover hazard for disciplinary candidates is higher for companies with higher levels of asset utilization and sales growth in particular. Companies with stronger agency problems are relatively less susceptible to disciplinary takeover. Practical Implications: Given the UK context of our study, where anti-takeover provisions are disallowed, and when compared to findings of US studies, our results imply some support for the effectiveness of an open merger policy. Originality/Value: While the connection between takeover likelihood and the market for corporate control has been made in previous studies, our study adopts a more explicit agency theory framework than previous studies of takeover likelihood. A key component of our contribution follows from differentiating candidates for disciplinary takeovers from other forms of M&A.


In this paper, we consider the effect of feedback error on the performance of the joint adaptive modulation and diversity combining (AMDC) scheme which was previously studied with an assumption of perfect feedback channels. In order to compensate for the performance degradation due to feedback error, we propose the path adjustment algorithm for diversity combining. We quantify the performance of the joint AMDC scheme in the presence of feedback error, in terms of the average spectral efficiency, the average number of combined paths, and the average bit error rate. Selected numerical examples are presented and discussed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed feedback error compensation strategy with adaptive combining.


The selection of the system voltage in electric and hybrid electric vehicles is one of the most important factors in determining the overall system's efficiency and cost. This optimal voltage level can only be determined by treating the vehicle as a complete system, including all of the interactions between the various subsystems. This paper attempts to answer the question: "What is the optimal voltage for an electric or hybrid electric vehicle as a function of its power requirements?" This question is answered by developing models and evaluating the interaction between the various components and subsystems in a vehicle. From this analysis relationships are identified between system packaging, power, cost and efficiency that can be used to optimize the voltage level and to start the discussion of standardization of system voltage rating as a function of power rating.


The adoption of International Standards on Auditing (ISA) by IAPI as a new auditing standard in Indonesia is unavoidable choice.  As a consequences, alteration of teaching materials on higher education into ISA is considered as a necessary step that has to be taken. If the presumption of institutional isomorfism is taken place by IAPI, the feared of unwellprepared higher education and lectures in the process of adoption and integration new auditing standard has a reasonable reasons. This research is conducted to examine relationship of organization support and individual factor in the process of developing and teaching of audit course material to conform to ISA. Data collection in this research is based on survey that has been used in many similar researches. Training variable represent organization support as well as self-efficacy represent individual variable. Structural equation modeling is applied in this research. Finding of this research demonstrate that hypothesis of relationship between training  and self-efficacy  and teaching material is significantly supported so that this research elaborate institutional theory of institutional isomorphism. Finding of hypothesis examination indicates that organization support in the form of training could be a proper medium to increase lecturer competency especially in the ISA implementation. Furthermore, professionalism itself could be an important root for the creation of isomorphism norm. Keywords: ISA, institutional isomorphism , isomorphism mimetic, isomorphism norm, training, self-efficacy.


This article is a close reading of Alice Munro's 'Queenie', principally using the tools of narratology and literary linguistics. I argue that the story illustrates many hallmarks of Munro's art, such as temporal disruption, nuances in narrative dynamism, meticulous attention to character idiolect, indeterminacy and ambiguity. However, it is in addition distinguished by passages of writing that are exceptional in their emotional intensity, and in the extent to which they consequently engage the reader. These passages (those that linguist Michael Toolan would describe as 'emotionally immersive') are identifiable and made salient by various grammatical and stylistic means. I argue that these are orchestrated in order to heighten the sense of loss, longing and abandonment in the narrative, making it an especially affecting reading experience.


Background Tobacco exposure during pregnancy is associated with several adverse outcomes in infants. We investigated the association between tobacco exposure during pregnancy (both active and second-hand) and various infections in infants up to 1 year. Methods This prospective cohort study used a fixed dataset (jecs-an-20180131) from the Japan Environment and Children's Study of registered births in Japan during 2011–2014 that included 104,065 fetal records from enrolled pregnant women. Based on the participants' responses to the questionnaire on smoking status, mothers were first divided into "never smoked," "quit smoking," and "current smoker" groups and then into "no second-hand smoking (SHS)" and "SHS" groups. Infectious diseases included central nervous system infection, otitis media (OM), upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), gastroenteritis (GI), and urinary tract infection. Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using logistic regression analysis and adjusted for maternal, socioeconomic, and postnatal confounding factors. Results Among the 73,205 newborns enrolled, multivariable analysis revealed that the aOR of LRTI and GI was 1.20 (95% CI, 1.07–1.33) and 1.18 (95% CI, 1.04–1.35), respectively, for the "current smoker with/without SHS" group compared with the "never smoked without SHS" group. "Quit smoking without SHS" was not associated with the risk of LRTI. SHS was associated with an increased risk of OM, URTI, LRTI, and GI, especially with LRTI and GI. Conclusion Exposure to tobacco smoke during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of OM, URTI, LRTI, and GI in infants during their first year of life.


Four eight sample programmable intracell charge correlators have been operated in parallel to give sixteen levels of weighting. The device is capable of accepting both analogue and digital input signals with the variable weighting function being effected digitally. Output characteristics illustrating the uniformity between the cells and the linearity of summation are presented.


Azo dyes that are extensively used in textile industries are recalcitrant xenobiotic compounds causing a serious damage to the environment. Degradation of azo dyes being a necessity diverse dye dumped soils were screened for dye degrading yeasts. One efficient yeast isolate capable of decolorizing both mono-azo dyes and di-azo dyes was selected, immobilized by entrapment method and studied for decolorization efficiency. The isolate was morphologically, culturally and biochemically identified as Saccharomyces sp. Sodium alginate entrapped yeast cells were studied for decolorization of commercially available textile dyes having azo groups. The extent of colour removal in the culture medium was assessed through the decrease in dye absorbance of the supernatants. The immobilized yeast's decolorization abilities were different and varied with inoculum size, incubation time and nutrients like carbon and nitrogen sources. The fermentation conditions like pH, temperature and aeration had no profound effect. The decolorization ranged from 70-100%. Complete decolorization was seen within 12 and 18 hrs depending on inoculum size. The immobilized beads with yeasts could be reused efficiently for three cycles. The dye degrading immobilized Saccharomyces isolate could be commercially significant as it is efficiently degrading both mono-azo and di-azo dyes, different dye waste waters in a semi-continuous manner and so could also be used for detoxification of industrial effluents.


Adolescents are dened as the young people between the age groups of 10 and 19 years as per the WHO records.
Adolescence is a transition period from childhood to adult life as it is regarded as the intermediate period between the
childhood age and the adult age. Menstruation occurs every month periodically except during pregnancy. The maintenance of menstrual hygienic
methods is a very challenging task to the adolescent girls. Social prohibitions and traditional beliefs blocked the access to get the right kind of
information to adolescent girls that led to poor hygiene practices. Menstruation has often been dealt with secrecy in many cultures. Aim:
Attitude towards myths and misconceptions among adolescent girls during the menstruation. To assess the attitude regarding myths Objective:
and misconceptions among adolescent girls during the menstruation. To examine the level of attitude of adolescent girls towards Myths and
Misconceptions Tool: The Tool used for the present study was self structured questionnaire which was developed by the researcher. Results:
Many of number of adolescent girls is having low attitude i.e., having many myths and misconceptions towards menstruation and very few
sample is having high attitude which is indicating that minimal sample is not having negative attitude towards the myths and misconceptions.
Sample: Sample of the present study consists of 300 adolescent girls from government vocational colleges in Chittoor District of Andhra
Pradesh State. There are signicant differences between age, religion, educational quali Conclusion: cations of mother's, type of family and
mode of communication among adolescent girls with regard to their attitude towards myths and misconceptions during the menstruation. There
is low level of attitude towards the myths and misconceptions among adolescent girls during the menstruation


ABSTRACT Leung, J.Y.S., 2015. Habitat heterogeneity determining the macrobenthic infaunal community in a mangrove swamp in South China: Implication for plantation and plant invasion. Mangroves have been severely disturbed by human exploitation over the last few decades, and mangrove plantation programs have been launched to restore degraded mangroves worldwide. However, mangrove plantations can change habitat heterogeneity, potentially altering the macrobenthic infaunal community, an important constituent in mangrove ecosystems. The Tai O mangrove swamp in Hong Kong was chosen as the study site for evaluation of the significance of habitat heterogeneity on the macrobenthic infaunal community by interpreting infaunal and environmental data through univariate and multivariate analyses. Infauna and sediment samples were collected by sediment cores in habitats with an increasing order of habitat heterogeneity (mudflat < seedling < Kandelia < Kandelia with algal mats < pneumatophore). Compared with other areas, a higher Shannon-Weaver index was found in the seedling area and higher abundance was found in the mudflat area. Spearman correlation analysis revealed that abundance, Margalef's species richness, and the Shannon-Weaver index were negatively correlated with root biomass, particle size in phi value, and redox potential. Analysis of similarities revealed that different habitats had different macrobenthic infaunal communities. Biota–environment analysis and a distance-based linear model both showed unequivocally that root biomass was the paramount factor in determining the macrobenthic infaunal community. The findings signified the importance of habitat heterogeneity, largely depending on root biomass, in determining the macrobenthic infaunal community and implied that plantation or plant invasion in open areas poses far-reaching consequences in mangrove ecosystems.


In the recent time there is an increase in the use of medicinal plants for treatment of ailments. This is owning to availability and low cost of herbal materials, which has increased the use of plants such as Viscum album for medicinal purposes. These plants may contain mineral elements, important phytochemicals and functional groups for healthy leaving, but increased use of this plant could lead to magnification of the mineral elements. Therefore, leaves of mistletoe (Viscum album) harvested from kola nut tree (Cola nitida) in Imo state, South Eastern Nigeria was studied. The study was aimed at determining the elemental content, phytochemicals as well as Fourier Transform Infra-red (FTIR) analysis of petroleum ether and chloroform extract of Viscum album harvested from Cola nitida. The sample for elemental analysis was digested with mixture of concentrated nitric acid (HNO3) and perchloric acid (HClO4). Petroleum ether and chloroform were used as solvents to extract the sample used for phytochemical and FTIR analysis. Elemental content analysis indicates that Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn and Zn were present at varying concentrations. The elemental content is in the order Fe > Mn > Cu > Mg >Zn > Cr > Ca. The presence of flavonoids, alkaloids, phenols, saponins and tannins were confirmed by the phytochemical screening. FTIR analysis indicates that alcohols, amides, aromatics and carbonyl compounds are present in the chloroform and petroleum ether extract of Viscum album World Scientific News 132 (2019) 84-97 -85harvested from cola nitida, though at different intensities. The presence of some essential minerals as well as some phytochemicals and some important functional groups must have necessitated the use of this plant for medicinal purposes.


Body plans often evolve through changes in the number of repeated parts or serial homologs. Using the butterfly Bicyclus anynana, RiveraColón et al. studied the genetics underlying heritability... The underlying genetic changes that regulate the appearance and disappearance of repeated traits, or serial homologs, remain poorly understood. One hypothesis is that variation in genomic regions flanking master regulatory genes, also known as input–output genes, controls variation in trait number, making the locus of evolution almost predictable. Another hypothesis implicates genetic variation in up- or downstream loci of master control genes. Here, we use the butterfly Bicyclus anynana, a species that exhibits natural variation in eyespot number on the dorsal hindwing, to test these two hypotheses. We first estimated the heritability of dorsal hindwing eyespot number by breeding multiple butterfly families differing in eyespot number and regressing eyespot numbers of offspring on midparent values. We then estimated the number and identity of independent genetic loci contributing to eyespot number variation by performing a genome-wide association study with restriction site-associated DNA sequencing from multiple individuals varying in number of eyespots sampled across a freely breeding laboratory population. We found that dorsal hindwing eyespot number has a moderately high heritability of ∼0.50 and is characterized by a polygenic architecture. Previously identified genomic regions involved in eyespot development, and novel ones, display high association with dorsal hindwing eyespot number, suggesting that homolog number variation is likely determined by regulatory changes at multiple loci that build the trait, and not by variation at single master regulators or input–output genes.


We present an effective computational protocol (cLR2) to describe both solvatochromism and fluorosolvatochromism. This protocol, which couples the polarizable continuum model to time-dependent density functional theory, simultaneously accounts for both linear-response and state-specific solvation effects. A series of test cases, including solvatochromic and fluorosolvatochromic compounds and excited-state intramolecular proton transfers, are used to highlight that cLR2 is especially beneficial for modeling bright excitations possessing a significant charge-transfer character, as well as cases in which an accurate balance between states of various polarities should be restored.


Three-dimensional (3D) TiO2–graphene frameworks (TGFs) with macroporous architecture were fabricated through the in situ synthesis of TiO2 with the participation of graphene oxide followed by hydrothermal assembly. TGFs exhibited a 3D hierarchical porous architecture with mesopores (2.4 nm), macropores (10–30 μm) and a large specific surface area (196 m2 g−1), which not only provided contacts between the electrode material and the electrolyte but also increased the mass transport of Li-ions in the charge/discharge process. When it was used as a cathode material in Li-ion batteries, TGFs presented an excellent reversible specific capacity of 210 mA h g−1 at 100 mA g−1 and an outstanding reversible cycling stability (111 mA h g−1 after 500 cycles); even at the current density of 500 mA g−1, TGF also performed very well. This excellent electrochemical performance was attributed to the unique 3D hierarchical porous architecture and the synergistic effects of TiO2 and graphene in Li-ion storage and transport.


The lung lesions produced by multiple short-term intratracheal instillations of saline solutions of sodium zirconium lactate (NaZL), zirconium-aluminum-glycine hydroxychloride complex (ZAG), and aluminum chlorhydrate (ACH) in hamsters were studied by light and electron microscopy. These solutions produced lesions beginning with exudative pneumonia followed by pneumonitis (interstitial pneumonia) and foreign body granulomas. Electron microscopic microprobe analysis demonstrated the metallic component of the instilled compounds in membrane-bound cytoplasmic inclusions of macrophages. The lesions produced by NaZL and ZAG were similar to those produced by ACH. These lesions were also similar to those in previous reports of aerosol exposure of animals to zirconium or aluminum, or to other unrelated compounds.


This paper presents a complete methodology to design a totally self-checking (TSC) sequential system based on the generic architecture of finite-state machine and data path (FSMD), such as the one deriving from VHDL specifications. The control part of the system is designed to be self-checking by adopting a state assignment providing a constant Hamming distance between each pair of binary codes. The design of the data path is based on both classical methodologies (e.g., parity, Berger code) and ad hoc strategies (e.g., multiplexer cycle) suited for the specific circuit structure. Self-checking properties and costs are evaluated on a set of benchmark FSM's and on a number of VHDL circuits.


BACKGROUND
Malaria exists as an endemic in many countries including Bangladesh and the malaria vaccine is not yet available here. The study aimed to assess the level of knowledge and acceptance of the malaria vaccination among the parents of children under the age of five in Bangladesh's malaria-endemic areas and the sociodemographic, behavioural, and household factors associated with the acceptance and knowledge of the malaria vaccine.

METHODS
From January to March 2022, a cross-sectional study was conducted in all five malaria-endemic districts of Bangladesh, involving 405 parents of children under the age of 5 who met the inclusion criteria. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the factor affecting parents' acceptance and knowledge of malaria vaccination in children under five and other variables.

RESULTS
Majority (54%) of the respondents were mothers. Almost half (49%) of the respondents were aged between 26 and 35 years old and around 90% were from rural areas. A small portion (20%) of the participants were housewives and 46% of them completed primary education. Overall, 70% of the study participants reported that they would accept malaria vaccination independently. About one-fourth (25%) heard about the malaria vaccine and 48% of them mentioned health professionals as the source of information. Knowledge of malaria vaccination was found associated with residence, income, and family size. Acceptance and knowledge were both associated with residence, education, occupation, income, and family size. In a multivariable analysis, housing structure, house wall, house window, knowledge of malaria, testing for malaria, and being diagnosed with malaria were all associated with knowledge of and acceptance of getting vaccinated against malaria.

CONCLUSIONS
The present study highlights the necessity of creating awareness of malaria vaccines in epidemic areas of Bangladesh. This study offers crucial data to develop a policy for a novel malaria vaccine, supporting its adoption in Bangladesh.

PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION
This study was based on interviews. The interviewees were recruited as public representatives from the malaria-endemic area to assist us in building an understanding of knowledge and acceptance of the malaria vaccine among parents of under-five children in Bangladesh.


The aim of the article is to reveal the risk factors and features of the clinical course of hypertension in men and women. Material and Methods: A prospective study of 204 patients was carried out. The survey included a sociological survey, with the use of special socio-sanitary profiles, matters which concern lifestyle characteristics of respondents, hereditary risk factors, peculiarities of hypertension. Results: Men often have a hidden crisis-free for hypertension with a great number of complications; women have a longer duration of the disease, with a more severe clinical picture. Conclusion: The differences of social and health behavior with the existing risk factors and the clinical course of hypertension according to the gender of the patient have been revealed.


Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a general risk factor for cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Western populations. This study assessed the relationship between MetS and its compo-nents in Ghanaian patients presenting with CKD. The study population comprised of 146 non-dialysed individuals with CKD with mean age of 50.2±1.1 years. Eighty (80) age and sex matched healthy participants without kidney pathology were used as controls. Estimated GFR (eGFR) was calculated using the 4-variable Modification of Diet in Renal Disease ( 4v -MDRD) and CKD was defined as eGFR<60 ml/min/1.73m 2 . MetS was defined as the presence of three or more of the following risk factors according to the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III) criteria: elevated blood pressure (BP), low high density lipoprotein cho-lesterol (HDL-C), high triglycerides (TG), elevated plasma glucose and abdominal obesity. The prevalence of MetS in this study was 30.1% and a significant relationship was observed between the number of MetS components and the presence CKD. The CKD group are about 3 times at risk of developing MetS as compared to the control group (95% CI=0.9-8.8). Female participants with CKD are 9 fold at risk of developing MetS as compared to the male counterparts (95% CI=1.7-47.9). The CKD patients were about 2 fold at risk of developing hypertension (95% CI=1.7-3.3) and dia-betes (95% CI=1.2-2.6), about 3 times at risk of developing hypertriglyceridaemia (95% CI=1.1-5.5) and approximately 4 times at risk of developing proteinuria (95% CI=2.7-7.0). Increased WC, TG and SBP are components of the metabolic syndrome which contribute to the initiation and pro-gression of CKD.


Training networks to perform metric relocalization traditionally requires accurate image correspondences. In practice, these are obtained by restricting domain coverage, employing additional sensors, or capturing large multi-view datasets. We instead propose a self-supervised solution, which exploits a key insight: localizing a query image within a map should yield the same absolute pose, regardless of the reference image used for registration. Guided by this intuition, we derive a novel transform consistency loss. Using this loss function, we train a deep neural network to infer dense feature and saliency maps to perform robust metric relocalization in dynamic environments. We evaluate our framework on synthetic and real-world data, showing our approach outperforms other supervised methods when a limited amount of ground-truth information is available.


Piliated gonococci were competent in genetic transformation in all stages of growth in minimal and enriched media, but nonpiliated cells were almost totally incompetent. Uptake of deoxyribonucleic acid into a deoxyribonuclease-insensitive state was observed only in competent piliated cells. Competence was not affected by washing of competent cells or treatment of competent cells with proteolytic enzymes. Expression of competence required presence of any of several different monovalent or divalent cations, as well as a utilizable source of energy. Efforts to produce genotypically or phenotypically competent derivatives of nonpiliated cells were unsuccessful. These experiments are consistent with the idea that pili may play a role in the irreversible uptake of transforming deoxyribonucleic acid by the gonococcus, but fail to provide evidence for other types of competence factors.


Zinc is a widespread pollutant released from industrial combustion, automobile residue, and mining. Zinc accumulates in soils and mobilises into plant tissue where it may be consumed to potentially toxic levels by leaf feeding insects, including developing pollinators. While zinc tolerance thresholds have been previously assessed in insect pollinators, most observations are limited to model organisms and pest species. We lack understanding of zinc tolerance in insects of conservation concern. We assess dietary zinc tolerance of developing caterpillars from wild populations of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), a species of conservation concern, whose caterpillars are commonly exposed to elevated dietary zinc exposure in milkweed plants along roadsides. We contrast monarch zinc tolerance with that of cabbage white butterfly caterpillars (Pieris rapae), a non‐native pest species. Tolerance was assessed by rearing caterpillars on artificial diets containing varying levels of zinc. Zinc reduced monarch survival at levels as low as 344 mg kg−1 but positively impacted cabbage white survival at 227 and 738 mg kg−1. Cabbage whites also displayed prolonged development time, smaller adult body size, and slower growth rate, consistent with the possibility that zinc tolerance had fitness costs. Our results support previous observations that heavy metal tolerance varies between species and highlight the importance of broadening our understanding of tolerance to insect species of conservation concern before drawing general conclusions about insect susceptibility to heavy metal pollution. Nonetheless, our results suggest that zinc pollution alone is unlikely a risk in developing roadside habitat for monarch butterflies.


During such a complex crisis as the one experienced by humanity since the first quarter of 2020, it is necessary to develop tools that contribute to creating the corporate image for organizations that are currently interested in being identified as brands with high social and environmental commitment. Likewise, elements that contribute to building strong brands during a context that has changed consumption priorities are required. For this reason, this paper aims at adapting the dimension of socially responsible brand personality (SRBP), proposed by Mayorga (2017), taking the situation experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic as a new context. The objective of this research is to contribute to the management of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by providing, from a communicative perspective, a tool that optimizes the creation of a socially responsible image by the different stakeholders. The results allow us to conclude that there is a structural modification of the brand personality proposed by Mayorga, which can be presumed to be generated by the current environment, and which, therefore, can be established as a pillar of CSR management in the new normal, from a relational point of view. The findings clearly identify the virtue of integrity in brand personality, which is made up of two attributes, which, in turn, are made up of 17 traits that can identify a socially responsible brand.


This chapter is devoted to the analysis of the financing activities of innovative SMEs versus non-innovative SMEs in Canada. The study uses R&D expenditure as a proxy for innovativeness and is based on a descriptive analysis of data obtained from a database on demand and sources for financing. One of the main findings of the study is that innovative SMEs, as the rest of small firms, mainly resort to debt financing, but also that they recourse to other sources of funding such as equity in a higher proportion than other SMEs. It also found that innovative firms are less successful in obtaining the financing they request and that they face more stringent financing conditions in terms of higher interest rates and shorter loan terms.


Stroke is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Despite recent important advances in therapeutic approaches, only a very small proportion of patients receive treatment and treatment is still far from satisfactory. Several conditions and life-style factors have been identified as risk factors for stroke, and strategies aimed at modifying these are the best way to reduce the burden imposed by the disease. We review the available data on the effectiveness of modifying risk factors by means of life-style changes, drugs, and surgery in the primary prevention of stroke. Identification of new risk factors and of markers for individuals at high risk is essential for more efficacious prevention.


Documen Abstract Objective. — The goal of this study was to evaluate the consistency of pituitary macroadenoma using apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) with line-scan diffusion-weighted imaging (LSDWI). Methods. — Patients with pituitary macroadenoma (n = 19) were studied prospectively. The LSDWI was performed using a maximum b factor of 1000 s/mm. The consistency of macroadenoma was rated as soft, intermediate or hard at transsphenoidal surgery. The ADC values of tumors were compared with the tumor-consistency ratings. Results. — A soft consistency was found at surgery in 13 patients (mean ADC: 0.84 ± 0.1 × 10 mm/s); an intermediate consistency was observed in six patients (mean ADC: 0.81 ± 0.16 × 10 mm/s). No tumors of hard consistency were found. There was no significant difference in ADC values between tumors of soft consistency compared with tumors of intermediate consistency (P = 0.37). Conclusions. — A relationship between tumor consistency and the ADCs of soft and intermediate macroadenomas was not shown in this study using LSDWI. © 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.


The primary aim of this research was to assess the quality of the thermal environment of six Australian nursing homes, and to understand and quantify the impacts of the indoor thermal environment on the perceptions and comfort of staff, residents and other occupants. The impact of the thermal environment on perceptions and comfort of building occupants of six nursing homes was determined through: 1) a long-term building evaluation survey (staff members only); and 2) a point-in-time thermal comfort study, involving 322 residents and 187 non-residents. In addition, a combination of spot-measurements and long-term monitoring of indoor air temperatures was used to assess the overall quality of the thermal environment in the nursing homes. Results showed that some facilities did not provide a thermally comfortable environment for occupants through both summer and winter seasons, while results from the point-in-time study showed that residents preferred warmer temperatures (0.9°C) and generally wore more clothes than non-residents. The article also presents a discussion of the applicability of adaptive thermal comfort approaches to assessment of the indoor environment in nursing homes and differences between the perceptions/preferences of residents versus staff.


At inflammatory sites, cytotoxic agents are released and generated from invading immune cells and damaged tissue cells. The further fate of the inflammation highly depends on the presence of antagonizing principles that are able to inactivate these host-derived cytotoxic agents. As long as the affected tissues are well equipped with ready-to-use protective mechanisms, no damage by cytotoxic agents occurs and resolution of inflammation is initiated. However, long-lasting and severe immune responses can be associated with the decline, exhaustion, or inactivation of selected antagonizing principles. Hence, cytotoxic agents are only partially inactivated and contribute to damage of yet-unperturbed cells. Consequently, a chronic inflammatory process results. In this vicious circle of permanent cell destruction, not only novel cytotoxic elements but also novel alarmins and antigens are liberated from affected cells. In severe cases, very low protection leads to organ failure, sepsis, and septic shock. In this review, the major classes of host-derived cytotoxic agents (reactive species, oxidized heme proteins and free heme, transition metal ions, serine proteases, matrix metalloproteases, and pro-inflammatory peptides), their corresponding protective principles, and resulting implications on the pathogenesis of diseases are highlighted.


The present study was carried out to test the hypothesis that the familial risk of hypertension is elevated in individuals with glomerulonephritis. Sixty-three parents of 39 consecutive patients below the age of 50 years who were admitted with biopsy-confirmed primary glomerulonephritis (excluding familial glomerulonephritis) were examined. Of these parents, 57% had blood pressure greater than or equal to 160/95 mmHg and/or were taking antihypertensive medication (81% of hypertensives). In 138 parents of 87 controls (age- and sex-matched patients admitted to a surgical ward for trauma), hypertension was found in 32.6% (of whom 73% were on antihypertensive medication). Age, sex ratio and body mass index were comparable in both groups of parents. A similar proportion of parents of patients with glomerulonephritis (27%) and parents of controls (25%) had already died. There was no evidence of excess cardiovascular or renal mortality in either group of parents. Urinary abnormalities were found in a similar proportion of the parents of patients with glomerulonephritis (5%) and controls (8%). Although the effects of a shared environment are not formally excluded, the data are consistent with a possible increased genetic risk of hypertension in patients with primary chronic glomerulonephritis.


The metastatic calcifications, feasible in the renal chronic insufficiency, they are conditioned by tissular deposits of calcium. The metabolic and hormonal aetiology is inevitable. The known predilection for some tissues and organs in these calcic fixations, is gets to value the endonasal and cutaneous infrequent appearance, on this case.


There are difficulties in analyzing the stability of microgrids since they are located on various network structures. However, considering that the network often consists of passive elements, the passivity theory is applied in this paper to solve the above-mentioned problem. It has been formerly shown that when the network is weakly strictly positive real (WSPR), the DC microgrid is stable if all interfaces between the microgrid and converters are made to be passive, which is called interface passivity. Then, the feedback passivation method is proposed for the controller design of various DC–DC converters to achieve the interface passivity. The interface passivity is different from the passivity of closed-loop systems on which the passivity based control (PBC) concentrates. The feedback passivation design is detailed for typical buck converters and boost converters in terms of conditions that the controller parameters should satisfy. The theoretical results are verified by a hardware-in-loop real-time labotray (RTLab) simulation of a DC microgrid with four generators.


Despite the increasing prevalence of steatosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB), whether the changes in steatosis impact fibrosis regression during antiviral therapy remain unclear. We aimed to identify the association between histological changes of steatosis and fibrosis in patients undergone antiviral treatment. Patients with paired liver biopsies before and after 78 weeks of antiviral therapy were enrolled in this study. Liver fibrosis was assessed by the Ishak score combined with Beijing Classification predominantly progressive, indeterminate, and predominately regressive score. Steatosis was evaluated by the nonalcoholic fatty liver disease activity score. Collagen in each site was quantitated by second harmonic generation/two photon excitation fluorescence technology. Serum proteomic changes after treatment were characterized by mass‐based spectrometry. A total of 239 CHB patients were included and divided into four groups according to the changes in steatosis: 162 (67.8%) had no steatosis throughout, 24 (10.0%) developed new‐onset steatosis, 21 (8.8%) had initial steatosis which disappeared, and 32 (13.4%) had persistent steatosis. The persistent steatosis group showed the lowest rate of fibrosis regression (14/32, 43.8%). Persistent steatosis correlated with decreased fibrosis regression significantly after adjusting for age, sex, fibrosis stage, and metabolic factors at baseline, as well as the viral response (adjusted odds ratio = 0.380, 95% confidence interval 0.145–0.996, p = 0.049). This decreased fibrosis regression was associated with accumulated collagen in the perisinusoidal area. Patients with persistent steatosis showed unique changes in glycolipid metabolism according to the serum proteomic atlas. Persistent steatosis correlated with decreased fibrosis regression during antiviral therapy in patients with CHB.


Aim This study aims to assess the impact of climate change on forests and vascular epiphytes, using species distribution models (SDMs). Location Island of Taiwan, subtropical East Asia. Methods A hierarchical modelling approach incorporating forest migration velocity and forest type–epiphyte interactions with classical SDMs was used to model the responses of eight forest types and 237 vascular epiphytes for the year 2100 under two climate change scenarios. Forest distributions were modelled and modified by dominant tree species' dispersal limitations and hypothesized persistence under unfavourable climate conditions (20 years for broad-leaved trees and 50 years for conifers). The modelled forest projections together with 16 environmental variables were used as predictors in models of epiphyte distributions. A null method was applied to validate the significance of epiphyte SDMs, and potential vulnerable species were identified by calculating range turnover rates. Results For the year 2100, the model predicted a reduction in the range of most forest types, especially for Picea and cypress forests, which shifted to altitudes c. 400 and 300 m higher, respectively. The models indicated that epiphyte distributions are highly correlated with forest types, and the majority (77–78%) of epiphyte species were also projected to lose 45–58% of their current range, shifting on average to altitudes c. 400 m higher than currently. Range turnover rates suggested that insensitive epiphytes were generally lowland or widespread species, whereas sensitive species were more geographically restricted, showing a higher correlation with temperature-related factors in their distributions. Main conclusions The hierarchical modelling approach successfully produced interpretable results, suggesting the importance of considering biotic interactions and the inclusion of terrain-related factors when developing SDMs for dependant species at a local scale. Long-term monitoring of potentially vulnerable sites is advised, especially of those sites that fall outside current conservation reserves where additional human disturbance is likely to exacerbate the effect of climate


Engineering of quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) tin halide perovskite structures is a promising pathway to achieve high-performance lead-free perovskite solar cells, with recently developed devices demonstrating over 14% efficiency. Despite the significant efficiency improvement over the bulk three-dimensional (3D) tin perovskite solar cells, the precise relationship between structural engineering and electron-hole (exciton) properties is not fully understood. Here, we study exciton properties in high-member quasi-2D tin perovskite (which is dominated by large n phases) and bulk 3D tin perovskite using electroabsorption (EA) spectroscopy. By numerically extracting the changes in polarizability and dipole moment between the excited and ground states, we show that more ordered and delocalized excitons are formed in the high-member quasi-2D film. This result indicates that the high-member quasi-2D tin perovskite film consists of more ordered crystal orientations and reduced defect density, which is in agreement with the over 5-fold increase in exciton lifetime and much improved solar cell efficiency in devices. Our results provide insights on the structure-property relationship of high-performance quasi-2D tin perovskite optoelectronic devices.