CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2008 Abstracts

Abstract #5145

Purpose : To describe 4-year local and ipsilateral breast recurrence-free intervals, overall freedom from disease failure, and disease-specific and overall survivals in a cohort of MammoSite Brachytherapy (MBT) patients with mature follow-up, treated at a single institution over a 6-year period. Methods and Materials : An analysis of MBT cases was performed using prospectively collected quality assurance database, departmental chart review, and electronic medical records. Patient-, tumor-, treatment-, and outcome-specific data were extracted and recorded into a research database. Eligible patients were required to have >6 months post-MBT follow-up. Local tumor failure was defined as pathologically-proven recurrence within 2 cm of the resected tumor bed, with all other ipsilateral breast recurrences (excluding axilla or internal mammary nodal failures) defined as ipsilateral breast failures. Any local, ipsilateral breast, nodal, or distant failure was censored for overall freedom from failure. Results : From 2004 through 2008, 115 MBT patients have been treated, of which 104 were eligible for the present analysis. Median patient age was 62 years (range 25–86). Primary tumors included ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) for 20 patients, T1a (12), T1b (31), T1c (34), and T2 (7). Lymph nodes were assessed in 94 patients (including all patients with invasive carcinomas), and revealed pN0 disease in 85 patients, pN1(mic) (3), and pN1a (6). Histologies of invasive carcinomas were ductal in 68 patients, lobular (3), mixed ductal/lobular (3), mucinous/colloid (7), medullary (2), and tubular (1). At a median follow up of 45.7 months (range 7.3-71.4), 6 patients have experienced disease recurrence, including 4 within the ipsilateral breast. Three patients with ipsilateral breast recurrence underwent salvage mastectomy, two of whom remain without evidence of disease recurrence at 56 and 14 months, respectively. Seven patients have died, 3 of or with recurrent breast cancer. Estimated 4-year outcomes for the entire cohort were: local tumor control 100%, ipsilateral breast control 97.0% (95% CI, 93.6%-100%), overall freedom from failure 93.8% (88.5%-99.5%), disease specific survival 97.8% (94.8%-100%) and overall survival 92.7% (87.2%-98.6%). Conclusions : The present study demonstrates low rates of local and ipsilateral breast disease failure in a well-defined cohort of MBT patients with mature follow-up.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(2 Suppl):Abstract nr 5145.


Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) promises data protection by computation on encrypted data, but demands resource-intensive computation. The most fundamental resource of FHE is modular multiplier, which needs to be evaluated for efficient implementation. In this work, we develop and evaluate ASIC implementations of the modular multiplier at the block-level and at the system-level. We study the efficiency of the multipliers in terms of performance-for-area and performance-for-power. Since these ASICs are used in FHE, we explore these multipliers within this system-level context with on-chip memory and interconnect limits. We explore ASIC implementations of modular multiplications using a state-of-the-art 22nm technology node with constant operand throughput to ensure a fair comparison. The study yields key insights about the performance-for-area efficiency and power efficiency of bit-serial and bit-parallel designs: Bit-parallel designs are more efficient than their bitserial counterparts. Montgomery multipliers with constrained modulus are the most power-efficient and area-efficient design. Iterative Montgomery multipliers incur minimum peak power for a polynomial multiplication, making them suitable for low-power voltage sources.


Opportunities for entrepreneurial entry into the craft-distilling product and market domains of the agricultural sector are presented in this study. Although the craft spirits industry in South Africa is currently in its infancy, the study is able to investigate potential entrepreneurial opportunities for such activities in the farming areas of the Western Cape Province. The first part of the study explores the supply side (product-led diversification) of the market. This in turn leads to a better understanding of the current state of the craft-distilling industry, and establishes a base for the survey. An appropriate survey instrument is developed and administered to existing distillers. The subsequent findings confirm the small size of the craft spirits industry. As expected, the small number of active producers generates a limited range of products in a market with established players having strong bargaining power. To perform effectively however, the entrepreneurial craft producer is advised not to compete directly with these players but rather to exploit niche product opportunities created in the premium consumer market segment attracted to handcrafted, locally-produced and customised offerings. By developing products with a competitive positioning of focussed differentiation complementary to the current portfolio of offerings, new market space can be created and new entrants should find attraction.

 Key words: Craft-distilling, diversification, entrepreneurship, industry analysis, market space, product spread, strategy.


Ruth and Mary are two heroines in Eugene O'Neill's plays Beyond the Horizon, and Long Day's Journey into Night. They have some similarities: when they are young, they are beautiful, native and full of hope towards the future life, but both make wrong choices; in the following years, both suffer a lot from these wrong choices, and feel regretful. This paper tries to explore these two tragic female images.


The Advent of the digital age has led to a rise in different types of data with every passing day. In fact, it is expected that half of the total data used around the world will be on the cloud nowadays. This complex data needs to be stored, processed and analyzed for information gaining that can be used for several organizations. Cloud computing provides an appropriate platform for Software Defined Networking (SDN) in communicating and computing requirements of the latter. It makes cloud-based networking a viable research field in the current scenario. However, several issues addressed and risk needs to be mitigated in the L2 cloud server. Virtual networks and cloud federation being considered in the network virtualization over L3 cloud router. This research work explores the existing research challenges and discusses open issues for the security in cloud computing and its uses in the relevant field by means of a comparative analysis of L2 server L3 router based on SDN tools. Also, an analysis of such issues are discussed and summarized. Finally, the best tool identified for the use cloud security.


Three new steroidal alkaloid glycosides, lycoperosides F-H (1-3), were isolated from tomato fruits (Lycopersicon sculentum) along with lycoperosides A-D, esculeoside A, and rutin. The structures of these glycosides were characterized as the 3-O-beta-lycotetraosides of 23(R)-23-acetoxy-27-hydroxy-27-O-beta-d-glucopyranosyltomatidine (1), (23S,24R)-23-acetoxy-24-O-beta-d-glucopyranosylsoladulcidine-24-ol (2), and 22-isopimpifolidine (3), by means of their spectroscopic data. Also obtained was the new natural product lycoperodine-1 (4).


Dihydroveratramine, tetrahydrojervine and Δ4-jervone, have been quantitatively compared with veratramine and jervine in regard to their antiaccelerator cardiac activity. The experiments were carried out using the heart-lung preparation of the dog under standard conditions of cardioacceleration caused by the continuous infusion of synthetic l -epinephrine.

A substance obtained by partial synthesis from pregnenolone, 20-(5'-methyl-2'-piperidyl)-Δ5-pregnen-3β, 20-diol, and kryptogenamine, prepared by partial synthesis from kryptogenin, have been shown to exhibit the characteristic antiaccelerator cardiac activity and have been included in the quantitative study.

The antiaccelerator cardiac activity decreases in the following order: veratramine > dihydroveratramine > tetrahydrojervine > 20-(5'-methyl-2'-piperidyl)-Δ5-pregnen-3β, 20-diol, jervine, Δ4-jervone > kryptogenamine.

Three types of steroid secondary amines exhibiting antiaccelerator cardiac activity, namely piperidine, pyrrolidine, and spiroaminoketal derivatives, have been considered. All of the substances characterized by high antiaccelerator potency are of the piperidine type.


During nervous system development, axons must navigate to specific target areas. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the cadherin CDH-4 is required for ventral nerve cord axonal navigation, and dorsal nerve cord fasciculation. How CDH-4 mediates axon navigation and fasciculation is currently unknown. To identify genes acting together with cdh-4, we isolated mutants suppressing the axon guidance defects of cdh-4 mutants. These suppressors showed partial suppression of axonal defects in the dorsal and ventral nerve cords seen in cdh-4 mutants. We identified one suppressor gene, prp-6, which encodes a component of the spliceosome. Complete loss-of-function alleles of prp-6 are lethal, suggesting that the mutation isolated in our suppressor screen is a partial loss-of-function allele. A previous study found that RNAi-induced suppression of prp-6 leads to changes in the expression of several 100 genes including the cadherin cdh-5. We found that overexpression of cdh-5 mimics the suppression seen in prp-6 mutants, suggesting that CDH-5 can partially compensate for the loss of CDH-4.


This paper proposes a theory for the behavior of freerunning or phase-locked oscillators that experience mutual injection pulling. The timeand frequency-domain responses are derived for each case and the profile of the resulting sidebands is calculated analytically. Experimental results obtained for two 1-GHz CMOS PLLs that are resistively coupled on-chip are presented.


FP-growth is the most famous algorithm for discovering frequent patterns. As the database size growths or the minimum support decreases, however, both of the memory requirement and execution time increase greatly. Many researchers tried to solve this problem by utilizing distributed computing techniques to improve the scalability and execution efficiency. In this paper, we propose a method for discovering frequent patterns from very large database in cloud computing environments. To build the whole FP-Tree, we use the disk as the secondary memory. Because the disk access is much slower than main memory, an efficient data structure for storing and retrieving FP-Tree from disk is also proposed. Through empirical evaluations on various simulation conditions, the proposed method delivers excellent performance in terms of scalability and execution time


Developing a low-cost and high-performance thermally regenerative battery (TRB) is significant for recovering low-grade waste heat. A self-stratified TRB induced by the density difference between electrolytes is proposed to remove the commercial anion exchange membrane (AEM) and avoid ammonia crossover. The simulation and experiment results show the uneven distribution of NH3, verifying the feasibility of self-stratified electrolytes. For better power generation performance, nanoprism Cu covering Ni electrodes with a high specific surface area and a stable framework are adopted to provide more reaction active sites for fast charge transfer during discharge. A maximum power density (12.7 mW cm-2) and a theoretical heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 2.4% (relative to Carnot efficiency of 27.5%) are obtained in the self-stratified TRB employing nanoprism Cu covering Ni electrodes. Moreover, the cost-effectiveness, simple structure, and sustainable discharge operation indicate that it will be a potential choice for energy conversion from low-grade heat.


Performance improvements, of catalytic converters, and longer service life can be achieved by improving the flow distribution of exhaust gases. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is an excellent and relatively inexpensive technique for rapid and efficient optimization of the flow. Studies indicate that a 3D representation is necessary because 2D is insufficient. The computations are confirmed by measurements of steady flow. A number of design parameters are systematically investigated and their effects on an index of flow uniformity established. The parameters include the geometry of the inlet tube and inlet cone, the geometry and placement of the monoliths, and the shape of the exit cone. The difficult flow conditions in close coupled converters are examined. The flow path is improved and the best location of the HEGO-sensor found. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD 858138.


Vertebroplasty was performed in 8 women in the age of from 43 till 80 years. The indication to intervention in one case was metastatic involvement, in four cases - osteoporotic vertebral fractures; to three patients vertebroplasty was performed in occasion of vertebral body gemangioma. The results of this study revealed, that for increase of safety the authors recommend to carry out the vertebroplasty under local anesthesia at presence of an anesthesiologist for possible additional intravenous anesthesia. The safest from the point of view of extravertebral distributions of cement is transpedicular access; flebospondylography does not allow predicting reliably distribution of cement in view of significant distinction of physical and chemical properties of entered substances however can be used for a tentative estimation of venous outflow at tumor process in vertebral bodies.


Contrary to nonlinear harmonic generation, harmonic lasing in a high-gain FEL can provide much more intense, stable,and narrow-band FEL beam which is easier to handle if the fundamental is suppressed. We performed thorough study of the problem withing framework of 3D model taking into account all essential effects. We found that harmonic lasing is much more robust than usually thought, and can be widely used in the existing or planned X-ray FEL facilities. LCLS after a minor modification can lase at the 3rd harmonic up to the photon energy of 25-30 keV providing multi-gigawatt power level. At the European XFEL the harmonic lasing would allow to extend operating range ultimately up to 100 keV.


Abstract Understanding the mechanisms which inactivate airborne viruses is a current challenge. The composition of human respiratory aerosol is poorly understood and needs to be adequately investigated for use in aerovirology studies. Here, the physicochemical properties of porcine respiratory fluid (PRF) from the trachea and lungs were investigated both in bulk solutions and in aerosols. The mass ratio of Na:K in PRF compared with cell culture media (Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium, DMEM), which is frequently used in aerovirology studies, was significantly lower (∼2:1 vs ∼16:1). PRF contained significantly more potassium and protein than DMEM. PRF aerosols of all samples were similarly hygroscopic to human respiratory aerosol. PRF particles could nucleate with spatially separated crystals, indicating that the protein matrix was sufficiently viscous to prevent the complete coalescence of aqueous salts prior to efflorescence. The effects of these differences in compositions on the viability of viruses are currently not well understood. The virus suspensions in aerovirology studies need to be reconsidered to adequately reflect a real-world expiration scenario.


Two components of spherically symmetric, inhomogeneous dust penetrating each other are introduced as a generalization of the well known Tolman - Bondi dust solution. The field equations of this model are formulated and general properties are discussed. Special solutions with additional symmetries - an extra Killing or homothetic vector - and their matching to the corresponding Tolman - Bondi solution are investigated.


There exist many scenarios where pixel information is available only on a non-regular subset of pixel positions. For further processing, however, it is required to reconstruct such images on a regular grid. Besides many other algorithms, frequency selective reconstruction can be applied for this task. It performs a block-wise generation of a sparse signal model as an iterative superposition of Fourier basis functions and uses this model to replace missing or corrupted pixels in an image. In this paper, it is shown that it is not required to spend the same amount of iterations on both homogeneous and heterogeneous regions. Hence, a new texture-dependent approach for frequency selective reconstruction is introduced that distributes the number of iterations depending on the texture of the regions to be reconstructed. Compared to the original frequency selective reconstruction and depending on the number of iterations, visually noticeable gains in PSNR of up to 1.47 dB can be achieved.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

There are 10 times more bacterial cells in the human body than human cells and various bacteria are known to influence carcinogenesis. Therefore we sought to investigate if publicly available whole genome and whole transcriptome sequencing data generated by large public cancer genome efforts, like The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), could be used to examine the microbial composition of tumors. The Burrows-Wheeler Aligner (BWA) was used to align a selection of Illumina paired-end sequencing data from TCGA data to the human reference genome and all complete bacterial genomes in the RefSeq database. Reads were filtered for low complexity and duplicates and then assigned an Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU). Through careful consideration of all of the bacterial taxa present in the cancer types investigated, we found an increased abundance of Acinetobacter spp. in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) samples, Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in ovarian serous cystadenocarcinomas (OV), and Pseudomonas spp. in stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) samples. Further investigation prompted us to conclude that Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex read pairs were found in the OV samples due to sequencing center batch effects. The same analysis of the AML and STAD samples suggests that Acinetobacter spp. are truly present in AML samples and that Pseudomonas spp. are actually present in the STAD samples investigated. Upon completion of this analysis, we determined that it is possible to identify bacteria in human tumor samples. However, care must be taken to assess bacteria that arrived in the sample via various forms of contamination. It is also important to note that the sequencing library method heavily biases the bacterial taxa identified. One sample sequenced with RNA-Sequencing, whole exome sequencing (WXS), and whole genome sequencing (WGS) had extensively different bacteria reflected in the RNA-Seq data compared to that of WGS and WXS. In the future, a comprehensive approach should be used when evaluating the microbiome of tumor samples via sequencing data. The methods used in this study are valid and useful for identifying the presence of bacteria in human samples, but may not be an exhaustive picture. More weight should be given to this approach in the future when bacterial associations with diseases are suspected.

Citation Format: Kelly M. Robinson, Karsten B. Sieber, Kathleen E. Anderson, David R. Riley, Julie C. Dunning Hotopp. The microbiome of cancer as seen through the lens of public genome sequence data. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 1534. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-1534


This paper tackles the critical challenge of object navigation in autonomous navigation systems, particularly focusing on the problem of target approach and episode termination in environments with long optimal episode length in Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) based methods. While effective in environment exploration and object localization, conventional DRL methods often struggle with optimal path planning and termination recognition due to a lack of depth information. To overcome these limitations, we propose a novel approach, namely the Depth-Inference Termination Agent (DITA), which incorporates a supervised model called the Judge Model to implicitly infer object-wise depth and decide termination jointly with reinforcement learning. We train our judge model along with reinforcement learning in parallel and supervise the former efficiently by reward signal. Our evaluation shows the method is demonstrating superior performance, we achieve a 9.3% gain on success rate than our baseline method across all room types and gain 51.2% improvements on long episodes environment while maintaining slightly better Success Weighted by Path Length (SPL). Code and resources, visualization are available at: https://github.com/HuskyKingdom/DITA_acml2023


Black, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT), individuals experience higher rates of violent victimization compared to their cisgender heterosexual counterparts over their life course. Among Black LGBT people, witnessing and experiencing violence have been related to poor health outcomes, including depression, risky sexual behavior, substance use, and lower engagement in healthcare services. We engaged in research to better understand the effects of violence experienced by the Black LGBT youth community. We conducted a qualitative, phenomenological study focused on the causes of violence occurring in the lives of Black LGBT youth engaged in a recreation-based community health program. The study consisted of four focus groups with Black LGBT youth (N = 24) and in-depth individual interviews with medical and social service providers who work with Black LGBT youth (N = 4). Data analysis presented three themes: (1) causes of violence, (2) the context of intracommunity violence, and (3) solutions to violence. The first theme describes the reasoning, motivation, or explanation for violence experienced by the Black LGBT youth community. The second theme, the context of intracommunity violence, describes how violence occurs specifically within Black LGBT young adult communities. The third theme, solutions to violence, describes the recommendations for addressing, reducing, and/or eliminating violence within the Black LGBT youth community. Our findings highlight the need for safe spaces, culturally-relevant services, and trusted figures for Black LGBT young adults, which can serve as mechanisms for mitigating violence.


The case of Terri Schiavo resulted in substantial media attention about the use of artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) especially by percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG). In this article, I review ethical and legal principles governing decisions to choose or forgo ANH at the end of life, including issues of autonomy and decision-making capacity, similarities and differences between ANH and other medical treatments, the role of proxies when patients lack decision-making capacity, and the equivalence of withholding and withdrawing treatment. Evidence for palliative or life-sustaining benefits for ANH are reviewed in three disease processes: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), cancer, and dementias, including Alzheimer's disease. Although more recent studies suggest a possible palliative role for ANH in ALS and terminal cancer, feeding tubes do not appear to prolong survival or increase comfort in advanced dementia of the Alzheimer's type.


Migraine is a common and disabling brain disorder with no single characteristic which could be used for a definite diagnosis. Usually a combination of different presentations is used as diagnostic criteria which may lead to a challenging feature of underor misdiagnosis and also under-treatment. Diagnostic criteria for migraine usually emphasize on specificity compared to sensitivity which enhances their research values but reduces their clinical worth. The criteria are subjective and the lack of objective tests to confirm migraine diagnosis raises the need of rule out of other diagnoses. For this reason a potential diagnostic biomarker for migraine would certainly find wide application and may improve current severe deficiencies in migraine diagnosis.


As an alternative technique for calcium phosphate coating on titanium alloys, we propose to functionalize the metal surface with anionic bath containing chlorides of palladium or silver as activators. This new deposition route has several advantages such as controlled conditions, applicability to complex shapes, no adverse effect of heating, and cost effectiveness. A mixture of hydroxyapatite and calcium phosphate hydrate is deposited on the surface of Ti–6Al–4V. Calcium phosphate coating is built faster compared with the one by Simulated Body Fluid. Cell morphology and density are comparable to the control one; and the results prove no toxic compound is released into the medium during the previous seven days of immersion. Moreover, the cell viability is comparable with cells cultivated with the virgin medium. These experimental treatments allowed producing cytocompatible materials potentially applicable to manufacture implantable devices for orthopedic and oral surgeries.


Artificial Intelligence (AI), although it is not an entirely new phenomenon, has been developing more intensively relatively recently. AI is based on artificial neural networks (ANNs), which are modelled upon the architecture of human brains. Beside several ethical issues, such as whether "artificial brains" can and should be created in the first place, a number of legal questions emerge. One of the most urgent issues to be analyzed as regards AI is whether there is a need for a regulatory intervention. It is probably fair to say that AI is currently in a shape of a cocoon. In an academic legal research AI is still pretty much "terra incognita". However, although there is no clear and visible AI market failure (yet), it may be worthwhile analyzing what the status quo of the markets in the digital economy is with a perspective view of the AI markets of the future. After all, AI is featured by the systems that can autonomously learn and improve (machine learning). Such self-learning capability of the machines is based on the technique called "deep learning". The latter is fed by data. In this regard, it may well be that the purpose of current data collection and processing is related to conquering future markets for AI, so that a "snapshot" analysis of the issues related to current data-driven markets would show only one side of the coin of the market dynamics. The latter insight has to be borne in mind by both regulators and competition authorities. It is in this context that it has to be analyzed whether or what type of protection is needed for (non-personal) data and what is the optimal scope of protection of "deep learning" algorithms. After all, a current "open source" strategy of the biggest market players may be attractive from a short-run perspective, but may possibly raise competition law concerns in a long run. If current processes in the markets feature competition for developing future systems of AI, the question of (setting) standards and interoperability may turn out to be mostly important for future competition.


Clickstream is the information which demonstrate users′ path through web sites. Analysis of clickstream shows how web sites are navigated and used by users. Clickstream of online web sites contains effective information of web marketing and to offers usefully personalized services to users, and helps us understand how users find web sites, what products they see, and what products they purchase. In this paper, we present an extended web log system that add to module of collection of clickstream to understand users′ behavior patterns In web sites. This system offers the users clickstream information to database which can then analyze it with ease. Using ADO technology in store of database constructs extended web log server system. The process of making clickstreaming into database can facilitate analysis of various user patterns and generates aggregate profiles to offer personalized web service. In particular, our results indicate that by using the users′ clickstream. We can achieve effective personalization of web sites.


To the Editor, Paracetamol (acetaminophen-APAP) is a widely used over-the-counter analgesic and antipyretic drug. Even though paracetamol is considered a safe drug, under overdose situations (such as accidental or suicidal ingestion) it produces hepatic necrosis and renal failure in both humans 1,2 and experimental animals. 3 Renal tubular damage and acute renal failure can occur even in the absence of liver injury. 2 Oxidative stress is reported to play a role in the pathogenesis of paracetamol-induced renal damage as evidenced by depletion of non-protein thiol, approximately 95% of which is reduced glutathione and increased lipid peroxidation. 4,5 Because APAP can induce life-threatening renal lesions, the search for antidotes or treatments for APAP nephrotoxicity is of clear toxicological importance. Vitamin C is known to act as antioxidant both in vitro and in vivo . Vitamin C functions as chain-breaking antioxidant, free radical scavenger and is involved in the recycling of vitamin E and glutathione. 6,7 Besides, pretreatment with vitamin C has been shown to be protective against APAP induced hepatotoxicity in animals. 8 The present study is an attempt to find out whether pretreatment with vitamin C protects against APAP induced renal damage. To a group of adult male Wistar rats was administered i.p. injection of acetaminophen at the dose of 1 g/kg body weight. To another group of rats, vitamin C was administered orally at the dose of 1 g/kg body weight 1 h before the administration of APAP. The control rats received vitamin C or saline alone. The rats were sacrificed 24 h after the dose of APAP, after the withdrawal of blood. Plasma was separated and used for the assay of creatinine by standard method. Kidney tissue was used for the assay of non-protein thiol (reduced glutathione), protein thiol and, lipid peroxide level by established methods. 9


Large databases that can be used in the search for new materials with specific properties remain an elusive goal in materials science. The problem is complicated by the fact that the optimal material for a given application is usually a compromise between a number of materials properties and the cost. In this letter we present a database consisting of the lattice parameters, bulk moduli, and heats of formation for over 64 000 ordered metallic alloys, which has been established by direct first-principles density-functional-theory calculations. Furthermore, we use a concept from economic theory, the Pareto-optimal set, to determine optimal alloy solutions for the compromise between low compressibility, high stability, and cost.


BACKGROUND
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major killer worldwide. Atherosclerosis, which is the basis of CHD, is believed to be an inflammatory disorder. Though various aspects of atherosclerosis are extensively studied, leukocytic hydrolytic enzymes are not studied very well with respect to CHD.

AIM
This study was planned to assess changes associated with leukocytic hydrolases in CHD patients.

SETTING AND DESIGN
A tertiary care hospital; case-control study.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
106 patients with acute myocardial infarction, 60 patients with unstable angina and 45 healthy controls were included in the study. Acid phosphatase, lysozyme, adenosine deaminase (ADA) and cathepsin-G levels were estimated from leukocytes. Reduced glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Statistical comparison of data was done using student's t-test (unpaired). Correlation difference was calculated by using Pearson correlation coefficient.

RESULTS
Significantly higher levels of acid phosphatase, lysozyme, ADA with lower levels of cathepsin G in leukocytes were observed in CHD group. We also found significantly higher levels of serum MDA with lower concentrations of blood GSH in CHD group. In diabetic CHD group, significantly higher levels of leukocytic acid phosphatase, lysozyme, ADA and serum MDA with lower levels of cathepsin G and blood GSH were observed.

CONCLUSIONS
Our study indicates that leukocyte hydrolytic enzymes, mainly acid phosphatase, lysozyme and ADA were more active in CHD patients and may contribute to inflammation related with CHD. Its also indicates that leukocyte cathepsin-G may have antiinflammatory role.


BACKGROUND
Within the schizophrenia spectrum disorders, schizoaffective disorder is conventionally considered to have a better prognosis compared to schizophrenia. We tested the hypothesis that patients with first-episode schizoaffective disorder had better clinical and functional outcomes compared to patients with first-episode schizophrenia.

METHOD
The study population consisted of consecutive subjects with first-episode schizophrenia or first-episode schizoaffective disorder (diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria) enrolled in the national Early Psychosis Intervention Program at the Institute of Mental Health/Woodbridge Hospital in Singapore from March 2001 to March 2003. The subjects' level of psychopathology, insight, socio-occupational functioning, and quality of life were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder, the Global Assessment of Functioning scale, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF scale, respectively, at baseline and at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months.

RESULTS
At baseline, patients with schizo-affective disorder (N = 24) were more likely to be employed (OR = 3.38, 95% CI = 1.27 to 9.02, p < .05), had a shorter duration of untreated psychosis (z = -3.30, p < .005), but had greater general psychopathology subscale scores on PANSS (z = -2.69, p < .01) compared to patients with schizophrenia (N = 254). Patients with schizophrenia had better insight into their psychiatric illness (z = -3.93, p < .001) at 6 months and expressed a better level of quality of life in the psychological health domain (z = -3.83, p < .001) at 12 months compared to patients with schizoaffective disorder. At 18 months, patients with schizoaffective disorder continued to have higher general psychopathology subscale scores on PANSS (z = -3.89, p < .001) compared to patients with schizophrenia.

CONCLUSION
Patients with first-episode schizoaffective disorder do not necessarily have less severe psychopathology or better longitudinal outcomes compared to patients with first-episode schizophrenia, a finding that warrants attention in the clinical management of these patients.


In a one-year period we have successfully closed a postmyocardial infarction ventricular septal rupture in four men ranging in age from 44 to 61 years. All are alive, 5 to 15 months postoperatively. The bedside diagnosis can be established by Swan-Ganz catheterization. However, definitive repair should be preceded by left ventriculography and coronary angiography to delineate ventricular aneurysms and associated obstructive coronary artery disease. These defects have an equal incidence with anterior and inferior infarctions. Successful surgical management includes median sternotomy, left ventriculotomy, and early operation. Repair of the defect can usually be accomplished by one of three techniques: direct closure, synthetic cloth patches, or a sandwich closure. Associated coronary artery bypass grafting has been infrequent.


Abstract:This article explores how imaginaries of the river and Semarang's northern neighborhoods shape urban and infrastructural practices. As a collaborative strategy to fight "excess" (of both water and unruly social elements), the normalization of rivers relies on kampung-state relations that have developed around rivers and their management. Normalization also serves residents' interests, enabling them to overcome social stigma and to fight for urban rights. Although normalization can be a highly disruptive intervention, destroying houses and leading to displacement, many affected residents nevertheless welcome the continuation of normalization efforts. This article provides a genealogy of "normalisasi" in Semarang (and beyond). It makes the argument that modern river infrastructure was and continues to be conceptualized as a cure for Semarang's former wetlands in the north—a practice begun by the Dutch colonial government. However, this article does not consider river infrastructure as a neat outcome of national schemes. Instead of considering water infrastructure as a product of the "hydraulic state" (a centralized formation of power and knowledge), it observes how national norms, urban imaginaries, and local histories coalesce.


Smoothing improves the mesh quality by repositioning nodes while h-adaptive remeshing changes the topology of the mesh. The combination of these two schemes is indispensable when dealing with models with distorted elements and/or moving gradients in the solution. Different smoothing techniques for creating a mesh of high quality are studied. The quality of the mesh is quantified by a distortion metric. The adaptive remeshing procedure uses a generic error estimate for determining the size of new elements. The combined techniques are implemented for a graded finite element.


This study was conducted to compare the species composition of sessile organisms on the artificial substrates of PVC submerged at different time intervals and duration in Jangmok Bay, Geoje Island, southern coast of Korea. Three PVC plates were submerged at one month interval from March to October and retrieved in November, 2007. A mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis exclusively occupied the artificial substrates submerged from March to April and occurred as a dominant species to July. An ascidian, Styela plicata occurred as a dominant sessile species from May to August. Balanus amphtrite, Bugula sp., and hydrozoans occurred as dominant species on the plates submerged from July to September. There was a mis-match between the peak time of settlement and dominance of sessile organisms due to the interspecies competitions when the PVC plates were retrieved in November. There was no clear relationship between submerged duration and the abundance of sessile organisms due to the different settlement period. M. galloprovincialis seemed to be a strong competitor which could exclude the previous recruiters of macroalgae by overgrowth and occupy the substrate surface and maintain its high population density by preventing the settlement of other species until late autumn. These results suggested that the composition of sessile organisms in vacant hard substrates could be determined by the combined effects of supply-timing of larvae and post-settlement competitions.


The concept of nephrotic syndrome has changed from that of a single disease entity in children to that of a complex association of distinct types of glomerular histopathology and clinical courses. Nephrotic syndrome is steroid-responsive in the majority of children. The prognosis for steroid-responsive children is good, even for those who have frequent relapses requiring maintenance therapy or for those who become steroid-dependent. The disease rarely progresses to renal insufficiency or death in these patients. Cyclophosphamide and chlorambucil have proved effective only in steroid-responsive patients with minimal-lesion disease. Because of their toxicity, these agents should be limited to use in patients with severe steroid side effects. The effectiveness of these drugs in steroid-resistant diseases is unclear and still under investigation.


The Z variant (Glu342Lys) of α1-antitrypsin polymerises and accumulates in the hepatocyte endoplasmic reticulum predisposing to neonatal hepatitis and liver cirrhosis. The resultant secretory defect leaves the lungs vulnerable to elastolysis and early-onset emphysema. There is currently no cure for the liver or lung disease other than organ transplantation. This review discusses the evolving understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of the condition and how this has led to the emergence of novel treatment strategies for α1- antitrypsin-related liver disease.


Objective
COVID-19 presents an unprecedented global crisis. Research is critically needed to identify the impact of the pandemic on children's mental health including psychosocial factors that predict resilience, recovery, and persistent distress. The present study collected data in June-July 2020 to describe children's mental health during the initial phase of the pandemic, including the magnitude and nature of psychiatric and psychological distress in children, and to evaluate social support as a putative psychosocial moderator of children's increased distress.

Method
Children and parents from 190 families of children aged 8 to 13 from the Windsor-Essex region of Southwestern Ontario reported (i) retrospectively on children's well-being (e.g., worry, happiness) immediately prior to the pandemic and (ii) on children's current well-being; irritability; social support; and anxiety, depressive, and posttraumatic stress symptoms at the baseline assessment of an ongoing longitudinal study of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results
Children and parents reported worsened well-being and psychological distress during the pandemic compared to retrospective report of pre-pandemic well-being. Child-perceived social support from family and friends was associated with lower symptom severity and attenuated increase in psychological distress.

Conclusions
Study findings suggest possible broad psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and are consistent with prior research that indicates a protective role of social support to mitigate the negative psychological impact of the pandemic. These findings may inform clinical assessments and highlight the need for public resources to safeguard children's mental health.


A correlated three-body continuum wavefunction, already successfully employed to describe hydrogen atom impact ionization, is used to calculate the triply-differential cross section for electron impact ionization of helium. A good description is obtained of all the major structure in the differential cross sections in both symmetric and asymmetric geometries. It is demonstrated how interference between the various projectile-target interactions is necessary to reproduce the experimentally observed structure.


The roles of proteinase-activated receptors (PARs) in platelet functions other than aggregation are not well understood. Among these is the release of factors that regulate the process of angiogenesis, such as endostatin and VEGF, which, respectively, inhibit and promote angiogenesis. PAR1 and PAR4 are expressed on the surface of human platelets and can be activated by thrombin. In the present study, we have attempted to determine the roles of PAR1 and PAR4 in regulating release of endostatin and VEGF from human platelets. Aggregation and endostatin release could be elicited by a specific PAR4 agonist (AYPGKF-NH(2)). The PAR4 agonist concentration dependently suppressed VEGF release. A selective PAR1 agonist (TFLLR-NH(2)) induced platelet aggregation and VEGF release but suppressed endostatin release. Thrombin did not affect endostatin or VEGF release. However, in the presence of a selective PAR1 antagonist (SCH79797), thrombin stimulated endostatin release and suppressed VEGF release. Conversely, in the presence of a selective PAR4 antagonist (transcinnamoyl-YPGKF-NH(2)), thrombin stimulated VEGF release. In vivo, treatment of rats with established gastric ulcers with a PAR1 antagonist each day for 1 wk resulted in a significant retardation of healing. We conclude that PAR1 and PAR4 counter-regulate the release of endostatin and VEGF from platelets. These protease-activated receptors could therefore play a crucial role in regulating angiogenesis and in turn could regulate the processes of wound healing and tumor growth.


Because of its high toxicity, botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) poses a significant risk to humans and it represents a possible biological warfare agent. Nevertheless, BoNT serotypes A and B are considered an effective treatment for a variety of neurological disorders. The growing applicability of BoNT as a drug, and its potential use as a biological threat agent, highlight the urgent need to develop sensitive detection assays and therapeutic counter measures. In the last decade, significant progress has been made in BoNT detection technologies but none have fully replaced the mouse lethality assay, the current "gold standard". Recently, new advances in robotics and the availability of new reagents have allowed development of methods for rapid toxin analysis. These technologies while promising need further refinement.


The aim of this study was to assess gender differences in the posture and muscular activity of occupants in response to pretension from motorized seatbelts. Male and female vehicle occupants were tested in both front seat positions during normal driving and autonomous braking. This data is useful for the development of human body models (HBM), and increases the understanding of the effects of motorized belts. Kinematics and electromyography (EMG) were analyzed for 18 volunteers (9 male, 9 female) subjected to autonomous braking (11 m/s2 deceleration) during real driving on rural roads. Two restraint configurations were tested: a standard belt and a motorized belt, activated 240 ms before the initiation of braking. Statistical comparison of volunteers' posture and normalized EMG amplitudes was performed to understand differences incurred by the motorized belts, as well as to compare response across gender and role (occupant position within the vehicle). Data was analyzed both prior to and at vehicle deceleration, which occurred 240 ms after motorized belt onset. Motorized belts significantly affected all postural metrics, and significantly elevated the activity of all muscles compared to typical riding. Though increases in muscle activity were small at deceleration onset compared with typical riding for male occupants and female passengers, female drivers demonstrated significantly larger increases in muscular activity: between 5 and 13% of the maximum voluntary contraction (MVC). At deceleration onset, standard belts showed little change in posture or muscle activation, with the median changes being well within the ranges exhibited during typical riding for all groups (i.e. not distinguishable from typical riding). Typical riding postures of males and females were similar, as were muscular activation levels—generally less than 5% of the MVC. However, drivers exhibited significantly higher muscular activity in the arm and shoulder muscles than passengers. Limitations include the repeated nature of the testing, as prior work has shown that habituation across trials alters occupant response compared to that of unaware occupants. However, randomization of the trial order helped mitigate potential habituation effects. Another limitation is the sample size of 18 volunteers. An important finding of this study is that the increase in occupant muscular activation seen with motorized belts was gender-specific: at deceleration, the change in activation of most muscles was significantly different across gender and belt type, with female drivers exhibiting larger increases in muscular activation than male drivers or passengers of either gender, particularly in the arm muscles. These activations appeared to be startle responses, and may have implications for interactions with the steering wheel and motion during a braking or crash event. This warrants further studies and stresses the importance of quantifying male and female subjects separately in future studies of pre-crash systems.


Profiles of relative humidity with respect to ice (RHice) determined from spaceborne passive remote sensing suffer a lack of vertical and spatial resolutions. RHice distributions show dry biases compared to in situ observations because geometrically thin moist layers are integrated within coarser vertical resolutions, a direct effect being the underestimation of ice supersaturation (RHice > 100%) occurrence. Collocated data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) provide the opportunity to investigate relationships between RHice and geometrical thickness and optical depth of high clouds near the tropopause. "Apparent" optical depths are derived for single-layer high clouds from CALIPSO. By comparing these "apparent" optical depths to cloud infrared emissivities derived from AIRS the multiple scattering contribution is estimated and the optical depths are corrected. Mean RHice increases with cloud geometrical thickness but remains low compared to 100% except for very vertically extended clouds. Optically thicker clouds show on average larger geometrical thickness and larger relative humidity than optically thinner clouds. However, for a comparable geometrical thickness, optically thinner clouds are on average slightly more humid. This study concludes that cloud geometrical thickness has a greater influence than cloud optical depth on RHice integrated within a coarse vertical resolution. Limitations of AIRS humidity observations regarding the detection of ice supersaturation are discussed.


The key challenge for achieving sustained development in developing countries relates to quality of domestic governance, which in turn is strongly affected by external interventions. Domestic governance includes politics, policy formulation, institution building and policy implementation. It is important for both international and domestic agents to understand how the interplay between external interventions and domestic governance affects social and economic outcomes. This volume presents a series of studies analysing the links between external interventions and domestic governance in the areas of economic, social and security policy. Key questions that are addressed here include: How do external interventions in economic, social and security areas affect domestic governance in developing countries? Is aid more effective in decentralised systems of government? What are the interactions between external interventions and domestic governance? How can external agents advance domestic governance? Due to its strong focus on external interventions and domestic governance, this book will be of interest to scholars of development studies across the social sciences, in addition to the fields of economics, political science, sociology and geography.


This study compared the fracture strength of Class II slot cavities restored with polymerizable restorative materials. Sixty, caries-free, posterior teeth were divided into five groups of 12 teeth. The Class II slot cavities were prepared. The teeth were restored with two packable composites (Filtek P60, Surefil), a microhybrid composite (Filtek Z250)and two ormocer (Definite, Admira). The restorations were then subjected to fracture resistance tests.

The marginal ridges of the restorations were loaded at an angle of 13.5° to the long axis of the tooth in an Universal Testing Machine until failure. Analysis of mean forces indicated that, Filtek P60, Surefil and Filtek Z250 exhibited better performance than Definite and Admira.

The tested resin composites differed in their mechanical properties. This study suggested that fracture behavior were highly influenced by the filler system. Overall, Filtek P60, Surefil, Filtek Z250, demonstrated good fracture resistance. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Zanthoxylum schinifolium and Zanthoxylum piperitum A.P. DC. belong to the Rutaceae family and are perennial, aromatic, and medicinal herbaceous plants. In this study, their aroma compounds were isolated by steam distillation extraction using a Clevenger-type apparatus, and then further analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The yields of the essential oils from Z. schinifolium and Z. piperitum A.P. DC. were 2.5 and 2.0%(w/w), respectively, and the color of their oils was quite similar, a pale yellow. From the distilled oil of Z. schinifolium, 60 volatile compounds which make up 87.24% of the total composition were tentatively identified, with monoterpenes predominating. β-Phellandrene (22.54%), citronellal (16.48%), and geranyl acetate (11.39%) were the predominantly abundant components of Z. schinifolium. In the essential oil of Z. piperitum A.P. DC., 60 volatile flavor components constituted 94.78% of the total peak area were tentatively characterized. Limonene (18.04%), geranyl acetate (15.33%), and cryptone (8.52%) were the major volatile flavor compounds of Z. piperitum A.P. DC.


Abstract. Groundwater is the main source of freshwater and maintains
streamflow during drought. Potential future groundwater and baseflow drought
hazards depend on the systems' sensitivity to altered recharge conditions.
We performed groundwater model experiments using three different generic
stress tests to estimate the groundwater and baseflow drought sensitivity
to changes in recharge. The stress tests stem from a stakeholder co-design
process that specifically followed the idea of altering known drought events
from the past, i.e. asking whether altered recharge could have made a
particular event worse. Across Germany, groundwater responses to the stress
tests are highly heterogeneous, with groundwater heads in the north more
sensitive to long-term recharge and in the Central German Uplands to
short-term recharge variations. Baseflow droughts are generally more
sensitive to intra-annual dynamics, and baseflow responses to the stress
tests are smaller compared to the groundwater heads. The groundwater drought
recovery time is mainly driven by the hydrogeological conditions, with slow
(fast) recovery in the porous (fractured rock) aquifers. In general, a
seasonal shift of recharge (i.e. less summer recharge and more winter
recharge) will have lesser effects on groundwater and baseflow
drought severity. A lengthening of dry spells might cause much stronger
responses, especially in regions with slow groundwater response to
precipitation. Water management may need to consider the spatially different
sensitivities of the groundwater system and the potential for more severe
groundwater droughts in the large porous aquifers following prolonged
meteorological droughts, particularly in the context of climate change
projections indicating stronger seasonality and more severe drought events.


Franklin D. Roosevelt was US president in extraordinarily challenging times. The impact of both the Great Depression and World War II make discussion of his approach to foreign relations by historians highly contested and controversial. He was one of the most experienced people to hold office, having served in the Wilson administration as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, completed two terms as Governor of New York, and held a raft of political offices. At heart, he was an internationalist who believed in an engaged and active role for the United States in world.
 During his first two terms as president, Roosevelt had to temper his international engagement in response to public opinion and politicians wanting to focus on domestic problems and wary of the risks of involvement in conflict. As the world crisis deepened in the 1930s, his engagement revived. He adopted a gradualist approach to educating the American people in the dangers facing their country and led them to eventual participation in war and a greater role in world affairs. There were clearly mistakes in his diplomacy along the way and his leadership often appeared flawed, with an ambiguous legacy founded on political expediency, expanded executive power, vague idealism, and a chronic lack of clarity to prepare Americans for postwar challenges. Nevertheless, his policies to prepare the United States for the coming war saw his country emerge from years of depression to become an economic superpower. Likewise, his mobilization of his country's enormous resources, support of key allies, and the holding together of a "Grand Alliance" in World War II not only brought victory but saw the United States become a dominant force in the world. Ultimately, Roosevelt's idealistic vision, tempered with a sound appreciation of national power, would transform the global position of the United States and inaugurate what Henry Luce described as "the American Century."


The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of an azomethine ylide (Prato reaction) with M(3)N@I(h)-C(80) (denoted as M(3)N@C(80); M = Sc, Lu, Y, Gd) was carried out to obtain fulleropyrrolidinebis(carboxylic acid) derivatives as scaffolds for the preparation of various functionalized M(3)N@C(80) materials. The formation of two monoadduct isomers (the [6,6]- and [5,6]-adducts) were detected by HPLC and identified by NMR and vis/NIR spectroscopies. In each Prato reaction with M(3)N@C(80), the initial addition gave a [6,6]-adduct of the I(h)-C(80) cage, and subsequently, a [5,6]-adduct was obtained by complete or partial thermal isomerization via a rearrangement reaction. The reaction rate of the latter thermal conversion of the adducts was dependent on the size of the metal cluster inside C(80), and interestingly, in the reactions of Y(3)N@C(80) and Gd(3)N@C(80), this conversion was found to be reversible for the first time. Detailed kinetic studies provided the enthalpy and entropy barriers for the reactions of the adducts of Lu(3)N@C(80), Y(3)N@C(80), and Gd(3)N@C(80). The utility of the obtained Prato adducts was confirmed by preparation of a highly water-soluble Gd(3)N@C(80) derivative.


Generally speaking, in contact sports the higher the grade of competition the greater the risk of a player sustaining any type of injury. Therefore it is important to conduct studies periodically of international sporting teams from different countries to detect any changes in regional injury patterns, besides assessing attitudes to the use of available protective equipment. A study of the prevalence of orofacial injuries and use of mouthguards by members of the 1984 Great Britain Rugby League Touring Team has previously been reported (Chapman, 1985a). In order to obtain a suitable basis for comparison of those results, a similar study of the members of the 1986 Australian Rugby League Touring Team to Great Britain was conducted. The most important finding was the much higher usage rate of mouthguards by the Australian footballers when compared with the British figure. Results of the study also support the function of mouthguards in reducing the incidence of orofacial injuries in contact sports.


A recent large COPD survey in Mexico pointed out several facts that suggest a lack of knowledge of the most usual recommendations for diagnosis and COPD treatment. Those included clinical diagnosis without spirometry confirmation, lack of awareness in spite of the presence of risk factors and symptoms and undertreatment of GOLD III and IV patients. Our aim with this study was to explore the degree of knowledge on COPD guidelines During a national continuous medical education program on COPD for general practitioners (GP), and before any conference, a 10-item questionnaire was applied to explore the degree of knowledge on COPD guidelines. Ten Mexican cities were included and 999 GP participated. 72.5% of them said that they had read a COPD guideline and 59.4% answered that they used one in their practice. When asked which guideline(s) they used, we had 86 different responses with GOLD (34.1%) being the most common, followed by GINA (12.8%), Seguro Social (7.7%) and the CAT questionnaire (3.8%). Reasons for not using any guideline included: never read them (41.8%) followed by lack of access to them (18.2%), not enough time to read them (6.0%) and because they are too long (4.6%). When asked about suggestions to draft a better guideline we got 98 different answers; a chapter on treatment was the most common answer (42.8%), followed by chapter on diagnosis (28.7%) and a chapter on COPD symptoms (27.3%). Basically all the suggested topics are already included in the current international guidelines. COPD guidelines are not widely used by GP in Mexico. Guidelines length, lack of access and physicians work overload are the main barriers to use them. It also seems that those who read them do not fully understand their content and purpose.


Flexible computer programs have been developed which are capable of distinguishing between normal and defective areas in the visual field, in that the computer logic only grossly probes normal areas and concentrates on the abnormal areas. As soon as a defect is discovered, it is analyzed with greater accuracy. In this way, no time is wasted analyzing and confirming normal conditions. At the same time, the system is highly effective in respect of pathologically defective areas of the visual field. The principle is described and illustrated with some clinical examples (paracentral scotomata).


OBJECTIVE
To observe the effect of acupuncture stimulation of acupoints of the Conception Vessel, Kidney Meridian, Spleen Meridian, and Bladder Meridian on menstrual cycles and duration, and serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH) and estrogen 2 (E(2)) levels in patients with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR).

METHODS
A total of 96 patients with DOR of both yin and yang deficiency were randomly divided into medication group and acupuncture group (n = 48 cases in each group). Patients of the medication group were treated by Estradiol Valerate tablets, 2 mg/d on the first 10 days, and Estradiol Cyproterone, 3 mg/d from day 11 to 21, followed by 5 -7 days' rest, and the next therapeutic course, continuously for 6 months. For patients of the acupuncture group, filiform acupuncture needles were separately inserted into every 5 points of the Conceptional Vessel, Kidney, Spleen and Bladder Meridians, manipulated with uniform reinforcing and reducing methods till Deqi, and retained for 40 min. The treatment was conducted once daily for consecutive 10 days in one menstrual cycle, beginning from the 10(th) day on after menstruation, which was repeated for 6 months. The integrative scores (normal = 0, mild=2, moderate=4 and severe=6 points) of menstrual cycle, menstrual duration, amount, color, quality [blood blot or ame- nia, symptoms of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)] were assessed according to "Guiding Principles for Clinical Trials of New Drugs of Chinese Materia Medica". Serum FSH, LH and E(2) contents were detected by Roche's electrochemical luminescence method.

RESULTS
After the treatment, of the two 48 cases in the medication and acupuncture groups, 12 (25.0%) and 20 (4.7) were cured, 11 (22.9 %) and 12 (25.0 %) experienced marked improvement in their symptoms, 20 (41.7%) and 10 (20.8%) were effective, and 5 (10.4%) and 6 (12.5%) failed, with the effective rate being 89.6% and 87.5%, respectively. The integral score of TOM symptoms, menstrual cycle, serum FSH, LH and E2 contents were considerably diminished in both groups after 6 months of treatment (P<0.05), and the TOM symptom score, menstrual cycle, and serum FSH, LH and E2 levels were significantly lower in the acupuncture group than in the medication group 6 months after cease of the treatment (P<0.05), while the menstrual duration in each cycle was notably longer in both groups after the treatment, and evidently longer in the acupuncture group than in the medication group 6 months after cease of the treatment (P<0.05). No significant differences were found between the two groups in the effective rate, score of TOM symptoms, menstrual cycle and duration, and serum FSH, LH and E(2) contents following the treatment (P>0.05).

CONCLUSION
Acupuncture stimulation of acupoints of the Conception Vessel, Kidney, Spleen, and Bladder Meridians is effective in improving clinical symptoms of DOR patients with deficiency of both yin and yang, and has a longer effect, which may be closely associated with its functions in lowering serum FSH, LH and E(2) levels through regulating the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis.


Steel is subject to hydrogen embrittlement (HE). This problem is relatively accurate for pipes transporting hydrogen pure or blended with natural gas. Therefore this problem has to be taken into account for the design and maintenance of pipe networks for this kind of transport. Design needs to modify the design factor for computing maximum working pressure in this case. Defect harmfulness needs specific tools for each type of defect which are the same as for pipe transporting natural gas, but the admissibility criterion is modified when transporting hydrogen. For cracking, harmfulness is determined with a failure assessment diagram with steel fracture toughness under HE. For defect correction, the estimated repair factor (ERF) is changing due to modification of the flow stress. For gouging, the Constraint Modified Failure Assessment Diagram (CMFAD) incorporates the actual material failure master curve. For dents, the criterion proposed by Oyane et al take into account the major reduction of elongation at failure. The influence of HE on fatigue endurance is seen through the fatigue assessment diagram(fAD). Discussion is based on recategorisation of defect, assessment tools, embrittlement and fatigue life duration.


The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between quality of work life and spiritual intelligence in the Welfare Organization is the city of Gonbad. Methodology: The research methodology was descriptive, correlational research is survey. The target population included all employees of the Department of Social Welfare city Kavus dome 57 Summary. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between quality of work life and spiritual intelligence in the Welfare Organization is the city of Gonbad. The research methodology was descriptive, correlational research is survey. The target population included all employees of the Department of Social Welfare city Kavus dome 57People. The sample was selected due to limited population census methods. Library and field research data were collected using standard questionnaires and tools are used. Results: The reliability of the questionnaire using Cronbach and validity have been confirmed by the content. In order to analyze the data, structural equation modeling using LISREL software used People. The sample was selected due to limited population census methods. Library and field research data were collected using standard questionnaires and tools are used. The reliability of the questionnaire using Cronbach and validity have been confirmed by the content. In order to analyze the data, structural equation modeling using LISREL software is used. Conclusion: The results show that, between the quality of work life and spiritual intelligence in the city of Gonbad there is a significant welfare organization.


In a major work of reportage--a timely, deeply informed call for change--a Pulitzer Prize winner shows precisely and dramatically how poverty hurts Americans at every stage of life, from infancy to old age. In addition, he tells of individuals and programs already working to eliminate suffering, and offers some innovative and informed proposals of his own. Photos.


In birds, testosterone (T) regulates aggression during the breeding season. However, in some avian species, including European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), males also display high levels of aggression during the nonbreeding season (autumn and winter), when plasma T levels are low or non-detectable and even after castration. This nonbreeding aggression is generally believed to be independent of testicular T. Moreover, in European starlings several laboratory experiments even indicated that fighting ability was increased rather than decreased by castration. Here, we examined the effect of castration on nonbreeding aggression in captive male European starlings by pairing castrated males with sham-castrated males of the same age in dyadic trials and determining which male was significantly more aggressive when both birds were competing over access for a nestbox to roost in. Birds were (sham) castrated on 9 October and the dominance trials were run between December 2 and Febuary 7. In adults, we found no evidence that castration affected the frequency of nonbreeding aggression, despite the fact that T-levels in castrated males were significantly lower than in sham-castrated birds. In contrast, in yearling males that were castrated at the age of 4-5 months, castration significantly decreased nonbreeding aggression, although T-levels were only marginally decreased by the surgery. The maintenance of aggressive behaviour after castration in adults may be the result of experience or of the action of nongonadal sex steroids. The marked decrease in aggressive behaviour observed in castrated yearlings might be due to the fact that castration at this young age could have inhibited the ontogenetic development of behavioural and physiological mechanisms requiring signals from the gonads. Taken together, these results indicate that the effects of castration on nonbreeding aggression in male European starlings markedly depend on the age at the time of castration.


Introduction: The combined application of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) has led to mixed results (Significant reduction vs no impact) on malaria burden. Other studies have attempted to study the combined effects of house screening (HS) and LLINs have demonstrated a reduction in indoor vector densities and malaria when the interventions are combined. In addition to malaria vectored by mosquitoes, farmers living in rural settings face challenges from crop pests, which significantly reduce agricultural productivity and negatively impact their food security. Thus, addressing the coexisting risks of malaria and crop pests could contribute to improved livelihood of communities. Design: A three armed household, cluster-randomized, controlled study will be conducted to assess the impact of HS, LLINs and PPT against clinical malaria in children than LLINs alone in Ethiopia. The unit of randomization will be the household, which include a house and its occupants. A total of 663 households will be enrolled in this study. All the households will receive the LLINs. Then other treatments will be overlaid according to the randomization sequence. Thus, 246 households will receive HS, and 250 households will receive HS and PPT before the commencement of clinical follow-up. The rest 167 houses which received LLINs only will be used as control. One child aged not more than 14 years will be enrolled from each household and followed for clinical malaria using active case detection to estimate malaria incidence for two malaria transmission seasons. Results: Episodes of clinical malaria, the prevalence of anaemia, density of malaria vector mosquitoes, sporozoite infection rate, crop infestation rate due to stem borer and fall army worm, crop yield gain, livestock productivity and cost effectiveness analysis will be the end points of this study. Socio-economic, social demographic, cost-effectiveness analysis will be conducted using qualitative and participatory methods to explore the acceptability of HS and PPT. Conclusion Documenting the combined impact of LLINs, HS and PPT on the prevalence of clinical malaria and crop pest damage will be the first of its kind and will provide deep insight and evidence base for forging collaborations between health and agriculture sectors. Trial Registration: The protocol was registered online on Date 28/05/2020 on sight www.pactr.org With registration No: PACTR202006878245287.


We discuss in detail all major security-related issues inherently present in PON systems. Ethernet PON (EPON) type networks have very specific requirements for data- and system-level security, due to combining - for the first time using Ethernet links ¿ residential and business customers with different security awareness levels and protection demands. Various types of potential network structure targeted attacks are elaborated, starting from simple passive monitoring, through flavors of denial of service (DoS), towards masquerading and theft of service (ToS), presenting a complete and detailed image of security threats in EPONs. Authentication and security mechanisms, as well as their shortcomings, are also briefly examined.


Influenza vaccine is available as an intramuscular injection or an intranasal spray for eligible children. This study was conducted to examine parents' preferences for influenza vaccine attributes and the attributes' relative importance regarding the vaccination of their children. A quantitative Web survey was administered to 500 parents of children aged 2 to 12 years. The survey included general preference questions and conjoint (trade-off) questions. Parents most frequently selected efficacy, risk of temporary side effects, and physician recommendation as important vaccine attributes from a provided list (92%, 75%, and 59%, respectively). For attributes selected as important, parents rated the importance of the attribute; the highest mean importance ratings were given to efficacy, presence of mercury-containing preservative, and physician recommendation.The highest relative importance ratings in the conjoint section were given to efficacy and presence of mercury-containing preservative. Parental education on influenza vaccine efficacy and safety may help to improve pediatric vaccination rates.


Asian bond markets have expanded significantly in terms of quantity and have grown more mature than before in terms of quality. However, the degree of bond market development varies widely across countries, and the formation of well-balanced financial systems has yet to be completed. In South Korea and Malaysia, which have corporate bond markets that are relatively well developed, laws, regulations and market infrastructure have been established as a result of ongoing market development efforts since before the Asian financial crisis of 1997, and there are many bond issuers and investors. On the other hand, in other countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia, where market development has lagged behind, the issuance of corporate bonds started in earnest only in the mid-2000s. As a result, policy measures for market development have not necessarily been implemented sufficiently, and there are relatively few issuers and investors. In addition, as these countries have structural problems in their financial systems, it is difficult to change the situation in which banks act as the main providers of finance. In the future, it will be necessary to devote efforts to market development and continue to hold discussions on the role of the corporate bond market. Meanwhile, concerning countries whose corporate bond markets are well developed as well, there remain many problems that must be corrected, such as the ill-balanced mix of issuer industries and the underdevelopment of investors' investment skills, leaving room for further market development.


The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the change of scale techniques developed for granular materials. The proposed approach consists in considering an intermediate scale between the macroscales and microscales, called the mesoscale, using the classical homogenization scheme. In this approach, the mesoscale for 2D granular materials was defined at the level of local volumes, called mesodomains, which are local closed structures composed of particles in contact. In this paper, we focused on defining a local stress field at this scale. Two different methods are proposed, both based on the equivalent continuum mean stress but using different approximations of the mean stress tensor for each mesodomain. The two proposed methods were then compared to each other. Analyses performed on the stress field at the mesoscale show that this local field is heterogeneous and, in particular, that its heterogeneity is significantly structured at this scale. The distribution of the local mean stress (first invariant of the local stress tensor) is uniform in any mesodomain, whereas the distribution of the stress deviator (second invariant of the deviatoric part of the local stress tensor) is significantly dependent on the elongation direction and on the elongation degree of the mesodomains. The local stress ratio (ratio of the stress deviator to the mean stress) is higher within the mesodomains that are elongated in the global compression direction than that within the ones elongated in the global extension direction. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This study aimed to analyze the effect of Tithonia diversifolia green manure and cow manure on soil quality and yield of cauliflower. A field experiment was conducted in the village of Tegalgondo, Karangploso District of Malang Regency. Eight treatments tested were control (no added manures), T.diversifolia 8.15 t/ha, cow manure 25.85 t/ha, NPK fertilizer 1.35 t/ha, T.diversifolia 4.08 t/ha + cow manure 12.93 t/ha, T.diversifolia 4.08 t/ha + NPK fertilizer 676 kg/ha, cow manure 12.93 t/ha + NPK 676 kg/ha and T.diversifolia 2.69 t/ha + cow manure 8.53 t/ha + NPK fertilizer 446 kg/ha. Soil quality was monitored at top soil (0-20 cm) at planting time and 30 days after planting. Soil samples were collected and analyzed for chemical and physical properties. Yield of cauliflower was observed at the time of harvest or 44 days after planting. The results showed that application of green manure could significantly change the physical and chemical properties of the soil. The decrease of bulk density of about 27.47%, increase of organic carbon of about 12.60%, increase of total N of about 53.87%, increase of available P of about 64.24 mg/kg, and exchangeable K of about 8.34 cmol/kg were observed in T. diversifolia treatment. The increase of pH of about 1.75%, and total porosity of about 17.73% was found in cow manure treatments. The increased water holding capacity of about 10.70% was found in T. diversifolia + cow manure treatments and increased stability aggregate about 23.54% was found in T. diversifolia + cow manure + NPK treatments. There was a significant increase of fresh weight of flower about 666.67 g/plant in T. diversifolia + NPK treatment.


Background: There have been no studies on the postoperative morphological characteristics of the restored labrum at different glenoid locations and its clinical relevance after arthroscopic Bankart repair with suture anchors. Purpose: To analyze the morphological characteristics of the restored labrum at different locations of the glenoid and their relevance to clinical outcomes as well as affecting factors and to trace the inserted suture anchors after arthroscopic Bankart repair using computed tomography arthrography (CTA). Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: A total of 46 patients (mean age, 26.5 ± 6.8 years) who underwent arthroscopic Bankart repair with absorbable suture anchors were enrolled in this study. Patients underwent CTA preoperatively and 6 months postoperatively as well as functional outcome evaluation preoperatively and at the last follow-up (>24 months) with the Rowe score and visual analog scale for pain. Labral height and width were measured on conventional axial CTA images at the 3-, 4-, and 5-o'clock positions twice by 2 raters. The postoperative measurements were also compared with those of the healthy anterior labrum, acquired from the same CTA examination of 32 consecutive patients (mean age, 26.5 ± 8.5 years) with superior labral lesions in the same study period. The postoperative difference in the measurements and between clock positions, and the relationship between the measurements and the clinical factors and functional outcomes, were evaluated. In addition, the locations of all suture anchors were traced on each CTA image, and outcomes according to the locations of the most inferior suture anchors were assessed. Results: The interobserver and intraobserver reliabilities of measurements at each location were excellent (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.773-0.988). Of the 46 patients, 2 (4.35%) had redislocations after surgery. Postoperative labral height and width were significantly increased at all locations (all P < .001) up to a level similar to the healthy anterior labrum, with significantly larger values at the inferior location compared with the superior location (all P < .05). Patients who had a greater frequency of dislocations before surgery showed a lower postoperative labral height at the 5-o'clock position (P = .012), and this correlated with postoperative instability and poor functional outcomes by the Rowe score (P = .036). In most patients (41/46; 89.1%), the tips of the lowest suture anchors perforated the far cortex, and these anchors were mostly located below the 5-o'clock position (32/41; 78.0%). However, perforation of the far cortex did not affect functional outcomes. Conclusion: Surgeons should be cautious of restoring labral height at the inferior glenoid location for successful arthroscopic Bankart repair. In addition, attention should be given to inserting the lowest suture anchor regardless of clinical significance.


Two spectrophotometric methods are presented for the simultaneous determination of ezetimibe/simvastatin and ezetimibe/atorvastatin binary mixtures in combined pharmaceutical dosage forms without prior separation. The first is the derivative ratio method where the amplitudes of the first derivative of the ratio spectra ((1) DD) at 299.5 and 242.5 nm were found to be linear with ezetimibe and simvastatin concentrations in the ranges 0.5-20 µgml(-1) and 1-40 µgml(-1) , respectively, whereas the amplitudes of the first derivative of the ratio spectra ((1) DD) at 289.5 and 288 nm were selected to determine ezetimibe and atorvastatin in the concentration ranges 5-50 µgml(-1) and 1-40 µgml(-1) , respectively. The second is the H-point standard additions method; absorbances at the two pairs of wavelengths, 228 and 242 nm or 238 and 248 nm, were monitored while adding standard solutions of ezetimibe or simvastatin, respectively. For the analysis of ezetimibe/atorvastatin mixture, absorbance values at 226 and 248 nm or 212 and 272 nm were monitored while adding standard solutions of ezetimibe or atorvastatin, respectively. Moreover, differential spectrophotometry was applied for the determination of ezetimibe in the two mixtures without any interference from the co-existing drug. This was performed by measurement of the difference absorptivities (ΔA) of ezetimibe in 0.07 M 30% methanolic NaOH relative to that of an equimolar solution in 0.07 M 30% methanolic HCl at 246 nm. The described methods are simple, rapid, precise and accurate for the determination of these combinations in synthetic mixtures and dosage forms.


We prove that Riemannian contraction in a supervised learning setting implies generalization. Specifically, we show that if an optimizer is contracting in some Riemannian metric with rate $\lambda>0$, it is uniformly algorithmically stable with rate $\mathcal{O}(1/\lambda n)$, where $n$ is the number of labelled examples in the training set. The results hold for stochastic and deterministic optimization, in both continuous and discrete-time, for convex and non-convex loss surfaces. The associated generalization bounds reduce to well-known results in the particular case of gradient descent over convex or strongly convex loss surfaces. They can be shown to be optimal in certain linear settings, such as kernel ridge regression under gradient flow.


The development of technology implies the elaboration of new calculation methods. Such methods should be precise and efficient. The article presents a new method of railway track realignment. The example considered in the article consistsof an circular arc that is tangent to two straight lines. Authors show subsequent stages of realization of tasks of railway track realignment. Each formula is described in this paper. The novelty of this solution is use of the Nelder-Mead simplex method for fitting section of railway track geometry into set of measure points. The functional model of optimization problem was derived and discussed in details. The method of optimization problem was presented in the form of detailed algorithm.The example of use of proposed algorithm was presented and analysed.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the agreement and correlation between attenuation values and vascular calcification volume for intra-abdominal structures from true noncontrast (TNC) images and those from virtual noncontrast (VNC) images obtained by dual-source dual-energy computed tomography (CT) using a quadriphasic dynamic protocol.

METHODS
Seventy-six patients who underwent quadriphasic abdominal CT were retrospectively reviewed. An arterial, portal venous, and 5-minute delayed phase postcontrast series was obtained using dual-source dual-energy CT. Virtual noncontrast images were processed from the arterial, portal venous, and 5-minute delayed phase series. Attenuation values for the liver, pancreas, kidneys, muscle, fat, vertebra, gallbladder, aorta, inferior vena cava, portal vein, and aortic calcification volumes were recorded. Attenuation values for the liver, pancreas, vertebra, and muscle obtained from VNC were adjusted using linear regression.

RESULTS
Repeated-measures analysis of variance and Bonferroni multiple-comparison post hoc correction revealed significant differences between TNC and VNC attenuation values for the organs. There was an excellent correlation between the TNC and VNC attenuation values for the liver, pancreas, muscle, vertebra, and fat. The calcification volume was significantly smaller on VNC than on TNC. The adjusted attenuation values estimated by regression equations afforded better approximation.

CONCLUSIONS
Abdominal VNC images obtained with third-generation dual-source dual-energy CT cannot replace TNC images without adjustment of the attenuation values.


The results of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model calculations are compared to available experimental results [V. D. Nikolaev et al., IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 38, 421 (2002)]. It is shown that the model is applicable to high pressure, ejector type chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL), reasonably reproducing the measured gain, temperature, static pressure, and gas velocity. A previous model, which included I2(A′Π32u), I2(AΠ31u), and O2(aΔ1g,v) as significant intermediates in the dissociation of I2 [K. Waichman et al., J. Appl. Phys. 102, 013108 (2007)], reproduced the measured gain and temperature of a low pressure supersonic COIL. The previous model is complemented here by adding the effects of turbulence, which play an important role in high pressure COILs.


Two main types of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) have been recognized by indirect immunofluorescence. ANCA-D are defined by diffuse fluorescence and are directed against proteinase 3. They are highly specific for Wegener's granulomatosis, and their titre varies with disease activity. ANCA-P are responsible for perinuclear fluorescence and are principally found in other types of vasculitis and in idiopathic crescentic glomerulonephritis. In patients with suggestive clinical signs, ANCA are of considerable diagnostic value when specific histology is difficult to obtain. Therapeutic monitoring and prevention of Wegener's disease relapses could rely on regular measurements of ANCA titres. Moreover, studies on the pathogenetic role of ANCA may transform current physiopathological concepts and nosology of vasculitis.


Objectives High levels of disability, functional impairment and mortality are independently associated with fracture and depression, however the relationship between fracture and depression is uncertain. The aim of this study was to investigate whether fracture is associated with subsequent depressive symptoms in a population-based sample of women. Design A study of age-matched fracture versus non-fracture cohorts of women. Setting Barwon Statistical Division, southeastern Australia. Participants Two samples of women aged ≥35 years were drawn from the Geelong Osteoporosis Study (GOS). The fracture cohort included women with incident fracture identified from radiology reports and the non-fracture cohort were randomly selected from the electoral roll during 1994–1996. Outcome measure Symptoms of depression for women with and without fracture during the 12-month period 2000–2001 were identified by self-report questionnaire based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria. Results A total of 296 women with fracture (12 hip, 48 vertebral, 91 wrist/forearm, 17 upper arm, 7 pelvis, 11 rib, 62 lower leg and 48 other fractures) and 590 women without fracture were included. Associations between fracture and depression differed between younger (≤65 years) and older (>65 years) women. Age and weight-adjusted odds ratio for depression following fracture among younger women was 0.62 (0.35 to 1.11, p=0.12) and 3.33 (1.24 to 8.98, p=0.02) for older women. Further adjustment for lifestyle factors did not affect the results. Conclusions This study demonstrated that differences in mood status exist between older and younger women following fracture and that fracture is associated with increased depression in older women. Assessment of mood status in both the short and long term following fracture in the elderly seems justified, with early detection and treatment likely to result in improved outcomes.


Non-genetic influences on phenotypic traits can affect our interpretation of genetic variance and the evolutionary potential of populations to respond to selection, with consequences for our ability to predict the outcomes of selection. Long-term population surveys and experiments have shown that quantitative genetic estimates are influenced by nongenetic effects, including shared environmental effects, epigenetic effects, and social interactions. Recent developments to the "animal model" of quantitative genetics can now allow us to calculate precise individual-based measures of non-genetic phenotypic variance. These models can be applied to a much broader range of contexts and data types than used previously, with the potential to greatly expand our understanding of nongenetic effects on evolutionary potential. Here, we provide the first practical guide for researchers interested in distinguishing between genetic and nongenetic causes of phenotypic variation in the animal model. The methods use matrices describing individual similarity in nongenetic effects, analogous to the additive genetic relatedness matrix. In a simulation of various phenotypic traits, accounting for environmental, epigenetic, or cultural resemblance between individuals reduced estimates of additive genetic variance, changing the interpretation of evolutionary potential. These variances were estimable for both direct and parental nongenetic variances. Our tutorial outlines an easy way to account for these effects in both wild and experimental populations. These models have the potential to add to our understanding of the effects of genetic and nongenetic effects on evolutionary potential. This should be of interest both to those studying heritability, and those who wish to understand nongenetic variance.


There is increasing focus on the dominance of English undermining different cultures (Bray, 1993; Canagarajah, 1999; Kubota, 2002a, 2002b; Block and Cameron, 2002; Phillipson, 2009; Altbach, 2013; Chowdhury and Le Ha, 2014; Piller, 2017). In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), westernisation through teaching English is problematised (Elyas and Picard, 2010; Badry and Willoughby, 2015; Barnawi, 2015; Barnawi and Al-Hawsawi, 2017; Abouammoh, 2018). In Higher Education (HE) in KSA, internationalisation strategies are countered by a protectionist stance over Islamic and cultural roots. This stance is especially evident in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL), leading to high levels of 'cultural sensitivity' censorship in the Saudi classroom. There is an ongoing debate about cultural sensitivity and whether English is perceived as a 'threat' in the Gulf Arab Muslim EFL context (Gobert, 2015; Aljohani, 2016; El-Sakran, 2017). Located in Riyadh, at a time of strict restrictions on women, this qualitative study expands on research on the 'hidden population' (Al-Kahtani et al. 2005, p.229) within female-only Saudi Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). Using semi-structured interviews and a narrative inquiry methodology (Bell, 2002; Labov, 2003; Cortazzi, 2014), it pioneers intercultural investigation into an insider-perspective of 21 women: 8 non-Muslim western women EFL teachers and 13 Saudi women EFL learners. More specifically, it examines sociocultural changes in learning/ teaching English: learner motivation, acculturation (Jandt, 2004; Wright, 2005) and teacher demotivation (Kumazawa, 2013). Findings reveal that English is perceived more positively and used more diversely than studies hitherto claim. Metaphors such as 'a weapon', 'a key' and 'an adapter' add new gender-related concepts to investment theory (Darvin and Norton, 2015). Findings explore themes of 'likeness' and 'integration', 'othering' of women, which contribute to the understanding of the low retention of foreign faculty members in Saudi HEIs (Badry and Willoughby, 2015).


Intelligent agents are devices, software, and simulations that perceive the environment and take actions to achieve a goal through the use of artificial intelligence. These AI agents are increasingly incorporated into every aspect of our lives. This is particularly true for soldiers and analysts as they must increasingly perform tasks in varied, dynamic, and fast paced operational environments. There is a common idea that, in the future, the pace of operations will increasingly far exceed soldiers' or analysts' ability to react to extreme, complex activities. Accelerated decision making in Army operations will relying on AI agents and enabling technologies such as autonomous systems and simulations. However, what happens when the decisions from these AI agents are wrong, produce results contrary to expectations, or simply in disagreement with a person? Explanations can help resolve these issues. Any errors or uncertainty from the AI agent in an accelerated environment will present unique and unforeseen challenges that may potentially inhibit analysts' or soldiers' ability to make decisions effectively and efficiently. Providing explanations for AI outputs, predictions, or behaviors is challenging. Algorithms or techniques frequently obfuscate features and how actions are decided. In addition, results from these systems do not always include uncertainty information related to the factors that influenced the actions or decisions. Therefore, information on the uncertainty explicitly in the explanation is necessary. We explore the use of abductive reasoning to provide explanations for situations where an agents answers are not in line with human assessment nor provide uncertainty information needed for human interpretation of the answers. The primary goal of this work is to strengthen the communication of information and increase the effectiveness of interactions between humans and non-human agents.


Our knowledge in aerobiology has considerably increased in the last 20 years due to new trapping methods. The use of volumetric spore traps permits to accurately analyze the particles suspended in the air and their evolution, while the deposition method gives an incomplete picture of the real air content. The air microflora changes considerably during 24 h: some groups of spores occur in the morning, others in the afternoon and yeast-like organisms during the night. The most common fungi in the atmosphere are Cladosporium sp., Sporodbolomyces considerably increase (20-10(3) times) the number of spores released in the atmosphere. Aspergillus flavus, thermophilic actinomycetes, Botrytis cinera and Didymella exitialis are cited as examples.


The author maintained prospective records on every patient he treated during the 26 years of his neurosurgical private practice. At the conclusion of his clinical career, he compiled this information in a formal database program and then analyzed the results for totals, trends, and interesting conclusions, which are presented herein.


Animal production system was affected by the environment. However it was the point on the assessment of sustainability animal production in the future. Recently, there was an increasing of animal productions products (milk), due to awarness of people to consume milk. Life cycle analysis (LCA) is an integrated method to evaluate an environmental impact assessment. Therefore the objective of this research was to analyze the environment effect on dairy production system by using LCA method. This research was conducted in Field Experimental Research, Bogor Agriculture University.The energy flow and energy supplydemand were emphisized on this research. The energy flow was calculated from solar energy used on the forage to the energy used by the cattle. Further, we also observed the energy used on the dairy product (milk). The remaining product such as animal and feed wastes was also calculated. Furthermore the amount of energy flow consumed by the cattle was 791 Kcal.This amount was utilized to maintenance, production and feces. It was calculated that the amount of energy for maintenance was covered around 48.26% of total energy input, moreover energy used to produce milk was 31.41% and 20.32%of energy was excreted throught feces, respectively. Our results suggested that the probability of the highest of environment effect might occured in maintenance process in dairy cattle.