This study is made to examine the technical efficiency of farmers in Teff, Maize, and Sorghum production in the Central Zone of Tigray. The study used primary data collected from a sample of farm households selected using a combination of probability and non-probability sampling techniques in the 2014 cropping season. A single step stochastic frontier production model is used for Teff, Maize, and Sorghum production separately. Based on the regression output of the stochastic frontier models, there is no evidence of technical inefficiency of farmers in the production of Sorghum. Evidence of technical inefficiency is found in the production of Teff and Maize though the predicted level of inefficiency in Teff is infinitesimal (less than 1%). Therefore, the deviation of actual output from the frontier output in Teff and Sorghum production is the result of the stochastic factors beyond the control of the farmers such as bad weather, drought, and the like. The reason behind low level of output in Sorghum and Teff production is not technical inefficiency of farmers but the low level of the current technology available to the farmers. Therefore, increasing output in these two crops requires shifting the current level of technology. Only farmers in Maize production are found to be technically inefficient with a predicted possibility of 4.5% efficiency gains. The technical inefficiency of farmers in maize production significantly differs across the three Woredas; Werie-Lekhe with the highest inefficiency of about 11% followed by Lailai-Maichew and Kola-Temben with inefficiencies of 6% and 0% respectively. The low level of technical inefficiency in Maize, bare evidence of inefficiency in Teff and the nonexistence of inefficiency in Sorghum production are against the preceding evidences. This might be due to the difference in the choice of the dependent and explanatory variables. Moreover, the farmers might have improved their input use over the last couple of years due to training and extension services. Moreover, labor input measured in man days is found to be positive and significant in contrast to the preceding evidences implying agriculture in the study area not subjected to excess labor with zero or negative marginal productivity. Finally, suboptimal technology adoption [the use of fertilizers below or above the standard amount required] doesn't affect output in Teff and Sorghum production but it tends to reduce output in Maize production. Moreover, training on modern input use, access for credit, the dummy for main crop, and irrigation are found to be significant determinants of technical efficiency in Maize production. Therefore, farmers should use the standard amount of fertilizer in Maize production and specialization is superior to diversification in all crops.


Nowadays, swarm intelligence algorithms are becoming increasingly popular for solving many optimization problems. The Wolf Search Algorithm (WSA) is a contemporary semi-swarm intelligence algorithm designed to solve complex optimization problems and demonstrated its capability especially for large-scale problems. However, it still inherits a common weakness for other swarm intelligence algorithms: that its performance is heavily dependent on the chosen values of the control parameters. In 2016, we published the Self-Adaptive Wolf Search Algorithm (SAWSA), which offers a simple solution to the adaption problem. As a very simple schema, the original SAWSA adaption is based on random guesses, which is unstable and naive. In this paper, based on the SAWSA, we investigate the WSA search behaviour more deeply. A new parameter-guided updater, the Gaussian-guided parameter control mechanism based on information entropy theory, is proposed as an enhancement of the SAWSA. The heuristic updating function is improved. Simulation experiments for the new method denoted as the Gaussian-Guided Self-Adaptive Wolf Search Algorithm (GSAWSA) validate the increased performance of the improved version of WSA in comparison to its standard version and other prevalent swarm algorithms.


Aim: In this study, we aimed to investigate the factors related to postoperative mortality after pancreatoduodenectomy in our clinic.
Materials and Methods: Patients who underwent pancreatoduodenectomy due to a periampullary region tumor between 2010 and 2019 were included in the study. Mortality that occurred within 30 days after PD was defined as postoperative mortality and groups were formed according to this definition Group 1(Postoperative Mortality) and Group 2(No mortality). The demographic and clinical features, laboratory parameters, and tumor features of the patients were compared between the groups. Risk factors for mortality were analyzed by univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis.
Results: 155 patients participated in our study. We found our postoperative mortality rate as 11.6%. Accordingly, Group 1 consisted of 18 and Group 2 consisted of 137 patients. The sex was similar (p: 0.235). The average age was higher in Group 1 than 2 (71.2 vs 63.7, p:0.013). Tumor localizations were similar in groups (p:0.275). Lymph node positivity was similar in the groups (50% vs 41.6%, p:0.333). The pancreatic fistula was higher in Group 1, but not statistically significant (33% vs 18.2%, p:0.119). Preoperative white blood cell count (9490 mm3 vs 8050 mm3) and neutrophil count (6898 mm3 vs5442 mm3) were higher in Group 1. In multivariate analysis, no parameters were single-handedly risk factors.
Conclusion: No factor was found to be effective alone in the development of mortality after pancreaticoduodenectomy. We think that postoperative mortality may decrease by revealing the factors in the preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative periods.


Abstract : This report describes the development and testing of a high current repetitive switch. The objective was to develop a switch capable of repetitively diverting current and energy from an inductive energy store into a load. A mechanical switch employing sliding electrical contacts was built and tested. The switch demonstrated performance exceeding design goals. In an inductive energy storage circuit the switch successfully commutated a current of 7640 A at a repetition rate of 33 Hz. The switch has been operated at repetition rates ranging from 1 Hz to 49 Hz. Over 1600 successful commutations have been achieved with no failures. (Author)


OBJECTIVES
To establish normal reference ranges of ocular parameters including phenol read thread, palpebral fissure length, horizontal and vertical corneal diameter, upright and hanging intraocular pressure (IOP) and to report ophthalmic examination findings of the anterior segment and lens, in a population of captive fruit bats.

ANIMALS STUDIED
Eyes of 30 bats of three species were included in this study: 10 (5 males, 5 females) Malayan Flying Foxes (Pteropus vampyrus), 10 (5 males, 5 females) Little Golden-mantled Flying Foxes (Pteropus pumilus), and 10 (4 males, 6 females) Island Flying Foxes (Pteropus hypomelanus).

RESULTS
The most common ophthalmic examination findings included iris-iris persistent pupillary membranes (83%), nuclear sclerosis (56.7%), prominent arterial circle (40%), iridal hyperpigmented foci (30%), pupillary margin cysts (27%), and third eyelid defects (20%). The mean, among all species for: phenol red thread was 20.23 ± 1.28 mm/15 s both eyes (OU); palpebral fissure length was 13.34 ± 0.33 mm for OU; for horizontal corneal diameter was 10.72 ± 0.32 mm for OU; for vertical corneal diameter was 9.90 ± 0.30 mm for OU; for the hanging intraocular pressures was 19.38 ± 0.77 mmHg for OU; for upright IOP was 13.95 ± 0.60 mmHg for OU. Measurements for the individual species groups and eyes were also calculated.

CONCLUSIONS
Results revealed the IOP of bats in a hanging position were significantly higher than the IOP of bats in an upright position. The size of the bat, between the species, affected palpebral fissure length, horizontal corneal diameter, and vertical corneal diameter. Information about the ocular structures and normal ophthalmic parameters for the Pteropus species is crucial for species protection because of dependence on vision for survival.


Breast cancer is the most common malignancy distressing females in the world. The bone metastases are one of the most common site of disease dissemination. Up to 75% of stage IV Breast cancer patients developing skeletal metastases [1] metastatic bone disease can result in skeletal related events (SREs), including humoral hypercalcaemia of malignancy (HHM), pathological fractures, spinal cord compression, and pain [2]. The median time from bone metastases diagnosis to first SRE can be as short as 1.8 months, with the incidence of SREs growing considerably during the first 12 months following diagnosis [3]. This Bone metastases affect patient survival, movement, and quality of life by negative impact. The molecular mechanisms involved in the metastasis, colonization, and proliferation of breast cancer cells in bone are multifaceted and include crosstalk between breast cancer cells and the bone microenvironment. The capability of metastatic breast cancer cells to capture normal biological processes involved in bone remodeling is a key driver of osteolytic and osteoblastic bone lesions. As such, our understanding of how breast cancer cells manipulate normal bone remodeling pathways is essential for the development of new therapeutic agents to improve patient outcomes.


Narrow surface corrugated gratings for integrated optical components and their method of manufacture. An embodiment includes a grating having a width narrower than a width of the waveguide on which the grating is formed. In accordance with certain embodiments of the present invention, masked photolithography is employed to form narrowed gratings having a desired grating strength. In an embodiment, an optical cavity of a laser is formed with a reflector grating having a width narrower than a width of the waveguide. In another embodiment an integrated optical communication system includes one or more narrow surface corrugated gratings.


The high progression rate of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) depends on intrinsic genetic and epigenetic cancer cell aberrations and a profound imbalance in immune system cells infiltrating the PDAC stroma. Direct or exosome mediated shedding in the tumor microenviroment of different molecules (e.g. cytokines, chemokines, lectins) causes tumor, pancreatic stellate and inflammatory cells to recruit numerous immunosuppressive cells in the PDAC microenvironment and inhibit immune effector cells. CD8+ T and dendritic immune effector cells (DCs) are reduced, while immunosuppressive T regulatory cells (Treg), Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cells (MDSCs) and M2 Tumor Associated Macrophages (TAMs) accumulate in the PDAC stroma, mainly at the invasive front area. The imbalance in CD4+ T cell subsets, with Th2 and Th17 prevailing over the Th1 effector arm, is associated with a worse PDAC prognosis that depends on the failure of immune system cells to destroy cancer cells, and the accumulation of immune cells in the PDAC stroma can have pro-neoplastic and prometastatic effects. CD4+ T cells are indispensable for PDAC development; Treg and M2 polarized TAMs favor neoangiogenesis and the epithelial to mesenchymal transition of PDAC cells, a pre-requisite for metastases; MDSCs favor metastases by releasing pro-metastatic inflammatory mediators such as S100A8/A9 proteins, and by creating pre-metastatic niches (in metastatic sites). Of the several treatment strategies aiming to abolish the immune cell imbalance in PDAC, and targeting the immune system, DCs manipulation, vaccination with tumor derived antigens and Treg depletion appear to be of benefit, but still require validation before being recommended in the clinical setting.


I would like to argue the following propositions: (1) the U.S. empire took shape and achieved undisputed dominance in the world capitalist system in the late 1940s and early 1950s. (2) Symptoms of decline, both internal and external, began to appear in the early 1960s, culminating in the recession of 1973-74 and the defeat in Vietnam. (3) Decline continued in the second half of the 1970s, both internal and external. (4) The Reagan era (1980-88) was characterized by an unsuccessful attempt at a comeback, ending in further decline and disarray. (5) The 1990s will witness the disintegration of the worldwide U.S. empire and its probable replacement by a system of competing trade-and-currency blocs. I will comment briefly on each of these sub-periods, concentrating on major trends and developments but eschewing any attempt at a systematic, let alone comprehensive, analysis.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


We developed a new microwave Hall effect measurement method for materials in the skin depth region at low temperatures using a cross-shaped bimodal cavity. We analytically calculated electromagnetic fields in the cross-shaped cavity, and the response of the cavity including the sample, whose property is represented by the surface impedance tensor; further, we constructed the method to obtain the Hall component of the surface impedance tensor in terms of the change in resonance characteristics. To confirm the validity of the new method, we applied our method to measure the Hall effect in metallic Bi single crystals at low temperatures, and we confirmed that the microwave Hall angles coincide with the DC Hall angle. Thus, it becomes clear that the Hall angle measurement under cryogenic conditions becomes possible without any complicated tuning mechanisms, and our bimodal cavity method can be used to measure the microwave Hall effect on materials in the skin depth region. The result opens a new approach to discuss the Hall effect in condensed matter physics such as the microwave flux-flow Hall effect in superconductors.


Techniques of evolutionary computing have proven useful for a diverse array of fields in science and engineering. Because of the expected low signal to noise ratio of LIGO data and incomplete knowledge of gravitational waveforms, evolutionary computing is an excellent candidate for LIGO data analysis studies. Using the evolutionary computing methods of genetic algorithms and genetic programming, we have developed, as a proof of principle, search algorithms that are effective at finding sine-gaussian signals hidden in noise while maintaining a small false alarm rate. Because we used realistic LIGO noise as a training ground, the algorithms we have evolved should be well suited to detecting signals in actual LIGO data, as well as in simulated noise. These algorithms have continuously improved during the five days of their evolution and are expected to improve further the more they are evolved. The top performing algorithms from generation 100 and 199 were benchmarked using gaussian white noise to illustrate their performance and the improvement over 100 generations.


The use of equivalent time-frequency representations for image spectral analysis purpose is shown in this paper. The term equivalent time-frequency representation (ETFR) is proposed for time-frequency representation (TFR) generalized to images, in order to distinguish them from the TFR of the 1D signals. The generalizations of some well known tips (Hilbert transform and interpolation) used when dealing with 1D signals are reminded. Problems that occur due to the bidimensional nature of images are pointed out. The way of deriving ETFR from TFR is explained through the generalization of the kernel. That point is thoroughly described and justified. The way of getting High-Resolution TFRs or ETFRs is indicated. Applications on SAR images of the ocean surface are presented. The authors show how ETFR can be used for image spectral analysis purposes, namely estimation of the swell or of internal waves in their case.


Objective: During high-frequency oscillatory ventilation, bias flow is the continuous flow of gas responsible for replenishing oxygen and removing CO2 from the patient circuit. Bias flow is usually set at 20 L/min, but many patients require neuromuscular blockade at this flow rate. The need for neuromuscular blockade may be eliminated by increasing the bias flow rate, but CO2 retention is a potential concern. We hypothesize that in a swine model of acute lung injury, increased bias flow rates will not affect CO2 elimination. Design: Prospective, randomized, experimental study. Setting: Research laboratory at a university medical center. Subjects: Sixteen juvenile swine. Interventions: Sixteen juvenile swine (12–16.5 kg) were studied using a saline lavage model of acute lung injury. During high-frequency oscillatory ventilation, each animal was ventilated with bias flows of 10, 20, 30, and 40 L/min in random sequence. For ten animals, power was set at a constant level to maintain PaCO2 50–60 mm Hg, and amplitude was allowed to vary. For the remaining six animals, amplitude was kept constant to maintain PaCO2 within the same range, while power was adjusted as needed with changes in bias flow. Linear regression was used for data analysis. Measurements and Main Results: Median overall PaCO2 was 53 mm Hg (range: 31–81 mm Hg). Controlling for both power and amplitude, there was no statistically significant change in PaCO2 as bias flow varied from 10 to 40 L/min. Conclusions: Changes in bias flow during high-frequency oscillatory ventilation did not affect ventilation. Further clinical investigation is ongoing in infants and children with acute lung injury being managed with high-frequency oscillatory ventilation to assess the impact of alterations of bias flow on gas exchange, cardiopulmonary parameters, sedation requirements, and other clinical outcomes.


Human health is affected by pollution caused by toxic chemical substances, particularly vulnerable groups like children. So how can we make things better for people and for the environment through the textile products we design? By thinking about the environment when designing, choosing and using environmental-friendly technology, we can play an important role in building a better world for the future. If we are going to live in a sustainable way, the technology and materials that we use have to be sustainable. This article provides an insight into how textile product design can provide a better future. It describes the design of ecological textile messages for sensitising and educating children. In the long term, such design may help towards ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and in the future. In this survey, the design of the sensitising messages was done using ecological techniques and raw materials to accentuate the message and took into account the intellectual and psychological level of children. All of the raw materials, process and plant dyes used were analysed from an environmental perspective.


In contrast to traditional Web search, where topical relevance is often the main selection criterion, news search is characterized by the increased importance of freshness. However, the estimation of relevance and freshness, and especially the relative importance of these two aspects, are highly specific to the query and the time when the query was issued. In this work, we propose a unified framework for modeling the topical relevance and freshness, as well as their relative importance, based on click logs. We use click statistics and content analysis techniques to define a set of temporal features, which predict the right mix of freshness and relevance for a given query. Experimental results on both historical click data and editorial judgments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


How does political competition among domestic actors influence foreign policy choice? Studies examining these questions often focus on the role of economic or partisan interests, and how they influence the preferences of decision makers who are subject to electoral institutions and pressures of their constituents. Less attention has been paid to how the preferences of other influential but unelected actors influence state behavior. I examine the influence of one such group by looking at how American military leaders shape decisions on military spending and force structure, while also examining how these decisions have been affected by changes to the institutions governing civil–military relations. Results indicate that military leaders occupying key positions can influence defense spending priorities in favor of their respective branches. Results also suggest the influence of military leaders has changed and is conditional upon the institutions governing the relationships between civilian decision makers and military leaders.


Background Flail chest is a common and serious traumatic condition in thoracic surgery. The treatment of flail chest often includes open reduction and internal fixation, which is relatively traumatic, complicated, and expensive. As three-dimensional (3D) printing technology is widely used in the clinical field, the application of 3D-printed products to chest trauma will become a new treatment option. To date, the use of 3D-printed external fixation guides for flail chests has not been reported. Thus, we aimed to assess the short-term efficacy of a new technology that treated flail chests with an individualized 3D-printed external fixation guide combined with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). Patients and methods A retrospective analysis was performed on patients with flail chest treated with this new technique at our center from January 2020 to December 2022. The following parameters were included: operative time, thoracic tube extraction time, intensive care unit time, thoracic volume recovery rate, visual analog scale score 1 month postoperatively, and postoperative complication rate. All patients were followed up for at least 3 months. Results Five patients (mean age: 45.7 years) were enrolled; they successfully underwent surgery without chest wall deformity and quickly returned to daily life. The average number of rib fractures was 8.4; all patients had lung contusion, hemopneumothorax, and anomalous respiration. The abnormal breathing of all patients was completely corrected on postoperative day 1, and the chest wall was stable. One case experienced mild loosening of the 3D-printed guide postoperatively; however, the overall stability was not affected. The other four cases did not experience such loosening because we replaced the ordinary silk wire with a steel wire. All cases were discharged from the hospital 2 weeks postoperatively and returned to normal life 1 month after the removal of the 3D-printed guide on average. Only one case developed a superficial wound infection postoperatively, and no perioperative death occurred. Conclusions The 3D-printed external fixation guide combined with video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is a novel technique in the treatment of flail chest and is safe, effective, feasible, and minimally invasive, with satisfactory clinical efficacy.


(3-Alkoxycarbonyl-2-ethoxyprop-2-enylidene)triphenylphosphoranes 1 and 2 undergo [3 + 2] annulation with 1,2-diacylethylenes 3 to give 2-ethoxycyclopentadienes 6 as mixtures of the 1,3- and 1,4-diene. The mixtures are conveniently converted upon mild acid treatment into cyclopentenones 7 in a single form. Annulation of phosphorane 1 with acylmethylenemalonates 10 affords cyclopenta-1,3-dienes 11 in a highly regioselective fashion, which are readily converted into substituted cyclopentenones 12 in excellent yields. Phosphorane 1 also undergoes annulation with 1,2-acylacetylene 14 to give the fulvene 15, which is transformed into the exomethylenecyclopentenone 16. Furthermore, an application of the annulation to the synthesis of (±)-methyl dehydrojasmonate is described.


Abstract We present ALMA [CII] line and far-infrared (FIR) continuum observations of seven z > 6 low-luminosity quasars (M1450 > −25 mag) discovered by our on-going Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey. The [CII] line was detected in all targets with luminosities of ∼(2−10) × 108 L⊙, about one order of magnitude smaller than optically luminous quasars. Also found was a wide scatter of FIR continuum luminosity, ranging from LFIR < 1011L⊙ to ∼2 × 1012L⊙. With the [CII]-based dynamical mass, we suggest that a significant fraction of low-luminosity quasars are located on or even below the local Magorrian relation, particularly at the massive end of the galaxy mass distribution. This is a clear contrast to the previous finding that luminous quasars tend to have overmassive black holes relative to the relation. Our result is expected to show a less-biased nature of the early co-evolution of black holes and their host galaxies.


The inclusion of domain (point) sources into a three dimensional boundary element method while solving the Helmholtz equation is described. The method is fully desingularized which allows for the use of higher order quadratic elements on the surfaces of the problem with ease. The effect of the monopole sources ends up on the right hand side of the resulting matrix system. Several carefully chosen examples are shown, such as sources near and within a concentric spherical core-shell scatterer as a verification case, a curved focusing surface and a multi-scale acoustic lens.


The influence of l-mixing on the alkali spectra Li and Na is computed in the presence of a strong magnetic field within an effective potential model which adequately represents the field-free atomic spectra through an empirically determined quantum defect. It is shown that recent observations of Faraday rotation spectra can be understood in the light of the authors' calculations. In particular, in the case of Na, the original analysis of experimental data suggested that a correction must be applied to high series members as a result of the influence of the external field. The origin of this correction is now explained. In the case of Li, the empirical correction is shown to arise from a different cause.


To provide a more complete analysis of Gannet birds and Gannet-inspired drones during diving, this work considers an improved beam model to describe the static and dynamic characteristics of Gannet and Gannet-like drones at impact. The beam model consists of two different geometric and material property beams under continuity conditions to better understand the geometrical and material parameters' influence on the structural statics and dynamics of these kinds of systems. Using Hamilton's principle, the equations of motion, continuity, and boundary conditions considering Euler–Bernoulli and Timoshenko theories are derived. Then, applying the continuity and boundary conditions, the static and dynamic analyses are conducted to examine the impact buckling speeds, the buckled shapes, the natural frequencies at different impact velocities for bioinspired drone design, and the post-buckled mode shapes. The buckled configurations suggest that the body of the Gannet most likely has a different bending and torsional stiffness than the neck. The results indicate that the amount of softening in the joints contributes significantly to not only the speed at which the bird will buckle, but also the buckling profile of the bird. To obtain a physical buckling profile of the Gannet, a stiffer boundary condition at the end of the bird body model is needed due to the increased bending stiffness properties of the body compared to the neck as well as the position of the wings and feet surpassing the end of the body. The results also demonstrate that to build a bioinspired diving drone that falls within a smaller air-vehicle range, the amount of error between theories in predicting the static and dynamic buckling behavior of the system becomes significantly more evident. The dynamic characteristics and mode shapes of the Gannet-like systems are provided for further drone design insight on the impact speeds the drone can achieve without responding to an external excitation frequency from a propeller or actuator.


Quality of Service (QoS) in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is a challenging area of research because of the limited availability of resources in WSNs. The resources in WSNs are processing power, memory, bandwidth, energy, communication capacity, etc. Delay is an important QoS parameter for delivery of delay sensitive data in a time constraint sensor network environment. In this paper, an extended version of a delay aware routing protocol for WSNs is presented along with its performance comparison with different deployment scenarios of sensor nodes, taking IEEE802.15.4 as the underlying MAC protocol. The performance evaluation of the protocol is done by simulation using ns-2 simulator.


Abstract : This project involves an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center consortium between The Ohio State University, the University of California, Davis, and North Carolina State University to assist in advancing food processing and packaging technology and will greatly benefit the US food industry and military personnel. This industry driven consortia center, CAPPS-Center for Advanced Processing and Packaging Studies, focuses on industrially relevant research directed toward coupling microbial life sciences with process and package engineering.


Information security industry is rapidly growing, but has been confronted with many challenges in a business environment. One of them is the imbalance between supply and demand of information security manpower, which has caused an insecure market situation. Therefore, this study has derived factors of promoting and hindering information security manpower from governance, academics, corporations, and workforce perspectives, and has analyzed a sequence of cause and effect of each factor. This study is an exploratory research based on the interviews. The causal loop diagram (CLD) was developed to deduce key issues and propose alternatives. The result of this study is expected to help the development of information security manpower in Korea, by minimizing the potential negative effects as well as maximizing the positive effects. This study found out the dynamic causes and effects of the security manpower system in each stakeholder's perspective. The cause-and-effect relationships between the stakeholders will be able to contribute to solve the imbalance of supply and demand in security manpower system.


Background: Platelet –Rich Plasma (PRP) is a novel therapeutic agent used in multiple medical fields and one of these fields is the reproduction for best spermatozoa preparation and activation for upgrading activity and motility of the spermatozoa and filtered with glass wool filtration to eliminate any round cells and leukocytes from the sample.
Objectives: The aim of this research is to study some sperm characteristics in two groups, the normozoospermic infertile men and th asthenozoospermic infertile group before and after activation with Glass wool Filtration and PRP and compare between both.
Patients and Methods: In this study 60 infertile men were enrolled and divided into 2 groups,15 normozoospermic infertile men, and 45 ashenozoospermic infertile men during their attendance to the Infertility Clinic in High Institute for Infertility Diagnosis and Assisted Reproductive Technologies Al-Nahrain University. The collected semen samples, and seminal fluid analysis were assessed, each semen sample was divided into 3 tubes and labelled as the 1st tube which was before activation, the 2nd tube was after glass wool filtration activation technique and the 3rd tube was for semen activated by adding PRP to the medium used for glass wool filtration activation.
Results: Both techniques showed increased and improved sperm motility, but the PRP was superior to the glass wool alone in upgrading Sperm Grade A Motility %, Sperm Grade B Motility % and decreasing Sperm Grade C Motility %, and Sperm Grade D Motility (Immotile Sperm).
Conclusion: The PRP was significantly effective in improving the sperm activity and upgrading sperm motility more than Glass Wool Filtration technique.


The few accounts of the radiographic features in the nose and sinuses of Wegener's granulomatosis and lethal midline granuloma have involved small numbers. This paper reviews these changes in 20 cases of Wegener's granulomatosis and 7 cases of lethal midline granuloma. Fifteen cases of Wegener's granulomatosis showed either negative or non-specific changes on plain sinus views. In the remaining 5 cases some evidence of bone destruction was seen. The range of changes was much greater in lethal midline granuloma. The radiographic changes varied from normal appearances (1 case) through generalized soft tissue opacity (3 cases), to massive destruction of the nasal bones and sinus walls (3 cases). The difference in radiological pattern in Wegener's and lethal midline granuloma would seem to be one of degree only.


Introduction: Teachers are often faced with incidences of young people who self-harm but can feel ill-equipped to offer support. The United Kingdom (UK) government state that all staff working in schools should be trained on how to deal with self-harm, yet a large proportion of teachers identify a lack of training as a barrier to supporting students. Barriers to receiving training are a lack of time and resource in schools. Aim: This study seeks to investigate whether a bespoke eLearning module, designed for UK secondary school teachers, helps to increase knowledge and confidence in supporting young people who self-harm. Method: Twenty-one schools across the West Midlands and South West of England were contacted via email and invited to complete a 30-minute web-based eLearning module on self-harm in schools. Participants were also invited to complete pre-and post-intervention measures and a follow-up questionnaire. The data was analysed using non-parametric statistics and the free-text comments using Thematic Content Analysis. Results: 173 teachers completed the eLearning and pre-and post-measures and 16 completed a follow-up questionnaire. The eLearning significantly enhanced participants' perceived knowledge, actual knowledge and confidence in talking to and supporting young people who self-harm. 90.7% of participants felt that eLearning was a good way to receive training. The following themes emerged from the qualitative data: Learning about self-harm is important; eLearning is convenient and accessible; eLearning is less engaging than other modes of training delivery; Training improved my confidence and understanding; The module could be enhanced with further detail and guidance; Wanting ongoing support.


Abstract Malaysia, with its rapidly growing economy, exemplifies the tensions between conservation and development faced by many tropical nations. Here we present the results of a multi-stakeholder engagement exercise conducted to (1) define conservation priorities in Peninsular Malaysia and (2) explore differences in perceptions among and within stakeholder groups (i.e. government, academia, NGOs and the private sector). Our data collection involved two workshops and two online surveys where participants identified seven general conservation themes and ranked the top five priority issues within each theme. The themes were: (1) policy and management, (2) legislation and enforcement, (3) finance and resource allocation, (4) knowledge, research and development, (5) socio-economic issues, (6) public awareness and participation and (7) rights of nature. In spite of their very different backgrounds and agendas, the four stakeholder groups showed general agreement in their priority preferences except for two issues. Respondents from government and private sector differed the most from each other in their priority choices while academia and NGO showed the highest degree of similarity. This ranked list of 35 conservation priorities is expected to influence the work of policy-makers and others in Peninsular Malaysia and can be used as a model to identify conservation priorities elsewhere.


${\mathrm{Ba}}_{4}{\mathrm{Ru}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{10}$, the quasi-one-dimensional spin-1 ($S$ = 1) compound, has rather intricate magnetic properties. The compound consists of structural Ru trimers, which together form the zig-zag chains where the Ru has two inequivalent crystallographic sites. While at high temperature both the inequivalent Ru ions stay in the $4+$ state with effective $S=$ 1 spin state, upon lowering the temperature, the magnetic moment of the central Ru atom is completely quenched accompanied by a change in the octahedral environment. This effectively gives rise to a bond-alternating chain and provides an opportunity to study the excitation of such a spin network in a real material. We have used microscopic tools such as neutron scattering and muon spin relaxation along with the density functional theory based calculations to address the spin state of the two inequivalent Ru ions in this material. From our neutron powder diffraction, on lowering of temperature, we find a large tetragonal distortion of the central ${\mathrm{RuO}}_{6}$ octahedra of the trimer. The splitting of the ${t}_{2g}$ level of the central Ru due to this distortion is found to be significant leading to the quenching of the moment underscoring the Hund's exchange. The nonmagnetic central Ru promotes a strong antiferromagnetic superexchange between the other two Ru ions in the trimer, which gives rise to a dimeric state. The presence of spin dimers is reflected by the manifestation of a gap in the spin excitation spectra. The spin-dimer formation in ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{4}{\mathrm{Ru}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{10}$ is at par with the effective model proposed by Affleck and Haldane for the $S$ = 1 bond alternating chains in the light of valence bond solid formalism. Eventually, at a lower temperature, a long-range ordered antiferromagnetic state emerges from the gapped dimer state due to the significant interdimer interactions.


Precipitation in most of the Amazon shows multi‐decadal fluctuations that were linked to oceanic forcing in the Atlantic. This modeling study shows that vegetation dynamics may play a major role in such low‐frequency variability in the Amazon. Despite the large amount of annual precipitation, the presence of a dry season (albeit short) facilitates a strong impact of dynamic vegetation on precipitation persistence in the model. The year‐to‐year variation of net primary productivity (NPP) is dominated by that of the dry season NPP. As a result, above‐normal (below‐normal) precipitation in a particular year can enhance (suppress) vegetation growth, leading to widespread increase (decrease) of vegetation density in the subsequent year. Precipitation in the subsequent year is therefore more likely to be above (below) normal. This damping effect of vegetation enhances low‐frequency variability of precipitation and leads to recurrent droughts or floods, a result previously considered characteristic of arid and semi‐arid regions.


The influence of the substitution pattern (unsymmetrical or symmetrical), the nature of the side chain (linear or branched), and the processing of several solution processable alkoxy‐substituted poly(p‐phenylene vinylene)s (PPVs) on the charge‐carrier mobility in organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) is investigated. We have found the highest mobilities in a class of symmetrically substituted PPVs with linear alkyl chains (e.g., R1, R2 = n‐C11H23, R3 = n‐C18H37). We have shown that the mobility of these PPVs can be improved significantly up to values of 10–2 cm2 V–1 s–1 by annealing at 110 °C. In addition, these devices display an excellent stability in air and dark conditions. No change in the electrical performance is observed, even after storage for thirty days in humid air.


Deep learning-based computer vision algorithms, especially image segmentation, have been successfully applied to pixel-level crack detection. The prediction accuracy relies heavily on detecting the performance of fine-grained cracks and removing crack-like noise. We propose a fast encoder-decoder network with scaling attention. We focus on a low-level feature map by minimizing encoder-decoder pairs and adopting an Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling (ASPP) layer to improve the detection accuracy of tiny cracks. Another challenge is the reduction in crack-like noise. This introduces a novel scaling attention, AG+, to suppress irrelevant regions. However, removing crack-like noise, such as grooving, is difficult by using only improved segmentation networks. In this study, a crack dataset is generated. It contains 11,226 sets of images and masks, which are effective for detecting detailed tiny cracks and removing non-semantic objects. Our model is evaluated on the generated dataset and compared with state-of-the-art segmentation networks. We use the mean Dice coefficient (mDice) and mean Intersection over union (mIoU) to compare the performance and FLOPs for computational complexity. The experimental results show that our model improves the detection accuracy of fine-grained cracks and reduces the computational cost dramatically. The mDice score of the proposed model is close to the best score, with only a 1.2% difference but two times fewer FLOPs.


Monoclonal anti-idiotypic antibodies, 6B11 and H12, were employed instead of the tumor antigen to induce a specific cellular immunity to ovarian carcinoma cell line SKOV3. 6B11 and 1H12 carring the internal image of ovarian carcinoma antigen. BALB/c mice were immunized with 6B11 or 1H12 and then the mouse foot pad was attacked by the injection of target cell SKOV3 to stimulate a specific delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH). The results showed that 6B11 induced a severe foot pad swelling (Mean thickness 0.93mm) as seen in the positive control (P > 0.05) induced by ovarian carcinoma antigen; the 1H12 induced swelling was significantly lower than the positive control (P < 0.05). Both 6B11 and 1H12 expressed the effective responses only to SKOV3, but not to the unrelated target cells. Pathological examinations found that there was marked infiltration of inflammatory cells in foot pad of mice primed by 6B11, while by 1H12, only induced a narrow pathological changes. These observations indicated that there would be some essential differences between 6B11 and 1H12 in the behavior of inducing the specific DTH to SKOK3. And as an idiotypic vaccine, 6B11 would be more powerful against ovarian carcinoma.


Utilizing Hegelian thought, this essay considers the implications of conceptually compartmentalizing the public and private life of individuals. Inspired by relational concepts of personhood in feminist philosophy and the Private is Political movement, I revisit Hegel's understandings of personhood and the State in the Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Using Hegel's syllogistic framework, I call attention to the arbitrary division between the private and public life that is maintained in standard models of citizenship. Through the Citizenship Problem and Yeatman's Formulation, I extract three characteristics of an ideal model of citizenship. Through further implementation of Hegel's syllogistic structure, I argue that personhood and citizenship are structurally symmetric; therefore, these spheres of social life can be successfully integrated into a coherent concept of selfhood. I synthesize these notions into a syllogism of self-as-citizen, thereby developing a coherent notion of personhood that acknowledges the integration of all spheres of social life.
Faculty Mentor: Aron Edidin


—Increasing development in information and communication technology leads to the generation of large amount of data from various sources. These collected data from multiple sources grows exponentially and may not be structurally uniform. In general, these are heterogeneous and distributed in multiple databases. Because of large volume, high velocity and variety of data mining knowledge in this environment becomes a big data challenge. Distributed Association Rule Mining(DARM) in these circumstances becomes a tedious task for an effective global Decision Support System(DSS). The DARM algorithms generate a large number of association rules and frequent itemset in the big data environment. In this situation synthesizing high-frequency rules from the big database becomes more challenging. Many algorithms for synthesizing association rule have been proposed in multiple database mining environments. These are facing enormous challenges in terms of high availability, scalability, efficiency, high cost for the storage and processing of large intermediate results and multiple redundant rules. In this paper, we have proposed a model to collect data from multiple sources into a big data storage framework based on HDFS. Secondly, a weighted multi-partitioned method for synthesizing high-frequency rules using MapReduce programming paradigm has been proposed. Experiments have been conducted in a parallel and distributed environment by using commodity hardware. We ensure the efficiency, scalability, high availability and cost-effectiveness of our proposed method.


Macular edema (ME) is a nonspecific sign of numerous retinal vascular diseases. This paper is an updated overview about the role of inflammatory processes in the genesis of both diabetic macular edema (DME) and ME secondary to retinal vein occlusion (RVO). We focus on the inflammatory mediators implicated, the effect of the different intravitreal therapies, the recruitment of leukocytes mediated by adhesion molecules, and the role of retinal Müller glial (RMG) cells.


The purpose of this study is to find empirical evidence about the effect of market orientation variables, human resource competencies, and learning organizations of SMES business in Depok City on SMES innovation. This research was conducted on 100 respondents from SMES business in Depok. This research uses quantitative approach and data processing using SPSS. The results of this study indicate a significant influence of market orientation, human resource competence, and learning organizations on the innovation of SMES. These three variables simultaneously affect the innovation of SMES in Depok City. The competence of Human Resources and Learning Organization are more influencing SMES business to innovate their products compared to market orientation variable.


Recent studies have shown that the Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 1 ( FGFR1 ) gene locus is amplified in approximately 10% of human breast tumors. Breast cancer patients with an FGFR1 amplification have significantly shorter overall survival potentially due to their increased risk of distant metastasis. Using an inducible FGFR1 system (iFGFR1), we have been working to identify the mechanisms involved in FGFR-induced tumorigenesis. Published studies have shown increased survival and proliferation of cells containing the activated iFGFR1. Examining both mouse and human FGF-responsive cell lines, we found that FGFR activation leads to a decrease in apoptosis, both basally and after treatment with chemotherapy agents. Further studies indicated that activation of FGFR signaling leads to indirect activation of the transcription factor signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) both in vitro and in vivo. STAT3 is commonly activated as a result of IL-6 family member signaling. In our in vitro system, iFGFR1 activation leads to production of cytokines such as LIF and IL-6, which in turn signal in an autocrine fashion to activate the STAT3 pathway. Inhibition of FGFR activity in vivo using the small molecule inhibitor PD173034 in combination with the chemotherapeutic doxorubicin resulted in significant reduction of mouse tumor burden. These results provide evidence for the involvement of FGF receptors in the induction of chemoresistance and the potential benefit of combination therapy. Future studies will pursue the mechanism which drives the resistance to drug-induced apoptosis. Citation Format: Pavlina Chuntova, Laura Bohrer, Lindsey Bade, Kathryn Schwertfeger. Activation of FGFR1 signaling in mammary tumors leads to STAT3 activation and chemoresistance. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Tumor Invasion and Metastasis; Jan 20-23, 2013; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(3 Suppl):Abstract nr A37.


Chronic disease caused by the protozoan parasite Leishmania mexicana, requires IL-10 and the common γ chain (FcRγ) shared by the activating IgG receptors FcγRI, III, and IV and by FcαR and FcεR. FcRγ can also take the place of CD3ζ in some T cells. Which pathway is responsible for IL-10 production and suppression of a protective immune response is unknown. We recently showed that FcγRIII KO mice, like IL-10 and FcRγ KO mice, resolve L. mexicana lesions with a stronger Th1 response and much lower parasite burdens (by 4–5 logs) than WT mice. We now show that FcγRIII KO macrophages have a severe IL-10 defect, when induced by IgG-opsonized parasites, and that this defect is comparable to FcRγ KO macrophages. Thus FcγRIII appears to contribute most of the IgG-induced IL-10, supporting the in vivo findings. We also found that anti-Leishmania IgG responses (IgG1 and IgG2a) were not altered in FcγRIII KO mice compared to WT mice, consistent with the model that parasite-bound IgG alters T cell development and thus may determine the strength of the Th1 response rather than the reverse. Furthermore, depletion of CD25+ T cells did not change the chronic nature of L. mexicana lesions, nor was T cell IL-10 production from FcγRIII KO mice lower than from B6 mice. When taken together these findings support a model in which macrophage FcγRIII, rather than Treg cells, provides the IL-10 that suppresses a protective immune response to L. mexicana.


Abstract : To most Americans, the emergence of Communist China on the world scene was almost as unpredicted and dramatic as its first nuclear detonation on 16 October 1964. Each time that Peking was heard from it was in the context of belligerency and militancy. The vast numbers of Chinese soldiers who were sent against United Nations Forces in Korea in 1950 reinforced the thought that Communist China was an aggressive, militant nation. The subsequent conduct of Peking's representatives at the Korean truce conferences appeared to confirm the popular conception of China as a militant nation. That this apparently underdeveloped country could successfully conduct a nuclear test was a cause for concern by all nations of the world. The accomplishment of a second nuclear test detonation only 7 months after the first one and the use of uranium 235 in both devices were clear indications of the extent of China's technological development. Considering these accomplishments, it seems appropriate to investigate how this power factor might be employed by China to achieve her national objectives. Investigation indicates that China's nuclear development has been given a high priority. This desire to achieve nuclear power status brings conflict of interest to the fore. This conflict evolves when the United States, a major nuclear power, is ready and willing to oppose overt aggressive Chinese actions. This opposition by the United States leads Peking into a risk assessment in consideration of pursuing her national objectives. This thesis concludes that the People's Republic of China will not, in the foreseeable future, take actions in pursuit of a direct military confrontation with the United States. China will continue to pursue her objectives by proxy methods. Peking's strategy as a nuclear power will be held in check as long as the United States maintains the ability and determination to prevent overt use of Chinese military power.


Chronic glomerulonephritis (CGN) is responsible for 105 (1.16%) of all 9015 necropcies in a multi-specialized hospital but it occupies the third place after chronic pyelonephritis and diabetic glomerulosclerosis 9.20 per cent. In 91.4 per cent of the deceased of CGN arterial hypertension (AH) had been concomitant, with an average duration, according to anamnestic data, 6.28 years with a mainly light and moderate hypertrophy of left ventricle. Those that died of CGN without AH lived 9.20 years, on the average, wore than those with hypertension. In about 30 per cent of CGN with AH, the hypertension contributed to the lethal end prior to the terminal uremia--from cardiac insufficiency--25 per cent and cerebrovascular stroke 4.16 per cent. The significantly poorer atherogenesis in aorta and coronary and cerebral arteries is worth mentioning in case of CGN with hypertension as compared with the essential hypertension. (The deceased examined were not dialyzed). That atherogenesis is even poorer than hypertension of chronic pyelonephritis.


OBJECTIVE
To probe the clinical possibility of making incorporated keeper cap by high temperature casting.

METHODS
The incorporated keepers were equally divided into two groups, and cast by applying medium and high temperatures respectively. The two groups were compared with the following items: the morphological changes and thickness of keeper's oxide film, the combining quality between keeper and alloy, and the magnetic retention force.

RESULTS
The two different casting temperatures had the similar influence on the keeper's properties, such as the keeper's metallographical view, magnetic force (medium temperature casting group: 433.6 g; high temperature casting group: 433.8 g), and combining quality with alloy, except for the morphology and thickness of the keeper's oxide film. The oxide films of the high temperature casting group (surface: 7.59 microns combining surface of keeper and alloy: 6.17 microns) were thicker than those of the medium temperature casting group (surface: 4.65 microns; combining surface of keeper and alloy: 3.95 microns).

CONCLUSIONS
The incorporated keeper could be made by using high temperature casting method instead of medium temperature one in clinic.


Special purpose accelerators are being used widely in most embedded and server processors to gain orders of magnitude gains in terms of efficiency as well as performance. Currently most accelerators are used such that a single application gets exclusive access to the accelerator at a time. This can cause the accelerator to become unfair to small jobs since they can be waiting for a longer job to complete. However granting exclusive access ensures that a single job operates at the maximum throughput possible since there are no overheads for context switching. In this work, we propose a hardware framework to enable an accelerator to process multiple jobs simultaneously and compare it to a software based multithreading approach. We show that this achieves much throughput similar to no threading while maintaining fairness levels as fine grained switching. It is able to do so by decreasing the switching overhead by 150x.


This study aimed to evaluate the anti-proteinuric effect of a very-low-protein diet supplemented with essential amino acids and keto analogs in patients with moderate to advanced chronic kidney disease and proteinuria already treated with both ACE inhibitors and angiotensin-receptor blockers. The study was a prospective randomized controlled cross-over trial comparing a very-low-protein diet (VLpD) and a low-protein diet (LpD). We enrolled 32 consecutive patients between June 2000 and June 2005. They were randomized to receive a VpLD (group A) or an LpD (group B) for 6 months; thereafter, patients of both groups were switched to the other diet (group A to LpD; group B to VpLD) for a further 6 months. Finally, all patients were randomized again within each group to receive either LpD or VLpD and were followed for another year. The VLpD group showed a significant reduction of urinary protein excretion during the diet period, with a nadir at the fourth month of treatment; the amount of urinary protein reduction was about 58%. Serum advanced glycation end products (AGE) significantly decreased in 10 patients (5 of group A, 5 of group B; -18% and -19%, respectively) during VLpD. Univariate analysis showed that proteinuria correlated indirectly with VpLD and directly with AGE. This study demonstrates that in patients with moderate to advanced chronic kidney disease and severe proteinuria, a VLpD reduces both proteinuria and serum AGE, even in the presence of complete inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system.


Illustration shows a vignette cartoon with each scene titled "According to Scripture" followed by a quote from the bible; at the bottom of each scene is the title "As Practiced" which is followed by a statement or a list that is contrary to scripture; for example: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth" showing a man standing in a parlor holding the Bible in one hand and a list of treasures labeled "Laid Up for a Rainy Day" which includes "Bonds, Mortgages, Interest, Jewels, Stocks, Real Estate, Automobiles, Horses, Yachts, Clothes, Houses, [and] Land", also, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" which shows a man reading a letter and saying, "Aha, we've got Small, Green and Co. where we want 'em at last, and now, by thunder, we'll put the screws on 'em!"
Title from item.
Illus. in: Puck, v. 69, no. 1776 (1911 March 15), centerfold.
Copyright 1911 by Keppler & Schwarzmann.


l The number one health priority identified by the U.S. Congress in the Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974 is "the provision of primary care services for medically underserved populations, especially those that are located in rural or economically depressed areas." l The United States Public Health Service established what it called the Rural Health Initiative in 1975 and the Urban Health Initiative in 1976. Both are efforts to expand the country-wide system of community-based clinics that provide primary care services to areas experiencing serious health care problems. l Many other nations of the Americas, including Mexico, are quite concerned about providing health services to people living in rural areas and to the urban poor. l The Pan American Health Organization's United States-Mexico Border Health Association held a workshop on primary


Progression from a treatment-sensitive to a treatment-resistant tumor state is a virtually universal phenomenon in patients with small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC). In such individuals, this tumor progression may involve transitions from a SCLC to a non-SCLC lung cancer phenotype. We are investigating the cell and molecular biology aspects of these transitions and have derived a cell culture model of one such change, oncogene-induced transition of SCLC to the large-cell undifferentiated lung cancer phenotype. Here we discuss the potential implication of this model for understanding the cell lineage and molecular events regulating normal bronchial epithelial cell differentiation and their relationships to the histogenesis and behavior of lung cancers.


The paper discusses the contribution to energy efficiency by reducing the dimensions of the main switchboard (medium voltage or High Voltage – used on ship). Reducing the dimensions of the switchboards can be achieved by reducing the dimensions of the bus bars, while fully satisfying the conditions with regard to thermal and mechanical stresses. The same can be achieved by modifying some other components, such as the application of new technology for measuring current and voltage, using current and voltage sensors that fall into the category of completely new technological solutions. By replacing conventional measuring transformers (IT), compact and efficient sensor technology significantly contributes to reducing the dimensions and mass of switchboards, which ultimately contributes to energy efficiency. Previous applications, the possibility of improving existing solutions, especially in applications in marine power systems, and new technological solutions that contribute to the efficiency of the marine power system using the Rogowski coil sensor and voltage divider voltage sensors are also considered.


From 2 to 28% opal-cristobalite was isolated from the 2–20 µm fraction of rhyolitic and andesitic tuffaceous pyroclastics from the Island of Honshu, Japan, where it had been formed in hydrothermal springs at temperatures of ∼25–170°C as calculated from the oxygen isotopic ratios (18O/16O). Three of the isolates gave X-ray powder diffractograms with strong peaks at 4.07 Å. Two of these also had very weak peaks at 4.32 Å indicative of the presence of traces of tridymite. The fourth isolate had a strong 4.11 Å cristobalite peak and a very weak 4.32 Å peak. The morphology, determined by the scanning electron microscope, varied with the formation temperature indicated by the oxygen isotopic ratio (δ18O), from spheroidal and spongy for the opal-cristobalite formed at t}25°C (δ18O = 26.0‰) in contrast to angular irregular plates and prisms for that formed at ∼115°C (11.9‰), ∼135°C (7.9 ‰) and ∼170°C (6.8 ‰). The differences in δ18O values are attributed to variation in hydrothermal temperature, but some variability in oxygen isotopic composition of the water is possible. The field-measured temperatures related roughly with the calculated fractionation temperatures except in one site, while the contrast in cristobalite morphology related well to calculated low and high fractionation temperatures. Low-cristobalite of hydrothermal origin in New Zealand (δ18O = 9‰) had characteristic rounded grains with some evidence of platiness. Co-existing quartz grains (δ18O = 10‰) showed more subhedral and irregular prismatic morphology.


It was June 1940. The Second World War was already raging in full swing in its devastation. A young man not yet 20 set out on a 500-mile train journey from the coastal city of Vishakapatnam, India, to Calcutta, the second largest city of the British Empire, after obtaining a first-class first degree in mathematics and with a glimmer of hope of finding a job in the military. The young man was not so lucky; he was deemed too young for the job. However, while in Calcutta, through a chance encounter, he visited the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) founded in 1931 by Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, a Cambridge-trained physicist. As a last resort he applied for a one-year training program in statistics there. Very promptly he received a positive reply from Professor Mahalanobis admitting him to the Training Section of the ISI from January 1, 1941. This young man was none other than perhaps the most well known statistician in the world today, Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao (or simply Dr. Rao, as he was universally known to his students and colleagues at the ISI. The "professor" title was reserved for Mahalanobis). Such was the beginning of his spectacular career in statistics, a field chosen as a last resort, and he never looked back.


Discusses a recent amendment in Nigerian universities' law that changed the appointments of university librarians, registrars and bursars from tenured to non‐tenured. Appointments to these posts which were formerly until retirement at 65 are now for a fixed period of five years in the first instance, renewable for another term of five years at the pleasure of the governing councils and no longer. The background to this development is given and its implications for leadership motivation, continuity of policy, issues of orderly succession and the fate of the former incumbents are explored. It concludes that in the present Nigerian context, the merit of the new order far out‐weighs its demerits in terms of the much desired attainment of full academic status for librarians and leadership motivation. However, care has to be taken to ensure the future of the former incumbents within the organisations if they are to perform selflessly during their limited tenure.


The purpose of a lining is to provide the comfort of the wearer, preserve the shape of the sportswear, conceal construction details and raw edges of fabric, thus giving a neat appearance to the inside of the sportswear. Development in sportswear lining fabrics has been progressing to perform high functions and to achieve comfort. The contributing factors for developing active sportswear lining fabrics are: fiber material, fabric structure, production techniques, lamination and finishing techniques to obtain sophisticated fiber, modified structure of yarns and fabrics. In this paper, the performance properties and various factors affecting it are discussed for sportswear lining fabrics using different constructions. (R.A.M. Abd El-Hady, R.A.A. Abd El-Baky. Performance Characteristics Of Warp Knitted Lining Fabrics Used For Sportswear. Life Sci J 2015;12(3):98-104). (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 13


Emerging infectious diseases of wildlife are of increasing concern to managers and conservation policy makers, but are often difficult to study and predict due to the complexity of host-disease systems and a paucity of empirical data. We demonstrate the use of an Approximate Bayesian Computation statistical framework to reconstruct the disease dynamics of bovine tuberculosis in Kruger National Park's lion population, despite limited empirical data on the disease's effects in lions. The modeling results suggest that, while a large proportion of the lion population will become infected with bovine tuberculosis, lions are a spillover host and long disease latency is common. In the absence of future aggravating factors, bovine tuberculosis is projected to cause a lion population decline of ~3% over the next 50 years, with the population stabilizing at this new equilibrium. The Approximate Bayesian Computation framework is a new tool for wildlife managers. It allows emerging infectious diseases to be modeled in complex systems by incorporating disparate knowledge about host demographics, behavior, and heterogeneous disease transmission, while allowing inference of unknown system parameters.


Basal Narcosis in Anaesthesia SIR,-In the most interesting paper by Dr. H. W. Featherstone in the Journal of February 24th (p. 322) there is an unfortunate printer's error in the figures of avertin administrations conducted by myself. I am stated to have given avertin in more than 12,000 cases, whereas the number which appeared in my letter to Dr. Featherstone was 1,240. The same issue (p. 327) contains " A Warning Regarding Basal Narcotics," by Mr. R. J. McNeill Love, and in support of it he quotes a fatal case following the administration of avertin, which, in the summing up, he attributes to this drug, although in his introductory remarks he states that narcotics were " indubitably a contributory cause." There seems to be every reason for accepting the latteL explanation, for the patient had received morphine grain 1 / 4 and hyoscine grain 1/100, the depressing effect of which on respiration must have been profound. I have drawn attention elsewhere (Clinical Journal, March 18th, 1931) to the all-important action of morphine in intensifying the action of avertin, and would wish to support Mr. McNeill Love's warning.-I am, etc.,


Gertrude Blanch can be viewed as either the last and most important leader of human computers or one of the first numerical analysts for electronic computers. From 1938 to 1948, she was the technical director of the Mathematical Tables Project, the largest and most sophisticated of the human computing groups. During that period, she organized the literature of computing and numerical analysis. After the Mathematical Tables Project became the Computation Laboratory of the National Bureau of Standards, Blanch went on to develop numerical analysis for the early computers, working first for the Institute for Numerical Analysis, next for the Computer Division of Consolidated Engineering (later ElectroData), and finally for the Air Force's Aeronautical Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.


Until the present time, active phased array antennas have utilized individually packaged transmit/receive (T/R) modules which provide both transmitter and receiver functions on /spl lambda//2 wavelength centers. Such modules usually contain five to seven individual GaAs circuits which provide the following functions: transmit amplifier; phase shifter; variable attenuator; T/R switch; and low noise amplifier. This paper describes some recent efforts to eliminate the fabrication of individual modules and to incorporate other functions to multiply fabricated T/R cell paths including: circulator; radiating element; and signal manifolding. Efforts to date have centered on the 2-20 GHz portion of the spectrum and at Ka-band. An experimental test of a 16-element subarray is discussed. >


In this Paper it is argued that, if two products or geographic areas belong in the same market, their relative price must be stationary. Hence stationarity tests like the ADF and the KPSS can be helpful in delineating the relevant market for Antitrust purposes, particularly for abuses of dominant positions and agreements between competitors. The proposed procedure is closely related with cointegration analysis but has more general validity. An application to the Italian milk market illustrates the technique.


How do neural network image classifiers respond to simpler and simpler inputs? And what do such responses reveal about the learning process? To answer these questions, we need a clear measure of input simplicity (or inversely, complexity), an optimization objective that correlates with simplification, and a framework to incorporate such objective into training and inference. Lastly we need a variety of testbeds to experiment and evaluate the impact of such simplification on learning. In this work, we measure simplicity with the encoding bit size given by a pretrained generative model, and minimize the bit size to simplify inputs in training and inference. We investigate the effect of such simplification in several scenarios: conventional training, dataset condensation and post-hoc explanations. In all settings, inputs are simplified along with the original classification task, and we investigate the trade-off between input simplicity and task performance. For images with injected distractors, such simplification naturally removes superfluous information. For dataset condensation, we find that inputs can be simplified with almost no accuracy degradation. When used in post-hoc explanation, our learning-based simplification approach offers a valuable new tool to explore the basis of network decisions.


Purpose To compare the cardiovascular risk of antidepressant users, cumulatively and by class, to nonantidepressant users in a representative sample of the U.S. elderly population. Methods A historical pooled cohort study of all elderly non-HMO community dwelling Medicare beneficiaries represented in the 1998–1999 and 2000–2001 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey to assess the incidence of AMI (ICD-9: 410 or 411). Antidepressant users were defined by at least one antidepressant drug mention in the year prior to the year of observation for AMI. Class users were defined as unique users of the corresponding class (SSRI, cyclic, other) according to 2005 U.S. Pharmacopeia therapeutic categories and individuals who switched drug classes at any time during the study were defined as combination users. Logistic regression models were used to compare odds of experiencing an AMI. Covariates included age, sex, race, poverty status, cardiovascular drug therapy, anticoagulant medication therapy, smoking history and current status, poverty status, and the DCG/HCC to adjust for severity, which includes 189 conditions, including depression and related disorders that are treated with antidepressants. Results Antidepressant users numbered 1,905 (584 SSRI users, 388 cyclic users, 111 other users, and 822 combination users). Nonantidepressant users numbered 8,892. The incidence of AMI was 2.1% in the sample, 1.9% in nonantidepressant users, 3% in all antidepressant users, 3.4% in all SSRI users, 2.1% in cyclic users, 1.8% in all other users, and 3.4% in combination users. Logistic models revealed that antidepressant users (OR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.02–2.08) and SSRI users (OR = 1.86, 95% CI: 1.07–3.22) were found to have significantly greater odds of AMI compared to nonantidepressant users. Conclusion Study findings conflict with previous studies, which have found SSRIs to be AMI protective. Study limitations include its restriction to the Medicare population and the 1-year maximum observation period.


This study aims to investigate the effect of market share and total RMS imports by Thailand's RMS partner importers by employing simultaneous equations with panel data. The data consist of 10 Thailand rubber smoked sheet (RMS) partner countries between 2008 and 2017 and are estimated by using the three stage least square technique. It was found that market share has more effect on the RMS partner imports from Thailand than the partner's market expansion while the exchange rate had a strong negative effect on market share in the partner country. As a consequence, policymakers should prioritize the formulation of suitable and effective international fiscal policy and its implementation to better allocate the benefits from trade.


Background: To assess the feasibility of radiomics based on precontrast MRI for the distinguish of s-HCC and pre-HCC.Method: We retrospectively analyzed 146 nodules from 78 patients, with pathological confirmed. Each nodule was segment on precontrast MRI sequence(TIWI and fat-suppression T2WI), retrospectively. 1223radiomics features were extracted and the optimal 10 features were selected by LASSO to establish the logistic regression radiomics model. Result: The AUC, sensitivity and specificity of the training group and test group were 0.757 (95% CI 0.638 -0.853), 83.02% , 66.67% and 0.789 (95% CI 0.643-0.895), 88.89% and 80.00%, respectively. The AUC, sensitivity and specificity of the training group and test group were 0.903 (95% CI 0.807-0.962), 86.79% , 86.67% and 0.778 (95% CI 0.632-0.887), 75.00%, 80.00%, respectively. Delong test has proved that, the diagnositic performances of radiomics model based on T2WI were higher than that of radiomics model based on T1WI (p = 0.0379).Conclusion: Radiomics model can classify s-HCC and pre-HCC based on precontrast MRI. And may serve as an adjunct tool for accurate diagnosis of s-HCC.


Abstract Seedling recruitment is a bottleneck for population dynamics and range shift. The vital rates linked to recruitment by seed are impacted by amplified drought induced by climate change. In the Mediterranean region, autumn and winter seedling emergence and mortality may have strong impact on the overall seedling recruitment. However, studies focusing on the temporal dynamic of recruitment during these seasons are rare. This study was performed in a deciduous Mediterranean oak forest located in southern France and quantifies the impact of amplified drought conditions on autumn and winter seedling emergence and seedling mortality rates of two herbaceous plant species with meso‐Mediterranean and supra‐Mediterranean distribution (respectively, Silene italica and Silene nutans). Seedlings were followed from October 2019 to May 2020 in both undisturbed and disturbed plots where the litter and the aboveground biomass have been removed to create open microsites. Amplified drought conditions reduced seedling emergence and increased seedling mortality for both Silene species but these negative effects were dependent on soil disturbance conditions. Emergence of S. italica decreased only in undisturbed plots (−7%) whereas emergence of S. nutans decreased only in disturbed plots (−10%) under amplified drought conditions. The seedling mortality rate of S. italica was 51% higher under amplified drought conditions in undisturbed plots while that of S. nutans was 38% higher in disturbed plots. Aridification due to lower precipitation in the Mediterranean region will negatively impact the seedling recruitment of these two Silene species. Climate change effects on early vital rates may likely have major negative impacts on the overall population dynamic.


1. In the presence of thyroxine in concentrations of 1/45,000 to 1/75,000 the initial rate of oxygen consumption of the spermatozoa of Echinus miliaris is the same as in sea-water without the drug, but this rate of oxygen consumption is prolonged for a longer time in the presence of the drug. The rate of oxygen consumption in the presence of the drug falls after this period, and at the end of 2-4 hours is approximately equal to that in clean sea-water. 2. In a concentration of 1/30,000 the drug is toxic, and of 1/100,000 the effect is incomplete. 3. These effects are parallel to, and apparently of the same nature as, the effects of secretions of the eggs of the same species upon the oxygen consumption; but the effects of the egg secretions are much greater in extent. 4. The suggestion is made that the egg secretions contain, in addition to their other known constituents, either a body of which the physiological effect is similar to that of thyroxine, and which is perhaps similar to it in chemical structure, or some constituent from which such a body is built, when it is absorbed by the spermatozoon. 5. In its action upon the spermatozoon the effect of thyroxine is to remove or reduce the cause of the decreasing activity of the spermatozoon in sea-water (as revealed by its oxygen consumption). This effect is immediate and may take place at any period during the life of the spermatozoon at which its oxygen consumption in the presence of thyroxine is greater than that in sea-water.


INTRODUCTION
Lung cancer continues to have a poor prognosis despite some therapeutic advances.

BACKGROUND
The last fifteen years has seen a dramatic increase in the incidence of lung cancer in women and an increased proportion of adenocarcinomas in both sexes. A study of overall survival as a function of gender and other prognostic factors has been established using the cohort of patients from the study KBP-2000-CPHG.

METHODS
KBP-2000-CPHG is an epidemiological study carried out throughout the year 2000 looking at histologically confirmed primary lung cancers managed in general hospitals. 5,667 patients have been included. The study of survival looks at 2 and 5-year outcomes. The date and cause of death are recorded for each patient. In the absence of these data the date of the last contact is noted. If this is less than 4 months the patient is considered to be alive. If more than four months have elapsed a graduated strategy for establishing vital status is pursued which involves reviewing records from various different sources. RESULTS AWAITED: A preliminary review of the data was undertaken between September 2004 and March 2005 which obtained data on 5 567 patients. The analysis of survival according to sex and other forecast prognostic factors is underway.


BACKGROUND
The Gram-negative facultatively anaerobic coccobacillus Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans is the major pathogen in localized juvenile periodontitis (LJP) and some forms of adult periodontitis (AP). A. actinomycetemcomitans can be grouped into 5 serotypes (a through e) based on differences in the carbohydrate moiety of cell surface lipopolysaccharide. The A. actinomycetemcomitans population is genetically heterogeneous. Since the studies on A. actinomycetemcomitans colonization have mostly applied only culture techniques, the clonality of the follow-up isolates has not been established. Thus, it is possible that, although A. actinomycetemcomitans could be repeatedly isolated from an individual, the initial colonizing strain was replaced by another strain. The aim of the study was to determine whether oral A. actinomycetemcomitans strains change spontaneously over time or after periodontal treatment.

METHODS
A total of 922 A. actinomycetemcomitans isolates were recovered from 115 subjects. From each subject A. actinomycetemcomitans isolates were obtained from 2 to 9 follow-up samples 0.5 to 11.5 years apart. After the first sampling occasion, 99 subjects were treated for either LJP or AP, whereas the 16 non-periodontitis subjects received no treatment. All A. actinomycetemcomitans isolates were serotyped and 235 isolates from 52 subjects genotyped with AP-PCR and/or with ribotyping.

RESULTS
Isolates of only one serotype, or non-serotypeable isolates alone, were repeatedly found in 104 subjects; serotype a occurred in 25%, b in 33%, c in 23%, d in 5%, e in 7%, and non-serotypeable isolates in 8% of these subjects. Two serotypes (or serotypeable isolates together with non-serotypeable isolates) occurred simultaneously in 9 subjects and in each of these subjects at least one of the serotypes was detected at each sampling occasion. In one subject the initial serotype reappeared although a different serotype was once seen alone, whereas in another subject the initial serotype could not be recovered later. Identical genotypes of A. actinomycetemcomitans were repeatedly detected in each of 52 subjects with follow-up isolates of the same serotype.

CONCLUSIONS
The results showed that spontaneous or treatment-induced change in the oral A. actinomycetemcomitans strain(s) is extremely rare and that colonization with the same strain(s) seems to be remarkably persistent.


Comparative Constitutional Law (CCL) has known a renaissance in the last decades. Nonetheless, it is still haunted by the apprehension of amounting to an abundant collection of valuable materials illustrating constitutional enterprises without an established and uncontroversial methodology. Should political science come to rescue the legal doctrine when it cannot grasp the variables influencing constitutional dynamics? What intellectual understanding should CCL serve? Does CCL shift from the treatment of specific topics to general themes? In my experience, both methodologies and main stream interests in CCL are critically tested in an English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI)-teaching environment: that is the reason why EMI-taught CCL courses may turn into useful opportunities to scrutinize the canon we have been developing. In this Article, I will try to offer a few examples of how the EMI-teaching of CCL may contribute to identify a methodological guidance and a latitude of investigation.


Entrepreneurs are known for opportunity seeking behavior, for constant adaptation in response to contingencies, and for shaping new markets. Yet entrepreneurs are often asked to prepare business plans – a common forecasting exercise that implies a predictable future. This two opposing views have intellectual roots in Strategy, where some see company strategy as either emergent or planned. We show that entrepreneurs solve this apparent contradiction by embedding in their business plans elements of forecasting as well as inklings of emergence. Drawing in a unique dataset of business plan, we conclude that there are multiple entrepreneurial strategies. Introduction Entrepreneurial strategy differs from other types of strategy in that it involves a more fundamental and thorough change of the organization (Murray, 1984). Mintzberg also sees the entrepreneurial firm as more appreciative of new opportunities and less concerned with planned strategies (Mintzberg & Waters, 1985). The entrepreneur is therefore "relatively deliberate" showing a preference for an emergent rather than a planned process. However, in entrepreneurship research, the entrepreneur is often seen as a keen observer and superior predictor, a rational actor who anticipates future market shifts relying on past information and forecasting. This planned approach adopted from a classical view of corporate strategy is responsible for the widespread use of business planning as a first contact with entrepreneurial firms. We combine these competing views arguing that planned and emergent strategies may actually be complementary. This means that entrepreneurs can, at the same point in time, rely simultaneously on planned and emergent strategies. The empirical setting for this piece of research is the Business Plan Archive (http://www. businessplanarchive.org), a database containing approximately 3000 companies. We focused on complete business plans as source of initial strategic intentions. While it may be impossible to observe a whole spectrum of strategy types, our ongoing research in this field shows that business plans do contain elements of both planned and emergent strategies (Kraaijenbrink, Ratinho, & Groen, 2011; Kraaijenbrink & Ratinho, 2012). 1 Ratinho et al.: TOWARDS A TAXONOMY OF ENTREPRENEURIAL STRATEGIES Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 2014


The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) has been successfully launched in January 2006 and since October 2006 is regularly operating. With its three sensors it is providing radar and optical images of the earth surface for mapping, precise regional land coverage observation, disaster monitoring, and resource surveying. This work is focused on the capabilities offered by the radar L-band sensor PALSAR, in particular in the field of Interferometry and Differential Interferometry for ground deformation monitoring (i.e. volcanoes, seismic deformations, landslides and subsidence). After an introduction, we describe the algorithms that we developed to convert the operational Level-1 products to zero-Doppler coordinates and to interpolate the orbits in order to achieve the full geometric accuracy. Then, several example interferograms of different test sites are provided. The coherence is analyzed and compared with theoretical models of decorrelation and to results from sensors operating in different wavelengths like ERS Envisat (C-band) and TerraSAR-X (X-band).


In this paper four energy scenarios for Westy-European passenger transport are developed. To start with, the present transport system as a base-line case is described and analysed. Next, for each scenario we sketch how the passenger transport system may look like in terms of the use of various existing and future transport technologies and the corresponding model split. Based on this information, expected energy consumption features of the various transport modes are described, data on the present fuel supply and electricity generation system are offered, and estimations of the future energy system are given. Then, the energy consumption and CO2 emissions associated with the future passenger transport systems are stressed and these impacts are compared with the current system. The conclusion is that a large-scale reduction of CO2 emissions is possible in several ways. Each way will cause many problems, since drastic policy measures will have to be introduced, which may affect economic growth and the lifestyles of individuals.


Two hundred and fifteen measurements of free (ionic) and total calcium were performed on sera from 184 patients in whom some disturbance in calcium metabolism was suspected. The correlation Coefficient between free and total calcium was 0.94, but a scattergram indicated that free calcium concentration cannot be predicted from knowledge of total calcium concentration. In "normal" individuals the correlation coefficient was only 0.45. Homeostasis of free and total calcium was examined by making periodic measurements in seven normal individuals over a period of eight months; the variability around the individual's mean value was 1.2% for free calcium and 1.9% for total calcium. Free calcium, as properly measured by the ion-specific electrode, is a better measure of calcium status than is total calcium in the disease states studied, which were mostly hyperparathyroidism, multiple myeloma, and renal failure.


In order to fabricate microcapillary electrophoresis (µ-CE) chips, high-rate quartz etching with high selectivity over the mask was studied using both C4F8/Ar and C4F8/SF6 high-density plasmas with Cr hard masks. Vertical quartz etching with high etch rate selectivity against the mask was attained using an 85%C4F8/15%SF6 inductively coupled plasma, where the quartz etch rate was 530 nm/min and the etch rate selectivity against the mask measured at the Cr top surface and the facet were 80 and 27, respectively. Deep quartz etching technology has been demonstrated by fabricating vertical trench features with 50 µm depth and 20 µm width, i.e., the aspect ratio of 2.5, which cannot be attained by means of the wet chemical etching technology conventionally used. Subsequently, fundamental performances of µ-CE chips fabricated using plasma etching were examined and compared with those fabricated by conventional wet etching. No significant difference was found in the separation performances between dry-etched and wet-etched chips, while the rectangular cross-sectional feature with high aspect ratio, which has become attainable for the first time by deep plasma etching technology, has been shown to be the most suitable for the optical absorption detection commonly used in capillary electrophoresis and liquid chromatography and for the image observation necessary for particle and/or cell electrophoresis. Furthermore, the advantage of pattern transfer with high resolution and high fidelity has been demonstrated by fabricating functional microstructures such as a slit or a filter within a capillary.


We present evidence that birds pollinate many native plants. Honeyeaters persistently and often visit flowers and regularly cany pollen. When they probe another flower some pollen is deposited on the stigma, thus effecting pollination. Floral structure or the arrangement of inflorescences ensures that birds probing flowers will regularly brush the anthers and stigmas. The pollen is carried on the bdl or feathers and is well suited to its mode of transport. No specific relation between birds and flowers was found. Each species of bird visited many flowers and each species of plant was visited by many species of birds. The plants appear adapted to the Meliphagidae as a whole. However, insects also visited many plants. The importance of birds compared to insects as pollinators is discussed.


Informing users of waterworks systems about the quality of tap water is an obligatory trend. It should be accompanied by studies on the influence of the risk of threats on public health. Waterworks systems, being included in a critical infrastructure of the city, should be subject to special protection in this respect. In the paper, the authors' method of assessing threats to people and property from waterworks systems functioning in self-government units (SGUs), is proposed. Four categories of factors affecting the risk of threat to tap water consumers were assumed: the frequency or the probability of exposure—P, financial losses—C, damages to peoples' health—HL, the degree of the security—S. Based on this, a four-parametric risk matrix was developed. It was assumed that risk is a function of the parameters mentioned above: r = f(P, C, HL, S). For every parameter the five-parametric weight scale was assumed. An example of applying the method is presented. The proposed method should be an important element of water safety plans. It can also be adopted for other municipal systems subject to SGU.


The four reasons for writing for publication are to advance professionally, to gain prestige, to obtain financial payment, and to receive psychological compensation. Editors reject manuscripts because they have printed similar articles, because the content of the rejected article has recently been published, or because the content of the article will not hold the reader's interest. To write a publishable article, the writer must consider: the timeliness of the subject, his interest in the manuscript, the wide interest of the readers, the objectivity, the usefulness, and the relevancy of the subject. Before sending a manuscript to a journal, one must consider the journal's editorial and review policy and its style sheet.


Sir The article by J. M. Thomas is very interesting considering that it revisits an uncommon malignancy which may pose a formidable surgical challenge. Based on our experience with retroperitoneal tumours at the Tata Memorial Hospital there are a couple of points that we feel merit consideration prior to attempting resection of such tumours. Firstly, regarding the biopsy of these tumours, the author states that a preoperative biopsy is not essential1. We would like to mention that in cases where fibromatosis is being considered as a differential diagnosis, a biopsy is important. Retroperitoneal fibromatosis may be difficult to excise completely due to its location and proximity to major mesenteric vessels. If surgical resection is not feasible, then there are options available such as chemotherapy (Sulindac, Tamoxifen) and preoperative radiotherapy2. Secondly, it is important to try to determine the site of origin of the tumour, though this may be difficult owing to its large size. The epicentre of these tumours may be located either in the supracolic or infracolic compartments, or within the lesser sac or the root of mesentery. There are reports highlighting features that may help in localizing the organ of origin3. Needless to say, complete resection remains the key factor influencing the long-term outcome. However, to achieve this for tumours which arise within the root of mesentery remains very difficult. P. J. Shukla, S. G. Barreto and S. V. Shrikhande Tata Memorial Hospital, Dr. Ernest Borges Road, Parel – Mumbai, India DOI: 10.1002/bjs.6086


OBJECTIVE
to describe the characteristics of food consumption and energy intake of women with central obesity of socioeconomic classes A/B vs C/D/E.

METHODOLOGY
a cross-sectional study in which a structured questionnaire was answered containing data on socioeconomics and physical activities. Weight and waist circumference (WC) were measured and the 24-hour recall was assessed (24hR) in relation to food consumption. Biochemical exams were analyzed. The dietary analysis was performed on the Nutwin software and statistical analysis on the SPSS 23.0.

RESULTS
there were 89 women assessed in each group and no significant differences were observed in relation to age, with averages of 51.2 ± 12.2 years vs 49 ± 14.4 years for classes C/D/E vs A/B, respectively. A sedentary lifestyle was predominant for class C/D/E 82 (92.13%) vs 22 (24.71%) (p < 0.001).Significant differences were observed between the groups for variables of hypertriglyceridemia (p < 0.001), predominant in the C/D/E socioeconomic group, and HDL-C (p < 0.001), predominant in the A/B socioeconomic group. Total energy consumption of women from class C/D/E vs A/B presented mean values of 1,528.72 kcal (1,128.8-1,697.3) vs 2,267.48 kcal (1,670.3-2,625.84), respectively. Significant differences were observed in the consumption of fiber between groups C/D/E vs A/B (p < 0.001), with less consumption in class C/D/E. With reference to income and schooling levels, we observed heterogeneity in the results and emphasize the marked contrast between low and high income that could influence the choice of food, contributing in the lower income to monotonous diets, less energy consumption and, furthermore, low quality in the ingested food.

CONCLUSION
in this study, all of the women presented metabolic profiles in different manners among the groups and, also, women of class C/D/E, who presented insufficient fiber consumption, directly contributing to this condition of obesity, also presented worse lipid (total cholesterol and triglycerides) and glycemic profiles.


Porous three-dimensional (3D) tissue scaffolds provide vital function for cell attachment, proliferation, and guidance of new tissue formation. In the cellular tissue engineering process, heterogeneous tissue scaffolds play an important role in heterogeneous tissue formation. The goal of this research is to develop an approach that will assemble characterized unit cell structures into a larger heterogeneous scaffold that is suitable for tissue regrowth. To construct the assembly, 3D skeletons are first generated for unit cell structures, and for every skeleton point, the physical properties and quantities under given flow conditions are assigned. A unit cell alignment approach then quantifies the matching potential between two 3D skeletons. Based on the priority of the physical properties that were ranked prior to the assembly process, unit cells are assembled into a larger scaffold in a bottom-up fashion.


The extent and the sophistication of internet financial reporting (IFR) vary between companies, countries and at an international level. This paper examines the extent and the nature of IFR by banks and insurance companies in Albania. The findings of this descriptive analysis indicate that out of 26 examined companies (part of the banking and insurance sector), 24 of them do operate websites, whereas 20 of the latter provide financial information on their websites. This indicates that IFR is a significant common practice among these companies. This study purports to recommend that the respective oversight bodies of these two sectors must complete the special IFR regulatory framework


Citrus leprosis is the main viral disease affecting citrus in Brazil. Viral diseases can affect the mineral composition of citrus leaves, inducing mineral deficiencies. The aim of this work was to verify the influence of citrus leprosis on the mineral composition of citrus leaves, cultivar Pera. Orange seedlings were grown in pots containing sterile soil, and kept under greenhouse conditions. When plants had 15 to 20 leaves, they were infested with the mite Brevipalpus phoenicis, the leprosis vector, collected from infected citrus plants. Other plants were not infested, and were used as the control. Ninety days after infestation, all the infested plants presented leprosis lesions. The six upper leaves of each plant were collected and the determination of macro and micro-elements was performed. Leaves from the infected plants showed lower levels of N and higher levels of Ca, S and Fe, as compared to the control (= 0.05). Both treatments presented similar levels of P, K, Mg, Cu,Mn, Zn and B.