This paper presents a new parallel mesh generation method leading to subdomains of shape well-suited to Schur based domain decomposition methods such as the FETI and BDD solvers. Starting from a coarse mesh, subdomains meshes are created in parallel through hierarchical mesh refinement and morphing techniques. The proposed methodology aims at limiting the occurrence of known pathological situations (jagged interfaces, misplaced heterogeneity with respect to the interfaces, ...) that penalize the convergence of the solver. Furthermore, it enables to distribute and parallelize the mesh generation step in the early phases of the whole analysis. Besides its good behavior towards convergence, the mesh generation is thus distributed. The method is assessed, on several academical and industrial test cases, for both its parallel efficiency when creating the mesh and its capability to generate decomposition resulting in less FETI iterations.


Abstract Purpose The global coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created unprecedented strains on healthcare systems around the world. Challenges surrounding an overwhelming influx of patients with COVID-19 and changes in care dynamics prompt the need for care models and processes that optimize care in this medically complex patient population. The purpose of this report is to describe our institution's strategy to deploy pharmacy resources and standardize pharmacy processes to optimize the management of patients with COVID-19. Methods This retrospective, descriptive report characterizes documented pharmacy interventions in the acute care of patients admitted for COVID-19 during the period April 1 to April 15, 2020. Patient monitoring, interprofessional communication, and intervention documentation by pharmacy staff was facilitated through the development of a COVID-19–specific care bundle integrated into the electronic medical record. Results A total of 1,572 pharmacist interventions were documented in 197 patients who received a total of 15,818 medication days of therapy during the study period. The average number of interventions per patient was 8. The most common interventions were regimen simplification (15.9%), timing and dosing adjustments (15.4%), and antimicrobial therapy and COVID-19 treatment adjustments (15.2%). Patients who were admitted to an intensive care unit care at any point during their hospital stay accounted for 66.7% of all interventions documented. Conclusion A pharmacy department's response to the COVID-19 pandemic was optimized through standardized processes. Pharmacists intervened to address a wide scope of medication-related issues, likely contributing to improved management of COVID-19 patients. Results of our analysis demonstrate the vital role pharmacists play as members of multidisciplinary teams during times of crisis.


A point-shift $F$ maps each point of a point process $\Phi$ to some point of $\Phi$. For all translation invariant point-shifts $F$, the $F$-foliation of $\Phi$ is a partition of the support of $\Phi$ which is the discrete analogue of the stable manifold of $F$ on $\Phi$. It is first shown that foliations lead to a classification of the behavior of point-shifts on point processes. Both qualitative and quantitative properties of foliations are then established. It is shown that for all point-shifts $F$, there exists a point-shift $F_\bot$, the orbits of which are the $F$-foils of $\Phi$, and which are measure-preserving. The foils are not always stationary point processes. Nevertheless, they admit relative intensities with respect to one another.


The problem of child mental health has been increasing. In recent years, it were reported that prevention of school education were important. Cognitive function affects mental health. The effect of cognitive function training "brain training" on children has also been verified, and it was reported that "brain training" have improved "cognitive function" and "intelligence factor". But there is no brain training program aimed at children's mental health. Also, there is no program that incorporates it into the context of school life. We have developed a brain training program which can be done in a short time at school and to verify effect. First, we used "mental rotation task" that activates a wide range of brain parts. We would like to report on the result of training for 61 university students for 2 weeks and the result of training at one class of elementary school 4th.The purpose of this research is to verify the effect to lead to tailor-made program construction by AI


hierarchical clustering, 16 samples were classified as sensitive and 31 as resistant to Pemetrexed. Conclusions: The specificity of our microarray screen is 76% and 84% respectively, for sensitive and resistant samples, indicating that is a valid model to correctly classify the response to Pemetrexed in NSCLC surgical samples based upon gene profile analysis. This strategy would be adequate for predicting outcome of treatment of NSCLC patients with Pemetrexed


Germ-free mice contaminated with selected Escherichia coli strains were used for experiments designed to demonstrate gene transfer and recombinant formation in vivo. The well-characterized conjugation system of E. coli K-12 was examined in these experiments. Contamination of germ-free mice with a polyauxotrophic F− strain followed by the addition of isogenic Hfr, F′, or F+ strains resulted in the appearance of all recombinant classes at frequencies that would be expected from an in vitro mating experiment. Inheritance of unselected donor markers occurred at frequencies that were dependent on linkage relationships established in experiments in vitro. The presence of Lactobacillus had no influence on gene transfer and recombinant formation in an F′ × F− in vivo mating. The R factor ROR-1 was transferred from E. coli strain M7-18 to an E. coli F− strain in the mouse intestine.


For the purpose of examining the relation of sleep problems and other possible correlates with smoking among staff nurses in hospitals, the cross-sectional data of a self-administered questionnaire survey for 522 Japanese female staff nurses were reanalyzed. Registered nurses or licensed practical nurses were 82%, while nursing assistants were 18%. The prevalence of current smoking (PCS) was 29%, being higher than that in the general population of Japanese women. The current smokers exhibited a high tendency toward tobacco dependence. Multivariate analyses revealed that PCS was associated with recent frequent night shifts and a large amount of support from coworkers, while the association of a large amount of job control and a feeling of light overnight sleep with PCS was also suggested. The tobacco-dependent tendency was associated with recent life events and the presence of insomnia. It is possible that smoking is a countermeasure against sleepiness caused by the disadaptation to shift-work, or that tobacco-intake pharmacologically disturbs sleep. For decreasing PCS in staff nurses, further research should focus on the relation of smoking with their sleepiness and shift-working system, and also on the process in which major life events develop smoking behaviors.


The family as the first and most important factor in child development has a major impact on the child's mental health and psychological problems. Evidences suggest that emotional security has a mediating role in the relationship between family functioning and child's behavioral problems. The purpose of this study was to determine the mediatory role of child's emotional security in the relations between family functioning and children's behavioral problems. The sample consisted of 262 fifth and sixth graders of Tehran (117 girls and 145 boys) and their mothers who were selected according to cluster sampling method. The students completed the Security on Family Scale (SFS), the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FACES-III), and the mothers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Results of the analysis showed that both dimension of family functioning (cohesion and adaptability) correlated with all emotional security dimensions, and they also could play a mediatory role in relation between family functioning and child's behavioral problems. In fact, effective functioning of the family increases security and decreases preoccupation and disengagement. Through increasing security and decreasing insecurity family functioning can reduce child's behavioral problems. With respect to the results of this study, teaching the basic functions of the family and their effects on children's emotional security seems useful in preventing problems between children and parents.


The volcanic rocks of St Kitts have uniform 87Sr/86Sr ratios (c. 0.7037) and high 143Nd/144Nd ratios (c. 0.5130) in a suite which ranges from basalt to rhyolite. Trace element abundances and the flat chondrite-normalized REE patterns resemble those of island-arc tholeiitic suites. In comparison, the Montserrat lavas have higher concentrations of alkaline elements and are LREE enriched. Geochemical differences may be related to partial displacement of the axis of the volcanic arc about 9 Ma. This would have led to the development of the St Kitts' suite in an essentially new and immature island-arc environment. Being closer to the junction with the former arc axis, the composition of the Montserrat lavas may reflect previous subduction-related mantle enrichment and/or the influence of a sedimentary component. Isotopic ratios and most trace elements in the Redonda basalt indicate island-arc tholeiite or in some respects MORB affinities, but it has a high Sr content and is LREE-enriched. Despite its distinctive composition, Redonda is situated on the main axis of the volcanic arc and its lavas were evidently contemporaneous with the younger eruptions of St Kitts and Montserrat.


Site specific antisera against a synthetic peptide corresponding to the sequence 3-17 of G alpha 12 have been raised and the specificity examined using purified homogeneous Go, Gi2 and Gi containing a 41 kDa alpha-subunit. The distribution of G alpha i2 was investigated in plasma membranes from different tissues and cells and compared to the distribution of G alpha o and other pertussis toxin sensitive G alpha. Considerable amounts of G alpha i2 were found in endocrine tissue especially in membranes from the adrenal and thyroid, in leucocytes and platelets where it constitutes the major, if not only, pertussis toxin-sensitive G alpha, as well as in some cell lines (C6, NG 108-15, S49 cyc-); erythrocytes contained a 41 kDa G alpha i which was different from G alpha i2. G alpha o was present abundantly in nervous tissue, adrenal medulla and cortex but also found in low amounts in other membranes except for lung, liver and blood cells. Subcellular fractionation of cardiac ventricular muscle demonstrated the presence of G alpha o and low amounts of G alpha i2 in sarcolemma, but only 41kDa G alpha i was present in sarcoplasmic reticulum. The importance of the distinct distribution in terms of signal transduction is discussed.


The radial-orbit instability is a collective phenomenon that has heretofore only been observed in spherical systems. We find that this instability occurs also in triaxial systems, as we checked by performing extensive N -body simulations whose initial conditions were obtained by sampling a self-consistent triaxial model of a cuspy galaxy composed of luminous and dark matter (Capuzzo-Dolcetta et al. 2007). N -body simulations show a time evolution of the galaxy that is not due to the development of chaotic motions but, rather, to the collective instability induced by an excess of radially biased (box) orbits. The instability quickly transforms such model into a more prolate configuration, with 0.64 < b/a < 0.77 and 0.6 < c/a < 0.7 for the dark halo and 0.64 < b/a < 0.77 and 0.59 < c/a < 0.67 for the luminous matter. Stable triaxial, cuspy galaxies with dark matter halo are obtained when the mass contribution of radially biased orbits to the solution is reduced. These results constitute the first evidence of radial orbit instability in triaxial stellar systems. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Video compression is characterized by the diversity in algorithms, the complexity of computation and the high throughput rate. The requirement of diversity and high performance in video compression brings forward some important goals in designing the VLSI architecture. In this paper, three very important goals are introduced into the design of VLSI architectures for video compression. In the main part of the paper, why each design goal should be considered, what are the problems in achieving each goal and what techniques can be used to achieve each goal are studied.


The purpose of this study was to compare the climacteric symptoms and emotion of Korean women living in the United States and Korea. The 195 subjects consisted of 81 women who have lived for more than 10 years in the United States and 114 women who live in Korea. All the subjects were from 40 to 60 years of age. Data were collected by convenience sampling using a questionaire in the west and mid-west regions of the United States and in Kyungbuk province in Korea. The results of this study are as follows : 1. Both subjects in the United States and Korea showed the highest negative emotions according to the following ; in the 50-54 years of age group, divorced, less than high school graduation, lower income level and Protestant in religion. So we concluded that the cultural differences between the United States and Korea did not exert an important influence on the women's emotional tendency, but personal characteristics and background did. 2. Emotional tendency of Korean women from 40 to 60 years of age living in United States and Korea was slight negative (Korean-American ; , Korean ; ) 3. The emotions of women living in the United States showed a significant difference according to the state of health(F=3.7726, p


This paper describes the validation of an isocratic HPLC method for the assay of Losartan Potassium Tablets and the evaluation of the stability of drug substance after stress test by Photodiode array detection. The HPLC separation was achieved on a liquid chromatogram is equipped with a 254 nm detector and a 4.6 ´ 25 mm column that contains 5 mm packing L1 (Hypersil BDS C18 4.6´ 250 mm, 5 mm column is suitable). A mixture of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate buffer pH 3.0 and acetonitrile (65:35) as a mobile phase, the flow rate is about 1.5 ml per minute. Chromatograph the Standard preparation, and record the peak response as directed under procedure: the tailing factor for the analyte peak is not more than 3.0 and the relative standard deviation of replicated injections is not more than 2%.


Abstract This article explores the position and influence of pensioners' organizations in Sweden's policy process. The purpose is to shed light on a controversy in the literature concerning the power held by client interests. It has been argued in the literature regarding the new politics of the welfare state that client interests, such as pensioners' organizations, are important actors for the understanding of welfare policy retrenchment. This argument has been challenged, especially with reference to the Scandinavian countries. This essay argues that client groups' influence on welfare policy development is relevant to consider even in corporatist countries with a strong labor movement. This argument is supported by an empirical investigation of the case of Sweden, which shows that pensioner' organizations, from a position as insiders in the policy process, have managed to be influential on several issues of importance for the elderly from the early 1990s to the present. The main explanation behind their influence is their high membership rate, which makes their views important for politicians to consider.


Most existing studies model interdependent networks as simple network systems consisting of two or more undirected subnets, and the interdependent edges between the networks are undirected. However, many real-world interdependent networks are coupled by a directed subnet and an undirected subnet, such as supply chain networks coupled with cyber networks, and cyber manufacturing networks coupled with service networks. Therefore, in this work, we focus on a ubiquitous type of interdependent network—the directed–undirected interdependent network—and research the cascading failures of directed–undirected interdependent networks with different coupling patterns. Owing to the diversity of coupling patterns to realistic interdependent network systems, we introduce two types of interdependent edges (i.e., directed-to-undirected and undirected-to-directed interdependent edges). On this basis, we generated different types of directed–undirected interdependent networks with varying coupling patterns (i.e., one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-one) and investigated the cascading failure robustness of these types of networks. Finally, we explored the cascading robustness of directed–undirected interdependent networks under two different attack strategies (single-node attack and multi-node attack). Through extensive experiments, we have obtained some meaningful findings: (1) the cascading robustness of directed–undirected interdependent networks is positively related to the overload tolerance coefficient and load exponential coefficient; (2) high-degree nodes and high-in-degree nodes should be protected to improve the cascading robustness of directed–undirected interdependent networks; (3) the cascading robustness of one-to-many interdependent networks can be improved by adding directed-to-undirected interdependent edges; and the cascading robustness of many-to-one interdependent networks can be improved by adding undirected-to-directed interdependent edges.


We critically examine the methodology behind the claimed observational detection of halo assembly bias using optically selected galaxy clusters by Miyatake et al. (2016) and More et al. (2016). We mimic the optical cluster detection algorithm and apply it to two different mock catalogs generated from the Millennium simulation galaxy catalog, one in which halo assembly bias signal is present, while the other in which the assembly bias signal has been expressly erased. We split each of these cluster samples into two using the average cluster-centric distance of the member galaxies to measure the difference in the clustering strength of the subsamples with respect to each other. We observe that the subsamples split by cluster-centric radii show differences in clustering strength, even in the catalog where the true assembly bias signal was erased. We show that this is a result of contamination of the member galaxy sample from interlopers along the line-of-sight. This undoubtedly shows that the particular methodology adopted in the previous studies cannot be used to claim a detection of the assembly bias signal. We figure out the tell-tale signatures of such contamination, and show that the observational data also shows similar signatures. Furthermore, we also show that projection effects in optical galaxy clusters can bias the inference of the 3-dimensional edges of galaxy clusters (splashback radius), so appropriate care should be taken while interpreting the splashback radius of optical clusters.


The half-life of c- myc mRNA is regulated when cells change their growth rates or differentiate. Two regions within c- myc mRNA determine its short half-life. One is in the 3'-untranslated region, the other is in the coding region. A cytoplasmic protein, the coding region determinant-binding protein (CRD-BP), binds in vitro to the c- myc coding region instability determinant. We have proposed that the CRD-BP, when bound to the mRNA, shields the mRNA from endonucleolytic attack and thereby prolongs the mRNA half-life. Here we report the cloning and further characterization of the mouse CRD-BP, a 577 amino acid protein containing four hnRNP K-homology domains, two RNP domains, an RGG RNA-binding domain and nuclear import and export signals. The CRD-BP is closely related to the chicken beta-actin zipcode-binding protein and is similar to three other proteins, one of which is overexpressed in some human cancers. Recombinant mouse CRD-BP binds specifically to c- myc CRD RNA in vitro and reacts with antibody against human CRD-BP. Most of the CRD-BP in the cell is cytoplasmic and co-sediments with ribosomal subunits.


The aim of the present study was to validate the hepatoprotective activity of bark of Tecomella undulata (Sm.) Seem., Biognoniaceae, against paracetamol (PCM) induced hepatic damage. Chloroform soluble fraction (Fraction-I), acetone soluble fraction (Fraction-II), methanol soluble fraction (Fraction-III) and methanol insoluble fraction (Fraction-IV) of ethanolic extract of bark of T. undulata were evaluated for hepatoprotective activity against paracetamol induced hepatic damage using biochemical, morphological, functional and histopathological studies. The methanol soluble fraction (Fraction-III) was most potent among the four fractions studied in detail. Fraction-III showed significant hepatoprotective activity against paracetamol induced hepatic damage as evident by normalization of substantially elevated levels of aspartate amino transferase (AST), alanine amino transferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and total bilirubin (TBil), decreased level of total protein (TP), increased wet liver weight and volume, increased thiopentone sodium induced sleeping time and abnormal histopathology. Present study showed that the Fraction-III of ethanolic extract of bark of T. undulata significantly restores physiological integrity of hepatocytes. Fraction-III did not show any sign of toxicity up to oral dose of 1500 mg/kg in mice.


: Introduction : Vesicovaginal fistula (VVF), communal among urogenital fistulas, is regarded as obstetric morbidity expected to consequence more than two million women worldwide. The rate of VVF is lower in industrial countries where it happens as an obstacle of pelvic surgeries or radiation therapy. Objective: Evaluation of different prognostic factors which regulate the outcome by surgical repairing of vesicovaginal fistula. Methods: In Jinnah Hospital Lahore, a reflective survey was held which is composed of the data relevant to victims of vesicovaginal fistula repair during February 2015 to July 2018. The record was examined through SPSS 22 software defining odds ratio having 95% confidence interval. Results: Data of 640 victims was investigated with success rate of 558 (87.2%) cases. This investigation revealed that reappearance of disease was expressively linked to multiplicity (9-fold recurrence risk), pre-operative size (10- fold reappearance risk for fistula > 2cm equated to <1cm), secondary repair (5-fold risk) and extent of the fistula (3- fold risk). Insinuation of flap and tardy rebuilding (between 6 weeks and 1 year) was linked to effective surgical results. Aetiology, age, parity, repairing route and fistula location were not substantial (p>0.05 each0 prognostic factors for reappearance. Conclusion: For effective restoration of vesicovaginal fistula cautious determination of several factors is needed comprising number, size, previous efforts for restoration and interval of fistula.


Two different process technologies were investigated for the fabrication of high-efficiency GaInP/GaAs dual-junction solar cells on silicon: direct epitaxial growth and layer transfer combined with semiconductor wafer bonding. The intention of this research is to combine the advantages of high efficiencies in III-V tandem solar cells with the low cost of silicon. Direct epitaxial growth of a GaInP/GaAs dual-junction solar cell on a GaAsyP1-y buffer on silicon yielded a 1-sun efficiency of 16.4% (AM1.5g). Threading dislocations that result from the 4% lattice grading are still the main limitation to the device performance. In contrast, similar devices fabricated by semiconductor wafer bonding on n-type inactive Si reached efficiencies of 26.0% (AM1.5g) for a 4-cm2 solar cell device.


The purpose of this study is to determine whether the mode of anaesthesia chosen for patients undergoing lumbar microdiscectomy surgery has any significant influence on the immediate outcome in terms of safety, efficacy or patient satisfaction. This prospective randomised study compared safety, efficacy and satisfaction levels in patients having spinal versus general anaesthesia for single level lumbar microdiscectomy. Fifty consecutive healthy and cooperative patients were recruited and prospectively randomised into two equal groups; half the patients received a spinal anaesthetic (SA), the remainder a general anaesthetic (GA). Each specific mode of anaesthesia was standardised. Comprehensive post-operative evaluation concentrated on documenting any complications specific to the particular mode of anaesthesia, recording the pace at which the various milestones of physiological and functional recovery were reached, and the level of patient satisfaction with the type of anaesthesia used. The results showed no serious complication specific to their particular mode of anaesthesia in either group. Thirteen out of 25 SA patients required temporary urinary catheterisation (9 males, 4 females) while among the GA group 4 patients required urinary catheterisation (4 males and 1 female). Post-operative pain perception was significantly lower in the SA group. The SA patients achieved the milestones of physiological and functional recovery more rapidly. While both groups were satisfied with their procedure, the level of satisfaction was significantly higher in the SA group. In conclusion, lumbar spinal microdiscectomy can be carried out with equal safety, employing either spinal or general anaesthesia. While they require more temporary urinary catheterisation associated with the previous use of intrathecal morphine, patients undergoing SA suffer less pain in association with their procedure and recover more rapidly. Blinded to an extent by not having experienced the alternative, both groups appeared satisfied with their anaesthetic. However, the level of satisfaction was significantly higher in the SA group.


Industry practitioners always face the problem of choosing the appropriate model for deployment under different considerations, such as to maximize a metric that is crucial for production, or to reduce the total cost given financial concerns. In this work, we focus on the text classification task and present a quantitative analysis for this challenge. Using classification accuracy as the main metric, we evaluate the classifiers' performances for a variety of models, including large language models, along with their associated costs, including the annotation cost, training (fine-tuning) cost, and inference cost. We then discuss the model choices for situations like having a large number of samples needed for inference. We hope our work will help people better understand the cost/quality trade-offs for the text classification task.


Background: The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) clinical trials offer a wealth of data on patient outcomes including cancer, coronary heart disease, and hip fracture, which were confirmed via medical record review. Diabetes was self-reported, but was not validated by independent review. The literature shows wide variations on the validity of self-reported diabetes in diverse populations. Aims: To compare the rates of positive and negative predictive values of self-reports of incident and prevalent diabetes during the WHI trials. Methods: At four WHI field centers (Minneapolis MN, Winston- Salem NC, Birmingham AL, Portland OR), all WHI trial participants with a self-report of diabetes at baseline or follow-up were identified. A random sample of participants who did not self-report diabetes was also identified. Women were surveyed regarding details of their diagnosis and treatment of diabetes. Medical records were obtained and reviewed for consenting subjects using a standardized protocol based on documented treatment with anti-diabetic medications, or physician diagnosis of diabetes supported by laboratory measurements of glucose. Results: A total of 1280 eligible subjects were available across the four sites. To date, subject information from the Minneapolis field center has been collected and analyzed. Of the 295 eligible subjects contacted at the Minneapolis site, 227 (77%) consented to participate and provided survey data. Medical records were obtained for 224 (57 prevalent, 81 incident, and 86 no self-reported diabetes). Medical records confirmed 84% (95% CI 74%–94%) of self-reported prevalent diabetes and 85% (95% CI 74%–94%) of self-reported incident diabetes. Among those who never self-reported diabetes there was no medical record evidence for diabetes in 99% (95% CI 92% to 100%). Results from all four sites will be presented. Conclusions: Preliminary data suggest a high positive predictive value of both prevalent (84%) and incident self-report of diabetes (85%) from WHI and a low false negative rate of about 1%. These results indicate that self-reports of diabetes may be sufficiently accurate for use in epidemiologic studies.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of attenuated wavy fibers in the myocardium of dogs with and without dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).

DESIGN
Prevalence survey.

ANIMALS
70 dogs clinically suspected to have DCM (ie, fractional shortening < 25%, absence of echocardiographic lesions other than chamber dilatation, and radiographic or postmortem evidence of congestive heart failure) and 147 dogs with chronic valvular disease (n = 60), congenital heart disease (49), myocardial infarcts (23), myocarditis (8), or endocarditis (7).

PROCEDURE
Echocardiography and electrocardiography were performed, and thoracic radiographs were obtained with dogs in left lateral recumbency. Necropsy specimens were examined for attenuated wavy fibers (ie, myocardial cells < 6 microns in diameter with a wavy appearance).

RESULTS
65 of 70 dogs clinically suspected to have DCM were confirmed to have the disease on postmortem examination, and 64 of 65 had attenuated wavy fibers. The remaining 5 dogs were found during postmortem examination to have heart disease other than DCM, and none had attenuated wavy fibers. Only 1 of 147 dogs with heart disease other than DCM had attenuated wavy fibers.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
Findings suggest that histologic examination for attenuated wavy fibers may be a useful postmortem test for DCM in dogs. The diagnosis was confirmed in 65 of 70 dogs suspected to have DCM on the basis of standard clinical criteria.


The ultimate goal of any educational institution is offering the best educational experience and knowledge to the students. Identifying the students who need extra support and taking the appropriate actions to enhance their performance plays an important role in achieving that goal. In this research, four machine learning techniques have been used to build a classifier that can predict the performance of the students in a computer science subject that is offered by Al-Muthanna University (MU), College Of Humanities. The machine learning techniques include Artificial Neural Network, Naïve Bayes, Decision Tree, and Logistic Regression. This research pays extra attention to the effect of using the internet as a learning resource and the effect of the time spent by students on social networks on the students' performance. These effects introduced by using features that measure whether the student uses the internet for learning and the time spent on the social networks by the students. The models have been compared using the ROC index performance measure and the classification accuracy. In addition, different measures have been computed such as the classification error, precision, recall, and the F measure. The dataset used to build the models is collected based on a survey given to the students and the students' grade book. The ANN (fully connected feed forward multilayer ANN) model achieved the best performance that is equal to 0.807 and achieved the best classification accuracy that is equal to 77.04%. In addition, the decision tree model identified five factors as important factors which influence the performance of the students.


We show that a large class of divisible abelian $\ell$-groups (lattice ordered groups) of continuous functions is interpretable (in a certain sense) in the lattice of the zero sets of these functions. This has various applications to the model theory of these $\ell$-groups, including decidability results.


Simulations of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI), including inviscid and viscous effects are conducted using an improved localized artificial fluid diffusivity method which is used to treat discontinuities in the form of shocks and material interfaces in the flowfield. On the 2-D inviscid shock-cylinder interaction problem the scheme captures unsteady shocks and material discontinuities without spurious oscillations and shows good agreement with experimental data and previous numerical calculations when initial start-up errors are avoided. Comparison to previous numerical investigation done using high-order WENO schemes shows that the present scheme has lesser numerical dissipation, indicating the suitability of the method for resolving a broad range of scales of turbulence. The scheme is used to simulate the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability in a viscous cylindrical (2D) and planar (3-D) geometry. Simulations are designed to match initial conditions from previous experiments and good agreement is found between the experimental data and the numerical results. The study of the mixing mechanism shows that a large amount of mixing is associated with the primary instability through the large gradient intensification in particular regions of the flow ('bridge') though secondary instabilities which occur at intermediate times are efficient in mixing the multi-component flow. On the 3-D planar RMI problem results of the mixing zone growth rate shows good agreement between the present numerical study and the available experimental data.


Large-area, periodic Si nanopillar arrays (NPAs) with the periodicity of 100 nm and the diameter of 60 nm were fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching with anodic aluminum oxide as a patterning mask. The 100-nm-periodicity NPAs serve an antireflection function especially at the wavelengths of 200~400 nm, where the reflectance is decreased to be almost tenth of the value of the polished Si (from 62.9% to 7.9%). These NPAs show very low reflectance for broadband wavelengths and omnidirectional light incidence, attributed to the small periodicity and the stepped refractive index of NPA layers. The experimental results are confirmed by theoretical calculations. Raman scattering intensity was also found to be significantly increased with Si NPAs. The introduction of this industrial-scale self-assembly methodology for light


Background Sclerostin antibody (Scl-Ab) increases bone formation, bone mass, and bone strength in rodents and cynomolgus monkeys (cynos) in studies of up to 10 weeks duration. Objectives To investigate the effects of 6 months of Scl-Ab treatment on cynos bone formation. Methods Adolescent (age 3-5 years) cynos were treated for 6 months with weekly subcutaneous injections of vehicle, 3, 10, or 100 mg/kg Scl-Ab (n=4/sex/group). Results The bone formation marker serum osteocalcin peaked within the first 3 months of Scl-Ab treatment and returned toward baseline levels at month 6, at which time the L2 vertebra bone formation rate per bone surface (BFR/BS) was similar across all treatment groups. At the tibia diaphysis, endocortical BFR/BS remained dose-dependently elevated. Despite the normalization of cancellous BFR/BS at month 6, Scl-Ab dose-dependently increased DXA bone mineral density (BMD) by 15-30% at the lumbar spine compared with vehicle (Table). By ex vivo microCT, Scl-Ab resulted in dose-dependent increases in BMD at L3 vertebral bodies and L6 cancellous cores, bone area, cortical thickness (Ct.Th), trabecular bone volume (BV/TV), and trabecular thickness (Tb.Th) (Table). Improvements in bone microarchitecture resulted in increased yield load for all dose levels at both L3 (+33-92%) and L6 (+83-142%) compared with vehicle. Stiffness and energy to failure also increased dose-dependently after Scl-Ab treatment at both sites. Strength properties were normalized to BV/TV to approximate material properties, and no group differences were found in yield strength, modulus, or toughness. Positive correlations between BMD and yield load were observed across all groups for both vertebral specimens, further supporting the maintenance of material properties. No group differences were found in the ratio of ash to dry weight in vertebral samples, reflecting normal matrix mineralization during Scl-Ab treatment. Data reported here are from male cynos; similar results were observed in females. Conclusions Six months of Scl-Ab treatment in cynos markedly increased vertebral BMD, trabecular microarchitecture, and bone strength, with maintenance of bone material properties. These data also highlight the unique mode of action of Scl-Ab, which temporally increases cancellous bone formation, resulting in a rapid increase in bone volume of normal quality that is maintained after indices of trabecular bone formation return to baseline. Disclosure of Interest M. Ominsky Shareholder of: Amgen Inc., Employee of: Amgen Inc., R. Samadfam Employee of: Charles River Laboratories, J. Jolette Employee of: Charles River Laboratories, S. Smith Employee of: Charles River Laboratories, H. Z. Ke Shareholder of: Amgen Inc., Employee of: Amgen Inc., R. Boyce Shareholder of: Amgen Inc., Employee of: Amgen Inc.


Objective: To describe socio-economic variations in the treatment and control of hypertension in England. Design: Population based survey. Subjects: Hypertensives numbering 5019, identified in the Health Survey for England for 1993–1994. Outcome: Drug treatment and control of hypertension. Results: A total of 1119/2208 (50.7%) hypertensive men, and 1620/2811 (57.6%) hypertensive women, were receiving anti-hypertensive medication. For men, the likelihood of receiving treatment increased with age, widowerhood or divorce, a family history of heart disease, low social support and increasing weight, but was decreased for men who lived alone, owned their own house, smoked or drank heavily. For women, obesity, a family history of heart disease and low social support increased their chance of treatment. A total of 534/1119 (47.7%) men, and 816/1620 (50.4%) of women on treatment, had their hypertension controlled to below 160/90 mmHg. Lack of control was more commonly due to isolated systolic hypertension rather than diastolic hypertension. Increasing age and smoking were associated with poorer control. Men who lived alone and had low social support were less likely to have their hypertension controlled, while those with a family history of heart disease were more likely to be controlled. Discussion: We found little evidence for socio-economic or geographic differences in the management of hypertension. Variations in treatment rates can be explained by variations in use of primary care and opportunistic screening. Control was poorest among older people who are at the highest risk of cardiovascular events. Socially isolated men and smokers were less likely to be treated or controlled, and need to be targeted by future programmes to detect and treat hypertension.


Purpose. To determine the biking suitability (i.e., bikeability) of and prevalence of biking in 14 elementary schools representing two extremes of bused students (2.4% vs. 53.6%). Methods. Street segments (within 0.25-mile radius of school) were scored for bikeability. Bikes in racks per school student population established biking prevalence. Mann-Whitney U-test compared bikeability and prevalence of biking between groups. Results. A total of 12.5 ±2.2 streets per school were assessed. Thirteen schools scored very good (<3.0) and one scored fair (4.0–4.9). Median bikeability score was 0.69 for the low-busing schools and 0.53 for the high-busing schools (nonsignificant). Median biking prevalence was 3.1% in the low-busing schools and 1.3% in the high-busing schools (p < .05). Conclusion. Streets surrounding schools were adequate for biking. Biking prevalence was significantly higher in low-busing schools but was relatively low in both low- and high-busing schools. Other factors, including intraindividual, social, school, and community, likely contribute to choice of biking to school.


Elderly cancer patients represent a very heterogeneous pop ulation not only in chronological age, but also in functional status, concomitant diseases and therapy, geriatric syndromes and, as a consequence, in the tolerability of cancer treatment. The choice of chemotherapy (CT) for metastatic breast cancer in this category of patients is often a challenge for oncologists. Eribulin, a drug with a fairly good tolerance, has proven itself well both in randomized trials and in real clinical practice, including older patient population. Pooled analyzes of several studies have shown that the incidence of hematologic adverse events in elderly patients treated with eribulin does not exceed that in younger patients and does not generally affect the planned volume of treatment. At the same time, the elderly are more likely to experience side effects such as weakness, fatigue and polyneuropathy, which must be taken into account when planning CT. Only a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach with a geriatric assessment will make it possible to maximally individualize the approach to the treatment of this difficult category of patients.


Replacing multiple adjacent failing teeth with compromised osseous and gingival architecture with implants in the esthetic zone is often challenging and demanding for the clinician. Multiple procedures are usually required and entail a preservation technique, a re-creation approach, or a combination of both. This article describes an interdisciplinary approach (orthodontics, periodontics, and prosthodontics) for tissue architecture modification in multiple adjacent failing teeth with osseous and gingival tissue discrepancies in the esthetic zone. The rationale and limitations are also discussed.


Dysregulation of tyrosine kinase receptor (RTK) signaling pathways play important roles in glioblastoma (GBM). However, therapies targeting these signaling pathways have not been successful, partially because of drug resistance. Increasing evidence suggests that tumor heterogeneity, more specifically, GBM-associated stem and endothelial cell heterogeneity, may contribute to drug resistance. In this perspective article, we introduce a high-throughput, quantitative approach to profile plasma membrane RTKs on single cells. First, we review the roles of RTKs in cancer. Then, we discuss the sources of cell heterogeneity in GBM, providing context to the key cells directing resistance to drugs. Finally, we present our provisionally patented qFlow cytometry approach, and report results of a "proof of concept" patient-derived xenograft GBM study.


Caged tests are set to begin soon that allow imported Chinese leaf-eating beetles to munch on saltcedar, an Asian import that ran wild last century and now forms dense thickets along many waterways in the western United States. But many biologists fear that the imported insect could develop a taste for native plants as well as for saltcedar, and they note that the saltcedar now provides nesting habitat for a bird whose native habitat it has decimated: the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher. These concerns stoked nearly 5 years of fierce debate within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency charged with both protecting the bird and uprooting the invading plant. Last week the government approved a scaled-back plan to introduce beetle swarms into seven states, but the debate isn9t over: More tests will be required next year before the beetles can be set free.


The Chlamydiae are a phylum of obligate intracellular bacteria comprising important human and animal pathogens, yet their occurrence in the environment, their phylogenetic diversity and their host range has been largely underestimated. We investigated the seasonality of environmental chlamydiae in a Tyrrhenian coastal lake. By catalysed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization, we quantified the small planktonic cells and detected a peak in the abundance of environmental chlamydiae in early autumn with up to 5.9 × 10(4) cells ml(-1) . Super-resolution microscopy improved the visualization and quantification of these bacteria and enabled the detection of pleomorphic chlamydial cells in their protist host directly in an environmental sample. To isolate environmental chlamydiae together with their host, we applied a high-throughput limited dilution approach and successfully recovered a Vexillifera sp., strain harbouring chlamydiae (93% 16S rRNA sequence identity to Simkania negevensis), tentatively named 'Candidatus Neptunochlamydia vexilliferae'. Transmission electron microscopy in combination with fluorescence in situ hybridization was used to prove the intracellular location of these bacteria representing the first strain of marine chlamydiae stably maintained alongside with their host in a laboratory culture. Taken together, this study contributes to a better understanding of the distribution and diversity of environmental chlamydiae in previously neglected marine environments.


A black lipid membrane (BLM) is a powerful platform for studying the electrophysiology of cell membranes as well as transmembrane proteins. However, BLMs have disadvantages in terms of stability, accessibility, and transportability, which preclude their industrial applications. To resolve these issues, frozen membrane precursor (MP) was devised to improve the transportability and storability of BLMs. As described previously, MP is a storable and transportable platform that can be delivered to the point-of-use, where BLMs are automatically formed upon thawing at room temperature. However, MP has an inconsistent thinning-out time, ranging from 30 min to 24 h, as well as a low success rate of BLM formation (~27%), which make it undesirable for practical use. In our study, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was introduced as a replacement for conventionally used Teflon film to control thinning-out time. As such, we used a PDMS thin-film, a porous-structured hydrophobic polymer, and squalene, a high viscosity solvent, to facilitate membrane formation, whereas the absorption rates of solvents were controlled to achieve consistent BLM formation time. We successfully reduced thinning-out time down to <1 h as well as enhanced the success rate of BLM formation to greater than 80%. Moreover, we demonstrated the feasibility of our platform for use in drug screening using gramicidin A and guanidine.


Dew condensation on the leaf surface of greenhouse crops can promote diseases caused by fungus and bacteria, affecting the growth of the crops. In this paper, we present a WSN (Wireless Sensor Network)-based automatic monitoring system to prevent dew condensation in a greenhouse environment. The system is composed of sensor nodes for collecting data, base nodes for processing collected data, relay nodes for driving devices for adjusting the environment inside greenhouse and an environment server for data storage and processing. Using the Barenbrug formula for calculating the dew point on the leaves, this system is realized to prevent dew condensation phenomena on the crop's surface acting as an important element for prevention of diseases infections. We also constructed a physical model resembling the typical greenhouse in order to verify the performance of our system with regard to dew condensation control.


The topics of mass and count have been studied for many decades in philosophy (e.g., Quine, 1960; Pelletier, 1975), linguistics (e.g., McCawley, 1975; Allen, 1980; Krifka, 1991) and psychology (e.g., Middleton et al, 2004; Barner et al, 2009). More recently, interest from within computational linguistics has studied the issues involved (e.g., Pustejovsky, 1991; Bond, 2005; Schmidtke & Kuperman, 2016), to name just a few. As is pointed out in these works, there are many difficult conceptual issues involved in the study of this contrast. In this article we study one of these issues – the "Dual-Life" of being simultaneously +mass and +count – by means of an unusual combination of human annotation, online lexical resources, and online corpora.


The surveillance on bacterial drug resistance was carried out at Buddhachinaraj hospita l between 2007 to 2009. The study of the bacterial prevalence showed that Escherichiae coli was the most common organism found follower by Acinetobacter baumannii (Multiple drug resistance, MDR) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The importance problemati c bacteria were Methicillin Resistant S.aureus (MRSA), E.coli (ESBLs), Klebsiella pneumoniae (ESBLs), Ac.baumanii (MDR), and Streptococus pneumoniae (Drug Resistant S.pneumoniae, DRSP). Because the percentage of their drug resistance were increased from 26 to 31%, 28 to 34%, 45 to 49%, 69 to 73%, and 60 to 67%, respectively while the resistance of Ps.aeruginosa (MDR) was not increased. The results of susceptibility test showed the declining in sensitivity of E.coil (ESBLs), K.pneumoniae (ESBLs), and Ac.baumanii (MDR) to Cefoperazone / Sulbactam from 86 to 50%, 51 to 17 and 75 t o 21%. The susceptible of Ps.aeruginosa (MDR) to this antibiotic was decreased to 24% in 2009. But both of these organisms , E.coli (ESBLs), and K.pneumoniae (ESBLs) , showed high sensitive to Carbapenem, 99-100%. The sensitivity of Ps. aeruginosa (MDR) to Imipenem was declined from 54 to 27% whereas that of Ac. baumanii (MDR) was decreased to 11% in 2009. Both of these organism still sensitive to Colistin. MRSA was well sensitive to fosfomycin and rifampicin. There was no report of MRSA resistant to Vancomycin. The sensitivity of S. pneumoniae to Penicillin was decreased from 40 to 33%. The results of this surveillance might be useful for establishment the guideline for antibiotic prescription to prevent and control of bacterial drug resistance.


Based on the methodology of sliding mode, this paper presents a robust controller for a class of under-actuated systems with mismatched uncertainties. Such a system consists of a nominal system and the mismatched uncertainties. The structural characteristic of the nominal system is that it is made up of several subsystems. Based on this characteristic, the hierarchical structure of the sliding mode surfaces is designed for the nominal system as follows. Firstly, the nominal system is divided into several subsystems and the sliding mode surface of every subsystem is defined. Secondly, the sliding mode surface of one subsystem is selected as the first layer sliding mode surface. The first layer sliding mode surface is then to construct the second layer sliding mode surface with the sliding mode surface of another subsystem. This process continues till the sliding mode surfaces of all the subsystems are included. For dealing with the mismatched uncertainties, a lumped sliding mode compensator is designed at the last layer sliding mode surface. The asymptotic stability of every layer sliding mode surface and the sliding mode surface of each subsystem is proven theoretically by Barbalat's lemma. Simulation results show the validity of this robust control method through stabilization control of a double inverted pendulums system with mismatched uncertainties.


Purpose: Clinical practice during pandemics is known to bring additional fears to nursing students. The purpose of this study was to explore fears of Mzuzu University's nursing students nurses regarding resumption of clinical practice amidst the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: The study used a qualitative approach employing a descriptive phenomenological design. Mzuzu University Research Ethics Committee (MZUNIREC) approved the study and issued MZUNIREC/DOR/20/06 as approval number. An independent person collected data through four focus group discussions with a purposefully selected sample of 40 consented nursing students who had completed clinical practice during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data analysis was done manually using content analysis. The analysis started with transcription of the interviews. Following this, data were coded and categorized into themes and subthemes were established from participants' significant statements. Results: Four major themes about the fears amongst the student nurses emerged. These were as follows: equipment and supplies; increased perceived risk for acquiring and transmitting COVID-19; stigma and discrimination and perceived fear of not having adequate learning. Conclusion: Clinical practice during the COVID-19 pandemic brings fear among nursing students and requires that implementers of nursing and midwifery programs prioritize ascertaining student's skill, emotional wellbeing and provision of adequate resources before deploying them to clinical areas.


AIM
The objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency of periodontopathic and other subgingival anaerobic and facultative bacteria in the bloodstream following scaling and root planing (SRP).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Forty-two patients with severe generalized chronic periodontitis (GChP) and generalized aggressive periodontitis (GAgP) were included in the study. Four samples of peripheric blood were drawn from the cubital vein at different times: Pre-treatment: immediately before the SRP procedure (T1), immediately after treatment (T2), 15 min. post-treatment (T3) and 30 min. post-treatment (T4). In order to identify the presence of microorganisms in blood, subcultures were conducted under anaerobic conditions.

RESULTS
80.9% of the patients presented positive cultures after SRP and it occurred more frequently immediately after treatment; however, 19% of the patients still had microorganisms in the bloodstream 30 min. after the procedure. The periodontopathic microorganisms more frequently identified were Porphyromonas gingivalis and Micromonas micros. Campylobacter spp., Eikenella corrodens, Tannerella forsythensis, Fusobacterium spp. and Prevotella intermedia were isolated less often. Actinomyces spp. were also found frequently during bacteraemia after SRP.

CONCLUSIONS
SRP induced bacteraemia associated with anaerobic bacteria, especially in patients with periodontal disease.


Objectives Our aims were to replicate some previously reported associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in five genes (A2BP1, COG5, GDF5, HFE, ESR1) with hand osteoarthritis (OA), and to examine whether genes (BCAP29, DIO2, DUS4L, DVWA, HLA, PTGS2, PARD3B, TGFB1 and TRIB1) associated with OA at other joint sites were associated with hand OA among Finnish women. Design We examined the bilateral hand radiographs of 542 occupationally active Finnish female dentists and teachers aged 45 to 63 and classified them according to the presence of OA by using reference images. Data regarding finger joint pain and other risk factors were collected using a questionnaire. We defined two hand OA phenotypes: radiographic OA in at least three joints (ROA) and symptomatic DIP OA. The genotypes were determined by PCR-based methods. In statistical analysis, we used SNPStats software, the chi-square test and logistic regression. Results Of the SNPs, rs716508 in A2BP1 was associated with ROA (OR = 0.7, 95% CI 0.5–0.9) and rs1800470 in TGFB1 with symptomatic DIP OA (1.8, 1.2–2.9). We found an interaction between ESR1 (rs9340799) and occupation: teachers with the minor allele were at an increased risk of symptomatic DIP OA (2.8, 1.3–6.5). We saw no association among the dentists. We also found that the carriage of the COG5 rs3757713 C allele increased the risk of ROA only among women with the BCAP29 rs10953541 CC genotype (2.6; 1.1–6.1). There was also a suggestive interaction between the HFE rs179945 and the ESR1 rs9340799, and the carriage of the minor allele of either of these SNPs was associated with an increased risk of symptomatic DIP OA (2.1, 1.3–2.5). Conclusions Our results support the earlier findings of A2BP1 and TBGF1 being OA susceptibility genes and provide evidence of a possible gene-gene interaction in the genetic influence on hand OA predisposition.


It's not difficult to see why mistletoe has always impressed people. It is a parasite, so it appears miraculously in trees without any visible seed or soil. It is green and alive when most other plants are at their lowest ebb. It is not, of course, the only evergreen plant. But it is curious that it used to be rigorously excluded from British churches, which people were quite happy to festoon with holly and ivy...


Increasingly, mobile computers use dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) to reduce CPU voltage and speed and thereby increase battery life. To determine how to change voltage and speed when responding to user interface events, we analyze traces of real user workloads. We evaluate a new heuristic for inferring when user interface tasks complete and find it is more efficient and nearly as effective as other approaches. We compare DVS algorithms and find that for a given performance level, the PACE algorithm uses the least energy and the Stepped algorithm uses the second least. We find that different types of user interface event (mouse movements, mouse clicks, and keystrokes) trigger tasks with significantly different CPU use, suggesting one should use different speeds for different event types. We also find differences in CPU use between categories of the same event type, e.g., between pressing spacebar and pressing enter, and between events of different applications. Thus, it is better to predict task CPU use based solely on tasks of the same category and application. However, energy savings from such improved predictions are small.


The brain has evolved several endogenous mechanisms to protect itself from the deleterious consequences of stroke. One of those endogenous neuroprotective systems is centered on the purine ribonucleoside adenosine, which exerts potent neuroprotective functions within the brain. One major goal in therapeutic stroke research is to explore and utilize such endogenous neuroprotective mechanisms therapeutically. This review illustrates molecular approaches to study the role of the adenosine system within the context of stroke and highlights innovative therapeutic approaches aimed at increasing adenosinergic function. New research data suggest that the major adenosine regulating enzyme adenosine kinase (ADK) plays a prominent role in determining the brain's susceptibility to ischemic injury. Thus, endogenous ADK is rapidly downregulated following a stroke, possibly an endogenous neuroprotective mechanism aimed at raising ambient levels of adenosine in brain. Conversely, transgenic overexpression of ADK in brain renders the brain more susceptible to stroke-induced neuronal cell loss. In the present review we will first summarize the physiological role of adenosine metabolism within the context of ischemic brain injury. Next, we will highlight the key role of ADK in determining the brain's susceptibility to ischemic injury, and finally we will discuss potential therapeutic applications of adenosine augmentation to provide neuroprotection in stroke.


Turbo codes is known as a powerful error correcting code. Since the turbo decoder reflects not only the hard decision but also the reliability of the received signals, a great coding gain can be obtained. Also maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) with adaptive interference cancellation (AIC) is effective to reduce the influence of fading and co-channel interference. Therefore, we propose a system that combines turbo codes and RLS-MLSE. The proposed system estimates the desired signal and interference signal separately at the MLSE part. The output of the MLSE is estimated as the desired signal on the survived path of the Viterbi estimator, which is a soft value. Then the soft value that does not contain interference component is input to the turbo decoder. The simulation result shows that the proposed system has a superior performance to the system only with MLSE.


Introduction: Chromium (Cr) exposure is known to cause various health issues such as cancer, dermatitis, respiratory problems, etc. The recent exposure of Cr can be determined by analysis of Cr either in blood/urine/plasma, Cr (III) ions cannot permeate through cell membranes of red blood cells (RBC) because their ionic radii are bigger as compared to Cr (VI), and hence Cr in RBC is an indicator for exposure to Cr (VI) ions. The purpose of this study was to investigate chromium exposure, hygienic habits and the occurrence of dermatological problems with leather industry workers in Kolkata.
Methods: A total of 68 leather industry workers with minimum work exposure of five years and aged between 18-60 years were recruited for this study. The study protocol included a questionnaire and analysis of Cr in blood and urine samples by GF-AAS.
Results: All values were under the Biological Exposure Index (BEI) of 25µg /L at the end of the shift of a five-day work week recommended by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (AcGIH).  15.2% of subjects suffered from dermatological problems at least once in the last year during work in the leather industry.
Conclusion: It was found that leather industry workers were not using personal protective equipment and it must be promoted to them for occupational health and safety.


A low-voltage fast-transient low dropout (LDO) regulator compensated by an off-chip, low-equivalent-series-resistance (ESR), nanorange output capacitor is reported in this brief. The proposed load-tracking impedance adjustment and the loop-gain boosting technique make the proposed LDO regulator have fast response and small voltage spikes. The circuit is implemented by a commercial 0.35- μm CMOS technology. The chip area is 0.032 mm2. The supply voltage ranges from 1.5 to 3 V. The regulated voltage is 1.2 V to provide 0-100 mA. The quiescent current in the no-load condition is 26 μA. A 100-nF low-ESR capacitor is sufficient to stabilize the proposed LDO regulator. The measured voltage spike is 44.9 mV only, and the response time is less than 0.2 μs.


There were two aims of the research with 190 Australian clinical psychologists: (1) to investigate the construct validity of the Therapist Belief Scale (TBS), and (2) to examine the relative contribution of demographics, workplace variables, and individual factors to burnout. Construct validity was examined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and associations between the variables. Multivariate regressions were used to examine the relative contributions to burnout. The TBS showed three factors related to distress, inflexibility, and control, all of which were significantly associated with lower levels of personal accomplishment. Multivariate analyses showed emotional exhaustion to be associated being a woman, working for the government, having less personal resources, and endorsing more therapist beliefs related to control. Higher levels of personal accomplishment were significantly associated with a lower annual income, not having a mixed caseload, having more personal resources, and endorsing lower levels of therapist beliefs related to inflexibility and control.


Corporate social responsibility must be conceived by those organizations as positive or negative impact caused by their actions on the human person, both inside and outside your company, and to be measured and controlled throughout the process of sustainable development in industries or business organization of any type or condition. This is because searches potentiate the positive impacts and minimize negative impacts.

Citing this reason it is a binding commitment that managers and owners of business organization to be met and taken into account in making daily decisions and is thought to be included in the organizational schemas from business planning, taking into that these impacts may favor or disadvantage the quality of life of people; also clarifying that when referring to the internal class person is referring to all employees of different levels of the organization and all those external category that even without direct contact with the company are affected in one way or another by the actions that take place daily in


BACKGROUND: The present study is an exploratory research to establish national biosafety regulation systems through a survey on the recognition of safety regulation systems for the living modified organism(LMO). METHODS AND RESULTS: We have conducted a survey on an awareness of LMO safety regulation systems in scientific working groups. The data of 235 respondents were analyzed using various statistical methods. As a result, 72.8% of the respondents were male; 27.2% were female, and 43.4% of them work in the university. A total of 33.2% of the respondents majored in general biology, and their most common job position was the laboratory safety manager. The difference of an awareness on LMO law and regulatory system was not statistically significant by either work places or job positions. CONCLUSION: For the rapid settlement and the efficient implementation of LMO safety management policy, we conclude that it is required to reduce the gap between the recognition and fulfillment of safety management. Furthermore, the mutual exchanges of information among researchers are needed with the settlement of the safety management system and the harmony of policy with improvement of the absurd regulations. The ongoing and specialized training, inspections, and the strengthening of public relations are also required along with the efforts to improve the absurd regulations.


Gemcitabine/nab-Paclitaxel (GnP) is a standard of care regimen for first-line metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and has a 1-year overall survival (OS) rate of approximately 35%. There is an urgent need for novel therapeutics and precision medicine approaches in PDAC. PRINCE, a randomized phase 2 trial, reported an increased 1-year OS relative to historical data, for patients treated with nivolumab (nivo)/GnP (57.3%, p = 0.007, n=34) and sotigalimab (sotiga) (APX005M; CD40 agonist)/GnP (48.1%, p = 0.062, n= 36).To investigate immune modulatory and pharmacodynamic (PD) effects of nivo or sotiga in combination with GnP we used several orthogonal minimally invasive, blood-based biomarker technologies. Immune population profiles were evaluated by CyTOF and features of T cell phenotype and function by multicolor flow cytometry. Soluble proteins were evaluated with predefined panels using the Olink platform (Immuno-oncology (IO) and Immune Response) along with an unbiased mass spectrometry proteomic approach (Biognosys) that identified circulating soluble proteins of significance.Relative to baseline, patients who received nivo/GnP had numerically increased frequencies of proliferating, activated CD8+ and CD4+ effector memory T cells in circulation across multiple timepoints. These patients also had significantly increased levels of soluble proteins associated with type II interferon responses and immune cell migration and T cell activation, as well as significantly decreased levels of immunomodulatory proteins.Patients who received sotiga/GnP had increased expression of the co-stimulatory molecule CD86 on conventional dendritic cells. These patients also had significantly increased concentrations of soluble proteins associated with mature antigen presenting cells, and the activation of helper CD4+ T cells, B cells, and monocytes. Significant increases in soluble proteins associated with type-1 cell-mediated effector immunity and decreases in immunosuppressive factors were observed in both arms. Significant proteins were defined as p ≤ 0.05, log2 expression fold change ≥ 0.5 (Olink) and Sparse PLS discriminant analysis was used with zero as a threshold (Biognosys).This study is a first to use multiomic minimally invasive biomarker approaches in PDAC to demonstrate PD effects and immune modulation with immunotherapy/chemotherapy combinations. Orthogonal assays demonstrate that nivo/GnP and sotiga/GnP elicit unique immune responses and the observed effects are consistent with their distinct mechanisms of action. These data suggest that multiomic biomarker signatures may identify subsets of patients who may benefit from an immunotherapy/chemo approach in PDAC. Moreover, results from these analyses will support early phase clinical study development decisions.We extend our gratitude to the patients, their families, the clinical investigators, and their site staff members who are making this trial possible. We would also like to thank Sultan Nawabi at Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) for operations leadership of the trial. We thank Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and Apexigen for collaboration and study drugs. The study was funded by Cancer Research Institute, BMS and PICI.NCT03214250This study was approved by University of Pennsylvania Institutional Review Board; Federalwide assurance #00004028.


Symptoms and signs of acute pyelonephritis sometimes are subtle and emergency physicians attending overcrowded and busy institutions could easily miss the right diagnosis. The presence of a renal damage is decisive in the therapeutic choice. Aims of our study are: 1) to assess prevalence of renal damage in patients presenting to our ED with symptoms and signs of primary urinary tract infection (UTI); 2) to evaluate the reliability of such symptoms and signs in predicting a renal damage; 3) to assess accuracy of the contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in the ED diagnosis of renal damage due to acute uncomplicated pyelonephritis. We studied 54 patients with suspected UTI. Each patient underwent clinical examination, routine blood and urine sampling and conventional renal ultrasound (US). 23 patients had confirmation of acute primary UTI, and performed renal magnetic resonance (MR) to rule out renal parenchymal involvement. In 16 patients (69,6%) one or more parenchymal lesions were visualized at MR, and diagnosis of acute uncomplicated pyelonephritis was confirmed (group A). The other 7 patients had a diagnosis of UTI without renal involvement (group B). Some of 23 patients presented with few atypical symptoms. Lumbar pain was the most frequent symptom (n = 21), without a statistically significant difference between group A and B (P 0,958; p = 0,328). No other symptom or sign has demonstrated statistically valid in predicting the renal involvement. Renal US was positive in only 3 patients of group A (18,7%). During this first part of our study, CEUS was performed in a limited number of patients (n = 8), and in 7 examinations data were concordant with MR. In conclusion, analysis of our preliminary data confirms that a distinction between patients with different extension of the UTI is not possible through the simple clinical examination and routine tests. CEUS is very promising and its routine employment in the ED could simplify the diagnostic practice in suspected acute pyelonephritis.


The paper presents the data on the allergy to chromium in the workers dealing with oils. Single cases of hypersensitivity to additives refining industrial oils, such as triethandamine and hydrazine are described. Gross reactions between triethanolamine and the component of shampoos treithanolamine oxyethylane - sulphate have been demonstrated.


Noninvasive breast lesions encompass a heterogeneous group of risk indicators and nonobligate precursors of breast cancer, such as apocrine hyperplasia (AH) and columnar cell lesions (CCLs). Given the different expression of ER and ER-regulated genes in AH and CCL, these two alterations are currently considered discrete conditions. However, whether they share early biologic changes is not clear to date. Here, we sought to define the clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical features of a prospective series of combined lesions made up by CCLs and AH forming a continuum within single terminal duct-lobular units. The study group included 19 cases, whereas 25 cases of synchronous contiguous CCLs and AH served as control group. The different components of each case were subjected to immunohistochemical analysis for ER, PR, AR, HER2, BCL2, CCND1, MUC1, and PIP. Although CCLs and AHs arising in continuity showed opposite patterns of ER expression, the PIP-positive apocrine signature was consistently present in both components. In conclusion, apocrine changes are highly recurrent in CCLs growing within foci of AH, regardless of the ER activation. Our results suggest that PIP-positive and PIP-negative CCLs are likely to represent biologically distinct conditions and that apocrine changes might occur earlier than ER activation in the natural history of breast precursor lesions.


Since Birnbaum importance was introduced in 1969, there have been more than twenty kinds of importance measures so far. Among the various measures, Birnbaum importance plays an extremely important role because many importance measures have been defined under its illumination and have relationships with it. A lot of work has been done for Birnbaum importance in consecutive- $k$ systems since the systems were introduced. Because the problems in practice are increasingly complicated, in 2007, Zhao proposed consecutive- $k$ systems with sparse $d$ , which is an extension of the current consecutive- $k$ systems. In this paper, we study Birnbaum importance for linear consecutive- $k$ -out-of- $n$ systems with sparse $d$ . Some equations on Birnbaum importance are proposed. With these equations, the ranking of components in the system on the basis of Birnbaum importance is given; and then some patterns of ranking are presented. Finally, two numerical examples are given to illustrate the results obtained in this paper.


Graph neural networks (GNNs) have been a hot spot of recent research and are widely utilized in diverse applications. However, with the use of huger data and deeper models, an urgent demand is unsurprisingly made to accelerate GNNs for more efficient execution. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on acceleration methods for GNNs from an algorithmic perspective. We first present a new taxonomy to classify existing acceleration methods into five categories. Based on the classification, we systematically discuss these methods and highlight their correlations. Next, we provide comparisons from aspects of the efficiency and characteristics of these methods. Finally, we suggest some promising prospects for future research.


Although assessment efforts for identifying and predicting management skill levels have been in vogue for over a decade, and the use of the results has been readily adapted to skill development use, there exists an unrecognized methodological schism between identification-prediction and development. The author has not found the generally assumed transition from skill identification methodology and the skill development methodology to be congruent. The author's research has found the development of management skills over time (over one year), with use of an assessment program, requires some significant adaptations. It requires a different model which provides cognizance and rigor to the improvement effort. The assessment model described in their paper, the Hive, provides situational adaptation, a skill improvement tracking system and more effective results.


Abstract Radial artery occlusion (RAO) occurs in 2% to 18% of patients after transradial access (TRA) cardiac catheterization. Using a kaolin-filled pad (QuikClot) reduces compression time during TRA and might reduce RAO. We examined the RAO risk with the kaolin-filled pad after TRA cardiac catheterization. This was a prospective cross-sectional study of 260 patients who underwent TRA cardiac catheterization in a cardiac ward of a Medical Center from 2012 to 2016. Patients were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups: the case group (n = 130) was postoperatively treated with a kaolin-filled pad, and the control group (n = 130) was treated with conventional hemostasis. Color duplex ultrasound was used to evaluate the 24-hour and 1-month postoperative radial artery flow velocity, diameter, patency, and RAO risk. RAO risk was not significantly different between the case and control groups after 24 hours (4.6% vs 5.4%, P = .776) or after 1 month (5.4% vs 6.1%, P = .789), regardless of whether it was a first TRA cardiac catheterization (after 24 hours [P = .153] or after 1month [P = .617], respectively) or a repeated TRA cardiac catheterization (after 24 hours [P = .754] or after 1month [P = .753], respectively). Using a kaolin-filled pad after TRA cardiac catheterization did not significantly reduce RAO risk compared with conventional hemostasis.


Magnesium borohydride (Mg(BH4)2) is an attractive candidate as a hydrogen storage material due to its high hydrogen content and predicted favorable thermodynamics. In this work we demonstrate reversible hydrogen desorption in partially decomposed Mg(BH4)2 which was ball milled together with 2 mol% Co-based additives. Powder X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy showed that after partial decomposition at 285 °C, amorphous boron-hydride compounds were formed. Rehydrogenation at equivalent temperatures and hydrogen pressures of 120 bar yielded the formation of crystalline Mg(BH4)2 in the first cycle, and amorphous Mg(BH4)2 with other boron–hydrogen compounds upon the third H2 absorption. Reversibility was observed in the samples with and without Co-based additives, although the additives enhanced hydrogen desorption kinetics in the first cycle. X-ray absorption spectroscopy at Co K-edge revealed that all the additives, apart from Co2B, reacted during the first desorption to form new stable species.


Tibetan plateau is an area of global ecological and cultural significance often called the third pole of the earth, world water towers and roof of the world. The plateau provides forage to 95% of world's total yak population and supports the largest pastoral population (9.8 million) of the globe. The plateau is vulnerable to climate change which threatens grassland resources, watersheds, livestock and pastoral population. As the pastoralists are the key custodians of the plateau, this study examined their climate change perceptions and analyzed their adaptation strategies in Tibetan Plateau, China. The results showed that majority of the pastoralists were aware of the climate change issues in the plateau. It was found that pastoralists have noticed changes in climate variability leading to grassland degradation and poor animal health and productivity. TV Programs about climate change and weather forecast programs were among the key tools for developing pastoral perception about climate change. The demographic characteristic of the pastorals like education, age and household size proved to contribute in the development of climate change perceptions among pastorals (P ≤ 0.05). The study found that livelihood diversification, having mixed livestock breeds, cultivation of high yielding and drought tolerant forage varieties, grassland fencing and controlled grazing were among the most practiced adaptation strategies in the Plateau. Pastoralists are the key stakeholders of the Plateau. Therefore, their capacity needs improvement to adapt climate effects and work with the government institutions for the betterment of the plateau and their improved livelihood so that it can create win-win situation for pastoralists and government managers as well.


Objectives: To quantitatively evaluate the correctness of a computer binocular vision mandibular 3D trajectory recording device. Methods: A specialized target shooting paper was neatly pasted on a high-precision three-axis electronic translation stage. A linear one-way movement was set at a speed of 1 mm/s along the X, Y, and Z directions for a distance of 10 mm each. The coordinates of 3 pre-set target points were recorded at the start and end by a computer binocular vision system with a frequency of 10 FPS and stored in TXT format. The TXT files were imported to Imageware 13.0, and the straight-line lengths between the start and end were measured. The mean difference between each length and 10 mm were calculated to evaluate the correctness of the distance measurement. The linear movement and recording procedure was repeated 3 times, but the speed was changed to 5 mm/s to simulate the human mandibular movement speed. The trajectories of the 3 target points were fitted and the vertical dimensions from each track point to the fitted lines were measured. The mean difference was calculated between the vertical dimensions and 0 mm to evaluate the correctness of recording trajectories using this device. Results: The correctness of distance measurements of the points 1, 2, and 3 were 0.06 mm, 0.16 mm, and 0.08 mm, respectively. The correctness of the trajectories of the points 1, 2, and 3 were 0.11 mm, 0.11 mm, and 0.10 mm, respectively. Conclusion: Using this computer binocular vision device, the correctness of the recorded linear trajectories in the range of 10 mm was better than 0.20 mm.


This guide to ultrasound examination of the shoulder describes the basic scanning planes and contains corresponding high-resolution ultrasound images. The patient and probe positionings are explained in a simplified step-by-step manner using schematic drawings. This standard and simple examination technique seems to be an appropriate way to improve the learning curve of novice musculoskeletal sonographers. In this manuscript, an emphasis is placed on the rotator cuff, biceps tendon, subacromial-subdeltoid bursa, and joint recesses evaluation. This article also describes some common pitfalls to avoid when starting with shoulder ultrasonography (e.g. always determine the relevance of ultrasound findings in the context of clinical examination). Key words: tendons, bursa, synovial, shoulder, musculoskeletal, protocol, examination, ultrasound imaging, sonography, rotator cuff, acromioclavicular joint, shoulder impingement syndrome, learning curve.


ABSTRACT: This article describes the investigation of a calf pneumonia outbreak in a dairy herd and the practical steps taken to treat sick animals, as well as improve overall calf management. High levels of morbidity meant a blanket treatment approach with antibiotics and NSAIDs was taken for all calves. Key management changes were made in calving pens, colostrum management was improved, changes to ventilation in calf sheds were made, and a protocol for feeding calves was drawn up.


We give a counterexample to "An extension of the Vitali-HahnSaks theorem" and from that highlight the sharp frame within which any attempt to change the version of such an extension should be possible. Lastly a sequential compactness criterion for Radon measures absolutely continuous with respect to a prescribed Radon measure defined on a locally compact separable metric space (taking into account the ideas of Hernandez-Lerma and Lasserre) is proved. The results deal with Radon measures but yield obvious corollaries on real (or vector-valued) Radon measures and so on functions with bounded variation on open subsets of Rn.


OBJECTIVE
The purposes of this study were to explore the differences between chronic cancer pain and chronic low back pain with respect to (a) the use of coping strategies to manage pain and (b) the relationship between self-efficacy for attenuating pain and pain outcomes.

DESIGN
Descriptive correlational design.

PATIENTS
Eighty-five patients experiencing chronic low back pain (n = 85) and 88 patients with chronic cancer pain (n = 88) were recruited for this study.

OUTCOME MEASURES
Modified Coping Strategies Questionnaire, self-efficacy expectancies, and the Brief Pain Inventory.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The major findings of this study were that (a) patients with chronic cancer pain reported significantly lower pain intensity and pain interference than did patients with chronic low back pain; (b) the most frequently used coping strategies were almost the same between the low back pain group and the cancer pain group; (c) for both chronic cancer pain and chronic low back pain groups, patients' perceived self-efficacy was significantly inversely correlated with pain intensity and pain interference with daily life; and (d) patients' use of coping strategies was positively correlated with pain intensity and pain interference with daily life. These findings were discussed in terms of implications for clinical practice and future research.


Lead quantum wells (QW) epitaxially grown on annealed Pb/Si(111) interface form a model system for the study of interactions between quantized electrons and adiabatically modulated boundaries. Tunnel spectra of this system reveal a previously unknown adiabatic shift of QW resonances due to lateral variations of the electronic reflection phase at the buried interface. With this effect, lateral distribution of the subsurface reflection phase can be probed, using scanning tunneling microscopy.


A new cosmological model is proposed for the dynamics of the Universe and the formation and evolution of galaxies. It is shown that the matter of the Universe contracts and expands in cycles, and that galaxies in a particular cycle may have imprints from the previous cycle. It is proposed that RHIC's liquid gets trapped in the cores of galaxies in the beginning of each cycle and is liberated throughout time and is, thus, the power engine of AGNs. It is also proposed that the large-scale structure is a permanent property of the Universe, and thus, it is not created. It is proposed that spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies are formed by mergers of nucleon vortices (vorteons) at the time of the big squeeze and immediately afterwards and that the merging process, in general, lasts an extremely long time, of many billion years. The origin of quasars is explained and the evaporation rate of RHIC's liquid is calculated. The large mass at the center of quasar PDS 456 is calculated and agrees in order of magnitude with that attributed to a supposed black hole. It is concluded that the Universe is eternal and that space should be infinite or almost.


We consider the problems associated with an inventory system in which demands for stock are of n classes of varying importance. When demand from a given class arrives one must decide whether to satisfy it or to not satisfy it and conserve stock for possible use later to satisfy demand from a more important class. Conditions are given under which the optimal rationing policy between successive procurements of new stock is determined by a set of critical rationing levels such that at a given time one satisfies demand of a given class only if no demand of a more important class remains unsatisfied and as long as the stock level does not fall below the critical rationing level for that class at that time. Conditions are also given under which the optimal procurement policy at a given time is determined by a single critical level in the usual manner. Further conditions are given which assure that the optimal rationing and procurement policies may be determined myopically.


Flowering is an amazing, integrated and complex process of multifatorial control, which due to its great importance for agriculture has been extensively studied worldwide. Pineapple is one of the main crops on which many research works about this subject have been carried out, and it was the first one to have artificially induced flowering. However, even with all those studies, pineapple flowering is not yet characterized in many aspects. The main point for the comprehension of the physiologic aspects of flowering initiation is the identification of the factors involved in the differentiation of the apical meristem into floral primordium, as well as how these factors exert their action. This work aimed to describe the flowering process of pineapple plants, including notions about general flowering physiology, pineapple inflorescence, natural and artificial flowering. Flowering relation to several chemical substances which are involved with the vegetative growth of the plant are also discussed, in order to bring out more light on its underlying mechanisms, and also to help in crop management.


Summary.

Although detrital haematite is often observed in red sedimentary rocks, its contribution to the magnetization is usually a matter of debate. Part of the problem is that the properties of magnetic remanence carried by detrital haematite are not well known. Studies on both naturally and experimentally deposited modern river sediments whose remanence is carried by detrital haematite lead to the following observations:

(1) The declinations of river-laid sediments deposited under known field conditions average to that of the Earth's field.

(2) A substantial inclination error is observed in both river-laid and experimentally deposited sediments which varies as: tan (Io) =f. tan (If) where Io and If are the remanent and applied inclinations respectively and f is about 0.55 in these experiments.

(3) The intensity of remanence is a function of both the magnitude and the orientation of the applied magnetic field, increasing with field strength and decreasing with field inclination. This observation is consistent with models involving contributions to the remanence by plates (constrained to lie nearly horizontally) and spheres (aligned with the applied field).

(4) Sediments deposited in zero field and then subjected to an applied field acquired a p-DRM by grain rotation. The intensity of p-DRM increased with time according to a power law, P-DRM is acquired parallel to the applied field but, unless the sediment is disturbed, has an intensity an order of magnitude lower than the DRM acquired in the same field.

(5) If generally valid, the inclination error for a haematite DRM presents the paradox that while both the age and the polarity of the DRM may be determined, the direction of the DRM magnetization will tend to underestimate palaeolatitude and give palaeopole positions that are far-sided.


Objective: To assess the timing of changes in cytokines, cytokine-related markers, autoantibodies and viral antibodies in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: Case–control study nested in a prospective cohort of 31 330 blood donors in Oslo, Norway. Forty-nine donors developed RA up to 23 years after their most recent blood donation. Stored sera from these donors (case sera) and a sex- and age-matched sample of 245 healthy donors (control sera), and postdiagnostic sera from 33 of the 49 RA cases, were analysed for a panel of cytokines and cytokine-related markers, autoantibodies and antibodies against Epstein–Barr virus and parvovirus B19. Results: Cytokines and cytokine-related markers were generally negative in case sera from >5 years before the diagnosis of RA. In the 5-year interval immediately before the diagnosis of RA, more case than control sera were positive (odds ratios >2) for interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1β, IL-1 receptor antagonist, IL-4, IL-10, tumour necrosis factor-α and soluble tumour necrosis factor receptor I. In postdiagnostic sera, however, 11 of 16 examined cytokines and cytokine-related markers were statistically significantly elevated compared with control sera. Seropositivity for IgG antibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptides and for IgM and IgA rheumatoid factors were seen in case sera from up to 18 years before the diagnosis of RA. IgG antibodies against Epstein–Barr virus and parvovirus B19 did not differ significantly between case and control sera. Conclusions: Cytokines and cytokine-related markers appear to be upregulated rather late in RA pathogenesis. In contrast, IgM rheumatoid factor and IgG anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide autoantibodies may precede the diagnosis of RA by up to two decades.


During primary HIV infection, the kinetics of plasma virus concentrations and CD4+ cell counts is very complex. Parametric and nonparametric models have been suggested for fitting repeated measurements of these markers. Alternatively, mechanistic approaches based on ordinary differential equations have also been proposed. These latter models are constructed according to biological knowledge and take into account the complex nonlinear interactions between viruses and cells. However, estimating the parameters of these models is difficult. A main difficulty in the context of primary HIV infection is that the date of infection is generally unknown. For some patients, the date of last negative HIV test is available in addition to the date of first positive HIV test (seroconverters). In this paper we propose a likelihood-based method for estimating the parameters of dynamical models using a population approach and taking into account the uncertainty of the infection date. We applied this method to a sample of 761 HIV-infected patients from the Concerted Action on SeroConversion to AIDS and Death in Europe (CASCADE).


Kelly's parity approach is used to estimate the number of live births averted at 6, 12 and 18 months after acceptance by 3,518 acceptors at nine Profamilia clinics in 1969. The calculated rates per thousand acceptors at 6, 12, and 18 months, respectively, are 137, 267, and 363. In order to obtain a general idea of the number of abortions averted by contraceptive use through the Profamilia program, Kelly's formula is also used, with modifications, to estimate the number of fetal losses (stillbirths and spontaneous and induced abortions) averted by the sample of users. It is estimated that 86 fetal losses per thousand acceptors are averted at 18 months postacceptance.


In rock drilling, as in many industries today, the drive towards unmanned equipment and full automation is a big issue. A challenge in the automation process for rock drilling is the retraction of the drill steels when the drilling is completed. Today the drilling can be performed automatically to some extend, but a human ear is required for the final part: when the splices between the drill steels are opened up enough to allow retraction. This paper discusses a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method to search through audio data in order to detect and locate specific sounds appearing when retraction of the drill steels is possible, and to investigate if achieving full automation of the drilling process is possible. The use of Wavelets has also been evaluated. As far as the authors know, there is no system today for automatic retraction of the drill steels. By recording and analysing sounds from rock drill rigs, a comparison between a system implemented with an electronic ear and a human ear has been evaluated. The FFT has been applied as a pre-processing method and examines features of power spectrum for the detection of the sound, when the splices are opened up. This sound contains higher power spectrum than sounds from the rest of the drilling procedure. Using these features, a classification program has been designed. The experimental results shows that there is a good possibility to make a commercialized product that automatically detect when the drill steels are ready to be retracted.


Objectives: Observe the association of foods habits, body composition, lifestyle habits, and loss of gustatory function with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: This comparative study enrolled 75 patients with AD (mean age 77.5 years) and 267 healthy volunteers (mean age 73 years). Weight, height, body mass index (BMI), body fat, visceral fat, muscle mass, and waist circumference were measured. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was measured by the Mediterranean-Diet-Adherence Screener. Gustatory function was investigated using a threshold and triangle test. Results: Cases with AD presented lower BMI and weight and higher sleep hours, being statistically significant the difference between cases and controls (P = .02; P = .001; P = .001, respectively). Patients with AD showed lower adherence to exercise and Mediterranean diet as shown by the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener–score (8.12 ± 2.5 vs 8.65 ± 2.4). The gustatory function was impaired in patients with AD when compared to controls. Conclusion: Patients with AD show worst outcomes in terms of anthropometric measurements, lifestyle habits (diet, exercise), and gustatory function than controls.


A novel high-nitrogen compound, 1,2-bis(3-nitro-1-(1H-tetrazol-5-yl)-1H-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)diazene, was designed and synthesized. The corresponding hydrazine energetic salts were prepared through spontaneous reductive conversion by structurally varied amino salts. All energetic salts showed good thermal stabilities with decomposition temperatures ranging from 212 to 259 °C, and high positive heats of formation in the range of 411.1 to 1554.7 kJ mol−1. Furthermore, hydroxyammonium salt featured a promising integrated energetic performance (vD = 9038 m s−1, IS = 8 J, and FS = 360 N), which is superior to that of RDX (vD = 8890 m s−1, IS = 7.4 J, FS = 120 N), showing promising properties for new high-nitrogen high-energy-density materials.


Mn was an important alloying element used in Al–Mg–Mn alloys. However, it had to be limited to a low level (<1.0 wt %) to avoid the formation of coarse intermetallics. In order to take full advantage of the benefits of Mn, research was carried out to investigate the possibility of increasing the content of Mn by studying the effect of cooling rate on the formation of Fe- and Mn-rich intermetallics at different content levels of Mn and Fe. The results indicated that in Al–5Mg–Mn alloy with low Fe content (<0.1 wt %), intermetallic Al6(Fe,Mn) was small in size and amount. With increasing Mn content, intermetallic Al6(Fe,Mn) increased, but in limited amount. In high-Fe-containing Al–5Mg–Mn alloys (0.5 wt % Fe), intermetallic Al6(Fe,Mn) became the dominant phase, even in the alloy with low Mn content (0.39 wt %). Cooling rate played a critical role in the refinement of the intermetallics. Under near-rapid cooling, intermetallic Al6(Fe,Mn) was extremely refined. Even in the high Mn and/or high-Fe-containing alloys, it still demonstrated fine Chinese script structures. However, once the alloy composition passed beyond the eutectic point, the primary intermetallic Al6(Fe,Mn) phase displayed extremely coarse platelet-like morphology. Increasing the content of Fe caused intermetallic Al6(Fe,Mn) to become the primary phase at a lower Mn content.