The turbine section of a gas turbine engine is subjected to hot gases flowing from the combustor that typically have high temperature regions known as "hot streaks." These hot streaks pass through the nozzle guide vanes, either impacting the vanes or passing through the passages between vanes. Generally the vanes are highly film cooled, and the coolant from the vanes interacts with the hot streak resulting in a reduction of the hot streak temperature. In this study, predictions of the reduction of hot streaks were made using superposition of measured temperature distributions due to coolant injection and measured temperature distributions of hot streaks. These predictions were compared to the measured hot streak reduction to determine the accuracy of the superposition technique. Results showed that the superposition predictions generally underpredicted the reduction of the peak hot streak temperature, but were within at least 20% of the peak temperature value. The superposition technique was also found to be useful for determining the hot streak reduction for different hot streak locations, and different coolant and hot streak operating conditions.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


Detailed analysis of information obtained is still under way, but initial trends appear to show stable enrollment, maintenance of minimum service levels, and lower hospital utilization.


New (diamine)platinum(II) complexes A(2)PtX(2) (A(2) = trans-(+/-)-1,2-diaminocyclohexane (DACH), tetrahydro-4H-pyran-4,4-diylbis(methylamine)(THPDMA); X(2) = 9-fluorenylidenemalonate(FM), benzhydrylidenemalonate(BHM)) have been synthesized and characterized by means of multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and X-ray analysis. (DACH)Pt(FM) crystallizes in space group P2(1)/c with eight formula units in a cell of dimensions a = 20.071(7) Å, b = 12.717(3) Å, c = 24.512(6) Å, beta = 103.25(2) degrees, and V = 6090(3) Å.(3) (DACH)Pt(BHM) crystallizes in space group P&onemacr; with four molecular units in a cell of dimensions a = 11.048(3) Å, b = 13.639(3) Å, c = 14.043(6) Å, alpha = 90.17(3) degrees, beta = 91.31(4) degrees, gamma = 89.98(3) degrees, and V = 2116(1) Å(3). The platinum atom in both complexes adopts a typical square planar arrangement with two nitrogen atoms in cis position. The 9-fluorenylidene and benzhydrylidene groups of the amine ligands chelated to platinum are strikingly bent up by 88.8(3) and 80.8(2) degrees, respectively, from the platinum square plane in the solid state. Variable temperature (1)H NMR spectra of the title complexes in dimethyl sulfoxide solution reveals that the amine proton resonances are sensitive to the fluxional motion of the remote arylidene groups, and suggests that interconversion occurs between two "bent-up" and "bent-down" forms. The prominent difference between the FM and BHM complexes is observed in solution, due to the presence or absence of the angle constraint of the anionic coligands.


Adequate biogeochemical characterization and monitoring of aquatic ecosystems, both for scientific purposes and for water management, pose high demands on spatial and temporal replication of chemical analyses. Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) may offer a rapid, low-cost and reproducible alternative to standard analytical sample processing (digestion or extraction) and measuring techniques used for the chemical characterization of aquatic sediments. We analyzed a total of 191 sediment samples for total and NaCl-extractable concentrations of Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, N, Na, P, S, Si, and Zn as well as oxalate- extractable concentrations of Al, Fe, Mn and P. Based on the NIR spectral data and the reference values, calibration models for the prediction of element concentrations in unknown samples were developed and tested with an external validation procedure. Except Mn, all prediction models of total element concentrations were found to be acceptable to excellent (ratio of performance deviation: RPD 1.8–3.1). For extractable element fractions, viable model precision could be achieved for NaCl-extractable Ca, K, Mg, NH4 +-N, S and Si (RPD 1.7–2.2) and oxalate-extractable Al, Fe and P (RPD 1.9–2.3). For those elements that showed maximum total values below 3 g kg−1 prediction models were found to become increasingly critical (RPD <2.0). Low concentrations also limited the performance of NIRS calibrations for extracted elements, with critical concentration thresholds <0.1 g kg−1 and 3.3 g kg−1 for NaCl and oxalate extractions, respectively. Thus, reliable NIRS measurements of trace metals are restricted to sediments with high metal content. Nevertheless, we demonstrated the suitability of NIRS measurements to determine a large array of chemical properties of aquatic sediments. The results indicate great potential of this fast technique as an analytical tool to better understand the large spatial and temporal variation of sediment characteristics in an economically viable way.


Plant health depends, in part, on associations with disease-suppressive microflora, but little is known about the role of plant genes in establishing such associations. Identifying such genes will contribute to understanding the basis for plant health in natural communities and to new strategies to reduce dependence on pesticides in agriculture. To assess the role of the plant host in disease suppression, we used a genetic mapping population of tomato to evaluate the efficacy of the biocontrol agent Bacillus cereus against the seed pathogen Pythium torulosum. We detected significant phenotypic variation among recombinant inbred lines that comprise the mapping population for resistance to P. torulosum, disease suppression by B. cereus, and growth of B. cereus on the seed. Genetic analysis revealed that three quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with disease suppression by B. cereus explained 38% of the phenotypic variation among the recombinant inbred lines. In two cases, QTL for disease suppression by B. cereus map to the same locations as QTL for other traits, suggesting that the host effect on biocontrol is mediated by different mechanisms. The discovery of a genetic basis in the host for interactions with a biocontrol agent suggests new opportunities to exploit natural genetic variation in host species to enhance our understanding of beneficial plant-microbe interactions and develop ecologically sound strategies for disease control in agriculture.


The thermoelectric behavior and stability of Cu2SnS3 (CTS) has been investigated in relation to different preparations and sintering conditions, leading to different microstructures and porosities. The studied system is CTS in its cubic polymorph, produced in powder form via a bottom-up approach based on high-energy reactive milling. The as-milled powder was sintered in two batches with different synthesis conditions to produce bulk CTS samples: manual cold pressing followed by traditional sintering (TS), or open die pressing (ODP). Despite the significant differences in densities, ~75% and ~90% of the theoretical density for TS and ODP, respectively, we observed no significant difference in electrical transport. The stable, best performing TS samples reached zT ~0.45, above 700 K, whereas zT reached ~0.34 for the best performing ODP in the same conditions. The higher zT of the TS sintered sample is due to the ultra-low thermal conductivity (κ ~0.3–0.2 W/mK), three-fold lower than ODP in the entire measured temperature range. The effect of porosity and production conditions on the transport properties is highlighted, which could pave the way to produce high-performing TE materials.


The case of a 30-year-old male with a history of pain in his left ankle is presented. The pain was described as predominantly nocturnal and frequently relieved by the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Computed tomography indicated a diagnosis of an osteoid osteoma in the posteromedial portion of the tibia. The patient underwent excision of the tumor using 2-portal posterior ankle arthroscopy. A clearly visualized nidus was removed using a combination of a cochlea and shaver. Histopathologic analysis of the resected tissue confirmed the diagnosis of an osteoid osteoma. The patient reported immediate relief of the pain and was rapidly allowed to bear weight on the foot. During regular follow-up, he had no pain recurrence and his joint mobility was normal. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the removal of an osteoid osteoma of the ankle using 2-portal posterior ankle arthroscopy.


Comparisons are made of the intelligibility of continuous speech in noise under three listening conditions: Speech arriving simultaneously and in phase at the two ears; speech arriving at one ear later than the other; and speech arriving simultaneously, but in opposite phase in one ear. Time intervals between ears ranged from 200 μsec to 7 msec. Delaying speech to one ear under these conditions does increase intelligibility but is little, if any, better than the simple expedient of wiring the phones so that the wave form at one ear is inverted with respect to the other. With the materials and method used, the maximum increase occurs with a delay between ears somewhere between 0.5 and 1 msec, though there is some indication that delays 1 msec and longer may be slightly better under the most difficult listening conditions tried.


ABSTRACT Encapsidation of the Moloney murine leukemia virus (MMLV) genome is mediated through a specific interaction between the major viral structural protein, Gag, and an RNA packaging signal, Ψ. Many studies have investigated this process in vivo, although the specific examination of the Gag-RNA interaction in this context is difficult due to the variety of other viral functions involved in virion assembly in vivo. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae three-hybrid assay was used to directly examine the interaction between MMLV Gag and Ψ. In this system, MMLV RNA regions exhibiting high-affinity Gag binding were mapped. All Gag-binding regions were located 3′ to the viral splice donor sequence of the viral RNA transcript. No single short RNA sequence within Ψ supported strong Gag interaction. Instead, an RNA comprised of nearly the entire Ψ region was necessary to demonstrate an appreciable Gag interaction in the yeast three-hybrid system. These finding support the notion that two stem-loops (C and D) are not sufficient to form a core MMLV encapsidation signal.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine the in vitro effects of a single exposure of bupivacaine on the mechanical properties of bovine cartilage explants at 3 weeks.

DESIGN
Femoral condyle articular cartilage explants were aseptically harvested from juvenile bovine stifle joints before being exposed to chondrogenic medium containing 0.50% (wt/vol) bupivacaine, 0.25% (wt/vol) bupivacaine, or no medication (control) for 1 hour. Explants were then washed and maintained in culture in vitro for 3 weeks before testing. Cell viability, tensile and compressive mechanical properties, histological properties, and biochemical properties were then assessed.

RESULTS
Explants exhibited a dose-dependent decrease in mean tensile Young's modulus with increasing bupivacaine concentration (9.86 MPa in the controls, 6.48 MPa in the 0.25% bupivacaine group [P = 0.048], and 4.72 MPa in the 0.50% bupivacaine group [P = 0.005]). Consistent with these results, collagen content and collagen crosslinking decreased with bupivacaine exposure as measured by mass spectrometry. Compressive properties of the explants were unaffected by bupivacaine exposure. Explants also exhibited a trend toward dose-dependent decreases in viability (51.2% for the controls, 47.3% for the 0.25% bupivacaine-exposed group, and 37.0% for the 0.50% bupivacaine-exposed group [P = 0.072]).

CONCLUSIONS
Three weeks after 1-hour bupivacaine exposure, the tensile properties of bovine cartilage explants were significantly decreased, while the compressive properties remained unaffected. These decreases in tensile properties corresponded with reductions in collagen content and crosslinking of collagen fibers. Physicians should be judicious regarding the intra-articular administration of bupivacaine in native joints.


The nutrition structure that has developed in Ukraine today dictates the need to expand the range of culinary products by more efficient use of plant products, to which still little attention has been paid. The problems of the lack of nutrients with high biological value in nutrition of a modern man are shown in the paper. The studies in this field are first given in the paper, and it was proved that a promising raw material for producing such products is the use of structured products, the use of which lies in the basis of alginate emulsions with calcium residues. The studies of the rheological properties of the structured emulsions and physico-chemical aspects of obtaining the latter in the composition of minced meat products are given in the paper. The use of a wide range of new technologies, including emulsification of various raw materials, namely polysaccharides for the production of fundamentally new products, which are characterized by high biological value, is submitted for consideration. As a result of the studies, structural and mechanical properties of the model systems and physico-chemical indices were determined. These data allow presenting the technology, ready for introducing to the technological process of obtaining emulsions in minced meat composition. This technology will allow obtaining products not only with standardized indices, but also overtaking the organoleptic indicators of quality that facilitate the production process.


Abstract In recent years, foreign language pedagogy has recognized the need to focus on larger meaningful sequences of words and on communicative goals. Construction grammar (CxG) has a number of assets to address these issues. First, with the postulate of meaningful schematic templates, CxG makes it possible to establish a structured inventory of abstract constructions. In this paper, this is illustrated by the inventory of German constructions with the preposition bis 'up to, until'. Second, constructions, having a certain degree of schematicity, are particularly suitable to be practiced as whole sequences. Interactive activities based on 'embodied teaching and learning' can help foster the entrenchment of constructions.


U.S. cities vary markedly in per capita rates of carbon dioxide emissions. This paper studies the impact of regional housing and land stock allocations on urban carbon emissions. It develops a dynamic spatial equilibrium model of housing stock evolution between connected, heterogenous markets and proposes a solution method for the model, which is otherwise intractable with a large number of locations. The model is used to measure the impact of housing policies on carbon emission rates. The main finding is that policies incentivizing an intensive use of housing have direct effects on carbon emission by increasing energy usage and creating lower density cities, and indirectly, these tilt population allocation across cities towards those offering high housing consumption, which have higher emission rates on average. The paper derives emission-equivalent values for the user cost of housing, land use regulations, and carbon taxes.


The planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) is widely used in mobile radio systems because of its excellent performance. However, it is not yet employed as an ultra wide band (UWB) antenna because of its perceived narrowband characteristics. This study introduces three techniques for enhancing the impedance bandwidth of PIFA, which are (i) changes in the widths of feed plate and shorting plate, (ii) addition of an inverted-L-shaped parasitic element and (iii) addition of a rectangular parasitic element. It is shown that PIFAs with a very wide fractional bandwidths (up to 110%) can be achieved. Using these techniques, an UWB PIFA antenna is designed, manufactured and tested. Simulated and measured results are provided to verify the conclusion.


Extracellular adenosine salvage and AMPK activation are enhanced in a stage-specific manner during human B cell development. AMPing up B cell maturation Glycolysis provides an important energy source during B cell activation. In contrast, Farmer et al. found that metabolic quiescence was important for the development of human follicular B cells from transitional B cell precursors. In comparison to transitional B cells, mouse and human follicular B cells had reduced expression of genes involved in aerobic respiration, increased AMPK activation, and greater amounts of the cell surface ectoenzymes CD39 and CD73, which generate extracellular adenosine. Transitional human B cells that expressed CD73 or were treated with an AMPK agonist preferentially acquired a follicular B cell phenotype. These data identify a previously uncharacterized metabolic checkpoint in B cell development. Transitional B cells must actively undergo selection for self-tolerance before maturing into their resting follicular B cell successors. We found that metabolic quiescence was acquired at the follicular B cell stage in both humans and mice. In follicular B cells, the expression of genes involved in ribosome biogenesis, aerobic respiration, and mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling was reduced when compared to that in transitional B cells. Functional metabolism studies, profiling of whole-cell metabolites, and analysis of cell surface proteins in human B cells suggested that this transition was also associated with increased extracellular adenosine salvage. Follicular B cells increased the abundance of the cell surface ectonucleotidase CD73, which coincided with adenosine 5′-monophosphate–activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation. Differentiation to the follicular B cell stage in vitro correlated with surface acquisition of CD73 on human transitional B cells and was augmented with the AMPK agonist, AICAR. Last, individuals with gain-of-function PIK3CD (PI3Kδ) mutations and increased pS6 activation exhibited a near absence of circulating follicular B cells. Together, our data suggest that mTORC1 attenuation may be necessary for human follicular B cell development. These data identify a distinct metabolic switch during human B cell development at the transitional to follicular stages, which is characterized by an induction of extracellular adenosine salvage, AMPK activation, and the acquisition of metabolic quiescence.


Staphylococcus aureus is a common human commensal pathogen that causes a wide range of infectious diseases. Due to the generation of antimicrobial resistance, the pathogen becomes resistant to more and more antibiotics, resulting in methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and even multidrug-resistant S. aureus (MDRSA), namely 'superbugs'. This situation highlights the urgent need for novel antimicrobials. Bacterial transcription, which is responsible for bacterial RNA synthesis, is a valid but underutilized target for developing antimicrobials. Previously, we reported a novel class of antimicrobials, coined nusbiarylins, that inhibited bacterial transcription by interrupting the protein–protein interaction (PPI) between two transcription factors NusB and NusE. In this work, we developed a ligand-based workflow based on the chemical structures of nusbiarylins and their activity against S. aureus. The ligand-based models—including the pharmacophore model, 3D QSAR, AutoQSAR, and ADME/T calculation—were integrated and used in the following virtual screening of the ChemDiv PPI database. As a result, four compounds, including J098-0498, 1067-0401, M013-0558, and F186-026, were identified as potential antimicrobials against S. aureus, with predicted pMIC values ranging from 3.8 to 4.2. The docking study showed that these molecules bound to NusB tightly with the binding free energy ranging from −58 to −66 kcal/mol.


The larger amount of motor vehicles produces many problems to cities around the world as poor urban mobility, environment concerns and people's health. The encouragement to use alternative means of transport, such as bicycles or subways is one of the steps to solve the problem. Another way is to encouraging the optimal usage of private automobiles. In Brazil, for instance, several studies show an underused space in cars and great potential for the use of carpooling and carsharing. Unfortunately, there is not such a unified technological mean to properly support these alternatives. In this paper we propose and implement a social network to support the use of carpooling. We show that there is a favorable context for the use of this social network with the specific purpose to share rides among users. We describe the architecture of the system and implementation details. We present results about systems's accessibility and its acceptability by people around the globe.


This paper reports an impedance‐based system for the quantitative assessment of dielectrophoretic (DEP) focusing of single particles flowing in a microchannel. Particle lateral positions are detected in two electrical sensing zones placed before and after a DEP‐focusing region, respectively. In each sensing zone, particle lateral positions are estimated using the unbalance between the opposite pulses of a differential current signal obtained with a straightforward coplanar electrode configuration. The system is used to monitor the focusing of polystyrene beads of 7 or 10 μm diameter, under various conditions of DEP field intensities and flow rates that produce different degrees of focusing. This electrical approach represents a simple and valuable alternative to optical methods for monitoring of particle focusing systems.


The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) in sea food samples in the Isfahan and Shahrekord townships in Iran. From September 2010 to April 2011, a total of 300 samples of fresh fish, shrimp, crab and lobster were obtained from randomly selected retail stores in the Isfahan and Shahrekord townships in Iran. The samples were tested for the presence of HAV using a reverse transcriptase- polymerase chain reaction method. Out of the total number of samples examined, 8 (2.7%) were found to be positive for HAV. This virus was detected in 5% and 1.7% of fresh fish and shrimp, respectively. This study shows the importance of sea food as potential sources of HAV infection in people in Iran.


This article focuses on the issue of enforcement of the WTO rules on international cross-border trade in services. It is argued that the examination of the GATS jurisprudence and state practice reveal that the GATS does not address the needs of the developing countries in general and the prospects of internet gambling services in the Caribbean Community in particular. First, the article discusses the extent of service-producing activities within the GATS provisions and outlines the main principles of WTO. It stresses that 'services' include gambling and games provided online. It also asserts that cross-border trade in services via Information and Communication Technologies presents several challenges for policy makers including enforcement, control and accountability. Second, the article critically analyses the United States (US) domestic legal instruments, which led to the complaint by Antigua and Barbuda. Subsequently, the focus is shifted to the critique of the judgments by WTO dispute settlement bodies. Third, the article evaluates the effectiveness of the DSU from a legal redress and compliance point of view, particularly in instances where weaker economies as complainants challenge leading economies of the world.


The effect of caerulein on the incidence and histology of gastric adenocarcinomas induced by N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine was investigated in inbred Wistar rats. Prolonged alternate-day administration of caerulein at 10 micrograms/kg body weight after treatment with the carcinogen for 20 weeks significantly increased the incidence and number of adenocarcinomas of the glandular stomach. Histological examination showed that treatment with caerulein had no influence on the histology of induced adenocarcinomas. Furthermore, administration of caerulein resulted in a significant increase in the bromodeoxyuridine-labeling indices of the antral mucosa but did not influence the bromodeoxyuridine-labeling indices of the fundic mucosa and the carcinomas. These findings indicate that caerulein enhances gastric carcinogenesis and that the effect may be related to the promoting effect of caerulein on cell proliferation in the antral mucosa.


SUMMARY The shadow-induced withdrawal response in Lymnaea stagnalis is mediated by dermal photoreceptors located on the foot, mantle cavity, and skin around the pneumostome area. Here, we determined whether we could obtain a neural correlate of the withdrawal response elicited by a shadow in a higher-order central neuron that mediates withdrawal behavior. We measured the electrophysiological properties of the higher-order interneuron Right Pedal Dorsal 11 (RPeD11), which has a major role in Lymnaea withdrawal behavior. In semi-intact preparations comprising the circumesophageal ganglia, the mantle cavity and the pneumostome, but not the foot and eyes, a light-on stimulus elicited a small short-lasting hyperpolarization and a light-off stimulus elicited a depolarization of RPeD11. We also determined that dermal photoreceptors make a monosynaptic contact with RPeD11. The dermal photoreceptor afferents course to the circumesophageal ganglia via the anal and genital nerves to the visceral ganglion, and/or via the right internal and external parietal nerves to the parietal ganglion. Finally, in addition to responding to photic stimuli, RPeD11 responds to both mechanical and chemical stimuli delivered to the pneumostome.


The crystal structure and magnetic correlations in triangular antiferromagnet FeGa2S4 are studied by x-ray diffraction, magnetic susceptibility, neutron diffraction and neutron inelastic scattering. We report significant mixing at the cation sites and disentangle magnetic properties dominated by major and minor magnetic sites. The magnetic short-range correlations at 0.77 Å−1 correspond to the major sites and being static at base temperature they evolve into dynamic correlations around 30 50 K. The minor sites contribute to the magnetic peak at 0.6 Å−1, which vanishes at 5.5 K. Our analytical studies of triangular lattice models with bilinear and biquadratic terms provide the ratios between exchanges for the proposed ordering vectors. The modelling of the inelastic neutron spectrum within linear spin wave theory results in the set of exchange couplings J1 = 1.7 meV, J2 = 0.9 meV, J3 = 0.8 meV for the bilinear Heisenberg Hamiltonian. However, not all features of the excitation spectrum are explained with this model.


A specific antiserum was used in an enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay (ELISA) for tyrosine amino-transferase TAT. Protein A bound on Sepharose was allowed to react with antiserum preincubated with the enzyme. Inhibition curves in the presence of protein A were parallel to those obtained in the absence of protein A. In the case of cell-free synthesized TAT, the complex bound to the solid phase contains the (35S) labelled enzyme; the sensitivity of the test was greatly increased when the bulk of protein was discarded by pretreatment of the reaction mixture at 70 degree and chromatography on DEAE cellulose. The immunoadsorbed polypeptides were analyzed by dodecylsulfate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The pattern of polypeptides neosynthesized using RNA from different origins (rat liver, hepatoma cells) and after various treatments (glucocorticoid hormones, sodium butyrate) exhibited some different in the TAT region which can be related to the level of the specific mRNA for TAT. This method is very useful for further studies on TAT gene expression and might also shed light on the mechanism of hormonal action and drug processes.


Article reviews the Kalmyk religious songs. Studying of the composition, poetic features of folk songs shows that the Kalmyk folk songs are unusually rich in their ideological and artistic content. Kalmyk religious songs reveal the spiritual culture, peoples worldview, steadfast faith in protection of Burkhans, reverence of adherents to clerics and shrines.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the agronomic efficiency of intercropping combinations of carrot and arugula at different population densities in bicropping in the semi-arid conditions of the Brazilian Northeast. The study was conducted at the "Rafael Fernandes" Experimental Farm of the Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Arido (UFERSA) during the period September 2011 to February 2012. The experimental design was of randomized complete blocks with treatments arranged in a 4 x 4 factorial scheme with four replications. The combinations were four population densities of carrot (40, 60, 80 and 100% of the recommended population in sole crop – RPSC) with four population densities of arugula (40, 60, 80 and 100% of the RPSC). The recommended population densities for sole crops of carrot and arugula are 500,000 and 1,000,000 plants per hectare, respectively. All treatments were fertilized with hairy woodrose (Merremia aegyptia L.), a spontaneous species of the Caatinga biome. The highest agronomic efficiency of carrot intercropped with arugula in bicropping was achieved in the combination of 40% of RPSC for the carrot and 100% of RPSC for the arugula. The commercial maximum yield (33.74 t ha-1) of carrot roots and the maximum yields of arugula green mass (8.06 and 2.67 t ha-1) in both cultivations were also obtained in the combination of population densities of 40% of RPSC for carrot and 100% of RPSC for arugula.


UNLABELLED
Vascular access in haemodialysis is still accompanied by a high morbidity rate. Neointimal hyperplasia due to thrombosis is one of the main causes of vascular access failure. The purpose of this paper is to present the use of non-penetrating titanium clips (VCS) for the creation of an arteriovenous fistula and its outcome.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A male patient, 47 years old, with end-stage renal disease - ESRD - (2005) was addressed to our service, for a vascular access reintervention, after a failed forearm radio-cephalic fistula performed 3 months before. In January 2007, an arteriovenous fistula between the brachial artery and the median cubital vein using non-penetrating titanium clips (Anastoclip VCS) was created.

RESULTS
The vascular anastomosis was performed in 17 min. After unclamping the artery, a solid pulse and consistent thrill were obtained at the level of the cubital fossa. The postoperative course was uneventful. The arteriovenous fistula remains functional 60 months post-surgery.

CONCLUSIONS
The Anastoclip VCS system is versatile, safe to manipulate and enables fast anastomosis. Arteriovenous anastomosis performed with non-penetrating clips may be a solution with the potential to reduce postoperative complications and extend arteriovenous fistula patency in ESRD.


In this paper the author deals with one of the questions with which the International Electrotechnical Commission is at present occupied; namely, the determination by simple tests of the actual losses in alternators. The author first reviews the existing rules and then states the variation of the losses in alternators as a function of the load and as a function of the power factor. His paper contains records of experimental researches which he has made and which serve on the one hand as a basis for discussion of the theoretical considerations which he develops and on the other hand to compare the actual losses with those obtained by the methods given in the rules at present in force. The author does not present definite conclusions since, in his opinion, these investigations ought to form the basis for a program of future researches and ought to serve as the basis for discussions in the Rating Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission.


New York, Nevi York The potential importance of pulsatile cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) has been reemphasized within the past few years by Berger and Pappas. A new valveless pulsatile assist device (PAD®) has been developed which converts roller p u m p flow into synchronized atraumatic pulsatile flow. In addition, the PAD can also be used as an arterial counterpulsator before and after CPB in a manner similar to the intra-aortic balloon pump. The PAD is inserted into the arterial line close to the aortic root. The device consists of a flexible, valveless balloon conduit through which the arterial blood flows. T h e balloon is contained within a rigid plastic housing which is connected to a standard intraaortic balloon pump. The PAD has been employed in 200 adult patients undergoing elective open heart surgery for coronary artery and/or valvular heart disease at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center during the last 2 years. One hundred forty of these patients were either NYHA Class III or IV preoperatively, or had ejection fractions of less than 0.3 or left ventricular end-diastolic pressures of 18 mm Hg or higher on their preoperative cardiac catheterization. One hundred twenty-three patients had multiple


In digital television (DTV) broadcasting, service providers charge a subscribing fee by scrambling the program with conditional access system as well as control the illegal receiving of the charged program. A smart card is used to decrypt the control words and transfer them back to set-top box (STB) to descramble the scrambled program. Secure communication between STB and smart card is directly related with the benefit of service providers and the legal rights of users, while key exchange is the essential part of secure communication. In this paper, we propose a key exchange protocol for STB and smart card based on Schnorr's digital signature protocol and one-way hash function. Our proposed protocol is dynamic, secure, mutual authenticated and lower computation. Moreover, the proposed protocol can prevent smart cloning and McCormac Hack problems.


Abstract In 2015, the Economist Intelligent Unit based in UK had released the Democratic Index covering the report of 167 countries among others are Indonesia and Thailand. Indonesia has 7, 75 total score while Thailand has 5, 09 total score have categorized the two countries into flawed democratic countries. They measured democracy from the following categories namely electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture and civil liberties. This paper is aimed at discussing the above five challenges of the so called flawed democratic countries from qualitative perspective employing some literature reviews, analyzing some secondary data and some thoughts of prominent politicians and scholars. Without trying to review the real parameters that have been used by the economist Intelligent Unit during their research, this study will discuss more on the challenges faced by Indonesian and Thailand government in addressing the related issue above. This study will analyze the post 2014 election, by having a look at the dynamics and process of election and its aftermath, some related issues on voting behavior that affecting the political participation (In Indonesia 2014 elections resulted at 75,11% for its legislative election, 69,58% for its Presidential election and Thailand 2 February 2014 election resulted at 47,72% due to boycotting election in 69 constituencies), the development of political culture as well as the issue addressing the implementation of political rights. Some findings suggest furthering the discussion by taking into account the emergence money politics and internal political situation that affecting on people participations in politics. From the preliminary study it is found that both two countries have significant challenges in the future in developing their culture of democracy. The provision of political laws in those two countries will also be examined in order to see the possible improvement for their democratic life performances. 1


This paper analyzes the income and poverty implications of price and trade policy distortions in rice using policy simulations. The results suggest that in general, the welfare of paddy farmers will get decline if both fertilizer subsidy and border protection are removed. However, among the paddy producers, poor households with smaller farm size (less than one acre) gain the benefits when both interventions are removed. Therefore, current protectionist policies in rice give fewer benefits to the small poor farmers. Meantime, the negative impacts get softened in the long run when supply and demand elasticities are incorporated. Especially the current fertilizer subsidy has a greater impact on paddy farmers' welfare. In contrast, the larger populations of consumers are favorably affected when interventions are removed. The larger proportion of benefits are received by the low income consumers, hence removal of such intervention in terms of tariffs and other taxes as well as fertilizer subsidy would be beneficial to the larger portion of consumers. In addition, simulations with transfer payments given to all households below the poverty line or paddy households only will reduce the negative implications on income and poverty of the households. The largest poverty reduction is reported for the estate sector consumers with poverty level reduce from 23 percent to 20 percent when both interventions are removed accompanying transfer given to all households below the poverty line. In addition, the overall poverty gap reduces from 5.38 to 4.12 by giving transfer payments only to all paddy households even though both interventions are removed. Finally, this study suggests that removal of distortions especially the elimination of trade protection will affect favorably for both consumers and poor small scale rice producers. Conversely, this will lead to some negative consequences on the national rice production in the country.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Stroke in preterm and term babies is common and results in significant morbidity. The vulnerability and pathophysiological mechanisms of neonatal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion may differ from those in the mature cerebral nervous system because of the immaturity of many receptor systems and differences in metabolism in neonatal brain. This study details the neuropathological sequelae of reperfusion-induced brain injury after transient middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion in the postnatal day 7 (P7) rat.

METHODS
P7 rats were subjected to 3 hours of MCA occlusion followed by reperfusion or sham surgery. Diffusion-weighted MRI was performed during MCA occlusion, and maps of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were constructed. Contrast-enhanced MRI was performed in a subset of animals before and 20 minutes after reperfusion. Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining of the brain was performed 24 hours after reperfusion. Immunohistochemistry to identify astrocytes (glial fibrillary acidic protein), reactive microglia (ED-1), and neurons (microtubule-associated protein 2) and cresyl violet staining were done 4, 8, 24, and 72 hours after reperfusion.

RESULTS
On contrast-enhanced MRI, nearly complete disruption of cerebral blood flow was evident in the vascular territory of the MCA during occlusion. Partial restoration of blood flow occurred after removal of the suture. A significant decrease of the ADC, indicative of early cytotoxic edema, occurred in anatomic regions with a disrupted blood supply. The decline in ADC was associated with TTC- and cresyl violet-determined brain injury in these regions 24 hours later. The ischemic core was rapidly infiltrated with reactive microglia and was surrounded by reactive astroglia.

CONCLUSIONS
In P7 rats, transient MCA occlusion causes acute cytotoxic edema and severe unilateral brain injury. The presence of a prominent inflammatory response suggests that both the ischemic episode and the reperfusion contribute to the neuropathological outcome.


Murine micromass models have been extensively applied to study chondrogenesis and osteogenesis to elucidate pathways of endochondral bone formation. Here we provide a detailed comparative analysis of the differentiation potential of micromass cultures established from either BMP-2 overexpressing C3H10T1/2 cells or mouse embryonic limb bud-derived chondroprogenitor cells, using micromass cultures from untransfected C3H10T1/2 cells as controls. Although the BMP-2 overexpressing C3H10T1/2 cells failed to form chondrogenic nodules, cells of both models expressed mRNA transcripts for major cartilage-specific marker genes including Sox9, Acan, Col2a1, Snorc, and Hapln1 at similar temporal sequence, while notable lubricin expression was only detected in primary cultures. Furthermore, mRNA transcripts for markers of osteogenic differentiation including Runx2, Osterix, alkaline phosphatase, osteopontin and osteocalcin were detected in both models, along with matrix calcification. Although the adipogenic lineage-specific marker gene FABP4 was also expressed in micromass cultures, Oil Red O-positive cells along with PPARγ2 transcripts were only detected in C3H10T1/2-derived micromass cultures. Apart from lineage-specific marker genes, pluripotency factors (Nanog and Sox2) were also expressed in these models, reflecting on the presence of various mesenchymal OPEN ACCESS Int. 16142 lineages as well as undifferentiated cells. This cellular heterogeneity has to be taken into consideration for the interpretation of data obtained by using these models.


Thomas Hardy is usually considered a Victorian writer. Nonetheless, his last novel Jude the Obscure, announced the era of modernity which started with the twentieth century, just before he abandoned fiction to concentrate on poetry. With modernity looming in the background, Jude the Obscure allowed for the rewriting of tragedy. Urban settings have replaced the countryside and all signs of transcendence have vanished from society. This defeat of the divine is nevertheless accompanied by a great number of biblical references. Thomas Hardy quotes and uses the Divine Letter as if to rewrite it rather than to appear faithful to the Word. The text keeps offering itself to the spell of voice: it does so when Job utters words of revolt and then worship, when Jude lets his imagination flow from his lips so that he seems to live on in the text after he is dead, or when the voice of the novelist becomes the voice of a poet.


Impulsivity refers to a number of conceptually related phenotypes reflecting self‐regulatory capacity that are considered promising endophenotypes for mental and physical health. Measures of impulsivity can be broadly grouped into three domains, namely, impulsive choice, impulsive action, and impulsive personality traits. In a community‐based sample of ancestral Europeans (n = 1534), we conducted genome‐wide association studies (GWASs) of impulsive choice (delay discounting), impulsive action (behavioral inhibition), and impulsive personality traits (UPPS‐P), and evaluated 11 polygenic risk scores (PRSs) of phenotypes previously linked to self‐regulation. Although there were no individual genome‐wide significant hits, the neuroticism PRS was positively associated with negative urgency (adjusted R2 = 1.61%, p = 3.6 × 10−7) and the educational attainment PRS was inversely associated with delay discounting (adjusted R2 = 1.68%, p = 2.2 × 10−7). There was also evidence implicating PRSs of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder, externalizing, risk‐taking, smoking cessation, smoking initiation, and body mass index with one or more impulsivity phenotypes (adjusted R2s: 0.35%–1.07%; FDR adjusted ps = 0.05–0.0006). These significant associations between PRSs and impulsivity phenotypes are consistent with established genetic correlations. The combined PRS explained 0.91%–2.46% of the phenotypic variance for individual impulsivity measures, corresponding to 8.7%–32.5% of their reported single‐nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)‐based heritability, suggesting a non‐negligible portion of the SNP‐based heritability can be recovered by PRSs. These results support the predictive validity and utility of PRSs, even derived from related phenotypes, to inform the genetics of impulsivity phenotypes.


Sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV) causes 50% yield losses in sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas). However, some cultivars have been observed to become SPFMV free following initial infection, a phenomenon termed reversion. The heritability of reversion from virus infections in sweetpotato remains unclear. This study is aimed at determining heritability of reversion from SPFMV in progeny of crossed reverting and non-reverting sweetpotato cultivars 'New Kawogo' and 'Resisto,' respectively. Molecular diversity of the parents and progeny was also assessed using simple sequence repeats (markers) derived from coding regions of RNA dependent RNA polymerase 1 and dicer-like 1 gene that may be associated with reversion. Reversion potential varied among the progeny; 11 progeny reverted more effectively than 'New Kawogo' by 4 weeks after inoculation. Broad and narrow sense heritability was 76.42 and 42.4%, respectively. There was molecular variation among the 50 progeny, and markers ibDCL2b and ibDCL1a7F differentiated the progeny. These results indicate reversion was a heritable trait determined by multiple genes, and that genetic markers ibDCL2b and ibDCL1a7F may be used to differentiate the progeny. It is recommended that the progeny be tested in agro-ecological trials in virus-prone areas to identify those that deliver high yields and revert from SPFMV infection.

 Key words: Sweet potato feathery mottle virus, reversion, simple sequence repeats.


Despite being an orphan disease idiopathic nephrotic syndrome in children is the most frequent glomerular disease in this age group. A total of 80–90% of children between 2 and 10 years of age respond to corticosteroids, but carry the risk of relapses that may even appear frequently (frequently relapsing nephrotic syndrome, [FRNS]). To avoid repeated courses of corticosteroids and associated drug toxicity in these patients manifold strategies for a corticosteroid-sparing treatment of FRNS exist, but evidence on their efficacy and safety is low. This article discusses the results of recent therapeutic trials on FRNS and their possible impact on existing guidelines. Since the prognosis of steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome toward renal function is generally good, not only the efficacy but also the toxicity of different treatment regimens is discussed.


This chapter evaluates the contamination of selected persistent organic pollutants (S-POPs) in soil of some typical areas in Vietnam (mangrove forest, industrial, and urban areas in northern part). S-POPs are composed of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The collected data and analyzed results indicated the wide occurrence of significant S-POPs residues in study areas. The main sources of S-POPs are discussed by using composition analyses and diagnostic ratios of S-POPs indicator. Risk assessment of S-POPs in soil is assessed by using the guidance of the US Environmental Protection Agency. The obtained results have contributed to assess the S-POPs fate in the soil environment in Vietnam.


A systematic account is given of experimental and theoretical data on the steric structures of six-membered rings containing groups with a coplanar disposition of three consecutive bonds within the ring — a fragment with a double bond, a condensed rigid ring, or a bridged bicyclic system. We shall consider rings containing one such fragment, namely cyclohexane, bicyclo[4.1.0]heptane, and its analogues, as well as rings with two fragments of this kind in the 1,4- or 1,3-positions. Data are presented on the structure of the rings, their inversion, and the orientation of the substituents in various positions. The principal characteristics of the conformational structures of such compounds are described and the possibility of the assumption of the boat form and the relative preferences for the axial and pseudoaxial orientations of the substituents and the condensed planarising fragments are discussed. The bibliography includes 272 references.


Advanced web-based technologies and the advent of cloud computing have transformed the academic library into the core provider of digital information and learning resources. The "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu has one of the most advanced digital libraries of Romania. In order to enhance the quality of the library services we have designed an exploratory study aimed to asses the impact of the digital library on student learning behaviour. Students, from almost all faculties (medicine and pharmacy, engineering, sciences, history and philology, law etc), have been involved in the study. They have been asked to answer to a questionnaire about how they are using the digital library, what other sources of information they are using, if they are satisfied with the library services, if and how they have obtained the required bibliography. The information obtained from questionnaires was compared with data on students' interaction with the digital library and with their learning outcomes. In our paper we are presenting the results of the study applied to students in medical sciences, pharmacy and nursing.


Background: Reflection pressure may influence the clinical course of chronic kidney diseases (CKDs). The relationship between the augmentation index (AI) and progression of non-diabetic CKDs was characterized. Methods: Ninety-nine patients were enrolled into the study. Pulse wave form analysis was performed to determine AI that assesses arterial stiffness. Results: In a cross-sectional study, a multiple regression analysis found that AI correlated positively to age and weight, and negatively to height and heart rate (R2 = 0.50). Furthermore, echocardiography was performed in 51 patients who gave their consent. In male patients under angiotensin inhibition, left ventricular mass index increased as AI was elevated (r = 0.33, slope = 0.85 ± 0.30 g/m2/%, p < 0.05, n = 23). A prospective study was performed in 41 patients who consented to having their creatinine clearance measured repeatedly. In the patients with angiotensin inhibition a higher basal AI resulted in a greater annual decrease in creatinine clearance (r = –0.52, slope = –0.43 ± 0.14 ml/min/year/%, p < 0.01, n = 27). Conclusion: The present data indicate that AI as well as angiotensin contribute to the development of left ventricular hypertrophy. Furthermore, our results suggest that in addition to angiotensin, AI is a risk factor of progression of non-diabetic CKDs.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the efficacy of radioactive iodine (RAI) for the treatment of residual papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) after surgery.

METHODS
A total of 20 patients diagnosed with PTC and underwent 2-6 courses of RAI therapy for residual PTC after surgery in other hospitals were included our study. Of these, 13 were in stage I, 3 in stage III and 4 in stage IV. All the cases were operated again due to the presence of suspicious residual tumors indicated by CT. Excision of thyroid tumor residue was performed in 5 cases and neck dissection in 15 cases (20 sides). The suspicious thyroid or neck residual tumors were examined pathologically after surgery. Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) was used to evaluate the efficacy of surgery treatment on residual tumor. T-test was used to identify variables associated to RAI and to calculate the propensity score to receive RAI after surgery.

RESULTS
The patients aged 22-58 years, with a median age of 40 years. The mean times of surgeries received before RAI was 1.5 and the mean dose of applied RAI was 318 mCi (210-660 mCi). No significant difference in tumor size between pre-RAI and post-RAI was found (t = 1.177, P > 0.05). With postoperative pathological examination, the suspicious thyroid or neck residual tumors were confirmed as PTC or the cervical lymph metastasis of PTC.

CONCLUSIONS
For the residue or metastasis of PTC after operation, reoperation should be a priority, while RAI therapy has no obvious therapeutic effect and it should be limited to selected cases such as those with distant metastasis or unsuitable for operation but with iodine uptake function, or taken as an adjuvant treatment after radical resection of cervical lesions.


As of January 1, 2011, most of the world financial market economies are using International Reporting Standards (IFRS) as the required framework for financial statements. A non-comprehensive listing includes the European Union Countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In the United States, US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is still required but adoption of IFRS has support of many accounting firms and professional organizations and is under consideration by the SEC. This case study focuses on differences in the treatment of leases and the impact of these differences on financial statements and selected financial ratios. Students take GAAP financial statements and prepare an IFRS based balance sheet and income statement. It is necessary to understand both GAAP and IFRS rules regarding leases to address this case study. This case study is suitable for use at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. It may be used in an Intermediate Accounting II, Accounting Theory, Financial Statement Analysis or an International Accounting class, as well as an Investment Finance course. The case can be offered as an individual case study or as a group project.


In this paper, various methods to improve the planetary gear noise in vehicles were introduced. Those cases of improvement have been used as good guidelines and references to prevent planetary noise problems. In this research, different types of planetary gear systems were also analyzed. The consequences of those analysis said in common that the planetary gear set generating noise mainly is the one which takes power directly from the turbine. Furthermore, a frequency versus vibration level map was introduced to judge how to solve the noise problem quickly in a vehicle development process. Besides, it is provided a predicting method which planetary gear set most contributes to noise problem taking in the vehicle and how to design the planetary gear set robustly.


Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between integrated care and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a primary care practice population. Design A cross-sectional survey study. Setting Primary care practice population. Participants A sample (n=5562) of patients in two general practitioner practices in the Netherlands. Primary outcome measures The Rainbow Model of Integrated Care Measurement Tool patient version and EQ-5D was used to assess integrated service delivery and HRQOL. The association between integrated care and HRQOL groups was analysed using multivariate logistic regression. Results Overall, 933 respondents with a mean age of 62 participated (20% response rate) in this study. The multivariate analysis revealed that positive organisational coordination experiences were linked to better HRQOL (OR=1.87, 95% CI 1.18 to 2.95), and less anxiety and depression problems (OR=0.36, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.63). Unemployment was associated with a poor HRQOL (OR=0.15, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.28). Ageing was associated with more mobility (OR=1.06, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.09), self-care (OR=1.06, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.11), usual activity (OR=1.03, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.05) and pain problems (OR=1.02, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.04). Being married improved the overall HRQOL (OR=1.60, 95% CI 1.13 to 2.26) and decreased anxiety and depression (OR=0.47, 95% CI 0.31 to 0.72). Finally, females had a poor overall HRQOL (OR=1.67, 95% CI 0.48 to 0.93) and more pain and discomfort problems (OR=1.47, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.95). Conclusion This study shows for the first time that organisational coordination activities are positively associated with HROQL of adult patients in a primary care context, adding to the evidence of an association between integrated care and HRQOL. Also, unemployment, ageing and being female are accumulating risk factors that should be considered when designing integrated primary care programmes. Further research is needed to explore how various integration types relate to HRQOL for people in local communities.


Previous research has suggested that faces can produce robust conjunction and feature effects at item recognition in the feature-conjunction paradigm. However, whether such two effects are affected when the task and contextual details are manipulated, has not been described yet. Also, the contribution of external facial features versus internal facial features to feature effect needs further exploration. Thus, the first goal of the present study was to investigate to what extent that the two effects were affected by task type(the two aspects of episodic memory, i.e., item recognition and source retrieval) for unfamiliar faces in the feature-conjunction paradigm. The second goal was to explore the interaction between the consistency of presentation location and task type. Third, we would study the possible difference between external facial features and internal facial features in the case of feature effect. Thirty-one subjects participated in this experiment. The formal stimuli were 720 headshots of unfamiliar individuals, half male and half female. In the study stage, subjects were asked to learn some unfamiliar faces that were either presented on the left side or on the right side of the screen. In the test stage, five types of faces were displayed, left or right: old faces, conjunction faces, old external feature faces, old internal feature faces, and totally new faces; and two types of tasks were randomly presented: the item recognition task during which subjects only had to make old/new judgments, and the source retrieval task which required an additional discrimination towards the location of old faces(i.e., subjects were instructed to differentiate the old faces that were displayed on the same location between study and test from the old faces on different locations and other faces). The results showed that both tasks elicited robust conjunction effect and feature effect for faces, but they were larger in source retrieval task. The interaction between location consistency and task type was significant in terms of memory performance: At recognition, location consistency facilitated both effects, while no such facilitation was observed at source retrieval. The feature effect in old external faces was similar to that in internal feature faces. These results strongly demonstrate that both conjunction effect and feature effect are sensitive to task type, and suggests an important role of high familiarity compared with recollection in such two effects, consistent with the dual-process model. The discrimination of conjunction and feature faces is regulated by the interaction of whether the presentation location is consistent or not between study and test and task type. Additionally, old external facial features and old internal facial features play similar roles in the contribution to feature effect.


We compare speaker recognition performance of vector quantization (VQ), Gaussian mixture modeling (GMM) and the Arithmetic Harmonic Sphericity measure (AHS) in adverse telephone speech conditions. The aim is to address the question: how do multimodal VQ and GMM typically compare to the simpler unimodal AHS for matched and mismatched training and testing environments? We study identification (closed set) and verification errors on a new multi environment database. We consider LPC and PLP features as well as their RASTA derivatives. We conclude that RASTA processing can remove redundancies from the features. We affirm that even when we use channel and noise compensation schemes, speaker recognition errors remain high when there is acoustic mismatch.


Our earlier work revealed a connection between blind image deconvolution and principal components analysis (PCA). In this letter, we explicitly formulate multichannel and single-channel blind image deconvolution as a PCA problem. Although PCA is derived from blur models that do not contain additive noise, it can be justified on both theoretical and experimental grounds that the PCA-based restoration algorithm is actually robust to the presence of white noise. The algorithm is applied to the restoration of atmospheric turbulence-degraded imagery and compared to an adaptive Lucy-Richardson maximum-likelihood algorithm on both real and simulated atmospheric turbulence blurred images. It is shown that the PCA-based blind image deconvolution runs faster and is more robust to noise.


Internet of Things (IoT) brings telemedicine a new chance. This enables the specialist to consult the patient's condition despite the fact that they are in different places. Medical image segmentation is needed for analysis, storage, and protection of medical image in telemedicine. Therefore, a variety of methods have been researched for fast and accurate medical image segmentation. Performing segmentation in various organs, the accurate judgment of the region is needed in medical image. However, the removal of region occurs by the lack of information to determine the region in a small region. In this paper, we researched how to reconstruct segmentation region in a small region in order to improve the segmentation results. We generated predicted segmentation of slices using volume data with linear equation and proposed improvement method for small regions using the predicted segmentation. In order to verify the performance of the proposed method, lung region by chest CT images was segmented. As a result of experiments, volume data segmentation accuracy rose from 0.978 to 0.981 and from 0.281 to 0.187 with a standard deviation improvement confirmed.


Gouty arthritis (GA) is a frequent inflammatory disease characterized by pain, swelling, and stiffness of joints. Neoastilbin is a flavonoid isolated from the rhizome of Smilax glabra, which possesses various anti-inflammatory effects. However, the mechanism of neoastilbin in treating GA has not yet been clarified. Thus, this study was to investigate the protective effects of neoastilbin in both monosodium urate (MSU) stimulated THP-1-derived macrophages and the animal model of GA by injecting MSU into the ankle joints of mice. The levels of key inflammatory cytokines in MSU stimulated THP-1-derived macrophages were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. Protein expressions of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome pathways were further detected by Western blotting. In addition, swelling degree of ankle joints, the levels of inflammatory factors, infiltration of inflammatory cells and the expressions of related proteins were determined. Swelling degree and histopathological injury in ankle joints of MSU-injected mice were significantly decreased after being treated with neoastilbin. Moreover, neoastilbin significantly diminished the secretion of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), suppressing the activation of NF-κB and NLRP3 inflammasome pathways in both MSU stimulated THP-1-derived macrophages and the mouse model of GA. In summary, neoastilbin could alleviate GA by inhibiting the NF-κB and NLRP3 inflammasome pathways, which provided some evidence for neoastilbin as a promising therapeutic agent for GA treatment.


Biodiversity is one of the most important characteristics of the aquatic ecosystem for maintaining its stability and resilience [1]. Aquatic macrophytes are macroscopic forms of aquatic vegetation, including macroalgae, mosses, ferns and angiosperms found in aquatic habitat. They have evolved from many diverse groups and often demonstrate extreme flexibility in structure and morphology in relation to changing environmental conditions [2]. Macrophytes of freshwater ecosystems have diverse roles to play in the structure and functioning of these ecosystems [3]. Macrophytes are considered as an important component of the aquatic ecosystem not only as the habitat and food source for aquatic life, but also act as an efficient accumulator of heavy metals [4-7] and as an important participant in the natural processes of water self-purification of water [8]. Aquatic macrophytes represent the most important biotic component of the littoral zone of the lake ecosystem [9]. Different forms of macrophytes exhibit seasonally variable growth patterns [3]. Number of species and importance values of macrophytes, determines the species diversity of a community [10]. Importance Value Index (IVI), a quantitative parameter, is useful, for providing the details on density and frequency of a species in relation to community [11]. However, the species diversity is a useful index for the comparison of communities under the influence of anthropogenic disturbances [12].


This article describes the activity performed in the three-year project "Integration of Multimedia Services on Heterogeneous Satellite Networks," funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and carried out by the Italian National Consortium for Telecommunications (CNIT). The description of the activity allows highlighting the problems, findings, and solutions in utilizing TCP/IP-based services and applications, such as audio-video transmission and Web browsing, via satellite channels. The article presents an experimental approach to provide QoS guarantees and to improve the performance of TCP over a satellite network based on the TCP/IP suite. The aim is to obtain a proper environment for data, voice, and video transmission oriented to a distance learning service that uses both audio-video applications and Web-based tools. The experimental scenario is made up of three remote LANs. Two of them are connected through a geostationary orbit satellite link in the Ka-band (20-30 GHz). The other LAN, located in a site where no satellite station is available, is connected through an ISDN link at 512 kb/s. Both subjective metrics such as mean opinion score and objective metrics such as throughput and overall transmission time have been used to evaluate the performance of the system and to get proper configurations able to guarantee a high QoS perceived by the users. The integrated services approach along with the resource reservation protocol were chosen to reserve the network resources at the IP level. A modified version of TCP has been proposed and utilized to reduce the download time during Web browsing and f.t.p. sessions. The measures reported have been obtained by real operative sessions.


Puffed rice, is a popular ready-to-eat product especially in South-East Asia. In this study, an attempt is made to examine the
effectiveness of puffing the Malaysia paddy variety MR297 using domestic microwave oven. The experiment was carried
out based on two parameters, which are three levels of microwave power (600, 700 and 800 Watt) and three levels of
moisture content (11, 14 and 17 % w.b.). The best condition for puffing the paddy was determined based on the puffed yield
and expansion volume. The results show that adequate moisture content is required to generate sufficient internal pressure
for puffing. The puffed yield and expansion volume were higher with an increase in microwave power. The best conditions
to obtain highest puffing yield with the expansion volume of 2.22 mL/g were found to be at a moisture content of 14% w.b.
with the microwave power level of 800 Watt. Further studies need to be carried out in order to improve the performance of
microwave puffing process for Malaysia paddy variety MR297.


We present a high-resolution (2.5 au) multiband analysis of the protoplanetary disk around TW Hya using Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) long baseline data at Bands 3, 4, 6, and 7. We aim to reconstruct a high-sensitivity millimeter continuum image and revisit the spectral index distribution. The imaging is performed by combining new ALMA data at Bands 4 and 6 with available archive data. Two methods are employed to reconstruct the images: multifrequency synthesis (MFS) and the fiducial image-oriented method, where each band is imaged separately and the frequency dependence is fitted pixel by pixel. We find that MFS imaging with a second-order Taylor expansion can reproduce the frequency dependence of the continuum emission between Bands 3 and 7 in a manner consistent with previous studies, and that it is a reasonable method for reconstructing the spectral index map. The image-oriented method provides a spectral index map consistent with the MFS imaging, but with a two times lower resolution. Mock observations of an intensity model were conducted to validate the images from the two methods. We find that the MFS imaging provides a high-resolution spectral index distribution with an uncertainty of <10%. Using the submillimeter spectrum reproduced from our MFS images, we directly calculate the optical depth, power-law index of the dust opacity coefficient (β), and dust temperature. The derived parameters are consistent with previous works, and the enhancement of β within the intensity gaps is also confirmed, supporting a deficit of millimeter-sized grains within the gaps.


This article examines the extent to which Austrian family enterprises (FEs) have implemented a Bal-anced Scorecard (BSC) as an instrument for multi-dimensional performance measurement (PM) and on which contingency factors (company size, ownership, degree of family involvement, management structure, and generation) a BSC implementation primarily depends upon. Basing on data from 479 medium- and large-sized companies, this study found that the main factor for BSC implementation is the number of family members in top management, followed by the generation owning the company. Due to the fact that only a few empirical analyses concerning implementation of BSC in FEs exist, this paper closes a critical research gap.


A new method for on-line induction motor fault detection is presented in this paper. This system utilizes artificial neural networks to learn the spectral characteristics of a good motor operating on-line. This learned spectrum may contain many harmonics due to the load which corresponds to normal operating conditions. In order to reduce the number of harmonics which are continuously monitored to a manageable number, a selective frequency filter is employed. This frequency filter only passes those harmonics which are known to be of importance in fault detection, or which are continuously above a set level, to a neural net clustering algorithm. After a sufficient training period, the neural network signals a potential failure condition when a new cluster is formed, and persists for some time. Since a fault condition is found by a relative comparison to a good condition, on-line failure prediction is possible with this without requiring information on the motor or load characteristics. The detection algorithm was implemented and its performance verified on various fault types.<<ETX>>


In this article I present a lexicon for Arabic verbs which exploits Levin's verb-classes (Levin, 1993) and the basic development procedure used by (Schuler, 2005). The verb lexicon in its current state has 173 classes which contain 4392 verbs and 498 frames providing information about verb root, the deverbal form of the verb, the participle, thematic roles, subcategorisation frames and syntactic and semantic descriptions of each verb. The taxonomy is available in XML format. It can be ported to MYSQL, YAML or JSON and accessed either in Arabic characters or in the Buckwalter transliteration.


Amplification has been measured in a DH GaAs regenerative amplifier. Both strong and weak signal regimes have been studied with measured gains as large as 170. A regime of coupling between the regenerative amplifier and laser source is also identified, resulting in a lowering of the threshold of the regenerative amplifier in the presence of an incident laser signal. Comparisons between the experimental results and the theoretical models show good agreement.


A novel method to be used in OCDMA systems is exhaustively described in this paper. It uses algorithmic optical codes (AOCs). They are based on the signature sequence idea. However patterns are constantly changing. A common seed for pseudo-random sequence is the signature element. In this paper a derivation of the probability of error due to the multiple-access interference is provided. An other contribution of this work is also the comparison between the AOCs and the orthogonal optical codes (OOCs) with (auto- and cross-) correlation equal to one. Attending to the cardinality limitation problem observed in OOCs, the comparison is focused on the number of users allowed by the two different systems aforementioned. As result we state that a system using AOCs allows more users than one using OOCs when the codes are long enough.


The hierarchy of personal values guides choices, attitudes and individuals' behaviors. One aspect that has drawn attention of researchers is to understand the extent to which the values (axiological priorities) of a person undergo changes 34 • RAM, REV. ADM. MACKENZIE, V. 11, N. 5 • SÃO PAULO, SP • SET./OUT. 2010 • p. 32-54 • ISSN 1678-6971 over time in different stages of his/her life and career. This study aimed to identify the variation of individual values within the time since graduation of business administrators. For this, the Schwartz values survey was administered to a sample of 179 professionals who graduated from the School of Economics, Business and Accounting at the University of São Paulo, between 1967 and 2008. Anova was calculated at the level of motivational types of values and bipolar dimensions. The results indicate variations in the axiological profile of the subjects, as the time since graduation increases. This change moves the prioritization from stimulation and hedonism values (openness to change) in the first years after graduation to a greater emphasis on security, tradition and conformity (conservation) in later stages of the subjects' careers. There is also a shift in prioritization of values that serve individual interests (early career) to values that serve collective interests (in later stages). Other results, as well as implications and possible causes, are also discussed.


The availability and accessibility of safe and effective drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics are essential to reducing the immense global burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). National regulatory authorities, such as the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), play an essential role in this effort to ensure access to safe and effective medical products by working within a set of legal frameworks and regulatory functions. However, medical product development for NTDs remains neglected, as combating NTDs is not a viable commercial market for pharmaceutical companies. To spur research and development (R&D) of NTD products, the US government has authorized various programs and policies to engage pharmaceutical companies, many of which provide FDA with the legal authority to implement NTD programs and pathways. Thus, this review provides a clear overview of the various regulatory pathways and programs employed by the FDA to increase the availability of NTD drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics. The review assesses the available information on various regulatory considerations and their impact on NTD product development as a first step in estimating the importance of such programs. Next, findings related to currently approved NTD products through these programs are discussed. Lastly, gaps in NTD R&D are identified and suggestions on how to address these are presented. The available data shows that while such incentive programs are factored into companies' decisions to pursue NTD R&D, approved products for NTDs remains vastly insufficient. Most approved products that utilize these NTD regulatory pathways and programs are overwhelmingly for tuberculosis and malaria—both of which are not considered NTDs by the World Health Organization (WHO). Dedicated efforts are needed to facilitate and accelerate NTD product including employing multiple incentive programs, regular assessment of such programs, and leveraging on public–private partnerships.


Recently in analytic philosophy, interest in the issue of the epistemic value of art has been revived. Philosophers have sought to establish whether and in what ways art is a source of knowledge, understanding or a means of inquiry. In philosophy this is a longstanding question, addressed both in the Greek and German traditions, but it seems pertinent to ask the question again today in light of significant changes that have taken place in contemporary art practice. In my thesis, I investigate this question from two perspectives: in terms of analytic philosophy of art, and in terms of developments in contemporary art since the 1960s. In Part I, I offer a defence of a philosophical theory of artistic value, critically overview the extant philosophical literature on the question of epistemic value of art, and explain why the inherently experimental character of contemporary art makes it difficult simply to apply the available theories. I argue that a philosophical engagement with contemporary art requires a different, more inductive method. In Part II, I closely consider three recent developments in which the relationship between art and knowledge has been rendered more complex. The Conceptual Art movement of the 1960s and 1970s privileged concerns with concepts, thought processes and truth over expression, materiality and fidelity to genre. The social turn of the 1990s cast the artist in a position that is almost indistinguishable from that of a teacher, social activist or even of a technology developer. And the artists working within the bio art movement of the 1990s and 2000s have assimilated the activity of the artist to that of the scientist, sometimes blurring the two roles. The goal of the thesis is twofold. On the one hand, I show how cases from recent art history put pressure on some key commitments in recent analytic philosophy. Revisions and challenges are suggested in particular for extant theories of artistic value, conceptions of artistic autonomy and heteronomy, and some popular accounts of the epistemic value of art. On the other hand, concepts from analytic philosophy are used to shed light on some of the more radical developments in recent art practice, and to rethink the ways in which art participates in the broader culture.


Named as the guardian of the genome, p53 is a tumor suppressor that regulates cell function, often through many different mechanisms such as DNA repair, apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, senescence, metabolism, and autophagy. One of the genes that p53 activates is MDM2, which forms a negative feedback loop since MDM2 induces the degradation of p53. When p53 activity is inhibited, damaged cells do not undergo cell cycle arrest or apoptosis. As 50% of human cancers inactivate p53 by mutation, current research focuses on reactivating p53 by developing drugs that target the p53-MDM2 interaction, which includes the binding of MDM2 and phosphorylation of p53. The objective of this article is to provide a short list and description of p53-MDM2 antagonists that may be excellent candidates for inducing cancer cell death. Relevant articles were searched for and identified using online databases such as PubMed and ScienceDirect. Increasing p53 levels, by targeting the p53-MDM2 interaction, can help p53 play its role as a tumor suppressor and induce cancer cell death. Researchers have identified different compounds that can act as inhibitors, either by directly binding to MDM2 or by modifying p53 with phosphorylation. The results associated with the drugs demonstrate the importance of targeting such interactions to inhibit cancer cell growth, which indicates that the use of the compounds may improve cancer therapeutics.


This special issue focuses on 'advanced scheduling strategies and Grid programming environments', and is based on selected papers from the 6th International Workshop on Middleware for Grid Computing (MGC 2008) and 2nd Latin American Grid (LAGrid 2008) workshop. The authors were invited to provide extended versions of their original papers taking into account comments and suggestions raised during the peer review process and comments from the audience during the workshops. MGC 2008 relevant contributions have been provided by Kane and Dillaway, Abbes et al., Reis and Cerqueira, Finger et al. and Kuijl et al. From the LAGrid 2008 side also relevant contributions have been provided by Martins et al., Costa and Cardozo, Mury et al. and Cáceres et al. These contributions focus mainly on:


Electric-field-induced nuclear resonance (NER: nuclear electric resonance) involving quantum Hall states (QHSs) was studied at various filling factors by exploiting changes in nuclear spins polarized at quantum Hall breakdown. Distinct from the magnetic dipole interaction in nuclear magnetic resonance, the interaction of the electric-field gradient with the electric quadrupole moment plays the dominant role in the NER mechanism. The magnitude of the NER signal strongly depends on whether electronic states are localized or extended. This indicates that NER is sensitive to the screening capability of the electric field associated with QHSs.


The purpose of this study was to determine if there were consistent differentiating patterns in body surface potential maps in children with normal hearts and in those with ostium primum versus ostium secundum atrial septal defects. A second purpose was to interpret the isopotential surface maps in terms of the position of intracardiac electrical wave fronts.Body surface activity throughout QRS demonstrated three major intervals: developing, transitional, and declining potentials. Patients with both types of atrial septal defects demonstrated complex distributions (multiple maxima) during the transitional interval which were not encountered in normal subjects. In the primum group, the distribution of positive and negative potentials sequentially changed in an inverted pattern as compared to the pattern in those patients with secundum defects. Furthermore, during the transitional interval the potential distribution was considerably more complex in the primum group. In two additional patients, body surface maps were helpful in clarifying misleading and atypical conventional electrocardiograms.The presence of simultaneous multiple maxima could only be accounted for by the existence of multiple wave fronts simultaneously present within the heart. In particular the emergence of two widely separated anterior chest maxima in patients with secundum atrial defect indicated the simultaneous presence of prominent left and right ventricular wave fronts. Also, the marked differences in the relative positions of the major body surface maximum and minimum could be accounted for only by considerable differences in the position and extent of intracardiac wave fronts. For example, the target distribution, consisting of an isolated minimum surrounded by multiple maxima and positive potentials over the upper body, in the ostium primum patients, indicated epicardial breakthrough in a wave front positioned in the anterosuperior portion of the heart. In contrast, normal subjects and patients with secundum defect had distributions indicating antero-inferior wave front position at the time of right ventricular epicardial breakthrough.


This article describes a pioneering longitudinal investigation from Australia known as the Hunter Community Study (HCS). The HCS investigates retired and near-retired persons randomly selected in a regional area on the heavily populated east coast. As it collects detailed survey, clinical, and biological measures, the HCS is more comprehensive than most other research of this nature. The HCS also has significant occupational implications at an international level, being one of the first Australian studies to take a full, lifetime occupational history linked to job exposures. Longitudinal cohort studies with exposure assessment, such as the HCS offer epidemiologists around the world a clear opportunity for examining and evaluating the long-term risks of employment across a variety of workplace settings. It is only with detailed datasets that continuing progress can be made in elucidating mechanisms of occupational disease causation in the new millennium.


A theorem that characterizes spline functions that both smooth and interpolate is given. A bivariate generalization is presented which permits interpolation and smoothing of information which is not necessarily on a rectangular grid. A theorem which involves reproducing kernels for Hilbert spaces unifies this theory.


Choledocholithiasis (CDL) in neonates and infants is <1 in 5000. There is no gold standard for the management of CDL in the pediatric population. In English literature, this is the first case report of a baby born with esophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula (Type C) with cholangitis, who underwent percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage and peroral extraction of a large calculus in the common bile duct after primary repair of esophagus.


The use of smaller sized catheters for coronary angiography (CA) is increasing, but little is known about the safety of CA with 6F catheters. The authors reviewed all cases of CA in which 6F and 8F catheters were used in adult patients between 1988 and June, 1990. There were 597 patients in the 6F group and 2,409 patients in the 8F group. Cases of CA with 6F catheters were more likely to be elective (95% vs 87%), to have no coronary disease (35% vs 24%), and to be performed by nonfirst-year fellows (70% vs 54%) when compared with CA with 8F catheters. There were 5 cases of coronary artery dissection. The incidence of dissections was significantly higher (p=.007) in the 6F group (0.67%) than in the 8F group (0.04%). The incidence of dissections was highest for first-year fellows using 6F catheters (1.7%), which was significantly higher (p = .008) than for first-year fellows using 8F catheters. The incidence of major vascular complications tended to be lower (p=.068) in the 6F group (0.17%) than in the 8F group (0.95%). In summary, CA with 6F catheters is associated with an increased risk of coronary artery dissection, particularly with less experienced operators, but tends to be associated with a lower risk of major vascular complications.


In many countries of the Central and Eastern Europe which have huge economic and energy potential of the straw, this agricultural waste becomes to be attractive material which can be utilized near to place of the production in the heating devices as well as in the gasifying facilities. Unfortunately straw is characterized by strongly various properties, which depends on type of straw, geographic location of growing as well as methods of the cultivation. Due to this fact, comprehensive approach to studies of the straw from given region is required to obtain information necessary to perform reliable simulations of its thermochemical conversion, what allows to carry out the optimisation of operation of the heating devices and the gasifiers. The paper presents methodology and results of the studies of the wheat straw from the southern Poland. The analysed properties were selected in order to use them for further development of the numerical simulation of the heterogeneous combustion of the considered fuel. Proximate and ultimate analysis as well as determination of the higher heating value (HHV) have been performed and compared with data presented in literature. Then thermogravimetry was carried out to determine content as well as dynamics of the decomposition of the pseudocomponents in the fuel. Selected approaches to model fitting and model-free methods described in this paper have been applied to find kinetic parameters of the straw pyrolysis.


Sheep lymphocyte poly(A+) RNA was used as a template for the enzymatic synthesis of cDNA before cloning into the expression vector lambda gt11. Screening of the cDNA library with mAb probes resulted in the isolation of two recombinant phages containing Ig coding sequences of 704 bp and 925 bp. These were inserted into the EcoRI site of pUC18 and named pSLC (sheep Ig L chain) and pSHC (sheep Ig H chain). The insert in pSLC revealed sequence homology by using GenBank to lambda L chain and pSHC revealed sequence homology to IgG sequences from various species. The L chain cDNA contained the full translation sequence and 5' and 3' nontranslating region while the H chain cDNA coded for the secreted form of IgG1 and lacked sequences upstream from the C region. The derived amino acid sequences showed significant homology with various Ig sequences already described for human, mouse, rabbit, pig, and chicken but the degree of homology showed no consistency with established phylogenetic relationships.


In the present paper is presented the surveillance system for pesticide-related illnesses proposed by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Through the collaboration of local or regional poison control centres and local health departments with public hospitals and emergency departments, cases of acute pesticide-related illnesses among persons seeking health care will be registered according to standard procedures. Data collected locally will be transmitted to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità for registration and evaluation of the association between symptoms and type of exposure and for severity of illnesses related to pesticide exposure. These data will be analysed at regular intervals in order to estimate the magnitude of the problem of acute pesticide-related illnesses in Italy and to identify priority areas for implementing public health prevention and intervention programs.


Accurate models for voltage flicker prediction are required so that large wind turbines may be connected, to weak utility networks, in the confidence that excessive flicker levels will not occur. These models must work satisfactorily with different wind turbine designs so that risks to manufacturers, intending to adopt a particular type of turbine, are minimised. This paper presents a simple model for identifying critical busbars, where the levels of flicker may be high. It also describes a more complex model for accurately predicting flicker induced by operating wind turbines. The models are very flexible and were developed specifically to be coupled to an existing dynamic model of an entire wind turbine. The various models representing static and dynamic loads are described and their impact on flicker are investigated. In addition, the effects of the X/R ratio and fault level of the network are discussed. Various wind conditions and different network parameters have been simulated. Results are presented from simulations carried out using measured wind turbine power time series and data from operating wind farms.


This research updates and expands upon Decker's article "Citizen attitudes toward the police: a review of past findings and suggestions for future policy" by summarizing the findings from more than 100 articles on perceptions of and attitudes toward the police. Initially, the value of research on attitudes toward the police is discussed. Then the research pertaining to the impact of individual level variables (e.g. race) and contextual level variables (e.g. neighborhood) on perceptions of the police is reviewed. Studies of juveniles' attitudes toward the police, perceptions of police policies and practices, methodological issues and conceptual issues are also discussed. This review of the literature indicates that only four variables (age, contact with police, neighborhood, and race) have consistently been proven to affect attitudes toward the police. However, there are interactive effects between these and other variables which are not yet understood; a finding which indicates that theoretical generalizations about attitudes toward police should be made with caution.


Abstract COVID-19 sepsis is characterized by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) as a consequence of pulmonary tropism of the virus and endothelial heterogeneity of the host. ARDS is a phenotype among patients with multiorgan dysfunction syndrome (MODS) due to disseminated vascular microthrombotic disease (VMTD). In response to the viral septicemia, the host activates the complement system which produces terminal complement complex C5b-9 to neutralize pathogen. C5b-9 causes pore formation on the membrane of host endothelial cells (ECs) if CD59 is underexpressed. Also, viral S protein attraction to endothelial ACE2 receptor damages ECs. Both affect ECs and provoke endotheliopathy. Disseminated endotheliopathy activates two molecular pathways: inflammatory and microthrombotic. The former releases inflammatory cytokines from ECs, which lead to inflammation. The latter initiates endothelial exocytosis of unusually large von Willebrand factor (ULVWF) multimers and FVIII from Weibel–Palade bodies. If ADAMTS13 is insufficient, ULVWF multimers activate intravascular hemostasis of ULVWF path. In activated ULVWF path, ULVWF multimers anchored to damaged endothelial cells recruit circulating platelets and trigger microthrombogenesis. This process produces "microthrombi strings" composed of platelet-ULVWF complexes, leading to endotheliopathy-associated VMTD (EA-VMTD). In COVID-19, microthrombosis initially affects the lungs per tropism causing ARDS, but EA-VMTD may orchestrate more complex clinical phenotypes, including thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)-like syndrome, hepatic coagulopathy, MODS and combined micro-macrothrombotic syndrome. In this pandemic, ARDS and pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) have often coexisted. The analysis based on two hemostatic theories supports ARDS caused by activated ULVWF path is EA-VMTD and PTE caused by activated ULVWF and TF paths is macrothrombosis. The thrombotic disorder of COVID-19 sepsis is consistent with the notion that ARDS is virus-induced disseminated EA-VMTD and PTE is in-hospital vascular injury-related macrothrombosis which is not directly related to viral pathogenesis. The pathogenesis-based therapeutic approach is discussed for the treatment of EA-VMTD with antimicrothrombotic regimen and the potential need of anticoagulation therapy for coinciding macrothrombosis in comprehensive COVID-19 care.


Abstract. Tropical forest dynamics play a crucial role in the global carbon, water,
and energy cycles. However, realistically simulating the dynamics of
competition and coexistence between different plant functional types (PFTs)
in tropical forests remains a significant challenge. This study aims to
improve the modeling of PFT coexistence in the Functionally Assembled
Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator (FATES), a vegetation demography model
implemented in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) land model
(ELM), ELM-FATES. Specifically, we explore (1) whether plant trait
relationships established from field measurements can constrain ELM-FATES
simulations and (2) whether machine learning (ML)-based surrogate models
can emulate the complex ELM-FATES model and optimize parameter selections to
improve PFT coexistence modeling. We conducted three ensembles of ELM-FATES
experiments at a tropical forest site near Manaus, Brazil. By comparing the
ensemble experiments without (Exp-CTR) and with (Exp-OBS) consideration of
observed trait relationships, we found that accounting for these
relationships slightly improves the simulations of water, energy, and carbon
variables when compared to observations but degrades the simulation of PFT
coexistence. Using ML-based surrogate models trained on Exp-CTR, we
optimized the trait parameters in ELM-FATES and conducted another ensemble
of experiments (Exp-ML) with these optimized parameters. The proportion of
PFT coexistence experiments significantly increased from 21 % in Exp-CTR
to 73 % in Exp-ML. After filtering the experiments that allow for PFT
coexistence to agree with observations (within 15 % tolerance), 33 % of
the Exp-ML experiments were retained, which is a significant improvement
compared to the 1.4 % in Exp-CTR. Exp-ML also accurately reproduces the annual
means and seasonal variations in water, energy, and carbon fluxes and the
field inventory of aboveground biomass. This study represents a
reproducible method that utilizes machine learning to identify parameter
values that improve model fidelity against observations and PFT coexistence
in vegetation demography models for diverse ecosystems. Our study also
suggests the need for new mechanisms to enhance the robust simulation of
coexisting plants in ELM-FATES and has significant implications for
modeling the response and feedbacks of ecosystem dynamics to climate change.


Abstract Background and aims : Using plants to purify indoor air has long been of interest to many researchers. In this study the effectivness application of conventional apartment ornomental flowers to survey removal capability of five kind of pollutant: aromatic hydrocarbons (Benzene and Toluene), aliphatic hydrocarbons (Octane), halogenated hydrocarbons (Trichloroethylene (TCE)) and tropens (Alpha-Pinene) in indoor ambients was studied. Methods: At first, 10 species of ornomental flowers were cultured seperatly in pots and then were placed in 10L gas-tight glass jars and exposed to different concentrations of benzene, TCE, toluene, octane, and α-pinene, (31.9, 53.7, 46.7, 56.4, 55.7), respectively. Air samples within the glass containers were analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy and detector tubes 3 and 6 h exposure to the test pollutants to determine removal efficiency. The removal efficiency, expressed as µg/m3-m2-h basis for each volatile organic compound (VOC), varied with plant species. Results: Results show that of the 10 ornomental flower tested, Alternaria, Hedera helix, Tradescantia and Hoya carnosa had the highest removal efficiencies for total VOCs. Alternaria displayed superior removal efficiency for four of the five VOCs (i.e., benzene, TCE, toluene and octane). The average removal of five pollutants with ornomental flower tested were 8-44 µg/m 3 -m 2 -h of the total VOCs. Hedra helix efficiently removed Alpha-Pinene. All of flower tested caused removal of VOCs from indoor ambients. Conclusion: Different in efficacy of removal with different species ornomental flowers show that, for improvement efficiency of application ornomental flowers for removal of VOCs from indoor ambients, is needed that different species of flowers be planted. This study showed that the use of indoor ornamental flowers is suitable solution for reducing volatile organic contaminants from the indoor ambients.