Cyber-physical systems increasingly rely on distributed computing platforms where sensing, computing, actuation, and communication resources are shared by a multitude of applications. Such 'cyber-physical cloud computing platforms' present novel challenges because the system is built from mobile embedded devices, is inherently distributed, and typically suffers from highly fluctuating connectivity among the modules. Architecting software for these systems raises many challenges not present in traditional cloud computing. Effective management of constrained resources and application isolation without adversely affecting performance are necessary. Autonomous fault management and real-time performance requirements must be met in a verifiable manner. It is also both critical and challenging to support multiple end-users whose diverse software applications have changing demands for computational and communication resources, while operating on different levels and in separate domains of security. The solution presented in this paper is based on a layered architecture consisting of a novel operating system, a middleware layer, and component-structured applications. The component model facilitates the construction of software applications from modular and reusable components that are deployed in the distributed system and interact only through well-defined mechanisms. The complexity of creating applications and performing system integration is mitigated through the use of a domain-specific model-driven development process that relies on a domain-specific modeling language and its accompanying graphical modeling tools, software generators for synthesizing infrastructure code, and the extensive use of model-based analysis for verification and validation.


Magnetic Resonance Spin TomogrAphy in Time-domain (MR-STAT) reconstructs multiple quantitative MR parameters from a single fast scan. This quantitative information can be leveraged for several purposes, including the synthetization of clinically desired image contrasts. Preliminary results of the first clinical trial using MR-STAT in patients with neurological diseases show that the synthetically generated contrast images (i.e., T1w, T2w, PDw and FLAIR) were acceptable for diagnostic use (5-point Likert scale
 ≥
 3), although the score was lower compared to conventional contrasts. This highlights the potential of
 MR-STAT to provide synthetic contrasts on top of quantitative maps, while reducing scan time.


Pursuing threads of my own activity that are discussed or enacted in
texts and their related curatorial and publication projects, I put forward a
practice that performs curating in the act of doing it. The thesis lays out a
context for this approach to curating against a backdrop of how
curatorial theory has been moving the practice towards disciplinarity.

Through proposing the adoption of the persona of a curator, facilitating a means to play with the conventions of art, I explore how exhibitions and the institutions in which they are staged my be convened as a different form of public space. This stands as a countermove against the formation of curating as a discipline. In this, curating is displayed as a fundamental aspect of the contemporary aesthetic where narratives, both real and fictive, suffused with the a sense of self in a broader cultural landscape. I touch on a shift where veracity in saying and acting out roles has supplanted concrete truths. As a fundamental player in a globalised culture, the curator, and doing curating, is claimed as potentially emancipatory, albeit fraught with tensions. My own work proves illustrative of how these tensions might be generative by adopting rules or conventions as game-like structures. This offers a unique consideration of what lies between critical and practice-based acts – exhibition-making, critical writing and an element of strategically deployed tom-foolery - in an attempt to avoid simple definition and lay out alternative, speculative positions. I illustrate and narrate these moves in the outcomes of a selected number of projects over the past decade, and lay out how my approach may be transferred into a formal museum setting.


This report examines the distribution of unpaid care and domestic work in households in the Ugandan districts of Kaabong, Kabale and Kampala. It seeks to understand the connection between social norms and the gendered division of work, including how much time women, men, boys and girls spend on paid work and unpaid care work in a day, as well as how this time use varies between urban and rural areas and between the districts in the study. The authors look closely at childcare, who undertakes it and why. They also analyse what kinds of services are available in each district that might ease the care workload for women and girls. The report makes recommendations for the Ugandan government and relative authorities on how they can recognize, reduce and redistribute care work through policy changes, labour-saving devices and technology, better infrastructure and the provision of care services. This publication was written by Oxfam partners in Uganda (EPRC, UWONET and the School of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University), in collaboration with Oxfam in Uganda and the WE-Care team.


Many consider electricity-consumption feedback applications a critical technology in alleviating energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, following the design science paradigm, I examine a design taxonomy of electricity-consumption feedback applications. I relied on an integrative theoretical framework and literature review to propose a comprehensive taxonomy for salient design elements of electricity-consumption feedback applications. Using a survey method, I collected data from general public to evaluate preferences for and relative importance of the design elements. I found a preferred set of design elements for the feedback applications. The results could serve as a basis to evaluate the design of existing electricity-consumption feedback applications and to help in studying the influence that design elements have on beliefs and behaviors related to individuals' electricity conservation.


Objective To compare the measurement properties (internal consistency, intra and interrater reliability, construct validity, and ceiling and floor effects) of the Functional Status Score for the ICU (FSS-ICU) and the Functional Independence Measure (FIM-motor domain). Methods In this study of measurement properties, the FSS-ICU and FIM were applied to 100 patients (72.1 ± 15.9 years; 53% male; Sequential Organ Failure Assessment = 11.0 ± 3.5 points, Simplified Acute Physiology Score 3 = 50.2 ± 16.8 points) in an intensive care unit at baseline and after 2 hours by physiotherapist 1 (test and retest) and 30 minutes after baseline by physiotherapist 2. The measurement properties evaluated were internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha), intra- and interrater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient), agreement (standard error of measurement) and minimum detectable change at a 90% confidence level, ceiling and floor effects (frequency of maximum and minimum scores) and construct validity (Pearson's correlation). Results The FSS-ICU and FIM presented adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha, FSS-ICU = 0.95 and FIM = 0.86), intra-and interrater reliability for overall FSS-ICU and FIM score (ICC > 0.75), agreement (minimum detectable change at a 90% confidence level: FSS-ICU and FIM = 1.0 point; standard error of measurement: FSS-ICU = 2% and FIM = 1%) and construct validity (r = 0.94; p < 0.001). However, the FSS-ICU and FIM presented ceiling effects (maximum score for 16% of patients for the FSS-ICU and 18% for the FIM). Conclusion The FSS-ICU and FIM present adequate measurement properties to assess functionality in critically ill patients, although they present ceiling effects.


With their steady series of conquests during the eighth century, adding Alemannia, Frisia, Aquitaine, the Lombard kingdom in northern Italy, Septimania, Bavaria, Saxony, and Brittany to the Frankish heartlands in Gaul, the Carolingians created what Ganshof regarded as an unwieldy empire. Was the Carolingian Church unwieldy too? Recent work, notably that of Janet Nelson, has underlined not only the political ideologies that helped to hold the Frankish realms together, but also the practical institutions and actions of individuals in government and administration. Can the same be done for the Church? Despite the extraordinary diversity of the Carolingian world and its ecclesiastical traditions, can it be described as a unity? What sense of a 'Frankish Church' or of 'Frankish ecclesiastical institutions' can be detected in the sources?


We present a longitudinal study of mini-QWERTY keyboard use, examining the learning rates of novice mini-QWERTY users. The study consists of 20 twenty-minute typing sessions using two different-sized keyboard models. Subjects average over 31 words per minute (WPM) for the first session and increase to an average of 60 WPM by the twentieth. Individual subjects also exceed the upper bound of 60.74 WPM suggested by MacKenzie and Soukoreff's model of two-thumb text entry [5]. We discuss our results in the context of this model.


This paper aims to propose an international list of descriptors for Butia odorata (jelly palm), using scientific documentation methods and farmers' knowledge to allow the germplasm characterization for conservation and sustainable use. It is an attempt to promote the development of new approaches to documenting crop genetic resources using a blend of these two sources of knowledge, frequently perceived as conflicting. This long-lived and useful palm is a neglected and subutilized species, and its genetic diversity and associated knowledge are under severe erosion. A list of 11 morphological descriptors is proposed based on observations, literature review and discussions with farmers who know and use the plant. These descriptors were used to characterize 303 adult jelly palms conserved in situ. Descriptive results are presented. Only five morphological characteristics were reported by farmers as important to discriminate individual plants, indicating that farmers have simpler and more rapid ways to differentiate diversity than do the scientists based on their uses. Standard list of descriptors developed by ex situ conservationists are widely used by breeders, but they rarely reach out to farmers and other user groups, a fact that limits the full use of germplasm collections around the world. Conversely, farmer-based descriptors, which are the expression of deep knowledge of diversity and its deployment by traditional communities, are rarely considered by breeders, mainly because they are not available. In this paper, we support the idea that a blend of these two methods – in a standard format – is highly strategic to promote an effective in situ conservation-through-use approach.


INTRODUCTION: Understanding cost drivers and estimating societal costs are important challenges for economic evaluation of health technologies in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) (1). This study assessed community experiences of health resource utilization and perceived cost drivers from a societal perspective to inform the design of an economic model for the Community Level Interventions for Pre-eclampsia (CLIP) trials (2). METHODS: Qualitative research was undertaken alongside the CLIP trial in two districts of Sindh province, Pakistan. Nine focus groups were conducted with a wide range of stakeholders, including pregnant women, mothers-in-law, husbands, fathers-in-law, healthcare providers at community and health facility-levels, and health decision-/policy-makers at the district-level. The societal perspective included out-of-pocket (OOP), health system, and program implementation costs related to CLIP. Thematic analysis was performed using NVivo software. RESULTS: Most pregnant women and male decision makers reported a large burden of OOP costs for in- and out-patient care, informal care from traditional healers, self-medication, childbirth, newborn care, transport to health facility, and missed wages by caretakers. Many healthcare providers identified health system costs associated with human resources for hypertension risk assessment, transport, and communication about patient referrals. Health decision-/policy-makers recognized program implementation costs (such as the mobile health infrastructure, staff training, and monitoring/supervision) as major investments for the health system. CONCLUSIONS: Our investigation of care-seeking practices revealed financial implications for families of pregnant women, and program implementation costs for the health system. The societal perspective provided comprehensive knowledge of cost drivers to guide an economic appraisal of the CLIP trial in Sindh, Pakistan.


Background and aims. Mast cells play an important role in allergic reactions, host defense, local homeostasis, inflamma-tion and angiogenesis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between mast cell counts and different types of periodontitis.
Materials and methods. Gingival specimens were taken from 20 moderate-to-advanced chronic and 19 moderate-to-advanced aggressive periodontal sites as case groups and 18 healthy/gingivitis sites as control group in routine periodontal flap and crown lengthening procedures. All the specimens were stained by toluidine blue for mast cell counting and hematoxy-lin/eosin to assess inflammation. Inflammatory and mast cells were assessed in 5-micron sections by two observers 3 times, utilizing light microscopy at ×100 and ×400 magnification. ANOVA and t-test were used to analyze data. Statistical signifi-cance was defined at α=0.05.
Results. Mast cell counts were higher in chronic versus aggressive periodontitis and healthy/gingivitis cases (P = 0.000). The aggressive periodontitis cases did not demonstrate higher counts of mast cells as compared to healthy/gingivitis cases (P >0.05). There was no relationship between mast cell counts and degree of inflammation in the three groups.
Conclusion. The present study indicated higher mast cell counts inthe chronic periodontitis sites compared to other sites. The results of this study suggest that further studies are necessary to simultaneously evaluate dynamic aspects of host defense andother aspects of immune system.


BACKGROUND
Intraneural ganglion (IG) cysts have been considered curiosities and their pathogenesis remains controversial.

OBJECTIVE
To clarify ulnar nerve at the elbow (UNE) pathogenesis and long-term surgical outcomes by presenting 9 rare cases of IG of the UNE.

METHODS
Surgical treatment of IG was performed. Clinical symptoms, physical examinations, and electromyogram were evaluated pre- and postoperatively. At least 4 yr of follow-up was performed.

RESULTS
The Tinel's sign became negative and local elbow pain disappeared in all 9 patients after surgery, and the average visual analog scale/score dropped from 4.9 (3-8) to 0 (0-0) after 6.2 d (2-10) on average. Two patients retained positive Froment test, "claw hand" and paresthesias with the 2-point discrimination much different from the contralateral little finger. Postoperative the UK Medical Research Council muscle strength score (MRC) grades of the flexor carpi ulnaris and the flexor digitorum profundus muscle of the fourth and fifth digits recovered to M4-M5 from M0-M2 in all 9 patients. The postoperative MRC grades of the third to fourth lumbrical muscles, the interossei, and the hypothenar recovered to M3-M5 from M0-M2 in 7 patients. Cystic articular branch (CAB) was found in all 9 patients intraoperatively. No symptomatic recurrence of IG was seen. The mean motor nerve conduction velocity of ulnar nerve across the elbow recovered from 5.3 to 41.2 m/s.

CONCLUSION
A unifying articular theory is responsible for the pathogenesis of IG of UNE and disconnection of the CAB would prevent recurrence. The long-term outcome is good after surgical treatment of IG of UNE.


Protein-depleted states generate allosteric inhibition of liver cystathionine β-synthase (CBS), which governs the first enzymatic step of the transsulfuration cascade, resulting in upstream accretion of homocysteine (Hcy) in body fluids. A similar Hcy increase may arise from normal hepatocytes undergoing experimentally-induced impairment of betaine-homocysteine methyltransferase (BHTM) activity or from components of lean body mass (LBM) submitted to any inflammatory disorder. LBM comprises a composite agglomeration of extrarenal tissues characterized by naturally occurring BHTM inactivity. As a result of cellular injury, LBM releases high concentrations of Hcy into the extracellular space, contrasting with the disruption of normal remethylation pathways. Hyperhomocysteinemia acts as a biomarker, reflecting the severity of insult and operating as an alarm signal. Elevated Hcy levels constitute a precursor pool recognized by a CBS coding region that reacts to meet increased methionine requirements in LBM tissues, using its enhanced production in hepatocytes. Preservation of methionine homeostasis benefits from its high metabolic priority and survival value.


Sentiment analysis is examined within natural language processing. It is instrumental in finding the sentiment (feeling) or opinion (idea) hidden within a text. This research focuses on finding sentiments in a "text image" and then classifying them whether they are desirable or not. These phrases and words refer to the perspectives of people about anything they think about it, such as services, products, governments, and social media events. In this study, the optical character recognition (OCR) algorithm was used, which is considered as a classification procedure of visual patterns that appear in the form of a digital image. Moreover, the Naïve Bayes machine learning algorithm was employed to classify these texts. These two algorithms form a hybrid system that supports our needs, especially in this day of technological advances and frequent use of websites and sharing of text images through the internet. Finally, the new vision in this work involves dealing with Arabic language texts that are transformed into images, which are extracted from a URL address and then classified into desirable and undesirable content.


Abstract Human beings are deeply social, and both evolutionary traits and cultural constructs encourage cooperation based on trust. Social robots interject themselves in human social settings, and they can be used for deceptive purposes. Robot deception is best understood by examining the effects of deception on the recipient of deceptive actions, and I argue that the long-term consequences of robot deception should receive more attention, as it has the potential to challenge human cultures of trust and degrade the foundations of human cooperation. In conclusion: regulation, ethical conduct by producers, and raised general awareness of the issues described in this article are all required to avoid the unfavourable consequences of a general degradation of trust.


The dominant slope-forming materials in Hong Kong, namely colluvium, saprolitic soils and weathered granitic and volcanic rocks, are inherently variable. The importance of appropriate geological input in local slope engineering has been recognised for over 40 years. Recent improvements in geological knowledge and developments in geological aspects of site Investigation, slope design and construction practice are reviewed, with emphasis on understanding of landslide mechanisms and detection of potentially adverse ground conditions. Most of these improvements have arisen from systematic landslide Investigations, or as a result of follow-up research and development studies. There is scope for further enhancement of practice in several areas, including appraisal of the Influence of discontinuities and transient adverse groundwater conditions on slope stability, characterisation of saprolites and colluvial soils in terms of engineering properties, site inspection/mapping during ground Investigation andfor Engi...


Question answering over knowledge bases (KBQA) for complex questions is a challenging task in natural language processing. Recently, generation-based methods that translate natural language questions to executable logical forms have achieved promising performance. These methods use auxiliary information to augment the logical form generation of questions with unseen KB items or novel combinations, but the noise introduced can also leads to more incorrect results. In this work, we propose GMT-KBQA, a Generation-based KBQA method via Multi-Task learning, to better retrieve and utilize auxiliary information. GMT-KBQA first obtains candidate entities and relations through dense retrieval, and then introduces a multi-task model which jointly learns entity disambiguation, relation classification, and logical form generation. Experimental results show that GMT-KBQA achieves state-of-the-art results on both ComplexWebQuestions and WebQuestionsSP datasets. Furthermore, the detailed evaluation demonstrates that GMT-KBQA benefits from the auxiliary tasks and has a strong generalization capability.


The James Bay Hydro-electric Project, presently under construction in northern Quebec, is one of the world's largest energy developments. Four major powerhouses are planned to produce 10,000 MW. There are six reservoirs with 147 earth and rockfill dams containing 203.5 million yd/sup 3/ of material and extending 60 miles in total length. Construction is over a 12-year period.


SHPTP2 is a ubiquitously-expressed SH2-containing tyrosine phosphatase that is tyrosine phosphorylated in response to activation of various receptor and nonreceptor tyrosine kinases. SHPTP2 associates with the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor after ligand stimulation, and binding of SHPTP2 to this receptor promotes tyrosine phosphorylation of SHPTP2. The yeast two-hybrid system was modified to identify partners of tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins. Using SHPTP2 as bait and supplying an exogenous tyrosine kinase gene to the yeast cells, we have found that SHPTP2 interacts with another signaling protein, Grb7. We have localized the region of interaction to tyrosine 580 in the carboxyl end of SHPTP2 and to the SH2 domain in the carboxy-terminus of Grb7. We demonstrate that Grb7 binds to SHPTP2 in vitro under conditions where the latter is tyrosine-phosphorylated. These experiments show that this modified two hybrid technique may be useful for the identification of proteins involved in tyrosine kinase signal transduction cascades.


A multi-pair two-way relaying scenario with multi-antenna mobile stations is considered. The bidirectional communications between the mobile stations are supported by an intermediate non-regenerative multi-antenna relay station. It is assumed that the mobile stations can subtract the back-propagated self-interference. Different relay transceive filter design approaches which utilize the fact that the mobile stations can perform self-interference cancellation are introduced. First, a self-interference aware MMSE transceive filter is derived. Second, a multi-antenna MMSE extension of the zero-forcing block-diagonalization based approaches is proposed and an upper bound for these approaches is given. The proposed transceive filters require less antennas at the relay station and achieve higher sum rates compared to conventional relay transceive filter approaches which do not exploit the capability of the mobile stations to perform self-interference cancellation.


The present study attempts to examine the dual impact of changes in interest rate and interest rate volatility on the mean and variance of portfolio stock returns. The study period is from 1st April 1996 to 30th August 2014 covering a total period of approximately 18 years. Sample used in the study consist of portfolio of financial and non-financial firms listed in the S& P CNX 500 equity index. The effect of interest rate changes and volatility on distribution of stock returns is analyzed using the GARCH (1,1) model.

The effect of interest rate changes is found to be higher for financial firms as compared to non-financial firms. Interest rate volatility is found to be the significant factor affecting mean and variance of non-financial firms stock returns. Overall, the effect of interest rate volatility on stock returns and conditional stock returns volatility is evident from the results. If interest rate becomes more volatile it would also increase the volatility of conditional stock returns. When the interest rate volatility is included in the variance equation it is found that in case of those firm's where interest rate sensitivity coefficient is not significant, coefficient of interest rate volatility is significant implying that if changes in interest rate are small then these firm's are able to hedge themselves but if volatility of interest rate increases beyond a limit, it would also make the conditional returns of these firms' more volatile.


Percent body fat (%BF) was estimated in 50 males and 50 females aged 8-21 y by using hydrodensitometry (%BFd) and a bioelectrical-impedance analyzer (%BF-BIA). The sample population was racially heterogeneous, though predominantly of African origin. Percent body fat was computed from density by using an equation derived specifically for blacks. The BIA predicted %BF with r2 = 0.77 (SEE = 3.7%BF), underestimating by a mean of 1.7%BF. Residuals (%BFd - %BF-BIA) were normally distributed but were significantly correlated with age (P less than 0.01), although this effect was small. The theoretical bases for impedance analysis and for hydrodensitometry would appear for different reasons to impair applicability of these techniques to the present population and age group. However, for our population sample the BIA estimated %BF as precisely as other simple techniques applied to other populations.


This paper describes the great advantages, from an operating standpoint, incident to the inauguration of electric service on the Elkhorn grade of the Norfolk & Western Railway Co. and why it is possible almost to double the capacity of the road by the use of 12 electric locomotives, instead of the 33 Mallet locomotives formerly in service.


Objective: to define the professional profile of the Medicine student graduated from the Medicine Faculty of the Autonomous National University of Mexico (fm-unam) in a contemporary context of the Mexican population need and theory, practical and attitude competences in physician. Design: there were identified the general physician competences through focal groups qualitative methodology, such as the study plan structure, its management and the hidden background. The groups were defined through the following criteria: students, graduates, practitioners and patients. Material and Methods: nine groups were summoned, from which two consisted of General Physicians, three of students (recently graduated or in social service), two of professors and two of patients. There were made four guides with the same questions adapted to each group. All group interviews were taped and transcribed. Some basic categories were defined for the analysis and they were adjusted according to the testimonial reviews and the fundamental theory method. Once the categories were identified the objective, documents, previous studies and classified testimonials were centered. Results and conclusions: once all the information was collected, the new professional profile of the General Physician was built. The technique of the focal groups turned out to be a very helpful tool to enrich and update medical training.


Background : DNA methylation and histone modification are dynamically linked in the epigenetic control of gene silencing and they play an important role in tumorigenesis. Methods : To evaluate the role of histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) in the development of lung cancer and the relationship between a HDAC1 overexpression and p16 hypermethylation, we performed immunohistochemical staining for HDAC1 in 76 lung cancer specimens (39 squamous cell carcinomas and 37 adenocarcinomas) that had been previously evaluated for their p16 methylation status by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Results : A HDAC1 overexpression (>50% of HDAC1 immunoreactive cells) was detected in 65 (85.5%) out of the 76 cases and it was more frequently seen in the squamous cell carcinomas (97.4%) than in the adenocarcinomas (73.0%) (p=0.002). The incidence of HDAC1 overexpression tended to be higher in the heavy smokers with more than 20 pack-years (p=0.067). Although there was no statistical significance, the frequency of p16 hypermethylation in the cases with a HDAC1 overexpression (27.7%) tended to be higher than that in the cases without a HDAC1 overexpression (9.0%) (p=0.175). Conclusions : A HDAC1 overexpression might be involved in lung carcinogenesis, and especially in a subgroup of smoking and squamous cell carcinoma patients, and a HDAC1 overexpression may be associated with p16 hypermethylation.


This qualitative research aims to observe, understand and provide an overview regarding the knowledge management processes at a high-risk organisation such as an aviation school that does not have an established knowledge management system, but has reported zero accidents during its 35 years of operation, achieving an excellent safety record that demonstrates its high level of reliability. The research follows an interpretive tradition and more specifically the hermeneutic approach. Empirical data was collected by interviewing and observing instructors at the aviation school, as well as by collecting company's documents, aiming to answer how knowledge is created and shared among instructors at a high-risk organisation such as an aviation school and what factors encourage or hinder knowledge creation and sharing between instructors. Our findings suggest that culture is a contextual factor positively affecting the instructors' high level of trust, identity, perception of time as a constraint, as well as how conflicts are not allowed to escalate at LUSA. Further, we suggest that LUSA's culture positively influence instructors to share knowledge throughout informal (discussions, voluntary mentorships) and formal (meetings, shadowing, research groups) practices, which are facilitated by technological systems and manuals. Concluding, this thesis contributes to theory and practice by providing a detailed description of all the practices and factors of a small high-risk organisation operating with excellence. Despite not having an established knowledge management system, the organisation continuously shares knowledge through an open and sincere culture that focuses on safety and embraces sharing and learning, influencing the instructors' self-view and encouraging knowledge sharing attitudes. (Less)


The water permeability of isolated toad ovarian oocytes was found from their rate of shrinkage in hypertonic Ringer's solution. Apparent membrane permeability coefficients, ( k ), calculated on the assumption that the cell surface was smooth, rose from about 20 µm s-1 in small cells 200 µm in diameter, to 35 µm s-1 in cells 800 µm in diameter and then fell to 5µm s-1 in large cells of 2000 µm diameter.

The factor ( f ) by which microvilli extend the oocyte surface area beyond that of a smooth sphere was estimated from an analysis of electron micrographs of the cell surface. The value of f rose from 2 x at 200 µm diameter, to 11 x at 800 µm diameter and then fell to 5 x at 2000 µm diameter. The correlation coefficient between k and f was 0 474 (0 005 > P > 0.001). Corrected permeability coefficients, (k'), calculated so as to take account of the effects of the microvilli, ( k ' = k / f ), declined with increasing oocyte size, from 5 µm s-1 in small cells (200 µm) to 1 ,µm s-1 in large cells (2000 µm).

The correlation between k and f indicates resistance to water flow by the cell membrane, while the decrease in k' as the cell grows suggests that diffusion in the cytoplasm may also be sufficiently slow to affect water flow out of the cell. It may be calculated that a surface membrane permeability coefficient in the range from 2 to 30 µm s-1 combined with an internal diffusion coefficient in the range from 6 x 10-8 to 10-6 cm2 s-1 could account for the effects found.


Objective. The purpose was to determine to what extent fetal fibronectin was a discriminative tesl of preterm delivery in patients hospitalized for uterine contractions without modification of I he cervix. Study design. The prospective double‐blind study included patients hospitalized between 24 and 34 weeks for false labor. Cervicovaginal swabs were obtained and assayed for the presence of fetal fibronectin by means of a monoclonal antibody assay. Results. Out of the 61 patients included, 18 showed a positive swab. The correlation of a positive result with preterm delivery revealed a sensitivity of 56%, a specificity of 81%, and positive and negative predictive values of 56% and 81% respectively. Meta‐analysis of studies published shows that the presence of fibronectin represents a significant relative risk of 3.3 (IC: 2.5–42) of preterm delivery. Conclusion. The presence of fetal fibronectin in cervicovaginal secretions of patients presenting with false labor indicates a major risk of preterm delivery.


The Czech Republic joined the e-Bug Project in 2006, and participated in the evaluation of the e-Bug pilot version together with the United Kingdom and France in 2007. The final version of the educational material was prepared in the UK centre in 2008. These were distributed to all elementary schools in the Czech Republic at the beginning of 2010. This was accompanied by a publicity campaign. The characteristics of the Czech population and its hygiene habits, the Czech system of education, and the development of antibiotic policies are also briefly described.


The statistical description of the spatial variability of soil properties is a preliminary step to the application of other quantitative techniques, for example, optimal spatial interpolation by kriging. The spatial correlation between the experimental data is characterized by the covariance function that is usually inferred from the experimental measurements. An appealing method for performing this inference is maximum likelihood estimation. This paper describes the results of the application of maximum likelihood estimation to the inference of the spatial covariance of infiltration measurements for a small catchment. Because there are a large number of experimental data, the approximate maximum likelihood method has been used to overcome the computational burden imposed by the calculation of the complete likelihood. As will be shown, this method, used in conjunction with classical graphical variogram analysis (method of moments), provides more objective inference of covariance parameters.


Although the value of the thermal Grüneisen parameter (γth) should be obtained by averaging spectroscopic measurements of mode Grüneisen parameters [γi ≡ (KT/νi)∂νi/∂P, where KT is isothermal bulk modulus, ν is frequency, and P is pressure], in practice, the average 〈γi〉 is up to 25% lower than γth. This discrepancy limits the accuracy of inferring physical properties from spectroscopic data and their application to geophysics. The problem arises because the above formula is physically meaningful only for monatomic or diatomic solids. We redefine γi to allow for the presence of functional groups in polyatomic crystal structures, and test the formula against spinel- and olivine-group minerals that have well-constrained spectra at pressure, band assignments, thermodynamic properties, and elastic moduli, and represent two types of functional groups. Our revised formula [γi ≡ (KX/νi)∂νi/∂P] uses polyhedral bulk moduli (KX) appropriate to the particular atomic motion associated with each vibrational mode, which results in equal values for 〈γi〉, γth, and γLA (the Grüneisen parameter of the longitudinal acoustic mode). Similar revisions lead to the pressure derivatives of these parameters being equal. Accounting for differential compression intrinsic to structures with functional groups improves the accuracy with which spectroscopic models predict thermodynamic properties and link to elastic properties.


The nearly absence of water in the atmosphere of Venus is a major difference to the situation at Earth. The actual content of hydrogen in the exosphere is still an open issue, since no in situ measurements are available yet. A different method uses the presence of proton cyclotron waves as an early tracer of ionized planetary hydrogen picked‐up by the solar wind, especially in the region upstream of the bow shock. Here, we report long‐term observations over two full Venus‐years of upstream proton cyclotron waves by the magnetometer on the Venus Express spacecraft, which indicate permanent ionization and pick‐up of hydrogen by the solar wind upstream of the planetary bow shock up to high altitudes. The pick‐up protons are shown to be of planetary origin, whereas other sources of neutral hydrogen have only negligible contribution. Therefore, the observation of upstream proton cyclotron waves in the solar wind is a clear indication for the existence of an extended neutral hydrogen corona at Venus, with significant local number densities up to an altitude of eight planetary radii. Recent observations of the exospheric Lyman‐α emission also indicate hot neutral hydrogen densities which are higher than expected.


Permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) are becoming popular in industries due to their fast transient response, high power density and high efficiency. This paper presents rotor field-oriented control of a surface mount permanent magnet synchronous motor drive with a fuzzy logic-based speed controller. A model reference adaptive fuzzy logic controller is utilised in the place of a conventional speed proportional plus integral (PI) controller. Simulation and experimental results are provided to show the applicability of artificial intelligence-based speed control of PMSMs. Results are presented for both conventional PI-based control and proposed adaptive fuzzy logic control and compared. The novelty of the paper lies in the experimental implementation of the adaptive fuzzy logic controller in vector-controlled PMSM drive.


ABSTRACTObjectiveTo examine the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) for people with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Methods193 People with AS were invited to take part in an MBSR 8 week course. The data linkage component of this study examined number of visits to the general practitioner before and after the course in participants and non-participants of the course (500 people taking part in a cohort study but not invited to the course). ResultsOf 193 people invited, 43 (22%) consented and took part in the course, GP records were available for 41 (95%) of MBSR participants and 457 (91%) of the 500 comparison group. There was a mean of 7.6 (median 3) visits to the GP in the 12 month period before the course for those undertaking MBSR and 4.6 (median 0) visits in the 12 month period after the course. This compared with 5.5 (median 0) visits (12 months before a random date) and 4.1 (median 0) visits (12 months after a random date) in the comparison group. Using Wilcoxon rank-sum (Mann-Whitney) test showed a significant reduction in GP visits in the MBSR group after the course compared to the comparison group. ConclusionsThose who chose to attend an MBSR course had a higher number of visits to the GP before attending the course, than the comparison group. However, after attending the stress reduction course the number of visits to the GP reduced to levels equivalent to the comparison group. This study suggests that mindfulness based stress reduction could be effective in reducing the number of visits to the GP for people with arthritis who regularly see their GP. The findings from this study suggest a full RCT and cost effectiveness analysis is warranted.


When setting up global ocean circulation models one faces the problem of including the Arctic Ocean where the traditional spherical coordinate system has a singularity at the pole. In addition, in regional model applications one has to deal with open boundaries where assumptions are made about the normally poorly known boundary conditions. Here an analytical reversible coordinate transformation on a sphere that preserves the orthogonality and the shape of infinitesimal figures is presented. Starting from a standard spherical coordinate system, the transformation is able to map the North and South Poles to two arbitrary locations of the earth and this is readily done with the aid of a conformal mapping in the extended complex plane. The resulting coordinate system will have enhanced resolution along the geodesic curve between the new poles. Examples are given where the transformation is used to strongly increase the resolution in a particular region of interest in the model domain.


In this work we use high-resolution synchrotron-based photoelectron spectroscopy to investigate the low kinetic energy electron emission from two negative electron affinity surfaces of diamond, namely hydrogenated and lithiated diamond. For hydrogen-terminated diamond electron emission below the conduction band minimum (CBM) is clearly observed as a result of phonon emission subsequent to carrier thermalization at the CBM. In the case of lithiated diamond, we find the normal conduction band minimum emission peak is asymmetrically broadened to higher kinetic energies and argue the broadening is a result of ballistic emission from carriers thermalized to the CBM in the bulk well before the onset of band-bending. In both cases the spectra display intensity modulations that are the signature of optical phonon emission as the main mechanism for carrier relaxation. To our knowledge, these measurements represent the first direct observation of hot carrier energy loss via photoemission.


This study deals with the changing dynamics of land use systems in an aboriginal community of British Columbia, Canada, namely the Lil'wat Nation, by employing the concept of property as an analytical tool. The focus on the concept of property clarifies the role played by the authority and institutions as regulators and decision-making factors in land use management. The relationship between property and various transitions in aboriginal life constitutes the main contribution of this research project. The methodology used in this descriptive study is a combination of the participant-observer method and archival data collection. Issues around authority are discussed in terms of the power relationship between Canada and the Lil'wat Nation. Several historical events explain the way in which political and economic imperatives have shaped the relationship between them, and the internal power relationship within the aboriginal community. It is found that the rapid and important changes in the decision-making situation have significantly affected the land use projects on reserve grounds. Also, it is found that a number of governmental initiatives created and perpetuated a state of dependency and dissension among the aboriginal community. Because land use practices cannot be viewed in isolation, this study emphasizes the importance of political reform and sharing of authority.


We report a case of Pneumocystis jirovecii transmission from colonized grandparents to their infant granddaughter. Genotyping of P. jirovecii showed the same genotypes in samples from the infant and her grandparents. These findings support P. jirovecii transmission from immunocompetent carrier adults to a susceptible child.


In this paper, a novel reference-free shared control system is designed for obstacle avoidance for automated vehicles. Rather than using a reference path to guide the driver, the proposed framework constrains the vehicle's status to guarantee the safety without scarifying the driver's freedom. The constrained Delaunay triangle method is introduced to identify the vehicle's position constraints and the constraints of obstacle avoidance, vehicle stability and physical limitations are investigated and unified. A nonlinear predictive control problem, which is constructed accounting nonlinear vehicle dynamics and given driver actions, is designed to optimize the steering and braking actions needed to keep the vehicle safe. The automation is supposed to correct the driver's steering or braking actions to prevent constraint violation and losing the control of vehicle. The simulation results show that the automation can assist the driver to avoid obstacles and guarantee the vehicle's stability with minimal control intervention.


Corneal splinting is an old and well established surgical technique and modern straight needles allow for atraumatic and accurate placement, providing an alternative to suture-fixation scleral ring support. We have routinely used two straight, 150-micrometer diameter, 16-millimeter length suture needles passed through clear cornea, to act as anterior segment splint supports during anterior segment surgery in which the cornea would otherwise collapse. The needles enter through the clear corneal periphery, pass across the anterior chamber, and exit through clear cornea in a criss-cross configuration. This splint technique is quick and easy to perform and is an alternative or addition to suture-fixation scleral ring support.


Supplemental digital content is available in the text. ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Motivational interviewing has become a popular approach for relieving mood disturbances. We aimed to investigate whether motivational interviewing can effectively improve depression, anxiety, and quality of life among stroke patients. METHODS: Seven electronic databases were searched from inception to March 15, 2021. Other potentially related studies were identified through manually searching the reference lists of empirical articles and relevant review articles. Randomized controlled trials that investigated the effects of motivational interviewing on stroke patients with mood disturbances were deemed eligible. The Cochrane Handbook 5.1.0 was used to assess the risk of bias. Meta-analyses were conducted using the Review Manager Version 5.3. RESULTS: Six articles with 1419 participants were included. The subgroup analysis revealed that motivational interviewing was associated with improvement of depression (P < .00001) and quality of life (P = .0007) among patients having stroke at less than 12 months of follow-up. No significant differences were detected for improving depression (P = .40) and quality of life (P = .38) at 12 months of follow-up. Furthermore, the meta-analysis showed that motivational interviewing was not associated with alleviation of anxiety (P = .81) among stroke patients. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis indicated that motivational interviewing might have beneficial effects on depression and quality of life in stroke patients at less than 12 months of follow-up. However, large and well-designed randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm these findings.


: This article focuses on how the European neighborhood policy is viewed in the three South Caucasus countries (Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan). We explore perceptions of the EU's role in the region and compare these perceptions with the EU's own role conceptions in the neighborhood. We use role theory as a theoretical framework, within which these perceptions can be analyzed and compared. We scrutinize the partner countries' perception of the EU as a driver of democratization and modernization, as well as their assessment of the degree to which the EU fulfills the role. Our findings indicate that the EU's role conception is indeed recognized and accepted by a majority of key actors in the South Caucasian countries. However, in the perceptions of South Caucasus actors the EU's role as a promoter of democratization and modernization is not mirrored by its role performance, as EU policies do not adequately address the domestic and regional contexts.


Magnetic dipole (MD) transitions are important for a range of technologies from quantum light sources and displays to lasers and bio-probes. However, the typical MD transitions are much weaker than their electric counterparts and are usually neglected in practical applications. Herein, we experimentally demonstrate that the MD transitions can be significantly enhanced by the well-developed magnetic metamaterials in the visible optical range. The magnetic metamaterials consist of silver nanostrips and a thick silver film, which are separated with an Eu3+:polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) film. By controlling the thickness of the Eu3+:PMMA film, the magnetic resonance has been tuned to match the emission wavelength of MDs. Consequently, the intensity of MD emission has been significantly increased by around 30 times at the magnetic resonance wavelength, whereas the intensity of electric dipole emission is well-preserved. The corresponding numerical calculations reveal that the enhancement is directly generated by the magnetic resonance, which strongly increases the magnetic local density of states around the MD emitter and can efficiently radiate the MD emission into the far field. This is the first demonstration, to the best of our knowledge, that MD transitions can be improved by an additional degree of magnetic freedom, and we believe this research shall pave a new route towards bright magnetic emitters and their potential applications.


This study was carried out to understand the impact of demographic factors on employee perception about distributive and procedural justice. Four demographic variables, namely: age, gender, status and tenure of employees, were chosen as predictors, and their relationship with the two dependent variables: procedural and distributive justice, was studied. A total of eight hypotheses were formulated, linking each predictor to both dependent variables, individually. A questionnaire was then designed consisting of structured questions, determining employees' perceptions towards distributive and procedural justice in their organizations. Unrestricted non-probability sampling was employed to choose respondents working in different organizations – from universities to banks, and contact was established via survey. Data thus collected was processed using SPSS and analyzed through ANOVA and One-Sample T-test. It was seen that none of the predictors caused a significant variation in employee perceptions, except in the case of status and procedural justice, where significant variations were observed with respect to employee responses at different levels or positions in organizations.


High resolution Fourier transform emission spectroscopy of the A∼2Πi-X∼2Πi band of the OCS+ ion was performed in the UV region to observe the ν1 (CO stretch) progression bands (υ1 = 0 → 2-5) for both the Ω=3/2 and 1/2 spin components. Accurate molecular constants including the rotational constants, B0 = 0.194 765(13) and 0.187 106(13) cm-1, and the spin-orbit interaction constants, A0 = -381.0(56) and -126.5(56) cm-1, were determined for the X∼2Π and A∼2Π states, respectively, by the simultaneous analysis of the observed progression bands. The CO bond length (rCO = 1.2810 Å) for the A∼2Π state, derived from the rotational constant B0 and Franck-Condon factors, is longer by 0.1756 Å than that (1.1054 Å) for the X∼2Π state, while the CS bond length for the A∼2Π state is shorter by 0.0905 Å than that for the X∼2Π state. Pure rotational transition frequencies in the ground X∼2Π state are predicted, as well as transition frequencies of the ν1 fundamental band, with the present molecular constants.


Extracellular cold-inducible RNA-binding protein (eCIRP) is a recently-discovered damage-associated molecular pattern. Understanding the precise mechanism by which it exacerbates inflammation is essential. Here we identified that eCIRP is a new biologically active endogenous ligand of triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (TREM-1), fueling inflammation in sepsis. Surface plasmon resonance revealed a strong binding affinity between eCIRP and TREM-1, and FRET assay confirmed eCIRP's interaction with TREM-1 in macrophages. Targeting TREM-1 by its siRNA or a decoy peptide LP17 or by using TREM-1-/- mice dramatically reduced eCIRP-induced inflammation. We developed a novel 7-aa peptide derived from human eCIRP, M3, which blocked the interaction of TREM-1 and eCIRP. M3 suppressed inflammation induced by eCIRP or agonist TREM-1 Ab crosslinking in murine macrophages or human peripheral blood monocytes. M3 also inhibited eCIRP-induced systemic inflammation and tissue injury. Treatment with M3 further protected mice from sepsis, improved acute lung injury, and increased survival. Thus, we have discovered a novel TREM-1 ligand and developed a new peptide M3 to block the eCIRP-TREM-1 interaction and improve the outcomes in sepsis.


In this, the last of four reports, we provide a very brief account of two analyses. First, we report the outcome of a chi-square analysis of the association between two variables: initial step score and module-completion category with the latter variable analysed as a multi-levelled module-completion variable (i.e. six levels of completion) and then as a binary variable (categorised as Pass/Fail). We also report on a second analysis: a binary logistic regression.
In Appendix A, we report the findings for the chi-square analyses. Our aim was in both cases (and for both reading and numeracy) to test the null hypothesis that there was no association between initial reading/numeracy step levels and module completion. In all cases we rejected the null hypotheses, concluding that there was an association between the levels of the two variables for both the reading and the numeracy data sets. We offer a brief interpretation of these findings, using adjusted residuals as a guide to identify cells in the contingency table which showed meaningful associations.
In Appendix B, we report the results of a binary logistic regression which included two biographical variables (Gender and Ethnicity), as well as a continuous variable, Initial Scale Score, as predictors of the dichotomous Module Completion variable. We opted for a binary logistic regression to ensure that the sample size would be adequate – a multinomial logistic regression would have required a sample of at least 2880 observations, distributed evenly across 436 cells (with no fewer than 5 observations per cell) (Lachenicht, 2002). This statistical procedure is used to identify independent variables (both continuous and/or categorical) (in our case, gender, ethnicity, English as a first language and initial scale score) that predict membership of the levels of a dichotomous variable (in this case, the Pass/Fail levels of Module completion). We found that the predictors explained a very modest 7% to 9.4% of the classification model for reading, and an equally modest 7.7% to 10.3% of the classification model for numeracy. We agree with the second reviewer of this research that a much richer data set (with more predictors) is needed to predict membership of the pass/fail categories of module completion. By implication, the LNAT variables explain a limited proportion of the variance on the dichotomous pass/fail of module completion.


The response of local economies to the globalization process can have a large effect on population and land-use dynamics. In countries with a high population density and relatively high levels of education, the globalization process has resulted in a shift in the local economy from agriculture to manufacturing, technology, and service sectors. This shift in the economy has impacted land-use dynamics by decreasing agricultural lands, increasing urban growth, and in some cases, increasing forest cover. This process of economic and forest transition has been well documented in Puerto Rico for the period 1950 to 1990, but some authors predicted that poor planning and continued urban growth would eliminate the gains in forest cover. To investigate the impacts of recent economic changes, we evaluated demographic and land-use changes for 880 "barrios" (i.e., neighborhoods), the smallest administrative unit, in Puerto Rico using government census data from 1990 and 2000 and land-cover classifications from 1991 and 2000. During this period, the population increased by 284 127 people (8.2%). Most of the growth was in the suburban barrios, whereas urban barrios lost population. This shift was reflected by the construction of more than 100 000 housing units in suburban barrios. Although urban sprawl is perceived as the major land-cover change, urban cover only increased from 10% to 11% between 1990 and 2000, whereas the increase in forest cover was much greater (28% to 40%). Grasslands and shrublands were the major sources of new urban and forest areas in 2000. Although these results are encouraging in terms of increasing forest cover, most of the new development has been concentrated in the coastal plains, which are the location of most of the remaining agricultural areas, a few protected areas, and threatened ecosystems (e.g., mangroves).


A study was conducted to investigate the nutrient intake and digestibility of creep fed West African dwarf lambs maintained in a humid tropical environment. Nine lambs were completely randomized into three groups and each placed on different nutritional regimen from 6 to 16 weeks post-partum. Lambs in group 1 (control) ate forage sward suckled their dams (diet A). Groups 2 and 3 lambs, were in addition to suckling, given supplementary rations formulated to contain 10.0% Soya bean and groundnut cakes in concentrate mix, respectively. Feed intake and coefficients of digestibility for all nutrients evaluated were affected (P<0.05) by dietary treatment. Dry matter (12.66), crude protein (50.63), nitrogen free extract (44.20) and energy (37.56) digestibility were significantly lower (P<0.05) in T but similar (P>0.05) in groups 2 (76.12, 85.94, 94.72 and 82.01) and 3 (74.89, 84.87, 94.45 and 80.42) while ether extract and crude fiber differed (P<0.05) in treatment 1, 2 and 3. Creep supplemented groups generally recorded better nutrient intake and digestibility. This study showed that creep feeding leads to the production of well nourished lambs with animals in group 2 (fed creep containing 10% Soya bean) showing better result in terms of parameters measured compared to those of group 3 (fed creep containing 10% groundnut cake). Thus, Soybean is a better nitrogen source for creep feeding


Multilingual Neural Machine Translation enables training a single model that supports translation from multiple source languages into multiple target languages. We perform extensive experiments in training massively multilingual NMT models, involving up to 103 distinct languages and 204 translation directions simultaneously. We explore different setups for training such models and analyze the trade-offs between translation quality and various modeling decisions. We report results on the publicly available TED talks multilingual corpus where we show that massively multilingual many-to-many models are effective in low resource settings, outperforming the previous state-of-the-art while supporting up to 59 languages in 116 translation directions in a single model. Our experiments on a large-scale dataset with 103 languages, 204 trained directions and up to one million examples per direction also show promising results, surpassing strong bilingual baselines and encouraging future work on massively multilingual NMT.


Solidification of low-activity wastes with cementitious materials is a widely accepted technique that contains and isolates waste from the hydrologic environment. The radionuclides I-129, Se-75, Tc-99, and U-238 are identified as long-term dose contributors. The anionic nature of these radionuclides in aqueous solutions allows them to readily leach into the subsurface environment. Any failure of concrete encasement may result in water intrusion and consequent mobilization of radionuclides from the waste packages via mass flow and/or diffusion into the surrounding subsurface environment. Assessing the long-term performance of waste grouts for encasement of radionuclides requires understanding the: 1) speciation and interaction of the radionuclides within the concrete wasteform, 2) diffusion of radionuclide species when contacted with vadose zone porewater or groundwater under environmentally relevant conditions, and 3) long-term durability and weathering of concrete waste forms. An improved understanding of the interactions of long-lived radionuclides in cementitious matrices will improve predictions of the long-term fate of these sequestered contaminants. An integrated laboratory investigation has been conducted including a: 1) multifaceted spectroscopic investigation to interrogate the speciation and interaction of radionuclides within concrete wasteforms, 2) solubility tests to quantify the stability of solid phases identified as radionuclide-controlling phases, 3) quantify the diffusion of radionuclidesmore » from concrete wasteforms into surrounding subsurface sediment under realistic moisture contents (4%, 7%, and 15% by weight moisture content), 4) quantify the long-term durability of concrete waste forms as a function environmental parameters relevant to depository conditions, and 5) identify the formation of secondary phases or processes (microcracking) that influence radionuclide retention. Data obtained from this investigation provides valuable information for understanding the speciation, behavior, and fate of radionuclides immobilized within concrete wasteforms under vadose zone conditions and underscores the necessity for robust, multi-disciplinary performance assessments for concrete waste forms.« less


Tau hyperphosphorylation can be considered as one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease and other tauophaties. Besides its well-known role as a microtubule associated protein, Tau displays a key function as a protector of genomic integrity in stress situations. Phosphorylation has been proven to regulate multiple processes including nuclear translocation of Tau. In this contribution, we are addressing the physicochemical nature of DNA-Tau interaction including the plausible influence of phosphorylation. By means of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) we measured the equilibrium constant and the free energy, enthalpy and entropy changes associated to the Tau-DNA complex formation. Our results show that unphosphorylated Tau binding to DNA is reversible. This fact is in agreement with the protective role attributed to nuclear Tau, which stops binding to DNA once the insult is over. According to our thermodynamic data, oscillations in the concentration of dephosphorylated Tau available to DNA must be the variable determining the extent of Tau binding and DNA protection. In addition, thermodynamics of the interaction suggest that hydrophobicity must represent an important contribution to the stability of the Tau-DNA complex. SPR results together with those from Tau expression in HEK cells show that phosphorylation induces changes in Tau protein which prevent it from binding to DNA. The phosphorylation-dependent regulation of DNA binding is analogous to the Tau-microtubules binding inhibition induced by phosphorylation. Our results suggest that hydrophobicity may control Tau location and DNA interaction and that impairment of this Tau-DNA interaction, due to Tau hyperphosphorylation, could contribute to Alzheimer's pathogenesis.


The purpose of this activity is to apply the Point of sale application in the Prosperous Shop business in accordance with business needs so that it needs to compete with modern supermarkets not far from the location and overcome the difficulties of stock, cashier payments are still calculated using a calculator. In the present era of the industrial revolution 4.0, business ventures in the use of technology to alleviate the role of humans for reasons of speed and verification are very important, otherwise the business cannot compete with businesses that apply technology. Convenience Stores are a growing retail business in this area but with the advent of modern supermarket development it is necessary to add services to customers. In this business, there is a very important problem to be solved, namely all operational processes are still carried out conventionally. The goal of service is customer service or cashier payment. The problems are solved by stages namely preparation, implementation and evaluation. Prepare by conducting site surveys and interviews with partners, analyzing partner needs, designing and building applications. The implementation is carried out by implementing the application and training the application. Evaluation of this activity produces results and benefits for partners to improve competitiveness with modern supermarkets and facilitate cashier payments. The result of this community service activity is the application of the Point of Sales application to the Prosperous Shop Business so that it can compete with modern supermarkets and improve customer service, facilitate stock processing and sales reporting.


PURPOSE
To study the procedure of reference-based auto-planning for treatment plan optimization and develop a threshold-driven optimization methodology for automatically generating a treatment plan that is motivated by a reference DVH and/or dose distribution. We study threshold-driven optimization for reference-based auto-planning (TORA).

METHODS
Commonly used voxel-based quadratic penalties have three components: an overdose weight, and underdose weight, and some target dose threshold. Conventional planning using such a function involves iteratively updating the preference weights while keeping the thresholds constant, an unintuitive and inconsistent method for planning towards some target DVH. In auto-planning, current cutting-edge techniques also focus on the preference weights while fixing the threshold values. However, driving the optimization by threshold values can achieve similar plans without the extreme updates usually required of the weight parameters. The proposed methodology directly relates reference information to threshold values, which influence the optimization in a more impactful, intuitive way than the preference weights.

RESULTS
This methodology was applied to a prostate cancer case as a proof-of-concept. Both IMRT and VMAT treatment planning models were able to closely achieve a reference DVH. Other cases and modalities will be studied.

CONCLUSION
This auto-planning technique has the potential to be very effective for auto-planning based on reference plans. As dose prediction and data-driven planning becomes more prevalent in the clinical setting, incorporating such data into the treatment planning model in a clear, effective way will be crucial for efficient planning. Conventional methods of determining objective function parameters for a voxel-based quadratic objective function have shortcomings and a threshold-focused objective tuning should be explored, especially in the realm of efficient auto-planning. Supported by Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) - ID RP150485.


In the present day open and distance education has become a significant way of the development of higher education. Bangladesh Open University (BOU), the only public institution in Bangladesh offers several formal and non-formal programs from secondary to post graduate level through distance mode. The main objectives of BOU's program is to provide flexible and need based education particularly to the rural and disadvantaged groups like woman, agricultural workers, unemployed youths, uneducated adults, on-the-job people etc. The School of Social Science, Humanities and Language (SSHL) at the BOU offers Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Social Science (BA/BSS) to create efficient and skilled manpower in the country. The focuses of this paper is to find out learners' views and attitude towards BA/BSS program at BOU. In this study, 187 respondents were randomly selected from 15 tutorial centers of 2 Regional Resource centers (RRCs) of BOU. The study showed that 62% learners were male and the mean age of the learners was 34.05 years (minimum 22; maximum 54). More than 50% learners were married and nearly half (47.6%) of them were private employees and 86.6% were Muslims. Amongst them, 72.2% were come from urban areas and residing around 23.08 km from the tutorial centers. Most (72%) of the learners of BA/BSS program stated that the program was as usual but 24.1% expressed that it was difficult to understand but 97.7% learners responded that text materials were up to the mark. Regarding the media programs, 61% of the learners gave their opinion that TV programs were at the level best but they wanted to watch these at the evening or night schedule. It was surprising that 26.2% of the learners had bitter experience with the services of RRCs. Finally, some measures have been proposed to offer effective and more popular educational program through BOU.


Eosinophilic gastroenteritis (EGE) is a digestive disorder in children and adults that is characterised by eosinophilic infiltration in the stomach and intestine. Depending on the dominant layer of infiltration, this disorder is classified into three types, namely, mucosal, muscularis, and subserosa. Subserosa clinical presentation usually begins with ascites and is sometimes associated with symptoms of intestinal obstruction. Ascites is characterised by marked eosinophilia in ascitic fluid. EGE with ascites simulating appendicitis and peritonitis is rare in paediatric patients. This publication aims to report a case series of EGE with clinical features, treatment responses, and a review of the current strategies in the management of eosinophilic ascites.


Simple Summary Intramuscular fat (IMF) is a key factor affecting many meat quality traits of pigs, such as pork tenderness, flavor, and many more. In this study, a systematic identification and comparison of the expressed profiles of messenger RNA (mRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs) with associated co-expression networks longissimus dorsi muscle (LDM) in Large White × Min pigs F2 resource population were performed. The results contain high-throughput genomic data, which are helpful to clarify the regulatory role of a variety of RNAs in regulating intramuscular fat formation and lipid metabolism at the genomic level and provide new insights for studying the mechanism of fat formation and the regulation of meat quality related genes at the molecular level. Abstract Intramuscular fat (IMF) content is a complex trait that affects meat quality and determines pork quality. In order to explore the potential mechanisms that affect the intramuscular fat content of pigs, a Large white × Min pigs F2 resource populations were constructed, then whole-transcriptome profile analysis was carried out for five low-IMF and five high-IMF F2 individuals. In total, 218 messenger RNA (mRNAs), 213 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), 18 microRNAs (miRNAs), and 59 circular RNAs (circRNAs) were found to be differentially expressed in the longissimus dorsi muscle. Gene ontology analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes annotations revealed that these differentially expressed (DE) genes or potential target genes (PTGs) of DE regulatory RNAs (lncRNAs, miRNAs, and circRNAs) are mainly involved in cell differentiation, fatty acid synthesis, system development, muscle fiber development, and regulating lipid metabolism. In total, 274 PTGs were found to be differentially expressed between low- and high-IMF pigs, which indicated that some DE regulatory RNAs may contribute to the deposition/metabolism of IMF by regulating their PTGs. In addition, we analyzed the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) of DE RNAs co-located in high- and low-IMF groups. A total of 97 DE regulatory RNAs could be found located in the QTLs related to IMF. Co-expression networks among different types of RNA and competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory networks were also constructed, and some genes involved in type I diabetes mellitus were found to play an important role in the complex molecular process of intramuscular fat deposition. This study identified and analyzed some differential RNAs, regulatory RNAs, and PTGs related to IMF, and provided new insights into the study of IMF formation at the level of the genome-wide landscape.


Big data brings new possibilities for researches led in social sciences. Aggregating vast quantities of data, and in particular personal data, facilitates the emergence of new knowledges. In consequence, it raises many specific questions on how to reconcile the right to protection of personal data with a freely led scientific research. Can one be prioritized over another? If data protection laws, and especially the new European regulation known as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is applicable to research led in social sciences based on Big data, those laws do not necessarily constitute an excessive constraint for researchers. The rights of data subjects (such as the right to information, the right of access, the right to rectification and the right to erasure) and the obligations and responsibilities for researchers are rendered more flexible to facilitate their researches. The difficulty mainly resides in continuing researchers' acculturation to data protection right


AIM
To probe the changes of vascular responsiveness and intracellular signaling during opiate withdrawal syndrome.

METHODS
Morphine withdrawal syndrome in rats was precipitated by iv naloxone following daily injection of increasing dose of morphine for 2 weeks, the changes in mean arterial blood pressure (MBP) caused by acetylcholine (ACh) were recorded. Isolated mesenteric vascular beds were perfused with Kreb's solution containing different concentration of drugs. The cytoplasmic Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) in Fura 2-loaded cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells (aec) and smooth muscle cells (smc) were assayed. The positive immunoreaction to the phosphorylated cyclic AMP responsive element-binding protein (phospho-CREB) in cultured smc was calculated.

RESULTS
Naloxone 2 mg/kg iv following chronic morphine treatment precipitated severe opiate withdrawal signs in company with blunted hypotensive effect of Ach that was the same as chronic morphine treated rats before withdrawal. In the mesenteric vascular beds from chronic morphine treated rats, the EC50 of pressor effect of norepinephrine (NE) was decreased from (2.06 +/- 0.38) to (1.14 +/- 0.21) micromol/L (n = 8, P < 0.01) after the perfusion solution containing morphine 20 micromol/L was replaced by Kreb's containing naloxone 25 micromol/L. Furthermore, NE-induced perfusion pressure increases were completely prevented by Kreb's contained morphine 40 micromol/L. Morphine acutely applied to control smc produced some variable and naloxone-reversible [Ca2+]i changes, but naloxone did not. However, naloxone increased [Ca2+]i in two thirds of smc preincubated with morphine 0.1 or 0.5 mmol/L for 48 h from (97 +/- 20) to (167 +/- 29) nmol/L (n = 9, P < 0.01) and from (106 +/- 19) to (225 +/- 48) nmol/L (n = 10, P < 0.01), respectively, and it also increased the ratio of positive immunoreaction to phospho-CREB from (7.7 +/- 3.2) % to (19.6 +/- 4.7) % (n = 6, P < 0.01) in smc preincubated with morphine 0.5 mmol/L. In addition, naloxone decreased [Ca2+]i from (146 +/- 34) to (78 +/- 24) nmol/L in one third morphine-preincubated aec (n = 10, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION
That naloxone enhances vascular responsiveness to NE in chronic morphine treatment rats may be relevant to [Ca2+]i transient facilitation in company with cAMP-dependent phosphorylation enhancement.


Britain voted to 'take back control' from the EU, and Theresa May's Lancaster House speech made the repatriation of power to Westminster a priority. But it is far from clear what kind of Brexit Britons want, nor how many of these powers will go to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland rather than the UK Parliament. Katie Ghose argues that with direct democracy on the rise, citizens' assemblies would help people grasp the trade-offs at stake and have a voice in these monumental decisions.


Broadband mobile networks utilize a radio resource control (RRC) state machine to allocate scarce radio resources. Current implementations introduce high latencies and cross-layer degradation. Recently, the RRC enhancements, continuous packet connectivity (CPC) and the enhanced forward access channel (Enhanced FACH), have emerged in UMTS. We study the availability and performance of these enhancements on a network serving a market with a population in the millions. Our experience in the wild shows these enhancements offer significant reductions in latency, mobile device energy consumption, and improved end user experience. We develop new over-the-air measurements that resolve existing limitations in measuring RRC parameters. We find CPC provides significant benefits with minimal resource costs, prompting us to rethink past optimization strategies. We examine the cross-layer performance of CPC and Enhanced FACH, concluding that CPC provides reductions in mobile device energy consumption for many applications. While the performance increase of HS-FACH is substantial, cross-layer performance is limited by the legacy uplink random access channel (RACH), and we conclude full support of Enhanced FACH is necessary to benefit most applications. Given that UMTS growth will exceed LTE for several more years and the greater worldwide deployment of UMTS, our quantitative results should be of great interest to network operators adding capacity to these networks. Finally, these results provide new insights for application developers wishing to optimize performance with these RRC enhancements.


In this paper, we describe how checking whether a given property F is true for a product A1 × A2 of partially ordered spaces can be reduced to checking several related properties of the original spaces Ai. This result in useful in fuzzy logic, where, to compare our degree of confidence in several statements, we often need to combine relative confidence comparison results provided by different experts. For example, Cartesian product corresponds to the cautious approach, when our confidence in S′ is higher than confidence in S if and only if all the experts are more confident in S′ than in S. Alternatively, if we have an absolute confidence in the first expert and we use the opinion of the second expert only if the first expert cannot decide, we get a lexicographic product.


Workflow Management (WfM) systems have acquired a respectable place in the market of enterprise information systems. Although it is clear that implementation of a WfM system may shorten process execution and increase efficiency, little is known about the extent of these effects on business process performance. In this paper, we report on a running longitudinal multi-case study into the quantitative effects of WfM systems on logistic parameters such as lead time and service time. We conclude that in most cases significant decreases of lead time and service time will take place for the cases under consideration. In the presentation of our research outline, we show how we use process simulation for the validation of our measurements, the prediction of performance improvement, and the comparison of the preand postimplementation situation. As a side effect of this study, we present some interesting characteristics of actual business processes and the way WfM systems are implemented in practice.


The World Bank (WB) was found in accordance with the Bretton Woods agreement in 1944 with the mission of assisting post war reconstruction and alleviating poverty. The WB is an international institution that aims to expand development through the allocation of loans in developing countries with the hope to improve life standards of those involved. However, its success in fulfilling its aim has been challenged. This study will provide you with general information and criticism of the policies which were implemented by the institution.


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This brief paper examines, from the point of view of ethnography, how the African proverbs selected from the Niger Delta of Nigeria have been used in fostering intergenerational relationships discourse in a globalizing world. This discussion adopts the ethnographic approach in exploring the meaning and functions aims, structures and the delivery modes of African proverbs used in intergenerational relationships as our peoples struggle with the threat to the erosion of some of the major positive artefacts in our culture. It concludes by synthesizing contemporary challenges seemingly minimizing the overall use and impacts of African proverbs in intergenerational relationships, and suggesting the possible implications of the discussion for networking regionally and globally.


Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the clinical manifestations; radiographic, audiometric, and retinal fluorescein angiography findings; pathogenesis and treatment of Susac syndrome with review of the literature. Study Design: We conducted a retrospective case review. Setting: This study was conducted at a tertiary referral center. Patient: A 50-year-old woman presented with recurrent episodes of neurologic symptoms, bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, and silent retinal artery occlusion. Interventions: The patient underwent complete evaluation, including magnetic resonance image studies, audiometric tests, and retinal fluorescein angiography. She was treated initially with corticosteroids and later with other immunosuppressive agents. Results: The patient was initially diagnosed with left sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Despite comprehensive clinical and laboratory studies that did not reveal systemic disease, 3 weeks later, the patient developed vertigo, sensorineural hearing loss, and tinnitus in the opposite ear. The neurologic involvement and the bilateral audiologic manifestations raised the possibility of Susac syndrome. Conclusion: Susac syndrome is a rare disorder of unknown origin characterized by the triad of encephalopathy, fluctuating hearing loss, and visual loss resulting from microangiopathy of the brain, cochlea, and retina. The multiple organ involvement seen in Susac syndrome raises a differential diagnosis ranging from autoimmune disease, through systemic vasculitis, to multiple sclerosis. Otolaryngologists should be aware of this syndrome as a result of the vestibulocochlear manifestations and the multidisciplinary evaluation that is required.


ABSTRACT This work of disambiguation begins with the simple recognition that there are 'hermeneutics' and 'hermeneutics', and argues that not all senses of the term have been given sufficient attention in the discussion of what religious education is and could be. I hope to do some important definitional work around the different senses that hermeneutics might have in religious education, and thereby to think through what it might mean to say that a concern in religious education is a 'hermeneutical' one. Finally, I hope to address the 'so what' question and make a case for the vital importance of hermeneutics for understanding religious education, as well as for understanding religion. This case lies not primarily in the association of religious education with the interpretation of scripture or more generally with questions of text or interpretation, but in the close association of education in its broadest sense with hermeneutical concerns. I sketch out the implications of a hermeneutical approach for teachers and curriculum planners faced with the tasks (which cannot be interpreted away) of selecting curriculum content and making decisions about pedagogical approach.


The Agar-Gel-Immunodiffusion-Test as proposed by EEC has been carried out during the last 2 1/2 years within a defined test area of Lower Saxony. About 500 leukosis-infected herds with a total of about 20.000 head of cattle have been tested five times now within three to six months sequences. The AGIDT has proved to be an easy and very practical test for routine diagnosis in large scale surveys. Our results described again show the superiority of the glykoprotein-antigen over the ether-treated p24-antigen in the AGIDT. Slaughter of AGIDT-reactors within this population led to a fast decrease of leukosis-infection as detected by the test. Epidemiological herd-data show, that spreading of infection within a herd depends largely on direct contact between infected and noninfected animals. Moreover our data give rise to the suspicion that the manipulations during blood-sampling seem to be implicated in the spread of the disease within a herd. Possible reasons for inconsistencies of antibody-titer in infected animals are discussed.


Investigation of the cell S--Ig in acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL), at the onset of relapse of the disease, shows quite marked differences from patient to patient according to the extent of the immunofluorescent-positive cells. They may vary from 0.5 to 25% or more. When these Ig-positive cells are treated with trypsin and then incubated "in vitro" for six hours, many of them are no longer Ig-positive, i.e. they do not synthesize Ig. It might be possible, that the membrane-Ig observed before trypsinization does not represent true Ig-determinants of mature B-cells (antibodies attached to leukaemia-specific determinants?). The extent of these features decrease in remission until their disappearance. Relationship between the cell immunological patterns and the treatment response in ALL could exist. In a group of ALL-patients under the same treatment, that is, vincristine and prednisone, the correlation between the course of the disease after the above-mentioned therapy showed quick and complete remission in patients with low percentage of Ig-positive cells (below 10%) and poor improvement (often without complete remission) in patients with higher percentage of Ig-positive cells. Among the most important B-lymphocyte abnormalities in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) are the following: (a) fluorescence intensity may vary not only from patient to patient, but also from cell to cell in the same patient; (b) the Fc-receptor can be lacking; (c) the C3b-receptor is not always present, or it is from 2 to 20-folds less frequent than the C3d-receptor, whereas normal human lymphocytes do not show any outstanding differences between the number of EAC rosette-forming cells either when tested with mouse complement (C3d-receptor) or with human complement C3b-receptor); (d) the traffic capacity of peripheral-blood B-lymphocytes in CLL is quite defective. Results of the observations on lymphocytes in CLL, taken as a whole, suggest that CLL is in general given by the expansion of an abnormal clone of cells of B origin, arrested in their maturative development, non-responsive to the mitogen stimulation, accumulating in the peripheral-blood for a traffic deficiency. On the contrary, the T-cells class is apparently normal, and the T-cell extent in CLL-peripheral blood can be even greater than normal when taken as absolute value.


A key component of the Radiological Physics Center's (RPC) on-site dosimetry review visits are photon beam calibrations for which determination of the energy of the x ray is a key element. The ratio of ionizations, TPR20/TPR10, for a 10 cm x 10 cm field at depths of 20 and 10 cm for a constant SCD is used as a quantitative measure of beam quality in the Task Group 21 protocol. The RPC has measured both TPR20/TPR10 and the corresponding ratio of percent depth dose (D20/D10) at a constant SSD for 685 photon beams (4-25 MV) for most makes and models if accelerators. A strong correlation between TPR20/TPR10 and D20/D10 is presented which allows the determination of the TPR ratio from the measurement of the ratio of percent depth doses. An analysis of the uncertainty introduced in the TG-21 factors (L/rho, Pwall, Prepl) caused by the spread in the measured data and translated into the determination of the TPR ratio results in an insignificant error (< 0.3%). This empirical relationship provides an alternate technique for quantifying the beam quality defined in the TG-21 protocol without surrendering any loss of precision in output calibration. This technique may be found by those who calibrate at a fixed SSD to be an easier and quicker method.


The insect olfactory system discriminates odor signals of different biological relevance, which drive innate behavior. Identification of stimuli that trigger upwind flight attraction towards host plants is a current challenge, and is essential in developing new, sustainable plant protection methods, and for furthering our understanding of plant-insect interactions. Using behavioral, analytical and electrophysiological studies, we here show that both females and males of the Egyptian cotton leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae), use blends of volatile compounds to locate their host plant, cotton, Gossypium hirsutum (Malvales, Malvaceae). Female S. littoralis were engaged in upwind orientation flight in a wind tunnel when headspace collected from cotton plants was delivered through a piezoelectric sprayer. Although males took off towards cotton headspace significantly fewer males than females flew upwind towards the sprayed headspace. Subsequent assays with antennally active synthetic compounds revealed that a blend of nonanal, (Z)-3 hexenyl acetate, (E)-β-ocimene, and (R)-(+)-limonene was as attractive as cotton headspace to females and more attractive to males. DMNT and (R)-(-)-linalool, both known plant defense compounds may have reduced the flight attraction of both females and males; more moths were attracted to blends without these two compounds. Our findings provide a platform for further investigations on host plant signals mediating innate behavior, and for the development of novel insect plant protection strategies against S. littoralis.


Rapid enhancements in Multimedia tools and features day per day have made entertainment amazing and the quality visual effects have attracted every individual to watch these days' videos. The fast-changing scenes, light effects, and undistinguishable blending of diverse frames have created challenges for researchers in detecting gradual transitions. The proposed work concentrates to detect gradual transitions in videos using correlation coefficients obtained using color histograms and an adaptive thresholding mechanism. Other gradual transitions including fade out, fade in, and cuts are eliminated successfully, and dissolves are then detected from the acquired video frames. The characteristics of the normalized correlation coefficient are studied carefully and dissolve are extracted simply with low computational and time complexity. The confusion between fade in/out and dissolves is discriminated against using the adaptive threshold and the absence of spikes is not part of the case of dissolves. The experimental results obtained over 14 videos involving lightning effects and rapid object motions from Indian film songs accurately detected 22 out of 25 gradual transitions while falsely detecting one transition. The performance of the proposed scheme over four benchmark videos of the TRECVID 2001 dataset obtained 91.6, 94.33, and 92.03 values for precision, recall, and F-measure respectively.


Background Nitrate (NO3 -) contained in food and beverages can transiently increase nitric oxide (NO) availability following bacterial reduction to nitrite (NO2 -) in the oral cavity. Increased levels of NO have been consistently shown to reduce blood pressure and elicit other favourable cardiovascular and metabolic effects. We have previously reported that regular ingestion of dietary NO3 - increases salivary pH and alters the abundance of bacteria that are responsible for NO3 - reduction. Purpose The present study tested the hypothesis that these adaptations to the oral bacteria would improve the capacity of the mouth to reduce NO3 - to NO2 - and increase the vascular responsiveness to a NO3 - dose. Methods Eleven healthy males received 7 days of supplementation with NO3 --rich beetroot juice (BR). The acute responses following the ingestion of a bolus of BR were assessed before (day 0) and after (day 8) supplementation. Samples of saliva and blood were collected for the analysis of NO markers and vascular function was assessed by blood pressure and flow mediated dilation (FMD). Results As previously reported, 7 days of supplementation with BR significantly altered the composition of the microbiome. Some species NO3 --reducing bacteria increased in abundance and other, mostly pathogenic species, were reduced. The ingestion of BR on days 0 and 8 increased salivary and plasma NO2 -, decreased blood pressure, and increased the FMD response (all p<0.05). Despite the alterations to the microbiome, there was no difference in the magnitude of the changes in: salivary NO2 - (day 0 Δ 2182.3 µM±1788.8 µM, day 8 Δ 1370.1 µM±1833.8 µM), plasma NO2 - (day 0 Δ 314.3 µM±149.7 µM, day 8 Δ 173.4±122.7 µM), flow mediated dilation (day 0 Δ 1.75%±1.71%, day 8 Δ 1.65%±2.12%), mean arterial blood pressure (day 0 Δ −1 mmHg ±4 mmHg, day 8 Δ −3 mmHg ±3 mmHg). Conclusions Supplementing the diet with BR alters the microbial composition of the tongue in favour of oral health and results in transient improvements in vascular function. Nevertheless, the adaptations to the microbiome do not enhance the capacity to generate NO from dietary NO3 - or the vascular responsiveness to an acute bolus of BR.


There has recently been an outbreak of injectional anthrax infection secondary to contaminated heroin use in the UK and Europe. We present a case of a 37-year-old man presenting with pain and swelling in the groin following injection of heroin into the area. He was initially treated for severe cellulitis, however, he failed to respond to appropriate antimicrobial therapy. He went onto develop a widespread rash; it was then that a diagnosis of injectional anthrax infection was considered. Appropriate investigations were initiated including serum sample and tissue biopsy, and the diagnosis was confirmed. Management included extensive surgical debridement and a prolonged course of combination antibiotic therapy. The authors summarise the important steps in diagnosis and the management options in patients presenting with this life-threatening infection.


The objective of this study was to explore the effects of elbow flexion on the hand-grip strength. The data were collected by trained, senior and graduate students as a required mini-project in an ergonomics course. A sample of 125 female and 222 male adults, ages 18 to 47 (22.5±3.35), body heights of 173.0±10.47cm and body weights of 73.6±16.48 kg, mostly from college student population, were tested using standardized data collection form, positioning and instructions. In this study, the grip strengths of 347 subjects were measured and recorded over a multiple number of years. Pair-wise comparisons using the Student's T-Test showed that the hand-grip strength at the elbow in the fully extended position was significantly higher than when the elbow flexed. The test also showed significantly higher grip strength in 90° flexed position than in 30°, 60° or 120° flexion. No significant differences were found in the grip strength among the 30°, 60° or 120° elbow flexed positions. Comparison of the average hand-grip strength of dominant-hand and non-dominant hand of the subjects showed a significant difference. The female subjects found to have about 41% lower grip strength than the


BACKGROUND
Vaccines have shown 95% protection from COVID-19 disease in healthy populations. Initial findings in cancer patients suggest a lower seroconversion and greater toxicity possibly related to myelo-immunosuppressive therapies.

AIM
We conducted a prospective study to assess factors predicting poor seroconversion and adverse events following immunization (AEFI) to the BNT162b2 vaccine in cancer patients on active treatment.

METHODS
Blood samples were collected by the research nurse at first dose (visit 1), second dose (visit 2), after 42 days (visit 3) and after 6 months (visit 4). At visit 1, 3 and 4 participants received: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Distress Thermometer. Patients who ended treatment >6 months on active surveillance served as controls.

RESULTS
Between March and July 2021, 320 subjects were recruited and 291 were assessable. The lack of seroconversion at 21 days from the second dose was 1.6% (95% CI, 0.4-8.7) on active surveillance, 13.9% (8.2-21.6) on chemotherapy, 11.4% (5.1-21.3) on hormone therapy, 21.7% (7.5-43.7) on targeted therapy and 4.8% (0.12-23.8) on immunotherapy. Compared to controls, the risk of no IgG response was greater for chemotherapy (P=0.033), targeted therapy (0.005) and hormonotherapy (P=0.051). Lymphocyte count less than 1x109/L, older age and advanced stage also significantly predicted poor seroconversion. Overall, 43 patients (14.8%) complained of AEFI, mostly of mild grade. Risk of AEFI was greater in females (P=0.001) and younger patients (P=0.009).

CONCLUSIONS
A third booster dose and long-term serological testing is required in subjects who have not responded to the vaccine.

NURSING IMPLICATIONS
nurses must take responsibility for promoting and protecting the health of cancer patients.