This investigation was undertaken to define the mechanism by which diltiazem protects against life-threatening, reperfusion-induced arrhythmias. Using an isolated retrogressively perfused rat heart preparation with transient coronary artery occlusion, we compared the effects of diltiazem in its active form (d-cis) to its stereo-isomer (1-cis). Pre-ischemic administration of d-diltiazem (5 x 10(-8), 5 x 10(-7), 5 x 10(-6) M) caused a dose-dependent reduction in ventricular arrhythmias upon reperfusion following 10 min of regional ischemia. The incidence of reperfusion-induced ventricular fibrillation (RVF) was 50%, 0% (p less than 0.05) and 0% (p less than 0.05) with 5 x 10(-8), 5 x 10(-7), 5 x 10(-6) M diltiazem, respectively, compared with 60% in the control group. Preischemic administration of the 1-isomer caused different dose-dependent reduction in RVF. With 5 x 10(-6) M, the 1-isomer also reduced the incidence of RVF to 0% (p less than 0.05). However below this concentration it was ineffective (67%). D-diltiazem (5 x 10(-7) and 5 x 10(-6) M) increased coronary flow from 11.5 +/- 1.9 ml/min to 15.3 +/- 1.6 ml/min (p less than 0.05) and 15.2 +/- 1.0 ml/min (p less than 0.05) respectively, prior to ischemia. In contrast, the same dose of the 1-isomer did not alter coronary flow. The highest dose (5 x 10(-6) M) of d-diltiazem decreased heart rate by approximately 30% during the reperfusion phase, but all other concentrations had no significant effects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Background: Plasma factor XIII is a proenzyme that gets activated in the final step of the coagulation cascade. Its physiological role is to stabilize clot formation by catalyzing the cross-linkage of fibrin. Factor XIII deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive disorder. Clinical Description: A 10-year-old boy presented with acute-onset swelling of the arm following a minor fall. There were no constitutional symptoms. There was a significant history of similar swellings 2 years earlier that had required surgery. The past and family history were otherwise noncontributory. The child was hemodynamically stable. Local signs suggested a hematoma or tumor. There was no pallor, icterus, petechiae, or ecchymosis. The remaining examination was normal. Provisional diagnoses included nonaccidental trauma or an underlying primary or secondary bleeding diatheses, tumor, or chronic osteomyelitis. Management: Soft-tissue ultrasonography showed a hematoma. The radiograph was normal. Hemograms, first-line tests for coagulopathy, infective biomarkers, and liver and kidney function tests were normal. There were no stigmata of neglect or physical/emotional abuse in the child. Since the clinical phenotype was of a bleeding disorder, but supportive investigations were inconclusive, we suspected factor XII deficiency. Specific levels showed zero activity. Fresh frozen plasma was administered due to the nonavailability of factor XIII. The hematoma was managed surgically. The child was discharged after genetic counseling and is receiving monthly cryoprecipitate. He is asymptomatic till now. Conclusion: Factor XIII deficiency should be suspected when there are clinical indicators of a bleeding diathesis, but supportive tests are not deranged.


BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE
Five-year survival rate of patients with maxillary malignant neoplasms is low, the prognostic factors of these neoplasms were unclear. This study was to investigate prognostic factors of maxillary sinus malignant neoplasms.

METHODS
Records of 151 inpatients with malignant neoplasms of maxillary sinus initially treated at Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University from Sep. 1983 to Mar. 1999 were reviewed. Of 151 cases, 72 were squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), 44 were adenocarcinoma, 16 were sarcoma, and 19 were other histological types; according to 1997 UICC classification, 7 were stage II, 55 were stage III, and 89 were stage IV; 66 patients received combined therapy of surgery and radiotherapy, 14 received surgery alone, 25 received radiotherapy alone, 39 received other treatments, and 7 gave up treatment. All patients were followed up for more than 5 years. Influences of clinicopathologic factors on prognosis of patients with maxillary sinus malignant neoplasms were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method, and Cox regression model with SPSS10.0 software.

RESULTS
Five-year overall survival rate of patients of </=40 years old was 55.7%, that of patients of >40 years old was 33.3%(P=0.030); that of patients with SCC was 30.2%, of patients with adenocarcinoma was 57.5%, of patients with sarcoma was 24.3%, of patients with tumor of other histological types was 50.7% (P=0.011); that of patients with tumor of stage II, III, and IV were 85.7%, 45.8%, and 32.7%, respectively (P=0.029); that of patients with cervical metastases was 14.4%, of patients without cervical metastases was 44.1% (P=0.005); that of patients with distant metastases was 14.3%, of patients without distant metastases was 41.1% (P=0.011); that of patients without treatment was 14.3%, of patients treated with surgery alone was 42.9%, of patients treated with radiotherapy alone was 32.3%, of patients treated with combined therapy of surgery and radiotherapy was 50.8%, of patients treated with other treatments was 29.1% (P=0.004). Univariate survival analysis showed that the above 6 factors were prognostic factors of patients with maxillary sinus malignant neoplasms. Multivariate analysis showed that combination of surgery and radiotherapy (P=0.004, OR< 1), clinical stage (P=0.025, OR >1), SCC (P=0.016, OR >1), and sarcoma (P=0.003, OR >1) were independent prognostic factors of patients with maxillary sinus malignant neoplasms.

CONCLUSION
For maxillary sinus malignant neoplasms, patients with SCC or sarcoma had poorer survival than patients with adenocarcinoma or other histological types of tumor; patients with sarcoma had poorer survival than patients with SCC. The higher the patient's clinical stage was, the worse his prognosis was. Combination of surgery and radiotherapy may be the best treatment for patients with maxillary sinus malignant neoplasms.


Natural language-based vehicle retrieval is a task to find a target vehicle within a given image based on a natural language description as a query. This technology can be applied to various areas including police searching for a suspect vehicle. However, it is challenging due to the ambiguity of language descriptions and the difficulty of processing multi-modal data. To tackle this problem, we propose a deep neural network called SBNet that performs natural language-based segmentation for vehicle retrieval. We also propose two task-specific modules to improve performance: a substitution module that helps features from different domains to be embedded in the same space and a future prediction module that learns temporal information. SBnet has been trained using the CityFlow-NL dataset that contains 2,498 tracks of vehicles with three unique natural language descriptions each and tested 530 unique vehicle tracks and their corresponding query sets. SBNet achieved a significant improvement over the baseline in the natural language-based vehicle tracking track in the AI City Challenge 2021. Source Code: https://github.com/lsrock1/nlp_search


Biotechnology is one of the key emerging technologies and exemplifies the major problems of innovative industrial activity in Europe. Europe lags behind the US in most indicators of economic performance in biotechnology, one major problem being the availability of venture capital. Access to finance proves crucial for an optimal economic performance of biotech firms. However, information asymmetries between new biotech firms and potential investors lead to financing constraints in debt and equity markets. This is where venture capital funds have to overcome problems that markets fail to solve. As far as the European approach to financing small and medium-sized enterprises in the biotechnology field is concerned, attempts are illustrated to mimic allocative effects of capital markets in support of venture capital in Europe. Strategies of down-side protection, upside leverage, and support for the fund's operating costs on the basis of various programs, such as the Innovation and Technology Equity Capital (I-Tec) scheme, SOFARIS in France, and Beteiligungskapital fur Technologieunternehmen (BTU) in Germany are discussed, their weakness being that they simply replace the allocative effects of capital markets by lowering the cost of capital, instead of implementing market mechanisms. In contrast, a different approach is taken in the framework of the Risk Capital Action Plan initiated by the special Lisbon European Council in March 2000, aiming at the creation of Europe-wide integrated capital markets. It is shown how an internal market for risk capital presupposes undistorted competition between offerees for risk capital. Therefore, the "single passport" for issuers to facilitate companies raising cross-border capital as a means to implement such a system of undistorted competition on the basis of Directive 85/611/EEC on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) seems to lay the basis for such competition. This holds in particular true after the latest amendment of this directive, including management companies in its framework of the "single passport". At the same time, a line has to be drawn between the necessary Europe-wide harmonization in the field of investor protection, such as disclosure rules, ensued by the principle of mutual recognition for financial service providers, and interjurisdictional diversity in the field of company laws. This line-drawing problem can be paralleled to a certain degree to the development of the US securities regulation arising from the promoter problem under English law in the late nineteenth century. Overall, harmonization should only go as far as the economic policy agreed upon by the Member States to constitute an internal market reaches. This policy might at times be corrected by market forces imposing more stringent disclosure standards. Only under such conditions can Europe-wide access to capital markets, be ensured, being complemented by interjurisdictional diversity in the provision of company laws. In sum, only on the basis of this regulatory interplay can innovation as exemplified by biotech pharmaceutical companies take hold.


This paper will briefly chart how and why the Royal Navy chose not to develop coastal assault vessels—namely heavy-gunned, light-draught monitors specially designed to absorb damage from modern mines or torpedoes—until well after the First World War began. Churchill and Fisher envisaged these particular men-of-war as the floating equivalent of tanks, both 'intended to restore to the stronger power an effective means of the offensive'. Only when they were finally launched and deployed in sufficient numbers could serious plans for projecting power directly against the German coastline be safely considered. So where were the monitors before the war?


Although many countries banned of its usage, carbofuran (CF) is still one of the most commonly used carbamate derivative insecticides against insects and nematodes in agriculture and household, threatening the human and animal health by contaminating air, water, and food. Our goal was to evaluate the potential toxic effects of CF on mammalian oocytes besides mitotic cells. Caspase-dependent apoptotic pathway was assessed by immunofluorescence and western blot techniques. Alterations in the meiotic spindle formation after CF exposure throughout the in vitro maturation of mice oocyte-cumulus complexes (COCs) were analyzed by using a 3D confocal laser microscope. Maturation efficiency and kinetics were assessed by direct observation of the COCs. Results indicated that the number of TUNEL-positive cells increased in CF-exposed groups, particularly higher doses (>250 µM) in a dose-dependent fashion. The ratio of anticleaved caspase-3 labeled cells in those groups positively correlated with TUNEL-positivity. Western blot analysis confirmed a significant increase in active caspase-3 activity. CF caused a dose-dependent accumulation of oocytes at prometaphase-I (PM-I) of meiosis. Partial loss of spindle microtubules (MTs) was noted, which consequently gave rise to a diamond shape spindle. Aberrant pericentrin foci were noted particularly in PM-I and metaphase-I (M-I) stages. Conclusively, CF (1) induces programmed cell death in a dose-dependent manner, and (2) alters spindle morphology most likely through a mechanism that interacts with MT assembly and/or disorientation of pericentriolar proteins. Overall, data suggest that CF could give rise to aneuploidy or cell death in higher doses, therefore reduce fertilization and implantation rates.


This paper presents a Lagrangian relaxation approach for the scheduling problem of an IC sort and test facility. In an integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing environment, a combination of tester, prober, and some hardware facilities is needed for wafer sort while a combination of tester, handler, and some other hardware facilities is needed for final test. To schedule both sorting and testing at the same time, the resource constraints on testers, probers, handlers and hardware have to be dealt with. This paper also extends the Lagrangian relaxation technique to solve a class of preemptive scheduling problems which particularly exist in an IC test floor environment. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the potential of the authors' approach. Comparisons of the authors' results with those obtained by some heuristic rules are also given. >


Macromolecular complexes that exhibit continuous forms of structural flexibility pose a challenge for many existing tools in cryo-EM single-particle analysis. We describe a new tool, called multi-body refinement, which models flexible complexes as a user-defined number of rigid bodies that move independently from each other. Using separate focused refinements with iteratively improved partial signal subtraction, the new tool generates improved reconstructions for each of the defined bodies in a fully automated manner. Moreover, using principal component analysis on the relative orientations of the bodies over all particles in the data set, we generate movies that describe the most important motions in the data. Our results on two test cases, a cytoplasmic ribosome from Plasmodium falciparum, and the spliceosomal B-complex from yeast, illustrate how multi-body refinement can be useful to gain unique insights into the structure and dynamics of large and flexible macromolecular complexes. Please note that this bioRxiv submission is ahead of the availability of the multi-body software in relion-3.0. We take great care in distributing stable software, but this does take time. We will announce the (beta-)release of relion-3.0 through the ccp-em mailing list (https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CCPEM) and on twitter (@SjorsScheres).


The rat tracheal epithelial (RTE) cell focus inhibition assay was used to identify potential chemopreventive agents. Ninety-nine agents were evaluated for their ability to inhibit benzo[a]pyrene-induced transformation of RTE cells. Freshly isolated RTE cells were exposed to benzo[a]pyrene alone or in combination with a chemopreventive agent. After 30 days in culture, transformed foci were scored and inhibition was quantitated. In these studies, foci formation was inhibited mainly by agents which modulate the initiation of carcinogenesis by altering drug-metabolizing enzymes, inhibiting the binding of benzo[a]pyrene to DNA, enhancing detoxification of activated carcinogens, or by inducing epithelial cell differentiation. Such agents include antioxidants, free radical scavengers, glutathione S-transferase enhancers, vitamins, retinoids, and sulfhydryl compounds. Agents which inhibit ornithine decarboxylase and arachidonic acid metabolism were not as effective. The RTE assay provides important data for agent selection prior to whole animal-screening assays in the development of chemoprevention drugs.


: Kutai Kartanegara has quite large quarry of type C materials estimated about 156.000.000 m 3 . With total area of the region of only 27.263,10 km 2 , those materials are quite an amount. Unfortunately, the use of those materials is limited as lightweight structural materials. The purpose of this research is to determine the potency of Tenggarong sand aggregate and Jembayan crushed stone as composites in AC-Base mixture. This research is performed by using volumetric and Marshall characteristics which consist of density, Voids in the Mineral Aggregate (VMA), Voids In The Mix (VITM), Voids Filled With Asphalt (VFWA), stability, flow, and Marshall Quotient as para- meters. To determine the resistance of asphalt mixtures cohesiveness, conditioned and unconditioned Indirect Tensile Strength is being used. Three mixture variations are being made to determine the optimum content of asphalt, the index value of immersion or residual strength and the value of Indirect Tensile Strength. Physical data which can be derived from Jembayan crushed stone's expe- riments are 26,0 % for physical worn-out 97,0 % for viscosity of asphalt aggregate 2,608 % for specific gravity bulk, and 1,373 % for absorption. Mean while data from Tenggarong sand aggregate's experiments are 95,12 % for sand equivalent 2,552 % for specific gravity bulk and 1,133 % for ab-sorption. Based on Marshall Test, the optimum content of asphalt for each variation is 5,000 %, 4,700 %, and 4,600 %. The index value of immersion for each variation is 107,88 %, 116,43 % and 112,60 %, while the


David Sigler. Sexual Enjoyment in British Romanticism: Gender and Psychoanalysis, 1753-1835. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015. Pp. 279. $110.cloth/34.95 paper. Sexual Enjoyment in British Romanticism has as its central thesis the idea that nineteenth-century writers such as Jane Austen, Joanna Southcott, Mary Robinson, Charlotte Dacre, and Percy Bysshe Shelley recognized the determining role that erotic enjoyment played in the formation of gender roles and sexuality. Bracingly novel, Sexual Enjoyment yields important insights about what sexual difference meant in the aftermath of the French Revolution, and engages a somewhat marginalized strand of Romanticist scholarship that interrogates the literature of the period in gay-positive ways. David Sigler is certainly not the first writer to point out that, in 1805, Coleridge coined the term "psycho-analytical," but he is the first to use a strictly Lacanian analytic to interpret prose works (especially Pride and Prejudice) that are only rarely read in relation to desire, jouissance, and the unconscious. Given its subtitle (Gender and Psychoanalysis, 1753-1835), Sexual Enjoyment pursues the prehistory of psychoanalysis in the age of Romanticism for two reasons: first, this was the historical period in which the two-sex regime--what Sigler calls "a two-sex system for gender"--was rapidly rigidifying and, second, matters of sexual difference and one's access, especially a woman's access, to erotic enjoyment posed a significant problem for an array of British writers (156). For the purpose of his study, Sigler has dramatically simplified the meaning of jouissance, which he takes to mean "enjoyment" but admits is a "notorious sticking point for translators" (10). Truth be told, it's an even thornier matter for Lacanian thinkers who dispute the meaning of the word and, as Richard C. Sha has indicated elsewhere, question whether it is truly "a cause or an effect," and "merely sensuous or cognitive or some combination of the two" (41). Regardless, the premise of Sigler's first chapter is not that eighteenth-century writers like Matthew Lewis and William Kenrick are forerunners of Freud and Lacan, but rather that the concept of an elusive part of the human mind unavoidably arose in texts interested in the ungovernable, or what Sigler terms "subjective phenomena outside of anyone's deliberate control, such as dreams, desire, and the sublime," all "freshly fascinating to writers and the public" (25). Thus the gender debates of the 1790s in England cannot be disjoined from a growing interest in the unconscious as a repository for those repressed desires unrealizable in the public sphere. Kenrick's The Whole Duty of Woman: or a Guide to the Female Sex (published in 1753 and reprinted sixteen times by 1831) cast a long shadow over ideological contestations of what it meant to be a "lady" in the eighteenth century. Being a woman, for Kenrick, demanded the renunciation of sexual enjoyment in the interests of social respectability. The notebooks of William Blake, and the oxymoronic nature of a phrase like "gratified desire" therein, also bear traces of this anxiety about female agency. More surprising than Blake is the inclusion of Jane Austen since Austen was, by no stretch of the imagination, an erotic writer. Sigler's praise for Percy Shelley as "arguably the nineteenth century's most daring literary thinker of sexuality" can hardly be applied to the author of Pride and Prejudice, and yet Sigler's original approach to the Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy romance is the book's standout essay (183). His interpretation turns on the role of the unaccountable: Elizabeth's demand that Darcy account for his attraction to her, her bafflement that Bingley unaccountably has lost interest in her sister Jane, and her disappointment in her friend Charlotte Lucas's pragmatism in the marriage market. The unaccountable, however, represents a deeper division, a splitting of the subject and the cause of marital strife, traceable to Milton's first usage of the word "unaccountable" in his The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce of 1643. …


AIM
To determine the role of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in prediction of the overall survival of patients with advanced malignant biliary tract obstruction.

METHODS
We investigated the prognostic value of CTCs by examining two markers, cytokeratin (CK) 19 and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) mRNA, in 40 patients diagnosed with advanced malignant biliary tract diseases. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to detect CK19 and hTERT mRNA in the peripheral blood of these patients. Overall survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression modeling.

RESULTS
Positive CK19 and hTERT mRNA expression was detected in 45% and 60%, respectively, of the 40 patients. Univariable analysis indicated that positive CK19 mRNA expression was significantly associated with worse overall survival (P = 0.009). Multivariable analysis determined that positive CK19 mRNA expression, patient's age and serum bilirubin were each independently associated with overall survival.

CONCLUSION
CK19 mRNA expression levels in peripheral blood appear to provide a valuable marker to predict the overall survival of patients with advanced malignant biliary tract obstruction.


We investigate the performance of four different density functional theory (DFT) functionals (M06-2X, ωB97X-D, PBE0, and B3LYP-D3BJ) for calculating the structural and thermochemical properties of the dihydroazulene/vinylheptafulvene photoswitch (DHA/VHF). We find that all the tested DFT functionals yield equilibrium geometries in good agreement with higher level CCSD/cc-pVDZ calculations and that the basis set had little influence on the geometries of the photoswitch. We found a negligible difference in the thermal contribution to the Gibbs free energy between the tested functionals, indicating that the largest source of error when calculating storage free energies originates from errors in the calculated single point energies. It was found that ωB97X-D and M06-2X performed decently for predicting storage energies. While B3LYP-D3BJ and PBE0 generally underestimated the storage energy compared to CCSD(T)-F12a/VDZ-F12 results. Therefore, we tested if domain based local pair natural orbital coupled-cluster (DLPNO-CCSD(T)) provided an improvement over density functional theory methods for the single point energies. We observed that the DLPNO-CCSD(T) storage energies were in better agreement with CCSD(T)-F12a/VDZ-F12 results than the DFT results. The DLPNO-CCSD(T) results already converged at cc-pVTZ quality basis set, making it possible to perform accurate estimates of the thermochemical properties in a time frame that makes the DLPNO-CCSD(T) method feasible for routine calculations on the photoswitch. Using DLPNO-CCSD(T)/cc-pVTZ, we calculate accurate storage energies for currently synthesized derivatives of the DHA/VHF photoswitch.


The ocean presents a sensing and communication system with a wide array of environmental and performance conditions not found anywhere else. Integrating sensors into a coherent measurement community in such a setting leads to an underwater observatory. An examination of the parameters of interest and operational conditions present at various ocean depths is presented.


Thin-film solar cells using quantum dots would fill the future energy need. We know that the wide-band gap II–VI   quantum dot semiconductor compounds such as ZnS and ZnO are widely used in optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells, sensors and in many.   Printed electronics is a printing  method used to create electrical and electronic  devices on various substrates. Screen printing is one of the printed electronics method for fabricating electric and electronic devices due to its ability to produce patterned, thin layers from paste-like materials.  This article discusses the trials in making thin films using screen printing technique with the quantum dots of ZnO- ZnS semiconductors which were already synthesised by simple solvo-thermal method and  also explains  how the films could be used in  solar cells.


Focusing on the strategies employed to recreate agency in the black diaspora in postcolonial Europe and taking at its basis recent narratives produced by African migrant writers in Spain – Cameroonians Inongo-vi-Makomé and Susan Akono, and Guinean Donato Ndongo – this paper explores the ways in which identity is reconstructed in diasporic situations, to answer questions such as what images of the self and the other are created and disseminated at a national level and in the wider context of globalization. Spain, the historically homogeneous out-migration country is transforming into a site of multicultural interaction as it becomes a destination for members of several diasporas, many with their own legacies of colonialism and racism. Due to its European Union status and growing presence in the world economy, the nation is participating in a global phenomenon in which immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees are looking towards the new Europe as an impenetrable fortress. This paper attempts to discuss these issues within the tangled web of forms of power and subjection exercised upon immigrants through Western imperialism.


Graduating photograph of Cummins Butterfield Jones, Miami Medical College, 1873. This photograph is a part of the Miami Medical College Graduate and Faculty Photograph collection.


Sketches and working models are without doubt one of the most widely used tools in the architect's repertoire. In the early phases of the design process in particular, they represent an essential part of the exploration process. For the most part, however, sketching and model building are separate and sequential steps. This paper examines how both media can be linked to each other more effectively so that the design process is more continuous and the transition between the two media more fluid. Using a multi-touch table with additional 3D real-time object recognition, a prototypical system was developed and realised as part of a research project in which an interactive 3D sketching tool was linked with a real 3D working model.


The essence of David Glidden's critique of The Siren and the Sage (Philosophy East and West 52 [2] [2002]: 260–265) is that its authors have decided ''to import a largely nineteenth-century, technically Western philosophical terminology'' (p. 261) into their interpretation of the first chapter of the Daodejing and then used that grid to distort the texts they examine. May we suggest the possibility that it is perhaps rather Professor Glidden who is the willful distorter—in his case, of the text of The Siren and the Sage? Glidden's chief objection is to our translation of the first chapter of the Daodejing, our analysis of which shapes the direction of the book's argument. In speaking of the nature of one's experience of the dao, Laozi says, ''Therefore, constantly have no intention (wu yu) in order to observe its wonders; constantly have an intention (you yu) in order to observe its manifestations.'' Now, while readers are, of course, free to disagree with our interpretation of this passage, it is an act of interpretive hubris, ignorance, and even irresponsibility for a reader who knows ''no classical Chinese'' (as Glidden admits, p. 261) to ground his fervent objections to our interpretation on the basis of his superficial comparison of our translation and that produced by just one other scholar, Robert G. Henricks. Our construing of the word yu as ''intention'' is not as idiosyncratic or as original as Glidden contends. As we observed in The Siren and the Sage (p. 186), Shigenori Nagatomo similarly argues that the word yu plausibly refers to ''a directionality within a noetic act; I seek something; I intend something or desire something '' (''An Epistemic Turn in the Tao Te Ching: A Phenomenological Reflection,'' International Philosophical Quarterly 21 [2] [June 1983]: 176). We surveyed at least twenty versions of this passage, and while the favored translation of the word yu is ''desire,'' we came to the conclusion that for us to render yu in this manner would convey inappropriately Buddhist overtones ultimately deriving from the Buddhistinfluenced commentary of Wang Bi (226–249 C.E.). The word ''intention'' better suited what we wanted (or intended!) to say. Our choice of the word ''intention'' does not, in any event, alter or distort the meaning of the passage. Indeed, Glidden's one alleged counter-example from the Henricks translation (''Therefore, those constantly without desires, by this means will perceive its subtlety. Those constantly with desires, by this means will see only that which they yearn for and seek'') is, in essence, not very different from our own, and can easily accommodate our analysis. Having made this fatal assumption (on the basis of no firsthand linguistic evi-


Background: Allergic rhinitis is an IgE-mediated inflammatory disorder of the nose induced after an allergen exposure. Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) is a member of Apiaceae family. Since the anti-inflammatory effect of this plant has been pharmacologically confirmed, this study aimed to examine the effect of C. sativum seeds on allergic rhinitis. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial study, patients with allergic rhinitis referred to Shahrekord ENT clinic were allocated into the case and control groups (n=36 in each group). Both groups underwent routine treatment procedures (i.e. cetirizine, nasoflow spray, daily nasal washing, and allergen avoidance). The case group was also treated with C. sativum seed extract (10-15 drops of Coriander spray, three times a day). All subjects were asked to fill out the questionnaire of the disease signs on the first, third, and seventh day of treatment. Results: Results indicated that there was no significant difference between the two groups in the disease signs on the first day. On the third day nasal obstruction, conjunctivitis, and itchy eyes in the case group were significantly mild compared to the control group (P<0.05). On the seventh day, rhinorrhea, conjunctivitis, and itchy eyes in the case group were significantly mild compared to the control group (P<0.05). Conclusion: C. sativum seed extract can have a positive and curative effect on rhinorrhea, nasal obstruction, and itchy eyes; therefore, it can be recommended as one of the efficacious medicinal plants for treatment of allergic rhinitis.


Two characteristics of traffic flows make the vehicle departure headways in Beijing, China different from that in Atlanta, USA. Urban traffic flows in China are often hindered by pedestrians at intersections and queuing vehicles often cannot be totally discharged during the green time, so most signalized intersections are over-saturated in the day time. The first characteristic makes the departure headways of the first and second vehicles in Beijing depend heavily on the start-up situations (with or without interference). The departure headways of the 3rd to 5th vehicles in Beijing have similar characteristics to those in Atlanta. The second characteristic makes the departure headways after the 5th vehicle significantly different from those in Atlanta. These comparisons show that the conventional delay estimate methods and signal control algorithms may not fit Chinese scenarios, which makes imported intelligent traffic control systems not work well in China without calibrations.


Incompressible o w around rectangular cylinders placed in an innite stream was simulated using the interpolation supplemented lattice Boltzmann (ISLB) method proposed by He et. al. (J. Comput. Phys., 129, 357 (1996)). The aspect ratio (length along o w direction / height) of the cylinders was varied from 1 to 3. The Reynolds number (based on the height) was varied from 70 to about 6000. The velocity data at a point downstream of the cylinder was collected at each time step. DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform) analysis of this data was then performed, which yielded the dominant frequencies of the unsteady o w eld behind the cylinder. Strouhal numbers calculated using these dominant frequencies were then compared with experimental data reported by Okajima (J. Fluid Mech., 123, 397 (1982)). For square cylinders (aspect ratio = 1), the agreement between the two was found to be good for all values of Reynolds numbers except 1000. For higher Reynolds numbers the present calculations predicted more than one dominant frequency in contrast to the experimental data. For rectangular cylinders with aspect ratio 2, the present calculations were able to accurately predict the mode shift seen in the experiments albeit at a slightly higher value of Reynolds number. For aspect ratio 3, the agreement between the computed and the experimental values of the Strouhal numbers corresponding to the dominant as well as other modes was quite good. The computing times for all these cases was found to be quite reasonable even on modest computers.


This paper reports physical properties of in situ boron doped silicon films made from boron source gas and silane () gas in a conventional low-pressure chemical vapor deposition vertical furnace. If the p-type polysilicon is formed by boron implantation into undoped polysilicon, the plasma nitridation (PN) process is added on the oxide in order to suppress boron penetration that can be caused during the thermal treatments used in fabrication. In-situ boron doped polysilicon deposition can complete p-type polysilicon film with only one deposition process and need not the PN process, because there is not interdiffusion of dopant at the intermediate temperatures of the subsequent steps. Since in-situ boron doped polysilicon films have higher work function than that of n-type polysilicon and they are compatible with the underlying oxide, they may be promising materials for improving memory cell characteristics if we make its profit of these physical properties.


This paper proposes efficient control method to minimize process error and to reduce process variance in semiconductor manufacturing. Photo-lithography process make more detailed complex circuit in semiconductor process and is important for quality. However, obstacles were in the process of the facility itself, vibration, wear and tear, and product and process change and environmental impact are difficult to control. In addition, the existing process that is being used for a series of statistical techniques to control the problem was amplified for the change. Therefore, this paper propose effective process control method for reducing process variance by reducing the unnecessary obstacles, quickly detecting changes in the fair, and accurately reflect the degree of change. This study proposes the dynamic deadband control that has a region (band) to detect the status of a process of change and, according to detect changes in the region itself moves the process control. In this research, the semiconductor manufacturing company is supported to perform a more precise control and reduction of fluctuations due to be producing products of uniform quality. Also it can contribute to yield due to the quality incensement, and more and more minted the process control in semiconductor.


Gravity sedimentation parasitological examinations were performed in stool samples from 111 Karitiana Indians from Rondônia State, Brazilian Amazon Basin. Intestinal parasites were found in 43 samples (38.7%). Ascaris lumbricoides was the most prevalent helminth species (18.9%). Egg counts in samples positive for Ascaris suggested an overdispersed distribution of worm burdens in the host population. Age-distribution pattern of intestinal parasites among Karitiana Indians was found to be rather unusual: the highest prevalence (60.0%) was detected in the 12- to 16-year-old age group.


Summary The 'Critically Endangered' Fiji Petrel Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi is believed to breed only on the island of Gau, Fiji, but its nesting grounds have yet to be located. Until a bird was captured in 1984, the species was known from only a single museum specimen (collected in 1855), one sighting on land (in 1965) and four unverified sightings at sea (1964–65). Local knowledge of the Fiji Petrel is restricted to a few lines of a traditional lullaby. In this paper we collate and review all records of the species, and examine all known attempts to locate nesting sites. Since 1985 there have been 15 reports of sightings on land and six at sea. Two additional specimens, both pre-breeding adults, have been obtained. Although our knowledge of this elusive species is slowly increasing, the timing of the breeding cycle remains uncertain, making the search for nesting sites particularly challenging. Known potential threats on Gau include predation by introduced cats, rats and pigs. We detail recent conservation efforts and prescribe some new initiatives, including the use of sniffer dogs. Locating the nesting grounds of the Fiji Petrel remains the prime conservation priority for this species.


CmHm (m= 4, 6, 8) species are analyzed in Dmh and D(1/2)mh geometries by means of valence bond (VB) calculations. The fundamental factors that distinguish aromatic and antiaromatic modes of electron delocalization are elucidated by analysis of the mixing between the covalent-state and ionic structures that distribute the electrons in all possible modes available in the cycle. The major difference found is that, by contrast to the aromatic species where all the ionic structures mix into the covalent state, in the antiaromatic species the set of diagonal-ionic structures is excluded from mixing with the covalent-state, owing to its fundamental symmetry features. This exclusion of covalent–ionic mixing is expressed at the most fundamental building blocks of the wavefunction; the spin-alternant state. The spin-alternant state is a resonance hybrid of the two spin-alternant determinants. This resonance hybrid will support a collective motion of the pπ-electrons around the perimeter of the ring only if ionic structures can mix to mediate the electronic flow. It is shown that in aromatic species all the ionic structures mix and sustain a continuous electronic flow around the ring perimeter. By contrast, owing to the exclusion of the diagonal-ionic structures in antiaromatic compounds, the electronic flow in antiaromatic species is interrupted. Symmetry and angular momentum analyses of the ground state in the presence of an external magnetic field show that the properties of the spin-alternant state can qualitatively describe the magnetic properties of the two classes. The continuous flow of π-electrons mediated by the ionic structures of aromatic species is responsible for the enhanced diamagnetism of these species. By contrast, paramagnetic π-ring current in antiaromatic species becomes possible only in the presence of the magnetic field that allows the mixing of the otherwise excluded ionic structures. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Health care workers (HCWs) treating infectious patients, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) patients, are at high risk of nosocomial infection. The concern is particularly serious during the bioaerosol-induced procedures, in which droplets and bioaerosols emitted by an infectious patient may enter the respiratory system of the HCW in close contact with the patient. These medical procedures include endotracheal intubation, bronchoscopy, ambu bagging, among others. Infection control professionals have identified local exhaust ventilation (LEV) as a promising solution to remove the contagious pollutants for protection against nosocomial transmission of diseases. In this study, computation fluid dynamics (CFD) models were developed to simulate the transport of droplets and bioaerosols for design optimisation of a LEV system, taking into account the important particle deposition and turbulence effects. A LEV prototype was built and tested. The details of the computational analysis and empirical results are presented in this paper.


This work introduces a robust algorithm for computing good polygonal approximations of implicit surfaces, where robustness entails recovering the exact topology of the implicit surface. Furthermore, the approximate triangle mesh adapts to the geometry and to the topology of the real implicit surface. This method generates an octree subdivided according to the interval evaluation of the implicit function in order to guarantee the robustness, and to the interval automatic differentiation in order to adapt the octree to the geometry of the implicit surface. The triangle mesh is then generated from that octree through an enhanced dual marching


Pulse Compression (PC) active sonar waveforms provide a significant improvement in range resolution over single frequency sinusoidal waveforms also known as Continuous Wave (CW) waveforms. Since their inception in the 1940's, a wide variety of PC waveforms have been designed using either Frequency Modulation (FM), phase coding, or frequency hopping to suite particular sonar applications. The Sinusoidal FM (SFM) waveform modulates its Instantaneous Frequency (IF) by a single frequency sinusoid to achieve high Doppler sensitivity which also aids in suppressing reverberation. This allows the SFM waveform to resolve target velocities. While the SFM's resolution in range is inversely proportional to its bandwidth, the SFM's Auto-Correlation Function (ACF) contains many large sidelobes. The periodicity of the SFM's IF creates these sidelobes and impairs the SFM's ability to clearly distinguish multiple targets in range. This dissertation describes a generalization of the SFM waveform, referred to as the Generalized SFM (GSFM) waveform, that modifies the IF to resemble the time/voltage characteristic of a FM chirp waveform. As a result of this modification, the Doppler sensitivity of the SFM is preserved while substantially reducing the high range sidelobes producing a waveform whose Ambiguity Function (AF) approaches a thumbtack shape. This dissertation describes the properties of the GSFM's thumbtack AF shape, compares it to other well known waveforms with a similar AF shape, and additionally considers some of the practical considerations of active sonar systems including transmitting the GSFM on piezoelectric transducers and the GSFM's ability to suppress reverberation. Lastly, this dissertation also describes designing a family of in-band nearly orthogonal waveforms with potential applications to Continuous Active Sonar (CAS).


INTRODUCTION
To provide long-term vascular access in clinical oncology peripheral forearm veins (up to 95% of patients in Ukraine), central venous access and "complete implanted vascular systems" are used most often. Many oncology patients have contraindications to catheterization of superior vena cava. Besides, exploitation of central veins is associated with potential technical and infectious complications. The aim - to study short-term and long-term results of arteriovenous fistula exploitation as vascular access for continuous anticancer therapy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Peripheral venous bed status in 41 oncology patients taking long-term chemotherapy treatment is analyzed in the article. Doppler sonography, morphologic and immune histochemical analyses were used in the study.

RESULTS
Doppler sonography found qualitative and quantitative changes in forearm veins at different time periods after initiation of chemotherapy in the majority of patients. The major morphologic manifestations of venous wall damage were chemical phlebitis, local or extended hardening of venous wall, venous thrombosis and extravasations with necrosis and subsequent paravasal tissue sclerosis. Alternative vascular access created in 12 patients completely met the adequacy criteria (safety, multiple use, longevity, realization of the designed therapy program). The conclusion was made about inapplicability of forearm veins for long-term administration of cytostatic agents. If it is impossible to use central veins, arteriovenous fistula can become an alternative vascular access.


Activated alumina is a high surface area and highly porous form of aluminum oxide that can be employed for contaminant species adsorb from ether gases or liquids without changing its form. The research in getting this material has generated huge interested. Thus, this paper presented preparation of activated alumina from chemical process. Pure aluminum (99.9% pure) reacted at room temperature with an aqueous NaOH in a reactor to produce a solution of sodium aluminate (NaAlO 2 ). This solution was passed through filter paper and the clear filtrate was neutralized with H 2 SO 4 , to pH 6, 7 or 8, resulting in the precipitation of a white gel, Al(OH)3·XH2O. The washed gel for sulfate ions were dried at 80 °C for 6 h, a 60 mesh sieve was to separate and sort them into different sizes. The samples were then calcined (burn) for 3h in a muffle furnace, in air, at a heating rate of 2 °C min –1 . The prepared activated alumina was further characterized for better understanding of its physical properties in order to predict its chemical mechanism.


Objective To study combined effects of vitamin E (VE) and fluoride on reproductive function in male mice. Methods According to their body weights, adult male mice were randomly divided into 5 groups with each 10 mice: blank, VE control, VE antagonism, NaF1 and NaF2 group. Sodium fluoride (NaF) was given to mice by dissolving in deionized drinking water with 200 mg/L (VE antagonism and NaF1 group) or 300 mg/L (NaF2 group), and VE was given by oral gavage with 200 mg/kg (VE control and VE antagonism). Mice were observed every day and body weights were measured every week. 5 weeks later, levels of serum fluoride were examined. Epididymal and testicular viscera coefficient, sperm count, sperm mobility, sperm malformation were also measured. Results Majority of mice emerged dental fluorosis in NaF2, NaF1 and VE antagonism group from 3 to 5 weeks, but no significant difference was observed among them(P0.05). The level of serum fluoride in NaF2 is higher obviously than those in other groups(P0.01). Levels of serum fluoride in NaF1 and VE antagonism group are also higher obviously than those in blank and VE control group(P0.01).There were no significant differences in body weight, epididymal and testicular viscera coefficient, sperm count of epididymis, sperm malformation among all groups(P0.05). The ratios of viable sperm and sperm mobility in NaF2, NaF1 and VE antagonism group were lower significantly than those in blank and VE control group(P0.05 or P0.01). Conclusions 200 or 300 mg/L sodium fluoride in drinking water can significantly decrease sperm count and mobility of male mice. VE were given while administrated with NaF, effects mentioned above of mice have not been improved.


Metallic lithium deposition on graphite anodes is a critical degradation mode in lithium-ion batteries, which limits safety and fast charge capability. A conclusive strategy to mitigate lithium deposition under fast charging yet remains elusive. In this work, we examine the role of electrode microstructure in mitigating lithium plating behavior under various operating conditions, including fast charging. The multilength scale characteristics of the electrode microstructure lead to a complex interaction of transport and kinetic limitations that significantly governs the cell performance and the occurrence of Li plating. We demonstrate, based on a comprehensive mesoscale analysis, that the performance and degradation can be significantly modulated via systematic design improvements at the hierarchy of length scales. It is found that the improvement in kinetic and transport characteristics achievable at disparate scales can dramatically affect Li plating propensity.


How bacteria integrate environmental cues from multiple sources to appropriately regulate adaptive phenotypes is a central question in microbiology. In Dickeya dadantii, the quorum-sensing regulator VfmE controls the key virulence factor pectate lyase (Pel). ABSTRACT Dickeya dadantii is a phytopathogenic bacterium that causes diseases on a wide range of host plants. The pathogen secretes pectate lyases (Pel) through the type II secretion system (T2SS) that degrades the cell wall in host plants. The virulence of D. dadantii is controlled by the second messenger cyclic diguanylate monophosphate (c-di-GMP), and the homeostasis of c-di-GMP is maintained by a number of diguanylate cyclases and phosphodiesterases. Deletion of a phosphodiesterase ecpC repressed pelD transcription, and such repression can be suppressed by an additional deletion in vfmE. VfmE is an AraC type of transcriptional regulator in the Vfm quorum-sensing system. Our results suggest that VfmE is a c-di-GMP effector that functions as an activator of pel at low c-di-GMP concentrations and a repressor of pel at high c-di-GMP concentrations through regulation of the transcriptional activator SlyA. Multiple sequence alignment with known c-di-GMP effectors identified an RWIWR motif in VfmE that we demonstrate is required for the c-di-GMP binding. Mutation of R93D in the RxxxR motif eliminates the c-di-GMP-related phenotypes in Pel activity. Our results show that VfmE is not only a quorum-sensing regulator but also a c-di-GMP effector, suggesting that D. dadantii integrates the c-di-GMP signaling network with the Vfm quorum-sensing pathway during environmental adaptation. IMPORTANCE How bacteria integrate environmental cues from multiple sources to appropriately regulate adaptive phenotypes is a central question in microbiology. In Dickeya dadantii, the quorum-sensing regulator VfmE controls the key virulence factor pectate lyase (Pel). Here, we demonstrate that VfmE also binds to c-di-GMP, resulting in VfmE functioning as an activator of pel at low c-di-GMP concentrations and repressor of pel at high c-di-GMP concentrations. The RWIWR motif in VfmE is required for c-di-GMP binding, and mutation of the motif in the mutant R93D eliminates the c-di-GMP-related phenotypes in Pel activity. We propose that VfmE is an important mediator to integrate quorum-sensing signals with c-di-GMP to collectively regulate D. dadantii pathogenesis.


Even to this day, members of the Black population involved in drug use are being subjected to high rates of imprisonment and are receiving a lower quality of health care in comparison to White drug users. This study proposes that the disparities in how society treats Black drug users are in part due to the way people's perception of drug users differs based on the race of the target. In addition, this study sought to examine how these perceptions are predicted by implicit and explicit racial prejudice. To test these research questions, college students (n = 99) were randomly assigned to view an electronic court case record of a White or Black drug user or a drug user of an unspecified race, and asked to make judgments about them; explicit and implicit bias towards Blacks was measured. Results revealed that the higher the levels of explicit prejudice towards Black drug users and drug users of an unspecified race, the more they are associated with negative stereotypical traits and the more people predict them to be able to commit more serious crimes in the future, compared to White drug users. We also found that people perceived that Black drug users would be less successful in the future compared to drug users of an unspecified race if provided with health treatment. Gaining a better understanding of the underlying reasons behind racial disparities in the criminal justice system is important to instigate reforms to the system and to the quality of health care offered to drug users of different races. EFFECT OF RACIAL PREJUDICE ON PERCEPTIONS OF DRUG USERS 4 Effect of Explicit and Implicit Prejudice on Perceptions of Drug Users of Different Races Racial disparities in incarceration rates have plagued the United States for decades. According to "The Impact of Crack Cocaine on Black America" (Hendricks & Wilson, 2013), 85% of crack cocaine users who were incarcerated during the American crack epidemic between 1984 and the early 1990s were Black. Although today's heroin epidemic is mostly perpetuated by the suburban, White, middle-class population (Cicero, Ellis, Surratt, & Kurtz, 2014), according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Blacks still make up more than 50% of drug users who get arrested. Simultaneously, more programs have been designed to reduce the imprisonment of White drug users, to encourage police officers to direct them to social workers instead of immediately putting them in jail and to provide easier access to medical attention and treatment. In contrast, Black drug users typically get less assistance for life-threatening medical issues (Netherland & Hansen, 2016). The purpose of the current study is to explore differences in perceptions of Black and White drug users, and whether these perceptions are affected by implicit and explicit prejudice. This is imperative to help us understand the causes behind disparities in health treatment and the likelihood of incarceration between Black and White drug users. There are disparities in the comprehensive health treatment offered to racial minorities compared to that offered to Whites. This is often associated with the health facilities that are available to racial minorities and on the cultural sensitivity of the health programs. A recent study by Acevedo and colleagues (2015) studied the health treatments offered to Whites and to minorities. The treatment can consist of inpatient admissions, outpatient rehabilitation, or programs that offer partial hospitalization. Of particular interest is patients' likelihood of treatment engagement, which refers to the provision of more services within a month of being on EFFECT OF RACIAL PREJUDICE ON PERCEPTIONS OF DRUG USERS 5 medical treatment. More treatment engagement was connected to a lower probability of abusing drugs afterwards and of getting arrested. The researchers observed the start of treatment, treatment engagement, and incarceration rates based on race in samples of adult patients grouped by state (Acevedo et al., 2015). They reported that in most states, Blacks tended to have lower treatment initiation and treatment engagement rates compared to Whites. Even though it was not consistent across all the states they examined, they also found that in a few of those states, patients who experienced treatment engagement had lower arrest rates afterwards. Not only could the health of minorities be ameliorated if they were provided with better support and health resources, but having better health care options could also limit the harsh effects of the criminal justice system. There are also racial disparities in whether drug users are determined as eligible to receive health treatment in lieu of incarceration. Black drug users are more prone to incarceration compared to White drug users even though both races use drugs at similar rates (Nicosia, MacDonald, & Pacula, 2017). When it comes to drug sentences, this disparity has serious consequences on the lives of imprisoned Blacks. Being incarcerated leads to the loss of various rights such as the ability to vote or to receive aid in the form of welfare programs, veteran advantages, and food stamps (Olson, 2016). They may also struggle to find a well-paid job after being released from prison, which makes it virtually impossible to obtain proper health care. As a result of these disparities, the system promotes a vicious cycle that is unfair and deleterious to the Black population. One reason for the difference in the treatment between Blacks and Whites may be the dichotomy in cultural stereotypes between the two groups. Activation of these cultural stereotypes is contingent on the visual cues that perceivers use to associate individuals with EFFECT OF RACIAL PREJUDICE ON PERCEPTIONS OF DRUG USERS 6 particular social categories such as race, gender, or age. This process is termed social categorization (Bartholow & Dickter, 2008). People use social categorization in order to reduce the cognitive load associated with individuating others, or distinguishing every individual with whom they interact. By grouping individuals together by their social group, perceivers are able to simplify the task of forming their perception of each individual, and avoid having to understand each one, separately. The salience of a certain categorization can dominate how perceivers choose to form their impression (Macrae, Bodenhausen, & Milne, 1995). Furthermore, the perceivers' own goals and how prejudiced they are towards different social groups can also play an influential role in social categorization. These ways of categorizing people allows perceivers to form an impression of the target quickly and conveniently. However, they can simultaneously cause stereotype activation, which in turn, leads to biased judgments about the target that are not based on his or her own unique characteristics (Macrae & Bodenhausen, 2000). Due in part to the frequent distorted portrayal of Blacks in the media, Blacks are often perceived as more violent, impulsive, and menacing than Whites, and are often unfairly stereotyped as criminals and drug users (Najdowski, Goff, & Bottoms, 2015; Welch, 2004). These stereotypes lead people to make unreliable predictions concerning the traits and behaviors of Black individuals and instigate the formation of negative impressions about Black drug users (Kunda & Thagard, 1996). Accordingly, crimes that Blacks commit tend to be perceived as more abhorrent than if those same crimes were committed by Whites, and "unlike progressive trends in other racial attitudes, associations between race and crime have changed little in recent years" (Duncan, 1976; Pager, 2008, p. 3). When Black people commit a crime, people have the tendency to believe that it is due to them being supposedly inferior, whereas when White people commit a EFFECT OF RACIAL PREJUDICE ON PERCEPTIONS OF DRUG USERS 7 crime, people tend to blame it on environmental circumstances such as being under the poverty line (Olson, 2016). Additionally, since Blacks are incarcerated more frequently than other races, they are often targeted as the main source of the U.S.'s drug problem and are more likely to be associated with drug use and crimes in general, by the public (Welch, 2007). Welch (2007) reported that local media sources often depict Blacks in more threatening situations than Whites, which makes the public grow more wary of Black criminal suspects than White criminal suspects. To investigate whether the punishment of inmates in prison was related to race and whether this was due to negative stereotypes that prison guards have about Black inmates being more violent, confrontational, and criminal, Olson (2016) looked specifically at how likely Black inmates were to be put in solitary confinement, which is one of the harshest types of punishments enforced in prisons, compared to inmates of other races. They found that there is a racial bias against Black inmates and that they have a 31.6% chance of being subjected to solitary confinement compared to White inmates, who have a 25.6% chance (Olson, 2016). Being forced into solitary confinement, in turn, eventually leads to higher rates of recidivism, or inclination to commit a crime again, among Black inmates. This perpetuates the cycle by causing them to be more prone to get arrested and, then once in jail, they become more likely to undergo harsh punishment that encourages even more criminal actions. Race-based judgments have a profound impact on the treatment of Black and White drug users and on the level of sympathy and understanding that they each receive (Jussim, Eccles, & Madon, 1995). Even though Whites are increasingly using illegal drugs, the public still has the tendency to picture drug users as people from Black populations in inner-city neighborhoods that deal cocaine and crack (Gaston, 2016). Furthermore, they also perceive Black drug users more EFFECT OF RACIAL PREJUDICE ON PERCEPTIONS OF DRUG USERS 8 negatively than Whites due to more Blacks mov


Results of mycotoxicological survey of representative samples of feed and procured wheat, barley, oat and maize grain batches are demonstrated. The samples were submitted by the Veterinary Service officials, livestock farmers and feed mill operators, agricultural producers, specialized commercial business operators and farm owners in seven Federal Districts of the Russian Federation in 2009-2019. Similar amounts of wheat and barley grain samples were received from the Central, Volga, Ural and Siberian Federal Districts. The amount of wheat samples delivered from the Southern Federal District prevailed over the number of barley samples, and the maize samples were mostly delivered from the regions of the Central Federal District. Fusarium toxins including T-2 toxin, diacetoxyscirpenol, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone and fumonisins of group B as well as alternariol, ochratoxin A, citrinin, aflatoxin В1, sterigmatocystin, cyclopiazonic acid, mycophenolic acid, ergot alkaloids and emodin were detected and measured according to the validated competitive ELISA procedure. Generalization of the results demonstrated domination of fusarium toxins and active involvement of alternariol in the contamination of all types of feed grains as well as high occurrence of emodin in ear cereals and increased occurrence of T-2 toxin and ochratoxin A in barley. Shift of medians and 90%-percentile of the basic contaminants to lower values as compared to mean and maximal ones was reported thus being indicative of their possible accumulation at the levels outside the typical range. The highest levels of T-2 toxin, deoxynivalenol and ochratoxin A as well as 90%-percentile values exceeded the acceptable levels. The maize grains demonstrated the whole complex of the tested fusarium toxins with the prevalence of T-2 toxin, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone and fumonisins; and the maximal amounts of these mycotoxins by several times exceeded the accepted regulatory levels. Diacetoxyscirpenol, aflatoxin В1, sterigmatocystin, cyclopiazonic acid and ergot alkaloids are classified as rare feed grain contaminants. High prevalence of alternariol and emodin known as "diarrhea factor" as well as maize grain contamination with mycophenolic acid (mycotoxin having an immunosuppressive effect) are for the first time reported in this paper. These data support the need of their introduction in the group of regulated substances significant for public health. Original monitoring data systematized and summarized in the paper are given in electronic format in section Additional materials. Part 1: Veterinary Science Today. 2020; 1 (32): 60–65. DOI: 10.29326/2304-196X-2020-1-32-60-65.


Introduction: Little is known about how pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) evolve over time and if changes toward a more aggressive biology correlate with prognosis. The purpose of this study was to characterize changes in PanNET differentiation and proliferation over time and to correlate findings to overall survival (OS). Patients and Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we screened 475 PanNET patients treated at Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden. Sporadic patients with baseline and follow-up tumor samples were included. Pathology reports and available tissue sections were reevaluated with regard to tumor histopathology and Ki-67 index. Results: Forty-six patients with 106 tumor samples (56 available for pathology reevaluation) were included. Median Ki-67 index at diagnosis was 7% (range 1–38%), grade 1 n = 8, grade 2 n = 36, and grade 3 n = 2. The median change in Ki-67 index (absolute value; follow-up – baseline) was +14% (range –11 to +80%). Increase in tumor grade occurred in 28 patients (63.6%), the majority from grade 1/2 to grade 3 (n = 24, 54.5%). The patients with a high-grade progression had a median OS of 50.2 months compared to 115.1 months in patients without such progression (hazard ratio 3.89, 95% CI 1.91–7.94, p < 0.001). Conclusions: A longitudinal increase in Ki-67 index and increase in tumor grade were observed in a majority of PanNETs included in this study. We propose that increase in Ki-67 index and high-grade progression should be investigated further as important biomarkers in PanNET.


We study a contextual bandit setting where the learning agent has access to sampled bandit instances from an unknown prior distribution $\mathcal{P}$. The goal of the agent is to achieve high reward on average over the instances drawn from $\mathcal{P}$. This setting is of a particular importance because it formalizes the offline optimization of bandit policies, to perform well on average over anticipated bandit instances. The main idea in our work is to optimize differentiable bandit policies by policy gradients. We derive reward gradients that reflect the structure of our problem, and propose contextual policies that are parameterized in a differentiable way and have low regret. Our algorithmic and theoretical contributions are supported by extensive experiments that show the importance of baseline subtraction, learned biases, and the practicality of our approach on a range of classification tasks.


Background Tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among children infected with HIV. Strategies to prevent TB in children include isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) and antiretroviral therapy (ART). IPT and ART have been reported to reduce TB incidence in adults but there are few studies in children. Objective To investigate the combined effect of IPT and ART on TB risk in children infected with HIV. Methods A cohort analysis was done within a prospective, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of isoniazid (INH) compared with placebo in children infected with HIV in Cape Town, South Africa, a high TB incidence setting. In May 2004 the placebo arm was terminated and all children were switched to INH. ART was not widely available at the start of the study, but children were started on ART following the establishment of the national ART program in 2004. Data were analysed using Cox proportional hazard regression. Results After adjusting for age, nutritional status and immunodeficiency at enrolment, INH alone, ART alone and INH combined with ART reduced the risk of TB disease by 0.22 (95% CI 0.09 to 0.53), 0.32 (95% CI 0.07 to 1.55) and 0.11 (95% CI 0.04 to 0.32) respectively. INH reduced the risk of TB disease in children on ART by 0.23 (95% CI 0.05 to 1.00). Conclusions The finding that IPT may offer additional protection in children on ART has significant public health implications because this offers a possible strategy for reducing TB in children infected with HIV. Widespread use of this strategy will however require screening of children for active TB disease. Trial registration Trial registration—Clinical Trials NCT00330304.


Significance
 In a bid to support the recovery of its pandemic-hit economy, it late last year issued its first sovereign bond, for local investors. Separately, boundary disputes with China remain a source of concern in the kingdom.

 Impacts
 India will continue to exert strong influence over Bhutan's foreign policy.
 Many countries will likely adopt aspects of Bhutan's Gross National Happiness agenda.
 Bhutan will step up efforts to secure more AstraZeneca jabs so it can administer enough second doses of the vaccine to its adult population.


Adapted from philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy's semi-autobiographical text, The Intruder remains one of French director Claire Denis' most transnational and yet dreamlike works. In this article, I pair philosopher Gaston Bachelard (in particular, his concept of the material and dynamic imagination and his reveries on water and air) with Denis to explore how The Intruder enacts an imagining of the elements and an elemental poetics of film form. Bringing Bachelard into a dialogue with Saad Chakali's, Rosalind Galt's and Nancy's writing on the film's imagery, I also approach The Intruder as an image-poem that is structured by poetically 'weighted' images and by recurrent symbolism. Shot through with an oneiric sense of drift, voyaging and diffusion, I explore some of the ways that Denis's elemental imaginings of air and oceanic water reflect an affective politics.


Susan Koch is associate professor of gerontic nursing and director of research and higher degrees in the division of nursing and midwifery at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. She is also director of the Australian Centre for Evidence-Based Aged Care. Her research has focused on restraint use, quality indicators and standards in aged care, elder abuse and medication management. Dr Koch was made a fellow of the Royal College of Nursing, Australia, in 2000 in recognition of her contribution to gerontic nursing. She is also a fellow of the Australian Association of Gerontology and president of Alzheimer's Australia (Victoria).


Catastrophe (CAT) bond markets are incomplete and hence carry uncertainty in instrument pricing. As such various pricing approaches have been proposed, but none treat the uncertainty in catastrophe occurrences and interest rates in a sufficiently flexible and statistically reliable way within a unifying asset pricing framework. Consequently, little is known empirically about the expected risk-premia of CAT bonds. The primary contribution of this paper is to present a unified Bayesian CAT bond pricing framework based on uncertainty quantification of catastrophes and interest rates. Our framework allows for complex beliefs about catastrophe risks to capture the distinct and common patterns in catastrophe occurrences, and when combined with stochastic interest rates, yields a unified asset pricing approach with informative expected risk premia. Specifically, using a modified collective risk model -- Dirichlet Prior-Hierarchical Bayesian Collective Risk Model (DP-HBCRM) framework -- we model catastrophe risk via a model-based clustering approach. Interest rate risk is modeled as a CIR process under the Bayesian approach. As a consequence of casting CAT pricing models into our framework, we evaluate the price and expected risk premia of various CAT bond contracts corresponding to clustering of catastrophe risk profiles. Numerical experiments show how these clusters reveal how CAT bond prices and expected risk premia relate to claim frequency and loss severity.


The growth performance of Clarias gariepinus fed with different dietary levels of processed cassava leaves and their nutrient utilized were studied for a period of 24 weeks. One hundred and forty four experimental Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) with 0.75±0.20 g mean weight and 3.9±0.31 cm mean total length were collected from Aqua-fish Consult, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria. Eighteen rectangular plastic tanks were used for this study. Green cassava leaves (Manihot esculenta) were collected from a farm in Uda, Igbo-Eze North of Enugu State. The leaves were soaked for 36 h and sun-dried for one week to reduce the presence of cyanogenic glycosides. The dried leaves were ground into fine powder and analyzed for proximate composition. The experimental design used was Complete Randomized Block Design (CRBD) consisting of 18 treatments. Triplicate culture tanks in treated (L25-L100), and control groups (L0 and Ac) were stocked with eight fingerlings per square meter, respectively. The cost benefit of C. gariepinus fingerlings was estimated using weight gain and specific growth rate against management and construction cost. Weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR), feed efficiency (FE) and total length (TL) of catfish in different treatments were plotted against water chemistry parameters. This trail was conducted to access the possibility of replacing maize (Zea mays) with varying levels of whole cassava leaf meal in the diet of C. gariepinus catfish. Five isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets were formulated to contain 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% cassava leaves to replace equal weight of maize meal. Internationally made fish feed (coppens) was also used as a control feed. All the diets were fed to catfish (C. gariepinus) fingerlings in replicate for 24 weeks. The results revealed that optimum requirement of cassava leaves level in the formulation of practical diets for improved growth of C. gariepinus was 25%.

 Key words: Growth performance, nutrient utilization, Clarias gariepinu, cassava leaves.


74% of accidents to staff assistance is linked to transport activities in both normal and emergency. The accident rate is much higher ambulances during his way to siren (22.2 incidents per 100,000 journeys) than normal distances (1.46 per 100,000). Also 60% of accidents and 58% of accidents with serious outcomes for rescuers is on the move for emergency response. The unknown danger, requiring operator safety of relief, that the normal work clothing becomes a D.P.I. standing and adaptable, modular almost without causing discomfort or inconvenience.


Purpose Pulse wave velocity (PWV), an indicator of vascular stiffness, increases with age and is increasingly recognized as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although many mechanical and chemical factors underlie the stiffness of the elastic artery, genetic risk factors related to age-dependent increases in PWV in apparently healthy people are largely unknown. The transcription factor nuclear factor E2 (NF-E2)-related factor 2 (Nrf2), which is activated by unidirectional vascular pulsatile shear stress or oxidative stress, regulates vascular redox homeostasis. Previous reports have shown that a SNP in the NRF2 gene regulatory region (−617C>A; hereafter called SNP−617) affects NRF2 gene expression such that the minor A allele confers lower gene expression compared to the C allele, and it is associated with various diseases, including CVD. We aimed to investigate whether SNP−617 affects vascular stiffness with aging in apparently healthy people. Methods Analyzing wide-ranging data obtained from a public health survey performed in Japan, we evaluated whether SNP−617 affected brachial-ankle PWV (baPWV) in never-smoking healthy subjects (n = 642). We also evaluated the effects of SNP−617 on other cardiovascular and blood test measurements. Results We have shown that not only AA carriers (n = 55) but also CA carriers (n = 247) show arterial stiffness compared to CC carriers (n = 340). Furthermore, SNP−617 also affected blood pressure indexes such as systolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure but not the ankle brachial pressure index, an indicator of atherosclerosis. Multivariate analysis showed that SNP−617 accelerates the incremental ratio of baPWV with age. Conclusions This study is the first to show that SNP−617 affects the age-dependent increase in vascular stiffness. Our results indicate that low NRF2 activity induces premature vascular aging and could be targeted for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases associated with aging.


In this study, three IEA Wind 15MW offshore reference wind turbines with monopile support structures, are placed at a distance of eight rotor diameters in the prevailing wind direction. FAST. Farm responses are simulated under different wind conditions and sea states. The outputs suggest that for downstream turbines the effect of partial wake impingement is higher on tower bending moments than on blade bending moments. The downstream wind turbines have higher energy spectra around the tower natural frequency, which may potentially affect the fatigue loads and cut down the turbine lifetime. This study provides references for structural load analysis of downstream wind turbines in large-scale fixed-bottom offshore wind farms.


Diabetic Retinopathy is an eye disease caused due to diabetes complication. It leads to vision loss if not diagnosed at early stage. It can be assessed by detecting the hard exudates present in the color fundus images. The proposed methodology has two stages such as detection of hard exudates and classification of severity stages of diabetic retinopathy. A feature extraction technique is used to capture the global features like intensity, color and texture features. It is very useful to categorize the normal and abnormal images. In this, the detection of hard exudates is done by using ELM classifier. Classification of disease severity stages is assessed by using regional property of the hard exudates in the retinal image. The proposed detection performance has a sensitivity of 99% with specificity between 85% and 96%. Indexed TermsDiabetic Retinopathy, Hard exudates, Discrete wavelet transform, Extreme Learning Machine Classifier.


The article analyses the modes of representation used by the GDR-born journalist Alexander Osang in writing about 9/11. His observations of 9/11 in New York open up recollections of 11/9, the historic date in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. His gaze is compared to the way his wife observes. The authentic tone and the self-referential mode raise questions about relevance in literature.


The highly sensitive detection of a K-ras point mutation with the aid of DNA-carrying microspheres as a flow-stress receptor is proposed at the surface of a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor. Single-stranded DNAs were immobilized onto epoxy-group-derivatized gold surfaces and the hybridization of DNA targets was monitored. The subsequent interaction with DNA-carrying micospheres enhanced the SPR response. The increase of flow rate during the event of dissociation changed the amount of detachment of the DNA-carrying microspheres for the mismatched pair. In addition, the viscosity was changed by addition of glycerol to the buffer. The increase of shear stress from the flow resulted in detachment of DNA-carrying microspheres hybridized with the mismatched sequence and increased the ability to discriminate a point mutation. This is a new method which not only increases the lower detection limit of evanescent wave-based biosensors, but also the ability to discriminate a point mutation which is a critical factor for ultrasensitive DNA detection in flow devices.


Splenic angiosarcomas are usually secondary tumours, and only few primary cases have been encountered. We report a unique primary case of epithelioid angiosarcoma arising in the spleen in a male patient 55-year-old and presented to our hospital as a medical emergency with acute abdomen and haemorrhagic ascitis. CT revealed splenic focal lesion and suggested that this abdominal haemorrhage was due to ruptured splenic haemangioma, thus abdominal exploration and splenectomy were done. The histopathological examination showed an infiltrating ill-defined growth formed of high grade epithelioid cells arranged in sheet-like growth pattern, with occasional papillary appearance. The presence of rudimentary vascular channels lined by epithelioid endothelial cells with occasional intraluminal erythrocytes suggested vascular tumour origin. The neoplastic cells showed diffuse expression of CD31 together with focal expression of cytokeratin (CK) and CD34. Because of its epithelioid morphology and unmistakable positivity for CK, this case may be easily misdiagnosed as a metastatic carcinoma, which is not uncommon finding in the spleen. Epithelioid angiosarcoma is a rare type of vascular tumour in the spleen, which co-expresses vascular and epithelial markers making its distinction from metastatic carcinoma is sometimes difficult.


The least mean square (LMS) algorithm has practical problems in the analog domain mainly due to DC offset effects. If digital LMS adaptation is used, a digitizer (analog-to-digital converter or comparator) is required for each gradient signal as well as the filter output. Furthermore, in some cases the state signals are not available anywhere in the analog signal path necessitating additional analog filters. Here, techniques for digitally estimating the gradient signals required for the LMS adaptation of analog filters are described. The techniques are free from DC offset effects and do not require access to the filter's internal state signals. Digitizers are required only on the input and error signal. The convergence rate and misadjustment are identical to traditional LMS adaptation, but an additional matrix multiplication is required for each iteration. Hence, analog circuit complexity is reduced but digital circuit complexity is increased with no change in overall performance making it an attractive option for mixed-signal integrated systems in digital CMOS. Signed and subsampled variations of the adaptive algorithm can provide a further reduction in analog and digital circuit complexity, but with a slower convergence rate. Theoretical analyses, behavioral simulations, and experimental results from an integrated filter are all presented.


n
Indonesia is the Unitary State. It is understood that within a unitary state, the central government operates a high state sovereignty. In order not to be arbitrary, the activities of the central government are supervised and limited by the constitution. The government which is divided from the Central Government to the Regional Government included Regional Autonomy therein, as well as the authority of the Regional Government,n is on duty to manage the Regional Property. In carrying out its authority as an administrator of local property, there are still many abuses or omissions committed by the local government in operating its authority in managing regional property, such as the negligence of the Regional Assets, the misuse of authority in the revocation of rights already granted by the regional government on the right to use of local property, using local property for personal interest. In the management of regional property required planning, implementation, and supervision by the local government in accordance with applicable laws and regulations in the constitution.
Keywords: Authority, Local Government, Management of Regional Property


Some users of the GPS take the coordinates and the distances between points as they are in the field and try to joint work with the total station, but they found a difference between the coordinates and the distances. The reason is that these measurements are three-dimensional Coordinates: where they are represented on the model of the Earth, while the total station based on the theory of plan survey are two-dimensional coordinates. And other causes the distortion resulting from the projection itself. From the scientific point of view, all the solutions applied for this problem are not accurately enough, but serve their purpose. Where as in this research we are trying to cancel the differences in the coordinates and the distances between the GPS and the total station measurements. Where work on a project using both techniques (GPS, and Total station) .The coordinates of the project are measured on the site by considering the total length of the project (35km) and ten control points as base line points had been distributed along the route including the X and Y coordinates corresponding to the zone 38N. It was found that the DGPS Software (Topcon Tools v7) or other data collection software can be used to convert the coordinates from grid coordinates to ground coordinates and then these coordinates can be used with the total station in the field for small distances. But for large distances the ground coordinates that obtained from Total station instrument must be used to avoid accumulative error. And must also take into account when choosing sites of the control network in the field where it should be direct view between the control network points to get rid of random errors resulting from the use total station this in turn leads to obtain high accuracy results for the ground coordinates.


We conducted a retrospective review of our bridge to transplant experience over the last 7 years using the Heartmate device (Thoratec, Pleasanton, CA) by studying patients who developed device related infections. Of the 174 patients who underwent device implantation, 32 (18.4%) developed a device related infection while on support (12 patients with drive line infections, 14 patients with pocket infections, 4 patients with pump infections, and 2 patients with device endocarditis). There was no significant difference in rate of successful bridging to transplant between patients with and without a device related infection occurring in 23 (71.9%) patients with infection and 103 (72.5%) patients without infection (p = 0.406). In addition, posttransplant survival at 1, 3, and 5 years was similar for both groups—95.6%, 86.2%, and 79.3%, respectively, for patients with infection, versus 90.9%, 88.1%, and 82.2%, respectively, for patients without infection (p = 0.911).


The study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of feeding cassava leaf silage (CLS) and cassava peels (CP) on performance characteristics and some haematological parameters of West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep. Nine sheep were randomly allotted into three treatments, with three sheep per treatment. The control diet (T1) consisted of grass, while sheep in (T2) and (T3) were fed with CLS and CP at 1.5% of their body weight, respectively for a period of seven weeks. The average daily weight gain, body length, withers height and heart girth were measured at weekly intervals. In addition, blood samples were collected at the beginning and end of the experiment and analyzed for PCV, WBC, Lymphocyte and Neutrophil count. Statistical analysis showed that animals fed with CP had a significant weight gain (P<0.05), while there was no significant difference in wither height, body length and heart girth, respectively. However, there was a significant differences (P<0.05) in the haematological parameters measured. No mortality was recorded during the experiment.


Background : Morphine is an opioid analgesic which is used to treat moderate to severe pain but has a number of side effects. This study is aimed to explore that combination of morphine and a-tocopherol (aT) are better analgesic as well as anti-inflammatory effect than that of morphine alone. Objective: To assess the effects of combination of morphine with a-tocopherol on pain and inflammation. Methods: This prospective experimental study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Shahbag, Dhaka from January 2013 to December 2013. For this purpose, 15 male Long Evans rats were studied. On the basis of vitamin and drug administrations, the rats were divided into three (3) groups (5 rats in each). Control group received normal saline, one experimental group received morphine sulphate (MS) at a dose of 3 mg/kg body weight and another experimental group received combination of MS with aT at a dose of 3 mg/kg body weight and 500 mg/kg body weight, respectively. All the groups received single dose and equal volume (1 ml) through intraperitoneal route 1 hour before the test. Just one hour after administrations, they were subjected to formalin test followed by formalin induced paw edema test. The data were statistically analyzed by ANOVA followed by Bonferroni Post Hoc test. Results: Combined administration of MS and aT lowered the variables for nociceptive pain, central analgesic activity, inflammatory pain as well as inflammation than individual administration of MS. Conclusion: From this study it may be concluded that combined administration of morphine sulphate and atocopherol were more effective in lowering pain and inflammation than individual administration of morphine. Anwer Khan Modern Medical College Journal Vol. 8, No. 1: Jan 2017, P 24-29


Continuous slow intravenous infusion of insulin was used in 52 episodes of diabetic ketoacidosis. No complications of therapy, ie, hypoglycemia, induced hypokalemia, insulin resistance, or cerebral edema, were encountered. Potassium phosphate was given to 47 of the 52 patients. Sodium bicarbonate was administered to only one patient. The hyperglycemia frequently resolved more rapidly than the systemic acidosis; this was managed by adding glucose to the intravenous fluids when the blood sugar concentration decreased to approximately 250 mg/dL; insulin infusion, however, was continued until the acidosis was corrected (venous standard bicarbonate greater than 14 mEq/L). We have found this method of treatment to be safe and simple to administer, and we believe it is the preferred treatment of patients with diabetic ketoacidosis.


Inflammation is a hallmark of tissue remodeling during wound healing. The inflammatory response to wounds is tightly controlled and well-coordinated; dysregulation compromises wound healing and causes persistent inflammation. Topical application of natural anti-inflammatory products may improve wound healing, in particular under chronic pathological conditions. The long-chain metabolites of vitamin E (LCM) are bioactive molecules that mediate cellular effects via oxidative stress signaling as well as anti-inflammatory pathways. However, the effect of LCM on wound healing has not been investigated. We administered the α-tocopherol-derived LCMs α-13′-hydroxychromanol (α-13′-OH) and α-13′-carboxychromanol (α-13′-COOH) as well as the natural product garcinoic acid, a δ-tocotrienol derivative, in different pharmaceutical formulations directly to wounds using a splinted wound mouse model to investigate their effects on the wounds' proinflammatory microenvironment and wound healing. Garcinoic acid and, in particular, α-13′-COOH accelerated wound healing and quality of the newly formed tissue. We next loaded bacterial nanocellulose (BNC), a valuable nanomaterial used as a wound dressing with high potential for drug delivery, with α-13′-COOH. The controlled release of α-13′-COOH using BNC promoted wound healing and wound closure, mainly when a diabetic condition was induced before the injury. This study highlights the potential of α-13′-COOH combined with BNC as a potential active wound dressing for the advanced therapy of skin injuries.


Female urinary incontinence represents a medical and social problem with huge impact regarding both patent's quality of life and social costs. The diagnosis is important for therapeutic choice and should consider some factors: the degree of urethral mobility, urodynamics parameters, patent's will and expectations, information about surgical complications and risks. Nowadays suburethral sling evolution and bulking therapy for selected cases consent to perform miniinvasive surgery; the most relevant problem concerns the management of postoperative complications: in this sense autologous slings are used after urethrolisis. In most difficult cases, it is possible to consider artificial sphincter as the best option.


ABSTRACT Knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) processes can facilitate evidence-informed community-based care for seniors, but understanding effective KTE in gerontology is limited. A scoping review was conducted to evaluate the current state of KTE in the community-based sector for seniors. Twelve articles met the inclusion criteria, which addressed a broad variety of topics including caregiving, elder abuse, falls prevention, home-rehabilitation, hospice and dementia care. Studies evaluated KTE practices (n = 8), developed a KTE intervention (n = 3), or explored research uptake (n = 1). Community-based initiatives for seniors informed by KTE processes are scarce, requiring further efforts at the research, practice and policy levels.


We show that invariant submanifolds with boundary, and more generally with corners which are normally expanded by an endomorphism are persistent as $a$-regular stratifications. This result will be shown in class $C^s$, for $s\ge 1$. We present also a simple example of a submanifold with boundary which is normally expanded but non-persistent as a differentiable submanifold.


The bumblefoot or pododermatitis is among the diseases with the highest morbidity in Magellanic penguins, sometimes evolving to septicemia and death. Therefore, this study aimed to relate the main species involved in the disorder, as well as the in vitro susceptibility profile of the microorganisms against routine antimicrobial usage in Veterinary Medicine. During two years in vivo material was harvested from 200 footpads (n=100 animals) for microbiological analysis and in vitro susceptibility tests against the Antibiotic enrofloxacin, streptomycin, penicillin and cephalosporin. Bacteria have been identified both as part of permanent and transient microbiota, also being associated to 100% of the pododermatitis cases. The most prevalent genus were Staphylococcus and Corynebacterium. The antibiograms of all the isolated bacteria resulted in greater susceptibility of the strains facing cephalosporin, followed by enrofloxacin, streptomycin and penicillin.


Disturbances of iron metabolism, particularly iron deficiency, are among the most commonly overlooked or misinterpreted of diseases. This is due to the fact that the determination of transport iron in serum or plasma, which used to be the test in conventional diagnosis, does now allow a representative estimate of the body's total iron reserves. A proper estimate was formerly possible only the costly and invasive determination of storage iron in the bone marrow. However, sensitive, well-standarized immuno-chemical methods for the precise determination of the iron storage protein ferritin in plasma are now available. Since the secretion of this protein correctly reflects the iron stores in the majority of cases, these methods permit fast and reliable diagnosis, particularly of iron deficiency conditions. The fact that iron deficiency is so common and is usually simple to treat ought to be well known in the medical world. Even non-iron-determined causes of anaemia can now be identified rapidly by highly sensitive, well-standardized immuno-chemical methods. This book is intended to contribute to a better understanding of the main pathophysiological foundations and diagnostic principles.


Abstract. Virus infection of a human cell was determined only 3 h after invagination. We used viral vector Ad-CMV-control (AdC), which lacks the E1 gene coding for early polypeptide 1 (E1). AdC can replicate in human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells into which the E1 gene has been transfected. According to partial least-square regression discriminant analysis, it was assumed that two kinds of reaction take place in the cell during viral invasion. The first response of the cell was determined 3 h after the virus invasion, and the second one was determined ∼9  h later. The first one seems to be due to compositional changes in DNA. Analysis of large-scale datasets strongly indicated that the second reaction can be attributed to a reduction in protein concentration or uptake of phenylalanine into the nucleus.


Functional electrical stimulation (FES) neuroprostheses have been regarded as an effective approach for gait rehabilitation and assisting patients with stroke or spinal cord injuries. A multiple-channel FES system was developed to improve the assistance and restoration of lower limbs. However, most neuroprostheses need to be manually adjusted and cannot adapt to individual needs. This study aimed to integrate the purely reflexive FES controller with an iterative learning algorithm while a multiple-channel FES walking assistance system based on an adaptive reflexive control strategy has been established. A real-time gait phase detection system was developed for accurate gait phase detection and stimulation feedback. The reflexive controller generated stimulation sequences induced by the gait events. These stimulation sequences were updated for the next gait cycle through the difference between the current and previous five gait cycles. Ten healthy young adults were enrolled to validate the multiple-channel FES system by comparing participants' gait performance to those with no FES controller and purely reflexive controller. The results showed that the proposed adaptive FES controller enabled the adaption to generate fitted stimulation sequences for each participant during various treadmill walking speeds. The maximum, minimum, and range of motion (ROM) of the hip, knee, and ankle joints were furtherly improved for most participants, especially for the hip and knee flexion and ankle dorsiflexion compared with the purely reflexive FES control strategy. The presented system has the potential to enhance motor relearning and promote neural plasticity.