We consider the problem of determining the maximum number of common zeros in a projective space over a finite field for a system of linearly independent multivariate homogeneous polynomials defined over that field. There is an elaborate conjecture of Tsfasman and Boguslavsky that predicts the maximum value when the homogeneous polynomials have the same degree that is not too large in comparison to the size of the finite field. We show that this conjecture holds in the affirmative if the number of polynomials does not exceed the total number of variables. This extends the results of Serre (1991) and Boguslavsky (1997) for the case of one and two polynomials, respectively. Moreover, it complements our recent result that the conjecture is false, in general, if the number of polynomials exceeds the total number of variables.


Miscibility of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with dextran (Dx) was investigated by dilute solution viscometry. Dilute solution viscosity measurements were made on ternary systems, polymer (1)/polymer (2)/solvent (H2O), for four different average molecular weights of PEG and Dx. The intrinsic viscosity and viscometric interaction parameters were experimentally measured for the binary (solvent/polymer) as well as for the ternary systems by classical Huggins equation. Degree of miscibility of these polymer systems was estimated on the basis of the four following criteria: (1) the sign of the ΔkAB, (2) the sign of α, (3) the sign of ΔB, and (4) the sign of the μ. Based on the sign convention involved in these criteria, immiscibility was observed in most systems. The miscibility of all these systems in accordance with the interactions between the unlike polymer chains rather the polymer–solvent interactions were investigated depending on molecular weight of polymer sample. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 94: 453–460, 2004


The structural, electronic and mechanical properties of Re doped FeMnP0.67A0.33 (A= Ga and Ge) were examined by use of density functional theory (DFT) within the generalized gradient approximations as demonstrated in Quantum ESPRESSO code. The optimized structural parameters as well as derived lattice parameters are in consistent with other computational and achievable experimental results. The computed independent elastic constants confirm the mechanical stability of the investigated materials. The computed Poisson's and Pugh's ratios as well as Cauchy pressure, verify that FeMn0.67Re0.33P0.67Ga0.33 is the most ductile among the studied compounds. The calculated values of bulk modulus, shear modulus and Young's modulus confirm high values of bond strength, hardness and stiffness of the investigated materials respectively. Therefore, the four compounds considered may be appropriate for industrial applications. The results report that FeMn0.67Re0.33P0.67Ga0.33 compound is more ductile and mechanically stable compared to other investigated compounds. This is the first qualitative computational prediction of the elastic properties of FeMnP0.67Ge0.33, FeMnP0.67Ga0.33, FeMn0.67Re0.33P0.67Ge0.33 and FeMn0.67Re0.33P0.67Ga0.33 compounds and this awaits experimental ratification. The calculated electronic density of states confirms that the Re_2p states are located in the conduction band (CB) in the unite cell while Re_3d dominate the CB in the supercell. Results from the doped compounds could not be compared with experimental or computational findings because to the best of our knowledge, this has not been done.


Since 2008 students from the Tourism & Entertainment Management Subject Group at Leeds Metropolitan University have been offered the opportunity to spend seven nights in The Gambia, West Africa on an educational field visit. The purpose of the field visit is to investigate how tourism and entertainment can contribute to economic and social development in one of the poorest countries in the world. The field trip is extra-curricular and as such is an optional experience for the students. While the study experience is not assessed, it is hoped that the students will use the learning they gain from their time in The Gambia in the assignments and projects on their course. To date three field trips have been organised and each year the number of students selecting this study abroad opportunity has increased. Thirty-two students (6% of our total student population in Tourism and Entertainment Management) joined the field trip in February 2010, with the majority of students being from our BA (Hons) International Tourism Management degree (primarily at Level 4) and the second largest cohort being from BA (Hons) Entertainment Management (Level 6). The students fund the cost of the field trip themselves.


A novel approach for detection of multiple moving objects from binocular video sequences is reported. First an efficient motion estimation method is applied to sequences acquired from each camera. The motion estimation is then used to obtain cross camera correspondence between the stereo pair. Next, background subtraction is achieved by fusion of temporal difference and depth estimation. Finally moving foregrounds are further segmented into moving object according to a distance measure defined in a 2.5D feature space, which is done in a hierarchical strategy. The proposed approach has been tested on several indoor and outdoor sequences. Preliminary experiments have shown that the new approach can robustly detect multiple partially occluded moving persons in a noisy background. Representative human detection results are presented.


The plasticity of working memory ability in children was demonstrated. The study adopts double-blind controlled experimental design. Researchers trained the working memory ability of normal children and special children by remodeled working memory span, N-back, running memory and GO-NOGO tasks from 15-30 days, moreover 15-25 minutes per day. The study found that working memory Training not only improve the children's working memory ability, but also transfer to other higher cognitive functions. It even can improve clinical symptoms of ADHD children. The researchers also found that training effect can be maintained for 3-6 months. The study to investigate Whether Central executive function training can promote children cognitive function, does children cognitive function training promote cognitive development or transitory improved and how to effect the development of children cognitive process by traning will become the new trends in this field..This can provide effective clinical intervention and treatment tool for working memory deficit children.


Service quality is seen as an important corporate strategy to ensure competitive advantage. With the increase in demand for air transport, airports have become an important venue, which has brought the issue of airport service quality to the forefront. In airports, which are described as the doors of cities opening to the world, the quality of service is determined if the service provided to passengers coincides with the level of meeting the expectations of the passenger. In this context, within the scope of the study, it is aimed to measure the quality of service by evaluating 17 airports that are evaluated as five-star airports by Skytrax in 2021 based on 11 criteria. While the importance of the criteria was determined with MEREC from the MCDM methods, the ranking of 17 airports according to the quality of service was obtained with MARCOS and CoCoSo methods. Criteria used to assess the quality of service of airports; transportation services, security screenings, immigration services, signs, arrival services, departure services, transfer passenger services, terminal comfort level, terminal facilities, shopping facilities and food/beverage services. As a result of the analysis made by the MEREC method, it was determined that the most important criterion affecting the quality of service at airports was the immigration services criterion. According to the joint results of both MARCOS and CoCoSo methods, it was determined that Chubu Centrair Airport was the airport that offered the best service quality to passengers, and Tokyo Haneda Airport was the last airport in terms of service quality.


The D76N variant of human β2-microglobulin (β2m) is the causative agent of a hereditary amyloid disease. Interestingly, D76N-associated amyloidosis has a distinctive pathology compared with aggregation of WT-β2m, which occurs in dialysis-related amyloidosis. A folding intermediate of WT-β2m, known as the IT-state, which contains a nonnative trans Pro-32, has been shown to be a key precursor of WT-β2m aggregation in vitro. However, how a single amino acid substitution enhances the rate of aggregation of D76N-β2m and gives rise to a different amyloid disease remained unclear. Using real-time refolding experiments monitored by CD and NMR, we show that the folding mechanisms of WT- and D76N-β2m are conserved in that both proteins fold slowly via an IT-state that has similar structural properties. Surprisingly, however, direct measurement of the equilibrium population of IT using NMR showed no evidence for an increased population of the IT-state for D76N-β2m, ruling out previous models suggesting that this could explain its enhanced aggregation propensity. Producing a kinetically trapped analog of IT by deleting the N-terminal six amino acids increases the aggregation rate of WT-β2m but slows aggregation of D76N-β2m, supporting the view that although the folding mechanisms of the two proteins are conserved, their aggregation mechanisms differ. The results exclude the IT-state as the origin of the rapid aggregation of D76N-β2m, suggesting that other nonnative states must cause its high aggregation rate. The results highlight how a single substitution at a solvent-exposed site can affect the mechanism of aggregation and the resulting disease.


Jute is one of the major cash crops of Bangladesh. Its influence on ecology and economy is so intimate that it's the effects are significantly related to the agro-ecology and the socio-economic life of the people. Jute crop is also cultivated in different countries. The jute crop also greatly improves the soil fertility status by incorporating organic matter to the soil through decomposition of shaded leaves and plant residues and helps in breaking plough-pans through its long taproots. Also, jute and jute goods have been recognized as being friendly to the environment. Jute is mostly grown in the Indo-Bangladesh region and in some countries of Southeast Asia. Among the jute growing countries of the world, Bangladesh was second position in respect of production [1]. The land and climatic conditions of Bangladesh are congenial for the production of high quality jute. In Bangladesh, about 0.709 million hectares of land was under jute cultivation and the total yield was 8.40 million bales [2,3]. As per Khandakar [4], Bangladesh annually needs about 4000 metric tons of jute seeds of which only 12-15% is produced and supplied by the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC). The rest of the seeds, about 85% or more of the requirement, are produced and managed by farmers' [5]. Jute suffers from more than 13 different diseases Fakir GA [6] and 10 of them are seed borne. Sowing of infected seeds may cause the death of seedlings and often plants escaping early infection succumb to death due to different diseases. Seed germination decreases with the increase of the seed borne infection. Seeds having higher seed borne infection results to significantly higher amount of disease development in the field. The rate of transmission of these pathogens from infected seeds to the growing plants and finally Volume 4 Issue 2 2017


Complex pyogenic liver abscess (CPLA) is a rare fatal disease if untreated. Complex pyogenic liver abscess is a multilocular abscess more than 5 cm in diameter. Pyogenic liver abscess (PLA) is mainly treated by percutaneous aspiration or drainage under antibiotic cover. Surgical drainage is indicated if interventional radiology fails, if ruptured, or if associated with biliary or intra-abdominal pathology. Laparoscopic drainage is a promising management option. Aim: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of laparoscopic drainage as a management of complex pyogenic liver abscesses in comparison to open surgical drainage. Materials and methods: Combined retrospective and prospective comparative study of 48 patients having complex PLA who were admitted to NHTMRI and managed by either laparoscopic drainage or open surgical drainage from January 2012 to January 2020 as regards results, complications, perioperative morbidity, mortality, and possible recurrence. Twenty-six patients were managed by open drainage, and 22 patients by laparoscopic drainage. Culture sensitivity of pus was done for all patients. Patients having small, solitary, and unilocular PLA that responded to antibiotic treatment or/and percutaneous drainage were excluded. All patients were subjected to full clinical assessment, laboratory investigations, ultrasonography, computed tomography, or magnetic resonance images for the abdomen and pelvis. Results: Forty-eight patients having complex PLA with a median age of 54.5 years were managed by either laparoscopic drainage (22 patients) or open surgical drainage (26 patients). The operation time and hospital stay were less, and oral feeding was started earlier in laparoscopic group. Wound infection was higher in open drainage group. Abscess recurrence occurred once in laparoscopic group and once in open surgery group, and both were successfully treated with percutaneous drainage. One laparoscopic operation was converted to open. Conclusion: Both laparoscopic and open surgical drainage of PLA are safe and effective. Laparoscopic drainage has less operative time, morbidity, and hospital stay; however, open drainage is considered the management of choice for patients with severe sepsis or failed percutaneous drainage.


Good vision is an expensive gift but now a day's loss of vision is becoming common issue. Blind or visually impaired people does not have any conscious about the danger they are facing in their daily life. To help the blind people the visual world has to be transformed into the audio world with the potential to inform them about objects. Various challenges are faced by visually impaired patients even in the familiar environment. Visually impaired individuals are at drawback due to lack of sufficient information about their familiar environment. This project employs a Convolution Neural Network for recognition of pre-trained objects. This project employs in deep learning a deep Neural Network (DNN) for recognizing the object which is captured from the real world. The captured image is compared with some pre trained objects that is stored in dataset .The comparative of the object is based on the shape and size of an objects. In deep neural network, TensorFlow package using a model called Mobile Net SSD that is comparing the real time capture image with pre trained object based on shape, size of the object. If the image is matched with that trained object, it will display the name of the object. Then the name of the object is converted into audio output with the help of gTTS. This will helps to identify and detect what object is present in front of blind people and give output as audio.


A new type of nonreciprocal C -band magnetic tunable bandpass filter (BPF) with ultra-wideband (UWB) isolation is presented. The BPF was designed with a 45° rotated yttrium iron garnet (YIG) slab loaded on an inverted-L-shaped microstrip transducer pair. With external in-plane magnetic fields from 1.1 to 1.9 kOe, the central frequency of the filter was tuned from 5.2 to 7.5 GHz, with an insertion loss of 1.6-3 dB and an UWB isolation of more than 20 dB, which was attributed to the nonreciprocity characteristics of the magnetostatic surface wave. In addition, the measured result demonstrated power-handling capabilities of over 30 dBm under room temperature. The proposed prototype with dual functionality of a tunable BPF and an UWB isolator will have many applications in RF front-end and other microwave circuits.


Objective: To evaluate the effect of varying ferrule height and distribution on the fatigue resistance and fracture strength of endodontically treated premolars. Materials and Method: Thirty-two extracted human premolars were endodontically treated and prepared to receive all-ceramic crowns. Teeth were randomly divided into two groups. The occluso-cervical height was reduced to 2 mm and 4 mm for the 1st and 2nd groups, respectively. According to the ferrule distribution, samples in each group were randomly divided into two subgroups with inadequate ferrule on 1 or 2 proximal walls, respectively. Coronal tooth structure was built-up to 4 mm using a core build-up material retained by a fiber post. The CEREC system (Sirona) was used to design and mill lithium-disilicate crowns. All posts and crowns were cemented to their respective teeth using self-adhesive universal resin cement. All crowns were subjected to cyclic loading in a universal testing machine (Instron) (20–100N, 100,000 cycles, 20Hz). After fatigue, crowns were loaded to fracture. Fracture load data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA at α = 0.05. Results: All crowns passed the fatigue testing without any signs of fracture or crack. Two-way ANOVA revealed a statistically significant effect of the number of missing walls (P < 0.05) on the fracture load, but not the ferrule height or the interaction terms. Samples with one missing wall showed higher fracture load in comparison to samples with two missing walls. Conclusion: The number of missing walls, not the ferrule height, has a significant effect on the fracture load of the lithium-disilicate crowns restoring endodontically treated premolars.


Background

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICPis) re-challenge could be an attractive therapeutic option considering its good safety profile. However, little data is available regarding anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 retreatment. We conducted a meta-analysis focusing on outcomes of solid cancer patients performing this strategy.

Methods

Fourteen full papers involving 74 patients were included. Individual data about best response or progression-free survival (PFS) upon the first and second course of anti-PD-1/ anti-PD-L1 were collected.

Results

Non-small-cell lung cancer (53%) and melanoma (34%) were the most represented cancers. Higher objective response (46% versus 24%, p = 4.10 -4 ) and disease control rates (73% versus 52%, p = 7.10 -3 ) were obtained upon the first ICPi course compared to re-challenge. No association between responses obtained with the two ICPis courses was found ( p = 3.10 -1 ). The PFS upon the first ICPi (PFS1) was longer than that after re-challenge (PFSR) (6.6 versus 2.8 months, hazard ratio (HR) 0.57, p = 2.10 -3 ). A longer PFSR was obtained in patients with a longer PFS1 ( p = 6.10 -3 ), in those who discontinued the first ICPi due to toxicity or per protocol (8.8 versus 2.1 months if disease progression occurs, p = 2.10 -3 ), and in those not receiving intercalated treatment between the two ICPis (6.6 versus 2.1 months for the treated ones, p = 1.10 -3 ).

Conclusion

Anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 re-challenge showed interesting clinical activity in selected patients, mainly in those achieving a long-term response upon the first ICPi course, that do not discontinue therapy because of disease progression, or that are able to keep a treatment-free period.


In a study comparing indium-111 platelet scintigraphy and two-dimensional echocardiography as methods of identifying left ventricular thrombi, the results obtained with both techniques were verified at surgery or autopsy in 53 patients--34 with left ventricular aneurysms, and 19 with mitral-valve disease. Left ventricular thrombi were found at surgery or autopsy in 14 of the patients with aneurysms and in none of those with mitral-valve disease. Thirteen of 53 echocardiograms (25 per cent) were technically inadequate and excluded from the analysis. In the group with aneurysms, the sensitivity of scintigraphy in detecting thrombi was 71 per cent, and that of echocardiography was 77 per cent. The specificity of scintigraphy was 100 per cent, and that of echocardiography was 93 per cent. We conclude that indium-111 platelet scintigraphy and two-dimensional echocardiography have useful and complementary roles in the detection of left ventricular thrombi. Both these noninvasive techniques can be used to monitor therapy.


A quasiclassical Pauli potential is used to simulate the Fermi motion of nucleons in a molecular dynamical simulation of heavy ion collisions. The thermostatic properties of a Fermi gas with and without interactions are presented. The inclusion of this Pauli potential into the quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) approach yields a model with well defined fermionic ground states, which is therefore also able to give the excitation energies of the emitted fragments. The deexcitation mechanisms (particle evaporation and multifragmentation) of the new model are investigated. The dynamics of the QMD with Pauli potential is tested by a wide range of comparisons of calculated and experimental double-differential cross sections for inclusive {ital p}-induced reactions at incident energies of 80 to 160 MeV. Results at 256 and 800 MeV incident proton energy are presented as predictions for completed experiments which are as yet unpublished.


Heatmap differences between 336 patients treated for ALL and 59 age-similar controls were calculated for a limited set of reproducible edges and clustered using an agglomerative hierarchical clustering that identified four clusters with unique connectivity. Differences in edges demonstrated patterns of lower (group 2), higher (group 4), or mixed (group 1 & 3) connectivity relative to controls. Neurocognitive performance was substantially below normal on measures of memory (DSF – groups 2 & 3; DSB - group 1; Visual matching – group 2). This data driven approach was able to identify four distinct groups of patients with unique connectivity profiles and cognitive performance.


Three dual staining methods were established for the histochemical detection of saccharide residues and acidic groupings of carbohydrates in light microscopy. The first method consisted of combined lectin-gold silver (LT-G-S) and alcian blue (AB) pH 1.0 techniques, whereas the second staining technique was composed of LT-G-S and AB pH 2.5 procedures. These two techniques were found to color saccharide residues and acidic groupings of carbohydrates in black and blue shades respectively, which exhibited a high contrast between the both. The third methods, LT1-G-S-LT2-PO-DAB techniques, yielded reaction products of blackish and yellowish brown shades, which represented the localizations of two different saccharide residues in one and the same section. According to the results of the experimental and control procedures, the present three dual staining methods are believed to be reliable, reproducible and unusually useful for light microscopic histochemical studies on acidic and non-acidic carbohydrates.


Anatolian chestnut wood is an industrial material used in various indoor and outdoor applications in Turkey. This study investigated the effects of artificial weathering (times: 144, 288, 432, and 576 h) conditions on color parameters (L*, ∆L*, a*, ∆a*, b*, ∆b*, ∆E*, ho, ∆H*, C*, and ∆C*), glossiness values at 60° in different directions (║ and ⊥), pendulum hardness (König method) values, and surface adhesion strength (pull-off method, MPa) on the layers of yacht varnishes applied to Anatolian chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) wood. The results showed that the univariate analysis of variance was significant by obtaining the weathering factor for all tests. While the brightness values perpendicular (⊥) and parallel (║) to the fibers increased at 144 and 288 h, they decreased at 432 and 576 h. Adhesion strength to the surface decreased 4.35% at the 576th h of weathering. At the end of weathering, a*, C*, b*, and pendulum hardness values increased, while ho and L* values decreased compared to un-weathered samples. The ∆a* and ∆E* values increased with increased weathering time.


This paper presents an approach for robust diagnosis of a general class of dynamic systems based on a temporal failure propagation model. The proposed approach can be applied to a general class of systems with both time and event driven dynamics such as hybrid and discrete event systems. The paper presents the syntax and semantics of the proposed model and introduces the diagnosis approach.


The crop and gut contents of field-collect ed adult O. fulvicephalus were examined. Extensively chewed insect fragments, as well as various kinds of pollen and mineral particles were found in all specimens. An eriophyid mite was found in one specimen. Although some pollen, such as of Gramineae, Pinaceae, and Fagaceae were consistently present in their alimentary tracts, the species is principally carnivorous, feeding on aphids, Diptera, and other insects. The food habits of O. fulvicephalus are compared with those of Sisyra terminalis (Sisyridae) and some chrysopid species. Phylogenetical relationships between Osmylidae and Sisyridae are discussed.


Intracranial electroencephalographic (iEEG) signals from two human subjects were used to achieve simultaneous neural control of reaching and grasping movements with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (JHU/APL) Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL), a dexterous robotic prosthetic arm. We performed functional mapping of high gamma activity while the subject made reaching and grasping movements to identify task-selective electrodes. Independent, online control of reaching and grasping was then achieved using high gamma activity from a small subset of electrodes with a model trained on short blocks of reaching and grasping with no further adaptation. Classification accuracy did not decline (p <; 0.05, one-way ANOVA) over three blocks of testing in either subject. Mean classification accuracy during independently executed overt reach and grasp movements for (Subject 1, Subject 2) were (0.85, 0.81) and (0.80, 0.96), respectively, and during simultaneous execution they were (0.83, 0.88) and (0.58, 0.88), respectively. Our models leveraged knowledge of the subject's individual functional neuroanatomy for reaching and grasping movements, allowing rapid acquisition of control in a time-sensitive clinical setting. We demonstrate the potential feasibility of verifying functionally meaningful iEEG-based control of the MPL prior to chronic implantation, during which additional capabilities of the MPL might be exploited with further training.


Psychological and physiological status has a big impact on the driver"s behavior. It affects the driver"s visual scanning behavior which helps drivers maintain visual attention. This paper proposes a system for detecting the abnormal driving behavior from the sequential pattern of the driver"s peripheral visual scanning. The system continuously monitors the driver"s activities through an in-vehicle camera to measure the driver"s visual distraction. Feature descriptors of both the transition and rotation vectors of the driver"s head pose and eye gaze are extracted and provided to a linear support vector machine (SVM) classifier to output one of six driver"s common gaze zones. Then, a reservoir computing (RC) based on echo state networks (ESNs) is used for driver behavior classification from the sequence of the driver"s gaze zones. The system is implemented on NVIDIA Jetson Nano to execute the processing of all the data since it has a Maxwell graphics processing unit (GPU) with 128 compute unified device architecture (CUDA) cores. The obtained results show that the driver"s behavior can be classified to normal or abnormal based on his visual scanning activities with high accuracy. They also demonstrate the efficiency of both SVM and ESN in detecting the abnormal driver"s behavior from a sequence of driver"s gaze zones. Moreover, the results show that the proposed monitoring system is capable of detecting the driver"s abnormal behavior with a detection accuracy of 98%, making it an appropriate candidate for successful deployment in both driver assistant systems (DAS) and driving safety support systems (DSSS). Keywords— Monitoring system; Behavior detection; Driver behavior; Classification; Support vector machine; Echo state network; Driver assistant system; Driving safety support system.


SUMMARY
 Diatraea tabernella is recorded for the first time in the Cauca River Valley of Colombia. Even though there has been no information on the status of D. tabernella in Colombia for almost a century, its recent appearance creates concern about its potential economic importance by virtue of its abundance and distribution in the northern region of the Cauca River Valley. Descriptions of the pupae and the male genitalia of D. saccharalis, D. indigenella, and D. tabernella are given, together with a key to aid in the identification of Diatraea species in the region. Also information and perspectives on biological control of D. tabernella are presented.


Abstract : With the clouds of war gathering over Iraq, several long standing guides to U.S. defense policy, especially about when to go to war, have become the first casualties in the effort to end the threat posed by the regime in Baghdad. For nearly sixty years, U.S. officials have relied on the concept of deterrence as the cornerstone of U.S. defense policy. The nation went to war when it had either been attacked (Pearl Harbor) or when its "vital interests" were at stake (Korea, the Gulf War). Indeed, many believe that when it deviated from this practice in places like Vietnam, the results were disastrous. Today, however, a new guide to action is emerging. With Iraq as the target, the Bush administration is poised to use force to head off dire threats before they emerge fully by using preventive war as a tool to manage an increasingly chaotic international environment. Preventive motivation for war is based on the belief that war with a particular adversary is inevitable. Once conflict is viewed as inevitable, policymakers must make one of the most difficult and horrific diplomatic decisions in international relations. They have to make military and political judgments about the level of risk the nation is prepared to accept and decide whether it is better to fight now while the costs are relatively low, or wait and possibly confront a more dangerous adversary. In the past, circumstances mercifully discouraged the emergence of preventive motivations for war, although the idea was raised in the late 1940s as a way to deal with the Soviets. For most of the Cold War, the United States lacked the capability to defeat the Soviet Union at an "acceptable cost," and instead banked on deterrence (and the related policy of containment) to create a situation that would lead to the mellowing of Soviet power. But today, the proliferation of small chemical, biological or even nuclear arsenals creates a preventive motivation for war.


Estimating the metric height of a person from monocular imagery without additional assumptions is ill-posed. Existing solutions either require manual calibration of ground plane and camera geometry, special cameras, or reference objects of known size. We focus on motion cues and exploit gravity on earth as an omnipresent reference 'object' to translate acceleration, and subsequently height, measured in image-pixels to values in meters. We require videos of motion as input, where gravity is the only external force. This limitation is different to those of existing solutions that recover a person's height and, therefore, our method opens up new application fields. We show theoretically and empirically that a simple motion trajectory analysis suffices to translate from pixel measurements to the person's metric height, reaching a MAE of up to 3.9 cm on jumping motions, and that this works without camera and ground plane calibration.


This paper describes the design and testing of an electronic system intended to record the beat frequency signal from up to eight serially multiplexed dual polarization fiber distributed feedback lasers. The beat frequency from each laser is first mixed down to around 70 MHz and then measured using a PC based counter system. The gate frequency and, hence, the sampling rate, is designed to be around 1 kHz, and the frequency resolution of the system is found to be equal to the gate frequency. The system has been used to measure the beat frequency variation of fiber lasers due to either rapidly varying temperature or flexing motion. Measurements made with multiple fiber laser sensors show that the crosstalk between different sensors is very low.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of intradialytic parenteral nutrition (IDPN) on the quality of life of malnourished patients with end-stage renal disease on high-efficiency and high-flux hemodialysis therapy. Patients, who met the Medicare eligibility requirements for IDPN, were asked to fill out and extensive questionnaire covering several measures of quality of life prior to initiating and again after completing four months of IDPN therapy. Although the IDPN improved serum albumin levels significantly, aside from improved sleep patterns, no significant improvements in quality of life could be demonstrated. The mortality rate of these enrolled patients was as high as 28% within 4 months. We concluded that the limited amount of nutrition delivered over the course of a short dialysis session may not be enough to appreciably change the lives of our malnourished patients.


OBJETIVE. To determinate if echocardiographics variables and pulmonary function tests (PFT) are related to exercise oxygen desaturation using a 6 minutes walking-test (6mWT), in three groups: Pulmonary Hypertension (HP), Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) and Combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE). METHODS. Retrospective analysis of PFT, 6mWT and echocardiographics parameters, from the moment closer to diagnosis. RESULTS. 14 patients PH: 13 under group I and 1 under group IV. 10 patients ILD: 4NINE, 4UIP, 1NCO and 1DIP. 8 patients CPFE. Functional and echocardiographics values in figure1.

![Figure][1]

Globally, DLCO was not related to exercise oxygen desaturation in none of the groups. Separately, in PH's group exercise oxygen desaturation was correlated to RightVentricule/RightAtrium gradient (RV/RA) by echocardiograph (spearman's rho -0,630 p 0,038). In ILD's group there was an association between alveolar gas volume (VA) and exercise oxygen desaturation (correlation -0,664 p 0,026) and also between total lung capacity (TLC) (r 0,648 p 0,043). In CPFE group, there was no relation between none of the parameters studied. CONCLUSIONS: 1.DLCO was not associated to exercise oxygen desaturation in none of the three groups included under our study. 2.In patients diagnosed of PH there was a relation between exercise oxygen desaturation and RV/RA. 3.In patients with ILD, the functional parameter that could better predict exercise oxygen desaturation would be VA.

 [1]: pending:yes


Environmental factors such as rainfall may reduce the efficacy of foliar-applied soybean ( Glycine max (L.) Merrill) oil in reducing pest mortality. Greenhouse studies were conducted to investigate the influence of rain on the retention of soybean oil and the influence of soybean oil and rainfall on surface morphology of apple ( Malus sylvestris (L.) Mill var. domestica (Borkh.) Mansf.) and peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch (Peach Group)) leaves and stems. 'Contender' peach and 'Golden Delicious'/Malling 27 apple trees were grown in 19 L pots in a greenhouse (23 ± 9 °C) and sprayed with soybean oil (1%) emulsified with the adjuvants Latron B-1956 or K1. Twenty-four hours after treatment, the trees were subjected to simulated rainfall of 0.0, 0.25, 1.25, or 2.54 cm. A negative linear relationship existed between rainfall and oil retention. P each leaves receiving 0.25, 1.25, and 2.54 cm rainfall retained 81%, 38%, and 18% of the applied oil, respectively. Oil retention by apple leaves was also negatively related to rainfall. For both species, a negative linear relationship existed between oil retention on stems and rainfall. There was no effect of emulsifier on retention of 1% soybean oil after rain on apple leaves or on the retention of 8% to 11% soybean oil on the stems of apple and peach. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that epicuticular wax occurred as striations on apple and peach leaves. The wax morphology on peach and apple stems appeared as thin plates and platelets, respectively. The wax morphology of leaves and stems of both trees was not affected either by the soybean oil emulsions or rain. Both emulsions induced stomatal closure in leaves and peach stems, however, stomates opened after rainfall of 1.25 or 2.54 cm. The lenticels appeared to be unaffected by either emulsion. Results illustrate that rainfall of 2.54 cm washed off a major portion of the applied oil. Thus, respraying may be needed under natural climatic conditions with rainfall ≥2.54 cm to restore the efficacy of applied soybean oil. amount of soybean oil retained after rain, 2) investigate the influence of an emulsifier on soybean oil retention after rain, and 3) determine the impact of soybean oil emulsions and rain on leaf and stem surface morphology.


The effects of estradiol-17 beta and indomethacin on myometrial gap junction development, plasma estradiol levels and uterine PGF2 alpha content were evaluated in immature and/or ovariectomized, mature rats. High doses of estradiol stimulated the development of gap junctions in the myometrium of animals from both groups. Concomitant injections of estradiol and indomethacin to ovariectomized rats potentiated the estradiol stimulation of gap junctions. Plasma estradiol levels were lower in ovariectomized rats treated with both estradiol and indomethacin than in animals treated with estradiol alone. Indomethacin also enhanced the uptake and retention of 3H-estradiol into uterine tissues. Uterine PGF2 alpha content of ovarectomized rats was stimulated with the initial injection of estradiol but thereafter, the PGF2 alpha content declined with repeated injections to values lower than that observed in controls. Prostaglandin F2 alpha content in tissues from rats treated with estradiol plus indomethacin were also higher than that observed in rats treated with indomethacin alone, however, the values obtained in both groups were significantly lower compared to those from control animals. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that steroid hormones and prostaglandins regulate myometrial gap junction formation. Regulation of myometrial gap junctions by prostaglandins is discussed with respect to a down regulation of the steroid-receptor mechanism and effects on cyclo-oxygenase or lipoxygenase products.


In our research we were seeking answers of the effects of guided, "age-needs specific," systematic, group aerobic exercise programmes on the self-esteem and self-image of middle-aged women. Fifty three women (ages 48.6 + 5.1) took part in the study who had not participated in any systematic fitness training and worked in intellectual occupations. We formed two groups, i.e., the experimental (EG) and the control (CG) group. Members of the experimental group (n= 25) volunteered to participate in a one-year long aerobic dance programme. The remainder formed the control group (n= 28). We measured self-esteem by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and self-image by the Tennessee Self-Image Scale. The results of the study showed significant improvements in body image for those middle-aged women who participated in the oneyear long aerobic dance exercise programme, while the body images of the control group remained the same. This shows the important intervening role of satisfaction with body image of middle-aged women between systematic aerobic dancing and self-esteem. The one year long systematic aerobic dance programme had a positive effect on self-image, self-esteem, physical condition, and an evaluation of the environment of middle-aged women. On the basis of the results we may conclude that an improved body image can positively influence and stabilize self-esteem. Furthermore, we may assume that the improved self-esteem and selfimage can contribute to an improvements of quality in the lives of middle-aged women and it may compensate for the negative effects of the menopausal period.


Deep learning has continued to show promising results for malware classification. However, to identify key malicious behaviors, malware analysts are still tasked with reverse engineering unknown malware binaries using static analysis tools, which can take hours. Although machine learning can be used to help identify important parts of a binary, supervised approaches are impractical due to the expense of acquiring a sufficiently large labeled dataset. To increase the productivity of static (or manual) reverse engineering, we propose DEEPREFLECT: a tool for localizing and identifying malware components within a malicious binary. To localize malware components, we use an unsupervised deep neural network in a novel way, and classify the components through a semi-supervised cluster analysis, where analysts incrementally provide labels during their daily work flow. The tool is practical since it requires no data labeling to train the localization model, and minimal/noninvasive labeling to train the classifier incrementally. In our evaluation with five malware analysts on over 26k malware samples, we found that DEEPREFLECT reduces the number of functions that an analyst needs to reverse engineer by 85% on average. Our approach also detects 80% of the malware components compared to 43% when using a signature-based tool (CAPA). Furthermore, DEEPREFLECT performs better with our proposed autoencoder than SHAP (an AI explanation tool). This is significant because SHAP, a state-of-the-art method, requires a labeled dataset and autoencoders do not.


In unreliable communication environments, traditional routing protocols designed for static wireless sensor networks may fail to deliver data timely since link/node failures can be found out only after trying multiple transmissions. The main goal of the proposed protocol is to find more stable paths and to control the flooding overhead which will lead to higher level of scalability. This mechanism considers link stability for the route selection, which makes routing data more reliable and decreases the probability of retransmission, thus saves the energy and prolongs the lifetime of the whole network. In this work, we propose a cross-layer solution which utilises MAC layer information to improve routing mechanisms reliability and scalability in network layer.


Abstract The low-frequency mechanical properties of polycrystalline Ca1-xSrxTiO3 (0.5 ≤ x ≤ 0.9) have been investigated as a function of temperature and bulk composition using the technique of dynamical mechanical analysis in three-point bend geometry. Ca1-xSrxTiO3 forms a cubic solid solution at high temperatures. At lower temperatures it undergoes successive displacive transitions to tetragonal and orthorhombic phases on cooling and increasing CaTiO3 content. The low-frequency mechanical response of the tetragonal phase is dominated by thermally activated displacements of transformation twin domain walls, causing almost a twofold decrease in storage modulus relative to the twinfree cubic phase on cooling through the phase transition (superelastic softening). Below 140 ∞C the mobility of domain walls decreases and the storage modulus returns to a value close to that of the cubic phase. For x > 0.85, the cubic to tetragonal transition temperature is below 140 ∞C and domain walls are immobile immediately on formation, greatly reducing the magnitude of mechanical softening. The frequency dependence of the storage modulus is accurately described by a modified Burgers model of anelastic relaxation. Activation energies of 103 and 96 kJ/mol were obtained for samples with x = 0.7 and 0.74, respectively, suggesting that domain walls are strongly pinned by vacancies at the O positions. Superelastic softening is not observed below Tc for the tetragonal to orthorhombic phase transition in samples with x = 0.5, 0.55, and 0.6. This is explained by the small value of the spontaneous strain in orthorhombic samples with intermediate compositions, which are distorted from cubic symmetry by less than 1‰. With such small strain contrast between differently oriented twin domains, the effective force on the domain walls due to the external stress is less than the critical unpinning force, preventing displacement of the walls and suppressing superelastic softening.


Our group has built design for manufacturing computer modules which instruct students on efficient procedures for designing parts for manufacture across the curriculum. The goal is to assist engineering students to gain a deeper understanding of the interaction between features of a part being designed and the corresponding manufacturing requirements of the part in injection molding, sheet metal stamping, and finite element analysis. Animated sequences of the processes are either generated dynamically or indexed according to the possible designs. Students create designs, and the tooling complexity is demonstrated through both 2D and 3D animations. An underlying internal representation of the part being designed provides a nonintrusive critique mechanism to provide feedback to the student.


Objective: To assess the causal effect of systemic iron status by using four biomarkers (serum iron; transferrin saturation; ferritin; total iron-binding capacity) on knee osteoarthritis (OA), hip OA, total knee replacement, and total hip replacement using 2-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) design. Methods: Three instrument sets were used to construct the genetic instruments for the iron status: Liberal instruments (variants associated with one of the iron biomarkers), sensitivity instruments (liberal instruments exclude variants associated with potential confounders), and conservative instruments (variants associated with all four iron biomarkers). Summary-level data for four OA phenotypes, including knee OA, hip OA, total knee replacement, and total hip replacement were obtained from the largest genome-wide meta-analysis with 826,690 individuals. Inverse-variance weighted based on the random-effect model as the main approach was conducted. Weighted median, MR-Egger, and Mendelian randomization pleiotropy residual sum and outlier methods were used as sensitivity MR approaches. Results: Based on liberal instruments, genetically predicted serum iron and transferrin saturation were significantly associated with hip OA and total hip replacement, but not with knee OA and total knee replacement. Statistical evidence of heterogeneity across the MR estimates indicated that mutation rs1800562 was the SNP significantly associated with hip OA in serum iron (odds ratio, OR = 1.48), transferrin saturation (OR = 1.57), ferritin (OR = 2.24), and total-iron binding capacity (OR = 0.79), and hip replacement in serum iron (OR = 1.45), transferrin saturation (OR = 1.25), ferritin (OR = 1.37), and total-iron binding capacity (OR = 0.80). Conclusion: Our study suggests that high iron status might be a causal factor of hip OA and total hip replacement where rs1800562 is the main contributor.


This article presents the results from research into education for citizenship in which Chilean teachers participated. Ninety-nine interviews and two focal groups that included questions on knowledge, beliefs, values and practices related to education for citizenship were carried out. NVivo 12 software was used for the analysis of the discourses, following the direction similar to the grounded theory that considers elaborating free nodes, structuring categories and configuring categorical trees, according to the school's administrative dependency. The results yield six macro-categories: School, Authoritarianism, Neoliberalism, Curriculum, Teacher Role and Citizenship. The present article analyses the Neoliberalism macro-category formed, in turn, by the following subcategories: (1) subject and resistance, (2) competitiveness and individualism in a subject that is instrumental, consumer and reproducer of the establishment, (3) commodified schools, where the economic value regards students and families as clients, (4) a culture of bureaucratization and accountability, and (5) lack of a sense of communality as a collective, supportive body. In all of them, teachers show themselves eloquently critical of the neoliberal system and of the obstacles it poses to rights, justice and democracy in the current capitalist citizenship and school.


Memory consolidation is the process by which relevant information is selected and transferred from a short-term, fragile state, into a stable, longer term domain from which it can be recalled. Effective memory underpins our ability to carry out everyday activities. When memory consolidation fails, such as in Alzheimer's disease, the consequences can be devastating. Understanding the neurobiology of memory will help develop treatments for patients with memory loss. Here we describe the myriad processes involved in memory consolidation, including cholinergic and dopaminergic neurotransmission predominantly in hippocampal networks. We discuss established therapies as well as potential novel strategies for boosting cognition. Future approaches to enhancement of memory consolidation include not only pharmacological and neurosurgical treatments, but also lifestyle interventions — for example, modifications to sleep, exercise and diet.


Abstract Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial efficacy of liposomal meropenem formulation against clinical and laboratory isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. P. aeruginosa isolates were used to determine the MIC and MBC of free and liposomal meropenem. As well as the effect of free and liposomes meropenem compare the minimum biofilm eradication concentration and inhibition of P. aeruginosa motility was assessed. Results: In this study, the MICs and MBC of liposomal meropenem was more effective against all clinical and laboratory strains were significantly lower than those of free meropenem (6.25 μg/ml vs 100 μg/ml). Furthermore, liposomal meropenem (≥1.5 μg/ml) completely eradicated biofilm in all P. aeruginosa isolates. While the free form of drug could eradicate biofilm formation in most of isolates in ≥6.25 μg/ml concentration. In addition, lower concentrations of liposomal meropenem could inhibit the bacterial motility. Conclusion: The results clearly indicate that the liposomal formulation of drug is more effective than meropenem alone against antibiotic resistant P. aeruginosa isolates.


Calcifying pseudoneoplasm of the neuraxis (CAPNON) is a rare tumefactive lesion with unclear pathogenesis. It is diagnosed by pathological findings of the typical histological features that include granular amorphous cores with palisading spindle to epithelioid cells, variable fibrous stroma, foreign-body reaction with giant cells, and calcification/ossification occasionally with psammoma bodies. However, its histopathology may be variable and currently immunohistochemistry plays a limited role in its diagnosis and understanding the pathogenesis. In this study, we examined 6 cases of CAPNONs including 3 intracranial and 3 spinal epidural lesions (age range: 59–69 years; 3 males and 3 females). Immunohistochemistry revealed that all CAPNON cores contain abundant positive deposits of neurofilament protein (NFP), which was supported by electron microscopy finding of filaments (8–13 nm in diameter). In comparison, no NFP positivity was found in 5 psammomatous/metaplastic meningiomas or 7 intervertebral tissue lesions with calcification/ossification. In addition, CAPNON cellular areas showed variable numbers of CD8+ cytotoxic T-cells with less CD4+ T-cells and a decreased ratio of CD4/CD8+ cells, versus the intervertebral tissue lesions without CD8+ or CD4+ cells. Our findings suggest that NFP may be a principal constituent of CAPNONs, and thus involved in the pathogenesis of CAPNON. Given the decreased CD4/CD8 ratio, the pathogenic process of CAPNON is possibly immune- mediated. LEARNING OBJECTIVES The presentation will enable the learner to: 1. Discuss histopathological features of calcifying pseudoneoplasm of the neuraxis (CAPNON) with variation of non-core components. 2. Explore diagnostic and pathogenic roles of immunohistochemical markers including neurofilament protein and CD4/CD8 in CAPNON.


Abstract:Events in the Kashmir Valley during the late 1980s changed the demographic and sociopolitical outlook of the region. The armed insurgency that was primarily being carried out by the members of the majority-Muslim community saw organized attacks on the religious minorities of the valley, especially the Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits), resulting in their mass exodus from the valley. Other religious minorities, such as Sikhs and Christians, decided to stay in the valley. With much less research on the issues of minorities (except Pandits) in the Kashmir Valley as compared to other conflict-affected parts of the globe, we conducted a study to explore the issues of Sikhs as a minority group to seek answers to questions about the sense of alienation and neglect among the Sikhs living in the Kashmir Valley. In the process, we also inquired how Sikhs feel about the state's response to various challenges they faced and how to ensure their integration in Kashmiri society. Drawing on an original survey conducted in the Kashmir Valley and from analyzing secondary data, we establish that the Sikhs have tried to maintain good relations with Muslims, whereas the state's failure to address their issues has brought a sense of dejection among them. We also find that the conflict has affected Sikhs both socially and economically. The study concludes by providing a few recommendations that may be useful for policy makers to improve the situation of Sikhs in Kashmir.


In the beginning of Mergers and Amalgamations the shareholders of the merging company may be benefited by getting some extra compensation from the absorbing company. In this process some of the employees either of the companies lose jobs. If the same activity goes well the shareholders of the new company or the absorbed company will be benefited. Even this actlvily foils due to different reasons again the employees will be affected. Thus in this activity of M&As the ultimate losers are employees. Therefore it is the duty of both the companies to compensate the affected employees properly. A systematic compensation package should be evolved with the knowledge of the employees' representatives before and after the exercise of M&As irrespective of the success or failure of the companies.


This study investigated what makes text-based information important and what is its influence on learning. College students studied an expository text following their own self-directed study procedures. Data from Exp. 1 (n = 60) and Exp. 2 (n = 40) showed that information was considered important if it (a) began and ended text, (b) began a paragraph, (c) appeared at somewhat equal intervals in text, and (d) contained enumerations of concepts. Subjects recalled information that (a) began the text and (b) contained examples of enumerations. It appeared that text-based variables established what was important and this influenced learning. Implications for the selective attention hypothesis and its volume-of-attention corollary, the cycles hypothesis, and the slot-filling hypothesis are discussed.


A new diagnosis and a new classification of Heptapterus are provided and a new species, H. carmelitanorum, is described. Heptapterus is diagnosed by the following character combination: adipose fin confluent with the caudal fin; non-bifurcate caudal fin; anal-fin insertion posterior to vertical through adipose-fin insertion; 10–23 anal-fin rays; anal fin not confluent with caudal fin; and extremely elongate body, with a head length of 16.1–24.9%SL. Species included in Heptapterus are H. borodini, H. carmelitanorum, H. carnatus, H. exilis, H. hollandi, H. mandimbusu, H. mbya, H. mustelinus, H. ornaticeps, and H. qenqo. Some of the character states diagnosing H. carmelitanorum among its congeners are the anal-fin insertion less than one eye diameter posterior to a vertical through the adipose-fin insertion (vs. more than one eye diameter in all congeners); the isognathous mouth (vs. slightly to moderately retrognathous, except H. borodini); and the keel formed by ventral procurrent caudal-fin rays shallow, far from reaching anal-fin base (vs. keel formed by ventral procurrent caudal-fin rays deep, continuing almost to the anal-fin base, except in H. borodini and H. hollandi).


This report describes further work on the (In)visible Witnesses project and so continues the work described in the first report (In)visible witnesses: Investigating gendered representations of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians on UK children's television (Whitelegg et. al, 2008). It should therefore be read alongside this earlier report where the background and rationale for the project as a whole is described. A link to this report can be found below, under "Related URLs".

The aims of the work described in the report, however, remain the same as those of the original study:
1. Study the (re)construction of gendered representations of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) on UK television, i.e. to investigate the continuing portrayal of established stereotypes of STEM and document the emergence of new images.

2. Investigate the extent to which these images might affect children and young people's perceptions of STEM.


5720 Microtubules are the target of antitumor drugs such as Taxol. GTP bound to the β subunit of the α/β tubulin heterodimer is hydrolyzed upon assembly of tubulin to microtubules. Taxol induces the assembly of stable microtubules. Although photoaffinity labeling and electron crystallography have localized the binding pocket for Taxol on β-tubulin, they do not provide insight into the mechanism by which Taxol stabilizes microtubules. Hydrogen/Deuterium exchange (HDX) in combination with Liquid Chromatograph-Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-ESI MS) permits studies of structure and dynamics of biomolecules in solution. A time course of deuterium incorporation was carried out with purified chicken erythrocyte tubulin heterodimers, or microtubules assembled in the presence of GTP or GTP plus Taxol. The global exchange kinetics of tubulin dimers and microtubules was monitored by LC-ESI MS and the deuterium incorporation into tubulin polypeptide chains was calculated by taking into account the deuterium loss during the HPLC step. After 100 minutes of exchange, 251 (430 total exchangeable amide protons) of the amide hydrogens in the tubulin α-chain were replaced by deuterium. The corresponding number for the β-chain was 263 (425 total exchangeable amide protons). After Taxol-induced polymerization, a marked reduction in deuterium incorporation is apparent with only 188 and 178 amide protons in the tubulin α-chain and β-chain, respectively, replaced by deuterium. This protection reflects decreased solvent accessibility or a more rigid conformation in both polypeptide chains. GTP-dependent polymerization reduced the flexibility of microtubules to a lesser extent. The reduced flexibility is preferentially on the β-chain, as suggested by the significantly reduced deuterium incorporation (243 amide protons) on the β-chain, while only slightly reduced deuterium level was observed on the α-chain (248 amide protons). Local HDX on microtubules was analyzed on peptic peptides by LC-MS. As expected, peptides from the Taxol binding pocket were protected against HDX. A comparison of the deuterium incorporation in the presence or absence of GTP- and Taxol allowed us to determine not only the regions involved in Taxol binding, but also the longitudinal and lateral dimer-dimer interactions. The data demonstrate that HDX coupled to mass spectrometry can be used to study microtubule-drug interactions.


People frequently analyze the actions of other people for the purpose of action coordination. To understand whether such self-relative action perception differs from other-relative action perception, the authors had observers either compare their own walking speed with that of a point-light walker or compare the walking speeds of 2 point-light walkers. In Experiment 1, observers walked, bicycled, or stood while performing a gait-speed discrimination task. Walking observers demonstrated the poorest sensitivity to walking speed, suggesting that perception and performance of the same action alters visual-motion processes. Experiments 2-6 demonstrated that the processes used during self-relative and other-relative action perception differ significantly in their dependence on observers' previous motor experience, current motor effort, and potential for action coordination. These results suggest that the visual analysis of human motion during traditional laboratory studies can differ substantially from the visual analysis of human movement under more realistic conditions.


To the Editor: The paper of Roberts and his associates' was truly original. I hope that they will reply to the following comments. It is unclear whether figure 3 adequately represents the population with myocardial infarction since the legend of the figure only states ". . followed the same pattern in the patients with uncomplicated myocardial infarction." Similarly, I would have preferred to have seen all the numerical data in the four patients referred to in figure 4. Secondly, I would like to know if infarct size computed from serum CPK and MB CPK activities (expressed in terms of enzyme released by 1 gram of myocardium undergoing homogeneous infarction) corresponds to an approximately equal estimate yielded by an independent method in the dog, such as technetium 99m pyrophosphate, if the latter proves to have the same quantitative credibility of the former. Thirdly, as indicated in table 4, the information on the myocardial infarction patterns refers solely to uncomplicated cases, and while evidently Kd was not affected in the dogs by varied and pronounced hemodynamic alterations, such will have to be demonstrated in the human (again preferably using other techniques of estimation) before one can extrapolate the invariability of Kd to the appropriate clinical setting. J. A. BIANCO, M.D. Central University Caracas, Venezuela, S.A.


The aim of this study was the development of a new molecular assay for Pseudomonas aeruginosa identification in recreational water. The method includes bacterial cell concentration through membrane filtration, a short (6 h) culture-enrichment step, DNA extraction and its amplification through a Real-Time PCR assay. The performance of the molecular approach was evaluated on 44 samples of swimming pool water and compared with the reference method UNI EN ISO 16266:2008. Positivity rates of 6% and 74% in pool and inlet water, respectively, with the standard culture method, and of 23% and 74% with the molecular method were found. Statistical analysis indicated "substantial agreement" (Cohen's Kappa index: 0.6831) between the two approaches. RAPD typing of P. aeruginosa isolates showed identical fingerprint profiles, indicating their epidemiological correlation. The developed protocol showed very high specificity and a detection limit of 10 genomic units. This technique has the potential to screen large numbers of environmental samples, and could be proposed as part of a self-monitoring plan for recreational facilities, improving surveillance and early warning systems.


Introduction Simulation programs, large and small, struggle with effectively tracking their activities, learners, faculty time, equipment and manikin use. In addition, return on investment (ROI) reports are tedious to build and often inaccurately reflect the simulation program's successes while failing to capture the breadth of activities. Often data is inadequately tracked on multiple spreadsheets, on paper (such as sign-in and learner evaluations) or through survey systems. This leads to data fragmentation, requiring time to compile into meaningful reports. After assessing what our program needed to track for medical education, learner reports, system usage, administrative analysis and fiscal reports, we found that simulation-specific, higher-cost products were not the best option. We developed a commercial relational database to develop a data tracking system that allows us to report on multiple activities, analyze our learner population, create ROI reports for administrative reviews and capture supportive data for end of fiscal year budgetary considerations. This low cost alternative data collection system is both generalizable and reproducible for any size program with the ability to be scaled based on program changes. Description Recognizing the need to build accurate reports on our simulation program's activities, we sought out a low cost, locally managed commercial solution to data tracking and reporting. As an operationalized program within a large academic hospital, we are required to provide ROI reports to administrative committees and to justify budgetary requests yearly. Like many programs, faculty and staff office time was limited. Data collection needed to be centralized, accessible and able to create reports that could be easily manipulated and produced. With a fiduciary responsibility to stay within the constraints of our budget, the solution we sought had to be a low cost alternative to a marketed simulation-specific product yet have the ability to capture data relevant to the program. After doing a needs analysis on the types of reports we required and the data we wanted to track, we used a relational database to build a data collection tool that can be easily and remotely updated to meet our program's growth and future project needs. This database is managed internally but it can be remotely accessed from a number of device types and is available to all faculty and staff who would need to create reports or submit data, while retaining data security. Conclusion It is possible to develop an effective and intuitive data collection tool to track learners, faculty time, simulator and equipment usage, learner evaluations and projects of the simulation program with a commercial relational database. We had additional barriers to consider such as the majority of our simulation projects occurring in the in-situ setting requiring the need for remote tracking. We required the ability to use hand held devices, such as tablets or smart phones, as scanners, allowing for ease of data entry for faculty and learners as well as for sessions and in clinical areas, increasing the efficiency of data tracking. Reports were easily manipulated to be individualized for its desired intent. While a new process, we anticipate a reduction in office time for ROI reports and an increased efficiency in providing these reports to administrative groups and end of fiscal year budgetary meetings. We suggest that relational database programs are a low cost, effective alternative to large-scale commercial event planners and data collection systems that can be easily developed and used by any sized simulation program. References 1. Lazzara EH, Benishek LE, Dietz AS, Salas E, Adriansen DJ. Eight critical factors in creating and implementing a successful simulation program. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2014 Jan;40(1):21–9. 2. Fernandez R, Wang E, Vozenilek JA, et al. Simulation center accreditation and programmatic benchmarks: a review for emergency medicine. Acad Emerg Med. 2010;17(10):1093–1103. 3. Henriksen K, Battles JB, Keyes MA, et al. In-situ Simulation: Challenges and Results. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2008. 4. Fanning RM, Gaba DM. The Role of Debriefing in Simulation-Based Learning. Simulation in Healthcare: The Journal of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. 2007;2(2):115–125. 5. Simulation-Based Medical Education: An Ethical Imperative. 2003:1–6. Disclosures None


Dr Marshall McKusick is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa, USA. He and others have been concerned with the rise of antiquarian speculation in the United States, which is historically comparable to mound-builder theories of a century ago that gained great popular currency. Professor McKusick's book on the subject of the various speculations Atlantic voyages to prehistoric America, will be published early next year by the Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.


Despite the kinetically-favorable, ATP-rich intracellular environment, the mechanism by which receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) repress activation prior to extracellular stimulation is poorly understood. RTKs are activated through a precise sequence of phosphorylation reactions starting with a tyrosine on the activation loop (A-loop) of the intracellular kinase domain (KD). This forms an essential mono-phosphorylated 'active intermediate' state on the path to further phosphorylation of the receptor. We show that this state is subjected to stringent control imposed by the peripheral juxtamembrane (JM) and C-terminal tail (CT) regions. This entails interplay between the intermolecular interaction between JM with KD, which stabilizes the asymmetric active KD dimer, and the opposing intramolecular binding of CT to KD. A further control step is provided by the previously unobserved direct binding between JM and CT. Mutations in JM and CT sites that perturb regulation are found in numerous pathologies, revealing novel sites for potential pharmaceutical intervention.


The design and later use of modern spectropolarimeters and magnetographs require a number of tolerance specifications that allow the developers to build the instrument and then the scientists to interpret the data accuracy. Such specifications depend both on device-specific features and on the physical assumptions underlying the particular measurement technique. Here we discuss general properties of every magnetograph, such as the detectability thresholds for the vector magnetic field and the line-of-sight velocity, as well as specific properties of a given type of instrument, namely, that based on a pair of nematic liquid crystal variable retarders and a Fabry-Perot etalon (or several) for carrying out the light polarization modulation and spectral analysis, respectively. We derive formulae that give the detection thresholds in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio of the observations and the polarimetric efficiencies of the instrument. Relationships are also established between inaccuracies in the solar physical quantities and instabilities in the instrument parameters. Such relationships allow, for example, one to translate scientific requirements for the velocity or the magnetic field into requirements for temperature or voltage stability. We also demonstrate that this type of magnetograph can theoretically reach the optimum polarimetric efficiencies of an ideal polarimeter, regardless of the optics in between the modulator and the analyzer. Such optics induce changes in the instrument parameters that are calculated.


CD45 plays a critical regulatory role in receptor signaling through its protein tyrosine phosphatase and Janus kinase (JAK) phosphatase activities. To investigate whether CD45 also plays a regulatory role in Ig class switching in human B cells, we examined the effects of CD45 triggering on Ig class switching to IgE and its relationship with CD45 JAK phosphatase activity. Anti-CD45 triggering of CD45 significantly inhibited interleukin-4 + anti-CD40-induced switch recombination in a switch recombination vector assay in stably transfected Ramos 2G6 human B cells, as well as Ig ε germ-line transcription and Sμ-Sε switch recombination in primary human B cells. These negative regulatory effects on Ig class switching were concomitant with the ability of CD45 to dephosphorylate the induced phosphorylation of JAK1, JAK3, and signal transducer and activator of transcription 6, but not on stress-activated/mitogen-activated protein kinases. We also showed that phosphorylated JAK1 and JAK3 were directly dephosphorylated by recombinant CD45 in vitro. These results indicate that CD45 is able to function as JAK phosphatase in human B cells and that this activity is directly associated with the negative regulation of the class switch recombination to IgE. CD45 may be an appropriate target drug for modulating IgE in allergic diseases.


The objectives of this thesis are to design and fabricate a low cost and longer life span automatic fish feeder. Besides that, another objective of this project is to use the programmable interface controller (PIC) as a controller to control the machine. This automatic fish feeder is designed to dispense food into the aquarium at a particular time each day. The components for the developed machine can be divided into two types which are automation blocks and mechanical parts. Automation blocks components includes a DC motor, limit switch, relays and a PIC controller. The mechanical parts include auger bit and also the mechanical structure of the machine. An automatic device to feed fish at predetermined amounts of food and time. Fish feeder combines mechanical and electrical system to control fish feeding activity. This device consists of pellet tank, distributor and a stand. The dispensed food will be controlled by a motor which situated under the tank. A propeller design that differs by angle of force applied to spread the food, will distribute the pellet onto tank. A control system attached to this device allows the fish to be fed atmpredetermined food amount and time. Timer is used to control the motor which run the auger bit and propeller to increase functional efficiency. In this project, concepts are generated through the research on the existing patents to improve its limitations. A rotational movement of auger bit cause the food container rotates and dispenses the food from a small hole. The fish feeder is successfully fabricated and tested. Feeding can be done at predetermined interval of time and accurate amount of food is obtained. Furthermore the waste of fish food in pond is reduced efficiently. Results show that the machine would be able to feed the fish at a certain time range which is being set by the user using the built-in timer in the PIC controller. Besides that, one of the main future developments is to network the whole system which means by combining a few PICs and controlling them from only one control center. As a conclusion, this project is quite successful because it is able to fulfill all of the objectives stated and also performing up to expectation.


This paper studies the effect of home-owners' migration costs on unemployment in an economy where workers move both for work- and non-work-related reasons. To this end, a search model with heterogeneous locations is developed and calibrated to the US economy. Both the employment and unemployment exit rates are endogenous. Migration costs imply that home-owners quit their jobs less often than renters and find jobs at a higher rate. Consistent with the empirical evidence, the model predicts that home-owners have a lower unemployment rate than renters.


. This study presents a specific analysis of the treatment of the topic "similarity" by several college textbooks, in this case six Indonesian textbooks. The choice of this mathematical topic is justified by the fact that it requires in the activity of the pupils an implementation of both the geometric register and a numerical register, that of ratios and proportions. Thus, it is appropriate for the development of a general validity reference model, which will require further studies. The two points of theoretical support in the present study were the epistemology of the mathematical topic under consideration and the notion of praxeology, pertaining to the anthropological theory of the didactic. In addition to the meticulous review of textbook contents, the sketched model allowed us to evaluate the proximity of similarity treatments in a textbook and in the formal assessments of students at the end of college.


We consider general stochastic systems of interacting particles with noise which are relevant as models for the collective behavior of animals, and rigorously prove that in the mean-field limit the system is close to the solutio n of a kinetic PDE. Our aim is to include models widely studied in the literature such as the CuckerSmale model, adding noise to the behavior of individuals. The difficulty, as compared to the classical case of globally Lipschitz potentials, is t hat in several models the interaction potential between particles is only locally Li pschitz, the local Lipschitz constant growing to infinity with the size of the region consi dered. With this in mind, we present an extension of the classical theory for globally Lipschitz interactions, which works for only locally Lipschitz ones.


The regulatory framework of the capital market of Bangladesh comprises Parliament, the Ministry of Finance, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Dhaka Stock Exchange Ltd. (SEC) and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE). The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) is the authority to monitor and control the activities of the stock exchanges of Bangladesh. The BSEC is controlled by the Ministry of Finance which is obviously empowered by the Parliament. In spite of the presence of structured and strong regulatory authorities, surveillant activities of BSEC and DSE and electronic settlement of shares, it is to be emphatically noted that the capital market had the bitter experience of a nightmarish economic explosion in the late 2010 and the early 2011 and the regulatory bodies are still in the failure doldrum zone to regulate the capital market of Bangladesh though a good number of laws are in force to regulate the functioning of the stock market mechanisms. The research will explore the loopholes existing in the statutes, ordinances and rules specifically regarding the efficacy of the regulation of the capital market. The critical investigation and analyses of the regulatory framework are also the prime concern of this research. At the end of the research, several recommendations have been categorily made to improve the regulation of the capital market for a more genuinely effective overall performance.


Purpose: To assess the long-term outcomes of choroidal detachments (CDs) in eyes following trabeculectomy. Methods: Retrospective comparative case series. Data of patients with CDs following trabeculectomy (5-year period) with or without cataract surgery with a minimum of 3 months of follow-up were included. Results: In total, 45 patients with CDs following trabeculectomy were included. The mean age was 63.27 ± 8.68 years, (M:F = 2:1); 29 of 45 eyes (64.4%) had a baseline IOP of >24 mm Hg. Patients had a median follow-up of 22.2 (IQR: 16.2–30.5) months. Further, 10 of 45 eyes (22.2%) had CDs following suture lysis. The median onset of choroidal detachment from the time of surgery was 16.0 (IQR: 11–36) days. The mean BCVA improved from 0.62 ± 0.28 to 0.24 ± 0.27 (P < 0.001) and mean IOP increased from 4.07 ± 2.66 to 11.20 ± 5.31 (P < 0.001) at last visit. The cumulative success rates were 76.4% (95% CI: 48.4–90.5) in POAG eyes and 79.3% (95% CI: 62.8–89.1) in PACG eyes (P = 0.547). Medical management was the mainstay in all patients. Four of 45 (8.88%) patients underwent subsequent choroidal drainage. Conclusion: Choroidal detachment following modern-day trabeculectomy has favorable long-term visual acuity and IOP outcomes. There was no difference in the long-term surgical success of trabeculectomy with choroidal detachments in primary angle-closure and open-angle glaucoma eyes. Long-term follow-up is essential to prevent chronic hypotony and trabeculectomy failure.


In December 1995, a NATO-led implementation force (IFOR) was deployed to Bosnia to enforce the military aspects of the Bosnian peace agreement. After fierce debate, the House and Senate passed separate resolutions in December 1995 expressing support for the U.S. troops in Bosnia, although not necessarily for the mission itself. Legislative efforts to bar funds for the deployment of U.S. troops to Bosnia were narrowly rejected. In the 105th Congress, similar efforts to bar a U.S. deployment after June 1998 were also rejected, although the FY 1998 defense authorization and appropriations laws contain reporting requirements that must be fulfilled before an extended deployment may take place. The defense appropriation measure requires the President to seek a supplemental appropriation for any deployment after June 1998.


This study employs an Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity-in-Mean (EGARCH-M) model to determine whether regional house prices in the UK share any of the properties associated with assets such as equities. The results suggest there is some evidence of a positive risk–return relationship as well as evidence of asymmetric adjustment, implying housing should be treated similarly to other assets, with important implications for the pricing of risk by mortgage lenders. However there are differences across the regions, which can be partially explained by using London house prices as a determinant of other regional prices and incorporating interest rates into the model.


Objective. Numerous dominant human homolog of progressive ankylosis (ANKH) mutations have been identified in familial calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystal deposition disease (CPPDD). Due to the dominant nature of these mutations, we investigated whether ANKH interacts with other proteins; and if so, whether any CPPDD-associated ANKH mutation might disrupt such protein interactions. Methods. Stable ATDC5 ANKH wt- and ANKH M48T-transfectants were generated. Lysates from these transfectants were used to identify candidate protein interaction with ANKH by coimmunoprecipitation followed by Western blot analysis. The effect of high phosphate on the expression of genes involved in modulating Pi (inorganic phosphate)/PPi (inorganic pyrophosphate) homeostasis in these transfectants was assessed. Results. We showed that ANKH protein associates with the sodium/phosphate cotransporter PiT-1, and that ANKH M48T mutant protein failed to interact with PiT-1. We also showed that upon high phosphate treatment, the normally coordinated upregulation of endogenous Ank and PiT1 transcript expression was disrupted in ANKH M48T transfectants. Conclusion Our results suggested that there is a coordinated interrelationship between 2 key participants of Pi and PPi metabolism, ANKH and PiT-1.


This study investigated the interrelations of the psychological contract with work engagement and turnover intention, which has hitherto been a largely overlooked topic in psychological contract research. Although previous research has mainly focused on how psychological contracts influence job attitudes and behaviours, it is proposed here that attitudes and behaviours also affect the psychological contract that the employee has with the organization. Moreover, it is proposed that because reciprocity norms are more important among shortly tenured employees, mutual relationships between psychological contracts and work engagement and turnover intention were stronger for employees with lower organizational tenure. Longitudinal data were collected among 240 employees and proposed models were evaluated with structural equation modelling. The results show that indeed psychological contract fulfilment was longitudinally related to higher work engagement and lower turnover intentions, but only for employees with low tenure. Moreover, stability in work engagement, turnover intention, and psychological contract over time was higher for those with high tenure, whereas the relations between turnover intention and the psychological contract were stronger for those with low organizational tenure. These findings demonstrate that psychological contracts are reciprocally interrelated with work outcomes, and that such relations are stronger for those with low tenure.


Abstract Acupuncture is a nonpharmacological therapy to induce ovulation in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), but not until recently there has been a study reporting the live birth rate following ovulation induction by acupuncture or its potential as an adjuvant to pharmacological ovulation induction. Clomiphene citrate, the first-line treatment for ovulation induction in women with PCOS, was twice as effective at achieving live birth, with no effect of acupuncture alone or in combination with clomiphene. Thus, the findings from the recent randomized control trial do not support acupuncture as an infertility treatment, alone or in combination, in women with PCOS. The recent trial has important clinical implications not only for women with PCOS with an active wish for pregnancy but also for those with no active wish of pregnancy, as acupuncture induces ovulation to a higher degree than no treatment and also relieves other PCOS-related symptoms. This narrative review dissects possible mechanism of action of acupuncture on reproductive function, it discusses stimulation parameters, it discusses the recent findings on live birth, and it also discusses the control situation in potential future acupuncture trials.


Background

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease caused by spirochete bacteria in the genus Leptospira, and it has become a significant public health challenge in Malaysia. Environmental survival and persistence of this pathogen are highly dependent on environmental conditions such as moisture content, pH and temperature. These conditions are further adapted by the natural climate system including precipitation and humidity which is highly heterogeneous at a geographical scale. This paper described the spatial and temporal distribution of leptospirosis incidence with climate factors using Geographical Information System and stratified the climate factors based on their association with the disease incidence rate.

Methods

Leptospirosis surveillance data from 2012-2016 were integrated into this study along with seven geo-spatial climate variables for the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. High and low clustering of incidence rate was explored by Getis Ord Gi* statistics. Geographical Weighted Regression model was utilized to study the relationship between the incidence rate and selected climate variables.

Results

Spatial analysis revealed seven districts in the state of Sarawak as hot spot areas, and six cold spot areas with GiZ score varies between (-3.092 to 3.203). The cumulative incidence rate demonstrated an increasing trend towards the South-East region of Sarawak with an average of 162 cases per 100,000 population. The univariate analysis reported a significant relationship (p<0.05) between leptospirosis incidence rate and temperature seasonality with the lowest AIC value of 31741.4. The results showed that temperature seasonality explained 99% (R2: 0.99) of the spatial variances in incidence rate with 42.31% of the localities showing a significant positive relationship.

Conclusion

The present study highlighted the importance of temperature seasonality as a potential determinant for the spatial distribution of leptospirosis cases with different strength and direction of the association. In conclusion, this suggests that specific interventions at a locality with strong climate determinants should be implemented to combat the burden of leptospirosis.


A search for new genes was performed in a 220-kb region around the tumor necrosis factor gene cluster in the human central major histocompatibility complex region using a cDNA hybridization and selection method. In addition to the seven known genes in this region, we identified a new gene that is preferentially expressed in spleen. We also identified two pseudogenes that have high degrees of homology to cytokeratin and cyclophillin, respectively. Expressed sequences for a human homologue of the mouse B144 gene were also found in the current analysis. RT-PCR analysis showed that B144 is expressed in spleen, in thymus, and prominently in the macrophage cell line, U937. We also independently identified the BAT1 gene to be the well-conserved homologue of a previously described rat liver nuclear protein.


The Canadian Healthy Oceans Network is a new national marine science initiative that is uniting researchers to provide scientific guidelines for policy in conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity resources in Canada's three oceans. Theme Marine Biodiversity is addressing how patterns of biological biodiversity are related to habitat diversity. Specifically, we are testing hypotheses that link functional (ecological roles of different species) and species biodiversity to habitat complexity. Theme Ecosystem Function is determining how ecosystem function (processes such as nutrient cycling) and health (whether ecosystems are able to maintain these processes) are linked to biodiversity and natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Specifically we aim to understand the role of biodiversity in marine ecosystem services (the ldquogoodsrdquo provided to humans by living organisms) by linking biodiversity and ecosystem function measures, and provide predictive models and tools to minimize anthropogenic impacts. Theme Population Connectivity is addressing how dispersal of marine organisms, typically by early life stages such as eggs and larvae, influences patterns of diversity, resilience, and source/sink dynamics (recruitment ldquohotspotsrdquo versus poor areas for new individuals) of species and biological communities. Specific goals are to evaluate the role of larval dispersal in regional source-sink species dynamics using existing management areas (e.g. marine protected areas) as model systems and compare different metrics of larval dispersal to estimate metapopulation (interlinked populations) connectivity. We will synthesize the outcomes of each of these themes across the Network to identify approaches to bridge science and policy.


Background : Computed tomography (CT scan) is a common radiological practice; however, among pre-school-age children, it can be a fearful experience, so much so that non-cooperation of children may result in failure to get any useable results.  Psychological preparation can be used to reduce the level of fear in children. Objective : To compare the level of apprehension among preschoolers undergoing CT scan, given psychological preparation vs. the normal clinical explanation. Design : Quasi-experimental research Setting : Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University, Thailand Population and Samples : Data were collected on the responses of 60 children between four to six years of age undergoing CT for the first time.  Two groups (normal and experimental) were formed by a simple random, age matching method. Intervention : Psychological preparation included being read a story called 'C.T. the Magic Camera and the Kid' created by our research team. Measurements : Data were collected on the fear responses of the children undergoing CT and analyzed by t test. Results : Subjects in the psychologically-prepared group exhibited significantly (p < 0.05) less apprehension than those in the control group. Conclusions : The findings suggest some psychological preparation is needed before children undergo CT scan or any other invasive procedure (such as spinal puncture or intravenous fluid administration).


Fixed bin frequencies for the VNTR loci D2S44, D4S139, D5S110, and D8S358 were determined in a Minas Gerais population sample. The data were generated by RFLP analysis of HaeIII-digested genomic DNA and chemiluminescent detection. The four VNTR loci have met Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and there was no association of alleles among VNTR loci. The frequency data can be used in forensic analyses and paternity tests to estimate the frequency of a DNA profile in the general Brazilian population.


Laser interaction with a water-immersed metal nanoparticle can bring about a condition such that a bubble is generated and the nanoparticle is evaporated. This phenomenon is strongly dependent on the laser parameters and the nanoparticle size. In this study, we simulate the behavior of a gold nanoparticle and its surrounding medium during interaction with a nanosecond-pulsed laser by considering nanoparticle size reduction, variations in the nanoparticle absorption cross section, and variations in thermal conductance at the nanoparticle–bubble interface. Results show that the bubble dynamics under a low-energy and long-pulse-width laser (so that it does not cause evaporation) strongly depends on the nanoparticle temperature behavior, while under higher laser energy, it is dependent on the amount of nanoparticle size reduction. Moreover, by comparing the nanoparticle thermal behavior with experimental data, we are able to estimate the thermal conductance at the nanoparticle–bubble interface. This simulation not only leads to nanoparticle size control but also helps in understanding the heat transfer processes at nanoscale.


Neural stem cells (NSCs) are employed as a promising tool for the replacement of damaged cells in several neurological disorders, including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's diseases and spinal cord injury thanks to their self-renewal and pluripotency. However, due to the limitation in site-specific migration of endogenous stem cells, exogenous NSC sources, of which growth can be triggered by extrinsic factors, are taken advantage of. This study aims to evaluate the role of Ganoderma lucidum extract on neural stem cell proliferation as well as determine the concentration having the best growth stimulating effects. NSCs were isolated from 13.5 – 15.5 day embryonic mouse brain (Mus musculus var. albino) and cultured in DMEM/F-12 serum-free medium modified with B27, N2, heparin, EGF and FGF at 37oC, 5% CO 2 . Characteristics of candidate cells were evaluated by neurosphere assay, differentiation assay as well as the expression of Nestin, CD133 and Sox-1 by immunocytochemistry, flow cytometry and RT-PCR techniques, respectively. Those NSCs were then cultured in 96-well plate with Ganoderma lucidum extract at 100?g/ml, 500?g/ml and 1000?g/ml for evaluating mitogenic effects of such mushroom. The results revealed that 72% of cell sample was successfully cultured, cells isolated from 13.5-15.5 days post coitum fetus showed a high proliferation rate, isolated cells formed neurospheres, expressed neural stem cell markers and differentiated into GFAP positive cells. Ganoderma lucidum extract at 500?g/ml showed the best effects on neural stem cell growth.


Abstract If one interprets China's sizable rise in Latin America as an unprecedented phenomenon, it follows that the concurrent story of declining U.S. influence in the region is an event hastily acknowledged at best and ignored at worst. In this article, we ask whether Chinese economic statecraft in Latin America is related to the declining U.S. hegemonic influence in the region and explore how. To do so we analyze foreign direct investments, bank loans, and international trade from 2003 to 2014, when China became a major player in the region. We use data from 21 Latin American countries, and find that an inversely proportional relationship exists between the investments made by Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), bank loans, manufacturing exports, and the U.S. hegemonic influence exerted in the region. In other words, Beijing has filled the void left by a diminished U.S. presence in the latter's own backyard.


In juvenile court dependency proceedings, judges determine whether parents have abused or neglected their children and assess whether children can remain safely at home. On any given day, over half a million children are in foster care as a result of a dependency case. Dependency courts are required to review cases at least annually, considering whether children should be reunified with their families, adopted, or remain in foster care. Significant matters are at stake in dependency cases, with fundamental questions about the child - where will she live? Who will take care of her? What services will she receive? - constantly at issue. Yet unlike any other litigation, in the dependency case, the one person whose life is most in the balance is hardly ever present. This Article analyzes the strange world of dependency court, highlighting the procedural and substantive failings that result when children are not active participants in their own cases, and suggesting that states take a more active role in ensuring that the voices of youth are heard.


We think that psychological interaction is necessary for smooth communication between robots and people. One way to psychologically interact with others is through facial expressions. Facial expressions are very important for communication because they show true emotions and feelings. The "Ifbot" robot communicates with people by considering its own "emotions". Ifbot has many facial expressions to communicate enjoyment. We developed a method for generating facial expressions based on human subjective judgements mapping Ifbot's facial expressions to its emotions. We first created Ifbot's emotional space to map its facial expressions. We applied a five-layer auto-associative neural network to the space. We then subjectively evaluated the emotional space and created emotional regions based on the results. We generated emotive facial expressions using the emotional regions.