The Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been growing exponentially at unprecedented speed and scale during past decades. In particular, the internet was deemed to help increase female labor force participation (FLFP) through its job-related transformation. However, such a claim needs to be further investigated, particularly in a society where gender stereotypes brought by social norms and values prevail. On the other hand, Bali province has long been characterized by highly-patriarchal culture. Men and women's role are distinguished, with men taking the top part while women are carrying the supporting one. Hence, looking into the contribution of internet access to FLFP in Bali Province will be a cutting-edge attempt to study the ICT effect on FLFP. The quasi-experiment approach will also estimate causal effects and draw causal inferences of a specific intervention. As part of the primary method in quasi-experimental designs, propensity score matching (PSM) is assigned. This method can be utilized analogously to the randomized experiment that helps design an observational study regardless of the outcome's availability. Using data from the Indonesian national socio-economic survey (SUSENAS) 2018, we aim to account for the effect of internet access on the FLFP in Bali province. Based on our findings, it can be inferred that internet access positively impacts the FLFP in Bali province. This result is mainly affiliated with their educational background and well-being, e.g., dependency ratio, other household income, and low Household. The ICT brought by the internet appears to have a role in increasing female participation to join the workforce despite being designated to a highly-patriarchal society. However, this condition has mainly relied on the level of education and household well-being.


Abstract During the 1954 cruise of the USS San Pablo and USS Rehoboth, 27 seismic refraction profiles were shot primarily to obtain detailed sedimentary data in the western North Atlantic. This work combined with later work, which also emphasized sedimentary data, provides 60 profiles in which gain and filter settings were adjusted to give coherent sedimentary arrivals. Good agreement was found among solutions obtained by several different methods for sediment thickness and velocity. Results indicate that velocity gradients are variable and are greatest near the liquid-sediment interface; wide-angle sedimentary arrivals in the deepsea profiles are reflections; refracted arrivals from the sediments are restricted to a zone shoreward of about halfway up to the continental rise.


Abstract Recently collected materials of a tylosaurine mosasaur from Haumuri Bluff, New Zealand, are assigned to Taniwhasaurus oweni Hector, 1874. Previously described tylosaurine mosasaur specimens from Haumuri Bluff that were assigned to other taxa are re-evaluated here and assigned to T. oweni. Taniwhasaurus is diagnosed as a tylosaurine based on the possession of a premaxillary rostrum and anterior edentulous process of the dentary. However, Taniwhasaurus also exhibits a prefrontal-maxillary contact in which the prefrontal forms a portion of the naris, thus precluding the frontal-maxillary contact characteristic of all other tylosaurines with the possible exception of Hainosaurus bernardi. The distribution of the frontal-maxillary contact in mosasaurs suggests that it may be correlated with snout elongation.


Enhancement of high brightness hard X-ray production by installing higher-field, superconducting bend magnets (super bends) is proposed for the SSRF upgrade. Conceptual designs for single- and eight-superbend lattices are described here, as are the results of some preliminary studies that had the aim of maintaining machine performance.


Ocean surface processes, and air–sea interaction in general, have recently received increased attention because it is now accepted that small-scale surface phenomena can play a crucial role in the air–sea fluxes of heat, mass, and momentum, with important implications for weather and climate studies. Yet, despite good progress in recent years, the air–sea interface and the adjacent atmospheric and marine boundary layers have proven to be difficult to measure in all but the most benign conditions. This has led to the need for novel measurement techniques to quantify processes of air–sea interaction. Here the authors present infrared techniques aimed at simultaneously studying multiple aspects of the air–sea interface and air–sea fluxes. The instrumentation was tested and deployed during several field experiments from Research Platform (R/P) FLIP and Scripps pier. It is shown that these techniques permit the detailed study of the ocean surface temperature and velocity fields. In particular, it is shown that cross-correlation techniques typically used in particle image velocimetry can be used to infer the ocean surface velocity field from passive infrared temperature images. In addition, when conditions make cross-correlation techniques less effective, an active infrared marking and tracking technique [which will be called thermal marker velocimetry (TMV)] can be successfully used to measure the surface velocity and its spatial and temporal derivatives. The thermal marker velocimetry technique also provides estimates of the heat transfer velocity and surface renewal frequencies. Finally, infrared altimetry is used to complement the temperature and kinematic data obtained from passive imagery and active marking. The data obtained during the testing and deployment of this instrumentation provide a novel description of the kinematics of the surface of the ocean.


Wether teaching in a classroom or a Massive Online Open Course it is crucial to present the material in a way that benefits the audience as a whole. We identify two important tasks to solve towards this objective; (1.) group students so that they can maximally benefit from peer interaction and (2.) find an optimal schedule of the educational material for each group. Thus, in this paper we solve the problem of team formation and content scheduling for education. Given a time frame d, a set of students S with their required need to learn different activities T and given k as the number of desired groups, we study the problem of finding k group of students. The goal is to teach students within time frame d such that their potential for learning is maximized and find the best schedule for each group. We show this problem to be NP-hard and develop a polynomial algorithm for it. We show our algorithm to be effective both on synthetic as well as a real data set. For our experiments we use real data on students' grades in a Computer Science department. As part of our contribution we release a semi-synthetic dataset that mimics the properties of the real data.


Objective: To analyze the initial characteristics of the first master's degree in nursing in Brazil, to discuss the difficulties to meet the new academic requirements. Methods: This is a social-historical study. The primary sources were written documents and interviews with former students and former teachers of that course. The theoretical concepts used for analysis are the university and the three generations of researchers. Results: About the characteristics, the following stands out: taught by faculty members qualified abroad, curriculum aimed at theoretical and theoretical-practical experiences, directed at didactic and pedagogical training. Among the difficulties, the following need emphasis: lack of qualified teachers to teach, lack of subjects for critical and reflective education. Conclusion: At the start of the 1970s, the EEAN faced the challenge of implementing a course at stricto sensu post-graduate level. Despite the difficulties, in 1975, the EEAN graduated the first nine masters in Nursing, contributing to the emergence of a new generation of researchers in nursing in the country.


Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) require careful therapeutic anticoagulation with warfarin to prevent pump thrombosis. However, the best method to reverse warfarin for elective LVAD conversion surgery with massive bleeding remains unclear. We report the case of a 39-year-old Japanese man who was administered a four-factor prothrombin complex concentrate (4F-PCC) as warfarin reversal when he underwent conversion surgery from paracorporeal LVAD to implantable LVAD. 4F-PCC with co-administration of vitamin K reduced the international normalized ratio and R time in TEG6s (Haemonetics Corporation, USA) immediately. The effect was prolonged, and good hemostasis was achieved. 4F-PCC with vitamin K provided good hemostasis in our patient; therefore, 4F-PCC could be a useful tool for elective LVAD conversion surgery with expected massive bleeding and requiring immediate warfarin reversal.


Background and Aims:Several studies have demonstrated that patients with essential tremor (ET) may also have mild cognitive impairments (MCIs), and cross-sectional and population-based studies have shown that ET is associated with prevalent dementia. Different presentations of MCI are suggested to be associated with different pathologies. For example, amnestic MCI may be associated with Alzheimer disease. Therefore, in this study, we explored whether the MCI subtype in patients with ET (MCI-ET+) is different from the MCI subtype in patients without ET attending a memory outpatient clinic (MCI-ET−). Methods:Using a case-control study design, cognitive status in MCI patients with ET and without ET was assessed by neuropsychological testing. Patients with MCI were stratified into groups: amnestic and nonamnestic MCI, or single-domain and multidomain MCI. Results:Of the 93 patients in the ET+ group and the 169 in the ET− group, 45 (48.4%) and 94 (55.6%) patients had MCI, respectively. The frequency of MCI subtypes between the 2 groups was different, such that 25 (55.6%) patients had nonamnestic MCI in the ET+ group and 68 (72.3%) patients had amnestic MCI in ET− group (&khgr;2=10.195, P=0.001). Compared with the MCI-ET+ group, patients in the MCI-ET− group showed more severe impairments in verbal and visuospatial memory functions. Conclusions:ET is associated with MCI, particularly the nonamnestic subtype. These results suggest that cognitive change in patients with ET may have a different pathogenesis from that of Alzheimer disease.


Why do different population groups (e.g. rural vs. urban, youth vs. elderly and men vs. women) experience the same objective labor status differently? One hypothesis is that people are more concerned with relative deprivation than objective deprivation and they value their own status relative to the status of their peers—the reference group. One way to test this hypothesis in the labor market is to measure individual differences in labor status while controlling for characteristics that define population groups. This measure is called "relative labor deprivation" and can help policymakers to better understand how labor claims are generated.


Background: Bearing in mind the recent advances in obstetric anesthesia, the safety of both mother and child is of paramount importance, especially in a setting where resources are limited. We set out to find the pattern of cases presenting for cesarean delivery and the types of anesthesias provided for the management of these patients. Methods: A retrospective survey was conducted involving all anesthetics provided for cesarean delivery from January 2006 to December 2009 in Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria. Information such as age, indications and anesthetic technique, including drugs used, were extracted from patients' records. Data were subjected to statistical analysis using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0. Results: There were a total of 577 anaesthetics conducted for cesarean delivery during the period under review out of 4277 live births, giving a cesarean delivery rate of 13.5%. General anesthesia (GA) was administered on 266 (46%) of these patients, while 279 (48%) cases were done under subarachnoid block(SAB). 16 (3%) patients had combined GA and SAB, while 16 (3%) patients received epidural anesthesia. There were 302 emergency cesarean deliveries out of 577 cases, giving an emergency cesarean delivery rate of 52%. The commonest indication for cesarean delivery was two previous cesarean deliveries. Conclusion: A large percentage of our obstetric cases are being done under general anesthesia. Though majority of the conducted regional anesthesia were spinals (SAB), only a few cases were done under epidural block. Subspecialty training of anesthetists will go a long way to improve the current trends.


SUBTITLE: WITH NO SIGN OF ECONOMIC OR BUSINESS TRAVEL RECOVERY ON THE HORIZON, AND AS FUEL PRICES REMAIN HIGH AND LABOUR COSTS SURGE, THE US MAJOR AIRLINES EXPECT AT LEAST SEVERAL MORE QUARTERS OF FINANCIAL LOSSES. HOW WILL THE INDUSTRY COPE WITH THIS DOWNTURN?


At the time of Independence in 1964, numbers in secondary and higher education in Zambia compared unfavourably with those In other ex-British colonial territories, though primary education was much better developed. To increase the supply of manpower in order to promote .economic growth, diversify the economy away from copper, achieve ""Zambianisation"" and fulfil rising educational expectations, Zambia embarked on a highly ambitious expansion programme at all levels of education, though expansion at secondary level was the most rapid in Africa. However, the consequences of rapid linear expansion must be reckoned within terms of quality and standards. A study of the Zambian educational system since Independence shows that it is not possible to separate quality and quantity in educational planning.


This study investigated the effects of three different carriers on Mandarin tone perception. Three tone continua were constructed: Modified speech, synthesized speech, and nonspeech. Identification tests were conducted for the two speech continua, while discrimination tests were conducted for all the three continua. Results showed that category boundary position differed significantly between the modified speech and synthesized speech continua. Boundary position of the modified speech tone continuum was more toward the rising end than that of the synthesized speech tone continuum, suggesting that greater complexity reduces the overall pitch sensitivity. In the discrimination test, subjects generally exhibited the same pattern for the three continua, but with slightly lower discrimination accuracy for the nonspeech continuum, suggesting the effects of long-term tone language experience of Mandarin is carried over to nonspeech domain.


Continuous general anesthesia is able to exert an influence on the related molecules expression in central nervous system. In this study, we established a short time isoflurane inhalation SD rat model to explore the effect of isoflurane on regulating the relative genes expression in hippocampus. Ten-week male SD rats were anesthesia inducted for 30min. We obtained rat hippocampus tissues after anaesthesia on 1st and 3rd day, then reversed transcription of 18 gene expressions before PCR detection. We found that isoflurane could upregulate 6 kinds of gene under different circumstances, Hspd1, Plat, Npr3 were upregulated 1.7 ± 0.2 fold, 1.37 ± 0.1 fold, 1.4 ± 0.2 fold respectively in 1 day after anaesthesia, Thbs4 was upregulated 1.8 ± 0.25 fold in 3 day after anaesthesia and Syp and Mgst1 were upregulated 1.65 ± 0.1 fold and 1.4 ± 0.1 fold in 1d, also upregulated 1.5 ± 0.1 fold and 1.48 ± 0.1 fold in 2 d. Our study showed that isoflurane inhalation anesthesia could upregulate the related gene expression of rat hippocampus, which could influence subsequent expression of the relevant molecular level and the corresponding effect would last for at least 3 days. All these above could provide the basis for clinical application.


The energy lost from the pedestal region due to an average ELM in DIII-D is determined from changes to the electron density and temperature profiles as measured by Thomson scattering. The ELM energy due to loss of temperature in the pedestal is associated with conduction and is found to decrease with increasing pedestal density. The ELM energy from lost pedestal density, or convective transport, remains constant as a function of density. The scaling of the two transport channels, conduction and convection, are examined in terms of parallel transport processes in the scrape-off-layer and divertor.


This paper presents a new striped checkpointing scheme for serverless cluster computers, where the local disks are attached to the cluster nodes collectively form a distributed RAID with a single I/O space. Striping enables parallel I/O on the distributed disks and staggering avoids network bottleneck in the distributed RAID. We demonstrate how to reduce the checkpointing overhead and increase the availability by striping and staggering dynamically for communication intensive applications. Linpack HPC Benchamark and MPI programs are applied to these checkpointing schemes for performance evaluation on the 16-nodes cluster system. Benchmark results prove the benefits of the striped checkpointing scheme compare to the existing schemes, and these results are useful to design the efficient checkpointing scheme for fast rollback recovery from any single node failure in a cluster system.


ABSTRACT Purpose This study aimed to determine the glycemic responses to cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) in individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and to explore the influence of starting blood glucose (BG) concentrations on subsequent CPET outcomes. Methods This study was a retrospective, secondary analysis of pooled data from three randomized crossover trials using identical CPET protocols. During cycling, cardiopulmonary variables were measured continuously, with BG and lactate values obtained minutely via capillary earlobe sampling. Anaerobic threshold was determined using ventilatory parameters. Participants were split into (i) euglycemic ([Eu] >3.9 to ≤10.0 mmol·L−1, n = 26) and (ii) hyperglycemic ([Hyper] >10.0 mmol·L−1, n = 10) groups based on preexercise BG concentrations. Data were assessed via general linear modeling techniques and regression analyses. P values of ≤0.05 were accepted as significant. Results Data from 36 individuals with T1D (HbA1c, 7.3% ± 1.1% [56.0 ± 11.5 mmol·mol−1]) were included. BG remained equivalent to preexercise concentrations throughout CPET, with an overall change in BG of −0.32 ± 1.43 mmol·L−1. Hyper had higher HR at peak (+10 ± 2 bpm, P = 0.04) and during recovery (+9 ± 2 bpm, P = 0.038) as well as lower O2 pulse during the cool down period (−1.6 ± 0.04 mL per beat, P = 0.021). BG responses were comparable between glycemic groups. Higher preexercise BG led to greater lactate formation during exercise. HbA1c was inversely related to time to exhaustion (r = −0.388, P = 0.04) as well as peak power output (r = −0.355, P = 0.006) and O2 pulse (r = −0.308, P = 0.015). Conclusions This study demonstrated 1) stable BG responses to CPET in patients with T1D; 2) although preexercise hyperglycemia did not influence subsequent glycemic dynamics, it did potentiate alterations in various cardiac and metabolic responses to CPET; and 3) HbA1c was a significant factor in the determination of peak performance outcomes during CPET.


About a dozen countries in Latin America have enacted reforms that include elements being contemplated elsewhere, including the partial privatization of social security. It is not easy to draw universal lessons for social security reform from the experience of countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Mexico, however, where sizeable public pension systems went bankrupt before the populations aged, mainly because of mismanagement. Most developing economies have much smaller social security systems. Relatively well managed systems in industrial countries face problems that are long term in nature and have been brought about by an aging population. The experiences of Latin America nevertheless offer some general lessons for countries in other parts of the world. These lessons relate to changes in labor market incentives accompanying reforms and how workers react to them, government actions that have met with success in managing the transition to funded pensions, and the expectations of individuals from social security systems. Latin America's reforms suggest that the most effective approach is to keep payroll taxes low, governments solvent, and social security systems focused on providing reasonable insurance against poverty in old age.


This paper aimed to explore the roles of the combination of electroacupuncture (EA) and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived small extracellular vesicles (iPSC-EVs) on mice with ischemic stroke and the underlying mechanisms. A focal cerebral ischemia model was established in C57BL/6 mice through middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). After 3 days, neurological impairment and motor function were examined by performing behavioral tests. The infarct volume and neuronal apoptosis were examined using TTC staining and TUNEL assays. Flow cytometry was performed to assess the proliferation of T lymphocytes. The changes in the interleukin (IL)-33/ST2 axis were evaluated by immunofluorescence and Western blotting. The combination of EA and iPSC-EVs treatment ameliorated neurological impairments and reduced the infarct volume and neuronal apoptosis in MCAO mice. EA plus iPSC-EVs suppressed T helper (Th1) and Th17 responses and promoted the regulatory T cell (Treg) response. In addition, EA plus iPSC-EVs exerted neuroprotective effects by regulating the IL-33/ST2 axis and inhibiting the microglia and astrocyte activation. Taken together, the study shows that EA and iPSC-EVs exerted a synergistic neuroprotective effect in MCAO mice, and this treatment may represent a novel potent therapy for ischemic stroke and damage to other tissues.


We consider the inverse problem of determining the isotropic inhomogeneous electromagnetic coefficients of the non-stationary Maxwell equations in a bounded domain of R, from a finite number of boundary measurements. Our main result is a Hölder stability estimate for the inverse problem, where the measurements are exerted only in some boundary components. For it, we prove a global Carleman estimate for the heterogeneous Maxwell system with boundary conditions.


Bronchobiliary fistula was first described by Peacock in 1850 and is a rare clinical finding. Bronchobiliary fistula is usually a result of hydatid cyst disease or a congenital abnormality. Hepatic intervention is the most common cause in American adults. Other reports have described bronchobiliary fistula, but the number of cases is relatively small, and little consensus on treatment exists. This report describes a patient presenting with bronchobiliary fistula after hepatic resection for metastatic colon cancer; the fistula was treated by thoracic surgical intervention.


The increased incidence of drug-resistant tuberculosis has created an urgent necessity for the development of new and effective anti-tuberculosis drugs and for alternative therapeutic regimens. Clofazimine (CFZ) is a fat-soluble riminophenazine dye used in the treatment of leprosy worldwide. CFZ has also been used as a Group 5 drug in the treatment of tuberculosis (TB). A large cohort study from Bangladesh published in 2010 described a treatment regimen for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) including CFZ as being highly effective against MDR-TB. We searched multiple databases for studies published through February 2012 that reported use of CFZ in MDR- and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) treatment regimens. We identified nine observational studies (6 MDR-TB and 3 XDR-TB) including patients with drug-resistant TB treated with CFZ. Overall, 65% (95% confidence interval [95%CI] 54-76) of the patients experienced favorable outcomes, defined as either cure or treatment completion. Using random effects meta-analysis, 65% (95%CI 52-79) of those with MDR-TB and 66% (95%CI 42-89) of those with XDR-TB experienced favorable treatment outcomes. High-quality prospective cohort studies and clinical trials examining the effect of CFZ as part of drug-resistant TB treatment regimens are needed.


Spectral reflectance is an inherent material property which can be used for material identification tasks. We present a nonlinear algorithm for estimating surface spectral reflectance of the ground material using images acquired by an airborne sensor. The nonlinear algorithm separates the atmospheric and illumination effects from the measured spectral radiance corresponding to a single pixel in the image to recover the surface spectral reflectance. A low-dimensional subspace model for the reflectance spectra is used for the algorithm. The algorithm also considers the interdependence of the path radiance and illumination spectra by using a coupled subspace model. We have analyzed the accuracy of the algorithm over simulated and real 0.4-1.74-mum sensor radiance spectra.


Among natural products with sleep-promoting activity, hops have been used since ancient times as a tranquilizer and hypnotic agent. This study investigated the sleep-promoting effects of extracts of various hop (Humulus lupulus L.) varieties in invertebrate and vertebrate models. The content of α-acids, β-acids, and xanthohumol was higher in hop 70% alcohol extracts than in hop hot water extracts. Among the alcohol extracts, Citra contained a high α-acid content (229.32 µg/mg), while Saphir showed high β-acid and xanthohumol content (66.37 and 4.23 µg/mg, respectively). In Drosophila melanogaster, Simcoe and Mosaic water extracts and Saphir and Simcoe alcohol extracts significantly increased total nighttime sleep. Total sleep time of mice with pentobarbital-induced sleep was significantly increased by Simcoe and Mosaic water extracts and Saphir and Simcoe ethanol extracts compared to the normal group. Oral administration of Simcoe water extract and Saphir alcohol extract improved sleep in the caffeine-induced insomnia model and upregulated the mRNA expression of GABAA (gamma 2 subunit) and GABAB receptors in mouse brains. Additionally, Saphir alcohol extract significantly increased the GABA content in mouse brains. Simcoe water extract and Saphir ethanol extract modulated GABAergic signaling to improve sleep-related behaviors, including sleep duration.


The government has set a 30% quota of women's representation in the legislature, including Malang City. The existence of women's representation to see women's participation in politics, as well as their role in making gender responsive policy. The policy formulation model used is Easton's 'political system'. The objectives of this research are: 1) to analyze the role of female parliamentarians in the formulation of gender responsive policies. 2) to describe supporting factors and inhibiting factors in the formulation of gender responsive policies. The method used in this research is qualitative with descriptive research type. Data collection was done by observation and interview technique. Source of data comes from primary data and secondary data. The result of the research shows that women representation in DPRD Malang is not maximal, their role in initiating gender responsive policy is still lacking, but in the outside they still have concern especially protection for victims of violence of woman and child.


When formalizing a mathematical development with an interactive prover, it is helpful if the user can interface with a library (to avoid starting from scratch) and with automated provers (to avoid needing to give full details explicitly). We will consider an example of a development in Mizar, leading to some discussion of how one can interact with Mizar's library and how automated theorem provers can help construct Mizar proofs. With this example in mind, we discuss criteria for three aspects of formalization to work in harmony: formal mathematical developments, working with a global library of theorems and de nitions and making use of automation.


Copyright © 2001 by the authors. Published by the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics with permission. * Dept. of Control and Dynamical Systems, MS 104-44, Pasadena, CA, 91125, email@example.com. Senior Member AIAA. † Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, email@example.com ‡ Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Irvine CA 92627, email@example.com § Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, firstname.lastname@example.com Abstract A team of researchers from the University of California and Caltech are investigating the feasibility of building a 30 meter diameter segmented mirror telescope, following the design approach pioneered by the 36segment Keck telescopes. The current design concept for the California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT) has 1080 segments forming the primary mirror, with the piston, tip, and tilt of each segment controlled by three actuators. The control approach must correct for gravityand temperature-induced deformations of the mirror support structure, and potentially wind and seismic disturbances, with a cost effective design. We discuss some of the active control issues, including requirements (optical and cost), estimates of the disturbances, actuator options, and control analysis. Several candidate actuator technologies appear capable of meeting the technical and cost requirements, and preliminary error propagation analyses indicate that the optical error budget can likely be met. Additional issues being addressed are identified.


Mobile Ad Hoc networks, which are becoming the research hotspot, have wide application in battlefield, disaster area, extraordinary session and other special environments due to their independence on any network infrastructure. In this paper, a scheme of node behavior classification was proposed based on the analysis of mobile Ad Hoc networks' own laws in practical application. Analytic hierarchy process is used in conjunction with fuzzy comprehensive evaluation to classify nodes' behavior according to their motion state, so that the design complexity of networking protocols can be simplified and different set of networking protocols that best fit the circumstances can be designed correspondingly. The scheme is applied under an example network for rescue, where different routing policies are used by corresponding nodes classified by proposed node behavior classification scheme. Simulation results demonstrate the accuracy of the scheme.


In this paper, the analysis and research is conducted on a wing-fuselage connection part using a small combined unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The work is based on the characteristics of flexible disassembly in order to be easy to carry and transport for the combined type unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The combined wing-fuselage structure is designed with the structure design theory. Analyzing each project from the internal stress and strain situation, mass attributes and other aspects based on result from FEM sofware. With the comprehensive comparisons of the characteristics of each project in the consideration of satisfying the strength and stiffness criteria it provides a reference for the design of the combined type UAV wing-fuselage connecting structure.


In 2005-2006, close to one million homeless children in our nation faced unprecedented challenges trying to access and succeed in public schools. Fortunately, legislation was enacted to support this special needs population. The types of support mentioned in the McKinney-Vento Act include: transportation to and from school, immediate enrollment in school, and access to supplemental programs and school activities. Research on homeless education identify barriers students encounter and suggestions for effective policy and strategies to support them; however, there is a gap in the literature in terms of research identifying effective program components that might facilitate academic success. The literature on resilience identifies protective components that seem to project children facing adversity onto positive pathways such as, forming meaningful relationships, creating a caring environment, creating a sense of belonging, developing community involvement in school, and developing positive family relationships. This dissertation addresses the gaps in literature by exploring the components of district McKinney-Vento programs serving more than 1,000 homeless students and identifies risk factors that exist in school districts with McKinney-Vento programs. Finally, this study documents protective components that exist in McKinney-Vento programs as well as the unique components that exist in programs with a higher percentage of homeless children scoring proficient on the Language Arts (LA) portion of California's Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) test. The goal of this study is to inform school leaders about effective strategies and policies that promote resilience and success in education for students living in poverty and experiencing homelessness. This study finds that district McKinney-Vento programs show evidence of facilitating academic success for homeless students. Components found include the components those identified in resilience literature and are specifically connected to addressing students' socio- emotional, basic and academic needs. Similarly risk factors were identified in all six districts and can be compared to those cited in homeless and resilience literature. Duration of the program also diminished risks and increased positive outcomes. The districts with the greatest academic success as measured by the LA portion of the STAR showed the most evidence of creating positive family connections and focusing on student and family strengths


The Yamabe invariant Y(M) of a smooth compact manifold is roughly the supremum of the scalar curvatures of unit-volume constant-scalar-curvature Riemannian metrics g on M. (To be precise, one only considers those constant-scalar-curvature metrics which are Yamabe minimizers, but this technicality does not, e.g. affect the sign of the answer.) In this article, it is shown that many 4-manifolds M with Y(M) 0.


The demand for surveillance systems has increased extremely over recent times. We present a system consisting of a distributed network of cameras that allows for tracking and handover of multiple persons in real time. The intercamera tracking results are embedded as live textures in an integrated 3D world model which is available ubiquitously and can be viewed from arbitrary perspectives independent of the persons' movements. We mainly concentrate on our implementation of embedded camera nodes in the form of smart cameras and discuss the benefits of such a distributed surveillance network compared to a host centralized approach. We also briefly describe our way of hassle free 3D model acquisition to cover the complete system from setup to operation and finally show some results of both an indoor and an outdoor system in operation.


OBJECTIVES
To describe the opinions of Spanish nurses on hospital emergency department (ED) triage and to compare their level of satisfaction with different triage systems.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Descriptive survey-based study of the opinions of nurses working in Spanish EDs. The online questionnaire was self-administered by the respondents. Items covered demographic data, degrees of experience and training, level of satisfaction, and aspects related to triage in general and to the type of triage used in the respondent's hospital.

RESULTS
Valid responses were received from 833 of the 857 nurses contacted (97.2% response rate); the nurses worked at 161 hospitals. Eighty hospitals (49.7%) used the Andorran Triage System adapted as the Spanish Triage System (ATM-STS) and 49 (30.4%) used the Manchester Triage System (MTS). The mean (SD) age of respondents was 38.5 (7.8) years; 652 (78.3%) of the respondents were women. Nurses were responsible for triage in 140 (87%) of the hospitals. Four hundred nurses (48.0%) believed triage is a full-team responsibility and 367 (44.0%) believed it was a nursing responsibility. Six hundred three (77.2%) had received specific training in triage. Seven hundred nine (85.1%) believed that triage always or almost always ensures better care for patients with the most serious emergencies, 681 (81.7%) believed that the triage nurse's opinion is taken into consideration, and 663 (79.6%) believed that patients are seen by a physician according to the assigned triage level. Nurses feel supported and generally respected by other nurses. Two hundred thirty (26.7%) would change the triage system they use, but only 100 (43.5%) could name a system they would switch to.

CONCLUSION
Triage is performed by nurses in most of the hospitals, although nearly half of the respondents believe this responsibility should be shared with doctors. Nurses have a good opinion of triage and are generally satisfied with it, but there is variation according to the system implemented in their hospital.


ABSTRACT A complex systems approach to innovation provides rich insights into the drivers, barriers, and key elements for innovation in rural systems. Through a case study of dry direct seeding (DDS) in smallholder systems in Laos, this article reveals a "perfect storm" of challenges and opportunities resulting in rapid adoption. Labour shortage, climate variability, and machinery availability are key factors. The lessons for the research and development community are that; every local system and situation is unique; focusing on one set of factors is never sufficient; and that timelines for change may be long and require persistence and longer term commitment from donors.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Inflammation and angiogenesis are important pathways of colorectal carcinogenesis. We investigated interactions between genes related to both pathways and the use of NSAIDs on CRC risk. Furthermore, we assessed whether specific variants interact with the inflammation biomarkers C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid A (SAA).

From the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study of women aged 50-79 years, we selected 821 Caucasian case/control matched pairs (1993-2008). We genotyped 412 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) tagging 26 genes related to inflammation and angiogenesis (ALOX5, CRP, IL1B, IL6, PTGIS, PTGS1, PTGS2, TBXAS, TGFB1, TNF, ANGPT1, NGPT2, DKK4, DLL4, VEGFR1, IL10, KDR, MAPK1, NRP1, NRP2, PGF, IK3CA, PIK3CG, TEK, VEGFA) using the Illumina GoldenGate and Sequenom platforms. CRP and SAA were quantified in serum by latex-enhanced nephelometry. CRC risk was estimated by conditional logistic regression based on the co-dominant inheritance model (or dominant if allele count <10). P-values were adjusted for correlated tests (pACT) unless genes were functional candidates. Global P-values were obtained by likelihood ratio tests. Additionally, in interaction analysis we controlled the false discovery rate on the gene level (p-intadj). Interactions between SNPs and serum inflammatory markers were evaluated by testing for different slopes of CRC risk associated with each biomarker across genotype.

One SNP in NRP1, rs7895812 was significantly associated with CRC risk (pACT=0.02). Nine of the examined SNPs modified the association between NSAID use and CRC risk, although only two interactions remained significant after multiple comparison adjustment. The protective association of NSAID use was limited to individuals who were wildtype for PTGS2 rs1886233 (rs2383529, intergenic: p-intadj=0.01), whereas for carriers of the variant allele in FLT1 NSAID use was associated with a decreased CRC risk (rs1886233, intronic: p-intadj=0.02). For serum CRP and SAA multiple interactions with genetic variants were observed as well.

We showed that genetic variation in inflammation- and angiogenesis-related genes modified the association between NSAID use and CRC risk; the genetic variants also interacted with serum concentrations of CRP and SAA. This information may aid in tailoring prevention strategies to individuals who will obtain the greatest benefit from NSAIDs.

Citation Format: Nina Habermann, Elissa Brown, Reka Toth, Dominique Scherer, Katharina Buck, Ting-Yuan David Cheng, Karen W. Makar, Marian L. Neuhouser, Yingye Zheng, David J. Duggan, Shirley A. Beresford, Mark Wener, Heather Ochs-Balcom, Adetunji Toriola, Cornelia M. Ulrich. Inflammation- and angiogenesis- related genes: Interaction with NSAID use, and serum inflammatory markers on colorectal cancer risk within the Women's Health Initiative. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 2186. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-2186


In Germany, Health Services Research (HSR) is undergoing rapid and impressive development. Starting from the translation of methods in individual health care (efficacy-effectiveness gap) and the social-scientific description as well as analysis of health care structures and processes, now it is the implementation of complex interventions on the organizational and system level that is the center of interest. This development is mainly triggered by the establishment of the so-called innovation funds by means of legislation in 2015, which has the task to evaluate structural changes and reforms in outpatient and integrated health care. Moreover, benefit and improvement at patient and population level is getting attention. Against this background, in this paper the current definition of HSR is modified so that the term "intervention" is extended to include organizational and system interventions, the focus on population is added to the patient perspective, and the orientation to appropriateness of care and improvement is integrated. Parallel to this, the theoretical throughput model as established by Pfaff in 2003 is updated, including 4 aspects: (1) the input factors of first order (resources of stakeholders) are expanded by complex interventions and active context as input factors of second order, (2) both undergoing modulation during the following throughput, (3) the final outcome is expanded by the population perspective, and (4) feedback loops from output and outcome to input and throughput are established. The "double complexity" of intervention and context as well as their interaction during throughput is the central and most important issue, because the interventions are highly context-sensitive and the complex context is most potent and poorly anticipated at the same time. Improvement science and implementation research represent fields of research from the perspective of improvement and the translation of knowledge and change of attitude, respectively, which are of great importance for HSR. Insofar as HSR is dealing with improvement and translation of complex interventions, the health care politics constitute an important transfer factor itself. Considering that, in the present situation, the political level represents both the main sponsor and the main demander of HSR results, improving methodological standards and further expansion of research structures of HSR are urgently needed.


Adenosine deaminase acting on RNA 1 (ADAR1) catalyzes RNA editing of cellular and viral RNAs. Besides RNA editing, ADAR1 has recently been shown to play important roles in maintaining the body balance, including tissue homoeostasis, organ development, and autoimmune regulations, by inhibiting both IFN production and subsequent IFN-activated pathways. Accordingly, the question was raised how IFN signaling induced by viral infections overcomes the inhibitory effect of constitutively expressed ADAR1 (ADAR1-P110) to execute efficient antiviral activity. Here we unexpectedly found that IFN signaling promoted Lys48-linked ubiquitination and degradation of ADAR1-P110. Furthermore, we identified the E3 ligase β transducin repeat-containing protein responsible for IFN-mediated ADAR1-P110 down-regulation. IFN signaling promoted the interaction between β transducin repeat-containing protein and ADAR1-P110 as well as protein turnover of ADAR1-P110. Moreover, we found that both lysine 574 and 576 are essential for ADAR1-P110 ubiquitination. Critically, we demonstrated that down-regulation of ADAR1-P110 is required for IFN signaling to execute efficient antiviral activity during viral infections. These findings renew the understanding of the mechanisms by which IFN signaling acts to achieve antiviral functions and may provide potential targets for IFN-based antiviral therapy.


The binary tree based protocol provides an elegant and efficient method to resolve the collision occurred in multiple access broadcasted communication channel. In this paper, some statistical properties of the protocol are analyzed for the communication system with ternary feedbacks. The quantities under investigation include the mathematical expectations for the amount of total nodes, as well as the distribution and mathematical expectation for the amount of nodes in different level of the tree. Besides, the analytic results are introduced to the RFID system to resolve the tag collision and an improve binary query tree based protocol is proposed for successive tag collision resolution cycles. Some properties about the improved binary query tree protocol are presented and numeric evaluations are performed. The performance of this improved protocol is verified to outperform the original binary query tree based protocols in most cases regarding to throughput.


ABSTRACT Research Question Contemporary football (soccer) is a competitive industry. Some football clubs have enacted new roles, such as the Sporting Director, to gain a competitive advantage through effective recruitment of non-playing staff. This qualitative research examines the recruitment strategies of Sporting Directors through the lens of network theory. Research Methods An empirical qualitative study was conducted, involving semi-structured interviews with 25 Sporting Directors in football clubs in England (English Premier League n=12; English Championship, n=13). The qualitative data was thematically analysed. Results and Findings The study contributes novel evidence on recruitment in elite-level football, revealing the theoretical underpinnings and practical nature of this marketplace unique to the football industry. The evidence shows that whilst normally in recruitment weak ties are essential for getting a job, in football, trust and knowing people is the most critical aspect in recruitment, and recruiters rely on strong ties. This homophily creates several unintended implications for business and performance. Conclusions This study responds to a gap in our theoretical and practical understanding of recruitment in elite-level football. The findings raise important questions for those managers and leaders involved in securing talent, as the over-reliance on closed networks may constrain the flow of information and innovation and ultimately limit the potential performance of the organisation. Homophily in recruitment processes may have unintended consequences that require further research, notably for player welfare, inequalities and performance.


Ischemic stroke is the leading cause of disability and deaths worldwide. MiRNAs have been shown to play an important role in development and pathogenesis of the nervous system. However, the precise function and mechanism of miRNAs are not fully understood in the brain injury induced by ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). Herein, our study showed that miR-375 expression was significantly down-regulated in the rat I/R brain. With the in vivo and in vitro I/R stroke models, we found that miR-375 mimic provides significant protection from injury to cerebral I/R, which is reflected by reduced infarct volumes and cell apoptosis, and increased proliferation and migration of PC12 cells. Mechanistically, our findings showed that miR-375 binds to 3′-UTR region of Ctgf mRNA, subsequently leading to the decreased expression of Ctgf in the I/R brain. Furthermore, we showed that miR-375/Ctgf-mediated protective effects are associated with p21/PI3K/Akt signaling pathways. Our findings thus provide a new insight into the mechanism of cerebral I/R injury and pave a potential new way for the therapy of cerebral I/R injury.


Over the past decade, the adverse impacts of climate change and excessive urbanization have contributed to several unfamiliar and costly floods in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), especially in Qatar. With limited historical rainfall records and unprecedented precipitation intensities impacting the efficiency of hydrological models, the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) presents a suitable alternative approach to assess and identify flood-susceptible areas. In this study, we applied MCDA to several factors that contribute to flood susceptibility, namely: elevation, slope, groundwater depth, distance to a drainage system, and land use. These criteria were assigned different weights based on their contribution and previous literature and later underwent a sensitivity analysis. The study's results correlate well with recent flooding events, proving the method's efficiency in identifying hotspots. This study is expected to provide a rapid tool to support the decision-making process for future urban expansion, sustainable development, and resilience planning in Qatar.


This article outlines a model for conducting psychotherapy with people of diverse cultural backgrounds. The theoretical foundation for the model is based on clinical and cultural psychology. Cultural psychology integrates psychology and anthropology in order to provide a complex understanding of both culture and the individual within his or her cultural context. The model proposed in this article is also based on our clinical experience and mixed-method research with the Portuguese community. The model demonstrates its value with ethnic minority clients by situating the clients within the context of their multi-layered social reality. The individual, familial, socio-cultural, and religio-moral domains are explored in two research projects, revealing the interrelation of these levels/contexts. The article is structured according to these domains. Study 1 is a quantitative study that validates the Agonias Questionnaire in Ontario. The results of this study are used to illustrate the individual domain of our proposed model. Study 2 is an ethnography conducted in the Azorean Islands, and the results of this study are integrated to illustrate the other three levels of the model, namely family, socio-cultural, and the religio-moral levels.


In this work, we present a portable laser differential refractometer with real-time detection and high precision based on the Snell's law and a 2f-2f optical design. The 2f-2f configuration solves a traditional position drifting problem of the laser beam and enhances the signal stability, where a small pinhole is illuminated by the laser light and imaged to the detector by lens placed in the middle between the detector and the pinhole. However, it also leads to a larger dimension of the instrument, limiting its applications and its sensitivity that is proportional to the optical path. Therefore, for a portable device on the basis of the 2f-2f design, a combination of a mirror and a lens was developed to minimize the optical path without affecting the 2f-2f design. Our simple and compact design reaches a resolution of 10(-6) refractive index units (RIU). Moreover, the dimension of such a modified differential refractometer is significantly reduced to be portable. Owing to its real-time detection speed and high precision, this newly developed refractometer is particularly attractive when it is used as an independent and ultra-sensitive detector in many research and industrial applications wherein there is a time-dependent concentration change, e.g., the concentration determination, quality control, and study of kinetic processes in solution, including adsorption, sedimentation, and dissolution, to name few but not limited.


Cross sections have been computed for charge transfer in collisions between 4He+ and 4He2+ ions for centre-of-mass collision energies 0.21<or=E<or=2.50 keV. The semiclassical impact parameter method was employed, with a basis of atomic orbitals modified by plane-wave translation factors. Both rectilinear and Coulomb trajectories were used, and the differential cross sections were found to be sensitive to the assumed form of trajectory. Comparison is made with molecular orbital calculations by Dickinson and Hardie (1979).


Lamina-associated polypeptides 1A-1C (LAPs1A-1C) are related integral membrane proteins of the inner nuclear membrane that bind to both A- and B-type lamins and have a putative role in the membrane attachment and assembly of the nuclear lamina. In this study, we have cloned a cDNA encoding LAP1C. The DNA sequence predicts a 506-amino acid protein of largely hydrophilic character with a single membrane-spanning region between residues 311-333. Mapping of the epitope recognized by the anti-LAP1 monoclonal antibody RL13 indicates that the hydrophilic domain containing residues 1-310 is exposed to the nucleoplasm and thus that LAP1C is a type II integral membrane protein. A second class of LAP1 cDNAs was isolated that contains two protein-coding nucleotide insertions in the LAP1C sequence. These probably encode parts of LAPs1A and/or −1B, suggesting that LAP1 isotypes arise from alternative splicing. Immunoblot analysis of mouse P19 teratocarcinoma cells and the P19MES-differentiated derivative of the latter suggest that LAP1 isotypes are differentially expressed during development, similar to members of the nuclear lamin family. Since the different LAP1 isotypes appear to bind lamins with different affinities, these changes in expression could be important for developmentally regulated alterations in nuclear structure.


An analog/digital reconfigurable automatic gain control (AGC) circuit with a novel DC offset cancellation circuit for a direct-conversion receiver is presented. The AGC is analog/digital reconfigurable in order to be compatible with different baseband chips. What's more, a novel DC offset cancellation (DCOC) circuit with an HPCF (high pass cutoff frequency) less than 10 kHz is proposed. The AGC is fabricated by a 0.18 μm CMOS process. Under analog control mode, the AGC achieves a 70 dB dynamic range with a 3 dB-bandwidth larger than 60 MHz. Under digital control mode, through a 5-bit digital control word, the AGC shows a 64 dB gain control range by 2 dB each step with a gain error of less than 0.3 dB. The DC offset cancellation circuits can suppress the output DC offset voltage to be less than 1.5 mV, while the offset voltage of 40 mV is introduced into the input. The overall power consumption is less than 3.5 mA, and the die area is 800 × 300 μm2.


A novel combined system of irradiation by microwaves and ultrasound is used to efficiently destroy phenol in aqueous solutions via sono-generated hydroxyl radicals and H2O2, in conjunction with the rapid thermal effect of microwaves on polar chemicals. Microwave irradiation enhances the sono-degradation of phenol without any additional catalyst although the effect is more marked when H2O2 is added. The degradation of phenol by MW or US alone or by combined irradiation of MW-US follows zero order kinetics. Degradation rate constants and yields of the main intermediates, catechol and hydroquinone, follow the order of MW-US > MW > US. The degradation rate also increases with higher reaction temperature in the MW reactor. The synergistic effects of MW and US were observed at 93 degrees C without addition of H2O2 and at 60 degrees C with addition of H2O2.


The framework for safe drinking-water recommended by the WHO guidelines for drinking-water quality promotes
a risk-based preventive management approach to ensure safety of drinking-water. Independent drinking-water
surveillance is one of the core components of this framework and is an essential public health function. To be
effective, drinking-water surveillance needs to be aligned with risk-based principles, including prioritization of
monitoring parameters and surveillance efforts based on water safety plan outcomes. Risk-based drinking-water
surveillance comprises an independent and periodic review of all aspects of drinking-water quality and public health
safety in which water-quality monitoring, on-site inspections, hazard identification and risk and trend analysis are
important components. Applying a risk-based approach in drinking-water surveillance helps countries to focus on
the issues that are most important for the protection of public health and so maximizes the benefits that can accrue
from limited resources.


The price of fresh agricultural products is rising constantly and the problem of food safety occurs frequently in China recent years. One of the important reasons is the lower circulating efficiency in addition to inflation and moral factors. This paper analyzes the current development of China's cold chain logistics. For example, the infrastructures of cold chain logistics fall behind; third party logistics develop slowly; the level of supply chain management is low; the standards of cold chain logistics is lack; cold chain awareness needs to be improved further. Based on this, the paper summarize four kinds of cold chain logistics development patterns which treat respectively processing enterprises, third party cold chain logistics enterprises, logistics center and supermarket chain as the core of supply chain. As an innovation point, the paper proposed the cold chain logistics development pattern based on resource integration.


Autopsy data have been collected for 250 patients who died of primary tuberculosis within 1947-1992. Lethal outcomes of primary tuberculosis of late have become less frequent and occurred at older age. Diagnostic errors, on the contrary, are made more frequently, especially in general hospitals. In particular, misdiagnosis is common in verification of tuberculosis of intrathoracic lymph nodes in patients over 30 years of age. Current tendency to hypodiagnosis of tuberculosis is attributed to its atypical course and pathomorphosis.


The Isotope Ratio Method (IRM) is a technique used for estimating the energy production in a fission reactor by measuring isotope ratios in non-fuel reactor components. This method has been successfully demonstrated on the estimation of cumulative energy production as well as plutonium production in graphite-moderated and light-water-moderated reactors for non-proliferation purposes. In this paper, IRM was used to estimate neutron fluence in Zr-2.5Nb materials irradiated in fast neutron (FN) irradiation facilities in the NRU reactor. Neutron fluence has been shown to be an important parameter for studying irradiation effects on the performance and properties of critical reactor components. Selected isotope ratios of hafnium and iron were used as indicators of the neutron fluence in Zr-2.5Nb sample materials. Correlations between neutron fluence and the indicator element isotope ratios were generated using the reactor physics simulation codes WIMS AECL and SCALE/ORIGEN. Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to obtain accurate measurements of the isotope ratios. Neutron fluence values estimated using IRM, were in good agreement with the values based on measured irradiation power histories of the NRU reactor. This study proposes a potential application of IRM to the estimation of neutron fluence for critical reactor components in heavy water-moderated reactors such as pressure and calandria tubes in CANDU® reactors.


This beautiful book explores the diplomatic, trade and cultural exchanges between the courts of Britain and Russia, from the reign of Henry VIII to the death of Charles II. Through the material life of the courts, the gifts of the diplomats and the commissions of the monarchs, the book presents an overview of privileged living in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - illustrating the material life of the leading personalities of the period. Engaging and authoritative, Treasures of the Royal Courts uses superb new photography to illustrate chapters on diplomacy, silver, portraits, miniatures, arms and armour, heraldry, textiles and jewellery by experts from the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Kremlin Museum, Moscow.


Abstract:The theory, practice and engagement of (en)gendered New Testament hermeneutics characterise the work of Lilly Nortjé-Meyer over three-and-a-half decades. By focusing on the main areas that emerged in her research, this article indicates and assesses the contribution of her work to local and international biblical scholarship. Special attention is given to her work on the Fourth Gospel, gender-critical concerns, family or household, and sex and homoeroticism in the New Testament.


A Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) is one of the optimized candidates in Generation IV nuclear reactor systems, but safety is an essential issue for SFR development and application. Most knowledge was accumulated through SFR safety investigations, especially for Core Disruptive Accidents (CDAs). During the CDA of SFRs, the molten materials in the core region are likely to discharge into subcooled sodium and form a debris bed on the lower region of the reactor vessel. Noticing that elaboration on the characteristics and mechanisms of Debris Bed Formation (DBF) behavior should be essential for the subsequent analysis of debris bed coolability and accident progression through various experimental and modeling studies, much knowledge was obtained during the past decades. Motivated to promote future investigations on CDAs of SFRs, the previous experiments and modeling studies on DBF behavior are systematically reviewed and discussed in this paper. The experimental results showed that the flow-regime and accumulated-bed characteristics during DBF were influenced by varying parameters and realistic conditions. Through the modeling studies, several empirical models were proposed for predicting the flow regime and accumulated-bed characteristics in DBF. In addition, to promote further development of research, the future prospects concerning DBF behavior are also described.


Abstract Background Minimally invasive pedicle screw placement may have a higher incidence of violation of the superior cephalad unfused facet joint. Study Aims We investigated the incidence and risk factors of upper facet joint violation in percutaneous robot-assisted instrumentation versus percutaneous fluoroscopy-guided and open transpedicular instrumentation. Methods A retrospective study including all consecutive patients who underwent lumbar instrumentation, fusion, and decompression for spondylolisthetic stenosis and degenerative disk disease was conducted between January 2012 and January 2016. All operations were performed by the same surgeon; the patients were divided into three groups according to the method of instrumentation. Group 1 involved the robot-assisted instrumentation in 58 patients, group 2 consisted of 64 patients treated with a percutaneous transpedicular instrumentation using fluoroscopic guidance, and 72 patients in group 3 received an open midline approach for pedicle screw insertion. Results Superior segment facet joint violation occurred in 2 patients in the robot-assisted group 1 (7%), in 22 of the percutaneous fluoroscopy-guided group 2 (34%), and in 6 cases of the open group (8%). The incidence of facet joint violation was present in 5% (3) of the screws in group 1, 22% (28) of the screws in group 2, and 3% (4) of the screws in group 3. Conclusion Meticulous surgical planning of the appropriate entry site (Weinstein's method), trajectory planning, and proper robot-assisted instrumentation of pedicle screws reduced the risk of superior segment facet joint violation.


Summary Foot pain related to sural nerve lesion is rare. The origin of the pain was unrecognized in one patient for at least 10 months and was thought to be an S1 root disease, as the pain was associated with paresthesiae of the external border of the ankle and foot and a positive Lasegue manoeuvre. Electrodiagnosis (EDX) demonstrated a sensory conduction block at calf which corresponded with the sural nerve entrapment where the nerve pierces the deep fascia. The surgical release of the nerve provided rapid relief from the complaint.


Postharvest losses in tomato is a matter of concern for all tomato growers. Postharvest technology is an integral part of agriculture production and utilization system and it plays key role in loss reduction, value addition, food security, employment and income generation. The present study was conducted in four districts of state Haryana, namely Nuh, Sonipat, Gurugram and Palwal. From each of these districts, two blocks were selected randomly. From each block two villages were selected and from each village ten tomato growers were selected, thus a total of 160 respondents were selected for the proposed study. With regards to socio economic profi le of the respondents, it was revealed that majority of farmers belonged to middle age group educated up to high school and intermediate school educational level. Further, it was revealed that majority of the respondents had small (2.51-5.00) land holding size, with major occupation as agriculture (particularly tomato farming) and earning Rs. 3-7 lakhs annually. Nearly half of the respondents belonged to medium category of mass media exposure and extension contact. The paired 't' test indicated 71.746 't-value' signifi cant at 1% level of probability, this showed that there was signifi cant impact before and after the adoption of post-harvest management practices on the socio-economic profi le of the tomato growers.


In view of the shape and distribution of fillers, a model predicting the effective thermal conductivity of filled polymer composites is proposed on the basis of the percolation theory. Compared to other models proposed in the literatures, theoretical results obtained with the percolation model agree better with the experimental data. Methods of determining the percolation threshold Vc and the exponent n in the percolation model are also discussed.


BACKGROUND
Computer vision syndrome is a common global problem among millions of computer users including medical students. Medical students are preferring soft copies rather than textbooks. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of MBBS students about Computer vision syndrome, and to identify its ocular morbidity among them.

METHODS
A descriptive cross-sectional survey based on the questionnaire was conducted among 1st- 4th year MBBS students of the Institute of Medicine and 80 students underwent detailed ocular evaluation.

RESULTS
A complete survey response was received from 236 students out of 299 students (Response Rate 80%). The mean age of MBBS students was 21.38 years ± 1.328 years and the range were 19-22 years; 76.2% were male and 23.8% were female. The majority (37.2%) spent 2-3 hours/day on the computer and had a higher risk (p-0.0001) of developing Computer vision syndrome. About 69.5% students used a computer at the level of the eye but there was a significant reduction in Computer vision syndrome (p-0.0001) among those who had computer screen below the eye level. Association between taking breaks (p-0.0001) and frequent blinking (p-0.0411) during computer use and relief of symptoms was significant. Only 22.9% had pre-existing knowledge of Computer vision syndrome and only 25.5% of them were practicing the ideal viewing distance. Among 80 medical students randomly selected for detail eye examinations (63.7% male;36.2% female), the prevalence of Computer vision syndrome  was 71.6%. The commonest ocular complaint was a headache (50%) and dry eyes (45%). Myopia was the commonest refractive error (31.2%) and the orthoptic problem was prevalent among 17.5% students.

CONCLUSIONS
The survey showed that Computer vision syndrome is relevant among MBBS students but the knowledge, attitude, and practice of Computer vision syndrome among them is poor.


Hydrocarbons efficiently expel from fine-grained organic-rich source rocks upon thermal heating. Expulsion and primary migration through hydraulic fractures is a commonly cited process, but good outcrop examples are few. Occasionally, hydraulic fractures are permanently filled with, e.g., bitumen or fibrous carbonate cement, and we have studied them in the Green River Fm, Utah, USA, and the Vaca Muerta Fm, Neuquen Basin, Argentina. The aims of this paper are to show the visual expressions of expulsion and primary migration and to discuss associated mechanisms.
Within the organic-rich Mahogany Zone (Green River Fm) are layer parallel fractures (max 1cm thick) filled with massive black bitumen. Immediately above the Mahogany Zone are vertical, near parallel, regularly spaced (0.5-1m) thin fractures (mm) filled with bitumen. Thickness increases and regularity decreases upward through the overlying fine-grained rock. In reaching the overlying Uinta Fm sandstone, the bitumen-filled fractures are up to 5m wide and extend for up to 20km. Vertical bitumen-filled fractures also initiate at the base of the Mahogany Zone and widen downwards to meter thick fractures.
In the Vaca Muerta Fm are numerous layer-parallel fractures filled with fibrous calcite that contains hydrocarbon inclusions. These range from mm to cm in thickness and from cm to tens of meter in length. Vertical bitumen-filled fractures are observed above and below the organic-rich zone. One several meters wide fracture comprises Vaca Muerta source rock blocks in bitumen matrix.
Short and wide layer-parallel hydro-fractures and organic-rich shale within fractures show that these layers were ductile. This is consistent with experiments where ductility increases with organic content and temperature. The transformation from general stress conditions (solid grains carry the weight of the overburden, σ1>σ2>σ3) to a plastic rock (isotropic stress, σ1=σ2=σ3) also shifts the fluid pressure to lithostatic. The combined effect of isotropic stress, anisotropic rocks, high fluid pressure and seepage force cause layer parallel fractures to open within organic-rich shales. The high intra-source rock fluid pressure acts on the surrounding shales where general stress conditions guides formation of vertical hydro-fractures. Hydrocarbons migrate through these fractures to permeable rocks. Increasing temperature causes the softening of the organic rich-shales and we therefore term this model "The thermal expulsion engine".


The use of mobile phone increases exponentially in our daily activities because it is light, mobile and handy that can be used anytime and anywhere. Checking emails, updating our daily status and diary, reading the latest news and online purchasing requires continuous network connection as well as a battery that can last. But sometimes the performance of internet speed is too weak where users are experiencing some problems and eventually leads to network disruption. Hence, users should be given the option to choose the internet connection or internet service provider that offer better service at that time moreover during an emergency. In this paper, we propose a development of Information Server to provide information to consumers about the available network surrounding within a reasonable time upon requested. This method is applied in the user terminal to allow the user freedom to decode on the best network handover.


Summary.  We studied the functional role of two mutations, Pro55Ser and Pro55Leu, located in the N‐terminal Epidermal Growth Factor‐like domain (EGF1) of coagulation factor (F) IX. Both mutations cause mild hemophilia B with habitual FIX coagulant activities of 10–12% and FIX antigen levels of 50%. We found that activation by FVIIa/TF and FXIa was normal for FIXPro55Ser, but resulted in proteolysis of FIXPro55Leu at Arg318‐Ser319 with a concomitant loss of amidolytic activity, suggesting intramolecular communication between EGF1 and the serine protease domain in FIX. This was further supported by experiments using an anti‐EGF1 monoclonal antibody. Activation of FX by FIXaPro55Ser was impaired in both the presence and the absence of phospholipid or FVIIIa, indicating that Pro55 is not directly involved in binding to FVIIIa. We also studied the effect of the two Pro55 mutations on Ca2+ affinity and found only small changes. Thus, the Pro55Ser mutation causes hemophilia primarily through to an impaired ability to activate FX whereas at least in vitro the Pro55Leu defect interferes with the activation of FIX.


A new multiple C-slotted microstrip patch antenna is proposed in the present study. A patch antenna is a wide-beam narrowband antenna. The microstrip patch antenna consists of a very thin metallic strip (patch) placed a small fraction of a wavelength above a ground plane. The patch can be designed in any possible shape and normally made of conducting materials such as copper or gold. This study presents a design of a C-Slotted microstrip patch antenna for multiple applications. The proposed antenna's characteristics include a low cost, easy fabrication and good isolation along with Quad different frequency bands which are centered at 1.60 GHz, 2.50 GHz, 4.70 GHz and 5.50 GHz for parameter S11. The antenna is designed, simulated, and optimized for Quad band performance by using IE3D software. The C-shape-slotted patch antenna is designed on a FR4 substrate with the thickness of 1.59 mm and the relative permittivity of 4.4. The proposed patch dimension is 16*16 mm and it utilizes the microstrip line feed. The simulated results parameter S11 and S12, shows that the antenna can cover the bands of several applications including GPS (1.2-1.6 GHz), GSM (1.8-1.9 GHz) and WiMAX (2.3-5.8 GHz). Simulation results are presented in terms of Resonant Frequency, Return Loss, Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) and Radiation Pattern.


The absorption of a low-power rf signal from various shell antennas was measured in a short plasma column produced by a microwave electron cyclotron resonance source. Both azimuthally asymmetric (straight and helical) and symmetric (m = 0) antennas as well as antennas with rotating field were provided to compare their efficiencies. A?multi-peaked dependence of the load resistance on density, which is intrinsic for any antenna, was shown to result from the excitation of axially standing helicon modes. The magnitudes of the absorption peaks were shown to substantially depend on both the antenna design and its position relative to the plasma column. The double half-turn and m = 0 antennas were measured to have a low excitation efficiency. The left- and right-hand helical antennas were found to be of equal impedance. The excitation efficiency of the phased antenna was considerably higher in the case of generation of the right-hand (m = + 1) polarized waves. Increasing input power stimulated a transition to a self-sustained helicon discharge which could exist in discrete modes with densities corresponding to the absorption peaks. Gas pressure and matching conditions were shown to substantially affect the antenna coupling to various modes and absorption efficiency. Measured results on the antenna load impedance were compared with computations performed with two alternative models. The model regarding the excitation of the Trivelpiece-Gould (TG) waves yields a reasonable agreement with experimental data. The absorption mechanism is argued to originate in the mode conversion of helicon waves into TG waves. Results obtained with the other model, which neglects the TG waves, were found to be strongly contrary to the measurements.


Metabolomics analysis of urine before and after overactive bladder (OAB) treatment may demonstrate a unique molecular profile, allowing predictions of responses to treatment. This feasibility study aimed to correlate changes in urinary metabolome with changes in OAB symptoms after intravesical onabotulinumtoxinA (BTX-A) injections for refractory OAB. Women 18 years or older with non-neurogenic refractory OAB were recruited to complete OAB-V8 questionnaires and submit urine samples before and after 100 units intravesical BTX-A injection. Samples were submitted to CE-TOFMS metabolomics profiling. Data were expressed as percent of change from pre-treatment and were correlated with OAB-V8 score improvement. Urinary metabolite changes in the OAB-V8 groups were compared using the Kruskal–Wallis test, and associations between metabolites and OAB-V8 scores were examined using quantile regression analysis. Of 61 urinary metabolites commonly detected before and after BTX-A, there was a statistically significant decrease in adenosine and an increase in N8-acetylspermidine and guanidinoacetic acid levels associated with OAB score improvement, suggesting that intravesical BTX-A injection modifies the urinary metabolome. These urinary metabolites could provide insight into OAB pathophysiology and help identify patients who would benefit most from chemodenervation.


Hierarchical semiconductor CuO nanotablets with pores have been fabricated on a large scale by a facile and one-pot sonochemical process using the copper acetate and ammonia aqueous solution as precursor in the absence of surfactants or additives. The as-synthesized products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and N2 physisorption. The results reveal that porous tablet-shaped CuO nanostructures composed of nanoribbons possess a monoclinc phase CuO with the average diameters about 200 nm and around 50 nm in thickness. The Brunnauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area and the single point adsorption total pore volume were measured to be 26.8 m2/g and 0.083 cm3/g, respectively. The band-gap energies were estimated to be 2.52 eV from a UV-vis absorption spectrum, which showed the quantum size effects of the nanosized semiconductors. A possible mechanism for porous CuO nanotablets was discussed.


OBJECTIVES
The purpose of the present study was to examine whether there are overall differences in help-seeking, in specific weight control behaviors used, and in predictors of seeking professional help for weight loss between African American and Caucasian women.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study.

SETTING
Participants were recruited from community sources in Philadelphia.

PARTICIPANTS
One hundred twenty female participants were studied. Of these, 58% were African American.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Participants completed a packet of measures assessing weight-control behaviors, body mass index, co-morbid medical conditions, socioeconomic status, disordered eating behavior, and body image.

RESULTS
Caucasian women were significantly more likely to be classified as high help-seekers than were African American women, X2 = 4.27, P = .04. Caucasian women were more likely to use commercial weight loss programs, X2 = 4.25, P = .04, while African American women were more likely to try herbal supplements for weight control, X2 = 6.21, P = .01. Higher scores on a measure of body image, responsiveness to the food environment, and the disinhibition and hunger subscales of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) predicted seeking professional help for Caucasian women only.

CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that African American and Caucasian women differ in overall weight-control efforts as well as in specific behaviors used. Furthermore, interactions were found between some factors associated with help-seeking and ethnicity. A better understanding of how available programs could be augmented to address the needs of African American and other minority groups is necessary.


The phase change process in cryosurgery is simulated here with finite element scheme. The calculated results are consistent with experimental results. The compared results confirm the feasibility of the enthalpy model and finite element simulation method. And the successive Freeze-thawing Circle and multi-probe cryosurgery process are further simulated and the characteristic of the thermal field and thermal gradient around cryoprobe are analyzed. The application of enthalpy mathematical model and finite element scheme provide useful simulating means for the cryosurgery and will be beneficial for the progressing and extending of the cryosurgery technology.


The study explored female students' quest for leadership and experiential leadership realities in higher educational institutions in Ghana. In Ghana, female enrolment in higher educational institutions has increased due to population increases and campaign for girl-child education. However, despite the opportunities and access to higher education, female students' quest for leadership positions in their educational institutions is often thwarted and largely insignificant compared to their male counterparts. However, there is evidence in Ghana that national leadership, especially in politics, is usually linked to leadership at tertiary institutions, especially, in the universities.  Using female students' leadership in governance at the University of Education (UEW) as a study focus, and employing the liberal feminist theory, we hypothesised that female students' desire for leadership positions in higher education would not differ significantly from reality due to some systemic cultural challenges. The study revealed that certain leadership positions are preserved of males, and females who vie for such positions generally encounter some cultural setbacks . The study concludes that female students are motivated to take leadership positions due to their desire to lead and serve the people, but society uses gender to set limit for women when they vie for leadership positions. The study recommends that teachers and parents should encourage both males and females to take up equal leadership roles early in life to arouse in them the drive for future leadership positions.


A 24 year-old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus developed a subcutaneous nodule on the back which upon histopathological examination was found to be a case of phaeohyphomycosis. To our knowledge, this is the first case of the condition to be reported in Puerto Rico.


Carnosinase (i.e., CN1; E.C. 184.108.40.206) is an enzyme found in the sera of higher primates. CN1 preferentially catalyzes the hydrolysis of natural, orally adsorbed histidine dipeptides like carnosine (i.e., β-alanyl-L-histidine). This is the reason why carnosine has a limited use as a human food supplement or pharmacological agent, despite the promising results obtained in experiments on animal models of human diseases. Herein, an assay is reported for the measurement of serum CN1 activity. The method is intended for the screening of CN1 inhibitors able to enhance carnosine bioavailability in humans. The method was developed to monitor serum hydrolytic activity via the quantitation of one of the products of carnosine hydrolysis (i.e., histidine). Separation was achieved without using organic solvents by means of ion chromatography (IC), whereas detection was provided by UV spectroscopy. The assay herein reported is a green and cost-effective alternative to a recently published method based on hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) and mass spectrometry (MS). The results show that such a method produces reliable measurements of serum hydrolytic activity and can be used for the screening of CN1 inhibitors.


Polymer or plastic optical fibers' performance lies somewhere between conventional copper wires and glass optical fibers. Copper wires suffer from electromagnetic interference. By comparison, plastic optical fibers are free from interference. Compared to glass fibers, polymer optical fibers (POFs) are much easier to connect because of their large diameters. Coupling of light from the sun or from a source is also very efficient due to large NA and large core diameter. The most important attribute of POFs is their large core diameters of around 1 mm to 20 mm as compared to glass fibers with cores of 50/spl mu/m or 62.5/spl mu/m. Such a large diameter results in easier alignment at joints. Any transverse misalignment between the two cores across a joint between two fibers leads to a loss. Hence, this paper studies on the coupling efficiency of light from the sun as a natural light source to a step-index polymer optical fibers in comparison to glass fibers that results in larger light-gathering power for optical fiber daylighting system and in fiber decorative lighting. MATLAB simulation analysis shows that the coupling efficiency and light gathering power increases steadily with an increase in numerical aperture of the step-index PMMA polymer optical fiber that has higher and better light gathering power than step-index PMMA glass optical fiber.


The need to find a broad-based nutritional and antimicrobial therapy gave impetus to this investigation. The crude extracts of Baphia nitida stem bark were used to check for antimicrobial effect on selected micro-organisms for possible nutritional and therapeutic application. The stem bark components were extracted with four solvent systems using maceration. A synthetic drug gentamycin - 80 mg/mL (2 mL) was dissolved in 20 mL of distilled water to obtained 8 mg/mL, was used as a control. The crude extract exhibited an antibacterial effect on gram-positive organisms (Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus), and gram-negative organism (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli) at 2 mg/mL. These showed competitiveness with the 8 mg/mL of the control drug. The normal hexane fraction had an effect on Staphylococcus aureus but showed no effect on other bacteria. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) showed a dose-dependent decrease in the effect for the crude extract. Ethyl acetate and methanol fraction had an effect on Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli at varying concentrations - 20, 10, and 5 mg/mL. the initial screening of the Baphia nitida stem bark revealed alkaloids in the methanol-methylene chloride crude extract and methanol fraction only. Other solvents showed the alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, terpenoids, glycosides, hydrogen cyanides and steroids respectively. Therefore, the presence of the phytochemicals implicates its antimicrobial effect and the basis for its efficacy as antimicrobial therapy.


Molecular expressions for thermodynamic properties of fluids and derivatives of the entropy up to third order in the isoenthalpic-isobaric ensemble are derived by using the methodology developed by Lustig for the microcanonical and canonical ensembles [J. Chem. Phys. 100, 3048 (1994)JCPSA60021-960610.1063/1.466446; Mol. Phys. 110, 3041 (2012)MOPHAM0026-897610.1080/00268976.2012.695032]. They are expressed in a systematic way by phase-space functions, which represent derivatives of the phase-space volume with respect to enthalpy and pressure. The expressions for thermodynamic properties contain only ensemble averages of combinations of the kinetic energy and volume of the system. Thus, the calculation of thermodynamic properties in the isoenthalpic-isobaric ensemble does not require volume derivatives of the potential energy. This is particularly advantageous in Monte Carlo simulations when the interactions between molecules are described by very accurate ab initio pair and nonadditive three-body potentials. The derived expressions are validated by Monte Carlo simulations for the simple Lennard-Jones model fluid as a test case.


Smoking is a significant social problem threatening the population's health, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the problem's urgency, we present a clinical case of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a patient with 10 years of smoking and concomitant chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (chronic bronchitis and peribronchial pneumosclerosis). Patient L.K., 42 years old, on 13.10.2022, was hospitalized for several hours at the Emergency Hospital of the Ministry of Health of Chuvashia (Cheboksary) with a severe new coronavirus infection. Secondary diagnosis: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Case history: for about two to three weeks, the patient noted an increase in body temperature to 37.2-37.4 degreeC and a cough. He has smoked for about 10 years, 1 pack per day. Computed tomography showed signs of bilateral COVID-associated pneumonitis, alveolitis with 85% involvement and consolidation sites, signs of chronic bronchitis, and peribronchial pneumosclerosis. The diagnosis of COVID-19 was confirmed by a polymerase chain reaction in a nasopharyngeal smear. The NEWS2 score was 9. After the treatment started, the patient died. Histological examination showed perivascular sclerosis, peribronchial pneumosclerosis, atrophic changes in the ciliated epithelium, and structural and functional alteration of the bronchial mucosa. In addition, areas of hemorrhage and inflammatory infiltrate in the bronchial wall were found. Coronavirus is known not to cause bronchitis but bronchiolitis. In the presented case, the patient showed signs of transition of bronchitis to the acute stage. Therefore, it can be assumed that the coronavirus acts as a complicating factor. In addition to the described changes, signs of viral interstitial pneumonia, pulmonary edema, and early development of acute respiratory distress syndrome were identified.Copyright © 2023, Media Sphera Publishing Group. All rights reserved.


The main goal of this work is study the land cover changes for "Baghdad city" over a period of (30) years using multi-temporal Landsat satellite images (TM, ETM+ and OLI) acquired in 1984, 2000, and 2015 respectively. In this work, the methodology adopted took into consideration different image pre-processing techniques including, geometric correction, radiometric correction, atmospheric correction and satellite image clipping. The principal components analysis transform has been utilized as multi operators, (i.e. enhancement, compressor, and temporal change detector). Since most of the image band's information are presented in the first PCs image. Then, the PC1 image for all three years is partitioned into variable sized blocks using quad tree technique. Several different methods of classification have been used to classify Landsat satellite images; these are, proposed method (ant colony system) using proposed system and supervised method (Maximum likelihood Classifier Technique) using ENVI 5.1 software are utilized in order to get the most accurate results and then compare the results of each method and calculate the land cover changes that have been taken place in years 2000 and 2015 comparing with 1984. The image classification of the study area resulted into five land cover types: Water bodies, vegetation, open land (Barren land), urban area "Residential I" and urban area "Residential II". The results from classification process indicated that water bodies, vegetation, open land and the urban area "Residential I" were increased, while the second type from urban area "Residential II" in decrease to year 2015 comparable with 1984. Despite use of many methods of classification, results of the proposed method proved its efficiency, where the classification accuracies for the ACS algorithm are 83%, 58% and 84% for years 1984, 2000 and 2015 respectively.


PURPOSE
To report a first case of retinitis pigmentosa accompanied with retinal angiomatous proliferation (RAP).

CASE
A 60-year-old woman was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. Fundus examination revealed intraretinal hemorrhage and exdates with retinal edema in the subfovea region OD. Indocyanine green angiogram revealed the presence of retino-choroidal anastomosis. These findings were compatible with the lesions observed in the form of RAP in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is resistant to photodynamic therapy with verteporfin and anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy.

CONCLUSION
A first case of retinitis pigmentosa accompanied with RAP presented. Although few clinical cases of retinitis pigmentosa accompanied with choroidal neovascularization have been reported, this is the first report of RAP combined with retinitis pigmentosa. Further research is required to examine the mechanism associating these two conditions.


We present a hybrid visualization technique that integrates maps into network visualizations to reveal and analyze diverse topologies in geospatial movement data. With the rise of GPS tracking in various contexts such as smartphones and vehicles there has been a drastic increase in geospatial data being collect for personal reflection and organizational optimization. The generated movement datasets contain both geographical and temporal information, from which rich relational information can be derived. Common map visualizations perform especially well in revealing basic spatial patterns, but pay less attention to more nuanced relational properties. In contrast, network visualizations represent the specific topological structure of a dataset through the visual connections of nodes and their positioning. So far there has been relatively little research on combining these two approaches. Shifted Maps aims to bring maps and network visualizations together as equals. The visualization of places shown as circular map extracts and movements between places shown as edges, can be analyzed in different network arrangements, which reveal spatial and temporal topologies of movement data. We implemented a web-based prototype and report on challenges and opportunities about a novel network layout of places gathered during a qualitative evaluation.


Strain TJK16, a low-thymine-requiring thyA deoB derivative of Escherichia coli B/r A, was found to have an increased initiation mass due to a mutation in a gene affecting the control of initiation of deoxyribonucleic acid replication. In contrast to temperature-sensitive initiation mutants, initiation in TJK16 was not temperature sensitive. By phage P1 transduction, it was found that the mutation lies within a small region of the chromosome between dnaA and gyrB; this region includes dnaN and recF. Coumermycin-resistant derivatives of B/r and TJK16 had the same initiation mass as their coumermycin-sensitive parents, and TJK16 had the same sensitivity to coumermycin as the B/r parent, suggesting that the initiation mutation is not in gyrB.


Aims: To study the expression of nuclear β catenin in patients with colorectal cancer, colorectal adenoma, and colorectal polyps to elucidate its role in carcinogenesis, and its potential for prognosis and diagnosis. Methods: The expression of nuclear β catenin was studied by immunohistochemistry using paraffin wax embedded specimens. Sixty specimens each of colorectal carcinoma, colorectal adenoma, colorectal polyp, and normal colorectal specimens were analysed. The potential for prognosis was assessed by correlating nuclear β catenin expression in 60 and 75 patients with colorectal cancer with lymph node metastasis and survival, respectively. The diagnostic capacity was explored by comparing nuclear β catenin expression in 60 patients with colorectal cancer with other cytokeratin 20 (CK20) positive adenocarcinomas, namely: 30 colonic mucinous adenocarcinomas, 30 gastric adenocarcinomas, 27 pancreatic adenocarcinomas, and 12 ovarian mucinous adenocarcinomas. Results: Nuclear β catenin expression was highly associated with progression of colorectal tissue from normal epithelial tissue, polyps, adenomas, to carcinomas (r  =  0.875; p < 0.0001). Nineteen patients with colorectal adenoma who subsequently developed colorectal carcinoma had higher nuclear β catenin expression than those with colorectal adenomas alone (p < 0.0001). Moreover, those patients with colorectal cancer and high nuclear β catenin expression had a higher incidence of lymph node metastasis (χ2  =  16.99; p < 0.005) and shorter overall survival (p < 0.0001). Finally, nuclear β catenin expression in colorectal adenocarcinomas was significantly higher than in other CK20 positive adenocarcinomas. Conclusions: Nuclear β catenin expression is a potential prognostic factor in patients with colorectal cancer, and together with CK20, it could be used to identify colorectal carcinoma in the Hong Kong population.


ABSTRACT The emerging pathogen Campylobacter ureolyticus has been isolated from human and animal genital infections, human periodontal disease, domestic and food animals, and from cases of human gastroenteritis. We report the whole-genome sequence of the human clinical isolate RIGS 9880, which is the first closed genome for C. ureolyticus.


SLUGEŇ JOZEF, MATUSKA RICHARD. 2014. Proposal of Application of Synthetic Ropes in Forestry. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 62(3): 581–591. Work off ers information about synthetic ropes which represent suitable alternative to steel ropes. Our goal is to create a work that could serve as a basis for use such ropes in forestry of countries in Central Europe and mainly for the purpose of further empiric research. Synthetic ropes will be described by synthesis of information from several markedly diff erent spheres. We also use information which we have obtained from self consultations with the manufacturer of synthetic ropes in Trencin. In this paper, we meet the basic question about material of whose are synthetic ropes manufactured and describe its basic properties. We would like to fi ll the gap in the fi eld of specialised literature which does not pay suffi cient attention to this area. We focused on comparing of currently used steel ropes with synthetic ropes, and we determined their advantages and disadvantages. As the method for comparison we chose several technologies – skidder technologies and skyline logging system which are mechanisms for collecting wood. We chose mechanisms which are typical for forestry of central Europe like skidder LKT 81 T and skyline logging system Larix 3 T. Based on all information, we formulated concrete recommendations for forest usage as there are several signifi cant diff erences between use and care of steel and synthetic ropes.