Background Lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia is characterized by an infiltrate of mononuclear cells, mostly mature lymphocytes, restricted to the interstitium of the lungs. Lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia may progress to an end stage lung disease (characterized by non-specific interstitial fibrosis), a usually indolent condition that gradually progresses to respiratory failure. Objectives The aim of this study was to determine: the prevalence of lethal lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia (LyPn) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and its histological and clinical characteristics. Methods A randomized (non-selected) autopsy population of 234 in-patients (females 170, average age 65.4 years, range 88-16, average disease duration 15.4 years, onset of RA 49.9; males 64, average age 66.9 years, range 87-19, average disease duration 12.8 years at death, onset of RA 49.6) with RA was studied. RA was confirmed clinically according to the criteria of the ACR. Causes of death due to associated diseases, or complications of RA were histologically diagnosed post mortem. The retrospective analysis of clinical complaints was based on clinical records. Results Lethal LyPn was observed in 3 (1.28%) of 234 RA patients. In the lungs of three patients microscopically marked disseminated, peribronchiolar accentuated lymphoid infiltration with secondary follicles was noted. The bronchioles and terminal bronchioles appeared compressed, narrowed, and occluded. These were accompanied by lobular-sublobular atelectasis, with or without inflammation, respecting the anatomical borders. The lungs in 2 of 3 patients showed scattered irregular foci of lobular and/or sublobular pneumonia, which was not centered on terminal and respiratory bronchioles and respected more or less the anatomic borders of lobules. In the third patient a more diffuse interstitial lymphoid infiltration was present, without peribronchial secondary follicles and prominent lobular-sublobular atelectasis and inflammation. Conclusions The focal pneumonia due to peribronchial nodular lymphoid hyperplasia (LyPn) had no haemorrhagic character and was not accompanied by thrombembolism or vasculitis. At variance of simple bacterial bronchopneumonia, the inflammatory foci were smaller and the inflammation respected the anatomic borders of lobules (1). The lobular-sublobular infarction pneumonia caused by thromboembolism – in contrast to LyPn - has a haemorrhagic character. In our patients focal pneumonia due to peribronchial nodular lymphoid hyperplasia was clinically accompanied by occasional febrile episodes and rapidly progressive respiratory failure. The clinical complaints were accompanied by transient (migratory) multifocal – micronodular infiltrates by X ray and reacted poorly to antibiotics. The patients died of rapidly progressive cardio-respiratory insufficiency. None of the lethal LyPns were diagnosed clinically. Conclusion In case of multifocal pneumonia refractory to antibiotics LIPn should be keep in consideration. References Bély M, Apáthy Άgnes (1992) Changes of the lung in rheumatoid arthritis - Rheumatoid pneumonia. A clinicopathological study. Acta Morph. Acad. Sci. Hung. 39, 117-156. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Objectives To assess whether the Glasgow Admission Prediction Score (GAPS) is correlated with hospital length of stay, 6-month hospital readmission and 6-month all-cause mortality. This study represents a 6-month follow-up of patients who were included in an external validation of the GAPS' ability to predict admission at the point of triage. Setting Sampling was conducted between February and May 2016 at two separate emergency departments (EDs) in Sheffield and Glasgow. Participants Data were collected prospectively at triage for consecutive adult patients who presented to the ED within sampling times. Any patients who avoided formal triage were excluded from the study. In total, 1420 patients were recruited. Primary outcomes GAPS was calculated following triage and did not influence patient management. Length of hospital stay, hospital readmission and mortality against GAPS were modelled using survival analysis at 6 months. Results Of the 1420 patients recruited, 39.6% of these patients were initially admitted to hospital. At 6 months, 30.6% of patients had been readmitted and 5.6% of patients had died. For those admitted at first presentation, the chance of being discharged fell by 4.3% (95% CI 3.2% to 5.3%) per GAPS point increase. Cox regression indicated a 9.2% (95% CI 7.3% to 11.1%) increase in the chance of 6-month hospital readmission per point increase in GAPS. An association between GAPS and 6-month mortality was demonstrated, with a hazard increase of 9.0% (95% CI 6.9% to 11.2%) for every point increase in GAPS. Conclusion A higher GAPS is associated with increased hospital length of stay, 6-month hospital readmission and 6-month all-cause mortality. While GAPS's primary application may be to predict admission and support clinical decision making, GAPS may provide valuable insight into inpatient resource allocation and bed planning.


Abstract Speed, power and agility are important components of fitness and determine the level of success and performance in soccer. The aim of this study was to identify speed variables and to determine their mutual correlation and structure in youth elite soccer players. The research group consisted of players from the Czech U16 national team (n = 22, age = 15.6 ± 0.4 years). Speed variables were assessed using the following tests: a) linear speed: 5 m sprint (S5), 10 m sprint (S10) and 20 m flying sprint (F20); b) the agility: agility test 505 with turning on the dominant (A505D) and nondominant legs (A505N) and the K-test (K) and c) ball velocity after an instep kick with the dominant (IKD) and nondominant (IKN) legs. Significant dependence was found for S5 compared with S10, F20 vs. A505N, K vs. A505N (p < 0.01) and S10 vs. F20 (p < 0.05). The factor analysis revealed three components of the latent variable - speed. The first component consisted of linear sprint (S10, S20) and also partially consisted of maximum speed (F20). The second component was primarily composed of agility (A505D, A505N, K) and also included maximum speed (F20). The third independent component represented ball velocity after an instep kick (IKD, IKN). The speed variables in youth elite players exhibited significant heterogeneity from the perspective of performance, as determined by the monitored tests. The structure of the speed predisposition indicated that there were three components of speed. The results of our studies support the notion that each component of speed must be considered independently when designing training programmes.


In clinical medicine, a pathologist often needs to examine cells or thin slices of tissues to identify abnormalities that are markers or precursors of diseases. Various chemical and immunohistochemical staining techniques have been developed to selectively label certain components to bring up the contrasts of specific microstructures. It is well known that a Mueller matrix contains rich information on the microstructure and optical properties of a sample. Using proper data analysis techniques, Mueller matrix images can also be transformed into new polarization parameters sensitive only to specific microstructural features. These new polarization parameters can selectively enhance the contrast of specific features in images of unstained pathological slide to help identify abnormalities. In recent studies, we set up a modulus design Mueller matrix microscope by adding polarization optics components into the optical path of a commercial transmission microscope. We take multiple measurements of the unstained pathological slide at different polar and azimuth angles, then derive an intrinsic Mueller matrix (IMM) which represents only the microstructural characters of the sample without the interference by the sample orientation. Such orientation-independent IMM images preserve to the maximum extent the pathological information of the tissue samples. Using Mueller matrix decomposition and transformation techniques, we demonstrate in preliminary tests that we are able to selectively enhance different characteristic features in different cancer tissues. With the fast advances in big-data analysis techniques, it is expected that label-free Mueller matrix microscopy is a potentially powerful tool for the histopathologists to identify characteristic features in complex tissue samples.


This article explores the melodramatic expression of lesbian girlhood and teen romance in Disney's Tangled (2010) and Disney Pixar's Brave (2012), as well as "Meripunzel" femslash, fan-authored romantic pairings of the animations' female protagonists. First, Anne Sexton's poem, "Rapunzel," offers a literary precedent for exploring lesbian themes in the fairy tale. The next section shows how Tangled and Brave invoke the narrative conventions of the family melodrama. This generic association reveals the films' uses of rhetoric familiar to youth coming-out narratives, as well as other visual and aural coding suggestive of queer styles. The last section shows how Meripunzel femslash taps into the films' existing melodramatic narrative forms and visual aesthetics, rehearsing their coming-out rhetoric while addressing the pleasures of and problems facing lesbian teen romance. I conclude by problematizing the often conventional expressions of lesbian girlhood in femslash, ultimately arguing for their empowering potential, especially as they indicate revised definitions of "princess."


Experimental evidence suggests that panic disorder is characterized by abnormalities in the balance system function and that these abnormalities might be related to the severity of agoraphobic avoidance. Since the balance system can be modulated by the serotonergic system, we investigated the effect of a 6‐week treatment with citalopram on the balance system function in patients with panic disorder. Fifteen patients with panic disorder with/without agoraphobia underwent static posturography on days 0 and 42. Static posturography and clinical assessments were carried out by different investigators who were blind to each other. Static posturography showed high percentages of abnormal scores. Patients with no or low agoraphobic avoidance showed less abnormal posturographic measures than those with moderate to severe agoraphobia. After 6 weeks of treatment with citalopram there was a significant decrease of four out of six posturography measures in eyes‐closed and neck extension conditions, whereas no significant effect was found in the eyes‐open condition. This is the first report that suggests that the modulation of the serotonergic system can improve the balance system function in patients with panic disorder, particularly when visual information is lacking. In addition, our findings confirm the observation that many patients with panic disorder have abnormalities in their balance system function, supporting the idea that these abnormalities are mainly related to agoraphobic avoidance. Depression and Anxiety 17:101–106, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Previous efforts aimed at the biochemical characterization of chloroplast HSP70B were hampered by the observation that recombinant HSP70B was inactive, i.e. incompetent of interacting with its nucleotide exchange factor CGE1. In addition, because heterologously expressed mitochondrial Hsp70 was inactive unless coexpressed with the escort protein Hep1, we wondered whether homologs of Hep1 existed in the chloroplast. Data base searches revealed that algae and higher plants indeed encode at least two HEP homologs, one predicted to be targeted to mitochondria, the others to chloroplasts. Using Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as plant model organism we demonstrate that this alga encodes an HEP homolog (termed HEP2) that is localized to the stroma. HEP2 is expressed constitutively as a low abundance protein with an apparent molecular mass of ∼21 kDa. In cell extracts HEP2 interacts with HSP70B in an ATP-dependent fashion. Coexpression of HSP70B with HEP2 in Escherichia coli yielded high levels of CGE1-binding competent HSP70B, which also displayed ATPase activity. Inactive HSP70B was more prone to proteolysis than active HSP70B. Although inactive HSP70B interacted with HEP2, it could not be activated. Active HSP70B remained active for 48 h in the absence of HEP2, suggesting that HEP2 was not involved in maintaining HSP70B in an active state. However, some HSP70B expressed as a fusion protein with an N-terminal extension was activated when HEP2 was present during cleavage of the fusion protein, suggesting that in vivo HEP2 might be required for de novo folding of HSP70B after transit peptide cleavage.


In this article, we describe a new class of domain decomposition preconditioners suitable for solving elliptic PDEs in highly fractured or heterogeneous media, such as arise in groundwater flow or oil recovery applications. Our methods employ novel coarsening operators, which are adapted to the heterogeneity of the media. In contrast to standard methods (based on piecewise polynomial coarsening), the new methods can achieve robustness with respect to coefficient discontinuities even when these are not resolved by a coarse mesh. This situation arises often in practical flow computation, in both the deterministic and (Monte‐Carlo simulated) stochastic cases. An example of a suitable coarsener is provided by multiscale finite elements. In this article, we explore the linear algebraic aspects of the multiscale algorithm, showing that it involves a blend of both classical overlapping Schwarz methods and nonoverlapping Schur methods. We also extend the algorithm and the theory from its additive variant to obtain new hybrid and deflation variants. Finally, we give extensive numerical experiments on a range of heterogeneous media problems illustrating the properties of the methods. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 23: 859–878, 2007


Multiple input multiple output (MIMO) techniques are an essential part of the IEEE 802.16e - 2005 specifications, which form the basis of mobile WiMAX systems. In this paper, we first discuss the tradeoffs between diversity, interference cancellation and spatial multiplexing in MIMO systems, and we compare optimum combining (OC), maximum-ratio combining (MRC) and interference cancellation for different numbers of receive antennas. Then, we focus on the two mandatory MIMO profiles in the IEEE specifications (Alamouti's STC and the 2x2 spatial multiplexing scheme) and compare them when the first is combined with MRC at the receiver. The analysis obtained using the ITU pedestrian B channel in ideal conditions indicates that the two schemes lead to similar performance when they are operated at the same spectral efficiency.


For optimal haptic tele-manipulation system design, it is important to understand the accuracy and limitations of human force perception. Previous research demonstrated that humans generate higher forces when asked to reproduce an externally applied force; these studies proposed that the nervous system attenuates feedback from self-generated forces. The goal of this study was to determine how accurately subjects reproduce self-generated forces with the same hand over a broad range of force levels. Subjects (n=10, all right handed) had to generate an onscreen target force with visual support and subsequently reproduce the same force without visual support with their right hand against a static handle equipped with a force sensor. Six force levels (10 to 160N) were each presented randomly for eight repetitions. Subjects generated too high forces for lower force levels (≤40N) and too low forces for higher force levels (≥ 130N). Our results support force-dependent sensory integration and demonstrate that attenuated feedback of self-generated forces is not the sole factor in force reproduction errors.


The study area is located in northern Iran and is part of the Alborz mountain range. The exposed rock units in the study area are mostly Eocene volcanic rocks with some Oligomiocene intrusive masses included and locally Paleocene, Jurassic, Permian and Carboniferous sedimentary outcrops. The intrusive rocks of the study area are mostly gabbro and olivine gabbro in terms of mineralogical composition, but intermediate types such as porphyry monzonite are also rarely seen. Based on the results of microprobe analysis, pyroxenes have augite and diopside compositions, orthopyroxenes are hypersthenes, biotites have magnesium biotite and phlogopite compositions, olivines have hyalosiderite compositions and amphiboles are pargasite and ferropargasite compositionally. The results of temperature and pressure evaluation indicate a temperature range of 650 to 1200 ° C and pressure range >2-5 KB. Based on the chemistry of clinopyroxene mineral of the mentioned intrusions, magma that made these intrusions is of the sub-alkaline type and is formed in a volcanic arc tectonic setting.


Recently, lost of experiences in the synergy between the fields of Robotics and Virtual Reality have been working. Those researches have shown that the symbiosis of robot techniques with VR techniques can break new grounds in the field of robotics. In this paper, we built a system with virtual reality man-machine interface for underwater robot tele-operation. One of our purposes is to best setup a virtual reality man-machine interactive control for tele- present by proposed method: VSCM (Virtual Supervisor Control Method). Based on VSCM, using technology of fusing information coming from both real sensors and virtual sensors the effectiveness and precision of underwater robot are improved.110


A network of motorcycle volunteers is on standby out of hours to deliver blood, medicines and equipment where they are needed by NHS staff.


The preparation of diphtheria toxins from the time of its discovery by Behring has been repeatedly investigated with the development of many changes in its preparation, but it still presents many difficulties. The urgent need of strong potent toxins for the Ramon flocculation tests for titration of diphtheria antitoxins, and also for the preparation of toxin-antitoxin mixtures and toxoids for immunization, led the writer at the instigation of Dr. Park to add her attempts to the further solving of this problem. The Ramon flocculation test for titrating toxins was of greatest value in the following studies. It would have been indeed a difficult, tedious and expensive task, to check the numerous lots of toxins prepared by guinea pig instead of the test tube tests. By the Ramon tests, different lots of toxins could be tested on different days of growth and the results known from twenty minutes to twenty-four hours, depending on the strength of the toxin.


Because of widespread criticisms of extensive usage of the synthetic agrochemicals, the most research papers have an interest in the clean and sustainable agricultural practices with attention in resurgence environmental health. A field experiment was conducted in the sandy soil during winter season of 2015/2016 at experimental farm, ARC, Ismaillia Governorate, Egypt to study the effect of biological (microbial additives), organic (compost tea) fertilization and their combination on rhizosphere properties, growth and productivity of wheat crop under different levels of mineral nitrogen fertilizer. The microbial additive was applied as consortium of Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Azorhizobium caulinodans and Paenibacillus polymyxa, which cultured on commercial medium. Compost tea was used as organic fertilizer while nitrogen levels were applied at a rate of 50, 75 or 100 kg N /fed. The experimental treatments were planned in a one way randomized complete block design with three replicates. The obtained data showed that the rhizosphere activity of wheat plants was enhanced due to the addition of microbial additives in combined with compost tea and high dose of nitrogen fertilizer. Wheat plants exhibited significant responses to studied treatments with respect to vegetative growth, total nutrients content, wheat yield and yield attributes. The application of combination of microbial additives and compost tea with 75 kg N/fed revealed optimum treatment in terms of vegetative growth, total nutrients content, wheat yield and yield components.


Herpes Encephalitis Presenting as Cystic Encephalomalacia : A Case Report Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is a common cause of viral encephalitis. Herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) remains one of the most devastating infections of the central nervous system despite available antiviral therapy. Herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) typically presents with acute neurological changes and the initial cerebrospinal fluid examination is nearly always abnormal. However, these clinical findings are not pathognomonic because numerous other diseases in the central nervous system can mimic HSE. In the current era, the diagnostic gold standard is the detection of HSV DNA in the cerebrospinal fluid by polymerase chain reaction. Cystic encephalomalacia is uncommon after HSE. In addition it can effect bilateral hemisferic structre and characterised with cystic cavite and gliosis. In this study, it was presented a rare case cystic encephalomalacia occurred after HSV encephalitis.


Detecting internal defects such as fatigue cracks in their early stages is critically important to avoid catastrophic failures. However, detection of micro-scale defects poses a challenge to NDT/SHM (Non-Destructive Testing & Structural Health Monitoring) community. Conventional linear ultrasonic techniques that use absolute time of flight and attenuation to monitor damage progression encounter difficulty in detecting small defects. On the other hand, nonlinear ultrasonic techniques have been proven to be more reliable and sensitive to micro-scale defects. This study uses the nonlinear Sideband Peak Count Index (SPC-I) technique to evaluate the nonlinearity of the material. The problem is simulated using the finite element method (FEM). Fatigue cracks are simulated as breathing cracks. The problem is modeled as an infinite medium to minimize the geometrical effects such as reflections from the boundaries. A narrow band signal is excited and propagated through the material in a single sided excitation/detection setup. The degree of nonlinearity caused by breathing cracks is investigated for multiple configurations. First, the problem is modeled with no cracks to be taken as a reference condition. Then thick crack and thin crack (breathing crack) are modeled, analyzed, and compared. Finally, problems with different number of breathing cracks are simulated and analyzed. All simulated results are compared to investigate the dependence of the degree of nonlinearity on the density and orientation of the cracks.


Studies were conducted to investigate what protective nature the cocoon and nylon carpeting has against the performance of insecticides directed at cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis (Bouché), pupae developing in carpet. The following 5 combinations of life stages and substrates were used in these tests were: (1) larvae that pupated in carpet, (2) cocoons placed in carpet, (3) naked pupae placed in carpet, (4) cocoons placed on filter paper, and (5) naked pupae placed on filter paper. These studies evaluated the performance of chlorpyrifos, microencapsulated chlorpyrifos, propetamphos, permethrin, and linalool. When averaged over all insecticides, the mean controls of cocooned pupae placed in carpet and cocooned pupae placed on filter paper were 37.2 and 26.7%, respectively, whereas that of naked pupae placed in carpet was only 13.7%. Additional tests conducted using chlorpyrifos revealed that mortality was 23 and 42% higher, respectively, whenever pupae in cocoons and naked pupae were treated in glass dishes without filter paper. These studies demonstrate that the debri-coated cocoon is not a barrier to insecticide penetration, and that pupae appeared to be protected inside the carpet matrix. Additional studies demonstrated that control of pupae developing in carpet was maximized at lower application pressures. The mean control of pupae with chlorpyrifos at 0.7 kg/cm2 pressure was 77.2%, yet applications at 1.7 kg/cm2 resulted in only 23.3% control.


The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) has collected hundreds of hours of Epoch of Reionization (EoR) data and now faces the challenge of overcoming foreground and systematic contamination to reduce the data to a cosmological measurement. We introduce several novel analysis techniques, such as cable reflection calibration, hyper-resolution gridding kernels, diffuse foreground model subtraction, and quality control methods. Each change to the analysis pipeline is tested against a two-dimensional power spectrum figure of merit to demonstrate improvement. We incorporate the new techniques into a deep integration of 32 hours of MWA data. This data set is used to place a systematic-limited upper limit on the cosmological power spectrum of mK2 at k = 0.27 h Mpc−1 and z = 7.1, consistent with other published limits, and a modest improvement (factor of 1.4) over previous MWA results. From this deep analysis, we have identified a list of improvements to be made to our EoR data analysis strategies. These improvements will be implemented in the future and detailed in upcoming publications.


In this paper, we use a spiral channel inertial focusing device for isolation and purification of chromosomes, which are highly asymmetric. The method developed is proposed as a sample preparation process for transchromosomic research. The proposed microfluidics-based chromosome separation approach enables rapid, label-free isolation of bioactive chromosomes and is compatible with chromosome buffer. As part of this work, particle force analysis during the separation process is performed utilizing mathematic models to estimate the expected behavior of chromosomes in the channel and the model validated with experiments employing fluorescent beads. The chromosome sample is further divided into subtypes utilizing fluorescent activated cell sorting , including small condensed chromosomes, single chromosomes, and groups of two chromosomes (four sister chromatids). The separation of chromosome subtypes is realized based on their shape differences in the spiral channel device under high flow rate conditions. When chromosomes become aligned in the shear flow, the balance between the inertial focusing force and the Dean flow drag force is determined by the chromosome projection area and aspect ratio, or shape difference, leading to different focusing locations in the channel. The achieved results indicate a new separation regime in inertial microfluidics that can be used for the separation of non-spherical particles based on particle aspect ratios, which could potentially be applied in fields such as bacteria subtype separation and chromosome karyotyping.


Abstract The article examines the section of officials in the central administration who belong to the ministerial staff of the Czech Republic. It examines those persons engaged in the creation of analyses, strategies, and management activities. The study is based on original research conducted by the ministries of the Czech Republic in 2013 (N = 1351). The article seeks to discover what the make-up of this group is in terms of gender, age, and education levels at the chosen ministries, as well as to report on the types of experiences the group has had. The analysis shows that ministerial officials are in fact a gender-balanced group of employees, predominately university-educated. The overall median age of employees in all ministries is 42 years. On the other hand, there are certain inter-ministerial differences, as explained in detail in this paper. Based on results of the empirical research, conclusions have been drawn that may also serve as an inspiration for similar investigations in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe that address similar issues as found in the Czech Republic.


[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of sacral sitting in a wheelchair on contact pressure on the buttocks and back, and shear force on the ischial region. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-six healthy adults assumed two postures while seated in a wheelchair: a basic sitting posture, and sacral sitting with the pelvis tilted posteriorly and the ischium slid forward by 5 cm relative to its position in the basic sitting posture. The inclination angle of the sagittal pelvic line, contact pressures and contact areas on the buttocks and back, and the shear force generated by sliding the ischial region forward were measured. [Results] Posterior pelvic tilt was significantly greater during sacral sitting. Maximum contact pressures on the buttocks and ischial region were significantly lower during sacral than during basic sitting. However, maximum contact pressure on the back, the contact areas of the buttocks and back, and the shear force generated by sliding the ischial region forward were significantly greater during sacral sitting. [Conclusion] Sacral sitting in a wheelchair increases the maximum contact pressure on the back, contact areas of the buttocks and back, and the shear force generated by sliding the ischial region forward.


Local government units are recognized as viable organs for the performance of local functions; they are challenged to use their limited resources for delivering better services. Hence, the grant of local fiscal autonomy is considered necessary for the effective local government system and to achieve the objective of alleviating the economic conditions of the locality and efficient delivery of essential services to the populace. This paper has examined the financial management skills of local chief executives and the local government finance regarding social services, economic services and socioeconomic development in the twenty-four municipalities of Northern Samar. It also looked into the significant relationship between the financial management skills and local government finance of the local chief executives. Questionnaire and interview guide were used, utilizing a descriptive correlation method of research. The analysis concludes that the local chief executives are much skilled in financial management, have a high level of performance in local government finance in terms of social and economic services while an average level of performance in terms of socioeconomic development, it was also shown that the financial management skills of the local chief executive are related to local government finance.


HCV and HBV cause annually, 2000 deaths from liver cancer in Burkina Faso. In this country, serological screening of hepatitis viruses B and C is only systematic among blood donors. The aims of this study were; (1) to investigate the reasons for the prescription of the screening for hepatitis B and C; (2) to determine HCV and HBV prevalence among 462 patients attending the Saint Camille Centre and (3) to identify patients with acute hepatitis or with chronic hepatitis for better monitoring. From February to May 2012, 462 patients attending the laboratory of the Saint Camille Medical Centre with viral hepatitis suspicion were screened. The hepatitis B and C serological markers were detected through Enzyme Immuno Assay (EIA) technique using commercial reagent kits. The clinical symptoms were also recorded for each patient. The results revealed that, the main clinical symptoms that prompted physicians to request HBV and HCV screenings were: asthenia (39.4%), anorexia (21.2%), abdominal pains (19.0%), nausea (10.4%), others (10.0%). The prevalence of HbsAg was 29.4% among the screened people. Patients with acute hepatitis B, active chronic hepatitis B and non-active chronic hepatitis B represented 11.2, 2.2 and 16.0%, respectively. The acquisition of immunity against HBV after vaccination was attempted for 11.7% people. HCV prevalence was 3.9% and its coinfection with HBV was 2.2%. This study showed a high prevalence for hepatitis B and C among patients attending Saint Camille Medical Centre. Without hygiene education and HBV/HCV prevention, viral hepatitis infection will become a serious public health problem in Burkina Faso.


Papillomaviruses are epitheliotropic, non-enveloped, double-stranded DNA viruses. The Papillomaviridae family consists of 5 genera affecting cattle, including Delta papillomavirus, Xi papillomavirus, Epsilon papillomavirus, Dyoxi papillomavirus, and Dyokappa papillomavirus. Among these genera, 24 types of bovine papillomaviruses (BPVs) have been reported to date. The BPV genome is almost 8 Kb in size and is organized into three regions: early (E), late (L), and long codon region (LCR), The E region codes for replication proteins (E1, E2, E4) as well as oncoproteins (E5, E6, and E7). The L1 ORF is the most conserved among PVs and for this reason, it is employed in virus classification. The present PV diversity can be explained by multiple evolutionary mechanisms. Virus host-divergence is an important evolutionary force, however this force solely cannot explain the evolution of PVs and their diversity, thus alternative mechanisms such as within-host virus duplication, recombination, viral sorting, or viral adaptation after a host switch, may therefore contribute considerably to explain the PV diversification. This review will provide a quick overview of the genomes and structures of BPV as well as a more detailed description of genotypic diversity.

https://www.ijcmas.com/11-4-2022/Dushyant Madhukarrao Muglikar, et al.pdf


This paper describes a small-scale study which investigates the role of blogging in professional academic practice in higher education. It draws on interviews with a sample of academics (scholars, researchers and teachers) who have blogs and on the author's own reflections on blogging
 to investigate the function of blogging in academic practice and its contribution to academic identity. It argues that blogging offers the potential of a new genre of accessible academic production which could contribute to the creation of a new twenty-first century academic identity with
 more involvement as a public intellectual.


People usually will choose one popular culture as their lifestyle. Music, movie, fashion, food, drink, and sport are several artifacts or products of popular culture.


Three known alkaloids, isoboldine (2), norisoboldine (1), and magnoflorine (8), have been isolated for the first time from Croton lechleri, a source of the wound healing latex "sangre de grado". An HPLC system was developed, and a large number of latex and leaf samples of C. lechleri from 22 sites in northern Peru and Ecuador were analyzed to gain an understanding of the natural variation in alkaloid content for the species. Up to six alkaloids were found to occur in the leaves including, in addition to those listed above, thaliporphine (3), glaucine (4), and taspine (9), whereas the latex contained only 9. Taspine (9) is the component that has been previously found to be responsible for the wound healing activity of C. lechleri latex, and its mean concentration throughout the range examined was found to be 9% of the latex by dry weight. In addition, three chemotypes are defined based on the alkaloid content of the leaves, and the geographic distribution of these chemotypes is discussed along with a quantitative analysis of the alkaloid content as a function of chemotype.


This study is aimed to know the effectiveness of teaching vocabulary using
English songs and hand puppets at Elementary School. Specially it is to describe the
procedure, the effectiveness, and the strength and weaknesses of teaching
vocabulary using English songs and hand puppets.
The study was conducted in SD N Gentan 02 Baki, Sukoharjo using
experimental study. The writer took 21 students of the fourth year students class B
as the subject of the research. The writer uses pre-test and post-test to estimate the
effectiveness of teaching vocabulary using English songs and hand puppets. In pretest,
the highest score is 27, the lowest score is 11, and the average score is 18,5. In
the post-test, the highest score is 29, the lowest score is 11, and the average score is
20,4. The t value of the computation post-test is 20.4 and pre-test is 18,5. The t
value of table at 0,05 level of significance for degree is 2,080. It shows that the t
value is lager than t table. Based on the analysis the writer sees that t calculate posttest
is lager than t calculate pre-test or 20,4 is lager than 18,5 so it can be conclude
that teaching vocabulary using songs and hand puppets is effective.
The combinations of hand puppets and songs as an alternative technique of
teaching vocabulary at Elementary School have weaknesses as well as strengths.
The weaknesses are the teacher gets difficulty to find simple and familiar songs,
which are easily understood by the students, then teacher also needs more energy
and time. The strengths are the students can remember and memorize the
words/phrases easily by singing a song. In addition, the students do not get bored
easily because they enjoy the hand puppets performance.


Exploration of effective ways to integrate various functional species into hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs) is critically important for their applications but highly challenging. In this study, according to the "bottle-around-ship" strategy, core-shell heterostructure of upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) and HOFs was first time fabricated via a ligand-grafting stepwise method. UCNPs "core" can effectively upconvert near-infrared (NIR) irradiation (980 nm) into visible light (540 nm and 653 nm), which further excites the perylenediimide-based HOF "shell" through resonance energy transfer. In this way, the nanocomposite inherits the high porosity, excellent photothermal and photodynamic efficiency, NIR photoresponse from two parent materials, achieving intriguing NIR-responsive bacterial inhibition toward Escherichia coli . This study may shed light on the design of functional HOF-based composite materials, not only enriching the HOF library but also broadening the horizon of their potential applications.


OBJECTIVE Using transcranial magnetic stimulation paradigms, this study investigated motor cortex integrity as a function of an athlete's prior history of concussions. PATIENTS AND METHODS Motor cortex excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms were studied in athletes using four different transcranial magnetic stimulation protocols, namely 1) resting motor threshold, 2) intracortical inhibition and intracortical facilitation in a paired-pulse paradigm, 3) excitability of the corticospinal system using an input-output curve, and 4) intracortical inhibition in a cortical silent-period paradigm. Motor-evoked potentials were recorded from the first dorsal interosseous muscle of the right hand. RESULTS Cortical silent-period duration in athletes who have experienced multiple concussions was prolonged when compared to that of normal control participants. Linear regression suggested that concussion severity was the main factor explaining motor cortex dysfunction. Moreover, when we retested the athletes, the cortical silent period was more prolonged in those who sustained another concussion after baseline testing had occurred. CONCLUSION Findings from this study indicate that sports-related concussions result in long-term motor system dysfunctions that seem to be attributable to subclinical intracortical inhibitory system abnormalities. This study also shows that sustaining subsequent concussions exacerbates this deficit, and thus provides additional support for the contention that the adverse effects of sports-related concussions on intracortical inhibitory systems are cumulative.


Introduction: Membrane filtration (MF) is one of the widely used technique on a routine basis. On the other hand, replica plate (RP) technique can be used to transfer existing bacterial colonies in two plates which even allows pinpointing the original colony. The aim of this study is to comparatively detect the cfu/100 mL of fecal coliform using membrane filtration and replica plate techniques.Methods: In the study, a total of 25 bottled water were selected from the local market in Kathmandu valley. The total coliform count was detected using MF, while fecal coliform was detected using both MF and RP technique.Results: It was found that the average cfu/100 mL for total coliform, fecal coliform (MF) and fecal coliform (RP) were 143.38, 49.82 and 51.00 respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient calculated between total coliform and fecal coliform (MF), total coliform and fecal coliform (RP), fecal coliform (MF) and fecal coliform (RP) were found to be 0.695, 0.733 and 0.990 respectively; implying a positive correlation Conclusions: It has been demonstrated that intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence colony forming units. Furthermore, RP is a more sensitive method for screening fecal coliforms although both MF and RP can be efficiently used.


Patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) are at increased risk for colorectal cancer (CRC), especially those with longstanding disease, pancolitis or primary sclerosing cholangitis. The incidence of colitis- associated cancer is increasing, and the mortality rates from CRC are higher in UC patients than in the general population. Case control studies have demonstrated that surveillance colonoscopy reduces the risk of dying from CRC. A well conducted decision analysis found that surveillance colonoscopy decreases cancer-related mortality and increases life expectancy. The results with surveillance programs were almost as good as with prophylactic colectomy. A subsequent cost effectiveness analysis using the same model found that, compared with a policy of no surveillance, colonoscopic surveillance was more effective at preventing death from CRC and was less costly. The best strategy appears to be to perform colonoscopies every three years. The analysis also showed that colectomy should be recommended in patients with low-grade dysplasia. Patients at very high risk for CRC should undergo yearly colonoscopy, and patients who are concerned about the limitations of this technique should be offered prophylactic colectomy.


Based on the 1961-2007 ground surface meteorological data from 558 meteorological stations in China, this paper analyzed the differences of agricultural climate resources in China different regions, and compared the change characteristics of the agricultural climate resources in 1961-1980 (period I) and 1981-2007 (period II), taking the year 1981 as the time node. As compared with period I, the mean annual temperature in China in period II increased by 0.6 degrees C, and the > or = 0 degrees C active accumulated temperature in the growth periods of chimonophilous crops and the > or = 10 degrees C active accumulated temperature in the growth periods of thermophilic crops increased averagely by 123.3 degrees C x d and 125.9 degrees C x d, respectively. In 1961-2007, the mean annual temperature increased most in Northeast China, and the > or = 10 degrees C active accumulated temperature in the growth periods of thermophilic crops increased most in South China. The whole year sunshine hours and the sunshine hours in the growth periods of chimonophilous crops and of thermophilic crops in period II decreased by 125.7 h, 32.2 h, and 53.6 h, respectively, compared with those in period I. In 1961-2007, the annual sunshine hours decreased most in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, while the sunshine hours in the growth periods of chimonophilous crops and of thermophilic crops decreased most in North China and South China, respectively. In the whole year and in the growth periods of chimonophilous and thermophilic crops, both the precipitation and the reference crop evapotranspiration in this country all showed a decreasing trend, with the largest decrement in the precipitation in the whole year and in the growth periods of chimonophilous and thermophilic crops in North China, the largest decrement in the reference crop evapotranspiration in the whole year and in the growth periods of thermophilic crops in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, and the largest decrement in the reference crop evapotranspiration in the growth periods of chimonophilous crops in Northwest China. In 1961-2007, the climate in China in the whole year and in the growth periods of thermophilic crops showed an overall tendency of warm and dry, and the climate in the growth periods of thermophilic crops became warm and dry in Southwest China, North China, and Northeast China, but warm and wet in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, Northwest China, and South China, whereas the climate in the growth periods of chimonophilous crops became warm and dry in North China, but became warm and wet in Northwest China.


Cyclin D1 (CCND1) is a critical regulator of cell proliferation and its overexpression has been linked to the development and progression of several malignancies. CCND1 overexpression is recognized as a major mechanism of therapy resistance in several cancers; tumors that rely on CCND1 overexpression to evade cancer therapy are extremely sensitive to its ablation. Therefore, targeting CCND1 is a promising strategy for preventing tumor progression and combating therapy resistance in cancer patients. Although CCND1 itself is not a druggable target, it can be targeted indirectly by inhibiting its regulators. CCND1 steady-state levels are tightly regulated by ubiquitin-mediated degradation, and defects in CCND1 ubiquitination are associated with increased CCND1 protein levels in cancer. Here, we uncover a novel function of ubiquitin-specific protease 27X (USP27X), a deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB), in regulating CCND1 degradation in cancer. USP27X binds to and stabilizes CCND1 in a catalytically-dependent manner by negatively regulating its ubiquitination. USP27X expression levels correlate with the levels of CCND1 in several HER2-therapy-resistant breast cancer cell lines, and its ablation leads to a severe reduction of CCND1 protein levels, inhibition of tumor growth, and re-sensitization to targeted therapy. Together, the results presented in our study are the first to expose USP27X as a major CCND1 deubiquitinase and provide a mechanistic explanation for how this DUB fosters tumor growth. Implications: As a deubiquitinating enzyme, USP27X is a druggable target. Our study illuminates new avenues for therapeutic intervention in CCND1-driven cancers.


Transient evolution and adjustment to changing tectonic and climatic boundary conditions is an essential attribute of landscapes, and characterizing transient behavior is a key to understanding their dynamics and history. Developing new approaches to detect such transience has been explored by various methods, in particular to identify landscape response to Late Cenozoic and Quaternary climatic changes. Such studies have often focused on regions of high relief and/or active tectonic activity where interferences between tectonic and climatic signals might complicate the interpretation of the observations. We investigated the case of the hillslopes of the Serra do Cipó quartzitic range in SE Brazil in order to detect and quantify transience in a tectonically quiescent landscape over 100‐ka timescales. We determined hilltop curvature from a high‐resolution digital surface model derived from Pléiades imagery and measured cosmogenic nuclide (10Be and 26Al) concentrations at these hilltop sites. We compare both observations with predictions of hillslope diffusion theory, observing a distinctive signature of an acceleration of denudation. We performed a joint inversion of topographic and isotopic data to retrieve an evolution of the hillslope sediment transport coefficient through time. The timing of the increase in denudation cannot be unequivocally associated with a single climatic event but is consistent with important, climatically modulated fluctuations in precipitation and erosion in this area during the Middle and Late Pleistocene.


In this self-study, five university instructors who taught the same online literacy course during a summer session formed an online learning community. Through engaging in email exchanges, participating in online discussions, posting weekly teaching reflections, and visiting one another's online courses, they sought to answer the research question: How can an online literacy learning community support university instructors who teach various sections of a common online course? In answering the research question, the researchers identified the themes that were most prominent in their discussions and reflections, and also the themes that played minor roles in the forming of the literacy learning community.


Let R be a commutative Noetherian ring. The aim of this paper is studying the properties of relative Gorenstein modules with respect to a dualizing module. It is shown that every quotient of an injective module is GC -injective, where C is a dualizing R-module with idR(C) ≤ 1. We also prove that if C is a dualizing module for a local integral domain, then every GC -injective R-module is divisible. In addition, we give a characterization of dualizing modules via relative Gorenstein homological dimensions with respect to a semidualizing module.


Objective To evaluate the efficacy of implementing a standardized multimodal perioperative pain management protocol in reducing opioid prescriptions following otolaryngologic surgery. Study Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting County hospital otolaryngology practice. Methods A perioperative pain management protocol was implemented in adults undergoing otolaryngologic surgery. This protocol included preoperative patient education and a postoperative multimodal pain regimen stratified by pain level: mild, intermediate, and high. Opioid prescriptions were compared between patient cohorts before and after protocol implementation. Patients in the pain protocol were surveyed regarding pain levels and opioid use. Results We analyzed 210 patients (105 preprotocol and 105 postprotocol). Mean ± SD morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) prescribed decreased from 132.5 ± 117.8 to 53.6 ± 63.9 (P < .05) following protocol implementation. Mean MMEs prescribed significantly decreased (P < .05) for each procedure pain tier: mild (107.4 to 40.5), intermediate (112.8 to 48.1), and high (240.4 to 105.0). Mean MMEs prescribed significantly decreased (P < .05) for each procedure type: endocrine (105.6 to 44.4), facial plastics (225.0 to 50.0), general (160.9 to 105.7), head and neck oncology (138.6 to 77.1), laryngology (53.8 to 12.5), otology (77.5 to 42.9), rhinology (142.2 to 44.4), and trauma (288.0 to 24.5). Protocol patients reported a mean 1-week postoperative pain score of 3.4, used opioids for a mean 3.1 days, and used only 39% of their prescribed opioids. Conclusion Preoperative counseling and standardization of a multimodal perioperative pain regimen for otolaryngology procedures can effectively lower amount of opioid prescriptions while maintaining low levels of postoperative pain.


Abstract A new ammonium-bearing trioctahedral mica (suhailite) has been found in gneisses from the Betic Cordillera (Spain). Suhailite appears as aggregates of golden grains unoriented with respect to the main foliation. It shows weak pleochroism from light to darker yellow and low birefringence (0.028). X-ray data indicate the presence of two compositional variations: a NH4-rich phase (with a basal spacing of 10.40-10.44 Å) and a NH4-K intermediate phase (with basal spacing of 10.20-10.26 Å). Average composition, as deduced from analyses obtained at the scale of the scanning electron microscope is [Ca0.04Na0.07K0.35(NH4)0.55](Al0.42Ti0.22Fe1.33Mn0.01Mg0.71)Σ=2.70(Si2.67Al1.33)O10(OH)2. Thermal data indicate that maximum NH4 detachment occurs at 502 °C, suggesting a thermal stability similar to tobelite. Textural data indicate that unoriented golden grains consist of fine intergrowths of annite and suhailite and suggest that suhailite formed from primary red annite during the annite to fibrolite transformation.


The use of pitch contours is an established technique for content-based retrieval of music ('query by humming'). This paper presents a system which employs pitch contours to support content-based navigation around a body of multimedia documents including MIDI and digital audio files. The system adopts an open hypermedia model, enabling the user to find available hypermedia links from an arbitrary fragment in a piece of music, based on the content or location of that fragment. The design of the tools, contour database and the contour-matching algorithms are discussed.

http://www.beeka.org/research/papers/blackburn sg/blackburn - a tool for content based navigation of music.pdf


BACKGROUND
As a result of changes occurring in healthcare, providers have become increasingly specialized, resulting in fragmented care of patients and their families. With these changes, the need has developed for professionals who possess both advanced clinical decision-making ability and expanded psychomotor skills to serve as case managers in collaboration with physicians. As a result, evolving and innovative roles for advanced practice nurses have developed in American hospitals. The development of such roles, within the acute care hospital environment, has led directly to the creation of graduate programs to prepare acute care nurse practitioners.

OBJECTIVE
This article describes the efforts to develop a specific graduate program to prepare nurses as acute care nurse practitioners. These efforts include the needs assessment, curriculum and role development, implementation, and evaluation of the program.

RESULTS
Phase 1 evaluation showed significant support for acute care nurse practitioners. External support for the training and use of nurse practitioners in acute care was evidenced by significant financial support for this program provided by an acute care hospital and a private foundation. The first graduates are now practicing as acute care nurse practitioners; Phase 2 evaluation of patient outcomes is under way.

CONCLUSION
The emergence of acute care nurse practitioners has been stimulated by changes in American healthcare. Support for the use of acute care nurse practitioners is significant, but barriers to implementing the role and patient and fiscal outcomes must be studied.


This article traces the changing cultural spaces within Tudor England in which San Pedro's Carcel de amor and Arnalte y Lucenda were transferred and read. The analysis of bibliographical data and paratextual materials sheds light on how and by whom these works were read throughout this period, from the court of Henry VIII to the wider audiences marketed by Claudius Hollyband's Italian-English edition. The case of Diego de San Pedro serves to illustrate the interplay between transfer, rewriting and reading competence which conditioned the dissemination of texts in the English Renaissance.


Abstract Although the Full-access hypothesis accounts for a range of empirical generalizations of L2A, it underrepresents the role of language transfer in the construction of the L2 grammar. We suggest the possibility that linguistic principles which constrain the L2 grammar are available both directly from UG and via the L1, a logical hypothesis which Epstein et al. do not consider.


The aim of this study is to examine the level of spirituality among Malaysian youth. The sample for the study consisted of 4, 703 youths through the stratified random sampling method. In this study the spirituality level for the sample were measured. This quantitative research was conducted using a survey method through questionnaires distributed to a total of 4, 703 youths age between 15 to 40 years from all races, religions and education backgrounds throughout Malaysia. This study applies a systematic stratified random sampling and the data obtained was analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The result showed that the level of spiritual among Malaysian youth is relatively high with mean at 8.02 out of 10. The spirituality level of Malaysian youth was also found to differ according to category of gender, religion, ethnic, category of primary school, category of secondary school, highest academic qualification at school level and highest academic qualification. This result implies that the level of spirituality is still have room for improvement and the government, non-government organisation as well as parents should take into consideration all the background of the youth when planning any spirituality development program. These to ensure that the program will be effective to increase their level of spirituality once its suitable with their needs according to their different background.


Rat abdominal intact skin was treated with fatty acids, fatty amines, or Azone which were dissolved in propylene glycol (PG) and PG appearing in the rat dermis was studied. Analysis was done by Fourier transform infrared/attenuated total reflection (FT-IR/ATR) spectroscopy. The appearance of PG with time seemed to be in three phases when the skin sample was treated with a skin penetration enhancer such as oleic acid: (1) in the first stage, PG penetrated the skin barrier which was not substantially altered, and gradually appeared in the dermis; (2) in the second stage, it rapidly distributed in/throughout the dermis, and this rapid distribution was probably due to the alteration of the dermal structure: the penetration enhancing effect of the enhancer was thought to reach maximal; and (3) in the third stage, PG was saturated in the dermis. The value of T(max alteration), at which the alteration of the dermal structures is completed, showed that the action of both oleic acid and oleylamine were more rapid than other enhancers. Both the value of PG peak area(max) at the third stage which reflects the distribution volume of PG in the dermis and the value of T(sat) at which PG is saturated in the dermis were calculated, and the results suggested that both the distribution volume of PG in the dermis and the time of the saturation varied depending on the enhancer. In conclusion, our present work indicated the importance and necessity of evaluating the rate and extent of appearance of a drug in the dermis to characterize an enhancer.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Data aggregation is an important feature in wireless sensor networks (WSN), where data inputs at an aggregator node are merged to produce compact small output data, thus reducing the network's transmission overhead and preserving the scarce-battery resources of sensors. Unfortunately, if not secured against attackers, data aggregation can produce erroneous results, which can induce the network operator to take wrong decisions. In this paper, we present a secure aggregation protocol for cluster-based WSN, which is adapted to a large variety of aggregation functions, and which does not rely on trusted aggregator nodes. The inherent transmission overhead is even smaller than in other secure aggregation protocols.


This paper explores a local survey "technology in the classroom" at was completed by administrators representing seven school districts in Nassau County, New York. I became interested in technology in the local school district when I volunteered to serve on its technology committee. I am a parent of two school-aged children and have earned an undergraduate minor degree in information science. The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) asked me to attend me district's technology committee meetings, then convey the relevant information back to the PTA. The technology committee -- composed of teachers, librarians, department heads, principals and a few parents -- met once a month and I attended meetings regularly. After attending one meeting, I volunteered to participate on a new sub-committee focusing on the World Wide Web. Approximately 10 to 20 people attended each of the committee and sub-committee meetings. The goal of the technology committee was to review and discuss the district's plans for technology growth and for surplus equipment. The sub-committee's goal was to discuss and create the district's Web page. As I attended these meetings, I began to think that it would be helpful to know what other school districts were doing in the area of technology. Specifically, I wanted to learn how we compared to neighboring districts in the use and integration of technology in K-6 classrooms. I decided independently that I would prepare a list of questions in the form of an open-ended survey and send it with a cover letter to a number of school districts. I sent the survey (see Figure One) and informed the recipients that they would receive a call to set up an appointment for an interview based on their responses. To encourage participation, I noted in the cover letter that the interview would take only 30 minutes of their time. The interviews were conducted in the educators' offices. Figure One. Technology in the Classroom Survey 1. Number and age of computers in the classroom/labs? 2. Is there a separate computer lab? 3. Types of computers used by grade/class? 4. What types of software are used; i.e., computer-assisted instruction or other? 5. Where is hardware/software purchased? 6. Type and frequency of teacher training? 7. Description of students' computer classes? 8. Do you have Internet access? 9. What is the Internet used for? 10. E-mail ability and access? 11. Does your district have a Web page (what is its address)? 12. Who does the job of Webmaster? 13. Are students involved in the Web page? 14. How dynamic is the Web page? How often is page maintained/changed? 15. Is keyboarding taught? 16. Is the community involved in decision making regarding computer technology? 17. Technology expansion anticipated? 18. Philosophy of elementary schools regarding the curriculum with computer technology? Some Background My interest in the uses of technology led me to explore multiple sources. One source was the Nassau County Technology Survey Exploratory Data Analysis, prepared by BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services).[1] The Nassau BOCES Department of Planning, Research and Quality Assurance was asked by the Nassau County Superintendents' Technology Committee to develop and conduct a survey regarding technology employed in 56 public school districts across the county. The committee received responses from 37 school districts, 136 elementary buildings, and 73 middle school and high school buildings. The survey was extremely lengthy and detailed. Some of the responses were not completed with the level of detail requested. The following are some of the major findings: * Total budget expenditure (hardware, software, technology staff development and other technology) on average for the 37 districts reporting was $250,000 annually. The size of the district correlated with its per pupil technology spending. * More than half of the reporting districts stated that the source of technology spending came from the general budget. …


The massive desire to change the state and political system of late socialism in the late 1980s — in the first half of the 1990s led to the emergence of many new public organizations and real competition between the political parties, to freedom of the media, religious associations, everything that forms a "society" as a system of social relations based on mutual interests and solidarity. These processes have given rise to hopes for the country's exit from a long state of stagnation to democratization, turning it into a "normal country", the same as other developed countries of the West. But by the end of the 1990s, the negative consequences of protracted and half-hearted institutional reforms turned into mass disillusionment with the ideology of reforms, distrust of democratic parties, the need for stability, craving for conservatism and hopes for a strong leader who could return "order" to the people, a sense of security, predictability of everyday existence, guaranteed prosperity and confidence in tomorrow. Illusions of the transition period were replaced by conservative views and the restoration of state paternalism as ideological residues of Brezhnev's socialism. Data of sociological research shows, that hopes for the state paternalism over ordinary people are now combined with a pronounced distrust of the social institutions of state, political passivity and refusal to participate in public activities. Trust is limited only to the sphere of private existence. In this regard, "society" in the sociological sense can be considered per se only with a high degree of conditionality.


Background and Objective:   Foster care youth have high rates of adverse sexual health outcomes (i.e. STIs, teen pregnancy, sexual trauma), and are important targets for evidence-based sex education.With the COVID-19 pandemic, sex education programming was moved to a virtual format. However, few data existed to guide this transition. We conducted a mixed-methods analysis of the reach, implementation, and effectiveness of    virtual vs in-person sex education for foster care youth before, after, and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods:  Indiana Proud and Connected Teens (IN-PACT) provided three evidenced-based programs to system-involved youth. The data used in this study includes facilitator forms (n=64) from 2020-2021 virtual programming and youth surveys from 2018-2020 representing in-person (n=965) and virtual (n=50) delivery. Reach was measured using youth survey demographics and sexual behaviors; implementation by free responses from facilitators on challenges and adaptation for virtual teaching; and effectiveness by youth behavior intention and attendance records.
Results:Reach: demographic diversity was maintained for virtual programs, but youth in virtual programs had lower rates of risk behaviors.Implementation: technical, curricular, and relational challenges were experienced and these inspired creative solutions. The sensitivity of the topics likely contributed to relational challenges such as decreased group trust.
Effectiveness: more virtual youth planned to be abstinent in the future, however they had less sexual experience to start with. Fewer youth completed more than 75% of virtual programming as compared to in-person. Conclusions and Impact:  In-person sex education programming has a wider reach, experiences less implementation challenges, and holds better attendance records than virtual programming. However, if virtual programming becomes necessary again from a public health perspective, sex educators and researchers can build on these findings to design virtual sex education that maintains the reach, implementation, and effectiveness of in-person formats.


Combination antiretroviral therapy has greatly decreased the morbidity and mortality associated with HIV infection, although many agents currently available are limited by difficult dosing requirements, side-effect profiles and the development of resistance. Lopinavir/ritonavir is a coformulation of two protease inhibitors that exploit a favorable drug–drug interaction, yielding sustained increases in plasma levels of lopinavir. This agent has shown excellent therapeutic efficacy in both antiretroviral-naive and –experienced patients, with a tolerable side-effect profile and without evidence of the development of primary resistance mutations in registrational trials. Once-daily dosing has been approved recently for use in antiretroviral-naive patients, and US FDA approval was granted recently for a new tablet formulation that decreases the number of pills required for standard dosing.


This study compared seven growth models using body weight measurements from 300 progeny obtained from unselected random bred parents. The study which lasted for 20 weeks was carried out at the University of Maiduguri Livestock Teaching and Research farm. R 2 values for the Asymptote regression, Exponential, Gompertz, Logistic, Monomolecular, Richards and Weibull models were 0.994, 0.935, 0.997, 0.997, 0.998, 0.998, 0.998 and 0.999 respectively. The Weibull model had the highest coefficient of determination (R 2 ) value (0.999) and Exponential (0.935) least. In contrast, the exponential model had the highest MSE (Mean Square Error), SD (Standard Deviation) and AIC (Akaikes Information Criterion) values while Weibull model had the least. The exponential had the poorest fit (higher MSE, SD and AIC values and lower R 2 ) while the Weibull, Gompertz and Richards models best described the data in that order (lower MSE, SD and AIC values and higher R 2 ). In order words, the nonlinear models described the data better than linear. Therefore, based on goodness of fit criteria; R 2 , MSE, SD and AIC values, the weibull model best described live weight data of the Japanese


Abstract Clustered data are ubiquitous in a variety of scientific fields. In this article, we propose a flexible and interpretable modeling approach, called grouped heterogeneous mixture modeling, for clustered data, which models cluster-wise conditional distributions by mixtures of latent conditional distributions common to all the clusters. In the model, we assume that clusters are divided into a finite number of groups and mixing proportions are the same within the same group. We provide a simple generalized EM algorithm for computing the maximum likelihood estimator, and an information criterion to select the numbers of groups and latent distributions. We also propose structured grouping strategies by introducing penalties on grouping parameters in the likelihood function. Under the settings where both the number of clusters and cluster sizes tend to infinity, we present asymptotic properties of the maximum likelihood estimator and the information criterion. We demonstrate the proposed method through simulation studies and an application to crime risk modeling in Tokyo.


The 'range of variability approach' (RVA) and mapping technique are used to investigate the spatial variability of hydrologic alterations (HA) due to dam construction along the middle and lower Yellow River, China, over the past five decades. The impacts of climate variability on hydrological process have been removed during wet and dry periods and the focus is on the impacts of human activities, such as dam construction, on hydrological processes. Results indicate the following: (1) The impacts of the Sanmenxia reservoir on the hydrologic alteration are relatively slight with a mean HA value of 0·48, ranking in the last place among the four large reservoirs. (2) Xiaolangdi reservoir has significantly changed the natural flow regime downstream with mean HA value of 0·56, ranking it in first place among the large reservoirs. (3) The results of ranked median degrees of 33 hydrologic alteration indicators for 10 stations in the Yellow River show that the hydrologic alteration of Huayuankou ranks the highest among 10 stream gauges. (4) Impacts of reservoirs on hydrological processes downstream of the dams are closely associated with the regulating activities of the reservoirs. At the same time, alterations of streamflow regimes resulting from climatic changes (e.g. precipitation variability) make the situation more complicated and more hydrological observations will be necessary for further analysis. The results of the current study will be greatly beneficial to the regional water resources management and restoration of eco‐environmental systems in the middle and lower Yellow River characterized by intensified dam construction under a changing environment. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Glutathione (GSH; γ-glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine), a low-molecular-weight thiol, is the most pivotal metabolite involved in the antioxidative defense system of plants. The modulation of GSH on the plant in response to environmental stresses could be illustrated through key pathways such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging and signaling, methylglyoxal (MG) detoxification and signaling, upregulation of gene expression for antioxidant enzymes, and metal chelation and xenobiotic detoxification. However, under extreme stresses, the biosynthesis of GSH may get inhibited, causing an excess accumulation of ROS that induces oxidative damage on plants. Hence, this gives rise to the idea of exploring the use of exogenous GSH in mitigating various abiotic stresses. Extensive studies conducted borne positive results in plant growth with the integration of exogenous GSH. The same is being observed in terms of crop yield index and correlated intrinsic properties. Though, the improvement in plant growth and yield contributed by exogenous GSH is limited and subjected to the glutathione pool [GSH/GSSG; the ratio of reduced glutathione (GSH) to oxidized glutathione (GSSG)] homeostasis. Therefore, recent studies focused on the sequenced application of GSH was performed in order to complement the existing limitation. Along with various innovative approaches in combinatory use with different bioactive compounds (proline, citric acid, ascorbic acid, melatonin), biostimulants (putrescine, Moringa leaf extract, selenium, humic acid), and microorganisms (cyanobacteria) have resulted in significant improvements when compared to the individual application of GSH. In this review, we reinforced our understanding of biosynthesis, metabolism and consolidated different roles of exogenous GSH in response to environmental stresses. Strategy was also taken by focusing on the recent progress of research in this niche area by covering on its individualized and combinatory applications of GSH prominently in response to the abiotic stresses. In short, the review provides a holistic overview of GSH and may shed light on future studies and its uses.


Interest in monetary integration of 14 Pacific island countries was aroused in 2003 by an Australian Senate Committee's suggestion for adoption of the Australian dollar as common currency towards deeper regional integration. A common currency entails a single set of economic, monetary, financial and fiscal policies to influence the balance of payments of the region. Such a single set of policies can be justified only when all the prospective member countries face a similar pattern of shocks. this paper develops a structural VAr model with which to examine whether there exists a high degree of symmetry in shocks. The empirical findings fail to support the case for a currency union.


Towards sufficient music searching, it is vital to form a complete set of labels for each song. However, current solutions fail to resolve it as they cannot produce diverse enough mappings to make up for the information missed by the gold labels. Based on the observation that such missing information may already be presented in user comments, we propose to study the automated music labeling in an essential but under-explored setting, where the model is required to harvest more diverse and valid labels from the users' comments given limited gold labels. To this end, we design an iterative framework (DiVa) to harvest more Diverse and Valid labels from user comments for music. The framework makes a classifier able to form complete sets of labels for songs via pseudo-labels inferred from pre-trained classifiers and a novel joint score function. The experiment on a densely annotated testing set reveals the superiority of the DiVa over state-of-the-art solutions in producing more diverse labels missed by the gold labels. We hope our work can inspire future research on automated music labeling.


In this paper, a new 2-step quadrature phase-shifting digital holographic optical encryption method using orthogonal polarization is proposed and tolerance errors for this method are analyzed. Unlike the conventional technique using a PZT mirror, the proposed optical setup comprises two input and output polarizers, and one λ/4-plate retarder. This method makes it easier to get a phase shift of π/2 without using a mechanically driven PZT device for phase-shifting and it simplifies the 2-step phase-shifting Mach-Zehnder interferometer setup for optical encryption. The decryption performance and tolerance error analysis for the proposed method are presented. Computer experiments show that the proposed method is an alternate candidate for 2-step quadrature phase-shifting digital holographic optical encryption applications.


1 Intravenous heroin (diamorphine) was administered to volunteers, in doses of 2.5 and 5 mg to non-dependent and doses of 1/6, 1/3 and 1/2 of their prescribed daily dose of opiates to dependent subjects, and heart and respiration rates, blood pressure, body and skin temperature and skin conductance were measured before and for 2 h after injection. 2 Heart rate fell and continued to fall after injection in both groups of subjects although the time course was different in the two groups. This was thought to be a non-specific effect of heroin. 3 Respiration rate fell after injection in both groups. The dependent group showed a faster recovery of pre-drug respiration rate. This was interpreted as being due to tolerance in the dependent group. 4 Systolic blood pressure fell only in the dependent group and diastolic blood pressure only fell after injection of the largest dose of heroin in both groups. 5 Body temperature fell after injection of heroin in a similar way in both groups while neither skin temperature nor skin conductance changed. This was interpreted as a drug-induced alteration in thermo-regulatory mechanisms. 6 Placebo had no effect on any of these measures. There were no differences between the responses of the high and low dose dependent subjects to different doses of heroin nor did prior ingestion of methadone affect any of the measures.


When a fluid traverses a straight tube of sufficient length the individual molecular constituents arrange themselves eventually parallel to the long axis of the tube. Moreover, the cylinder of fluid does not move forward as one unit, but in such a manner that the central portion attains the greatest speed of flow, while the more external layers show a decreasing velocity from within outward. Thus, the layer of fluid which is in contact with the vessel-wall will show no movement whatever, provided that it moistens the wall. It must be clear, therefore, that the individual particles composing a fluid must rub on one another. Elements in neighboring layers move at different speeds and while some molecules are separated from one another, new contacts are constantly formed. The movement of the fluid is therefore accompanied by an internal, or molecular friction. If different fluids of the same temperature are forced through


PURPOSE
To evaluate the safety and accuracy of ultrasonography (US)-guided transthoracic cutting biopsy for diagnosing peripheral thoracic lesions (<3 cm).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Fifty consecutive patients with peripheral thoracic lesions less than 3 cm in diameter underwent US-guided percutaneous transthoracic cutting biopsy with a modified technique. Fifty lesions (43 parenchymal lung, two pleural, two chest wall, and three anterior mediastinal lesions) were sampled for biopsy. The final diagnosis was based on histopathologic analysis of surgical specimens (n = 18) or clinical follow-up (n = 32).

RESULTS
The histology recovery rate was 98% (49 lesions), and the correct diagnosis was obtained in 48 lesions (96%). Twenty-four (48%) lesions were malignant, and 26 (52%) were benign. The diagnostic accuracy for malignant lesions was 92% (22 of 24 lesions). A specific benign diagnosis was made in 17 (65%) of the 26 benign lesions, and the negative predictive value for malignancy was 93% (26 of 28 lesions). Only two patients (4%) developed postbiopsy pneumothorax, and three (6%) developed postbiopsy hemoptysis. Biopsy helped prevent surgery or thoracoscopy in 32 patients (64%): 18 patients with benign disease and 14 with multiple metastases or inoperable cancer.

CONCLUSION
US-guided transthoracic cutting biopsy appears to be a safe and effective method for diagnosing peripheral thoracic lesions less than 3 cm in diameter. The high diagnostic accuracy for benign lesions and metastatic lung cancer can help prevent surgery in many cases.


Australian acacias are widely planted as exotics and in some cases as invasive. Impact may be reduced if sterile triploid planting stock can be developed. This article reports the first step in such a breeding programme, the production of a population of tetraploid lines for inter-breeding with diploids. Three methods of polyploid induction with colchicine were compared. A conversion rate of 8.9 per cent was obtained by applying 1.5 per cent colchicine to the shoot apical meristem of seedlings. A 7 per cent conversion rate was obtained by germination of scarified seed on filter paper saturated with 0.02 per cent colchicine for 16 h and this method is recommended on logistical and safety grounds. Poor results were obtained when scarified seed were submerged in aqueous solutions of colchicine. Flow cytometry is the preferred method for ploidy determination, sampling after vegetative phase change on a minimum of two opposing phyllodes per plant. Visual classification was inaccurate due to the confounding effects of growth-retarding properties of colchicine. Size and distribution of stomata can also be used but is more time consuming than flow cytometry. At 26 months, tetraploid plants had heavier, thicker, wider and more cupped shaped phyllodes than diploids and the bark: stem diameter ratio was greater.


The problem of identifying suitable conditions for the schedulability of (nonpreemptive) recurring tasks with deadlines is of great importance to real-time systems. In this paper, motivated by the problem of scheduling radar dwells, we show that scheduling problems of this nature show a sharp threshold behavior with respect to system utilization. Sharp thresholds are associated with phase transitions: When the utilization of a task set is less than a critical value, it can be scheduled almost surely and, when the utilization increases beyond the critical level, almost no task set can be scheduled. We make connections to work on random graphs to prove the sharp threshold behavior in the scheduling problem of interest. Using extensive experiments, we determine the threshold for the radar dwell scheduling problem and use it for performance optimization. The connections to random graph theory suggest new ways for understanding the average-case behavior of scheduling policies. These results emphasize the ease with which performance can be controlled in a variety of real-time systems.


Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a non-contact automatic identification technology, and has many applications, such as in logistics, transportation, retail, etc. The wireless communication channel of the RFID systems is vulnerable to various malicious attacks, and RFID tag has limited calculation resources and small storage capacity, aimed at these problems, a HMAC-based RFID lightweight authentication protocol is proposed in this paper. The main advantages of the new protocol are in which only the Hash function and XOR operation are used so that the calculation capacity and storage space of reader are utilized efficiently, and the demand for the capacity of calculation and storage of tag are reduced. The analysis of security and performance show that the new protocol can resist some malicious attacks, such as spoofing attack, replay attack, tracking, etc., and is suitable for low-cost RFID system.


Purpose: The development of endovascular repair of popliteal aneurysms has provided an alternative, minimally invasive way of treatment. We present a case of a late type‐I endoleak, after previous exclusion of a popliteal pseudoaneurysm, leading to rupture and massive hematoma, which was excluded in a hybrid procedure. Case Report: A 95‐year‐old woman presented with progressive swelling with skin ulceration and necrosis cranial to the medial side of her left knee. Four years earlier, a left popliteal pseudoaneurysm was excluded with a stent‐graft. Rupture of the popliteal artery with massive hematoma was demonstrated by ultrasound examination and a spiral computed tomography scan, with high suspicion of a type‐I endoleak. Endovascular repair of the endoleak with a polytetrafluoroethylene‐covered stent‐graft was followed by surgical resection of the damaged skin and evacuation of the hematoma. Conclusion: Type‐I endoleaks after endovascular exclusion of popliteal pseudoaneurysms do occur and may lead to rupture. A symptomatic pseudoaneurysm may be successfully treated by a hybrid procedure. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Degeneration of brain tissue following stroke leads to functional impairment with limited brain self-repair. New evidence suggests that delivery of circulating CD34(+) human umbilical cord blood cells can produce functional recovery in an animal stroke model with concurrent angiogenesis and neurogenesis leading to some restoration of cortical tissue. While some alternative interpretations of this data are offered herein, the study provides encouraging evidence of functional recovery from stroke in an animal model using stem cell therapy.


Phenotyping to quantify the total carotenoids content (TCC) is sensitive, time-consuming, tedious, and costly. The development of high-throughput phenotyping tools is essential for screening hundreds of cassava genotypes in a short period of time in the biofortification program. This study aimed to (i) use digital images to extract information on the pulp color of cassava roots and estimate correlations with TCC, and (ii) select predictive models for TCC using colorimetric indices. Red, green and blue images were captured in root samples from 228 biofortified genotypes and the difference in color was analyzed using L*, a*, b*, hue and chroma indices from the International Commission on Illumination (CIELAB) color system and lightness. Colorimetric data were used for principal component analysis (PCA), correlation and for developing prediction models for TCC based on regression and machine learning. A high positive correlation between TCC and the variables b* (r = 0.90) and chroma (r = 0.89) was identified, while the other correlations were median and negative, and the L* parameter did not present a significant correlation with TCC. In general, the accuracy of most prediction models (with all variables and only the most important ones) was high (R2 ranging from 0.81 to 0.94). However, the artificial neural network prediction model presented the best predictive ability (R2 = 0.94), associated with the smallest error in the TCC estimates (root-mean-square error of 0.24). The structure of the studied population revealed five groups and high genetic variability based on PCA regarding colorimetric indices and TCC. Our results demonstrated that the use of data obtained from digital image analysis is an economical, fast, and effective alternative for the development of TCC phenotyping tools in cassava roots with high predictive ability.


The conversion of renewable energy especially solar
energy into versatile fuels is a key technology for an
innovative and sustainable energy economy. To finally
benefit from solar fuels they have to be produced with high
efficiencies and low to no greenhouse gas emissions in large
quantities. The final goal will most probably be the carbon
free fuel hydrogen. But the main challenge is its market
introduction. Therefore a strategy incorporating transition
steps has to be developed. Solar thermal processes have the
potential to be amongst the most efficient alternatives for
large scale solar fuel production in the future. Therefore
high temperature solar technologies are under development
for the different development steps up to the final goal of
carbon free hydrogen. This paper discusses the strategy
based on the efficiencies of the chosen solar processes
incorporating carbonaceous materials for a fast market
introduction and processes based on water splitting for long
term solar hydrogen generation. A comparison with the
most common industrial processes shall demonstrate which
endeavors have to be done to establish solar fuels.


Despite recent competitive performance across a range of vision tasks, vision Transformers still have an issue of heavy computational costs. Recently, vision prompt learning has provided an economic solution to this problem without fine-tuning the whole large-scale models. However, the efficiency of existing models are still far from satisfactory due to insertion of extensive prompts blocks and trick prompt designs. In this paper, we propose an efficient vision model named impLicit vIsion prOmpt tuNing (LION), which is motivated by deep implicit models with stable memory costs for various complex tasks. In particular, we merely insect two equilibrium implicit layers in two ends of the pre-trained main backbone with parameters in the backbone frozen. Moreover, we prune the parameters in these two layers according to lottery hypothesis. The performance obtained by our LION are promising on a wide range of datasets. In particular, our LION reduces up to 11.5% of training parameter numbers while obtaining higher performance compared with the state-of-the-art baseline VPT, especially under challenging scenes. Furthermore, we find that our proposed LION had a good generalization performance, making it an easy way to boost transfer learning in the future.


Purpose
It is possible for civil engineering (CE) students to graduate from a degree programme without gaining experience on a construction site. The implementation of virtual field trips using virtual reality (VR) in CE education is a development that can address this phenomenon and help facilitate the consolidation of abstract theories into tangible competences. This project aims to solve a fundamental CE education problem: once a structure has been completed, it is often impossible to see how it was built; hence, how can you demonstrate the construction process to a student?

Design/methodology/approach
This research used the opportunity of a new campus library development to record its construction sequence. This was achieved by visiting the site eight times to take panoramic stereoscopic photos of the construction process. By its nature, using VR as a didactic tool facilitates experiential learning, but this project also incorporates discovery learning and situated cognition to develop students' understanding of the construction process.

Findings
The use of VR in education is becoming increasingly common, but the explicit pedagogy used in these environments is rarely obvious or stated. This project draws upon current VR education discussions and explores the development of a VR environment with a pedagogical context.

Originality/value
The development of the VR resource draws upon the pedagogical frameworks of discovery learning (Bruner, 1961) and situated cognition (Lave and Wenger, 1991). A further unique aspect of this research is the use of stereoscopic cameras to capture the library's construction over time.


The evolution of fixed prosthesis production techniques makes it possible today to obtain prostheses that are too often considered as "definitive" because of a great deal of aesthetic and functional precision .However, despite the respect of the various stages no practitioner can claim to be safe from prosthetic failure. This is valid regardless of his experience, his rigor or his skill. These risks can be prosthetic origin periodontal, endodontic, aesthetic or functional.


We provide a presentation of the Roger and Yang's Kauffman bracket arc algebra for the once-punctured torus and punctured spheres with three or fewer punctures.


Chubby Puffer syndrome produces symptoms such as sleep apnea, cor pulmonale and upper airway obstruction due to adenotonsillar enlargement. We gave anesthesia for adenotonsillectomy in a 6-year-old boy with this syndrome. The child was massively obese. Anesthesia was induced with thiamylal, nitrous oxide and enflurane by monitoring SaO2. Tracheostomy was performed following orotracheal intubation because of possible difficult postoperative course. At the beginning of operation arterial blood studies showed hypoxemia. Positive end-expiratory pressure ventilation was effective to improve oxygenation. After adenotonsillectomy the symptoms were relieved.


PROBLEM
To identify plasma immuno-regulatory molecules up or down regulated between the follicular phase and ovulation of the human menstrual cycle.

METHOD OF STUDY
RayBio cytokine arrays were used to screen 174 immuno-regulatory molecules in plasma collected during the follicular phase at menstrual cycle day 5 and at ovulation from five healthy, non-smoking, fertile women of reproductive age not using hormonal contraception.

RESULTS
A total of 23 differentially expressed molecules were found: 10 molecules were differentially up-regulated and 13 down-regulated at ovulation compared with that at the follicular phase (alpha = 0.05, false discovery rate of 0.45).

CONCLUSION
Circulating immuno-regulatory molecules fluctuate over the menstrual cycle in healthy women. The combination of differentially expressed molecules suggests roles in cyclical regulation of angiogenesis and immune cell trafficking.


Backround: The cause of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) is thought to be a rupture of a subpleural bleb or bulla (BB). Thoracoscopy is considered the gold standard in determining the presence of BB, but this is an invasive procedure that has limitations. Recent studies have shown CT to be almost as sensitive for these findings, but, these studies were either not designed specifically to test this theory, or had a small number of subjects. Objective: To evaluate the potential of chest CT for preoperative diagnosing of pathologies in PSP patients. Methods: The study included 42 patients with PSP who underwent preoperative non-contrast chest CT followed by wedge pulmonary resection and pleurodesis through mini-thoracotomy. Results of CT, surgery and pathological study of resected tissue were compared. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of CT was 96.4% and 76.5% respectively. Correlation was also found comparing the size of BB measured on CT and the pathological study. In 14 cases (30%) no BB were found on CT, during surgery or pathological examination. In all of these cases a finding known as "apical lines" (AL) was demonstrated on CT. The pathological examination of the resected lung specimens showed fibrosis and emphysema. Conclusions: We found CT to be a very sensitive method of diagnosing BB in PSP patients. The study also demonstrated the presence of AL in PSP patients which were the radiological manifestation of limited fibrotic and emphysematous changes in the apex which may be the cause of PSP in our series of patients. Preoperative diagnosis of the cause of PSP helped to employ the proper surgical technique and to prevent recurrence of PSP.


Graphene oxide (GO) sheets were noncovalently modified with an amphiphilic double-crystalline block copolymer, polyethylene-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (PE-b-PEO) with assistance of supercritical CO(2) (SC CO(2)) in this work. The resulting PE-b-PEO/GO nanohybrids were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Raman spectra. Distinct morphologies of PE-b-PEO decorating on the surface of GO were obtained in different solvent systems and at different SC CO(2) pressures. We found that the solvent system and the SC CO(2) have significant influence on the crystallization, aggregation, or assembly behaviors of PE-b-PEO molecular chains on the GO sheets. The formation mechanism of the distinct nanohybrid structures is attributed to a relevant easy heteronucleation and the limited crystal growth of the block polymer on the surface of GO. The resulting modified GO sheets could find a broad spectrum of applications not only in producing graphene-based nanocomposites but also being used as a template to fabricate multifunctional structures due to the unique properties of PE-b-PEO. As a proof-of-concept, we further decorated the GO sheets with the as-prepared Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) and CdTe nanoparticles (CdTe NPs) with PE-b-PEO as the interlinker. Using the thiol-terminated PE-b-PEO as an interlinker, Au NPs can be densely assembled on the surface of GO via robust Au-S bonds. Furthermore, the photoluminescence quenching of CdTe NPs was more notable for PE-b-PEO/GO-CdTe hybrid compared to the GO-CdTe hybrid, suggesting that the electron transfer from the CdTe NPs to the GO sheets was enhanced with the PE-b-PEO interlinker. The availability of these affordable graphene-based multifunctional structures and their fundamental properties will open up new opportunities for nanoscience and nanotechnology and accelerate their applications.


Mastery of foreign languages in this global era is very necessary to expand the network, namely education and business networks and even politics. For this reason, at the secondary school level, foreign languages must be equipped, namely English and Arabic. This study aims to determine the extent of the mastery of English and Arabic students in MAN 1 Aceh Barat and how the supporting factors in learning two languages at the same time. The author conducted this research using a qualitative method which will describe the ability to master the language through interviews using two English and Arabic then the interview will be assessed as a result of the test proficiency. The results showed that out of 9 students there was 1 student who could not master two languages but 8 of them had the ability to speak Arabic and English. However, most of them have more difficulty mastering Arabic than English. Then, how can they learn the language well because the parents are very supportive of providing facilities in the form of language lessons or other support, besides that the environment also greatly influences language learning.