Half the Mekong delta in Vietnam, i.e. around 2 million hectares, suffers soil related problems due to acid sulphate soils. These soils generate sulphuric acid due to the oxidation of pyrite after aeration. Pyrite is most easily formed in tidal swamps. Human interference through land drainage is the most important way in which the acidification takes place. The processes of pyrite formation, of acidification and of the solution chemistry of these soils have been well explained (e.g. van Breemen 1976, Dent 1986). The translation of this knowledge into practical recommendations for farmers is still problematic. The Can Tho University (CU), the only institution for higher education in the delta, saw it as its duty to assist the farming community on these soils and come up with practical recommendations for improved agricultural use. From 1980 - 1992 a project of co-operation between CU and the Wageningen Agricultural University, particularly the Soil Science Department, where specialised knowledge on the processes of formation and the chemistry of these soils was present, was carried out. Objectives of the project were (1) to train CU staff in acid sulphate soils formation and survey; (2) to carry out research for improved management of these soils and (3) to equip CU with the necessary facilities for such a research and training programme. The aims of this thesis are: 1 . to review the recent literature on acid sulphate soils in order to screen themethodological developments for survey and identification, for chemical and physical support in field and laboratory, for simulation and mathematical modelling of the soil processes, for management and land use and for acid sulphate land evaluation; 2. to screen the recent literature, particularly the information supplied by the world's leading specialists in acid sulphate soils in the form of the proceedings of the three most recent conferences on this subject, for its practical applicability by other groups involved with acid sulphate soils: farmers and local experts; 3. to describe the way the project VH 10, a project of co-operation between the Universities of Can Tho (CU), Mekong delta, Vietnam, and Wageningen Agricultural University (WAU) carded out research for improved management of acid sulphate soils between 1980 and 1992 with particular emphasis on the balanced exchange of knowledge between the three groups of people involved: farmers, local experts and specialists; 4. to describe the way the VH 10 project operated in view of the emphasis it placed onfarmer-expert-specialists knowledge exchange, its strong outreach component towards the farming community and its special ways of operation; 5. to give some examples of studies which combine farmers, local expert and specialists knowledge to evaluate the acid sulphate land in the Mekong delta. The review of the recent literature (chapter II of this thesis) shows how difficult the diagnosis of acid sulphate land is. Some indications can be expected from the vegetation or the drainage patterns. Coastal wetlands, inland marshes and swamps and mine spoils are the land forms where potential acid sulphate soils occur. Surface water usually gives a first warning of acidification having taken place by an oily skin at the surface (iron) or suspicious water clarity (acidity and aluminium). Identification of acidified soils is usually easy through the appearance of pale-yellow jarosite mottles, but is much more difficult in potential acid sulphate soils (pyrite is invisible) or in acidified soils without jarosite. Field tests such as oxidation by hydrogen peroxide for potential acidity, or the azide-soap and the red lead paint for sulphide may help in identification. Moist incubation for prolonged periods is recommended to make sure. Soil survey is difficult because of land inaccessibility, high spatial variability of the diagnostic characteristics and the need for specialised laboratory assistance to identify acid sulphate components. The dynamic modelling of acid sulphate soils received much attention in recent years and resulted in sophisticated models encompassing the processes but inevitably requiring many detailed data for model application. Regardless of all research efforts many management decisions have still to be taken after the problems have already become manifest. Local farmers have, particularly in Southeast Asia, succeeded in adapting to the situation and they have developed interesting management systems for cultivation of rice, shrimp and fish, yams, pineapples, sugar cane and fruit trees. The proceedings of the three last conferences dedicated to acid sulphate soils show that most knowledge is communicated specialists to specialists; that some attention is paid to generating knowledge suited for the needs of the local experts such as soil survey methodologies and for the needs of the farmers and the extension workers such as fertiliser recommendations, on-farm water management strategies and crop choice. Only in a few cases, however, the indigenous knowledge of the farmers has been used to its full potential. It is particularly in the Mekong delta that the local farmers' knowledge has played a dominating role in acid sulphate soils research for practical application. The VH 10 project of CU and WAU profited from the strong embedding of CU, in particular its Faculties of Agriculture and of Water Management and Rural Engineering, in the rural society of the Mekong delta. The network of contacts with provincial and district agricultural services, with state farms and with private farmers could be used for gathering local farmer knowledge, for experimentation in line with farmers experience, for extrapolation of the findings to other locations in the delta and for knowledge dissemination through workshops and TV programmes. The research set-up of the project changed from a top-down technology driven approach in the early and mid-eighties to a system of a balanced knowledge exchange between farmers, local experts and soil/water specialists in the late eighties and early nineties. This approach generated much more successful recommendations for farmers than the top-down approach. The project had a number of deviating organisational aspects which might be interesting for application elsewhere: (1) no permanent foreign staff present in Vietnam; (2) large share of the responsibility for the execution of the project left with the Vietnamese counterparts; (3) long term continuity of the project with the same staff (twelve-and-a-half years); (4) mutual interest in project objectives by both partners; (5) applying the principle of learning from each other. The project profited from the political change of economic liberalisation in Vietnam in the second half of the eighties since recommendations for improved use of acid sulphate soils, emphasising small-scale development, could much better applied by small farmers than by large scale state farms. Two evaluation studies of the acid sulphate land in the Mekong delta (chapter V) showed that fresh water availability is the most important constraint to farming. Moderately and slightly acid land, characterised by a sulphuric horizon deeper than 50 cm, of which large tracts are present in the Mekong delta, can become suited for rice and tolerant upland crops such as yam, cassava or sweet potato when fresh water is available. However, severely acid land will only become marginally suited and should therefore not be given priority for development. Well constructed raised beds can improve the land and makes moderately acid land highly suited for pineapple and sugar cane, provided the coastal salt intrusion in the dry season is short (less than 3 months) and the annual Mekong river flood does not exceed a depth of about 60 cm. Both evaluation studies describe in detail farmers' practices of an unexpected wide variety of land use types and thereby emphasise the main focal point of this thesis which is the major input of farmer's expertise in developing innovative management schemes for these problem soils.


Traditional social network analysis can be generalized to model some networked systems by multilayer structures where the individual nodes develop relationships in multiple layers. A multilayer network is called multiplex if each layer shares at least one node with some other layer. In this paper, we built a unique criminal multiplex network from the pre-trial detention order by the Preliminary Investigation Judge of the Court of Messina (Sicily) issued at the end of the Montagna anti-mafia operation in 2007. Montagna focused on two families who infiltrated several economic activities through a cartel of entrepreneurs close to the Sicilian Mafia. Our network possesses three layers which share 20 nodes. The first captures meetings between suspected criminals, the second records phone calls and the third detects crimes committed by pairs of individuals. We used measures from multilayer network analysis to characterize the actors in the network based on their local edges and their relevance to each specific layer. Then, we used measures of layer similarity to study the relationships between different layers. By studying the actor connectivity and the layer correlation, we demonstrated that a complete picture of the structure and the activities of a criminal organization can be obtained only considering the three layers as a whole multilayer network and not as single-layer networks. Specifically, we showed the usefulness of the multilayer approach by bringing out the importance of actors that does not emerge by studying the three layers separately.


Background: To investigate the association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (EVT) and the incidence of lung cancer (LC) in nonsmoking adults. Method: PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, Wanfang, CNKI, and VIP database were searched by the index words to identify the qualified case-control studies, and relevant literature sources were also searched. The latest research was done in June 2017. Odds radio (OR) along with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were used to analyze the main outcomes. Result: Twenty RCTs were involved in the meta-analysis with 13,004 adults in the case group and 11,199 adults in the control group. The results indicated that compared with the nonexposure population, the risk of LC incidence was significantly higher in EVT exposure (OR: 1.64, 95% CI: 1.34–2.01), EVT male exposure (OR: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.16–2.28), EVT female exposure (OR: 1.57, 95% CI: 1.43–1.72), EVT exposure at workplace (OR: 1.78, 95% CI: 1.29–2.44), EVT exposure at home (OR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.01–2.33), and EVT female exposure at home (OR: 1.55, 95% CI: 1.34–1.79). However, there is still no significant difference among the risk of LC incidence in EVT male exposure at workplace (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 0.74–3.06), EVT female exposure at workplace (OR: 1.23, 95% CI: 0.99–1.53), and EVT male exposure at home (OR: 1.24, 95% CI: 0.68–2.26). Conclusion: EVT exposure is prospectively associated with a significantly increased risk of LC incidence. More high quality studies are required to address the association between EVT exposure and LC incidence.


Abstract. The balance between food security and energy security is a national issue of extreme importance. A more stable supply of electricity could be achieved as solar farms expand but at the expense of losing some of the prime agricultural lands which endangers availability of sufficient agricultural produce. This study aims to use ANN-Cellular Automata (CA) via the Geographic Information System (GIS) platform and remote sensing (RS) data to assess the impact of cropland transition to solar farms and other land use/land cover (LULC). Several remotely sensed data were processed including MODIS land cover data (MCD12Q1), VIIRS nighttime lights (VNL v2.1), Advanced Himawari Imager Shortwave Radiation (AHI-SWR) product, and population density (LandScan) as inputs to the Cellular Automata-Artificial Neural Network (CA-ANN) model to simulate LULC changes in Tarlac Province, Philippines via the Modules for Land Use Change Evaluation (MOLUSCE) plugin in QGIS. For years 2019, 2023 and 2027 with 2015 as the base year, results showed an increasing trend for savannas and grassland with ΔLULC values of +11.4% to +15.1% and +0.2% to 3.5%, respectively. Meanwhile, a decreasing trend is observed for built-up/water, forest, and cropland with ΔLULC values of −3.0% to −6.3%, −8.5% to −21.1%, and −3.9% to −4.2%, respectively. Results also showed a conversion of a 100-ha area of croplands to solar farm from year 2019 to 2023 which translates to an estimated monetary loss from agricultural produce due to solar farm conversion amounting to Php 7,584,720.00 (~USD 138,000) which is equivalent to the total average annual income of about 67 families in Tarlac. Lastly, the simulated 2027 LULC map showed pixels with unrealistic conversions from solar farm (year 2023) to cropland (year 2027). To improve the model, it is recommended to add more spatial data to effectively capture factors that may contribute to the expansion of solar farms in the future. Moreover, high resolution LULC maps (vector maps if available) can be used instead of a course resolution satellite-derived raster data. Nonetheless, this study has demonstrated the use of RS, GIS and machine learning techniques to model cropland conversion to solar farms and other LULC classes. Results from this study can provide scientific data to policy makers, solar industry players and other relevant stakeholders in doing technoeconomic assessment of solar farm development and expansion considering its effect on energy security and food security towards national sustainable development.


This paper proposes a compact 5.15-5.85 GHz low noise amplifier (LNA) based on substrate integrated suspended line (SISL) platform, which has a 0.8 dB low noise figure (NF) at 5.5 GHz. Pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) ATF-36163 from Avago Technologies is adopted to realize the LNA prototype. Unlike the conventional microstrip line, the self- packaged structure with air cavities reduces the circuit size and fabrication cost. Meanwhile, it cuts down dielectric loss as well as field dispersion considerably. Thus noise from passive matching network is reduced. Taking the advantage of SISL, the LNA shows the merits of low noise, self-packaging, compact size and low cost.


Asymptomatic bacteriuria is a common clinical entity in pregnancy but the prevalence due to S. saprophyticus, an established uro-pathogen in sexually active women, remained largely unknown in Nigeria. The prevalence of asymptomatic significant bacteriuria due to S. saprophyticus was therefore determined among 431 pregnant women in a tertiary health institution, Southwestern Nigeria. Clean catch specimens of mid stream, early morning voided urine, collected on two occasions with an interval of four weeks, were subjected to microbial analysis and quantitative culture. All cultures with significant growth (≥105 CFU/ml) were characterized and S. saprophyticus identified using conventional biochemical scheme. A total of 862 duplicate urine samples were analyzed; 19.5% were positive for the same bacteria on two consecutive samples, giving a prevalence rate of 19.5% for asymptomatic bacteriuria. S. saprophyticus was recovered from consecutive urine of 2.6% of the women, 54.5% of whom had significant pyuria. The isolates were all susceptible to vancomycin, gentamicin and fluoroquinolones, but 18.2% were methicillin resistant strains. From the result of this study, all pregnant women should be routinely screened for S. saprophyticus urinary carriage. Key words: Asymptomatic, Bacteriuria, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Nigeria


Objectives To evaluate changes in influenza vaccination rates in healthy and at-risk children following the implementation of the UK's childhood influenza immunisation programme. Design Observational cohort study before and after initiation of the UK's childhood influenza immunisation programme over three influenza seasons (2012–2013, 2013–2014 and 2014–2015) using data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). Setting More than 500 primary care practices in the UK. Population All individuals aged 2–17 years on 1 September, with at least 12 months of medical history documented in CPRD were retained in the analysis. Intervention Starting in 2013–2014, all children aged 2 and 3 years were offered influenza vaccination through general practice, and primary school-aged children were offered influenza vaccination in selected counties in England (described as pilot regions). The vaccination programme was extended to all children aged 4 years in England in 2014–2015. Main outcome measure Cumulative vaccination rate from 1 September to 28 February of the next calendar year as assessed by a time-to-event statistical model (vaccination uptake). Age group, sex, region and type of high-risk medical condition were assessed as predictors. Results Vaccination uptake increased considerably from 2012–2013 to 2013–2014 in targeted children aged 2–3 years, both in children with a high-risk medical condition (from 40.7% to 61.1%) and those without (from 1.0% to 43.0%). Vaccination rates increased also, though less markedly, in older children. In 2014–2015, vaccination rates remained higher than 40% in healthy children aged 2–3 years, although they decreased slightly from 2013–2014 (from 43.0% to 41.8%). Vaccination rates in older healthy children continued to increase, driven primarily by an increase in children aged 4 years to 31.3% in 2014–2015. Conclusions The introduction of a universal childhood vaccination policy in the UK increased vaccination rates for targeted children, including those with high-risk conditions.


Attentional impairments following traumatic brain injury (TBI) are common, and often significantly debilitating. Debate continues as to whether deficits in strategic control of attention are proportionate to, or remain after controlling for, reduced speed of information processing. Despite the debate, attention and speed deficits interfere with return to life roles, necessitating early remediation. Pharmacological treatment with immediate-release methylphenidate (MP) has been shown to improve processing speed, attentiveness and caregiver ratings of attention after TBI. To date, there has been no investigation of the safety or efficacy of extended-release MP in this population, which has the advantage of once daily administration. Non-pharmacological rehabilitation techniques include restorative approaches (e.g. computer training) and compensatory approaches (e.g. strategy training). As yet, there is limited documentation of the experience of individuals with TBI undertaking either of these approaches. The study aims were to 1) investigate whether individuals with TBI demonstrated greater deficits in performance on traditional and novel attentional tasks with increased working memory or executive load relative to healthy controls, after controlling for slowed information processing. In an attempt to rehabilitate such deficits, subsequent aims were to 2) determine proof of concept, in a pilot study, that once daily dosing with extended-release MP would be tolerated and associated with improvements on processing speed and complex attentional measures, ratings of everyday attentional behaviour and functional outcomes after TBI; and 3) in a series of single-case studies, investigate the effects of individualised strategy training beyond the effects of computerised training with Attention Process Training 3 (APT-3) on tests of attention, generalisation to an ecological attention task, and ratings of everyday attentional behaviour, and to examine subjective experience of these approaches. In the first study 25 individuals with TBI and 25 matched controls were assessed on a range of attentional and executive measures. Individuals with TBI demonstrated slowed speed of processing on the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), visual n-back task, computerised selective attention Test (SAT), Ruff 2&7 Selective Attention Test (2&7), Hayling Test and Trail Making Test A. There was no difference between groups in working memory performance on Digit Span. Individuals with TBI demonstrated disproportionate increase in reaction time with complexity, which was accounted for by speed on the SAT, but remained after controlling for speed on the Hayling Inhibition Test. The TBI group made more errors on the Hayling Test, misses on the n-back and were unable to benefit from the 2&7 automatic condition. Thus, deficits in processing speed were pervasive and there was evidence of impaired strategic control on a response inhibition task. The second study was a pilot randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel trial. Ten individuals with TBI and attention deficits received daily extended-release MP or placebo for seven weeks. Assessments were conducted at baseline, week 8 (on-drug), week 9 (off-drug) and 7 months follow-up. Vital signs and side effects were monitored weekly. MP did not enhance performance on attention or processing speed measures, or functional outcomes. There were greater improvement ratios for the MP relative to placebo group from baseline to week 8 (on-drug) for ratings of everyday attentional behaviour. MP was associated with increased blood pressure and anxiety. Extended-release MP may be used to improve everyday attention after TBI, but monitoring is important given potential for changes in vital signs and side effects. A large number of individuals were ineligible or declined to participate in this drug study. Hence, the efficacy of non-pharmacological interventions should also be investigated. The single-case series study, with ABCA (baseline, APT-3, strategy training, follow-up) design, included three individuals with attention deficits following severe TBI. Improvements were evident on SDMT and automatic condition of the cancellation tasks after APT-3 and follow-up, but most improvement was observed after strategy training. There was limited generalisation on the Test of Everyday Attention and self-ratings of everyday attentional behaviour. Significant other ratings of everyday attentional behaviour were mixed after APT-3 but demonstrated improvement after strategy training. Variability in attentional deficits and everyday attentional requirements necessitated individualised goals and interventions between participants. Research should continue to investigate pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches to remediate attention after TBI to ensure rehabilitation can be tailored to individuals and their everyday attentional demands.


The broad-band capability of the gyrotron amplifier with a dielectric center rod is investigated. The dispersion relation for the TE mode perturbation is obtained, and the system parameters for the optimum bandwidth are obtained for a small axial velocity spread. It is found that the dielectric center rod extends the frequency range of the intermediate wavelength mode (IWM), and reduces the contribution of the troublesome short wavelength mode (SWM). The bandwidth and the gain due to the IWM for the center rod geometry are superior to those for the wall clad dielectric gyrotron.


Cancer cells can take up gold nanoparticles of different morphologies. These particles interact with the plasma membrane and often travel to intracellular organelles. Among organelles, the nucleus is especially susceptible to the damage that is inflicted by gold nanoparticles. Located inside the nucleus, nucleoli are specialized compartments that transcribe ribosomal RNA genes, produce ribosomes and function as cellular stress sensors. Nucleoli are particularly prone to gold nanoparticle-induced injury. As such, small spherical gold nanoparticles and gold nanoflowers interfere with the transcription of ribosomal DNA. However, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study, we examined the effects of gold nanoparticles on nucleolar proteins that are critical to ribosome biogenesis and other cellular functions. We show that B23/nucleophosmin, a nucleolar protein that is tightly linked to cancer, is significantly affected by gold nanoparticles. Furthermore, gold nanoparticles impinge on the cellular stress response, as they reduce the abundance of the molecular chaperone hsp70 and O-GlcNAc modified proteins in the nucleus and nucleoli. Together, our studies set the stage for the development of nanomedicines that target the nucleolus to eradicate proliferating cancer cells.


BACKGROUND Correlation between Triglyceride (TG) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) remains largely unknown in overweight and non-overweight patients. AIM To investigated the dynamic changes of eGFR and lipid profiles during 3-year tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and overweight. METHODS A total of 202 CHB patients who received TDF treatment at the Third People's Hospital of Changzhou (Changzhou, China) and Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital (Nanjing, China) between January 2016 and May 2018 were retrospectively enrolled. According to the body mass index (BMI) at the initiation of TDF treatment, CHB patients were divided into overweight (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2) and non-overweight (BMI < 25 kg/m2) groups. Logistic regression was applied for the analysis of risk factors for eGFR < 90 mL/(min·1.73 m2). RESULTS There is no significant difference in hepatitis B virus DNA (HBV DNA) negativity and hepatitis Be antigen (HBeAg) loss between patients with overweight and non-overweight (both P > 0.05). More patients in non-overweight group achieved alanine aminotransferase normalization compared with those in overweight group (χ2 = 11.036, P < 0.01). In non-overweight patients, the eGFR significantly declined in the 1st year (P < 0.01), then remained at a relatively lower level. TG significantly declined in the 2nd year (P = 0.02) and increased in the 3rd year. Moreover, TG was negatively correlated with GFR at the four-time points (P = 0.002, 0.030, 0.007, 0.008, respectively). In overweight patients, eGFR and TG remained relatively stable during the 3-year treatment, and eGFR showed no significant relationship with TG. Moreover, multivariate analysis showed that age [P < 0.01, 95%CI (0.97-1.005)] and baseline eGFR [P < 0.01, 95%CI (5.056-33.668)] were independent risk factors for eGFR < 90 mL/(min·1.73 m2) at the 3rd year. CONCLUSION Dynamic changes in renal function were conversely related to TG during TDF treatment in patients with CHB and normal BMI, but not with overweight.


Although many important scientific advances have taken place in automatic speech recognition research, we have also encountered a number of practical limitations which hinder a widespread deployment of applications and services. In most speech recognition tasks, human subjects produce one to two orders of magnitude fewer errors than machines. One of the most significant differences exists in that human subjects are far more flexible and adaptive than machines against various variations of speech, including individuality, speaking style, additive noise, and channel distortions. How to train and adapt statistical models for speech recognition using a limited amount of data is one of the most important research issues. What we know about human speech processing and the natural variation of speech is very limited. It is important to spend more effort to clarify especially the mechanism underlying speaker-to-speaker variability, and devise a method for simultaneously modeling multiple sources of variations based on statistical analysis using large-scale databases. Future systems need to have an efficient way of representing, storing, and retrieving various knowledge resources. Data-intensive science is rapidly emerging in scientific and computing research communities. The size of speech databases/corpora used in ASR research and development is typically 100 to 1,000 hours of utterances, which is too small considering the variety of sources of variations. We need to focus on solving various problems before efficiently constructing and utilizing huge speech databases, which will be essential to next-generation ASR systems.


The objective of this article is to study the linguistic adaptation that accompanies the introduction and modification of a type of lawsuit originating in another legal system: the case of class action. In the context of the study of the comparative neology of French, Polish and Czech, considered in particular from the angle of borrowing and its equivalents, it is interesting to explore the adoption and linguistic adaptation of a legal concept. The one selected for this study is the American class action, which has already been the subject of a linguistic analysis focusing on French in France and French-speaking countries, and in Spain and Italy. The present study therefore extends the research carried out so far to the cases of Czech and Polish while updating the data on French.


Although the relationship between muscle strength and exercise capacity has been demonstrated in dermatomyositis without lung dysfunction, little is known about the association between exercise capacity and interstitial lung disease in dermatomyositis. Eleven patients with dermatomyositis with interstitial lung disease without the manifestation of muscle weakness and 12 patients with idiopathic interstitial pneumonia underwent the 6-minute walk test (6MWT). PaO2, creatine kinase, percentage predicted 6MWT distance (6MWD%), and SpO2 at rest were similar between patients. Percentage predicted vital capacity, carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DLCO%), and SpO2 after 6MWT were higher and exertional dyspnea was lower in patients with dermatomyositis than in patients with idiopathic interstitial pneumonia. SpO2 after 6MWT was positively correlated with 6MWD% in patients with dermatomyositis, while DLCO% and PaO2 were positively correlated with 6MWD% in patients with idiopathic interstitial pneumonia. Lung dysfunction in dermatomyositis might not be a major limitation factor in exercise capacity.


Malaria scientists are brimming with optimism. Thanks to a massive influx of new money, dozens of countries have begun scaling up simple ways to fight malaria: insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor spraying of insecticides, and a class of powerful drugs called artemisinin-based combination therapies. Some have seen spectacular results. On top of that, megaphilanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates gave the field a breathtakingly ambitious goal in 2007: Don9t just control malaria, eradicate it—get rid of it once and for all. Nobody believes that is possible in the next 10, 20, or even 30 years. But the call for eradication, combined with the plummeting malaria burden, are already reshaping the scientific agenda.


Scattering of waves by vertical barriers in infinite-depth water has received much attention due to the ability to solve many of these problems exactly. However, the same problems in finite depth require the use of approximation methods. In this paper we present an accurate method of solving these problems based on a Galerkin approximation. We will show how highly accurate complementary bounds can be computed with relative ease for many scattering problems involving vertical barriers in finite depth and also for a sloshing problem involving a vertical barrier in a rectangular tank.


Background:

COVID-19 is a viral respiratory disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-Coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Patients with this disease may be more prone to venous or arterial thrombosis because of the activation of many factors involved in it, including inflammation, platelet activation and endothelial dysfunction. Therefore, this study focused on coagulation and thrombosis-related indicators (IP-10, MCP-1 and MIP1a) in COVID-19, with the hope to find biomarkers that can predict patients' outcome.
Methods:

This is a retrospective single-center study involving 74 severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients recruited from the ICU department of the Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, China. The patients were divided into two groups: severe patients and critically ill patients. The serum IP-10, MCP-1 and MIP1a level in both groups was detected using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. The clinical symptoms, laboratory test results and the outcome of COVID-19 patients were retrospectively analyzed.
Results:

The serum IP-10 and MCP-1 level in critically ill patients was significantly higher than that in severe patients (P < 0.001). However, no statistical difference in MIP1a between the two groups was found. The analysis of dynamic changes showed that these indicators remarkably increased in patients with poor prognosis. Since the selected patients were severe or critically ill, no significant difference was observed between survival and death.
Conclusions:

IP-10 and MCP-1 are biomarkers predicting the severity of COVID-19 disease and could be related to the risk of death in COVID-19 patients. In addition, anti-IP-10 antibody treatment may represent a new approach in COVID-19 patients, especially the ones with thrombotic events.


The natriuretic peptides, atrial (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) are known to suppress cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis. Both ANP and BNP exert their bioactivities through the Npr1 receptor, and Npr1 knockout mice (Npr1-/-) exhibit marked cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis. In this study, we investigated which genes within the hypertrophic and fibrotic pathways are influenced by the lack of Npr1 signalling. cDNA microarray and quantitative real-time PCR (RT-PCR) analyses were performed on cardiac ventricles from Npr1-/-mice. Gene expression at early and late stages during development of hypertrophy was investigated in male and female Npr1-/-mice at 8 weeks and 6 months of age. Heart weight to body weight ratios (HW:BW) were maximally increased in 8-week males (P<0 x 01), whilst HW:BW in females continued to increase progressively up to 6 months (P<0 x 01). This was despite blood pressure being similarly elevated at both the ages in male and female knockout when compared with wild-type (WT) mice (P<0 x 001). Microarray analysis identified altered gene expression at the earliest steps in the hypertrophy-signalling cascade in Npr1-/- mice, particularly calcium-calmodulin signalling and ion channels, with subsequent changes in the expression of intracellular messengers including protein kinases and transcription factors. Real-time PCR analysis confirmed significant differences in gene expression of ANP, BNP, calmodulin 1, histone deacetylase 7a (HDAC7a), protein kinase C (PKC)iota, (GATA) 4, collagen 1, phospholamban and transforming growth factor-beta1 in Npr1-/- mice when compared with WT (P<0 x 05). The present study implicates the calmodulin-CaMK-Hdac-Mef2 and PKC-MAPK-GATA4 pathways in Npr1 mediation of cardiac hypertrophy.


Recent advances in audio declipping have substantially improved the state of the art. Yet, practitioners need guidelines to choose a method, and while existing benchmarks have been instrumental in advancing the field, larger-scale experiments are needed to guide such choices. First, we show that the clipping levels in existing small-scale benchmarks are moderate and call for benchmarks with more perceptually significant clipping levels. We then propose a general algorithmic framework for declipping that covers existing and new combinations of variants of state-of-the-art techniques exploiting time-frequency sparsity: synthesis vs. analysis sparsity, with plain or structured sparsity. Finally, we systematically compare these combinations and a selection of state-of-the-art methods. Using a large-scale numerical benchmark and a smaller scale formal listening test, we provide guidelines for various clipping levels, both for speech and various musical genres. The code is made publicly available for the purpose of reproducible research and benchmarking.


Obesity in Europe is reaching epidemic proportions, and Europe's policymakers need more information on the approaches that stakeholders judge effective and consider acceptable. The Policy Options for Responding to the Growing Challenge of Obesity Research Project interviewed food producers, manufacturers and retailers, advertisers and caterers, life insurers, pharmaceutical companies, teachers, public health experts, town planners, advocacy organizations and consumer groups in nine countries: Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK. Interviews were conducted using innovative Multi‐Criteria Mapping software which provides reproducible and transparent structured information on the stakeholders' perceptions, judgements and reasons. The results indicate that a comprehensive portfolio of policy measures, integrated into a coherent programme, would be well‐supported by a broad coalitions of stakeholders. The costs of such a programme were not considered as important as the potential costs of not taking action. Policymakers can be confident that the great majority of stakeholders recognize the need for action and are prepared to accept their costs, but that the 'upstream' interventions such as marketing controls, planning and transport controls and fiscal measures, will need to be justified in terms of their wider health and social benefits.


This report describes two sibs from a consanguineous marriage who have a form of rickets similar to vitamin-D-dependency, but without hyperaminoaciduria. Genetic heterogeneity is discussed on the basis of this finding.


[Purpose] We aimed to evaluate oxygen uptake adjusted by total skeletal muscle mass in patients with cardiovascular disease with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus. [Participants and Methods] The participants included 54 males ≥50 years of age without heart failure who underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing during cardiac rehabilitation. We divided the participants into two groups: patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM group) and patients without type 2 diabetes mellitus (NDM group). [Results] We found no significant differences in age, weight, fat mass, or skeletal muscle mass between the groups. There were also no differences in cardiac function, body composition, and heart rate response. The DM group showed significantly lower peak oxygen uptake values adjusted by skeletal muscle mass, despite the absence of significant differences in skeletal muscle mass. A significant positive correlation was found between peak oxygen uptake and age, weight, and skeletal muscle mass. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that age, skeletal muscle mass, and medical history of diabetes were independent predictors of absolute peak oxygen uptake. [Conclusion] Peak oxygen uptake adjusted by skeletal muscle mass in patients with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus is lower than that in those without type 2 diabetes mellitus.


Introduction: Acmella oleracea has been used as a traditional medicine for the treatment of asthma, sore throat, haemorrhoids and toothache. However, whether A. oleracea has gastrointestinal functions, such as regulation of intestinal contractions, has not been fully elucidated. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of A. oleracea flowers extract (AFE) on rat ileum contractions and the possible mechanism(s) of its action. Methods: The extract was prepared using the Soxhlet apparatus with 95% ethanol. Ileum was removed from male Wistar rats and mounted in an organ bath containing Krebs solution. The tissue contractions were recorded by an isotonic transducer under 1 g tension.Results: The cumulative concentrations of the AFE (0.01–1 mg/mL) reduced the ileum contractions induced by KCl (80 mM) (n = 6, P < 0.05). AFE (1 mg/mL) attenuated the contractions induced by cumulative concentrations of CaCl2 (1–20 mM), while the spasmolytic effects of the extract were not reduced after tissue incubation with N (ω)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) (100 μM, 20 minutes).Conclusion: These results suggest that AFE inhibits ileum contractions without involving the nitric oxide pathway, which is possibly mediated via blockade of voltage-dependent calcium channels. A. oleracea may be useful in gastrointestinal disorders such as diarrhoea.


The existence of helical textures in He-A in the presence of both superflow and magnetic field is established theoretically. The magnetic resonance frequencies of the helical textures are determined.


Extracellular volume (ECV) of arms, trunk, and legs determined from segmental bioimpedance data in 11 healthy men (31.6 +/- 7 yr) obtained at the end of a 30-min equilibration phase in the supine body position was compared with ECV determined from whole body measurements (ECVWB). ECV was calculated from extracellular resistance (RECV) identified from the bioimpedance spectrum for a range of 10 frequencies. Whole body RECV (527.6 +/- 55.6 Omega) was equal to the sum of RECV in the arms, trunk, and legs (241.6 +/- 36. 3, 49.2 +/- 5.1, and 236.3 +/- 25.5 Omega, respectively). The sum of equilibrated ECV in arms (1.31 +/- 0.25 liters), trunk (10.08 +/- 1.65 liters), and legs (2.80 +/- 0.82 liters) was smaller than ECVWB (20.90 +/- 2.59 liters). In six subjects who changed from a standing to a supine body position, ECV decreased in arms (-2.59 +/- 2.51%, P = NS) and legs (-10.96 +/- 3.02%, P < 0.05) but increased in the trunk (+4.2 +/- 3.2%, P < 0.05). ECVWB also decreased (-4.98 +/- 1. 41%, P < 0.05). However, the sum of segmental extracellular volumes remained unchanged (-0.06 +/- 0.07%, P = NS). The sum of segmental ECVs is not sensitive to changes in body position, which otherwise interferes with the estimation of ECV in bioimpedance analysis when ECVWB is used.


Sepsis or its synonymously termed "SIRS (systemic inflammatory response syndrome)" is a common cause of individual morbidity and mortality in various clinical situations. In such conditions, high mobility group box-1 DNA binding protein (HMGB1), widely known as a nuclear structural protein, has been identified to act as a late mediator of delayed endotoxin lethality. Once released from necrotic damaged cells or secreted by activated monocytes/macrophage, it participates in the development of lethality and it activates downstream cytokine release. In this review, we describe herein the general features of sepsis focusing on the role of HMGB1 in the mechanism of development of systemic inflammation, and also introduce newly established therapeutic concept "Functional HMGB1 inhibition with thrombomodulin" against sepsis/SIRS/DIC.


The large temperature drift caused by variation of environmental temperature is the main factor affecting the performance of fiber optical gyroscope (FOG). Considering the fact that the temperature drift is a group of multi-variable nonlinear time series related with temperature, a new method named projection pursuit learning network (PPLN) is employed in this paper to model the temperature drift of FOG. The PPLN integrates the advantages of artificial neural network (ANN) and projection pursuit algorithm (PP), and is capable of providing less network neurons and good robustness. Numerical results from measured temperature drift data of FOG verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, and good predication of independent tested data is obtained.


Objectives: Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) is a B-cell lymphoma characterized by the presence of Reed-Sternberg cells. HL comprises 1% of all cancer cases and 14% of all lymphoma cases. Nodular lymphocyte predominant HL (NLPHL) is a subtype of HL characterized by a unique clinical and histological presentation. The clinical presentation and survival rate of these patients have not been described in Oman. We, therefore, aimed to describe the clinical characteristics and survival rate of patients with NLPHL.
Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study that was conducted in a tertiary care centers in the Sultanate of Oman. All Omani patients with histopathological confirmed diagnosis of NLPHL from 1998 to 2016 were included in this study. The demographic, clinical, and survival rate were recorded and analyzed.
Results: Forty-six histologically confirmed cases of NLPHL were analyzed with a median follow-up of 72 months (range: 12–228 months). Median age at diagnosis was 26.5 years (range: 13?53) and 70% of the patients were male. B symptoms were present in 6% and stage I disease was the most common (39%) presenting stage. Patients were treated with radiotherapy (33%), chemotherapy (37%), combined modality (radiotherapy and chemotherapy) (28%), or careful watch-and-wait (2%). Relapses occurred in twelve (26%) patients after a median of 48 months (24–168 months). Two (4%) patients died during followup due to relapse of NLPHL.
Conclusion: This is the first study that demonstrates the demographic, clinical, and survival rate of NLPHL patients in Oman. Our study confirms the male predominance in NLPHL patients. The overall 10-year survival was 96%. The outcome was not significantly different with chemotherapy alone or radiotherapy or combined modality. This study showed higher relapse rate; therefore, further study is needed to validate this observation.

Keywords: Hodgkin's lymphoma, NLPHL, Survival, Outcome, Oman.


A spherulitic growth pattern of Y2BaCuO5 (Y-211) particle inclusions in large grain, bulk Y?Ba?Cu?O (YBCO) grown by an infiltration and growth technique is reported for the first time. Spherulitic regions of Y-211 particles around 250?2000 ?m in size with branches of up to 750 ?m are observed throughout the large grain sample volume. The presence of these regions indicates the formation of Y-211 particles under conditions of high undercooling in the YBCO system relative to the peritectic temperature for the decomposition of Y-211 into yttria and liquid phases. Evidence for the existence of a highly undercooled state is significant for understanding fully the nucleation and growth of Y-211 particles in the peritectically decomposed state. The high energy barrier for Y-211 nucleation, which is associated with the formation of spherulitic regions in YBCO, is potentially significant for refining Y-211 particles in the YBa2Cu3O7?? (Y-123) matrix, although the 123 microstructure with 211 spherulites itself may not help in achieving high critical current densities.


Background: Pakshaghata is one of the diseases of central nervous system, considered as vatavyadhi in Ayurveda which occurs mainly due to vitiation of Vata. The disease pakshaghata can be compared with hemiplegia according to contemporary medicine. The mode of onset is sudden or gradual with the association of hypertension or diabetes mellitus. Loss of functions of limbs with or without the involvement of face is observed in this disease. It affects either left half or right half or both sides even. The present study is to evaluate the effect of Mashadi Basti in Pakshaghata. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of Mashadi Basti, a type of medicated enema in management of Pakshaghata. Materials and Methods: A total of 15 patients were selected randomly. They were examined on the ground of Astavidha pariksha (eight-fold examination) from Ayurvedic point of view on the basis on specially prepared data research questionnaire. Selected subjects were administered with kala basti for 15 days and it was followed up of 30 days. Assessment was done through various variables like shareera akarmanyata or chestanivriti (Loss of motor activity), hasta pada ruja (pain in hand and leg), hasta pada sankocha (contraction in hand and leg), sira snayu shosha (rigidity), sandhibandha vimokshana (looseness of joints), and vak stambha (loss of speech), stroke specific– quality life scale, modified barthel index (MBI) and grip test. Results: The study showed that mashadi basti produced a significant (P < 0.05, P < 0.001) improvement in all the variables like shareera akarmanyata or chesta nivriti, hasta pada ruja, hasta pada sankocha, sira snayu shosha, sandhibandha vimokshana and vakstambha, stroke specific– quality life scale, MBI and grip test. Conclusion: Mashadi basti is found to be effective in Pakshaghata.


The changes in uterine artery blood flow in women undergoing in-vitro fertilization cycles were studied throughout stimulation after gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) desensitization. The data obtained showed that the uterine vascularity was related to hormonal changes. The GnRH agonist effect was seen only after the third week of administration, and the uterine perfusion was significantly (P = 0.002) improved by the oestradiol secretion. Human chorionic gonadotrophins increased the resistance index (RI) significantly (P = 0.0001) for a period of 48 h. Then the progesterone secretion modified the curve with a significant improvement in the uterine blood flow (P = 0.03). Comparison of the RI value 2 days before human menopausal gonadotrophin (HMG) commencement, in patients with and without pregnancy, showed a higher RI in patients who did not conceive but no difference was observed on the day of embryo transfer. The pregnancy rates were similar whatever the range of the RI observed. The data available so far suggest that haemodynamic parameters alone, detected by Doppler sonography, do not provide full information on endometrial receptivity on the day of embryo transfer. A resistance index > 0.79 before HMG commencement seems to indicate poor uterine vascularity and may necessitate an increase in the HMG doses to prevent endometrial immaturity.


Silybin (SLB) and similar analogues, namely, hesperetin (HESP), naringenin (NAN) and naringin (NAR), are believed to be active constituents of natural flavonoids that have been reported as chemopreventive agents for certain cancers. Moreover, SLB and analogues have been determined to fast repair DNA bases from oxidative damage by pulse radiolysis techniques. The present study was designed to evaluate the protective effects of SLB and analogues on soft X-ray-induced damage to plasmid DNA in vitro. The DNA damage was determined by agarose gel electrophoresis. SLB and analogues were found to protect DNA from radiation damage at micromolar concentrations. Among the compounds tested, HESP and SLB were the most effective in preventing X-ray-induced formation of DNA single-strand breaks (SSB). A comparison of these results with other experiments showed that the ability of SLB and analogues to inhibit DNA damage in vitro correlated with the ability of the compounds to scavenge free radicals. Our work revealed that natural flavonoids, SLB and analogues may be used as potent radioprotectors against radiation damage.


This essay analyzes and compares female narrators and six female characters in Canterbury Tales to women"s status in England in the fourteenth century and aims to demonstrate that the female narrators and characters are representatives of women in that society, which was patriarchal and misogynist. The essay also contrasts women"s characteristics and attributes to the male narrator"s, in the Canterbury Tales, perspectives on women found in their prologues and tales, analyzing what the text reveals regarding the male narrators opinions or preferences as to admirable and desirable characteristics in women. It aims to provide answers to the following fundamental questions: how are the female narrators and characters represented? Does their status correspond to women"s historical situation in the fourteenth century? Are the female narrators given their own subjectivity or are they merely the voices of the dominant order? Do the female narrators and characters rebel against the patriarchal order or do they accept their inferior role to men? In order to answer these questions women"s status in the fourteenth century as seen through historical sources will be looked at; their legal status, prevailing ideas about their inherent qualities, the influence of the clergy, biblical and religious views on gender, and the restrictions women faced in society. This essay will also demonstrate that in order to be considered a good wife a woman needed to be humble and obedient and to accept her fate as being subject to male authority figure without resistance. However even if these "good" wives were obedient comments are found in the Canterbury Tales indicating that they are in no position to gain control over their lives; which are wholly circumscribed by their body. It also demonstrates that if a woman dared to defy or revolt against the norm in medieval society and obtain power over her own fate she was considered wicked and immoral.


Purpose: This study aimed to detect changes in iron deposition and neural microstructure in the substantia nigra (SN), red nucleus (RN), and basal ganglia of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients at different stages using quantitative susceptibility mapping and diffusion kurtosis imaging to identify potential indicators of early-stage PD. Methods: We enrolled 20 early-stage and 15 late-stage PD patients, as well as 20 age- and sex-matched controls. All participants underwent quantitative susceptibility mapping and diffusion kurtosis imaging to determine magnetic susceptibility (MS), fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and mean kurtosis (MK) in several brain regions. Results: Compared with the control group, MS and MK values in the SN were significantly increased in the early- and late-stage PD group, whereas MS values in the red nucleus (RN), globus pallidus (GP), and caudate nucleus (CN), FA value in the CN and GP, and MK value in the CN and putamen (PU) were significantly increased in the late-stage PD group. There were positive correlations between MS and MK values in the CN and MS and FA values in the GP. Furthermore, the combination of MS and MK values in the SN provided high accuracy for distinguishing early-stage PD patients from controls. Conclusions: This study identified MS and MK in the SN as potential indicators of early-stage PD.


The effects of beta-cyclodextrin (BCD) on the sorption-desorption and transport processes of the herbicide norflurazon (NFL) in soils of different characteristics when both are applied simultaneously have been investigated. Adsorption-desorption studies of NFL on six soils of very different characteristics in the presence of BCD have been performed using a batch equilibration method and correlated to its mobility in homogeneous hand-packed soil columns. NFL determinations were undertaken by HPLC equipped with a diode array detector at a wavelength of 220 nm. BCD was also analyzed by HPLC with fluorimetric detection using a postcolumn reaction. The interaction of NFL with BCD yielded the formation of an inclusion complex in solution. When this complex is applied to soils, a large decrease in NFL adsorption capacity and an increase in its desorption were observed, due to the higher tendency of NFL-BCD complexes to remain in solution. The results obtained in adsorption and soil column experiments indicated that the influence of BCD on NFL mobility and availability depends on the different affinities of BCD to be sorbed on soils of different characteristics and on the concentration of BCD used. The lower the concentration of BCD added, the more tenaciously it adheres to the soil, and most of the BCD molecules would be adsorbed, providing a coating to soil particles that acts as a bridge between NFL and the soil surface, acting as an adsorbent and retarding the mobility of the herbicide. At higher concentrations of BCD, or in soils where its adsorption is very low, most of the BCD molecules are in the aqueous phase and NFL molecules tend to be complexed with BCD in solution, acting then as a solubilizing agent.


Old unmanaged forests are commonly assumed to be carbon neutral; however, there is still a lack of reference studies available to increase the recognition of carbon stock changes in these forests. Studies of old forest carbon storage from hemiboreal regions are very rare compared to temperate and boreal forests in Europe; therefore, the aim of this study was to quantify the carbon stock in hemiboreal over-mature (167–213 years) Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) stands. To explore the total ecosystem carbon pool, the carbon stock of tree biomass, deadwood, and soil in unmanaged (for at least the last 40 years) spruce stands was calculated and compared between different forest site types on dry, wet, and drained mineral soils. Total carbon stock of hemiboreal over-mature spruce stands ranged from 164.8 Mg C ha−1 to 386.7 Mg C ha−1, and 238.5 Mg C ha−1 on average, with no significant differences (p > 0.05) between the forest site types. The carbon stock of tree biomass was significantly affected by the basal area of the upper tree layer (p < 0.0001) and the interaction between the forest site type and proportion of spruce in the stand composition (p = 0.002). Tree biomass was the dominant carbon pool, followed by soil and deadwood in over-mature spruce stands.


To the Editor.— Endicott and Spitzer's presentation in theArchives(35:837-848, 1978) of the latest version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia is but one indication of how far psychiatric diagnosis has progressed in the past decade. One disturbing feature of their report was the lack of reliability of the formal thought disorder scale that the authors attributed to either infrequent occurrence of those behaviors or the lack of unidimensionality of the concept. I believe the latter is the more likely since five of the six items in the scale have not been thought of as formal thinking disorder by most Phenomenologists. 1-2 In addition to neologisms (used by the authors) phenomenologists include under formal thought disorder the following: paraphasias, drivelling (jargon agrammatism), nonsequitive speech in the absence of flight of ideas, verbigeration (palilalia), and tangential speech. In our criteria for schizophrenia, 3 we have utilized this concept


We present results from the zero-order imaging of a Chandra High-Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer observation of the nearby Seyfert 2 galaxy Circinus. Twelve X-ray sources were detected in the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer-S (ACIS-S) image of the galaxy, embedded in diffuse X-ray emission. The latter shows a prominent (~18'') soft "plume" in the northwest direction, coincident with the [O III] ionization cone. The radial profiles of the brightest X-ray source at various energies are consistent with an unresolved (FWHM ~ 0.″8) component, which we identify as the active nucleus, plus two extended components with FWHM ~ 2.″3 and 18'', respectively. In a radius of 3'', the nucleus contributes roughly the same flux as the extended components at the softest energies (≲2 keV). However, at harder energies (>2 keV), the contribution of the nucleus is dominant. The zero-order ACIS spectrum of the nucleus exhibits emission lines at both soft and hard X-rays, including a prominent Fe Kα line at 6.4 keV, showing that most of the X-ray lines previously detected with ASCA originate in a compact region (≲15 pc). Based on its X-ray spectrum, we argue that the 2.″3 extended component is scattered nuclear radiation from nearby ionized gas. The large-scale extended component includes the emission from the northwest plume and possibly from the outer starburst ring.


Apple is one of the fruits that has beneficial effects on human healthy diet and life. The aim of this study is to determine some physical, mineral and organic acids composition of apple cultivars grown in different locations throughout Lorestan province. Apple cultivars had been harvested from different locations throughout Lorestan province of Iran. Analyses for 3 elements (Iron, Zinc, and calcium) were conducted by the flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Phosphorus was measured by the UV-Vis spectrophotometer and Sodium and Potassium were measured by the flame photometer. Organic acids were determined by Titration method using NaOH and phenolphethalein indicator. Weight was measured by scale based on 0.1 g and length and diameters were measured by caliper. The mean weight of Red Delicious and Golden Delicious apples was 173.7 g and 146.7 g, respectively. The amount of iron, zinc, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, and potassium for the red variety was 0.24, 0.14, 28, 8.9, 4.7 and 63.8 respectively; values for the Golden variety were 0.23, 0.14, 27.9, 8.8, 4.5, and 66.3 mg/100g fresh weight, respectively. The amount of ascorbic acid, malic acid, and citric acid for Golden delicious was 9.09, 0.27 and 0.28, respectively; for Red delicious apples, the amount was 9.47, 0.26 and 0.28 mg/100 g, respectively. Acidities for Golden delicious and Red delicious were 3.7 and 4, respectively. One hundred gram of apple fruit grown in Lorestan would provide 3% of iron, 1.5% of zinc, 2.8% of calcium and 1.4% of potassium requirements. The amount of organic acid in apples of Lorestan province was lower than some other countries.


The genetic architecture of complex traits in cattle includes very large numbers of loci affecting any given trait. Most of these loci have small effects but occasionally there are loci with moderate-to-large effects segregating due to recent selection for the mutant allele. Genomic markers capture most but not all of the additive genetic variance for traits, probably because there are causal mutations with low allele frequency and therefore in incomplete linkage disequilibrium with the markers. The prediction of genetic value from genomic markers can achieve high accuracy by using statistical models that include all markers and assuming that marker effects are random variables drawn from a specified prior distribution. Recent effective population size is in the order of 100 within cattle breeds and ≈ 2500 animals with genotypes and phenotypes are sufficient to predict the genetic value of animals with an accuracy of 0.65. Recent effective population size for humans is much larger, in the order of 10,000-15,000, and more than 145,000 records would be required to reach a similar accuracy for people. However, our calculations assume that genomic markers capture all the genetic variance. This may be possible in the future as causal polymorphisms are genotyped using genome sequence data.


• Practical cases in social sourcing as input for inspiration
• Social network theory as base for exploration and connection
• Lean Leadership principles for success in social sourcing
Masterclass for OpeningUp Interreg Summer Academy for Social Media Trainers in Local & Regional governments and businesses, Groningen.
Summer Academy Day 1: Frank Willems.


The conditioned media (CM) of the glioblastoma multiforme cell line, U87 MG, contains abundant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) activity (Tweardy et al., 1987). An oligonucleotide encoding the amino acids -11 to -4 of G-CSF detected a single abundant G-CSF mRNA of 1.6 kilobases (Kb) produced by U87 MG cells. Screening of a U87 MG cDNA library with the oligonucleotide identified cDNA clones of 1.3-1.4 Kb. Sequencing of one clone (pG-CSF6) confirmed that it encoded G-CSF and was derived from G-CSFb mRNA encoding a protein with a three amino acid deletion at positions 36-38. Only a single base substitution was observed at the third position of the codon for leu 152 indicating that G-CSF is highly conserved in cells of widely different origin. Somatic cell hybridization studies and chromosomal in situ hybridization localized the G-CSF gene to the long arm of chromosome 17 in band 17q21, proximal to the 17q breakpoint characteristic of acute promyelocytic leukemia.


Aims: In the Brazilian Amazon, the practices and use of agroforestry systems (SAF) are increasingly used, the proper management of them helps to improve soil properties and also to prevent their degradation. In this context, the objective of this work was to evaluate the biological attributes of the soil in the oil palm cultivation systems with intercropping.
Study Design: The experimental design used was completely randomized with four repetitions and six treatments: Oil palm (Elaeis guineense Jacq.) interspersed with pineapple (OPi), bean (OBe), banana (OBa), yucca (OYu) and Brachiaria humidicola (OPa), as well as adjacent area only with Brachiaria humidicola as a witness (Pa). The Tukey test was used at a level of 5% probability in samples analyzed at a depth of 0-0.0 m, to compare the means of the variables evaluated.
Place and Duration of Study: The experimental area is located of São João da Baliza, vicinal 26, km 12, with geographic coordinates of reference 00º.51'13.3''N and 60º00'19.8''W, the altitude of 100 msnm and, distant to 352 km from the capital Boa Vista, state of Roraima realized in 2016.
Results: The TOC presented values between 4.70 and 9.45 g kg-1, being the highest values found in the interim systems OYu, Pa, OBa, highlighting the intermediate system OPi that presented the lowest levels. The highest basal respiration values of the soil (RBS) (23.50 mg C-CO2 kg-1 soil h-1) and carbon from microbial biomass (C-BMS) (116.0 mg C microbiano kg-1 soil) were verified in the pasture system. Likewise, for the urease and acid phosphatase activity, the grass system stands out as a control with values of (148.42 g NH4+ g-1 soil 2 h-1) y (230 μg de p-nitrofenol g-1 soil h-1) followed by palm with grass and yucca systems. However, the β-glucosidase activity (51.22 μg p-nitrofenol g-1 h-1) it was positively influenced by the oil palm system with yucca. On the other hand, the system interspersed with pineapple showed a higher metabolic coefficient (qCO2) (0.36 mg C-CO2 g-1 C-BMS h-1). It can be concluded that the pasture system (Pa) is presented as a more stable environment, followed by interspersed systems of oil palm with grass (OPa) and yucca (OYu).


Abstract The discrete Fourier transform is among the most routine tools used in high-resolution scanning/transmission electron microscopy (S/TEM). However, when calculating a Fourier transform, periodic boundary conditions are imposed and sharp discontinuities between the edges of an image cause a cross patterned artifact along the reciprocal space axes. This artifact can interfere with the analysis of reciprocal lattice peaks of an atomic resolution image. Here we demonstrate that the recently developed Periodic Plus Smooth Decomposition technique provides a simple, efficient method for reliable removal of artifacts caused by edge discontinuities. In this method, edge artifacts are reduced by subtracting a smooth background that solves Poisson's equation with boundary conditions set by the image's edges. Unlike the traditional windowed Fourier transforms, Periodic Plus Smooth Decomposition maintains sharp reciprocal lattice peaks from the image's entire field of view.


The influence of gravity on the capillary forces and stabilities of pendular liquid bridges between spherical bodies is examined including the special case of a sphere and a flat surface. Previously, this has only been possible by measurement or calculation for a particular bridge system. In the current work, it is shown that a map involving the dimensionless bridge volume, V*, and the Bond number, Bo, may be used to represent the various regimes of behavior. There are four distinct regimes ranging from gravity free to complete draining in which it is not possible to form stable junctions. The boundaries are defined by contours of constant values of the group V*Bo which may be regarded as the Bond number with the appropriate length scale for this system.


Crowdfunding has become an important source of funds for entrepreneurs. In this paper, we add a novel dimension to the literature examining how narrative styles affect the performance of such funding campaigns, by employing the lens of effectuation theory. Using data from a popular non-equity crowdfunding platform from 2009 to 2019 and examining the narratives of the campaigns through the lens of effectuation, we provide empirical evidence that entrepreneurial tendencies exhibited in crowdfunding campaigns' narratives can affect the chances of success of such campaigns. More specifically, we show that narratives with higher effectual orientation exhibit higher chances of success in raising funds and this impact is more pronounced in commercial campaigns. We also show that campaigns having narratives with higher causal orientation tend to be more successful in raising the required funds, though the evidence is mixed.


Introduction Colorectal cancer is the third commonest cancer in the United Kingdom with 35000 patients newly diagnosed per annum Evidence has shown that resection of adenomatous colonic polyps decreases the occurrence of malignancy by upto 90%. Endoscopic mucosal resection of polyps has been very effective in removing polyps. Methods A retrospective case study of lower GI EMR procedures done by a single endoscopist (colonoscopy/ sigmoidoscopy) at a district general hospital from September 2012 and January 2013 was performed. The data was extracted from endobase reporting system. Data collected included size, location and morphology of polyp. Procedural data collected included type of EMR and procedural time. Results 95 EMRs were included in the study. 1 unit time point was assumed to be 15 min. Procedures were allocated between 2 and 4 units. All the procedures were performed by a consultant gastroenterologist with experience in EMRS. The mean time for 95 procedures was 52 min, whilst the mean allocated time was 43 min. There was a significant correlation between the time taken to complete EMR polypectomy and age (mean age = 66.6 years, p = 0.02 and polyp size (mean diameter = 25.3 mm) p < 0.0001. Morphology of the polyps did not cause significant variation in time taken (sessile/flat-elevated Vs semi-pedunculated/pedunculated: mean duration = 51 mins vs. 54 mins mean time difference = 3 mins p = 0.28. Piecemeal-EMR (p-EMR) was longer than en-bloc EMR (mean duration = 63 vs 48 min, mean difference = 14 min, p < 0.0022. Sigmoidoscopy EMR (n = 52) was not significantly longer than colonoscopy EMR (n = 43) (mean times: 53 vs 50 min mean difference = 3 min p = 0.28). Removal of >1 polyps (n = 74) was not significantly longer than that for 1 polyp (n = 21) (Mean time: 53 vs 46 min, mean difference = 7 min p = 0.1115). Conclusion The time taken for endoscopic mucosal resection of colonic polyps did not exceed the allocated significantly. The factors that affected the duration significantly were age of the patient and size of the polyp. Piecemeal EMR was also associated with longer duration than enbloc- EMR. These factors should be taken into consideration when booking patients for planned endoscopic resection of colonic polyps. Disclosure of Interest None Declared.


A number of works have shown that the aggregation of several Information Retrieval (IR) systems works better than each system working individually. Nevertheless, early investigation in the context of CLEF Robust-WSD task, in which semantics is involved, showed that aggregation strategies achieve only slight improvements. This paper proposes a re-ranking approach which relies on inter-document similarities. The novelty of our idea is twofold: the output of a semantic based IR system is exploited to re-weigh documents and a new strategy based on Semantic Vectors is used to compute inter-document similarities.


Objective To explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Study Design We performed a survey-based study from doctors working in the field of Obstetrics and Gynaecology across all Hospitals in United Kingdom. Surveyed information included demographics, past history of mental health conditions, screening for current symptoms of depression and anxiety, the significance of contributory factors and the effects of mental health on workplace behaviour. Results 207 doctors completed the survey. Of the respondents, 22.2% (n=46) had previously received treatment for a mental health condition. During the COVID-19 pandemic, O&G doctors as compared to UK-wide population estimate, reported significantly higher rates of both Major Depressive Disorder (15.94% versus 3.3%, p=0.023) and Generalised Anxiety Disorder (24.64% versus 5.9%, p=0.044). Sub-group analysis showed that anxiety was more common amongst female doctors as compared to males (27.5% versus 12.50%, p=0.047). Respondents felt that the most significant factors for work-related changes to mental health was keeping up to date with frequently changing guidelines and protocols related to COVID-19. Only 38.65% of respondents agreed that they felt able to talk to colleagues about their mental health. Conclusions This is the first reported study that assesses the impact of COVID-19 on mental health amongst Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Further research should focus on assessing if changes in the way rapidly changing guidelines and protocols are disseminated reduces the impact on mental health. Ongoing efforts are also needed to improve support networks and encourage normality around discussing mental health amongst doctors


Global legal pluralism is now recognized as an entrenched reality of the international and transnational legal order. Indeed, wherever one looks, there is conflict among multiple legal regimes. Some of these regimes are state-based, some are built and maintained by non-state actors, some fall within the purview of local authorities and jurisdictional entities, and some involve international courts, tribunals, arbitral bodies, and regulatory organizations.
It has now been approximately 20 years since scholars first began pushing the insights of legal pluralism into the transnational and international arena. During those two decades, a rich body of work has established pluralism as a useful descriptive and normative framework for understanding a world of overlapping jurisdictional assertions, both state and non-state. Indeed, there has been a veritable explosion of scholarly work on legal pluralism, soft law, global constitutionalism, the relationships among relative authorities, and the fragmentation and reinforcement of territorial boundaries.
Thus, the time has come for a survey and analysis of this literature in order to understand the evolution of global legal pluralism as a scholarly trope. In this chapter, I seek to begin such a task by separating out some of the descriptive and normative strands in the scholarly discourse. In addition, I tackle challenges and criticisms of global legal pluralism and aim to refine the field based on recent research. The result, I hope, will be to re-energize and engage global legal pluralism scholarship and push its trajectory forward into another two decades of innovation.


The problem of finding decentralized transmission policies in a wireless communication network with energy harvesting constraints is formulated and solved using the decentralized Markov decision process framework. The proposed policy defines the transmission strategies of all devices so as to correctly balance the collision probabilities with the energy constraints. After an initial coordination phase, in which the network parameters are initialized for all devices, every node proceeds in a fully decentralized fashion. We numerically show that, unlike in the case without energy constraints where a fully orthogonal scheme can be shown to be optimal, in the presence of energy harvesting this is no longer the best choice, and the optimal strategy lies between an orthogonal and a completely symmetric system.


1. The Bmax values for the radioligand [3H]-ouabain in gastrocnemius muscle membranes from guinea-pigs pretreated with vehicle (0.9% saline, 0.1% ascorbic acid), isoprenaline (50 micrograms kg-1) or terbutaline (125 micrograms kg-1) subcutaneously three times daily for 7 days were 5.3 +/- 0.6; 3.1 +/- 0.4 (P less than 0.05) and 2.0 +/- 0.2 pmol mg-1 protein (P less than 0.01) (means +/- S.E.M.) respectively. Thus chronic pretreatment of the guinea-pigs with isoprenaline or terbutaline reduced the density of [3H]-ouabain binding sites by 40 and 60% respectively. 2. The ouabain-sensitive uptake of 86Rb in intact soleus muscles from control and terbutaline pretreated animals were 10.8 +/- 1.2 and 9.0 +/- mmol g-1 wet tissue 20 min-1 respectively. Pretreatment of guinea-pigs with terbutaline did not therefore significantly alter ouabain-sensitive uptake of 86Rb (P greater than 0.1). 3. The results support a close relationship between regulation of beta-adrenoceptors and [3H]-ouabain binding sites. 4. Additional investigations are required to confirm further the dissociation between the function of the pump and the ouabain binding sites measured under the present experimental conditions.


In this study two models for remediation of diesel contaminated soil by composting process were used: mathematical modeling and artificial neural network (ANN) modeling. The mathematical model was solved iteratively and validated with experimental data. Then, a three-layer back propagation ANN was trained, tested and validated to predict the decomposition of diesel in contaminated soil according to 3600 data sets which were obtained from mathematical model. The Best neural network result has been obtained with one hidden layer network, with 14 neurons. "tansig" for hidden layers and "purelin" for the output layer gave the best performance compared to other activation functions. The ANN architecture contains six inputs. Diesel decomposition percent is the only output of ANN. ANN predicted results are very close to the target data. The high correlation coefficient, 0.9995, between the network prediction and the corresponding data proves that ANN modeling is a satisfactory method for remediation process.


We report on 3 individuals, a man and his son and daughter, who were born with preaxial deficiencies of the hands and feet and postaxial polydactyly of the hands. Both males also had glandular hypospadias. Certain of these findings resemble those found in the hand-foot-genital syndrome; however, we conclude that this family has a hitherto unreported autosomal dominant condition. Production by a single gene defect of preaxial deficiencies and postaxial polydactyly in the same individual is of note.


SUMMARY In this paper we review the published literature on patterns of abundance and aggregation of macroparasites in wildlife host populations. We base this survey on quantitative analyses of mean burden and a number of measures of the degree of aggregation of parasite burdens between hosts. All major parasite and vertebrate host taxa were represented in the database. Mean parasite burden was found to be log-normally distributed, indicating that all parasite burdens are regulated to some degree. In addition, all but one of the parasitic infections were aggregated with respect to their hosts, and the relationship between log mean parasite burden and log variance was found to be very strong (R2 = 0·87). That is, for a given mean parasite burden there are constraints on the degree of variation in individual host burdens. The aggregated nature of the parasitic infections is also apparent from other measures of the degree of aggregation: prevalence – mean relationships, and the negative binomial parameter, k. Using a relatively new technique for parasitological infection data – tree-based models, as well as traditional linear models – a number of the parasitic infections was found to be associated with systematically lower or higher parasite burdens. Possible biological explanations for these and other patterns are proposed.


The main objective of the present study is to identify design model of identity status, based on the relationship between the parent (mother) - children and locus of control. The sample study of this research consists of all students who were studying in all degree courses in all branches of medical education, engineering, and basic sciences at the University of Tehran. The average age of these students were from 18 to 35 years old. Also, the sample included 365 male and female students who were selected by multistage random sampling. In order to gather the data, the researcher used three questionnaire development - an objective measure of finding my identity (EOM-EIS-2) and Adams Bnyvn OMEIS (1998), the pattern of questions about parent - child made (Bagheri and Ghaffari, in press) and the Rotter IE Locus of Control Scale. In this present study, structural equation modeling was used for data processing. Also, the researcher analyzed the raw data from questionnaires and tests on software (spss) using structural modeling software (lisrel) lizarl case review and analysis for a model theoretical concept. The results indicated that aspects of open circuit (model relationship of parent - child) has an impact on all endogenous variables:  The impact of locus of control is a significant direct effect.  Open circuit impact on identifiable direct and significant impact on the success.  Other endogenous variables of the open circuit accepts backfire.


ABSTRACT

An aerosol-assisted process for continuously producing sodium tungsten bronze particles in one step was proposed. The effects of the precursor solution, solvent, heating temperature, and moisture concentration on the quality (i.e., crystallinity) of the products were systematically investigated. The mechanisms for the particle formation and the chemical reactions involved in this process were also studied. By varying the atomic ratio of sodium to tungsten in the precursor solution, sodium tungsten bronze particles in the cubic (Na0.70WO3) and tetragonal (Na0.57WO3) phases were monophasically produced. Particles in both phases showed near infrared (NIR) shielding properties. However, cubic-phase particles (Na0.70WO3) possessed higher visibility in the visible light range due to their lower impurity content and higher crystallinity.


Objective We compared the assisted reproductive technology (ART) outcomes among infertile women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) treated with IVM, conventional IVF, GnRH agonist, and GnRH antagonist cycles. Methods The prospective study included a total of 67 cycles in 61 infertile women with PCOS. The women with PCOS were randomized into three IVF protocols: IVM/IVF with FSH and hCG priming with immature oocyte retrieval 38 hours later (group A, 14 cycles), GnRH agonist long protocol (group B, 14 cycles), and GnRH antagonist multi-dose flexible protocol (group C, 39 cycles). IVF outcomes, such as clinical pregnancy rate (CPR), implantation rate (IR), miscarriage rate (MR), and live birth rate (LBR), were compared among the three groups. Results Age, BMI, and basal FSH and LH levels did not differ among the three groups. The number of retrieved oocytes and 2 pronucleus embryos was significantly lower in group A compared with groups B and C. The CPR, IR, MR, and LBR per embryo transfer showed no differences among the three groups. There was no incidence of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome in group A. Conclusion The IR, MR, and LBR in the IVM cycles were comparable to those of the GnRH agonist and GnRH antagonist cycles. The IVM protocol, FSH and hCG priming with oocyte retrieval 38 hours later, is an effective ART option that is comparable with conventional IVF for infertile women with PCOS.


This study investigates the physicochemical quality characteristics of tomato sauce added with different kinds of pimpinella brachycarpa. The results are as follows. The pH of tomato sauce added with freeze-dried pimpinella brachycarpa, in contrast to the tomato sauce with raw pimpinella brachycarpa, decreased as the addition quantity of the sample increased. As for sugar content, PBP0 with Pimpinella brachycarpa contained was shown to be the highest with 10.83. For chromaticity, all values (e.g, L, A and B) of tomato sauce added with pimpinella brachycarpa and with freeze-dried pimpinella brachycarpa decreased showing significant differences among the samples as the addition quantity of the samples increased. With increased addition quantity of the sample with freeze-dried Pimpinella brachycarpa, its water content decreased. PBP4, addition group with 4% of freeze-dried Pimpinella brachycarpa, was shown to be the highest DPPH free radical scavenging activity as 29.58. When adding Pimpinella brachycarpa to tomato sauce, a total number of micro-organisms decreased. In case of adding raw Pimpinella brachycarpa rather than freeze-dried Pimpinella brachycarpa, it created a further effect on an inhibitive action of growing and developing micro-organisms. In the preference of tomato sauce with Pimpinella brachycarpa, PBF2 with 2% of Pimpinella brachycarpa had the highest score as 5.1 for the color. For taste, 3.7, the lowest taste score, was shown in PBF1with 1% of Pimpinella brachycarpa. The overall preference revealed that PBF2 was the highest scoring 5.8.. PBF3 was scored highest with 5.9 for overall preference. From the comprehensive findings, 2~3% of the addition ratio between raw Pimpinella brachycarpa and freeze-dried Pimpinella brachycarpa in the production of tomato sauce is considered the most preferable.


The detection or suspicion of a tumoral expansive process in the third ventricule is usually performed by MRI. The contribution of MRI to the diagnosis is unquestionable in view of its accuracy in the topographical characterization of these lesions and in the detection of small formations. The great histological variety of tumours in that region may result in different treatments which can be associated. MRI, therefore, plays an important role in pretherapeutic morphological evaluation. Fifteen patients with tumour of the third ventricle were examined by MRI before treatment. The results of these examinations were compared with the pathological data and the therapeutic procedures: ventricular shunting, stereotactic needle biopsy, radio- or chemotherapy and surgery. MRI cannot provide a formal histological characterization, but it can individualise some categories of tumours, give details on the walls of the third ventricle (notably in the case of bifocal pineal and suprassellar lesions), visualize the paths of CSF flow and predict the need for cisternoventriculostomy, and detect venous structures in the vicinity of the great cerebral vein which might result in post-biopsy and post-surgery complications.


Fast streaming fluid media causes cavitation-erosion in pumps, ship-propellers and rudders. To avoid severe damages, materials with high resistance against plastic deformation and a high fatigue strength should be used. Bronzes fulfill these criteria, but as-cast bulk parts are rather costly. A promising alternative is cold-spray deposition of dense and oxide-free coatings onto exposed surfaces. To achieve high quality bronze coatings by cold-spraying, parameter optimization has to tackle the high hardness of the feedstock powder materials. Additionally, practical limits due to nozzle clogging have to be considered, which may occur at gas temperatures above 700 °C. The present study investigates possible solutions by systematic process parameter and feedstock material optimization, including variation of bronze compositions. Thus, dense coating microstructures and - in consequence - high hardness and good cavitation resistance were obtained. Cold-spray coatings reach up to 8 times better cavitation resistance as compared to conventional ship-building steel (GL-A).


Background

The RSPH1 , RSPH4A and RSPH9 genes have been implicated in primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) with ultrastructural abnormalities of the central complex (CC). We studied phenotypic features of patients with RSPH1 , RSPH4A or RSPH9 mutations to guide the strategy for molecular analyses in patients with CC defects.

Methods

RSPH1 , RSPH4A and RSPH9 coding exons and their flanking intronic sequences were sequenced in 65 unrelated families (84 patients). We compared the following parameters: sex, origin, consanguinity, laterality defects, neonatal respiratory distress, airway infections, bronchiectasis, nasal polyposis, otitis media, hearing loss, infertility, nasal nitric oxide (NO), ciliary beat frequency and quantitative ultrastructural analyses of cilia.

Results

Biallelic RSPH1 , RSPH4A or RSPH9 mutations were identified in 21 (32%) unrelated families (30 patients): 10 (15%) with RSPH1 mutations, 7 (11%) with RSPH4A mutations and 4 (6%) with RSPH9 mutations. Patients with identified mutations shared a similar phenotype in terms of clinical features (sinopulmonary syndrome with no situs inversus), decreased nasal NO in most patients, presence of beating cilia normal frequency together with slow beating and immotile cilia, and CC defects in a minority of cilia.

Conclusion

Patients with RSPH1 , RSPH4A or RSPH9 mutations are phenotypically indistinguishable. Given the contribution of the 3 genes in this phenotype, the 1st one to be tested is RSPH1 , then RSPH4A before RSPH9 . The molecular analyses are decisive specialy when the diagnosis of PCD is difficult to establish. The molecular basis of PCD remains to be identified in 44 (68%) families.


The cylinderized liquid ethyl formate (EF) formulated with CO2 is one of the great potential fumigants to replace methyl bromide (MeBr) for fresh fruit. However, it is too expensive to adapt commercial practices, and also involves work place safety issue including handling of heavy cylinders as well as restrict emission of CO2, particularly for use in large scale commercial fumigationw. Therefore, it is urgently needed to develop environmental friendly, safe for workers and cost-effective alternative method for application of liquid ethyl formate as a MeBr alternative for perishable commodities. Recently, the environmentally friendly, cost-effective and practically safe use of liquid EF (FumateTM, registered name) with nitrogen gas has been developed and commercialized in Republic of Korea and Australia. The new technology for application of liquid EF is 100 times safer than MeBr in terms of threshold values (EF, TLV = 100 ppm). Ethyl formate is known as food additive and naturally occurred substances as well as a non-ozone depletion chemical. In this report, we demonstrate the liquid EF application technology that offers a clean environment (no ozone depletions and CO2 emissions), safe to fumigators and related workers and practically cost-effective technology to fumigation industry.


Searches for rare decays of beauty and charm mesons are producing upper limits which now are approaching the theoretical Standard Model (SM) expectations for branching ratios. Indeed, in some case the measurements have reached those limits. We are approaching the point at which we might expect evidences of New Physics (NP) to become evident. However, in all cases we will need more data to either reach the level of the SM predictions or, in the cases where the measurements are at the SM, to confirm any differences between the observed branching ratio and the SM calculation. We have some reason to expect in the next two years that the experiments at the LHC and other venues will reach this point. In addition, other ways of checking the SM rather than by simple counting experiments are underway. Experiments to measure polarization effects may prove to ultimately be the more sensitive way to look for deviations from the SM rather than using branching ratios. This paper describes the present state of the experimental efforts in several B decay modes and takes a look at future prospects at the LHC.


There is a growing, multidisciplinary body of evidence on the effects that neighborhoods have on family outcomes. This evidence is important for social workers as we work with clients and communities from a person-in-environment perspective. In this article the authors present findings from a systematic, integrative review of neighborhood effects specifically for crime and safety. Thirty-seven research studies using random samples from urban, U.S. areas between 2002 and 2008 are reviewed. Findings suggest socio-demographic characteristics of neighborhoods and neighborhood processes are both predictive of crime and safety. Further, some neighborhood conditions may affect crime and safety in unexpected ways. Implications for social work practice, neighborhood interventions, and evidence-based practice are discussed.


Abstract The first and larger part of this article is devoted to a brief review of colour duplex echography of atherosclerotic lesions of the carotid artery: history, basic principles, technique, and diagnostic value. The authors, a vascular surgical team, witness from their own experience, with due attention to surgical practice. In the last part concerning duplex-based surgical decision, the results of a small scale trial conducted in 1996 in their department are presented: in 36 consecutive operated cases, the operative data and excised plaque were compared to the preoperative colour-duplex data regarding degree of stenosis, geometry of the lesion, and plaque composition. Results were expressed as perfect, fair, poor: stenosis (33, 2, 1), geometry (27, 5, 4), plaque (20, 10, 6). The surgical decision appeared perfectly justified in 35 cases (97%). It is concluded that colour-duplex echography is invaluable in the management of carotid artery atherosclerotic disease and that carotid artery surgery may generally be performed after a "duplex only" investigation. Every laboratory should make continuous efforts in monitoring and improving its own quality.


This chapter considers laws governing freedom of assembly and public order in the UK. The discussion covers rights and freedoms, and the powers of the police to preserve the peace and maintain public order. The chapter examines the concept of a breach of the peace and the circumstances in which the police may take action to prevent a breach from occurring. The chapter also focuses on the Public Order Act 1986, including provisions on racially or religiously aggravated public order offences, and the control of public processions and assemblies. Finally, the chapter examines statutory provisions specifically aimed at controlling or restricting demonstrations in the vicinity of Parliament.


Plague was confirmed in the United States from nine western states during 1995. Evidence of Yersinia pestis infection was identified in 28 species of wild or domestic mammals. Thirteen of the plague positive species were wild rodents; 15 were predators/carnivores. Yersinia pestis was isolated from eight species of fleas. Seven confirmed cases of human plague were reported in 1995 (New Mexico 3; California 2; Arizona and Oregon 1 each). Five of the seven cases were bubonic; one was septicemic and one a fatal pneumonic case. Months of onset ranged from March through August. In California, during 1995, plague was recorded from 15 of the 58 counties. Over 1,500 animals were tested, of which 208 were plague positive. These included 144 rodents and 64 predators/carnivores. Two confirmed human cases (one bubonic and one fatal pneumonic) occurred, both in Kern County. Case No. 1 was reported from the town of Tehachapi. The patient, a 23 year-old male resident, died following a diagnosis of plague pneumonia. The patient's source of plague infection could not be determined precisely. Field investigations revealed an extensive plague epizootic surrounding Tehachapi, an area of approximately 500-600 square miles (800-970 square kilometers). Case No. 2 was a 57 year-old female diagnosed with bubonic plague; she was placed on an antibiotic regimen and subsequently recovered. The patient lives approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of Tehachapi. Field investigations revealed evidence of a plague epizootic in the vicinity of the victim's residence and adjacent areas. Overall results of the joint field investigations throughout the entire Kern county area revealed a high rate of plague positive animals. Of the numerous samples submitted, 48 non-human samples were plague positive.


We propose a novel semantic web service process which consists of service annotation, discovery, and composition for a goal-driven computing. The proposed web service process is the key enabler of our goal-driven application creation environment that helps software developers to make new application semi-automatically by accomplishing their programming goals. Especially, in the goal-driven computing, we employ goal ontology and goal pattern library to bridge the gap between concrete services on the Web and user's declarative goals in the real world. The proposed semantic service process can be performed under the existing web services environment without new service models proposed for semantic and goal-driven computing by previous works, such as OWL-S and WSMO. Ultimately, we expect that the proposed process can promote the growth of converged applications across the domains and service providers.


Mobile phones have become full-featured mobile computers, and the usage of this technology were developed promptly. Interest towards the usages of mobile phone as an intervention in developing new application for user were also seem very promising. Much has been discus about the role of mobile application nowadays. Mobile apps that been design and created by the genius content developers, mostly are the applications that try to solve the problem facing by the user out there. Design process that has been conducted earlier in the study has led towards the invention of Thru Eye Apps. The applications are focusing on user interface and usability, and this were a baseline in developing the Thru Eyes Apps. The Thru Eye apps were developed to ease and guide tourist while traveling. With the establishment of this application, user will able to travel easily even though they travelling for the first time. Thus, this research paper discusses the user interface design process of forming Thru Eye apps in assisting tourist while travelling.


Although the number of teenagers choosing to have cosmetic procedures is increasing at a rapid rate, few studies have been published describing their attitudes about aesthetic surgery. To understand better their beliefs about cosmetic surgery, voluntary, confidential surveys were sent to the entire junior class of a suburban high school. Although two thirds of the respondents knew someone who had undergone cosmetic surgery, only one third would choose it for themselves. Those who desired aesthetic surgery described people who have cosmetic procedures as "motivated," whereas those who would not choose this option believed individuals who do so are "vain." The most desired procedures were liposuction, rhinoplasty, and breast augmentation. The main reasons for not proceeding were health risks, cost, and fear of a bad result. The most common source of information about plastic surgery among the students was teen magazines and television.