Pyroptosis is a recently discovered programmed cell death that is involved in tumor formation, prognosis, and curative effect. Pyroptosis-related long non-coding ribonucleic acids (PR-lncRNAs) play key roles in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. However, the inherent relationship between PR-lncRNAs and the prognosis of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains unclear. For this reason, the association of PR-lncRNAs with the prognosis and tumor microenvironment features was analyzed using the Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatment (TARGET) database. We classified three clusters based on PR-lncRNAs expressions and identified 841 differentially expressed PR-lncRNAs related to overall survival time. Seven key lncRNAs were then identified by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)-Cox and multivariate Cox. A signature based on these seven lncRNAs was also established, and the patients were separated into two groups according to their risk score. The high-risk group was characterized by poorer prognosis, lower expression of immune checkpoints, lower microsatellite instability or microsatellite stability (MSI-L/MSS), and lower drug sensitivity. The results demonstrated that PR-lncRNAs have a potential effect on the tumor immune microenvironment, clinicopathological features, and prognosis in pediatric AML. The nomogram and decision curve analysis suggested that the risk score is one of the most accurate of any other and provided a basis for the exploration of the immune microenvironment of the cell pyroptosis-associated subtypes in children with AML and the construction of a prognostic model with seven key PR-lncRNAs, which provides an approach to evaluate the prognosis of pediatric AML patients.


It is not easy to look at the current momentum of the worldwide diffusion of English and imagine what the future trends will be by mid-century or even in the next two or three decades. A prudent undertaking is to review briefly the present situation and project what the coming decades hold in view of several developments that are shaping our world. The story of the spread of English and the factors responsible for its diffusion are complex. The spread and functions of world Englishes are still growing; simultaneously, the domains of use of other contenders or languages of wider communication, such as French and Spanish in Africa, Southeast Asia and other parts of the world, are shrinking. As far as various other languages of wider communication are concerned (e.g., Arabic, Chinese, Hindi-Urdu, Spanish), although they are spreading at a fast pace beyond their borders, they are as yet providing no serious challenge to world Englishes. This paper presents a bird's-eye view of the factors responsible for the spread of English, and discusses briefly its impact on local languages. The major focus is on the consequences of the worldwide diffusion of English in terms of nativization and acculturation of the language and emergence of world Englishes. The concern that the global spread of English is hastening language 'decay' and 'death', and the proposals to combat this process by developing world, global, or lingua franca English, are addressed briefly. The contemporary status of world Englishes and the world's major languages are considered in some detail in terms of plausible futuristic constructs. 1


During last decades it was developed more than 10 ACE inhibitors and was largely extended the spectrum of its clinical use. As result it is interesting to answer the question which drug is more suitable for treatment of each certain disease. Ramipril is one of the first choice drugs between ACE inhibitors which possible use for secondary stroke prevention. Current data suggest that this clinical effect is only partially associated with antihypertensive activity of drug. Additional factors include its ability to decrease the progress of atherosclerosis, anti-inflammatory effects (probably), positive effects on glucose metabolism, antiaggregant and anticoagulant properties and the absence of negative effects onto the brain blood flow. Use of ramipril for secondary stroke prevention decreases direct health care costs. Anti-stroke effects of ramipril can be enforced by combined treatment with thiazide diuretic (e.g. indapamide).


To investigate the regulation of calpastatin gene expression, we isolated bovine heart calpastatin cDNAs and 5′-regions of the calpastatin gene. Analysis of 5′-cDNA sequence identified a new translation initiation site that is in frame and 204 nucleotides upstream of the previously designated start site. Conceptual translation from this upstream AUG produces a protein containing 68 additional N-terminal amino acids. This "XL" region contains three potential PKA phosphorylation sites but shares no homology with other regions of calpastatin or with any known protein. Immunoblot studies demonstrated that heart and liver contain a calpastatin protein of 145 kDa on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis that comigrates with full-length bacterially expressed calpastatin and calpastatin produced by coupled in vitro transcription-translation from the upstream AUG. An antibody raised against the XL region recognized the 145-kDa band, demonstrating that the upstream AUG is utilized and that the 145-kDa band represents full-length calpastatin in vivo. Transient transfection assays demonstrated that sequence within 272 nucleotides upstream of transcription initiation of the calpastatin gene is sufficient to direct moderate level transcription. Promoter sequences further upstream act to inhibit or stimulate transcriptional activity. Exposure of transfected cells to dibutyryl cAMP resulted in a 7–20-fold increase in promoter activity for constructs containing at least 272 nucleotides of upstream promoter sequence. Deletion analysis indicates that at least one cAMP-responsive element resides within 102 nucleotides of transcription initiation.


This paper deals with prefabricated composite bridges with full-depth precast decks. For steel–concrete composite bridges, a new shear connection and its design provisions were suggested by extensive experiments and finite element (FE) analyses. The shear connection for precast decks was investigated to consider the effects of bedding layer, filling material in shear pockets and group arrangement. For the integrity of the precast decks, longitudinal prestressing was introduced and design guidelines for the magnitude of prestress were proposed. It is necessary to keep the joints compressive during the service life of the bridge to prevent cracking and leakage at the joints. Bonding strength was neglected in the design. In order to take full advantage of precast slabs, the concept of incremental prestressing was adopted for continuous prestressed concrete (PSC) girders. Based on the experimental research on joints and connections, several model tests were performed to verify the suggested design guidelines. There are several applications using precast decks not only for steel bridges and but also for concrete ones. Among them, design characteristics and enhanced details for construction were introduced for two bridges.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are frequently present in the blood of cancer patients and can be captured by a variety of mechanisms. Here we describe a novel microfluidic chip that can capture CTCs by both cell size and affinity.

Flat, plastic slides were embossed using silicone molds to produce two chip types. The T7 chip consists of posts with a fixed diameter arranged in a staggered pattern with a constant gap size between them (designed primarily for affinity capture), while the C5 chip consists of posts arranged in a gradient pattern with decreasing post diameters and gap distances across the chip surface (for size and affinity capture). Decreasing the distances between posts, to a minimum of 12 μ, creates a gap size gradient across the chip allowing smaller blood cells to flow through while capturing larger CTCs within the gaps. Both chips types were additionally functionalized with either an anti-EpCAM (epithelial cell adehsion molecule) monoclonal antibody (Ab) for specific affinity capture of epithelial cells or an irrelevant control IgG. High (H1650) and low (MDA-MB-231) EpCAM expressing cancer cells were spiked into buffer and pumped through the chips at a constant flow rate. Captured cells were then identified by on-chip immunofluorescence using an anti-cytokeratin Ab conjugated to phycoerythrin in combination with a nuclear specific fluorescent stain and imaged on an automated cell imaging platform at 5x magnification.

Reproducibility of capture rate was acceptable for replicate measurements, with CV's of < 15% for within-day, day-to-day, and lot-to-lot precision. Affinity capture rate of H1650 cells, as demonstrated by EpCAM Ab T7 chips, was 37%. Size capture, as demonstrated using IgG C5 chips with H1650 spiked cells was 35%. EpCAM Ab coated C5 chips however, captured 97% of H1650 cells, verifying the advantage of both size and affinity capture. Control IgG T7 chips captured only 22% of H1650 cells. As further confirmation of the concept of dual capture, low EpCAM expressing MDA-MB-231 cells, were captured at 38% by size alone on IgG chips and showed no increase in capture rate on chips with EpCAM antibody. Heat maps of cell distribution showed that low EpCAM expressing cells captured by size were localized primarily in the small gap regions of the chip. Cells with high EpCAM, run on the EpCAM-specific antibody chip, were uniformly distributed across the entire surface of the chip, suggesting both capture mechanisms were operative.

This microfluidic platform allows for affinity and size capture of heterogeneous CTCs on a novel, gradient EpCAM antibody chip. The platform can capture spiked cells with good precision. High efficiency cell capture is demonstrated by combining size and affinity, with almost 100% efficiency, regardless of EpCAM expression.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4898. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-4898


Hiding in Plain Sight tells the story of the global effort to apprehend the world's most wanted fugitives. Beginning with the flight of tens of thousands of Nazi war criminals and their collaborators after World War II, then moving on to the question of justice following the recent Balkan wars and the Rwandan genocide, and ending with the establishment of the International Criminal Court and America's pursuit of suspected terrorists in the aftermath of 9/11, the book explores the range of diplomatic and military strategies—both successful and unsuccessful—that states and international courts have adopted to pursue and capture war crimes suspects. It is a story fraught with broken promises, backroom politics, ethical dilemmas, and daring escapades—all in the name of international justice and human rights.


This paper presents an idea of inductive learning use for rule generation from ontologies. The main purpose of the paper is to evaluate the possibility of inductive learning use in rule generation from ontologies and to develop the way how this can be done. Generated rules are necessary to supplement or even to develop the Semantic Web Expert System (SWES) knowledge base. The SWES emerges as the result of evolution of expert system concept toward the Web, and the SWES is based on the Semantic Web technologies. Available publications show that the problem of rule generation from ontologies based on inductive learning is not investigated deeply enough.


This paper presents the results of a study in which dielectric analysis was used to optimize catalyst concentration and minimize mold cycle time for an epoxy casting compound. The casting compound used was based on an anhydride cured hydantoin epoxy resin. Increasing the catalyst concentration to reduce mold time results in a reduced pot life. Using dielectric analysis, gel times and cure times were determined for several catalyst concentrations. Arrhenius plots for the gel times were obtained and minimum cure times for an optimum formulation were determined. The method described here is of general application and may be used to optimize formulations and cure cycles for many polymer processes.


The main objective of this work is to highlight the relationship and importance that Document Management provides the environment as an element included in the use of good practices that contribute to paper savings and therefore sustainable development while taking into account the evidence as a reflection of the operations that any company develops. Also get to become aware of the benefits of being friendly to the environment through the reduction of paper consumption. The analysis - synthesis and cause-effect were used as a methodology. The main results achieved are reflected in the actions that have been developed in the Faculty of Economics through the execution of diploma works deployed in the Department of Business Studies served by the subject of Information Management of its IT discipline and work of the Master's Degree in Information Management in the Organizations of the UNESCO Chair in Information Management for Organizations. The software used in the development of the same was the ALFRESCO Documentary Management System for being free. Good practices of several organizations are analyzed, as well as the problems that paper spending brings to the environment. The result of these works has allowed the definition of the processes of the application of the Documentary Management for the control of the documentation of the mastery as well as of the Graduate School and other organisms of the state establishing a work culture that will allow as a conclusion, its application to other processes in the Faculty of Economics.


In this paper we attempt to flnd and investigate the most general class of posets which satisfy a properly generalized version of the Hofmann-Mislove theorem. For that purpose, we generalize and study some notions (like compactness, the Scott topology, Scott open fllters, prime elements, the spectrum etc.), and adjust them for use in general posets. Then we characterize the posets satisfying the Hofmann-Mislove theorem by the relationship between the generalized Scott closed prime subsets and the generalized prime elements of the poset. The theory be- come classic for distributive lattices. Remark that the topologies induced on the generalized spectra in general need not be sober.


Abstract In teleosts, prolactin is involved in calcium regulation, but its role in scale/bone metabolism is unclear. Using the in-vitro system with goldfish scales developed recently, we explored the effects of teleost prolactin, growth hormone, and somatolactin on osteoclasts and osteoblasts. Addition of prolactin at concentrations of 0.01–100 ng/ml reduced osteoclastic activity, partly via osteoclast apoptosis, after 6–18 h incubation. Conversely, growth hormone and somatolactin at a concentration of 100 ng/ml increased osteoclastic activity after 18 h incubation, indicating the specificity of the inhibitory effect of prolactin on osteoclastic activity. On the other hand, these three hormones promoted osteoblastic activity at concentrations of 10–100 ng/ml. The results from this study are the first demonstration of direct effects of prolactin on scale/bone metabolism and osteoclastic activity in a teleost.


Fe3O4-stabilized nanoscale Pd/Fe was used to dechlorinate 2,4-D in aqueous solution and achieved high dechlorination efficiency. The Fe3O4 dosage, pH, Pd loading, temperature and stirring rate were important factors for dechlorination of 2,4-D. The removal rate of 2,4-D increased with the increase of Fe3O4, dosage, and it reached 93.5% after 210 min when the Fe3O4 dosage was 4.0 g x L(-1), while only 47.3% 2,4-D was transformed using bare nanoscale Pd/Fe. Low pH enhanced dechlorination and 2,4-D was almost completely dechlorinated within 110 min when the pH ranged from 2.6 to 4.1. The dechlorination efficiency was significantly influenced by Pd loading. After 210 min, the different Pd loading, 0.25%, 0.50% and 0.75%, resulted in 2,4-D reduction efficiency of 51.4%, 93.5% and 99.9%, respectively. The removal rate was higher than 90.0% after 210 min in the temperature range of 16.5 degrees C to 30.0 degrees C, while it decreased significantly when the temperature rose to 35.0 and 40.0 degrees C. The dechlorination efficiency was improved with the increasing stirring rate. Fe3O4 prevented the aggregation of nanoscale Pd/Fe particles. In addition, Fe3O4 acted as a medium to promote the electron transfer from Fe(0) to H+ and 2,4-D, and thus enhanced the reductive dechlorination of 2,4-D.


After of emphasizing the importance of the investigation in the modern societies and the alarming existing disproportion in the Peruvian education superior between the number of withdrawn and the number of theses sustained for the obtaining of the academic degree, the importance of the stage of the "exposition of the problem of investigation" in the methodology of quantitative investigation is emphasized. Soon to realise a conceptual reflection about the stage referred from two of text books of used methodology of investigation more in our means, the one of Kerlinger and the one of Hernandez and Batista, with the aim of deriving from this reflection a set of procedural suggestions that orient to the investigators about the most recommendable actions to realise an effective Exposition of the Problem of investigation. In order to finish they mention themselves some you rule generic for the writing of an investigation article and the reader to deepen these knowledge in manuals like Publication manual of the American Psychological Association or The scientific drafting.


ABSTRACT The impact of fecal contamination from human and agricultural animal waste on water quality is a major public health concern. Identification of the dominant source(s) of fecal pollution in a watershed is necessary for assessing the safety of recreational water and protecting water resources. A field study was conducted using quantitative PCR (qPCR) for the 16S rRNA gene of Brevibacterium sp. LA35 to track feces-contaminated poultry litter in environmental samples. Based on sensitivity and specificity characteristics of the qPCR method, the Bayesian conditional probability that detection of the LA35 marker gene in a water sample represented a true-positive result was 93%. The marker's covariance with fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) and metals associated with poultry litter was also assessed in litter, runoff, surface water, and groundwater samples. LA35 was detected in water and soil samples collected throughout the watershed, and its concentration covaried with concentrations of Escherichia coli, enterococci, As, Cu, P, and Zn. Significantly greater concentrations of FIB, As, Cu, P, and Zn were observed in edge-of-field runoff samples in which LA35 was detected, compared to samples in which it was not detected. Furthermore, As, Cu, P, and Zn concentrations covaried in environmental samples in which LA35 was detected and typically did not in samples in which the marker gene was not detected. The covariance of the poultry-specific LA35 marker gene with these known contaminants from poultry feces provides further evidence that it is a useful tool for assessing the impact of poultry-derived fecal pollution in environmental waters.


The maleate salt form of pheniramine, an alkylamine derivative with antihistaminic and vasodilatory properties. Pheniramine maleate binds to histamine H1 receptors, thereby inhibiting phospholipase A2 and production of endothelium-derived relaxing factor, nitric oxide. Subsequent lack of activation of guanylyl cyclase through nitric oxide results in decreased cyclic GMP (cGMP) levels, thereby inhibiting constriction of smooth muscle tissue, and decreased capillary permeability and histamine-activated allergic reactions.


The study of the general geology and the distribution of potential toxic elements around Kampung Damar, Kuala Krai, Kelantan was conducted in an area of approximately 25 km2. The objective of this study is to produce a geological map of and to produce a spatial distribution map on the potentially toxic element of residential topsoil around Kampung Damar area. For producing geological map, field studies had been conducted at the Kampung Damar area, such as geomorphology, structural geology, and lithology, as well as laboratory works such as petrographic analysis was done to determine the type of the rock. ArcGIS 10.1 software was used to produce the geological map of Kampung Damar, Kuala Krai. The geological map produced, consist of three different lithology, which are phyllite, ignimbrite and sedimentary rock, as well as alluvium was also been observed at in the study area. The sedimentary rock consist of carbonaceous mudstone, greywacke sandstone and shale. While, for the study of potential toxic elements in the residential topsoil around Kampung Damar, Kuala Krai, nine samples were collected from different residential area around Kampung Damar, Kuala Krai. Elemental analysis was done by using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Specrometer (ICP-OES) to determine the concentration of Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn in the Kampung Damar area. Spatial distribution map for Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn was done by using interpolation technique, Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) of ARCGIS 10.1 software. It was found that the concentration of Pb exceeds the screening limit suggested by United State Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).


Stars in the mass range 8 M☉ ≲ M ≲ 30 M☉ are thought to end their lives as luminous supernovae that leave behind a neutron star. However, if a substantial fraction of these stars instead ended as black hole remnants, without producing a supernova (a "failed" supernova), how would one know? We show that, under plausible assumptions, the Hipparcos catalog should contain ~30ffail astrometric binaries with black hole companions, where ffail is the fraction of supernovae that fail. Since no black hole astrometric binaries are found in Hipparcos, one might like to conclude that such failed supernovae are very rare. However, the most important assumption required for this argument, the initial companion mass function (ICMF) of G stars (the majority of Hipparcos stars) in the high-mass companion regime, is without any observational basis. We show how the ICMF of G stars can be measured using future space-based astrometric missions, thereby permitting an accurate measurement of the rate of supernovae that fail.


Summary: Low uptake of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services in resource-limited settings requires new approaches to prevent missed opportunities. Routine HIV testing ("opt-out" testing) in antenatal care (ANC) should be considered. An exploratory cross-sectional survey was conducted in 6 PMTCT sites in rural Zimbabwe. Women who had attended ANC in health centers where PMTCT was provided were surveyed in postnatal services. Of 520 women sampled, 285 (55%) had been HIV tested during their last pregnancy. Primary education or no education (P = 0.02), reporting receiving neither group education in the ANC clinic (P < 0.001) nor individual pretest counseling (P < 0.001), and having attended <6 ANC visits (P < 0.03) were associated with not having been HIV tested. Among the 235 women not HIV tested in ANC, 79% would accept HIV testing if opt-out testing was introduced. Factors associated with accepting the opt-out approach were being <20 years old (P = 0.005), having secondary education or more (P = 0.03), living with a partner (P = 0.001), and the existence of a PMTCT service where the untested women delivered. Thirty-seven women of 235 (16%) would decline routine HIV testing, mainly because of their fear of knowing their HIV status and the need to have their partner's consent. Among the women already tested in ANC (n = 285), 97% would accept the opt-out approach. In Zimbabwe, where 25% of pregnant women are HIV infected, introducing the opt-out strategy for HIV testing may have a far-reaching public health impact on PMTCT. Issues regarding, stigma, quality of post-testing counseling and staffing must be considered, however.


For an author who makes such creative use of language and its semantic possibilities that he invents his own epistemological vocabulary, D. H. Lawrence has received surprisingly little critical attention for his innovations in the novel at the level of text. [1] Because the arena of linguistical experimentation for Lawrence was mostly in metaphysics (he even explains his use of obscenity in epistemological terms), the impulse of readers has been to treat his literary language as if it were foreign, to translate it into intelligible doctrine without examining its function as language, without looking at what it does as well as what it says. This same impulse, I believe, accounts for why Lawrence has never been adequately acknowledged for his work in his theory of the novel as a genre. [2] Although a number of essays and chapters and two complete books consider Lawrence as a literary critic, it has been over ten years since anything significant has been published in this area, and what has been published usually discusses his responses to other writers' works. [3] Except perhaps in passing, few critics seem comfortable addressing those strange, forceful essays Lawrence devotes to the novel as a literary form--"The Novel," "Surgery for the Novel--Or a Bomb," "Morality and the Novel," "Why the Novel Matters"--and the reason for the critics' discomfort is not hard to fathom. While there is something endearing, even convincing about Lawrence's rhetorical style, its forced spontaneity, personal vehemence, and unqualified dogmatism seem inherently to undermine how seriously we can take his critical doctrine. The standard response to his genre criticism, where there is any response at all, is to ignore the rhetoric and somehow to extract a serious and consistent set of beliefs. [4] By isolating state ments of workable dogma from their rhetorical context, critics do achieve some sort of coherent meaning from the apparent confusion of Lawrentian rhetoric, but at the same time they also reduce Lawrence's genre theory to much less than it is or can be. [5] Certainly the main impetus behind Lawrence's genre theory, as it was behind similar work by Henry James, Virginia Woolf, and Ford Madox Ford, was primarily rhetorical. The theory, that is, was not as much concerned with defining or elucidating the critical terms of the novel as a form as with persuading people that the genre was worthy of critical attention as genre and thereby worthy of critical respect. Although Lawrence, of course, would never address this issue directly, other novelists constantly, explicitly, point out in their genre criticism that because it had never been formally analyzed, because, as Virginia Woolf puts it, no rules had been drawn up, "no thinking done on her behalf," the novel at the time was not taken seriously enough. James, Woolf, and Ford tried to remedy the situation by drawing up rules themselves, mostly by stressing the importance of the novel as craft--James, for example, explaining in his "Prefaces" the blueprints and conceptual rationales behind his individual novels, and Ford setting out the specific techniques of his own practice of impressionism. But while Lawrence, who theoretically despised any notion of literature as craft, also openly proselytizes for the novel as a serious art form, he does so in an entirely different manner. For Lawrence, as for his major contemporaries, language was always on some level subversive, and the novel was similarly conceived as a subversive genre-- one aimed at undermining established conventions of realism and at demythologizing more traditional literary forms. Whereas other modern novelists also incorporated this subversive strategy into the style of their nonfiction prose, none did so as pervasively and emphatically as Lawrence did. Bakhtin's idea of carnival is particularly applicable to Lawrence's genre theory in ways that distinguish his criticism from that of other novelists writing at the same time (see Problems 122-27). …


March-April 2005 At one point in his suggestive new essay "Stem Cells, Biotechnology, and Human Rights: Implications for a Posthuman Future," Paul Lauritzen runs into some trouble. He writes that he will examine "two broad concerns posed by stem cell research": the dramatic transformation of human life and the destabilization of our attitudes toward the natural world. In his discussion of the first concern he finds that the prior bioethical tradition provides a good foundation for his thoughts, but when he turns to the destabilization of nature, the tradition provides little assistance: the "tools available in bioethics are not well suited to the task." He turns, instead, to contemporary art. Lauritzen does not fully justify this turn toward art, but to be fair he is not concerned primarily with the relationship of bioethics and art. His discussion of works of Kac and Piccinini, however, marks how "bioethics" defined in a more catholic manner is being done by those outside bioethics centers, and a stimulating place to look for such work is within contemporary art. The art world since the 1960s has offered ever more sophisticated investigation into the human body. What became known as "body art" (as seen in the work of Petr Stembera and Gina Pane) and its later intellectual sibling, performance art, has included issues that fall within the purview of bioethics. In 1990 the French artist Orlan began a series of public "performances" of plastic surgery, transforming particular features of her face to reproduce the western ideals of beauty as represented in great works of art. Ron Athey, an artist who is HIV-positive, has used his own blood in ritualized performances. Since the 1960s the Australian artist Stelarc has been enhancing his human body through technology, such as by attaching a third hand to his body. Such artists can provide novel insights and alternative perspectives on bioethics. Additionally, their form of discourse has some fundamental structural advantages over traditional bioethics, in three ways: reflexivity, personal engagement, and public accessibility. First, contemporary art is self-conscious of representation; an ongoing reflexivity characterizes its discourse. This heightened sensitivity to how the world is represented and to the particular power granted specific forms of representation allows it to examine the issue of rhetoric, which is missing from discussions in bioethics. Conceptual artists, for example, attend not only to the moral issues in genetics but also to the rhetoric of its science. Catherine Wagner, in her work "Twelve Areas of Concern and Crisis" (1995), shows a collection of still lifes of the archival samples from the Human Genome Project. In "Hela" (2000), Christine Borland reframes the tools used for genetic screening by "displaying" them as pieces of art. Both of these works seem to resonate with Marcel Duchamp's "found objects," and by reframing the tools of genetics, they compel the viewer to consider how science acquires its authority—that is, the rhetoric of its objects. Second, while bioethics has begun to take a personal turn in recent years, artists have long used their own biographies and bodies to reflect on contemporary issues. In "Tumor Suppressor, Gene (MLL) on Chromosome 11 and on the Nucleus" (1997), Gary Schneider creates a "Genetic Self-Portrait," which he developed after his mother's death from cancer. Larry Miller's "Genomic License No. 7 (Corpus Dualis)" (1997) is an installation that gives information on how Miller's dead sister could be cloned from his family's genetic information. These personal engagements, which focus on genetics and death, highlight how we desire certainty and salvation from science. Third, art provides a particularly powerful medium for presenting moral issues in medicine to the general public. For example, while we can develop a philosophical analysis of the emotional response to redefining nature, artists can furnish physical manifestations that create a simulacrum of that response. In "Manimals" (1993), Daniel Lee digitally alters photographs so that they become portraits in which the division between human and animal is confounded, and by drawing upon Buddhist mythology in these images, Lee makes us question whether such transformations are either novel or intellectually problematic. In contrast, Bradley Rubenstein's portraits, such as one of a boy with the eyes of his pet dog, are more disturbing images and evoke in the viewer a high degree of discomfort. Whatever the merits of Lauritzen's own use of art, he is right to turn us in this direction. Our discussions can only be enhanced by listening to these voices. Tod Chambers is associate professor of medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. The Art of Bioethics


The formation of aryl C-S bonds is an important chemical transformation because aryl sulfides are valuable building blocks for the synthesis of biologically and pharmaceutically active molecules and organic materials. Aryl sulfides have traditionally been synthesized through the transition-metal-catalyzed cross-coupling of aryl halides with thiols. However, the aryl halides used are usually bromides and iodides; readily available, low-cost aryl chlorides often not reactive enough. Furthermore, the deactivation of transition-metal catalysts by thiols has forced chemists to use high catalyst loadings, specially designed ligands, high temperatures, and/or strong bases, thus leading to high costs and the incompatibility of some functional groups. Herein, we describe a simple and efficient visible-light photoredox arylation of thiols with aryl halides at room temperature. More importantly, various aryl chlorides are also effective arylation reagents under the present conditions.


Some algorithms such as statistical analysis, wavelet analysis and cluster analysis are derived through analysing 296 sample ECGs and the heart rate is selected as the criteria for these algorithms. The comparing our results using several computing methods with the true heart rates of ECG, which come from doctors, shows that our result approaches to the truth. The accurate percentage of the computing result shows the wavelet method is more powerful and faster than statistical analysis.


BACKGROUND Combination of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and hemorrhagic shock (HS) can result in significant morbidity and mortality. We have previously shown that early administration of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) in a large animal model of TBI and HS reduces the size of the brain lesion as well as the associated edema. However, FFP is a perishable product that is not well suited for use in the austere prehospital settings. In this study, we tested whether a shelf-stable, low-volume, lyophilized plasma (LSP) product was as effective as FFP. METHODS Yorkshire swine (42–50 kg) were instrumented to measure hemodynamic parameters, intracranial pressure, and brain tissue oxygenation. A prototype, computerized, cortical impact device was used to create TBI through a 20-mm craniotomy: 15-mm cylindrical tip impactor at 4 m/s velocity, 100-millisecond dwell time, and 12-mm penetration depth. Volume-controlled hemorrhage was induced (40–45% total blood volume) concurrent with the TBI. After 2 hours of shock, animals were treated with (1) normal saline (NS, n = 5), (2) FFP (n = 5), and (3) LSP (n = 5). The volume of FFP and LSP matched the shed blood volume, whereas NS was 3 times the volume. Six hours after resuscitation, brains were sectioned and stained with TTC (2, 3, 5-Triphenyltetrazolium chloride), and lesion size (mm3) and swelling (percent change in volume compared with the contralateral, uninjured side) were measured. RESULTS This protocol resulted in a highly reproducible brain injury, with clinically relevant changes in blood pressure, cardiac output, tissue hypoperfusion, intracranial pressure, and brain tissue oxygenation. Compared with NS, treatment with LSP significantly (p < 0.05) decreased brain lesion size and swelling (51% and 54%, respectively). CONCLUSION In a clinically realistic combined TBI + HS model, early administration of plasma products decreases brain lesion size and edema. LSP is as effective as FFP, while offering many logistic advantages. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Therapeutic study, level V.


Al-containing hydrogenated amorphous carbon (Al–C :H) films were deposited on silicon substrates using a mid frequency magnetron sputtering Al target in an argon and methane gas mixture. The composition, surface
morphology, hardness and friction coefficient of the films were characterized using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, nanoindentation and tribological tester. The Al–C :H films
deposited at low CH4 content show high surface roughness, low hardness and high friction coefficient, similar to metallic Al films; in contrast, the Al–C :H films prepared under high CH4 content indicate low surface roughness, high hardness and low friction coefficient, close to that of hard a-C :H films as wear-resistance films.


Purpose: The aim of this study is to assess the ability of multicolour imaging (MCI) to detect foveal cysts in diabetic macular edema (DME) and compare it with conventional color fundus photography (CFP) and foveal autofluorescence (FAF) pattern. Methods: It was a retrospective review of 112 eyes of 84 DME patients with central foveal thickness ≥250 μ who underwent MCI, CFP and shortwave autofluorescence imaging. MCI was performed with Sepctralis spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT) (Heidelberg Engineering, Germany). Results: 97 (86.6%) eyes had cystoid increased autofluorescence (cystoid iFAF), 9 (8%) had spot iFAF and 6 (5.35%) had irregular decreased FAF (dFAF). Among eyes with cystoid iFAF, OCT detected DME cysts in 93 (95.6%) eyes, MCI in 75 (77.3%) and CFP in 5 (5.15%) eyes. In all these eyes, the location of cysts on OCT and MCI corresponded with the location of cystoid iFAF, whereas none of the eyes with cyst seen on CFP correlated with the location of cystoid iFAF. Conclusion: MCI was superior to CFP in detecting DME cysts at fovea. It also correlated with hyperautofluorescence pattern in these eyes. MCI may have a potential role in diabetic retinopathy screening by segregating eyes with DME which would require treatment. Our findings need to be further validated in a larger and prospective study design.


In this paper, T-shaped electromagnetic bandgap is loaded on a coupled transmission line itself and its electric performance is studied. Results show that microwave slow-wave effect can be enhanced and therefore, size reduction of a transmission-line-based circuit is possible. However, the transmission-line-based circuits characterize varied phase responses against frequency, which becomes a disadvantage where constant phase response is required. Consequently, a phase-compensation technique is further presented and studied. For demonstration purpose, an 8-way coupled-line power divider with 22.5 degree phase shifts between adjacent output ports, based on the studied slow-wave structure and phase-compensation technique, is developed. Results show both compact circuit architecture and improved phase imbalance are realized, confirming the investigated circuit structures and analyzing methodologies.


Recent advances in high-throughput technologies have resulted in a ood of large-scale biological data sets. These are a challenge to the data mining community for two reasons primarily: rst, most of the data sets contain a lot of noise and can thus not be considered as "facts", and second, knowledge about the underlying biology is needed to make sense of them. In this talk, I will focus on the available data relevant to the eukaryotic cell cycle. I will try to illustrate how careful reanalysis of the data can drastically improve the signal-to-noise ratio. how integration of heterogeneous data sets can be used in an explorative fashion to make new biological hypotheses, and nally how these can sometimes be proven through comparison of data from multiple organ-


Abstract Calcite (CaCO3) powder was replaced by hydroxylapatite [Ca5(PO4)3OH] in hydrothermal experiments at temperatures between 120 and 180 °C, and times between 2 and 12 h, in 1.0 M (NH4)2HPO4 solutions. Additional experiments using concentrations of up to 2.0 M NH4Cl as an additional component were carried out to examine the influence of Cl on the process. X‑ray powder diffraction and Rietveld refinements were used to determine the proportion of parent and product phases after each experiment. The resultant data on the fraction transformed as a function of temperature and time were plotted according to the Avrami equation and an activation energy of 118 kJ/mol was determined for the replacement process without Cl in solution, whereas with 0.5-2.0 M Cl in solution, the activation energy varied from 131 to 145 kJ/mol. No simple correlation between the chlorinity of the solution and the value of the activation energy was observed. However, the data indicate that the mechanism controlling the reaction changes between 140 and 160 °C, correlating with systematic differences in abundance, size, and geometry of the porosity in the apatite formed in the replacement process. At lower temperature, the pores are small and oriented parallel to the reaction interface, whereas at higher temperature, the pores are larger and orientated perpendicular to the interface. Changes in the porosity during the replacement process make it problematic to determine a meaningful value for the activation energy for such replacement processes, since the mechanism controlling the reaction depends on factors other than the temperature, such as the availability and form of the pathways allowing the fluid to reach the unreacted core of the single crystals.


There is low choice of Agriculture Science programme among female Senior High School (SHS) students in Ghana. The study therefore set forth to find out the underlying reasons of this phenomenon. Three hundred and ten non-science and non-agriculture science female students from three SHSs in Afigya Kwabre District were sampled for the study. A self-made questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. It was found out that the underlying reasons for the low choice of the programme were lack of guidance and counselling, lack of scholarships for females to enrol in the programme, lack of female role models in Agriculture, mathematics based nature of Agriculture Science and teaching approaches used by Agriculture Science teachers. The rest were difficult nature of Agriculture, too much practical based nature of the programme, failure in examinations by a lot of females who pursue it and more natural science based of the programme. Recommendations were made to improve upon females' choice of Agriculture Science programme in SHSs. Keywords : low, female choice, senior high school, agriculture science programme.


Cenospheres (microspheres) are silica-alumina fly ash lightweight fractions obtained from burning pulverized coal. These fractions are characterized by spherical particle shapes of 40 to 400 μm diameter (apparent bulk density 400 kg/m 3 ). The thermal-insulation properties of microspheres are useful. A binder that ensures good strength and improves thermal-insulation properties of bonded materials is hydrated sodium silicate. These microsphere materials are characterized by: (a) apparent bulk density in the compressed state from 400 to 500 kg/m 3 , (b) compressive strength up to 6 MPa, (c) average mean heat capacity of 500 kJ/m 3 K at temperatures from 298 to 993 K, and (d) thermal conductivity in the range 0.13 to 0.38 W/mK at temperatures from 298 to 1273 K. The investigation made it possible to optimize the material composition for particular applications. Microsphere materials with silicate binders can be used in the building industry, in heating equipment, and in metallurgical and foundry work.


Presynaptic histamine H3 receptors (H3R) act as auto- or heteroreceptors controlling, respectively, the release of histamine and of other neurotransmitters in the central nervous system (CNS). The extracellular levels of several neurotransmitters are enhanced by H3R antagonists, and there is a great interest for potent, brain-penetrating H3 receptor antagonists/inverse agonists to compensate for the neurotransmitter deficits present in various neurological disorders. We have shown that 1-[(benzylfuran-2-yl)methyl]piperidinyl-4-oxyl- and benzyl- derivatives of N-propylpentan-1-amines exhibit high in vitro potencies toward the guinea pig H3 receptor (jejunum), with pA2 = 8.47 and 7.79, respectively (the reference compound used was thioperamide with pA2 = 8.67). Furthermore, following the replacement of 4-hydroxypiperidine with a 3-(methylamino)propyloxy chain, the pA2 value for the first group decreased, whereas it increased for the second group. Here, we present data on the impact of elongating the aliphatic chain between the nitrogen of 4-hydroxypiperidine or 3-(methylamino)propan-1-ol and the lipophilic residue. Additionally, the most active compound in this series of non-imidazole H3 receptor antagonists/inverse agonists, i.e., ADS-003, was evaluated for its affinity to the recombinant rat and human histamine H3 receptors transiently expressed in HEK-293T cells. It was shown that ADS-003, given parenterally for 5 days, reduced the food intake of rats, as well as changed histamine and noradrenaline concentrations in the rats' brain in a manner and degree similar to the reference H3 antagonist Ciproxifan.


Any occlusal force which goes beyond the adaptive capacity of our periodontium causes injury to periodontal structure, and the resultant trauma is called trauma from occlusion (TFO). Several views have been interpreted as trauma from occlusion as an etiological factor or cofactor for occurrence of periodontal status. The aim of the present study was to assess the association between trauma from occlusion and mandibular anterior teeth. This retrospective study was conducted in a private institution in Chennai using the patient records from June 2019 to March 2020. A total of 100 patients were randomly selected and were categorized into two groups; Group 1 (n=50): patients with TFO and Group 2 (n=50): patients without TFO. Data regarding the presence or absence of clinical attachment loss and mobility of mandibular anterior teeth was collected from the record and analysed. Descriptive and inferential statistics were done using SPSS software, Version 23. In the present study, majority of the patients with trauma from occlusion presented with clinical attachment loss (43%) and mobility in mandibular anterior teeth (38%). Also, there was a statistically significant association between trauma from occlusion and periodontal disease in mandibular anterior teeth. (p=0.000)


This 1995 Times Literary Supplement essay examines two books on the underlying philosophies of the ecology and environmentalism movements. The first, by Sorbonne professor and lately French Minister of Culture Luc Ferry, offers a critique of ecological philosophies that seek to de-privilege humanity in favor of a larger conception of nature. Ferry writes in a breezy, witty style which has at its aim reasserting liberal humanism and its human-centered ethic as against any ethic that treats human beings as merely species or merely thing within nature. The review argues that Ferry goes over the top in making his case, however, by invoking the historical fact that the Nazis had a special love of animals and nature; Ferry seeks to link anti-modernity trends in environmentalist philosophy with ugly forms of illiberalism - ignoring, among other things, the Nazi infatuation with modernity. Zimmerman, a serious Heideggerian philosopher as well as radical environmentalist, offers a commanding philosophical overview of the conceptual trends within radical ecology - deep ecology, social ecology, and ecofeminism. Their differences are many; all three, however, reject both liberal humanism and accomodationist gradualist environmentalism of the kind upon which virtually all actual environmental public policy is based. Zimmerman, according to the review, impressively argues the case for radical ecology as an ethic; the review suggests, however, that his appeal to postmodernism gives his the necessary freedom and relativism to reach his conclusions, but that ultimately, being committed to some reasonably objective concept of progressivism, he backs away from postmodernism into precisely the modernity that he began by arguing against.


Baker's yeast and sugar are two integral variables in the conversion of sugar to ethanol; ethanol is an industrial necessity for modern civilization (French 2015). Our experiment helps us understand the relationship between different types of sugars' concentration ratios and ethanol production. To do this, we measured ethanol production for baker's yeast exposed to solutions containing concentrations of 1.5% fructose with 0.5% glucose, 1.5% glucose with 0.5% fructose, 2% fructose, and 2% glucose. We hypothesize that a concentration of 1.5% fructose with 0.5% glucose will result in the highest levels of ethanol production. From our collected data, analysis shows that the yeast using 1.5% fructose with 0.5% glucose produced the most ethanol but the group using 2% glucose also had a very high production of ethanol.


We theoretically investigate the mechanical response of a transient network, which is characterised by dynamically breaking and re-forming crosslinks, and accounts for the finite chain extensibility (thus permitting the large deformations to be described). We build the general theory that incorporates the widely accepted empirical model of hyper-elasticity at large deformations (the Gent model) and naturally includes the microscopic behavior of transient crosslinks under the local tension applied to them. The full analytical expression for the elastic energy, or equivalently, the constitutive relation for arbitrary deformation is derived, and then the example of uniaxial tensile strain is focused on. In this case, we show that the mechanical response depends on the ratio of the imposed strain rate and the breakage rate of the crosslink: the system flows plastically (over a yield point) when the strain rate is much smaller than the breakage rate, while it remains elastic when the strain rate is much larger than the breakage rate. There is a broad range of this transition when the elastic and plastic regions of the sample coexist, and a resulting necking instability occurs. As a generalisation, we also consider a dual transient network, with two components penetrating each other, each having its own microscopic crosslink dynamics. The two networks add their local forces and share the deformation; we find that the network with a lower breakage rate determines the global deformation of the system.


We propose cells can be descended using magnetic attraction, which leads to shorter experimental time and higher efficiency. We used an electroporation chip with adjustable electromagnetic field as the experimental platform, and tested Escherichia coli and 6-nm magnetic beads combined with DNA plasmid. The magnetic beads were positively charged and easy to bind to the negatively charged cell membrane of E. coli. The magnetic beads and E. coli could be attracted quickly to the bottom because of the electromagnet and could reduce operational time and enhance transfection efficiency. After electroporating and culturing, we obtained the results for E. coli with drug resistance and calculated the number of colony as the transfection efficiency. The achieved transfection efficiency using magnetic beads was seven-fold higher than that without magnetic bead. The following optimum parameter values were determined: 1.4 × 1014 bead/ml for nano-magnetic bead concentration, 200 Gauss for magnetic flux density, and 40 s for magnetic attraction lasting time. The results will help develop transfection applications for low-descent-velocity cells.


Importance
The 1-year standardized mortality ratio (SMR) of bullous pemphigoid (BP) has been reported as 2.15 to 7.56 and lower in the US than in Europe.

Objective
To estimate the worldwide 1-year SMR of BP.

Data Sources
PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Lissa, and gray literature (eg, medRxiv) were screened for studies of BP published from inception to June 10, 2020, with review of reference lists.

Study Selection
Retrospective and prospective studies reporting 1-year all-cause mortality rate in patients with BP and providing age statistics (eg, mean [SD]).

Data Extraction and Synthesis
Two reviewers independently extracted the data. The 1-year SMR was computed in studies reporting 1-year mortality by combining information on age obtained from studies with aggregate data and individual data. Risk of representativity, misclassification, and attrition bias were assessed by a custom tool.

Main Outcomes and Measures
The primary end point was the worldwide 1-year SMR. Secondary analysis included comparison of 1-year SMRs between continents in a meta-regression.

Results
Three studies were performed in the US (n = 260), 1 in South America (n = 45), 16 in Asia (n = 1903), and 36 in Europe (n = 10 132) for a total of 56 unique studies and 12 340 unique patients included in the meta-analysis (mean [SD] age, 77.3 [12.7] years; 55.9% women). The mean (SD) patient age in the United States was 75.6 (13.7) years; in Asia, 73.8 (13.6) years; and in Europe, 78.1 (12.3) years. The worldwide 1-year SMR was estimated at 2.93 (95% CI, 2.59-3.28; I2 = 85.6%) for all 56 studies. The 1-year SMR in the US was 2.40 (95% CI, 0.89-3.90; I2 = 86.3%) for 3 studies; in Asia, 3.53 (95% CI, 2.85-4.20; I2 = 86.3%) for 16 studies; and in Europe, 2.77 (95% CI, 2.35-3.19; I2 = 86.3%) for 36 studies. After adjustment on the expected 1-year mortality rate, the European 1-year SMR did not differ significantly from the 1-year SMR in the United States (-0.48 vs Europe; 95% CI, -2.09 to 1.14; P = .56) and Asia (0.51 vs Europe; 95% CI, -0.56 to 1.58; P = .35). Risk of attrition bias was high (>10% censorship) in 16 studies (28.6%), low in 16 (28.6%), and unclear in 24 (42.9%). Only 4 studies (7.1%) had a sampling method guaranteeing the representativity of BP cases in a population.

Conclusions and Relevance
Although heterogeneity was high and overall quality of follow-up was poor, this meta-analysis confirms the high mortality rate among patients with BP.


AbstractUnder ice measurements by seals carrying a miniaturized conductivity–temperature–depth (CTD) instrument fill an important gap in existing observations. Here the authors present data from an instrumented Weddell seal that spent eight consecutive months (February–September) foraging in close proximity to the Filchner Ice Shelf, thus providing detailed information about the evolution of mixed layer hydrography during the austral autumn and winter. The resultant time series of hydrography shows strong seasonal water mass modification, dominated by an upper-ocean (0–300 m) salinity increase of 0.31, corresponding to 3.1 m sea ice growth, and the development of a 500-m thick winter mixed layer. Observations furthermore highlight a gradual salinity increase in a slow (3–5 cm s−1) southward flow on the continental shelf, toward the site, and suggest that the inferred ice production is better considered as a regional average rather than being purely local. No clear seasonality is observed in the properties...


Sequestering is important for obtaining flavor-universal soft masses in models where supersymmetry breaking is mediated at high scales. We construct a simple and robust class of hidden sector models which sequester themselves from the visible sector due to strong and conformally invariant hidden dynamics. Masses for hidden matter eventually break the conformal symmetry and lead to supersymmetry breaking by the mechanism recently discovered by Intriligator, Seiberg and Shih. We give a unified treatment of subtleties due to global symmetries of the CFT. There is enough review for the paper to constitute a self-contained account of conformal sequestering.


Previous research on conditioning in golf has looked at the effect of physical training programs on outcome measures of golf swing performance, namely club head speed and ball displacement. The current study examined the effect of an 8-week golf specific plyometric training program on the kinematics of the golf swing. Sixteen skilled golfers were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group. Three-dimensional swing kinematic data were collected on shots with a 6 iron pre and post the training intervention. Statistical analyses were used to identify any changes in swing kinematics after the training intervention. Results showed that the experimental group increased lead arm and hand speeds in the downswing after training. This was accompanied by increases in maximum X-factor during the downswing and maximum rate of recoil of the X-factor. In conclusion, a program of golf specific plyometric training can potential lead to improvements in variables related to club head speed and ball displace...


Thin film depositions on certain substrates can improve or diminish the physical-chemical behavior of the coated material. For the present work there were used three basic elements: C, Si and Al as coating materials on glass, silicon and OLC45 steel substrates. The purpose of the research is to obtain an optimum combination for properties' improvement, as hardness, adherence and low friction. Nevertheless, such special characteristics can be found likely in a composite material. Ternary C-Si-Al samples of 1 micron thickness were successfully obtained for the first time using Thermionic Vacuum Arc (TVA) deposition method. Depth profile measurements confirmed both the thickness of the obtained layer and the high roughness of the layers deposited on OLC 45 steel substrate. The granular structure of the films was pointed out by SEM, AFM and TEM measurements. XPS measurements highlighted the formation of aluminum and silicon oxides due to the layer exposure to the residual gas existent in the deposition chamber. The friction coefficient of the coatings was two or three times lower in comparison with the one of the uncoated substrates. Film hardness was found to be high with values between 3600 and 5000N/mm 2 (~3.6-5.0 GPa), depending on the penetration depth.


Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) in a cohort of Italian hypertensive men and the association with clinical and biochemical data. The study involved 270 consecutive hypertensive subjects aged 40–70 years evaluated in Italian Hypertension Centers of six hospitals from Liguria and Piedmont. ED was assessed through the self-administered questionnaire of the International Index of Erectile Function. Clinical history with ongoing drug treatment, various clinical parameters, biochemical data and evidence about the presence of subclinical target organ damage was collected. Twenty-seven subjects refused to answer the questionnaire (10%). Among the 243 remained subjects, 123 presented ED (50.6%). ED was highly related to age, systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, smoking status, statin therapy and kidney function. The addition of a thiazide diuretic to an inhibitor of the renin–angiotensin system significantly increased the prevalence of ED. The prevalence of ED increased in relation with the number of hypotensive drug classes taken by the patients. ED was highly prevalent in this cohort of Italian hypertensive subjects and was associated with other cardiovascular risk factors, such as age, smoking status and kidney function. The role of ED as an early marker of cardiovascular disease is discussed.


Rapid tooling for sand casting can be made by creating pattern with elements made by solid freeform fabrication (SFF) devices. Using this approach, post-processing and hand finishing remain as necessary steps to improve the surface finish quality of the pattern. For rapid·.tooling using laminated object manufacturing (LOM) models, post-processing includes decubing, sanding and sealing followed by integration with a match plate and/or conventional cope & drag pattern elements. Since the critical finishing operations are intensively manual, it is difficult to estimate the dimensional capability of rapid tooling by.LaM process. The Objective of this paper is to use statistics to evaluate dimensional variability associated with postprocessing using the accepted industry best practice.


Background Loss of GABA-mediated pre-synaptic inhibition after spinal injury plays a key role in the progressive increase in spinal reflexes and the appearance of spasticity. Clinical studies show that the use of baclofen (GABAB receptor agonist), while effective in modulating spasticity is associated with major side effects such as general sedation and progressive tolerance development. The goal of the present study was to assess if a combined therapy composed of spinal segment-specific upregulation of GAD65 (glutamate decarboxylase) gene once combined with systemic treatment with tiagabine (GABA uptake inhibitor) will lead to an antispasticity effect and whether such an effect will only be present in GAD65 gene over-expressing spinal segments. Methods/Principal Findings Adult Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were exposed to transient spinal ischemia (10 min) to induce muscle spasticity. Animals then received lumbar injection of HIV1-CMV-GAD65 lentivirus (LVs) targeting ventral α-motoneuronal pools. At 2–3 weeks after lentivirus delivery animals were treated systemically with tiagabine (4, 10, 20 or 40 mg/kg or vehicle) and the degree of spasticity response measured. In a separate experiment the expression of GAD65 gene after spinal parenchymal delivery of GAD65-lentivirus in naive minipigs was studied. Spastic SD rats receiving spinal injections of the GAD65 gene and treated with systemic tiagabine showed potent and tiagabine-dose-dependent alleviation of spasticity. Neither treatment alone (i.e., GAD65-LVs injection only or tiagabine treatment only) had any significant antispasticity effect nor had any detectable side effect. Measured antispasticity effect correlated with increase in spinal parenchymal GABA synthesis and was restricted to spinal segments overexpressing GAD65 gene. Conclusions/Significance These data show that treatment with orally bioavailable GABA-mimetic drugs if combined with spinal-segment-specific GAD65 gene overexpression can represent a novel and highly effective anti-spasticity treatment which is associated with minimal side effects and is restricted to GAD65-gene over-expressing spinal segments.


The rising demand for multimedia services even in hazardous environments, such as space missions and military theatres, and the consequent need of proper internetworking technologies have revealed the inapplicability of TCP/IP architectures and highlighted the importance of the communication features provided by the protocol architectures proposed by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS). This paper proposes a CCSDS File Delivery Protocol (CFDP) extension, based on the implementation of erasure coding schemes, in order to assure high reliability to the data communication even in presence of very critical conditions, such as hard shadowing, deep fading periods and intermittent links. Different encoding techniques are considered and various channel conditions, in terms of Bit Error Ratio and bandwidth values, are tested.


Platinum was deposited by means of thermal evaporation in UHV conditions on a (0001) oriented zirconium single crystal surface. Before deposition, the zirconium substrate was superficially oxidized by exposure to oxygen at room temperature. The AES growth curves recorded at room temperature indicate that the platinum growth mechanism is Volmer-Weber type (3D clusters). Upon annealing, we observed by AES a reduction of the oxygen content of the surface and the concomitant interdiffusion of Pt and Zr. The angular dependence of the Pt/Zr AES ratio and the shape of the CO thermal desorption peak suggest that annealing causes the formation of a Pt/Zr binary surface compound.


Abstract We investigate which part of Brouwer's Intuitionistic Mathematics is finitistically justifiable or guaranteed in Hilbert's Finitism, in the same way as similar investigations on Classical Mathematics (i.e., which part is equiconsistent with
$\textbf {PRA}$
 or consistent provably in
$\textbf {PRA}$
 ) already done quite extensively in proof theory and reverse mathematics. While we already knew a contrast from the classical situation concerning the continuity principle, more contrasts turn out: we show that several principles are finitistically justifiable or guaranteed which are classically not. Among them are: (i) fan theorem for decidable fans but arbitrary bars; (ii) continuity principle and the axiom of choice both for arbitrary formulae; and (iii)
$\Sigma _2$
 induction and dependent choice. We also show that Markov's principle MP does not change this situation; that neither does lesser limited principle of omniscience LLPO (except the choice along functions); but that limited principle of omniscience LPO makes the situation completely classical.


This study is about an optimum design to improve the kinematic and compliance characteristics of a torsion-beam suspension system. The kinematic and compliance characteristics of an initial design of the suspension was obtained through a roll-mode analysis. The objective function was set to minimize within design constraints. The coordinates of the connecting point between the torsion-beam and the trailing arm were treated as design parameters. Since the torsion-beam suspension has large nonlinear effects due to kinematic and elastic motion, Genetic Algorithms were employed for the optimal design. The optimized results were verified through a double-lane change simulation using the full vehicle model.


As more women enter the work place and advance through the hierarchy in organisations, taking on new responsibilities and facing increased work demands, the need to balance their career, family and participation in physical activity arises. This has a direct bearing on their physical and mental well being, as well as their career performance and success. The current study empirically investigated the perceptions of working women regarding participation in physical activity and made recommendations on the findings. A quantitative research method was adopted and 350 questionnaires were administered to a purposive sample of working women. Using exploratory factor analysis seven factors, namely coping and productivity, self-esteem, mental well-being, socialising, scheduling and relaxation were extracted. It was concluded that the predicament of balancing their time between their multiple roles such as their jobs, family commitments as well as participating in physical activity proved to be an impediment to working women. Recommendations were made to address these challenges. Key words: Physical activity, perceptions, working women, factor analysis.


doi: 10.1074/jbc.M110.171686 originally published online October 25, 2010J. Biol. Chem.€2011, 286:1556-1566.€ Access the most updated version of this article at doi: 10.1074/jbc.M110.171686 € Find articles, minireviews, Reflections and Classics on similar topics on the JBC Affinity Sites.Alerts: €€ •€ When a correction for this article is posted •€ When this article is cited Click here to choose from all of JBC's e-mail alerts€ http://www.jbc.org/content/286/2/1556.full.html#ref-list-1 This article cites 45 references, 21 of which can be accessed free at


Introduction. Pneumonia often occurs secondary to influenza infection and accounts for a large proportion of the morbidity and mortality associated with seasonal and pandemic influenza outbreaks. We previously have shown that vaccination with Virus-like particles (VLPs) containing hemagglutinin (HA) of influenza virus reduces mortality caused by bacterial infections after an influenza infections in mice.The aim of this work is to study whether this protective effect may be potentiated by supplementing the HA preparation with the influenza neuraminidase (NA).Materials and methods. We studied the effect of Gag-VLPs with the influenza HA or NA from А/PR/8/34 alone or in combination, in a lethal BALB/c mouse model of S. aureus infection after vaccine-matched or mismatched influenza virus challenge.Results. A cocktail of HA-Gag and NA-Gag-VLPs fully protected from weight loss, mortality and viral replication and significantly reduced the bacterial burden in the lungs of А/PR/8/34 infected animals. Immunization with this cocktail HA-Gag-VLPs 100 ng + NA-Gag-VLPs 20 ng also protected 60% of animals from mortality associated with secondary bacterial S. aureus infection following a heterologous H1N1 influenza virus challenge, and led to the significant protection from weight loss and pulmonary pathogen replication even in the absence of HA-inhibition and NA-inhibition antibodies.Conclusion. Our results indicate that influenza vaccination may improve the outcome of a secondary bacterial pneumonia induced by S. aureus after influenza even when the virus is antigenically different from the vaccine strain. At the same time, in our model, the significance of the immunity to influenza virus HA was prevalent.


History of cities in Africa is a recent field of research which interrogates – in the last two decades – the ways in which Africans shape the patterns of urbanisation and how urbanisation influences African social and cultural practices. The development of numerous case studies testifies to this new interest in African cities. Focusing on the West African region, the article explores the extent to which political and social history has benefited from the emergence of this new subfield of research and concludes that a substantial part of the extant literature is still based on the traditional approach. Consequently a West African urban history is yet to emerge despite the existence of ancient traditions of urban settlement in this area and the uniqueness of that phenomenon in sub-Saharan Africa. Lagos Historical Review , vol. 5 (2005), 1-21


Purpose:To test whether increased intereye retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) asymmetry may be indicative of glaucoma. To determine the best statistical methods and intereye RNFL cutoffs for differentiating between normal and glaucoma subjects to better alert clinicians to early glaucomatous damage. Methods:Sixty-six primary open-angle glaucoma (OAG) and 40 age-matched normal subjects had both eyes imaged at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary with a commercially available spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) machine. Statistical methodologies were used to find cutoffs that achieved the best sensitivities and specificities for differentiating OAG from normal subjects. Results:Intereye RNFL asymmetry for global average, all quadrants, and all sectors was significantly greater in OAG than normal subjects. Intereye RNFL asymmetry for global average showed the greatest statistical difference (P<0.001) between OAG (23.64±14.90 &mgr;m) and normal eyes (3.58±3.96 &mgr;m), with 6.60 times greater asymmetry in OAG eyes. The inferior quadrant showed the second greatest difference, with 3.91 times greater asymmetry in OAG eyes. Using a statistically determined cutoff of 6.0 &mgr;m as abnormal, intereye RNFL asymmetry for global average achieved a sensitivity of 74.24% and specificity of 90% in differentiating between normal and OAG subjects, achieving a better combination of sensitivity and specificity than intereye RNFL asymmetry of any quadrant or sector. Conclusions:Intereye RNFL asymmetry may be a useful clinical OCT measurement to provide quantitative assessment of early glaucomatous damage. Newly developed algorithms for intereye RNFL asymmetry may improve the ability to detect glaucoma.


Critical equipments of process and heavy engineering industries are prone to significant wear due to intense service conditions. Uneven and uncontrolled wear causes significant changes in dimensional and geometrical accuracies of the part surfaces, which adversely affect the parts' functionality and service life of these parts. Shorter service life of these equipments and subsequent replacement of the same is one of the serious economic concerns. Hardfacing or hardsurfacing is comparatively an advanced metal deposition technology to deposit a hard and complex metal substrate layer on simple and softer base material surface. This process is gaining popularity at commercial level due to its unique capabilities to develop superior wear, corrosion, and impact resistance properties on worn out parts and offer huge economic advantage as substitute to costly replacement. The primarily aim of this study is to present a comprehensive review of the work done on the probable candidates for deposition materials, and summarize the influence of various process parameters on hard-faced surface characteristics. The critical issues like dilution, debonding, and residual stresses have been discussed for multi-layered hardfacing for iron-, nickel-, and cobalt-based hardfacing materials. The secondary aim of this study is to address practical issues such as selection of proper combination of base-substrate material, to understand the response characteristics of 'plasma transferred arc hardfacing (PTAHF)' process to minimize the de-bonding, dilution, and residual stresses and finally to improve quality of hardfacing practice.


There is universal agreement that construction delay is a common phenomenon in the construction industry worldwide. Poor or lack of project knowledge management continues to plague the construction industry, especially in relation to project delays. Knowledge management is used to reduce the impact of construction projects delay using a project learning approach. Three different phases of data collection were used for the development of a delay mitigation model, namely preliminary survey, case studies and interviews survey. The project learning approach contributes towards positive impacts on project schedule performance. Also, good leadership and integrated commitment of all project parties are the principal impetus to improve the delay phenomenon in the construction industry. The conceptual model incorporates knowledge on knowledge management, project learning, lessons learned feedback and supervisory control principles. The results indicate that the application of project learning is a way to align the project schedule performance to client and market needs while maintaining the contractor's core competency.


From the perspective of role identity theory, the purpose of this paper is to explain how an artistic creative entrepreneur has set up and operates a business that incorporates a component of social responsibility into the business model.,An explanatory case study approach was followed in analysing the case of Alenka Repic, the founder and creative director of the company Kaaita, which operates from Slovenia. Data were collected through documentation and interviews and content analysis was used to analyse the data.,Kaaita has adopted an innovative and socially responsible business model as an artistic creative enterprise. The case study firstly introduces Kaaita and its innovative business model. Thereafter, it describes and discusses the defining roles of Alenka Repic as an entrepreneur and how these roles have shaped what Kaaita does and how it operates.,This explanatory case study has presented the unique case of an artistic creative social entrepreneur, and the innovative business model that has been adopted. However, because only one case has been presented here, it is recommended that additional case studies be conducted. It is also recommended that additional research be conducted in the area of sustainable business model innovation.,The case illustrates how a more deliberate consideration of their role identity could assist entrepreneurs in aligning their personal values and beliefs with how they create, operate and develop their enterprise. It also serves as a reminder to both scholars and aspiring entrepreneurs that the essence of entrepreneurship is to have the passion and courage to be innovative and disruptive and that educators should focus on cultivating skills that are related to identifying and exploiting opportunities for innovative disruption.,The study draws on role identity theory to gain insight into the roles that are exercised in developing an innovative business model that combines diverse types of entrepreneurship.


We study the statistical properties of the time-averaged mean-square displacements (TAMSD). This is a standard non-local quadratic functional for inferring the diffusion coefficient from an individual random trajectory of a diffusing tracer in single-particle tracking experiments. For Brownian motion, we derive an exact formula for the Laplace transform of the probability density of the TAMSD by mapping the original problem onto chains of coupled harmonic oscillators. From this formula, we deduce the first four cumulant moments of the TAMSD, the asymptotic behavior of the probability density and its accurate approximation by a generalized Gamma distribution.


In the present study, the bovine cardiac Na(+)/Ca(2+) exchanger (NCX1.1) was expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells. The surface distribution of the exchanger protein, externally tagged with the hemagglutinin (HA) epitope, was associated with underlying actin filaments in regions of cell-to-cell contact and also along stress fibers. After we treated cells with cytochalasin D, NCX1.1 protein colocalized with patches of fragmented filamentous actin (F-actin). In contrast, an HA-tagged deletion mutant of NCX1.1 that was missing much of the exchanger's central hydrophilic domain Delta(241-680) did not associate with F-actin. In cells expressing the wild-type exchanger, cytochalasin D inhibited allosteric Ca(2+) activation of NCX activity as shown by prolongation of the lag phase of low Ca(2+) uptake after initiation of the reverse (i.e., Ca(2+) influx) mode of NCX activity. Other agents that perturbed F-actin structure (methyl-beta-cyclodextrin, latrunculin B, and jasplakinolide) also increased the duration of the lag phase. In contrast, when reverse-mode activity was initiated after allosteric Ca(2+) activation, both cytochalasin D and methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (Me-beta-CD) stimulated NCX activity by approximately 70%. The activity of the Delta(241-680) mutant, which does not require allosteric Ca(2+) activation, was also stimulated by cytochalasin D and Me-beta-CD. The increased activity after these treatments appeared to reflect an increased amount of exchanger protein at the cell surface. We conclude that wild-type NCX1.1 associates with the F-actin cytoskeleton, probably through interactions involving the exchanger's central hydrophilic domain, and that this association interferes with allosteric Ca(2+) activation.


ABSTRACT Jia, F., 2020. A study on the image perception of tourist destinations in coastal cities based on big data analysis. In: Bai, X. and Zhou, H. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources, Environmental Protection, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 115, pp. 106-109. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The attraction of tourist destination is the core element of tourism behavior, which plays a decisive role in the decision-making of tourist destination, and is of great significance to the improvement of the competitiveness of tourist destination and the development of tourism industry. Taking Hangzhou as an example, the semantic emotion of the data text is analyzed, the evaluation model of the attractiveness of tourist destinations is constructed, the coastal cities are analyzed and evaluated using the analysis of big data and semantic networks and IPA analysis results, and the management of the Tourism Administration is provided as a basis for the management of the Coastal City, and the advantages of the coastal city and the improved local and future development direction are put forward with targeted and feasible opinions on the image development and attractiveness of the coastal city.


Field experiments were established in 1989 and 1990 at the Southern Piedmont Conservation Research Center near Watkinsville, GA, to determine effects of coastal bermudagrass density on cotton in a conservation tillage system. Cotton height, canopy width, leaf area indices, and seed cotton yields were determined at coastal bermudagrass densities of 0 to 3600 kg ha−1 as achieved by herbicide inputs. Soil water measurements were recorded in cotton plots with a range of coastal bermudagrass densities using time domain reflectometry. Cotton growth and yields were reduced by coastal bermudagrass competition both years of the study. At the highest coastal bermudagrass density of 3600 kg ha−1, cotton height was reduced compared to cotton alone as early as 5 wk after planting. Seed cotton yields were reduced 25% at the highest coastal bermudagrass densities both years of the study. At the 15-cm soil depth, coastal bermudagrass significantly reduced soil water in cotton. Soil water in cotton at 30, 45, and 60 cm was not affected by coastal bermudagrass.


Visual photometry of 16 WC8-9 dust-making Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars during 2001--2009 was extracted from the All Sky Automated Survey All Star Catalogue (ASAS-3) to search for eclipses attributable to extinction by dust formed in clumps in our line of sight. Data for a comparable number of dust-free WC6-9 stars were also examined to help characterise the dataset. Frequent eclipses were observed from WR 104, and several from WR 106, extending the 1994-2001 studies by Kato et al. (2002a,b), but not supporting their phasing the variations in WR 104 with its `pinwheel' rotation period. Only four other stars showed eclipses, WR 50 (one of the dust-free stars), WR 69, WR 95 and WR 117, and there may have been an eclipse by WR 121, which had shown two eclipses in the past. No dust eclipses were shown by the `historic' eclipsers WR 103 and WR 113. The atmospheric eclipses of the latter were observed but the suggestion by David-Uraz et al. (2012) that dust may be partly responsible for these is not supported. Despite its frequent eclipses, there is no evidence in the infrared images of WR 104 for dust made in its eclipses, demonstrating that any dust formed in this process is not a significant contributor to its circumstellar dust cloud and suggesting that the same applies to the other stars showing fewer eclipses.


Based on a spin-polarized free-electron model, spin and charge transports are analyzed in magnetic tunnel junctions with synthetic ferrimagnetic layers in the ballistic regime, and the spin transfer torque is derived. We characterize the synthetic ferrimagnetic free layer by extending an arbitrary direction of magnetizations of the two free layers forming the synthetic ferrimagnetic free layer. The synthetic ferrimagnetic configuration exerts the approximately optimum torque for small magnetization angle of the first layer relative to that of the pinned layer. For approximately anti-parallel magnetization of the first layer to that of the pinned layer, the parallel magnetization of two magnetic layers is favorable for magnetization reversal rather than the synthetic ferrimagnetic configuration.


Parkinson's disease (PD) or simply Parkinson's is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, which mainly affects the motor system. Consequently, the detection and quantification of related biomarkers play vital roles in the early-stage diagnosis of PD. In the present study, an innovative electrochemical immunosensor based on gold nanoparticle-modified graphene towards bioconjugation with biotinylated antibody (bioreceptor) was developed for the ultra-sensitive and specific monitoring of the alpha-synuclein (α-synuclein) protein. The synergistic effects between the gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and graphene drastically enhanced the electrochemical activity of the resulting materials. The enhanced conductivity of the substrate together with the increase in its surface area improved the sensitivity and lowered the detection limit of the capture layer. For the first time, the α-synuclein protein was measured in human plasma samples using bioconjugated AuNP-Gr bioconjugated specific antibody with an acceptable linear range of 4 to 128 ng mL−1 and a lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of 4 ng mL−1. Accordingly, it is expected that this diagnostic method may be produced in the near future for clinical applications and high-throughput screening of PD using point of care (POC) analysis.


Summary. The growth of taro plants propagated either from tissue culture plantlets or conventionally using huli (sections of corm containing the shoot apex) was followed throughout a season. The plants grown from huli began suckering 11 weeks after planting and produced an average of 5 suckers per plant. During most of the season, the huli-grown plants maintained 4–5 leaves at any one time, but had a high turnover of leaves producing 25 leaves during the 30 week period (0.8 leaves per week). At harvest the corms of the suckers contributed about one-third of the total corm weight to the entire huli stand. Plants grown from tissue culture exhibited earlier suckering (starting 8 weeks after planting) and a more profuse suckering, producing an average of about 8 suckers per plant. The tissue culture plants had a similar number and turnover of leaves on the main plant as the huli plants. However, due to the early and more profuse suckering of the tissue culture plants, the suckers contributed more to the leaf area, leaf number and yield of the entire stand than the huli suckers. The tissue culture main plants had a decreased leaf area, leaf size and shorter petiole length than the huli plants. The total corm yield of the huli and tissue culture entire stand was similar. However, the main corm of the tissue culture plants was smaller as the suckers contributed over 50% to the total corm weight of the entire stand in tissue culture plants.


Glycans are everywhere in biological systems, being involved in many cellular events with important implications for medical purposes. Building upon a detailed understanding of the functional roles of carbohydrates in molecular recognition processes and disease states, glycans are increasingly being considered as key players in pharmacological research. On the basis of the important progress recently made in glycochemistry, glycobiology, and glycomedicine, we provide a complete overview of successful applications and future perspectives of carbohydrates in the biopharmaceutical and medical fields. This review highlights the development of carbohydrate-based diagnostics, exemplified by glycan imaging techniques and microarray platforms, synthetic oligosaccharide vaccines against infectious diseases (e.g., HIV) and cancer, and finally carbohydrate-derived therapeutics, including glycomimetic drugs and glycoproteins.


Abstract Sentinel cattle and a grid of swormlure-baited sticky traps were used to monitor a Malaysian population of the Old World screw-worm fly, Chrysomya bezziana Villeneuve. Observations were carried out on an isolated cattle station at monthly intervals during the period August 1996 to June 2000. The number of flies caught was unaffected by weather conditions at the time of trapping, but was positively correlated with the total rainfall and the average daily air temperature prevailing 15–28 days earlier, when trapped flies were still juveniles. Trap catches were biased in favour of females, but daily catch rates of both sexes increased significantly the longer traps were open, suggesting that efficacy was related to the differential volatility of the chemicals comprising swormlure. Oviposition on sentinel cattle occurred mostly in late afternoon or early evening but increased significantly as the wound aged. Oviposition rates were positively correlated with female catch rates, but the relationship was curvilinear, suggesting that fly populations may be subject to some form of density-dependent constraint. Consistent differences in oviposition rates on sentinel cattle at different localities on the cattle station suggested the existence of highly clumped, quasi-stationary populations. Differences in trap catches between traps located in pastoral areas and those sited in nearby oil palm or rubber plantations supported this interpretation of the data. These findings are discussed in relation to the use of the sterile insect technique for the control of screw-worm fly infestations.


Context. The formation process of binary stars and multiple systems is poorly understood. The multiplicity rate of Class II premain-sequence stars and Class I protostars is well documented and known to be high (∼ 30% to 50% between ∼100 and 4000 AU). However, optical / near-infrared observations of Class I/Class II YSOs barely constrain the pristine properties of multiple systems, since dynamical evolution can quickly alter these properties during the protostellar phase. Aims. Here, we seek to determine the typical outcome of protostellar collapse and to constrain models of binary formation by core fragmentation during collapse, using high-resolution millimeter continuum imaging of very young (Class 0) protostars observed at the beginning of the main accretion phase. Methods. We carried out a pilot high-resolution study of 5 Class 0 objects, including 3 Taurus sources and 2 Perseus sources, using the most extended (A) configuration of the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI) at 1.3 mm. Our PdBI observations have a typical HPBW resolution ∼0.3 �� −0.5 �� and rms continuum sensitivity ∼0.1− 1m Jy/beam, which allow us to probe the multiplicity of Class 0 protostars down to separations a ∼ 50 AU and circumstellar mass ratios q ∼ 0.07. Results. We detected all 5 primary Class 0 sources in the 1.3 mm dust continuum. A single component associated with the primary Class 0 object was detected in the case of the three Taurus sources, while robust evidence of secondary components was found toward the two Perseus sources: L1448-C and NGC1333-IR2A. We show that the secondary 1.3 mm continuum component detected ∼600 AU south-east of L1448-C, at a position angle close to that of the CO(2−1) jet axis traced by our data, is an outflow feature directly associated with the powerful jet driven by L1448-C. The secondary 1.3 mm continuum component detected ∼1900 AU southeast of NGC1333-IR2A may either be a genuine protostellar companion or trace the edge of an outflow cavity. Therefore, our PdBI observations revealed only wide (>1500 AU) protobinary systems and/or outflow-generated features. Conclusions. When combined with previous millimeter interferometric observations of Class 0 protostars, our pilot PdBI study tentatively suggests that the binary fraction in the ∼75−1000 AU range increases from the Class 0 to the Class I stage. It also seems to argue against purely hydrodynamic models of binary star formation. We briefly discuss possible alternative scenarios to reconcile the low multiplicity rate of Class 0 protostars on small scales with the higher binary fraction observed at later (e.g. Class I) evolutionary stages.


Breast cancer is the most common cancer, comprising 22.9% of all cancer cases in women. Early detection is of key importance
for effective treatment. Small breast lesions are increasingly detected by medical imaging modalities. A biopsy of lesions is required
to make a definitive diagnosis. During the biopsy, displacement of the target (lesion) occurs as the needle indents and punctures
the skin layer and penetrates further into the breast soft tissue. The target motion makes it harder to reach the target. In this study,
the effect of system parameters on target motion during flexible needle insertion is investigated in chicken breast.
Target motion is measured using a target tracking algorithm when a bevel-tipped needle is inserted into chicken breast tissue.
Then the effects of different parameters on target motion in chicken breast are tested. The tested parameters include skin thickness,
insertion velocity, insertion depth, bevel angle, target size and needle diameter. These will be investigated to improve the accuracy
of the steering process.
The conducted experiments show that increasing target distance or insertion speed decreases the displacement of the target,
while increasing the needle diameter or skin thickness increases the target displacement. Increasing the insertion speed from
1 mm/s by 400% decreases target movement by 37%, while increasing the speed a tenfold will decrease target movement by 86%.
Doubling the needle diameter from 0.5 mm increases target movement four times. Adding a 0.6 mm skin layer will double target
movement, while adding two skin layers will quadruple it. Increasing the target distance will slightly decrease target movement
and doubling the target distance will lower the target movement by 10%. Increasing the distance by four times from 1 cm to
4 cm will halve the target displacement. Target displacement is unaffected by target size and bevel angle in the tested range. The
main cause of errors in the experimental data is the inhomogeneous nature of the chicken breast. Another factor is the difference
in elasticity between chicken breast samples. These effects account for the differences in magnitude of the displacement between
the experiments, but do not influence the trends.
The study also shows that it is possible to steer towards a virtual target inside a biological tissue if the tissue is submerged in
gelatine. The gelatine is required to allow a bevel-tipped needle to be steered. The results of this study can be used to improve
target motion models and consequently needle steering accuracy.


Blockchain had attracted many organizations around the world because it is a new
technology that act as a distributed ledger and can be used to recording transactions. The most
unique part of blockchain is it maintained by many nodes without central authority through a
distributed cryptographic protocol. In blockchain technology, all the nodes will validate the
information that to be appended to the blockchain. Then, blockchain will updated via the
consensus protocol which used to ensure an unequivocal, common ordering of transactions
and blocks. Besides, consensus protocol also guarantees the consistency and integrity of the
blockchain across geographically distributed nodes.
As Blockchain being more popular and useful nowadays, many developers try to figure out
the new consensus protocol to fit into the different types of blockchain. That is, it cause many
people confused about the consensus protocols and have no idea which is the best or most
accurate one that can be applied to the blockchain system especially permissioned blockchain
since it can provide integrity and confidentiality simultaneously. Furthermore, there will be
some differences between the consensus protocol that apply to the public blockchain and
permissioned blockchain. Therefore, too many consensus protocols and it makes the user or
scholar who want to learn more about consensus protocol perplexed.
In order to solve those problems, several comparisons between the consensus protocols will
be provided along with detailed explanation. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive
description on the underlying principle, nature, operations and algorithm of the consensus
protocols by reviewing the whitepaper of the consensus protocols, research papers from
professionals, journals, consensus protocols sharing platforms, etc. Lastly, the author
proposed some improvements/suggestions to solve the limitations in certain consensus
protocols.


BACKGROUND
Self-criticism and self-reassurance are internal processes of self-to-self relating that have received increasing attention in psychology. The Forms of Self-Criticizing/Attacking & Self-reassuring Scale (FSCRS), which was first studied by Gilbert, Clarke, Hempel, Miles, and Irons (2004) is a self-report instrument that has been used in various populations and has shown satisfactory reliability. The goal of this work is to explore the psychometric properties of a French version of the scale in a large non-clinical sample.

METHOD
Data from 285 nonclinical participants were analyzed.

RESULTS
Confirmatory factor analysis indicated an acceptable to good fit of the FSCRS items to a three-factor model. Good internal consistency and convergent validity were found.

CONCLUSIONS
The French validation results corroborate previous findings in a non-clinical population and confirm that the French version of the FSCRS is a robust and reliable instrument.