To face the worldwide competition and meet the recent requirements in the new information technologies era, digitalization and adoption of new information techniques have become a must for all transport and logistics companies and organizations to improve their activities. This digital transformation of transport and logistics sectors is giving birth to huge and increasingly growing sets of voluminous data with high velocity and varied data sources, also known as Big Data. With new manipulation and management infrastructures, as well as more real-time analysis and techniques, these enormous datasets can be efficiently harvested to carry out valuable operational improvements and create new business values in the transport and logistics domains. This paper provides a review of the Big Data in the transport and logistic fields, discusses the current research challenges and identifies some of the promising directions for future research.


SIGNIFICANCE The diagnosis of dry eye disease and meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is challenging. Measuring meibomian gland visibility may provide an additional objective method to diagnose MGD. PURPOSE This study aimed to evaluate the ability of new metrics to better diagnose MGD, based on measuring meibomian gland visibility. METHODS One hundred twelve healthy volunteers (age, 48.3 ± 27.5 years) were enrolled in this study. Ocular surface parameters were measured using the Oculus Keratograph 5M (Oculus GmbH, Wetzlar). Subjects were classified according to the presence or absence of MGD. New metrics based on the visibility of the meibomian glands were calculated and later compared between groups. The diagnostic ability of ocular surface parameters and gland visibility metrics was studied through receiver operating characteristic curves. Logistic regression was used to obtain the combined receiver operating characteristic curve of the metrics with the best diagnostic ability. RESULTS Statistically significant differences were found between groups for all ocular surface parameters and new gland visibility metrics, except for the first noninvasive keratograph breakup time and gland expressibility. New gland visibility metrics showed higher sensitivity and specificity than did current single metrics when their diagnostic ability was assessed without any combination. The diagnostic capability increased when gland visibility metrics were incorporated into the logistic regression analysis together with gland dropout percentage, tear meniscus height, dry eye symptoms, and lid margin abnormality score (P < .001). The combination of median pixel intensity of meibography gray values and the aforementioned ocular surface metrics achieved the highest area under the curve (0.99), along with excellent sensitivity (1.00) and specificity (0.93). CONCLUSIONS New meibomian gland visibility metrics are more powerful to diagnose MGD than current single metrics and can serve as a complementary tool for supporting the diagnosis of MGD.


An experiment in El Vigia, Merida state, Venezuela, at an altitude of 65 m. The design used was completely randomized. The treatments were grasses pastures with and without shrub legumes (Leucaena and Gliricidia), with three levels of concentrates (1, 2 and 3 kg/cow/day). The stocking rate was 3.0 AU/ha for mixed pastures and 1.25 AU/ha for the traditional system using grasses. A rotational grazing system was used. Milk production was not affected by the treatments and reached 6.82, 7.20 and 7.03 L/cow with leucaena, gliricidia and without legumes, respectively. Weight gain were greater when the animals consumed shrub legumes. The use of legumes was greater than that of grasses. Protein content was 23.4 % for leucaena, 18.8 % for gliricidia and 7.8 % for mixed grasses, while it was 6.9 % for the average of the principal forages on the ranch. Yield for the same area was almost three times greater than with the traditional system using grasses.


Abstract:  Juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) is an autoimmune disease of the skin and muscle that affects children. The etiology is poorly understood, but genetic susceptibility, environmental triggers, and abnormal immune responses are each thought to play a part. T cells have traditionally been implicated in the immunopathogenesis of JDM, but dendritic cells, B cells, and microchimerism are increasingly associated. Additionally, myositis‐specific autoantibodies (MSA) can be present in the sera of affected patients and may correlate with distinct clinical phenotypes. Given the role of humoral immunity and MSA, there has been recent interest in the use of rituximab to treat JDM. Early results are mixed, but it is hoped that a prospective clinical trial will shed light on the issue in the near future.


The objective off this job is the design and development of a wireless low power weather station for installation in a marina. To do this, we will use the features of the latest microcontrollers from Microchip that have the XLP (Extreme Low Power) technology that reduces power consumption when the system goes into Sleep mode. The programming language will be C and using the programming style FSM (Finite State Machine) that makes the most efficient, easier to debug and helps the organization flow programming code. We chosen 5 sensor for the measurement of the parameters most common in a weather station: DHT22 ( humidity and temperature ) , BMP180 (pressure and temperature) , DS18B20 ( water temperature ) , anemometer ( wind speed ) and wind vane ( direction of the wind ) . For system power supply we will use a one battery recharged by a solar panel. The communication between the weather station and the PC will be via bluetooth technology and the graphical interface data reception is created with LabView. The project will be implemented in small phases fully functional, one for each sensor, performing simulations with Proteus tool and real tests of the sensors with the development board DM240313 equipped with PIC18F87K22 microcontroller. Upon completion of all phases, they will be unified in a common project by adding a wireless connection, implementing the low power mode of the microcontroller and creating a graphical monitoring interface with LabView.


We have identified previously a destabilizing adenine- and uracil-rich element (ARE) in the 3′-UTR of bcl-2 mRNA that interacted with ARE-binding proteins to down-regulate bcl-2 gene expression in response to apoptotic stimuli. We have also described three contiguous 2′-O-methyl oligoribonucleotides (ORNs) in both sense and antisense orientation with respect to the bcl-2 ARE that are able to regulate the bcl-2 mRNA half-life and Bcl-2 protein level in two different cell lines. Here we show that treatment of neuronal cell line (SHSY-5Y) with antisense ORNs targeting the bcl-2 ARE (bcl-2 ARE asORNs) prevents bcl-2 down-regulation in response to apoptotic stimuli with glucose/growth factor starvation (Locke medium) or oxygen deprivation and enhances the apoptotic threshold as evaluated by time-lapse videomicroscopy, fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis, and caspase-3 activation. Additional effects of bcl-2 ARE asORNs included inhibition of cell cycle entry and a marked increase of cellular neurite number and length, a hallmark of neuronal differentiation resulting from bcl-2 up-regulation. The ability of bcl-2 ARE asORNs to enhance the apoptotic threshold and to induce neuronal differentiation implies their potential application as a novel informational tool to protect cells from ischemic damage and to prevent neuronal degeneration.


Introduction: By 2020 the estimated incidence of genitourinary (GU) cancers (prostate, bladder, and kidney) will be over 2 million worldwide and responsible for ∼800 000 deaths. Current diagnosis and monitoring methods of GU cancer patients are often invasive and/or lack sensitivity and specificity. The tremendous success in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) blood test provides a strong rationale for using body fluids such as blood and urine as minimally invasive "liquid biopsies" to identify DNA-based molecular biomarkers in urologic malignancies. Urinary cfDNA as a liquid biopsy holds greater potential for a more sensitive alternative to blood biopsies-based tests for clinical use in GU cancers. Urinary biomarker test offers advantages including the potential for more convenient testing, monitoring, and home use. Methods: Analytic validation was conducted using urine cfDNA samples containing different SNPs with different titrations. Urine samples were collected from two different groups, including treatment-naive patients with pathology-confirmed bladder cancer (BLCA) and healthy donors. Both tumor and germline tissues were collected from the BLCA patients. Results: We report the development, validation, and clinical application of the urine-based next-generation sequencing for integrated genomic cfDNA profiling of bladder cancers, including genomic alterations, tumor mutation burden (TMB) and microsatellite instability (MSI). The analytic sensitivity goes down to 0.5% with 100% analytical specificity. High concordance for mutations between tumor tissue and urinary cfDNA suggests a higher sensitivity alternative for the non-invasive early detection of BLCA. In addition to the NGS-based test, we also developed a Bio-Rad digital PCR assay for orthogonal confirmation of the detected biomarkers such as FGFR3 hotspot mutations. Conclusions: Our work has demonstrated the promise of using urinary cfDNA for detecting genomic alterations at the early stage of BLCA for biomarker detections. Citation Format: Zhixin Zhao, Amy Chang, Binggang Xiang, Feng Xie, Xiaohong Wang, Kemin Zhou, Jianjun Yu, Pan Du, Shidong Jia. Urine-based molecular biomarker signatures for bladder cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 3098.


This research investigates the migratory processes that occurred from Southern Africa to South Africa from 1960 to the early 2000s. From this perspective, in the light of migratory flows, we investigate the influences of the Apartheid regime, the bipolar Cold War dispute, African liberation movements, the reflections of peripheral capitalist development in South Africa and the challenges that such events posed for the country.


This paper presents a small area, low power, fully synthesizable PLL with a current output DAC and an interpolative-phase coupled oscillator using edge injection technique for on-chip clock generation. A prototype PLL is fabricated in a 65nm digital CMOS process, achieves a 1.7-ps integrated jitter at 0.9 GHz and consumes 0.78 mW leading to an FOM of -236.5 dB while only occupying an area of 0.0066 mm2. It achieves the best performance-area trade-off.


The following text presents the results of a content analysis study focusing on the image of immigration in Spanish prime-time television fiction with Cultivation theory as a reference. Two representative samples were recorded in 2011, out of the six main national channels. The analysis derived from the analysis of these fiction programs (series and films) derived provided results showing that: (1) Immigrant/foreign characters were underrepresented when taking into account real [14] data; (2) Immigrant/foreign characters were usually presented in nonprotagonist (mainly antagonist or villain) narrative roles; and (3) Socio-demographic features of immigrant/foreign characters such as their education, socio-economic status, or occupation tended to entail lower levels than those in natives. The results are discussed considering the importance of the reduction of prejudice in television fiction.


Accurate calculations of standard molar enthalpies of formation (ΔΗf°)m(g) and carbon-halogen bond dissociation enthalpies, BDE, of a variety of halomethanes with relevance on several atmospheric chemical processes and particularly to ozone destruction, were performed in the gas phase at 298.15 K. The (ΔΗf°)m(g) of the radicals formed through bond dissociations have also been computed. Ab initio computational methods and isodesmic reaction schemes were used. It is found that for the large majority of these species, the gold standard method of quantum chemistry (CCSD(T)) and even MP2 are capable to predict enthalpy values nearing chemical accuracy provided that isodesmic reaction schemes are used. New estimates for standard molar enthalpies of formation and BDE are suggested including for species that to our knowledge there are no experimental (ΔΗf°)m(g) (CHCl2Br, CHBr2Cl, CHBrCl, CHICl, CHIBr) or BDE values (CHCl2Br, CHBr2Cl, CHBrCl, CHICl, CHIBr) available in the literature. The method and calculational procedures presented may profitably be used to obtain accurate (ΔΗf°)m(g) and BDE values for these species.


Introduction: Systemic vasculitis of autoimmune origin (AV) is a basic manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Different (acute, subacute, subchronic and chronic) stages of AV existing side by side in the same tissue sections demonstrate the relapsing nature of autoimmune vasculitis corresponding to the actual clinical activity of RA. Septic infection is one of the most serious complications of RA and can be accompanied with systemic septic vasculitis of recurrent nature (SV). Differentiation between AV and SV is of crucial importance because of different consequences and treatment. The aim of this study was to analyze the histological differences between AV and SV in blood vessels of the gastrointestinal (G-I) tract. Patients and methods: Gastrointestinal tissue samples of 33 RA patients with systemic vasculitis of autoimmune origin and 5 patients with systemic vasculitis of septic origin were analyzed histologically. Results: RA patients of both genders were affected by autoimmune or septic vasculitis at any time of the disease. Relapsing autoimmune vasculitis involved in different (nonspecific, fibrinoid necrotic or granulomatous) forms blood vessels of all sizes. Recurrent septic vasculitis involved arteries of all sizes in a nonspecific and fibrinoid necrotic form; the veins were intact. Granulomatous involvement of the veins was characteristic only for autoimmune vasculitis. Discussion and conclusion: Recognition and histological differential diagnosis of AV and SV are great challenges in surgical pathology especially in small biopsy specimens. The presence of a granulomatous type of vasculitis and involvement of the veins confirms histologically the autoimmune origin of this complication, while the lack of these supports a septic origin.


The purpose of this paper is to summarise and integrate two history-based content analysis studies related to leisure education in order to highlight the pervasive existence of the fundamental attribution error in leisure education research and to outline its problematic consequences. The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to overestimate dispositional or internal attributions of a person when explaining or modifying behaviour, and to underestimate the influence of environmental factors. In a span of approximately 30 years, there have been 159 leisure education learning components developed from 27 research studies in which leisure education was treated as an independent research variable. Of these 159 leisure learning components, only six components – or just under 4% – focused attention on changing environmental factors outside of the leisure education participants. Recommendations regarding future leisure education practice and research are provided.


Drawing on two in-depth case studies, this paper develops a conceptual model of how absorptive capacity routines and their underlying processes of evolution influence the efficiency of management innovation adaptation processes. The model highlights three important relations. First, although different configurations of absorptive capacity routines can lead to the successful implementation of the same management innovation – namely the reconfiguration of firms' value chains through sourcing of business services from offshore countries – the sequence of developing routines, their adequacy, and the interdependencies fit between routines partly explain how rapidly and seamlessly a firm is able to implement a management innovation. Second, we identify managerial attention and organizational legitimacy as two critical and interrelated sources of variation of the efficiency in the process of adopting and adapting management innovations. Finally, attention direction by a top-level internal change agent is more effective than local problemistic search to foster managerial attention and organizational legitimacy to both the management innovation to be adopted, and the need to develop and put into practice an appropriate set of absorptive capacity routines.


This work demonstrates the feasibility of using polymeric micro- and nanofiber-composed films and liquid crystals as electrically switchable scattering light shutters. We present a concept of electro-optic device based on an innovative combination of two mature technologies: optics of nematic liquid crystals and electrospinning of nanofibers. These devices have electric and optical characteristics far superior to other comparable methods. The simulation presented shows results that are highly consistent with those of experiments and that explain the working mechanism of the devices.


Introduction We investigated the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) in individuals without known diabetes in Taiwan and developed a risk prediction model for identifying undiagnosed diabetes and IFG. Research design and methods Using data from a large population-based Taiwan Biobank study linked with the National Health Insurance Research Database, we estimated the standardized prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and IFG between 2012 and 2020. We used the forward continuation ratio model with the Lasso penalty, modeling undiagnosed diabetes, IFG, and healthy reference group (individuals without diabetes or IFG) as three ordinal outcomes, to identify the risk factors and construct the prediction model. Two models were created: Model 1 predicts undiagnosed diabetes, IFG_110 (ie, fasting glucose between 110 mg/dL and 125 mg/dL), and the healthy reference group, while Model 2 predicts undiagnosed diabetes, IFG_100 (ie, fasting glucose between 100 mg/dL and 125 mg/dL), and the healthy reference group. Results The standardized prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes for 2012–2014, 2015–2016, 2017–2018, and 2019–2020 was 1.11%, 0.99%, 1.16%, and 0.99%, respectively. For these periods, the standardized prevalence of IFG_110 and IFG_100 was 4.49%, 3.73%, 4.30%, and 4.66% and 21.0%, 18.26%, 20.16%, and 21.08%, respectively. Significant risk prediction factors were age, body mass index, waist to hip ratio, education level, personal monthly income, betel nut chewing, self-reported hypertension, and family history of diabetes. The area under the curve (AUC) for predicting undiagnosed diabetes in Models 1 and 2 was 80.39% and 77.87%, respectively. The AUC for predicting undiagnosed diabetes or IFG in Models 1 and 2 was 78.25% and 74.39%, respectively. Conclusions Our results showed the changes in the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and IFG. The identified risk factors and the prediction models could be helpful in identifying individuals with undiagnosed diabetes or individuals with a high risk of developing diabetes in Taiwan.


The paper considers the mixedH2=l1 optimization problem, which minimizes the H2-norm of the closed loop map while maintaining the l1-norm of the other closed loop map at a prescribed level. Using the duality theory of Lagrange mult ipliers and an approximation analysis, an optimization problem in the dual space is constructed which has the same optimal value as the p rimal mixedH2=l1 optimization problem. Keywords— l1 control, H2 control, approximate analysis, Lagrange multiplier theory.


This article explores the case of the adoption of Southeast Asia's first constitution (Johor, 1895) to articulate a fundamental problem of translation—the ambiguity and multiplicity of law's language. Closer attention to this problem helps raise a number of possibilities for rethinking the relationship between law, language, and mobility: firstly, polyphony, dissonance, and divergence in law's language reveals a plethora of political possibilities, audiences, and actors in the making of law; secondly, these ambiguities and multiplicities are integral to law's mobility; thirdly, rather than transmissions of law from center to periphery, law moves in circulations that are iterative, contingent, and patterned. Finally, tracing the movement of law in time and space reveals that each project of translation is also a project of political transformation: as such, analysis of law's translations also requires analyses of how, why, and with whom, law travels.


A surveillance system for assisting the elderly in remaining independent in their familiar environment is one of the subjects interest in recent healthcare studies. When mature, it is expected that this system will have the ability to track objects that a resident may lose periodically, detect falls within the home, alert family members or healthcare professionals to abnormal behaviors. This paper addresses the early stages and issues of the development of such a system, the physical characteristics of the system that is being designed, early results, and guidance on the future work that will have to be completed in the future.


Considers accelerometer based vibration rejection control for disk drives using acceleration feedforward. A very simple and practical acceleration feedforward control algorithm is proposed to reject the effect of external vibration for improved tracking accuracy. No transfer function from the base frame to the actuator is introduced, while the phase delay of accelerometers is considered. Noticeable improvement in tracking accuracy is observed with the proposed acceleration feedforward control. Through the results of simulation and experiment, it is shown that the proposed simple algorithm is very effective to attain tracking accuracy in the existence of vibration.


In an earlier study, we were able to show that Tac monotherapy following 2 × 20 mg alemtuzumab induction is at least as effective as Tac‐based triple‐drug immunosuppression in cadaveric renal transplantation. We were interested to learn whether 1 × 30 mg of alemtuzumab is as effective as 2 × 20 mg. Patients of the initial study group (group A) received 20 mg alemtuzumab on days 0 and 2, and tac monotherapy from day 2 on. This group acted as control group for the new arm (group C), where patients were given only 1 × 30 mg alemtuzumab on day 0 followed by Tac monotherapy from day 2 on with the same target levels as in the control group. Frequency of rejection at 6 months was 15% in the control group compared to 6% in the study group and 20% at 12 months in group A versus 6% in group C (P = 0.034). Time to rejection was 4.9 months in group A and 0.8 in group C. One‐year patient survival was 98.5% in both groups, graft survival 96.9% in group A, and 98.5% in group C. Safety profile was similar in both groups apart from more viral and bacterial infections in group C. Single shot alemtuzumab induction of 30 mg is as effective as 2 × 20 mg in cadaveric renal transplantation.


Topical application of APF gel can increase the surface roughness of resin composites and the roughened surfaces may allow increased bacterial accumulation and surface staining. Resin specimens of two proprietary resin composites, Filtek Z250(FZ) and Filtek Supreme Universal(FS), and experimental resin composites containing 0%, 3%, 6% nanofillers(E0, E3, E6) were fabricated and divided into two groups of the same number; APF treatment group and no treatment group. The amount of S. mutans adhered to specimens and the mean surface roughness(Ra) were measured. The results were as follows;


Whether the medical profession should accommodate conscientious objections (COs) remains an open question. I believe that doctors' COs should be accommodated only when they are derived from their commitments about the nature of medicine (i.e., no doctor qua doctor should perform the objected-to service), and that the medical profession ought to accommodate these COs in order to maintain a system-level capacity for moral progress and self-correction [1]. The purpose of this project is to explore how, if at all, my conception of Nature of Medicine COs and their reform-based argument for accommodation apply to medical education. Specifically, I consider two questions: 1) Should medical students be able to enter specialties (i.e., apply to the residencies) that provide the objected-to services; and 2) should medical students' COs be accommodated during their training? While some have answered the first question in the negative [2], I argue that medical students should be able to enter the specialties relevant to their Nature of Medicine COs. As potential members of the medical profession, medical students lack the rights and privileges of its present members, but they are nonetheless pivotal in determining its future moral trajectory. If anti-euthanasia students were kept out of the relevant specialties (viz., palliative care or critical care), those fields would eventually fill with pro-euthanasia doctors. Importantly, policymakers (i.e., legislators and doctors who represent the medical profession) should and do give greatest consideration to those most affected by their policies – for euthanasia, patients and active doctors in relevant specialties. Doctors who are regularly expected to perform abortions, for example, should and do have more of a voice in the abortion debate than cardiologists or retired doctors do. The medical profession would therefore become less likely to change its potentially wrong stance. Again, not just any CO will fit the bill here; they must be based on a reasonable conception of medicine and its moral obligations. Such refusals speak to what doctors qua doctors cannot do – in this case, perhaps the principle that no doctor should end or assist in ending a human life unless it would end on its own (as with withdrawal of life support) or save another life (as with emergency abortions). Assuming that principle is reasonable (in the sense that it may indeed be true), the CO is universalizable and therefore the right kind of thing to drive policy reform. The alternative would be COs that are based on personal idiosyncrasies, such as one's religious beliefs, and would therefore not be universalizable. It would be  inappropriate for such COs to drive policy reform, so my argument here would not protect them. It follows from my conclusion about the first question that medical students' Nature of Medicine COs should be accommodated even before they become doctors. Otherwise, they might be so morally repulsed that they quit their medical education altogether. The specialties that provide the objected-to service would again fill with willing doctors, and the medical profession would find itself committed to potentially unethical policies. Importantly, this argument would fail if the empirical assumption that objecting students would quit were actually false. However, because of the United States' long history of CO accommodations, we lack the data to verify that assumption. Ultimately, I wish to frame CO accommodations as a systemic feature of the medical profession that promotes moral self-correction, not a means of catering to the wishes of troublesome individuals. It follows from the need to maintain the profession's ability to reform that medical students' COs should be accommodated both during their training and when they decide which specialty to enter.


ABSTRACT Recognition of inclusion in mainstream schools for all people with disabilities is enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). General Comment 4 on Article 24 (Right to inclusive education) of the CRPD provides a concept of inclusion and its core features which we discuss here. Article 7 of the same enjoins state parties to give young people's opinions and views 'due weight' on matters that affect them. Despite calls to gather their views on education to better inform policy and practice, autistic young people have been largely missing from the research, girls most notably. Research on the efficacy of mainstream inclusion and the educational experiences of autistic young people has focused mainly on the perspectives of adult stakeholders such as parents, teachers and classroom assistants. Inspired by Article 7 of the CRPD, we present the educational experiences of two teenage girls with Asperger's Syndrome in a mainstream setting in the UK with respect to the school environment, teachers, the curriculum and peers. The findings from semi-structured interviews and a number of participatory methods reveal that girls reported feelings of exclusion, isolation and anxiety. We discuss these findings in the light of the concept of inclusion provided in the General Comment and conclude with the girls' recommendations on how to include people with ASD in mainstream settings.


Design patterns offer timeless and elegant solutions to common problems in software design. From a program-understanding and a reverse engineering perspective the discovery of patterns in a software artifact (design or code) represents a step in the program understanding process. It would be useful to find instances of design patterns especially in designs where they were not used explicitly or where their use is not documented, as this could improve the maintainability of software. Clustering is considered the most important unsupervised learning problem. The aim of clustering methods is to differentiate groups (classes or clusters) inside a given set of objects. In this paper we introduce a hierarchical clustering based approach in order to localize instances of design patterns in existing software systems. We also provide an experimental evaluation of our approach, illustrating its advantages in comparison with similar existing approaches.


The independence numbers of powers of graphs have been long studied, under several definitions of graph products, and in particular, under the strong graph product. We show that the series of independence numbers in strong powers of a fixed graph can exhibit a complex structure, implying that the Shannon capacity of a graph cannot be approximated (up to a subpolynomial factor of the number of vertices) by any arbitrarily large, yet fixed, prefix of the series. This is true even if this prefix shows a significant increase of the independence number at a given power, after which it stabilizes for a while.


Toxigenic Vibrio cholerae strains, including strains in serogroups O1 and O139 associated with the clinical disease cholera, are ubiquitous in aquatic reservoirs, including fresh, estuarine, and marine environments. Humans acquire cholera by consuming water and/or food contaminated with the microorganism. The genome of toxigenic V. cholerae harbors a cholera-toxin producing prophage (CT-prophage) encoding genes that promote expression of cholera toxin. The CT-prophage in V. cholerae is flanked by two satellite prophages, RS1 and TLC. Using cell surface appendages (TCP and/or MSHA pili), V. cholerae can sequentially acquire TLC, RS1, and CTX phages by transduction; the genome of each of these phages ultimately integrates into V. cholerae's genome in a site-specific manner. Here, we showed that a non-toxigenic V. cholerae O1 biotype El Tor strain, lacking the entire RS1-CTX-TLC prophage complex (designated as RCT: R for RS1, C for CTX and T for TLC prophage, respectively), was able to acquire RCT from donor genomic DNA (gDNA) of a wild-type V. cholerae strain (E7946) via chitin-induced transformation. Moreover, we demonstrated that a chitin-induced transformant (designated as AAS111) harboring RCT was capable of producing cholera toxin. We also showed that recA, rather than xerC and xerD recombinases, promoted the acquisition of RCT from donor gDNA by the recipient non-toxigenic V. cholerae strain. Our data document the existence of an alternative pathway by which a non-toxigenic V. cholerae O1 strain can transform to a toxigenic strain by using chitin induction. As chitin is an abundant natural carbon source in aquatic reservoirs where V. cholerae is present, chitin-induced transformation may be an important driver in the emergence of new toxigenic V. cholerae strains.


Eggfruit caterpillar or poroporo fruit borer, 'Sceliodes cordalis' (Doubleday) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), is not established in Tasmania despite being common at cooler sites in New Zealand. The pest is common around Christchurch, New Zealand which offers less heat than Launceston or Melbourne. Adults occasionally migrate to Tasmania and larvae are occasionally detected at the quarantine barrier in imported commercial fruit. Suitable host plants occur widely in Tasmania including seasonal commercial and domestic crops. The immature stages have not been detected in Tasmania and evidence for breeding in Victoria is scarce. All captures of 'S. cordalis' moths in Tasmania are coincidental with known long-distance migratory species and airflows favourable for migration across Bass Strait. Published and unpublished data for the duration of natural and laboratory life cycles are used with a day-degree development model to explore some scenarios of establishment in Tasmania. This indicated potential for 1-2 generations when initiated from December-February oviposition. The results provide another example to biosecurity entomologists of a pest that has failed to establish, even ephemerally, in Tasmania despite presence of host plants, a mainland breeding distribution attenuating southwards into Victoria and marginally suitable climate in Launceston, Tasmania. A previous example is cabbage-centre grub, 'Hellula hydralis Guenee' (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) (Hill 2012). Arguably, the distribution and development model of 'S. cordalis' shares some similarities with that of Queensland fruit fly (Qfly), 'Bactrocera tryoni' (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae), a quarantinable pest of great consequence. 'Sceliodes cordalis' regularly performs a natural experiment of attempting establishment in Tasmania and may represent an indicator of likelihood for 'B. tryoni' via propagules of larvae in imported fruit.


The review presents modern literature data on the use of tacrolimus in medical practice. The results of national and international research on the effectiveness and safety of the drug at various dermatoses are presented.


: The haematological parameters of 97 cases of beta thalassaemia trait and 40 cases of delta beta thalassaemia trait have been compared. No differences in haemoglobin, haematocrit, MCV, MCH, ferritin, % saturation or free erythrocyte protoporphyrin have been found. The RDW, however, is significantly increased in delta beta thalassaemia trait, its mean value (+/- SD) being 20 (2.05), even higher than that found in iron deficiency anaemia. The discrimination function described by England and Fraser may be of help in distinguishing these entities.


We report the far-infrared (FIR) reflection measurements of Pb1-xSrxSe thin films with different Sr concentrations grown by molecular beam epitaxy on BaF2 substrates. Sr composition and lattice parameter have been assessed by x-ray diffraction. By fitting the FIR reflection spectra and by comparison with the results of binary PbSe and SrSe thin films, both PbSe-like and SrSe-like optical phonon reflection bands in ternary PbSrSe thin films have been identified. Also, the carrier concentration and mobility of PbSrSe thin films have been extracted from the theoretical calculation of the reflection spectra, and are found to be in agreement with reported results from Hall measurements.


Open aquatic system such as beel is an important freshwater resource for agriculture and aquaculture.This study was conducted (July-December 2014) to describe the beel aquaculture management practices in the Hagla Beel at Bagmara upazila under Rajshahi district.The Beel fish farming area was 20.25 ha and irregular in shape with average depth 1.5 m. During the study period, the measured water quality parameters of the beel were within the suitable range for aquaculture. Eight genera of phytoplankton and eight genera of zooplankton were identified from the beel water body. Four native and 4 exotic fish species with sizes ranging from 0.15-1.11 kg were stocked for growing in the beel. At the end of culture period, the production of fish was 2,622.15 kg/ha and cost-benefit ratio (CBR) was 1:1.42. Environmental problems such as increasing of water temperature and decreasing of water level during summer, and parasitic diseases were some of the risks in beel fish farming system. The results of this study should be useful for beel aquaculture, and for the farmers and resource manager for harnessing maximum benefits from the beel resources in Bangladesh.
J. bio-sci. 28: 43-50, 2020


Biofouling negatively impacts modern society on a daily basis, especially with regard to the important industries of medicine, oil, and shipping. This manuscript describes the preparation and study of model antifouling coatings generated from the adsorption of unsymmetrical partially fluorinated spiroalkanedithiols on gold. The antifouling properties of the self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) derived from the spiroalkanedithiols were compared to SAMs derived from analogous monodentate partially fluorinated and nonfluorinated alkanethiols. The antifouling properties were evaluated using in situ surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy (SPR), ex situ electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurements, and ex situ ellipsometric thickness measurements. The resistance to nonspecific protein adsorption of the SAMs was evaluated with proteins having a wide range of properties and applications including protamine, lysozyme, bovine serum albumin, and fibrinogen. The results from the SPR and the QCM measurements demonstrated that in most cases, the SAM coatings derived from the partially fluorinated spiroalkanedithiols having mixed hydrocarbon and fluorocarbon tail groups exhibited better antifouling performance when compared to the SAMs derived from their single-component monodentate counterparts. The studies also revealed that while the SPR and the QCM measurements in most cases were able to distinguish the adsorption trends for the SAMs and proteins examined, the ellipsometric thickness measurements were markedly less discriminating. On the whole, these studies validate the use of unsymmetrical partially fluorinated spiroalkanedithiols for generating effective antifouling coatings on metal substrates.


As one of the core content of intelligent monitoring, target detection and tracking is the basis for video content analysis and understanding. Tracking-Learning-Detection is considered as a highly efficient algorithm for tracking a single target. Although this algorithm can re-track a target when the target is occluded by other targets, there still exists many shortcomings. This paper deals with the issue of target tracking by fusing Kalman filter with tracking-learning-detection algorithm. Specifically, an improved Kalman filter is first utilized to enhance the reliability of tracking-learning-detection algorithm; then, the area of the target is estimated to reduce the detection region and to increase the processing speed. Experimental results conducted on PETS2009/2010 benchmark video library demonstrate that the proposed method can detect properly and track accurately an target in complex scenes.


Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) difference spectroscopy has been performed on samples of bovine cytochrome c oxidase that have been deposited as a thin film on the surface of a silicon microprism. The technique has several advantages over transmission methods in terms of amount of material required, the time required to reach sufficient optical stability, and the range of reactants that can be repetitively added and removed. The ATR-FTIR method has been used to record redox difference spectra of cytochrome c oxidase in the unligated and cyanide-ligated states. By subtraction of the spectra, the redox FTIR difference spectrum of heme a(3) can be resolved from those of the other metal centers. This difference spectrum is compared with available vibrational and Raman data on homologous oxidases and on heme A model compounds.


Although associations between running performance (RP) with ball possession and team achievement in soccer are often hypothesized, actual knowledge of this association in elite soccer remains limited. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate players' RPs according to ball possession to determine its possible influence on team achievement in the UEFA Champions League (UCL). The players' RPs (n = 244) were collected during UCL group stage matches (n = 20) in the 2020/21 season using the semiautomatic video system InStat Fitness. Then, players' RPs were classified according to the specific playing position: central defenders (CD; n = 79), fullbacks (FB; n = 65), central midfielders (CM; n = 55), wide midfielders (WM; n = 28) and forwards (FW; n = 17). RPs were observed in the attacking phase (AP, i.e., when the team was in possession of the ball) and defensive phase (DP, i.e., when the team did not have possession of the ball) of the game, and included the total distance covered (m) and distance covered in different categories: walking (<7.1 km/h), jogging (7.1–14.3 km/h), running (14.4–19.7 km/h), high-intensity running (>19.8 km/h), high-speed running (19.8–25.1 km/h) and sprinting (>25.2 km/h). Team achievement was defined by the total group points earned (TGP) at the end of the group phase of the UCL and by match outcome (win, draw, loss) of single matches. The results indicated that the total, walking and jogging distances covered were negatively and positively associated with TGP (Pearson's correlations from 0.30 to 0.73; all p < 0.05) in the AP and DP of the game, respectively. Won matches were characterized by significantly lower and higher values of total, walking and jogging distances covered in AP and DP of the game, respectively (F tests: from 7.15 to 22.5, all p < 0.01; all small to medium effect sizes). In addition, RPs in the AP and DP of the game explained only 37.2% of the variance in the TGP. These findings demonstrate that the influence of RP on team achievement in UCL is limited in both the AP and DP of the game.


Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were oxidized in air and acids while varying the treatment time and/or temperature. The goal of this approach was to create the highest density of carboxyl groups with moderate sample loss, which is necessary for nanocomposite applications. In situ Raman experiments allowed real-time observation of the structural changes in MWCNTs upon oxidation. The ratio of the Raman intensities of the D and G bands was used to estimate the concentration of defects. It was found that while an oxidation for 6 h in H2SO4/HNO3 provided the strongest effect, a 'flash oxidation' in air (15 min at 550 °C) also leads to an efficient functionalization in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way. Transmission electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and electrophoretic mobility analysis were used to study the oxidized nanotubes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Introduction  Anorectal malformations (ARM) affect 1 in 5,000 newborns with a wide range of defects. In the absence of a visible fistula, the diagnosis and classification of ARM require an augmented pressure distal colostogram. This procedure can be done after a diverting colostomy has been performed and implies exposing the child to radiation. We hypothesized that high-resolution transperineal ultrasound could correctly diagnose the type of ARM, thus sparing radiation exposure. Case Description  Four full-term male newborns with ARM and no visible anal opening were referred to our center for further management. A diverting descendostomy was performed in the first 48 hours of life in all cases. Prior to the reconstructive surgery, we performed a high-resolution transperineal ultrasound with 3D tomographic reconstruction of the perineal region to assess the urethra, the rectum, and a possible fistula. Findings were compared with a conventional augmented pressure distal colostogram. The image acquisition was fast and did not cause any additional distress to the children. Conclusion  In all cases the results of the distal colostogram nicely correlated with the high-resolution transperineal ultrasound with 3D tomographic reconstruction. In the future, we envision a time when it can potentially replace the distal colostogram in preoperative assessment of ARM with no distress and exposure to radiation.


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

Myeloid cell leukemia 1 (Mcl-1), a member of the Bcl-2 family of proteins, is overexpressed and amplified in various cancers and promotes the aberrant survival of tumor cells that otherwise would undergo apoptosis. Overexpression of Mcl-1 is also a resistance mechanism that prevents tumor cells from being effectively treated by existing chemotherapies. Thus, inhibition of Mcl-1 is a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of cancer. However, Mcl-1 exerts its effects through protein-protein interactions and is thought to be very challenging to target with small molecules. Here we describe the discovery of potent and selective Mcl-1 inhibitors using fragment-based methods and structure-based design. From an NMR-based screen of a large fragment library, over 130 hits were identified. Two distinct chemical hit series were found that bind to two different sites on Mcl-1 as revealed by NMR-derived model structures. Members of the two fragment classes were merged together to produce compounds that bind to Mcl-1 with greater than two orders of magnitude improved binding affinity. Structures of these compounds when complexed to Mcl-1 were obtained by X-ray crystallography and provide detailed information about the molecular recognition involved in small-molecule binding to Mcl-1. Lead compounds exhibited a dissociation constant of <100 nM, with selectivity for Mcl-1 over Bcl-xL and Bcl-2. These compounds represent useful starting points for the discovery of clinically useful Mcl-1 inhibitors for the treatment of a wide variety of cancers.

Citation Format: Taekyu Lee, Anders Friberg, Dominico Vigil, Bin Zhao, R. Nathan Daniels, Jason P. Burke, Pedro M. Garcia-Barrantes, DeMarco Camper, Brian A. Chauder, Edward T. Olejniczak, Stephen W. Fesik. Discovery of potent and selective Mcl-1 inhibitors using fragment-based methods and structure-based design. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2350. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2350


Progress in Fourier optical processing techniques is reviewed. Particular emphasis is placed on real-time pattern recognition, which recently has received increased interest as the result of new filter formulations that can be implemented with existing spatial light modulators. Architectures for coherent optical correlation are reviewed, as are the recently reported phase-only filters. Smart filters that attack the inherent distortion sensitivity of correlation, including those suitable for implementation with phase-only modulation, are reviewed. Correlation experiments implementing real-time variation of both input and reference patterns are also reviewed. The potential for successful near-term application of these techniques is examined. >


This paper presents a new approach of employing nanowire (NW) crossbars for digital signal processing (DSP) applications. By employing the distributed arithmetic (DA), complicated signal processing tasks can be converted into regular memory operations. Thus, this architecture matches well with the technological characteristics of NW crossbars. A new defect- tolerant technique exploiting the abundant data redundancy inherent in the DA module is proposed to achieve error-resilient signal processing with defect-prone NW crossbars. The performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated through a finite impulse response (FIR) filter. Simulation results show that the DA-based nano DSP modules can tolerate excessive defects with minor performance degradation under a range of defect rates and operation conditions.


We present a new R package which takes a numerical matrix format as data input, and computes clusters using a support vector clustering method (SVC). We have implemented an original 2D-grid labeling approach to speed up cluster extraction. In this sense, SVC can be seen as an efficient cluster extraction if clusters are separable in a 2-D map. Secondly we showed that this SVC approach using a Jaccard-Radial base kernel can help to classify well enough a set of terms into ontological classes and help to define regular expression rules for information extraction in documents; our case study concerns a set of terms and documents about developmental and molecular biology.


IMPORTANCE
Patients with melancholia report a distinct and intrusive dysphoric state during internally generated thought. Melancholia has long been considered to have a strong biological component, but evidence for its specific neurobiological origins is limited. The distinct neurocognitive, psychomotor, and mood disturbances observed in melancholia do, however, suggest aberrant coordination of frontal-subcortical circuitry, which may best be captured through analysis of complex brain networks.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effective connectivity between spontaneous (resting-state) brain networks in melancholia, focusing on networks underlying attention and interoception.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
We performed a cross-sectional, observational, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study of 16 participants with melancholia, 16 with nonmelancholic depression, and 16 individuals serving as controls at a hospital-based research institute between August 30, 2010, and June 27, 2012. We identified 5 canonical resting-state networks (default mode, executive control, left and right frontoparietal attention, and bilateral anterior insula) and inferred spontaneous interactions among these networks using dynamic causal modeling.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Graph theoretic measures of brain connectivity, namely, in-degree and out-degree of each network and edge connectivity, between regions composed our principal between-group contrasts.

RESULTS
Melancholia was characterized by a pervasive disconnection involving anterior insula and attentional networks compared with participants in the control (Mann-Whitney, 189.00; z = 2.38; P = .02) and nonmelancholic depressive (Mann-Whitney, 203.00; z = 2.93; P = .004) groups. Decreased effective connectivity between the right frontoparietal and insula networks was present in participants with melancholic depression compared with those with nonmelancholic depression (χ2 = 8.13; P = .004). Reduced effective connectivity between the insula and executive networks was found in individuals with melancholia compared with healthy controls (χ2 = 8.96; P = .003).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
We observed reduced effective connectivity in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging between key networks involved in attention and interoception in melancholia. We propose that these abnormalities underlie the impoverished variety and affective quality of internally generated thought in this disorder.


A novel electrophilic ipso-cyclization involving an electrophile-exchange process has been developed. In the presence of CuX (X = I, Br, SCN) and electrophilic fluoride reagents, a variety of N-(p-methoxyaryl)propiolamides and 4-methoxyphenyl 3-phenylpropiolate were cyclized to selectively afford the corresponding spiro[4.5]decenones in moderate to good yields. It is noteworthy that two azaquaternary tricyclic products were synthesized through a two-step pathway involving an electrophilic ipso-cyclization and then an intramolecular Heck reaction.


Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women, making it essential to have an accurate and dependable system for diagnosing benign or malignant tumors. It is essential to detect this cancer early in order to inform subsequent treatments. Currently, fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology and machine learning (ML) models can be used to detect and diagnose this cancer more accurately. Consequently, an effective and dependable approach needs to be developed to enhance the clinical capacity to diagnose this illness. This study aims to detect and divide BC into two categories using the Wisconsin Diagnostic Breast Cancer (WDBC) benchmark feature set and to select the fewest features to attain the highest accuracy. To this end, this study explores automated BC prediction using multi-model features and ensemble machine learning (EML) techniques. To achieve this, we propose an advanced ensemble technique, which incorporates voting, bagging, stacking, and boosting as combination techniques for the classifier in the proposed EML methods to distinguish benign breast tumors from malignant cancers. In the feature extraction process, we suggest a recursive feature elimination technique to find the most important features of the WDBC that are pertinent to BC detection and classification. Furthermore, we conducted cross-validation experiments, and the comparative results demonstrated that our method can effectively enhance classification performance and attain the highest value in six evaluation metrics, including precision, sensitivity, area under the curve (AUC), specificity, accuracy, and F1-score. Overall, the stacking model achieved the best average accuracy, at 99.89%, and its sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, precision, and AUC/ROC were 1.00%, 0.999%, 1.00%, 1.00%, and 1.00%, respectively, thus generating excellent results. The findings of this study can be used to establish a reliable clinical detection system, enabling experts to make more precise and operative decisions in the future. Additionally, the proposed technology might be used to detect a variety of cancers.


Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is an inflammatory form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease that progresses to liver cirrhosis. It is still unknown how only limited patients with fatty liver develop NASH. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α is one of the key molecules in initiating the vicious circle of inflammations. Nardilysin (N-arginine dibasic convertase; Nrd1), a zinc metalloendopeptidase of the M16 family, enhances ectodomain shedding of TNF-α, resulting in the activation of inflammatory responses. In this study, we aimed to examine the role of Nrd1 in the development of NASH. Nrd1+/+ and Nrd1−/− mice were fed a control choline-supplemented amino acid-defined (CSAA) diet or a choline-deficient amino acid-defined (CDAA) diet. Fatty deposits were accumulated in the livers of both Nrd1+/+ and Nrd1−/− mice by the administration of the CSAA or CDAA diets, although the amount of liver triglyceride in Nrd1−/− mice was lower than that in Nrd1+/+ mice. Serum alanine aminotransferase levels were increased in Nrd1+/+ mice but not in Nrd1−/− mice fed the CDAA diet. mRNA expression of inflammatory cytokines were decreased in Nrd1−/− mice than in Nrd1+/+ mice fed the CDAA diet. While TNF-α protein was detected in both Nrd1+/+ and Nrd1−/− mouse livers fed the CDAA diet, secretion of TNF-α in Nrd1−/− mice was significantly less than that in Nrd1+/+ mice, indicating the decreased TNF-α shedding in Nrd1−/− mouse liver. Notably, fibrotic changes of the liver, accompanied by the increase of fibrogenic markers, were observed in Nrd1+/+ mice but not in Nrd1−/− mice fed the CDAA diet. Similar to the CDAA diet, fibrotic changes were not observed in Nrd1−/− mice fed a high-fat diet. Thus, deletion of nardilysin prevents the development of diet-induced steatohepatitis and liver fibrogenesis. Nardilysin could be an attractive target for anti-inflammatory therapy against NASH.


Northern Irish playwright Stewart Parker (1941-1988) as well as wrote poetry and experimental prose. His autobiographical novel Hopdance, which deals with the amputation of his left leg when he was nineteen years old, has been edited by his biographer Marilynn Richtarik and will be made available in 2017 by The Lilliput Press. This essay, introduces and analyzes Hopdance, a previously unpublished work that sheds considerable light on Parker's preoccupations as a writer.


Objective This study aimed at investigating whether reperfusion injury salvage kinases (RISK) pathway, which mainly includes phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt (PI3K/AKT), and survivor activating factor enhancement (SAFE) pathway, which mainly consists of Janus-activated kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (JAK/STAT-3), are responsible for the cardioprotection by remote limb ischemic postconditioning (RIPostC) in heart during myocardial ischemia/reperfusion. Methods Sprague–Dawley rats were subjected to 30 min of myocardial ischemia (ligation of left anterior descending coronary artery) followed by 3 h of reperfusion (release of the ligation). RIPostC was initiated by 3 cycles of 5 min of ischemia and 5 min of reperfusion on both hind limbs immediately at the onset of myocardial reperfusion using a natural rubber tourniquet in the presence or absence of AKT inhibitor wortmannin or STAT3 inhibitor AG490. The protein and phosphorylation levels of AKT and STAT-3 in left ventricular were measured immediately after RIPostC. Moreover, infarct sise, serum creatine kinase (CK) and cardiac troponin I (TnI) levels, and cardiac function parameters including heart rate (HR), left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP), left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP) and maximum rise/fall rate of LV pressure (±dP/dtmax) were monitored at the end of 3 h of myocardial reperfusion. Results RIPostC effectively protected hearts against ischemia/reperfusion injury by limiting infarct sise, lowering CK and cTnI release and improving cardiac function including decrease in LEVDP and increase in LVSP and ±dP/dtmax, which could be essentially prevented by wortmannin or AG490. RIPostC led to evident increase in phosphorylation levels of AKT and STAT-3 at the end of 30 min of myocardial reperfusion, which could be significantly inhibited by wortmannin and AG490, respectively. Conclusions The beneficial effects of RIPostC against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion are associated with the activation of AKT and STAT3 kinases at reperfusion. These findings suggest that dual activation of AKT kinase in RISK pathway and STAT-3 kinase in SAFE pathway is required for the cardioprotection by RIPostC during myocardial ischemia/reperfusion.


Background Obstructive uropathy is present in almost 50% of patients with advanced cervical cancer and is associated with worse outcomes. Objective To estimate the prognostic role of hydronephrosis and the impact of ureteral obstruction resolution in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer undergoing treatment. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted of patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics 2018 stage IIIB to IVA treated in a tertiary oncologic referral center in Brazil between January 2009 and June 2018. Three different groups were evaluated: (I) without hydronephrosis, (II) with hydronephrosis and urinary diversion, and (III) with hydronephrosis but no urinary diversion. Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests estimated overall survival and progression-free survival based on the presence of hydronephrosis and urinary diversion. Clinicopathological variables were evaluated using univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression model for overall survival and progression-free survival. Results A total of 151 patients were evaluated: group I – 62 (41.1%); II – 44 (29.1%), and III – 45 (29.8%). Stage, histological type or grade, tumor size, parametrial or lymph node involvement were not statistically different between groups. Group I had more favorable overall survival than groups II (p<0.003) and III (p<0.02); however, no difference was noted between groups II and III. Progression-free survival was similar between groups (log-rank test p=0.95). Univariate analysis revealed hydronephrosis (p=0.002) and concurrent chemoradiotherapy (p<0.001) as a prognostic factor for worse overall survival; while tumor size (p=0.023), pelvic lymphadenopathy (p=0.015), and histological type (p=0.03) were associated with worse progression-free survival. On multivariate analysis, hydronephrosis remained as an independently associated factor with worse overall survival (HR=2.06; 95% CI 1.12 to 3.79, p=0.02). Conclusion Patients with locally advanced cervical cancer with hydronephrosis had lower overall survival even after controlling for potential confounding factors, but no difference in progression-free survival. Urinary diversion showed no impact on overall survival or progression-free survival.


The recent article by Hecht et al1 provided a comprehensive summary of this area of genetics that is of particular importance to pediatricians. I would like to add two recent findings of interest.
 First, Webb et a12 have reported a family with a male of normal intelligence and the fragile X marker chromosome. He was ascertained through his daughter who had a mentally retarded son with the associated fragile site and in addition the daughter showed the fragile X confirming her obligate carrier status.


Abstract One of the most relevant phenomena both from a theoretical and clinical perspective is extinction. In particular, several researchers are interested in the response recovery effects from extinction. Reinstatement is an effect that has been proposed as a laboratory model to study relapse from extinction-based therapeutic treatments. We designed two experiments with humans to evaluate the reinstatement effect in a predictive learning task. In both experiments, participants learned a specific relationship between two cues (X and Y) and two outcomes (O1 and O2) during the first phase. Throughout extinction, both cues were presented without outcomes. After an exposure to the original outcomes, reinstatement of the first-learned information was observed during testing in both experiments. However, we found that the reinstatement effect was contextual modulated (Experiment 1; ηp2 = .78, 90% CI [.48, .86], p < .0001). Furthermore, in Experiment 2 we showed a reduction of reinstatement when an extinction reminder was used ηp2 = .45, 90% CI [.07, .65], p = .012. Theoretical implications are discussed, and some potential uses are mentioned.


Every severe sprain or injury in the region of the carpal navicular should be considered a fracture until proved otherwise.

The results in these cases substantiate good orthopaedic teaching that, if a fracture of the carpal navicular is accurately reduced and adequately immobilized for a sufficient time, solid bony union may be expected.

Failure to diagnose, to reduce, and to immobilize these fractures properly is directly responsible for delayed union or non-union.

In delayed treatment, the presence of vacuolation or cystic change is not considered discouraging. When the fracture has been properly immobilized, the healing which takes place in the cystic area will include the fracture line.

If the proximal fragment is viable, sclerosis at the site of fracture is no contra-indication to prolonged immobilization. As a rule, after two or three months of uninterrupted immobilizations, decalcification of the sclerosis will be observed, signs of union will follow, and ultimately solid bony union will take place.

In adequately immobilized fresh fractures, the development of avascular sclerosis in the proximal fragment is no contra-indication to continued non-operative treatment. In the majority of cases, the fracture will unite and the proximal fragment will be revascularized. The wrist must be protected until revascularization is complete.

Rarely will normal function of the wrist be obtained following excision. Bone-grafting or drilling will not, except in an occasional case, offer any better prospect of union, nor will they, as a rule, reduce the average period of disability.

In the occasional fracture with excessive displacement of the proximal third, early excision of the proximal fragment is recommended, unless accurate reduction can be obtained by manipulation.

The type of plaster cast described ensures adequate immobilization of the navicular and allows the patient excellent use of the hand.

Immobilization may be prolonged for a year or more if daily exercise and activity of the fingers are systematically practised.


Archaeologists often wonder how and when rock shelters formed, yet their origins and antiquity are almost never systematically investigated. Here we present a new method to determine how and when individual boulders and rock shelters came to lie in their present landscape settings. We do so through 3D laser (LiDAR) mapping, illustrating the method by example of the Borologa Aboriginal site complex in the Kimberley region of northwestern Australia. Through a combination of geomorphological study and high‐resolution 3D modelling, individual blocks of rock are refitted and repositioned t680their originating cliff‐line. Preliminary cosmogenic nuclide ages on exposed vertical cliff faces and associated detached boulders above the Borologa archaeological sites signal very slow detachment rates for the mass movements of large blocks down the Drysdale Valley slopes, suggesting relative landscape stability over hundreds of thousands of years (predating the arrival of people). These findings offer hitherto unknown details of the pace of regional landscape evolution and move us toward a better understanding of patterns of human occupation in a context of relatively stable rock outcrops both within the sites and across the region.


Parked domains (PDs) are domains whose owners are not interested in using them as gates for their activities but they are kept reserved to be sold in the secondary market of web domains. To transform the costs of the annual registration fees in an opportu-nity of revenues, parked domains most often host a large amount of ads in the hope that someone who lands on the site by chance clicks on some ads. Since parking has become a widespread activity, a large number of specialized companies have come out and made parking a straightforward task that simply requires to set the domain's name servers ap-propriately. Although parking is a legal activity, it introduces a big burden for crawling systems and web mining tools. In fact, without filtering parked domains, crawlers could spend a non-negligible part of their time downloading fat web sites whose content can neg-atively affect the performances of analysis algorithms. In this paper, we face the problem of compiling the list of the name servers used for domain parking so that they can be discarded before the first connection just after the first DNS query.


An ex vivo model system was developed to investigate melanocyte migration. Within this model system, melanocytes migrate among other epidermal cells in the epibolic outgrowth of skin explants. This process is initiated by loss of contact inhibition of epidermal cells at the rim of the explants and by locally produced chemotactic factors. Punch biopsies provided explants of reproducible diameter. Optimal culture conditions include medium consisting of Dulbecco's Minimal Essential Medium containing 10% inactivated normal human serum and placement of explants epidermal side up at the air-liquid interphase. Within 7 days, epidermal cells completely surround the explant. Approximately 3 days after the onset of keratinocyte migration, melanocytes distribute themselves within the newly formed epidermis. Throughout the 7-day culture period, melanocytes and keratinocytes show maintenance of subcellular morphology, and the dermo-epidermal junction remains intact. Melanocyte migration was quantified using immunoperoxidase staining in combination with light microscopy and computer-aided image analysis. Preliminary results using the model system to compare migration in control and nonlesional vitiligo skin indicate that no inherent migration defect is responsible for impaired repigmentation of vitiligo lesions. The organotypic culture model system allows for investigations on melanocytes within their environment of autologous epidermal and dermal components, closely resembling in vivo circumstances in human skin.


Background: Burns are considered a serious health affection that leads to several consequences affecting a person both physically and emotionally. Herbal and traditional medicine have become popular remedies among patients worldwide. Aim: This study explores common practices followed in burns as first aid management. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia using a designed questionnaire distributed electronically through different social media. The questionnaire consisted of socio-demographic details, history of burns, causative material, and practices followed in response to burns. Results: 461 individuals have participated in this study. The commonest reason for burns was hot water or steam. The majority of the respondents (63%) had a satisfactory response to self-aid alone at home. The most common first aid options for managing burns at home were cold water alone 195 (42%), any sort of cream alone 177 (38%), or both 317 (69%). Overall, the result shows no statistically significant difference between the outcome of burn injury and the most commonly used burn aids. Conclusions: Most people use creams and water as the first-aid management of burns, while a good number of people use traditional medicine. Overall, people who receive hospital treatment after getting first aid at home give a better outcome.


Travel & Tourism is an important economic activity in most countries around the world. As well as its direct economic impact, the industry has significant indirect and induced impacts. Tourism is a major engine of economic growth and an important source of foreign exchange earnings in many countries including India. It has great capacity to create large scale employment of diverse kind – from the most specialized to the unskilled and hence can play a major role in creation of additional employment opportunities. It can also play an important role in achieving growth with equity. India has a dramatic growth of tourism over the last 25 years and it is one of the most remarkable economic change.
Tourism activity has long lasting socio-economic impacts on the host economy and community. Now in India tourism is the large service industry with a contribution of 6.23% to the national GDP and providing 8.78% of the total employment.
Keywords: Employment opportunities; Foreign versus domestic tourists; GDP; Tourism industry.


Cyberattacks on process control systems are a new phenomenon. A new, simplified, and constrained design project was tested in a third year chemical engineering process control class. This design project was assigned to self-selected, small (3-4) student groups, who were tasked to produce five reports in series. The first report provided a preliminary identification and description of a cyberattack on a chemical process control system. The second report described a more detailed and technical analysis of the cyberattack, using a block diagram. The third report was a proposal of how an engineer on duty during the attack could have mitigated the effects of the cyberattack. The design component was the goal of the fourth report: create a strategy for preventing future, similar cyberattacks. The fifth report was a summary report of the first four reports, with edits made to improve the content and quality of technical writing. After the course was completed, an on-line survey was offered to the students. The results revealed the students' inexperience with generating a solution to open problems, solving problems with few available resources, and the need for technical writing improvement.46 % of the student survey respondents reported that the project increased their understanding of the relevance of process control to their education; 32 % reported a neutral effect, and 21 % a negative effect. An overall positive recommendation favoured repeating improved iterations of this project


1 The importance of opportunistic pathogens, in particular Armillaria species, in forest decline has often been open to debate. 2 In order to assess the role of Armillaria gallica in the decline of oak trees, 60 Quercus robur trees with high (HIP trees) or low (LIP trees) levels of A. gallica inoculum, as measured by the density of epiphytic rhizomorphs on the root collar, were artificially defoliated for 2 years. Half of the HIP trees were treated when first defoliated with boric acid to reduce the A. gallica inoculum potential (BHIP trees). The ability of in situ rhizomorphs to colonize plant material was similar for LIP and BHIP, but was lower than in HIP trees, indicating that the boric acid treatment reduced the level of A. gallica inoculum. 3 Tree growth was similar between treatments as determined by dendrochronological comparisons. Although defoliation greatly reduced both tree growth and sapwood starch reserves at the beginning of autumn, growth response to defoliation and sapwood starch concentration at the beginning of autumn were similar for LIP, BHIP and HIP trees. 4 HIP trees suffered considerably greater crown deterioration and mortality following defoliation than either BHIP or LIP trees (62%, 32% and 5% mortality rates, respectively). The trees that died had very low sapwood starch concentrations. In addition, at similar levels of sapwood starch, HIP trees were much more likely to die than LIP or BHIP trees. 5 Two other factors influenced tree mortality. Past stress that reduced the tree growth a few years prior to the start of the experiment was shown to alter the tree's ability to cope with defoliation. Oak mildew selectively infected the defoliated trees and increased the severity of the defoliation stress. 6 Thus, trees subjected to high level of A. gallica inoculum had a lower ability to overcome the defoliation stress. These findings support the forest decline models developed by Manion in 1991 and show that it is important to take into account the role of opportunistic pathogens in tree mortality processes.


Background Radioiodine ablation may be associated with improved survival in patients with intermediate-risk follicular cell differentiated thyroid cancer (FCDTC). The aim of this study was to compare ablation efficacy of 1110 versus 5500 MBq of iodine-131 (131I) in FCDTC patients with intermediate risk. Methods Thirty-nine patients with intermediate-risk FCDTC (T3N0, T1-2N1b and T1-3N1a) were treated with 1110 MBq of 131I and compared with 43 age-matched and sex-matched patients who received 5550 MBq of 131I. Patients with invasive histology, extensive lymph node involvement, and preablation thyroglobulin (Tg) of more than 100 ng/ml were excluded from the study. All patients underwent total or near total thyroidectomy with or without lymph node dissection. Response to treatment was evaluated 1 and 2 years after 131I treatment. Results We studied four male and 78 female patients, age range 21–69 years. Preablation Tg level was 12.7±17.8 and 15.8±22.6 ng/ml in patients in the low-dose and high-dose groups, respectively (P=0.48). Anti-Tg antibody level as well as T and N staging were not significantly different in the two groups (P>0.2). One and 2 years after treatment, an excellent response was noted in 19 and 22 patients in the low-dose group and in 16 and 23 patients in the high-dose group, respectively (P>0.3). Using logistic regression analysis, preablation Tg was the only significant factor in the prediction of an incomplete response 2 years after therapy. Conclusion 1110 MBq of 131I was as effective as 5550 MBq of 131I in the treatment of FCDTC patients with intermediate risk 1 and 2 years after therapy.


It is now possible to quantitate carcinogen adducts on DNA by highly sensitive immunoassays. These techniques are particularly useful for screening human populations for exposure to potential environmental carcinogens. We have developed a panel of monoclonal antibodies that react with benzo(a)pyrene (BP) modified DNA to be used in an enzyme linked immunoassay (ELISA) to quantitate adduct levels of both human and animal samples. BALBc/Cr mice were immunized with either DNA modified by 7 beta, 8 alpha-dihydroxy-9 alpha, 10 alpha-epoxy-7,8,9, 10-tetrahydrobenzo(a)pyrene (BPDE-I-DNA) complexed electrostatically to methylated bovine serum albumin or with BPDE-I-modified guanosine conjugated with bovine serum albumin (BPDE-I-G-BSA). Four stable clones were produced from the spleen cells of animals immunized with BPDE-I-DNA and one from BPDE-I-G-BSA immunized animals. All antibodies were shown to be highly specific for BPDE-I-DNA and did not crossreact with nonmodified DNA or with N-2-acetylaminofluorene or 1-aminopyrene modified DNA. The antibodies differed in their sensitivity to BPDE-II-DNA, BPDE-I-poly G, BPDE-I-tetraols and BPDE-I-dG. In general, all the antibodies showed the greatest affinity for their original antigen. Those generated against modified DNA showed highest reactivity against modified DNA while the one antibody generated against the monoadduct showed highest reactivity with the monoadduct. These antibodies are currently being used in a highly sensitive competitive ELISA to quantitate levels of BP-DNA adducts in various animal and human tissue samples.


Abstract This study investigated the quality characteristics of cookies containing Platycodon grandiflorum powder, which is well known for its various functions and biological activity. Cookie samples were prepared by adding the Platycodon grandiflorum powder at different levels of 0%, 1%, 3% and 5%. In this study, moisture, pH, color, spread factor, hardness and sensory evaluation of cookies were examined. The results showed that the pH and moisture of cookies were decreased when more amount of Platycodon grandiflorum powder was added. Regarding the color of cookies, the L value was decreased when more amount of Platycodon grandiflorum powder was added, where as the a value and b value were increased (p<0.001, p<0.01). The spread factor of cookies generally increased as more amount of Platycodon grandiflorum powder was added, but it was not statistically significant. The hardness of the cookies decreased as more amount of Platycodon grandiflorum powder was added. Cookies containing 1% of Platycodon grandiflorum powder showed the highest scores for overall acceptability, color, taste and texture. Regarding the flavor of cookies, the control showed the highest score, and the score decreased as more amount of Platycodon grandiflorum powder was added. Key words: Platycodon grandiflorum powder, cookies, quality characteristics, sensory test


A 52-year-old woman presented to the ENT clinic with a huge swelling on the right side of her face that had originated 6 years earlier. The mass was ultimately diagnosed as a carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma of the maxillary sinus. Carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma itself is uncommon, and its origin in the maxillary sinus is very rare. We discuss the presentation, histopathologic picture, and management of this case.


EADOCS (Expert Assisted Design Of Composite Sandwich panels) is a multi-level and hybrid expert system for innovative conceptual design. The objectives for conceptual design support are to assess the feasibility and optimality of alternative solutions and to find the best concept for further detailed design. Case-based reasoning is applied to generate conceptual designs and to refine their structure. Specialist operations for structural adaptation are not available in EADOCS and structural adaptations have to be retrieved from the case-base. This paper presents a domain independent approach to retrieve and reuse case components for structural adaptation.


Summary
Charcoal canker of oak is a common disease in the western regions of Iran, which has widely spread due to climate change and increasing drought in recent years. Biscogniauxia mediterranea and Obolarina persica are known as two agents of oak charcoal canker in Zagros forests causing the dieback of oak trees. The effects of charcoal disease agent pathogens on the growth and physiological response of two-year-old seedlings of Quercus brantii were evaluated under drought stress in greenhouse over a period of nine months. Survival was 21.7% lower in seedlings inoculated with B. mediterranea subjected to drought stress compared with control treatment. The length of lesions on stems was 68% more under charcoal pathogens in drought stressed compared with the length of lesions caused by charcoal pathogens only. On the other hand, stem lesion length caused by B. mediterranea was 25% greater than those caused by O. persica. Some morphophysiological characteristics were affected by charcoal pathogens alone and/or in combination with drought. Diameter, height and biomass decreased the most in seedlings inoculated with charcoal pathogens under drought stress. Pathogenic agents alone and in combination with drought stress reduced photosynthetic rates, stomatal conductance, transpiration, the maximum Rubisco activity (Vcmax), maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) and xylem water potential. In general, drought increased the aggressiveness of fungus and intensification of their destructive effects in Quercus brantii. Moreover, there was no significant difference between the effect of B. mediterranea and O. persica on the morphophysiological parameters studied.


We have studied the effect of mono- and di-valent cations on the structure of the phosphatidylinositol 4,5-diphosphate (PIP2)–biological buffer system at pH 7.2. We found that the PIP2 aggregates from prolate ellipsoidal micelles at pH 7.2 and that the addition of a small amount of Ca2+ ions even below 5 mmol dm–3([Ca2+] : [PIP2]= 5/7) induces a drastic structural phase transition from prolate micelles to disordered lamellae. Mg2+ ions induced a similar phase transition around 10 mmol dm–3, which, however, occurred less sensitively. In contrast to the case of divalent cations, the presence of Na+ ions did not affect the PIP2 micellar structures up to 0.1 mol dm–3([Na+] : [PIP2]= 100/7), indicating that the above structural change of the PIP2 aggregates is not attributable to the elevation of the electrostatic shielding effect between the polar heads. Modelling analysis suggests that the observed phase transition results from an increase of the critical packing parameter of the PIP2 molecule accompanying the dehydration of the PIP2 polar-head region.


Ca2+ ATPase was isolated from rabbit skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum and used to form structures resembling potential-dependent calcium channels within the membrane lipid bilayer of liposomes. The orientation of these structures in the bilayer was dependent on the conditions used for enzyme incorporation. The results obtained indicate that Ca2+ ATPase may be involved in the passive transport of calcium ions from the sarcoplasmic reticulum which may be regulated by the membrane potential. The membrane potential within the reticulum is probably positive at the moment of calcium ion release.


An experimental method to measure Q-parameter in-situ is described. The basic idea comes from the fact that the side necking near a crack tip indicates the loss of stress triaxiality, which can be scaled by Q.From the out-of-plane displacement and the in-plane strain near the surface of side necking, stress field averaged through the thickness is calculated and then Q is determined from the difference between the stress field and the HRR field corresponding to the identical J-integral. To prove the validity, three-dimensional finite element analysis has been performed for a CT configuration with side-groove. Q-value which was calculated directly from the near-tip stress field is compared with that determined by simulating the experimental procedure according to the proposed method, that is , the Q-value determined from the lateral displacement and the in-plane strain. In addition, the effect of location where the displacement and strain are measured is explored.


Islam in Spanish Literature is a sweeping reinterpretation of Spanish literature, taking as its given the enormous debt to Arab culture that Spain incurred through the eight centuries of Islamic presence on the Iberian Peninsula. This volume takes up the thread of the work of the Arabist Miguel Asin Palacios, the first to comment extensively upon the marked Islamic features in many Spanish classics. After an initial survey of the presence of Islam and Judaism in Spanish history and culture, succeeding chapters explore the Muslim context of Juan Ruiz, the author of the Libro de buen amor; St John of the Cross; St Teresa de Jesus; the anonymous sonnet "No me mueve, mi Dios"; aljamiado-morisco literature and then "official" Moorophile literature, standing in such dramatic contrast to one another; and last, the novelist Juan Goytisolo, who, writing today, continues to reflect upon the impact of the East on Spanish culture. It is no exaggeration to state that this book redefines the ground of the study of Spanish literature; it will be hard for the contemporary reader ever again to read it with innocence, as a literature exclusively "European."


The ability to transcriptionally repress genes is essential for cell survival. X chromosome inactivation is a widely used model for studying establishment and maintenance of facultative heterochromatin. This process requires Xist lncRNA and recruitment of chromatin modifiers including polycomb repressive complexes (PRC1/2), which lay down the classical epigenetic marks H2AK119Ub1 and H3K27me3. The nuclear matrix (NM) is the insoluble nuclear substructure which remains following extraction of soluble proteins, lipids, chromatin and, in some protocols, RNA. This thesis focuses on CIZ1, a NM protein known for its role in DNA replication. A CIZ1-null mouse model has shown CIZ1 loss results in fully penetrant female-specific lymphoproliferative disorder, and CIZ1-null primary embryonic fibroblasts (PEFs) display loss of Xist localisation and epigenetic mark enrichment from the inactive X chromosome (Xi).
I have optimised a protocol capable of profiling how proteins are anchored within the nucleus and generated a model of NM structure at the Xi. I demonstrate that CIZ1 is normally anchored via attachment to RNA but becomes part of the core protein NM during Xi replication, coincident with Xi relocation from the nuclear periphery to the nucleolus and back. Compromised Xi relocation in CIZ1-null PEFs is accompanied by increased solubility of PRC2 catalytic subunit EZH2, and genome-wide deregulation of polycomb-regulated genes. Compromised Xi relocation, solubilisation of EZH2 and polycomb target deregulation are also observed in WT cells following adaption to long term culture, suggesting this CIZ1-dependent process is typically compromised in cell lines. CIZ1 loss also appears to lead to DREAM complex target deregulation and expression of unannotated transcripts in activated CIZ1-null lymphocytes. The data are consistent with CIZ1 having a role in how enzyme and template meet, likely contributing to the maintenance of epigenetic landscape in PEFs, and offers a pathway that could explain the widespread links between CIZ1 and cancer.


Human umbilical cord blood (CB) is rich source of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and provides an attractive alternative to bone marrow or mobilized peripheral blood transplantation. However, major disadvantage of CB transplantation is the relatively low number of HSCs in each CB unit, which severely limits its usefulness in clinical transplantation. A part of CD34 + cells expresses cell surface CXCR4, which has been found to be critical for bone marrow engraftment by human hematopoietic stem cells. In the present study, we examined the effect of short-term culture on CXCR4 expression and engraftment in CB-derived CD34 + cells transplanted into non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice. CB-derived CD34 + -enriched samples were divided into three aliquots and cultured. The first aliquot was incubated for 2 h in RPMI-1640 medium alone, whereas the second was incubated for 2h in RPMI-1640 medium containing the specific CXCR4 antagonist, AMD3100. As a control, the third sample was neither treated nor incubated. Surface CXCR4 expression on CD34 + cells significantly increased after incubating the cells in medium alone for 2 h (7.7 to 19.8%); this increase was blocked by the addition of AMD3100. No difference in CXCR4 mRNA expression was noted after incubating CD34 + cells for 2 h. The short-term incubation seems to influence the translocation of CXCR4 from the interior of the cell to the cell surface. CD34 + cells cultured for 2 h showed significantly increased transmigrational activity toward SDF-1 and homing activity in NOD/SCID mice. However, those were lower in non-cultured cells and cells treated with AMD3100. Next, we assessed the engraftment of cells cultured into NOD/SCID mice. Engraftment analysis was performed 8 weeks after transplantation. The presence of human cells was detected by the cell surface expression of CD45, CD34, CD33, and CD19. The CD34 + cells cultured demonstrated significantly increased engraftment of human cells in the bone marrow of NOD/SCID mice compared with that of CD34 + cells without culture or with culture in the presence of AMD3100 (p + B-lymphoid cells, CD33 + myeloid cells, and CD34 + immature cells, but neither CD3 + T cells nor CD45 + cells in bone marrow. Finally, we performed a secondary transplant of engrafted cells from previously transplanted mice to confirm long-term engraftment and self-renewal of cultured CB cells. The successful engraftment was observed in mice injected with primary cultured cells, demonstrating that these cultured cells are self-renewing and capable of long-term engraftment. These observations suggest that the increase of the cell surface expression of CXCR4 on CD34 cells resulted in the retention of human umbilical cord blood cells within the bone marrow through the engraftment of homing activity.


The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the shooting shoes and clothing for the shooting score. The subjects were 2 women of Air Rifle shooting. This study was classified the three conditions of the normal shoes(NS), the shooting shoes(SS) and the shooting shoes_shooting clothing(SSSC). The thirty times of shooting score was recorded and analyzed for the shooting condition of NS, SS and SSSC. The Coefficient of Variation(CV) for the 3D coordinate of muzzle was calculated to examine the movement of muzzle on each shooting. Also, the foot pressure was measured to observe the change of body stability with the Pedar system. The result was following. The shooting score of SSSC was highest and SS was lowest and the muzzle movement of SSSC was lowest and NS was highest in all subject. The Resultant vector of CV for the coordinate of muzzle was showed the significant difference for the NS between SSSC. The foot pressure of all subject was highest on the sector of M4 but, 2 subjects showed the difference on the pattern of foot pressure. According to the result of this study, the shooting shoes and shooting clothing could give positive effect of the shooting score.


We present a compact finite differences method for the calculation of two‐dimensional viscous flows in biological fluid dynamics applications. This is achieved by using body‐forces that allow for the imposition of boundary conditions in an immersed moving boundary that does not coincide with the computational grid. The unsteady, incompressible Navier–Stokes equations are solved in a Cartesian staggered grid with fourth‐order Runge–Kutta temporal discretization and fourth‐order compact schemes for spatial discretization, used to achieve highly accurate calculations. Special attention is given to the interpolation schemes on the boundary of the immersed body. The accuracy of the immersed boundary solver is verified through grid convergence studies. Validation of the method is done by comparison with reference experimental results. In order to demonstrate the application of the method, 2D small insect hovering flight is calculated and compared with available experimental and computational results. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This is an open access article & it is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) Insect pests are the major constraints of crop production. Mustard aphid is the major problems of rapeseed contributing mustard decline in Chitwan, Nepal. Semi-structured questionnaire survey was conducted on randomly selected farmers of Chainpir Village Development Committee (VDC), Chitwan after a pre-testing in Mangalpur VDC to study the farmers' knowledge and management practices adopted against mustard aphid in Chitwan. Study revealed majority (60%) of the respondent suggested aphid as the major insect of rapeseed and moreover, 86% of the respondent experienced it to cause 25% loss to the crop yield. Much proportion of respondents (58%) also realized low temperature with high humidity at the time of flowering as a cause in higher aphid infestation. Farmers use 2-3 sprays of chemical insecticide to control aphid but was found to destroy natural enemies and bee population besides damaging natural environment and human health.


A wireless bridge health monitoring system is introduced. Arming at the difficulty of changing battery, a piezoelectric energy harvesting circuit is presented. This self-powered structure use multi-cantilever to broaden the resonance frequency band of the piezoelectric vibrator. Then, we use standard circuit and LTC4071 to transfer the energy to the lithium battery. The experimental results show that the piezoelectric energy harvesting circuit can support the normal operation of the bridge health monitoring.


This module explains the necessity of special training for adolescent reproductive health. Providers are sensitized to the needs of adolescents and are prepared to tailor reproductive health services so that they are youth-friendly. The module puts particular emphasis on dual protection against STI / HIV and pregnancy safer sex counseling providing care to the pregnant adolescent and dealing with issues of gender sexual abuse and sexual orientation.


Thoracolumbar spine injuries in motor vehicle crashes are occurring and the mechanisms
are poorly understood. It has been hypothesized to be connected to vehicle's restraint
systems but further studies are required to understand and subsequently address the problem
in future restraint systems. Finite Element (FE)-Human body models are invaluable
tools for crash analysis, however, quality of the response depends on the biofidelity of
the model. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate biofidelity of the thoracolumbar
spine model in Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS), Toyota Motor Corporation and
Toyota Central R&D Labs .
In this thesis work three dynamic and one static thoracolumbar experiments were simulated.
THUMS' ligaments were verified against cadaveric data. Two modified disc material
models were inserted in to THUMS and the results compared against experimental
data. The Global Human Body Model Concertium model (GHBMC), GHMBC, LLC was
also evaluated against cadaveric data from two experiments. All simulations were run
in LS-DYNA and pre and postprocessing tasks were performed in LS-PrePost and Matlab.
The response of the lumbar FSUs in THUMS' under the dynamic compression test was
similar to the experimental data but was three to four times less stiff. On the other hand,
the T12-L5 segment showed fair correlation of reaction force whereas reaction moment
was significantly lower. Kinematics of the cadaveric spine under flexion and extension
tests was not captured. Reaction moment, shear force and vertical displacement were
found to deviate from the response of the cadaveric specimens during the dynamic flexion
and shear test. Only horizontal displacement showed good correlation in this test.
THUMS performance was good in the static flexion and shear test but poor in flexion
only test. Furthermore, the Capsular Ligaments (CL) and the Ligamentum Flavum (LF)
in THUMS were found to be about three times shorter and stiffer, respectively. In all
the simulations the intervertebral contacts were responsible for the sudden and large increase
and vibrations occurring at about the experimental failure point. The modified
disc material models improved response of only the lumbar FSUs under the compression
test.
In conclusion, biofidelity of the thoracolumbar spine model in THUMS is found to be
poor and remodelling is necessary. The compliant nature of the intervertebral discs, the
shorter length of the CL and higher stiffness of the LF and the smaller initial invetervertebral
gap were identified as the main weaknesses of the model.


Abstract Small businesses created as a way of subsisting are very important in Latin America in alleviating extreme poverty. These businesses possibly need to innovate to compete. Innovativeness is strongly linked with intellectual capital, but the limitations of subsistence small businesses weaken this link. In particular, human capital possibly affects innovativeness, but the effect can be mediated or moderated by other components of intellectual capital. This paper uses partial least squares to study the impact of the different dimensions of intellectual capital on innovativeness as a dynamic capability in small businesses in the timber industry in an area of Latin America, and, in particular, the mediation effect among them. The results show that human capital generates relational capital. The relational capital needs structural capital to improve the innovativeness of subsistence small businesses.