As gas and oil fields mature their operation becomes increasingly more complex, due to complex process dynamics, like slugging, gas coning, water breakthrough, salt or hydrate deposition. Moreover these phenomena also lead to production constraints in the upstream facilities. This complexity asks for operator support in how to optimally operate such an asset. In this paper we explore how, based on physical models of reservoirs, wells and top side separation and compression equipment, real-time optimization may be used in optimal operation of a maturing asset showing complex dynamic behavior and top side compressor constraints. In a joint industry project of Wintershall, GDF, EBN, Siemens and TNO the applicability of Real-Time Optimization is explored. Real-time optimization will be demonstrated on a maturing North Sea off-shore gas production asset consisting of eight wells and two separator and compression trains. The current results show how the optimization problem has been defined and implemented in a real-time architecture. First results are shown realizing the gas production set point and minimizing compressor power, while the production of individual wells suffer from degrading performance and (unplanned) shut-ins. The optimizer computes how the production must be dynamically distributed over the wells and how the compressor trains must be operated. Dynamic optimization strategies have been exploited successfully in downstream operations. A similar development is happening in upstream industry, while having to cope with the higher uncertainties typically present in upstream processes. As the paper shows Dynamic Optimization may lead to large benefits in Real-Time Operation of upstream production facilities. Copyright 2013, Society of Petroleum Engineers.


This paper argues that a number of consistency conditions for group choice cannot be considered as fundamental requirements since there are group decision rules which seem otherwise reasonable that do not satisfy them. In order to preserve Pareto optimality, which is essential, these rules represent possible alternatives by lexicographically ordered vectors that depend on the feasible set (because an alternative's Pareto property depends on the available alternatives). Revised versions of the consistency conditions are satisfied by the decision rules considered.


Pooled regressions, first of eight and then of sixteen countries, show a steady and robust process of endogenous growth in Europe since 1870, interrupted only by the events of World War II and the impact of convergence towards US levels of performance in the 1950s and the 1960s. This result contrasts with that of Maurice Scott, who finds that growth accelerated after 1945. Catching up is no longer relevant in the 1970s and the 1980s, despite a continuing gap in productivity levels vis a vis the US. Neither was it relevant in the pre-World War II era. Growth is, therefore, characterized by the device `back to normal'. Even so, some under-perform in terms of economic growth.


Presently, the Semantic Web is gaining popularity. Conse- quently, there is an increased demand for benchmarking of the perfor- mance of RDF stores and SPARQL queries with simulated test data. However, there is not sufficient work on how different RDF stores per- form with various SPARQL elements. The work presented in this paper seeks to explore the performance issues of data storage, data retrieving and data inference. We present a framework for performance study of semantic databases. We used this framework to evaluate several exist- ing semantic databases. The evaluation results show that our framework can facilitate the performance study and there is room for improving the performance of current semantic databases.


Simple sequence repeat (SSR) or microsatellite marker is currently the most preferred molecular marker system owing to their highly desirable properties viz., abundance, hyper-variability, and suitability for high-throughput analysis. Development of SSR markers using molecular methods is time consuming, laborious, and expensive. Use of computational approaches to mine ever-increasing sequences such as expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and genomic DNA sequences available in public databases permits rapid and economical discovery of SSRs. Because the number of SSR markers currently available in chickpea is very limited, the aim of this study was to develop and characterize more SSR markers. Twenty one hundred DNA sequences of chickpea were searched for SSRs and analyzed for the design of PCR primers amplifying the SSR reach regions. Di-nucleotide repeats were found to be the most abundant followed by tri-or mono-nucleotide repeats. The motifs AIT, GA/AG/CT/AC/TC/CA/TA, and CAA/TCT/AGA/CAG/TTG/ATT were the predominant mono-, di-, and tri-nucleotide SSRs, respectively. A subset of 64 primer pairs flanking SSR loci was used for screening polymorphism between two chickpea cultivars BG 256 and WR 315, which are parents of a Fusarium wilt mapping populations. Of them, 45 SSR markers (70.3%) were polymorphic between these two parents.


Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths globally. Patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) account for 80% of all lung cancer cases. Active mutation of EGFR was identified as one of the key anti-cancer target for NSCLC patients. Recently, tyrosine kinase inhibitor, like gefitinib which can specifically inhibit the activation of EGFR, emerges as a new potential anticancer drug. However, drug resistance remains an unsolved problem. Most of patient acquired resistance to this inhibitor within 12 months. Therefore, it is necessary and urgent to discover more effective potential agents as candidate drugs for treating gefitinib resistant NSCLC. Tripterygium, a triterpene extracted from the Chinese herb "Thunder of God Vine", has been shown to have multiple bioactivities. Its anti-cancer effect has been proved in many kinds of cancers. However, the effect of Tripterygium on gefitinib-resistant NSCLC cells is still unknown. In this study, we examined the potency of Tripterygium in induction of apoptosis in a gefitinib-resistant NSCLC cell line and explored its underlying anti-cancer mechanism. Our results demonstrated that Tripterygium induced its apoptotic effect on NSCLC cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Moreover, the function of mitochondria was disrupted by the treatment of Tripterygium. The mitochondria membrane potential was gradually loss, and the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 which is the indicator of mitochondria membrane integrity, was significantly up-regulated after the treatment of Tripterygium. Although the caspases were activated, the treatment of pan-caspase inhibitor could only partially inhibit the level of apoptosis. Moreover, the level of Hsp90 client proteins, EGFR and its downstream target AKT, were measured. Interestingly, both of them were remarkably decreased after Tripterygium treatment. Taken together, our data suggest that Tripterygium, which may be developed as a promising agent for gefitinib-resistant NSCLC patient, induced apoptosis through mitochondria dysfunction and EGFR degradation in gefitinib-resistant NSCLC cells. Citation Format: Xing-Xing Fan, Na Li, Jin-Lin Wu, Yan-Ling Zhou, Liang Liu, Jian-Xing He, Elaine L. Leung. Tripterygium induces apoptosis in NSCLC via mitochondria dysfunction. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 5563. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-5563


Operators of complex systems across multiple domains (e.g., aviation, automotive, and nuclear power industry) are required to perform their tasks over prolonged and continuous periods of time. Mental fatigue as well as reduced cognitive flexibility, attention, and situational awareness all result from prolonged continuous use, putting at risk the safety and efficiency of complex operations. Mental state-based adaptive systems may be a solution to this problem. These systems infer the current mental state of an operator based on a selection of metrics ranging from operator independent measures (e.g., weather and time of day), to behavioral (e.g., reaction time and lane deviation) as well as physiological markers (e.g., electroencephalography and cardiac activity). The interaction between operator and system may then be adapted in one of many ways to mitigate any detected degraded cognitive state, thereby ensuring continued safety and efficiency. Depending on the task at hand and its specific problems, possible adaptations -usually based on machine learning estimations- e.g., include modifications of information, presentation modality or stimuli salience, as well as task scheduling. Research on adaptive systems is at the interface of several domains, including neuroergonomics, human factors, and human-computer interaction in an applied and ecological context, necessitating careful consideration of each of the aforementioned aspects. This article provides an overview of some of the key questions and aspects to be considered by researchers for the design of mental state-based adaptive systems, while also promoting their application during prolonged continuous use to pave the way toward safer and more efficient human-machine interaction.


Eldercide is an increasing category of homicide affecting members of one of society's most vulnerable populations. Despite attention from health officials, policy makers, researchers, the public, and the criminal justice system, there remains a dearth of knowledge about the phenomenon. Examination of extant empirical works reveals overreliance on small localized subsamples drawn frequently from medical examiner reports, underutilization of large national samples, brief temporal spans of data, and diffuse victim and offender profiles. This work, examining a large sample of reported incidents collected as part of the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) for the period 2000-2005, addresses several limitations.This research examines victim, offender, and incident characteristics using chi-square tests and logistic regression to establish baseline findings and victim/offender profiles from a more comprehensive sample of data than prior studies have employed. Furthermore, the work examines the role of gender as a key to the dichotomy that exists in the literature between stranger-oriented eldercide and family violence—oriented eldercide. Results suggest notable gender differences with White males being the most frequent victims of eldercide, killed predominantly by offenders below the age of 45 compared to female victims who are most frequently killed by offenders above 45 years of age. Males are also more likely to be killed by a stranger compared to females who are most likely to be killed by a spouse or child. This work both corroborates and contrasts prior findings providing new insights and avenues for future study.


This
study was conducted to assess quality of postnatal care that midwives provide
to women seeking postnatal services in health facilities in Dedza district, the
central region ofMalawi.
The study design was descriptive cross sectional and utilized quantitative data
collection and analysis method to determine structural, process and outcome
components of postnatal care in two facilities that offer emergency obstetric
and neonatal care and five that offer basic emergency obstetric and neonatal
care. All 60 midwives who were providing postnatal care during the time of
study in the district were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. In
addition, the midwives actual practice was observed and compared to a standard
checklist on postnatal care practice which was developed by the Malawi Ministry
of Health. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Results show that
structure for providing postnatal counseling services was inappropriate and
inadequate. Furthermore, the contents of postnatal services were below
reproductive health standards because the clients were neither monitored nor
examined physically on discharge. On average, all the seven facilities scored
48% on postnatal services rendered which is far below the recommended 80%
according to the Reproductive Health Standards. There is a need to provide
basic infrastructure in all the basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care
facilities. In addition, refresher training courses for midwives in maternal
and neonatal health with emphasis on postnatal care are recommended. There
is also a need to restructure the maternal and neonatal health departments in
the facilities so that the postnatal care units become stand-alone priority sites
to improve the quality of the postnatal care services rendered.


This study examined the technical efficiency of dairy farms in East Nile locality, Khartoum State-Sudan in the year 2017. Information related to various aspects of dairy farming was collected from 85 farmers selected randomly using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive Statistics, Cobb-Douglas stochastic production frontier and technical efficiency models were used to determine the effect of each input as the production frontier and the principal factors that explain differences on farm efficiency. The results of the analysis revealed that the technical efficiency ranged between 23-100 percent for small farms and 42-96 percent for large farms, with a mean of 60percent of small farms and 76 percent for large farms. The results suggested that the same amount of milk produced by the farms in the sample could have been achieved with approximately 40and 24 percent with fewer resources if all farms would have operated at 100 percent technical efficiency respectively for small and large farms. The estimated gamma parameters (γ) for small and large farms 0.99 and0.98, showing that the farm specific variability contributed more to the variation in yield among the dairy farmers, indicating that 99% and 98% per cent of the differences between observed and the maximum production frontier output of milk among the farmers was due to difference in farmer's level of technical efficiency by adopting different management practices in small and large farms, respectively. These factors were under the control of the farmers and the influence of which could be reduced to enhance technical efficiency of the dairy farmers in East Nile locality, Khartoum State. The return to scale for the small and large farms revealed that the farmers operated in the increase return to scale of the production surface having RTS of 1.052and 2.11, respectively.


The benefit of the omentum in chest surgery was experimentally evaluated on the basis of findings in relation to recanalization of the bronchial artery in bronchoplasty with and without omental wrapping. The arterial blood supply at the anastomotic sites was observed in the early stage following bronchoplasty using the omental wrapping. Clinical application of the omentum in chest surgery was performed by wrapping anastomotic site at tracheobronchoplasty in 3 cases, bronchial stump coverage after lobectomy or pneumonectomy in 2 cases, repair of bronchial fistula following pneumonectomy in 1 case and repair of bronchopleurocutaneous fistula in pulmonary tuberculosis in 1 case. Six of these clinical cases could have favorable postoperative results. Based on these experimental and clinical results, we consider that the omentum is very useful tissue for wound healing in chest surgery.


The chicken 20K oligo array provided by ARK-Genomics represents a very usefull tool for transcriptome analyses in the chicken. Because the 20460 70-mer oligo set was defined in 2004-2005 from heterogeneous data sources (http://www.ark-genomics.org), we checked the quality of the oligonucleotides, comparing them with the chromosomes of the 2.1 Washington University assembly of the Chicken Genome. This comparison was made using NCBI Blast 2 with a 75% similarity threshold over 50 base pairs. So we performed the annotation extraction only on the oligonucleotides found in a unique gene (even if it spanned on 2 exons). These annotations (Ensembl gene name, GO terms, orthologs, symbols corresponding to the human ortholog) were extracted from Ensembl using the blast HSP coordinates. Symbols for the human orthologs were validated with the HUGO gene nomenclature database using the GOret and HUGO_my_genes online tools (http://ouestgenopuces.univ-rennes1.fr/methodes_en.php). Other informations such as EC numbers and KEGG pathways IDs were extracted from bfind outputs and KEGG web pages. As results, among the 20460 gene-oligo, 13057 (64%) correspond to an unique coding region in a chicken genome sequence. From this oligo sub-set, only 32% presents an Ensembl gene name and/or a GO-biological process term. In contrast, 9360 (81%) presents a reliable human ortholog from which 1311 (14%) genes code enzymes. Among the 9360 genes, 7419 genes have a validated HUGO abbreviation, from which more GO terms could be extracted using different softwares (GOTM, Hugo-my-Genes) All bioinformatics procedures were developed by SIGENAE (INRA) and the results are available on site web: http://www.sigenae.org/


Hippocampal cell firing in awake, behaving rats is often spatially selective, and such cells have been called place cells. Similar spatial correlates have also been described for neurons in the medial entorhinal and perirhinal cortices. All three regions receive sensory associational input from postrhinal cortex, which, in turn, is heavily interconnected with visuospatial neocortical regions. The spatial selectivity of postrhinal cells, however, has never been examined. Here, we report the activity of neurons in postrhinal cortex of freely moving rats performing a spatial task on a four-arm radial maze. Data are also reported for visual association cortex neurons. The four-arm radial maze was defined by multisensory cues on the surfaces of the maze arms (proximal) and complex visual cues at the surround (distal). On each recording day, rats were run in three conditions: baseline, double cue rotation (proximal 90°; distal 90°), and baseline. In this task, hippocampal place field activity is robust and can be controlled by proximal or distal cues. The majority of postrhinal neurons (64%) exhibited positional correlates during performance on the task; however, characteristics of these postrhinal cells were substantially different from those previously described for hippocampal place cells. Most postrhinal cells with firing fields exhibited split or multiple subfields (93%). Unlike hippocampal place fields, the large majority of postrhinal firing fields (84%) adopted new spatial correlates when experimental cues were rotated, but did so neither predictably nor concordantly. This is the first report of positional firing correlates in the postrhinal cortex. The data are consistent with the idea that postrhinal cortex participates in visuospatial functions by monitoring changes in environmental stimuli rather than encoding stable spatial cues. Thus, postrhinal neurons appear to participate in higher-level perceptual functions rather than mnemonic functions. We propose that the response properties of postrhinal neurons represent an early step in a spatial pathway that culminates in the specific and stable place fields of the hippocampus. © 2003 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Grid has been proved to be a promising technology for integrating heterogeneous resources. However, with the emerging of various Grid middle wares, the heterogeneous problem also occurs for Grid middleware themselves, as well as for the Grid services developed on those middle wares, which is an obstacle for the interoperation. SOA(Service Oriented Architecture) has been introduced into the development of Grid middewares and services to solve this problem. One of the challenging tasks in the development, integration and deployment of Grid middle wares is to provide security framework. In this paper, the key issue of Grid security framework, i.e., authorization, is focused, and an attribute-based authorization framework is presented. Due to the adoption of SAML, XACML and the generic Web Service specifications, the proposed framework can achieve interoperability to other standard-based attribute authority services, as well as other standard-based policy evaluation services.


Positron Emission Tomography (PET) continues to have wide-ranging medical application and is based on the detection of gamma radiation emitted from the decay of certain types of radionuclides. Modern PET scanners produce three-dimensional (3D) images of the radiation source, in discrete time steps, using tomography analysis. Our work presents an application of PET for studying fluid mobility in pressurized low-permeability rock samples in the presence of natural fractures. This technique uses a high-resolution PET scanner and image reconstruction based on filtered back-projection. Traditional techniques have been limited to pressure measurement of fracture conductivity and effective permeability, but little is understood about the dynamic flow and velocity profiles within the fracture. The objective of our work was to investigate if we can measure the time-lapse distribution of the fluid flow as a function of the overburden stress. PET imaging was applied to the flow of brine solution, tagged with 18 F positron emitting radionuclide, through non-fractured sandstone and naturally fractured shale cores. A special composite container was manufactured to sustain high-pressure conditions and minimize the absorption of emitted gamma rays. We describe the experimental apparatus and demonstrate that the 3D images obtained with a grid resolution of 2x2x2 mm 3 allow clear determination of the fluid flow rate through the core as a function of overburden pressure and time. PET images are direct observations of the radiation source and allow an unambiguous determination of the fluid distribution in the core. The results of our research will be used to validate the numerical modeling of fluid flow through fractured rock matrices, enable more accurate estimates on the directionality of fractures from the fluid distribution as a function of time, and obtain more quantitatively sound estimates of fracture connectivity.


At once criminal and savior, clown and creator, antagonist and mediator, the character of trickster has made frequent appearances in works by writers the world over. As Margaret Atwood observed, trickster gods "stand where the door swings open on its hinges and the horizon expands; they operate where things are joined together and, thus, can also fall apart." A shaping force in American literature, trickster has appeared in such characters as Huckleberry Finn, Rinehart, Sula, and Nanapush. Usually a figure both culturally specific and transcendent, trickster leads the way to the unconscious, the concealed, and the seemingly unattainable."Trickster Lives" offers thirteen new and challenging interpretations of trickster in American writing, including essays on works by African American, Native American, Pacific Rim, and Latino writers, as well as an examination of trickster politics. This innovative collection of work conveys the trickster s unmistakable imprint on the modern world."


The formation of brittle intermetallic compound such as tends tp lower the toughness of V-Al alloys. Also, due to the high melting point of vanadium, it is difficult to make that alloy by previous ingot metallurgy method. To depress the technique has been adopted. The effect of particle size and milling time on the phase has been thoroughly studied. For mechanical alloying, SPEX mixed/mill has been used. The milling time and the composition of V and Al are varied to find the optimum condition of forming amorphous phase. The X-Ray Diffrection pattern, microstructure detection, microhandess test, experiments are carried out to analyze MA product. When the final step is reached, no lamellar-structure is detected. The steady state condition is observed after 8 hours and 10 hours milling for 15wt.%Al and 30wt.%Al alloy, respectively. The microhardness continuously increases up to 10 hours after then it remains constant.


AIM
To show how a self-ligating system can provide bodily movement of maxillary molars without extraoral devices or lingual appliances, reducing the need for patient compliance. The control of these tooth movements has been clinically and radiologically substantiated.

METHODS
The biomechanical principles, patient selection, and steps of the treatment are described. Some reference points are shown on the lateral cephalogram for superimposition, to evaluate the sagittal, vertical, and angular changes.

RESULTS
A number of cases have been treated with this technique, both distalization of maxillary first and second molars, with bodily movement and satisfactory anchorage management.

CONCLUSION
The described system works efficiently, all with only intraoral appliances, but the use of light and continuous forces to reach bodily distal movement without secondary effects is mandatory. The described system also produces the desired objectives with a short treatment time.


With the growth of Internet usage, a massive amount of textual data is generated on social media and the Web. As the text on the Web are generated by different authors with various types of writing styles and different encodings, a preprocessing step is required before applying any NLP task. The goal of preprocessing is to convert text into a standard format that makes it easy to extract information from documents and sentences. Moreover, the problem is more acute when we deal with Arabic script-based languages, in which there are some different kinds of encoding schemes, different kinds of writing styles and the spaces between or within the words. This paper introduces a preprocessing toolkit named as Parsivar, which is a comprehensive set of tools for Persian text preprocessing tasks. This toolkit performs various kinds of activities comprised of normalization, space correction, tokenization, stemming, parts of speech tagging and shallow parsing. To evaluate the performance of the proposed toolkit, both intrinsic and extrinsic approaches for evaluation have been applied. A Persian plagiarism detection system has been exploited as a downstream task for extrinsic evaluation of the proposed toolkit. The results have revealed that our toolkit outperforms the available Persian preprocessing toolkits by about 8 percent in terms of F1.


Dehumanization, or the denial of human characteristics, e.g., competence, reasoning and interpersonal skills, is pervasive in health-care and affects more individuals of low socioeconomic status (SES). Dehumanization is now no longer perceived as a blatant and extreme phenomenon only, related to inter-group aggression, but also as an everyday event expressed in subtle forms, involving un-reflexive attributions to others of traits and capacities that fall below from those that are seen as characterizing human beings. It happens in many contexts including health ones with pain being under-assessed and under-treated in low-SES people. This suggests that shared representations about people with different SES may mediate the way health professionals perceive and deal with people in pain. The psychosocial mechanisms accounting for it, however, remain under investigated, with little evidence about how dehumanization affects the relations between health professionals and their patients. Exploring this is particularly relevant for health contexts and relationships, wherein SES attribution happens in the everyday. This qualitative study aims to analyze whether and how SES recognition may lead to dehumanization of low-SES patients in (interdependent) nurse-patient relations. Specifically, we seek to understand: (1) Is the women's SES inferred through the attribution of low/medium-SES professions? (2) Are they offered more or less (inferred) dehumanizing characteristics - such as lack of competence – depending on SES? (3) Are different treatments offered to both women?
Fifty nurses watched videos of two chronic-pain women performing pain-inducing movements. Afterwards they described: (1) patient characteristics and profession (free association task); (2) how pain impacts patient's daily-life; (3) treatment recommendations. Only female nurses and women were included in the study given their higher prevalence in the population. An ethical approval was obtained from institutions/participants. IRAMUTEQ software was used to analyze the free association task and thematic analysis for the remaining data. Data categorization and analysis were carried-out by two researchers and verified by a third one. Disagreements were discussed and resolved by consensus.
The results highlight the ability of nurses to infer woman's SES, categorizing them in corresponding professions, generating the attribution of distinct personality traits and inferences about the effects of pain on woman's daily life. The medium-SES woman was mainly presented as proactive, with outlooks for the future, as well as with competence to manage pain, revealing an ascribing humanness to her. Otherwise, the low-SES women was presented with a predominantly negative description, with little agency, surrendered to pain and lacking skills to manage it, with a need for professional support and orientation, more referred to psychoeducation. These descriptions portray the low-SES woman as a victim, lacking rationality and self-control: subtle dehumanization.
The results shed light on the effect of patients' SES in health contexts, suggesting that it influences the awareness of other's human qualities, leading to (de)humanization. Hence, it suggests that inferences about others mediate the way how nurses perceive people in pain. This reveals the effect of dehumanization on self-other relations, contributing to maintain health disparities, undermining the goal of equity on health.


High-power fiber-to-fiber coupling is extensively used in fiber laser applications, and its performance is determined by coupling efficiency. We demonstrate a novel method for alignment and monitoring efficiency by detecting backscattering power at the fiber end cap. The relationship between alignment error and backscattering power is determined by simulations and experiments. Through this method, a state-of-the-art kW-level fiber-to-fiber optic switch is developed (transmission efficiency >97%). It performs well for longer than 60 min. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to establish the mathematical model based on this method. Our results can provide guidance in high-power fiber-to-fiber coupling.


This paper questions whether the objective of Article 82EC is indeed enhancing 'consumer welfare' as suggested by the EC Commission when one examines the application of the provision thus far. It critically analyses the case law of the EC Commission and Courts to show that there is great dissonance between the practice and the policy declarations on the provision. When one considers the practice alongside the rhetoric, Article 82EC appears as a provision enforced without a clear standard of harm leading to doubts about the legitimacy of enforcement. The article suggests that without a properly defined standard applied in actual decisions by the EC Commission and upheld by the EC Courts, the modernisation of Article 82EC cannot succeed.


Background & Aim: Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most frequent soft tissue tumor in children with prevalence of 5-8% among childhood cancers. The survival of patients are related to some factors such as primary site of tumor, histology, stage of disease, early diagnosis and treatment. The survival rate of these patients has significantly increased since the 1970s. Considering the variety of reports and studies in this regard, we evaluated the 5-10yr. survival rate in this group of patients. Patients and Methods: This is a retrospective cross sectional survival analysis study that has been carried out on 77 children up to 15 years of age with Rhabdomyosarcoma who were admitted in the hematology and oncology wards of AliAsghar children Hospital from 1993-2003 and were evaluated in regard to age at time of admission, pathology, stage of disease, primary site, type of treatment received and its' relation to survival rate. For analysis SPSS version 11.5 software was used. For determination of survival rate Kaplan Meire method and for evaluation of factors affecting it cox regression was used. P value<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean age of cases was 6.58 years with SD=4.02, males 60%, females 40% and mean survival time of cases was 8 years(95% CI: 8-9). The 5 year survival in stage I was 85.82%, stage II 86.88%, stage III 64.68% and stage IV 20%. The survival rate in tumor histology was embryonal 86.7%, and alveolar 48%. In regard to primary site of tumor orbit 94%, genitourinary tract 85.71%, parameningeal 57% and in extremity was 58%. Overall 5 and 10 year survival rates were 79.54% and 77.92% respectively. Conclusion: Like other studies, children with lower stages of rhabdomyosarcoma, embryonal histology, orbital and genitourinary as primary sites had better survival. Poor prognosis was associated with metastatic disease at the time of presentation, alveolar histology and tumors of extremity. Children who survived the first 5 years after diagnosis had relatively longer survival and better prognosis; 5 and 10yr. survival rates were 79.54% and 77.92% respectively.


In article formation and development of the land relations during the period from 2000 to 2016 on the example of the Voronezh region is considered. Need of a land reform which purpose in agriculture was a transformation of the land relations providing efficiency of use of land resources is shown. In article it is shown that objectives are partially solved. By 2016 joint stock companies, the joint-stock company, closed joint stock company, Ltd company, KFH, etc. were created, modern legal forms therefore the conclusion is drawn that limited liability companies at the moment prevail Are analysed, they make 73,8%. Results of their work in recent years are shown. The number of the unprofitable enterprises in 2016 in comparison with 2005 has decreased in percentage terms by 5,5 times and is only 6%, and profitable – 94%. The profit size for this period has increased more than by 10 times. Their characteristics and shortcomings are considered. It is noted that increase in efficiency of the land relations was promoted in no small measure by the following conditions: use of new technologies, introduction new highly productive, grades, rational use of fertilizers, acquisition of the new equipment, observance of crop rotations, improvement of personnel policy, etc. During land reforms due attention hasn't been paid to legal support of the mechanism of optimization of use of the earth that seriously slows down development of new land legal relations. Besides, the material and technical resources are still insufficiently created, selection and breeding work isn't completely restored, there are shortcomings and of formation of the financial and credit relations. For more effective use of land resources a number of actions for improvement of the organizational and economic mechanism are offered.


Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a potentially curative treatment for different spectrum of diseases. This type of treatment is constantly improving, but HSCT remains a risky procedure with various possible complications, the main is – chronic "graft versus host" disease (cGVHD). сGVHD is immune disregulation, and characterized by a variety of clinical manifestations that reflect the multiple underlying pathophysiology mechanisms. The study of cGVHD has now made great progress, but there's still a lot of questions. General characteristics, risk-factors of development, clinical manifestations, pathogenesis of cGVHD will be discussed in this article. Clinical case presented in this article explains usage of basic and novel agents for cGVHD treatment, prevention criterions for treatment of cGVHD in children.


Abstract A curious aspect of the evolution of the hypnozoite theory of malarial relapse is its transmogrification from theory into 'fact', this being of historical, linguistic, scientific and sociological interest. As far as it goes, the hypnozoite explanation for relapse is almost certainly correct. I contend, however, that many of the genotypically homologous, non-reinfection, relapse-like Plasmodium vivax recurrences that researchers ascribe to hypnozoite activation are probably hypnozoite-independent. Indeed, some malariologists are starting to recognize that homologous P. vivax recurrences have most likely been overattributed to activation of hypnozoites. Hitherto identified, non-hypnozoite, possible plasmodial sources of recurrence that must be considered, besides circulating erythrocytic stages, include parasites in splenic dendritic cells, other cells in the spleen (in addition to infected erythrocytes there), bone marrow (importantly) and the skin. I argue that we need to take into account the possibility of a dual or multiple extra-vascular origin of P. vivax non-reinfection recurrences, not arbitrarily discount it. The existence of a P. vivax reservoir(s) is a topical subject and one of practical importance for malaria eradication. Pertinent drug-associated matters are also discussed, as is the dormancy-related significance of clues provided by blood-stage-induced malarial infection.


The potentials of 407 amalgam restorations have been determined in vivo. The measurements were performed with very high impedance equipment, and relative to a Ag/AgCl reference electrode. The readings varied from -23 mV to -595 mV, with 90% of the readings confined to within -127 mV to -431 mV and a mean value of -226.1 mV. Of the restorations, 394 were measured twice, and no significant difference could be found between the first and the second reading. During the study, eight new restorations were inserted. Their potentials varied from -180 mV to -565 mV, with a mean of -339.4 mV, which was significantly lower than that of the older restorations.


In this essay, we analyze the dependence structures of equity, bond and money markets in Australia, the United States as well as the linkages between the two countries. The dependence structures have become more important for investors, risk managers and regulatory policy makers during the current period of financial crisis. Especially investors should be aware of the dependence structures which show the co-movement patterns between different markets in order to diversify and reduce the risks of their portfolios. To capture the structure linkages between different markets, we propose the combination of empirical distributions and time- varying copula models. Furthermore, we show an effective and informative way to analyze dependence between variables, especially to provide a better understanding of the co-movements of financial variables as well as the risks associated with dependence structures among them. The empirical findings provide some important implications of a wide range of areas related to investment in Australian and US financial markets.


BACKGROUND
By 2005, vaccination had reduced the annual incidence of mumps in the United States by more than 99%, with few outbreaks reported. However, in 2006, a large outbreak occurred among highly vaccinated populations in the United States, and similar outbreaks have been reported worldwide. The outbreak described in this report occurred among U.S. Orthodox Jewish communities during 2009 and 2010.

METHODS
Cases of salivary-gland swelling and other symptoms clinically compatible with mumps were investigated, and demographic, clinical, laboratory, and vaccination data were evaluated.

RESULTS
From June 28, 2009, through June 27, 2010, a total of 3502 outbreak-related cases of mumps were reported in New York City, two upstate New York counties, and one New Jersey county. Of the 1648 cases for which clinical specimens were available, 50% were laboratory-confirmed. Orthodox Jewish persons accounted for 97% of case patients. Adolescents 13 to 17 years of age (27% of all patients) and males (78% of patients in that age group) were disproportionately affected. Among case patients 13 to 17 years of age with documented vaccination status, 89% had previously received two doses of a mumps-containing vaccine, and 8% had received one dose. Transmission was focused within Jewish schools for boys, where students spend many hours daily in intense, face-to-face interaction. Orchitis was the most common complication (120 cases, 7% of male patients ≥12 years of age), with rates significantly higher among unvaccinated persons than among persons who had received two doses of vaccine.

CONCLUSIONS
The epidemiologic features of this outbreak suggest that intense exposures, particularly among boys in schools, facilitated transmission and overcame vaccine-induced protection in these patients. High rates of two-dose coverage reduced the severity of the disease and the transmission to persons in settings of less intense exposure.


Purpose: Development of new therapeutic drug delivery systems is an area of significant research interest. The ability to directly target a therapeutic agent to a tumor site would minimize systemic drug exposure, thus providing the potential for increasing the therapeutic index. Experimental Design: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) involves the uptake of a sensitizer by the cancer cells followed by photoirradiation to activate the sensitizer. PDT using Photofrin has certain disadvantages that include prolonged cutaneous photosensitization. Delivery of nanoparticles encapsulated with photodynamic agent specifically to a tumor site could potentially overcome the drawbacks of systemic therapy. In this study, we have developed a multifunctional polymeric nanoparticle consisting of a surface-localized tumor vasculature targeting F3 peptide and encapsulated PDT and imaging agents. Results: The nanoparticles specifically bound to the surface of MDA-435 cells in vitro and were internalized conferring photosensitivity to the cells. Significant magnetic resonance imaging contrast enhancement was achieved in i.c. rat 9L gliomas following i.v. nanoparticle administration. Serial magnetic resonance imaging was used for determination of pharmacokinetics and distribution of nanoparticles within the tumor. Treatment of glioma-bearing rats with targeted nanoparticles followed by PDT showed a significant improvement in survival rate when compared with animals who received PDT after administration of nontargeted nanoparticles or systemic Photofrin. Conclusions: This study reveals the versatility and efficacy of the multifunctional nanoparticle for the targeted detection and treatment of cancer.


The practical application and the results of the complicated reposition of redundant personnel combine the molding tool design are introduced by the design description to a typical model industry spreads a molding tool.


ABSTRACT That 'Another World is Possible' has become the ensign of the left's common sense. For lack of having been thought through, and for want to take it all in, the new reasonableness has given itself a hollow name with a ring to it: altermondialisme. Notwithstanding fashionable certainties, everything about it needs to be problematized, both because, in carrying on the century-old internationalist drive for programmatic coherence, altermondialisme rather stands at the rearguard of the movement than at its forefront, and because in its relationship to it, it reproduces rather than challenges attempts by the World Bank et al. to contain contemporary anti-capitalism and empty it of political possibilities. The text is divided into three parts. In the first, I identify what I take to be an essential political dynamic of contemporary world order: the attempt by regulatory agencies of global capitalism to invent a functional, civil and perfectly apolitical global subject that could serve as an ideal social companion to global-neo-liberalism. In the second part of the text, I work from concepts that originated with the Internationale Situationniste to begin making political sense of contemporary anti-capitalist praxis. In the third part of the article, I extract from the first two principles of articulation that may allow us to understand contemporary anti-capitalism for what it is, without containing or reifying it.


Tallinn University in co-operation with Tartu University has conducted a four month long research on deinstitutionalisation policies, financed by the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs, between August and November 2015. The research programme consisted of an international review on the
experiences of seven selected European countries and on focus groups and individual interviews among Estonian stakeholders related to deinstitutionalisation and community based services in the field of disability care and mental health. Based on the research the international research
group suggested a number of considerations for the Estonian Case. Some of the most relevant are reported in this Research note.


Postnatal overfeeding could increase the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in adulthood. This study investigated the effects of curcumin (CUR) on hepatic steatosis in postnatal overfed rats and elucidated potential mechanisms in mitochondrial functions. Male rats were adjusted to ten (normal litter, NL) or three (small litter, SL) at postnatal day 3. After weaning, NL rats were fed with normal diet (NL) or a high-fat diet (NH) for 10 weeks. SL rats were fed with normal diet (SL), a high-fat diet (SH), a normal diet supplemented with 2% CUR (SL-CUR) or a high-fat diet supplemented with 2% CUR (SH-CUR). At week 13, compared with NL rats, SL and NH rats showed increased body weight, glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia and hepatic lipid accumulation, and these changes were more obvious in SH rats. The opposite trends were observed in SL-CUR and SH-CUR rats. Moreover, CUR could preserve mitochondrial biogenesis and antioxidant response in postnatal overfed rats, and upregulated the mRNA and protein levels of SIRT3. In vitro, L02 cells were exposed to free fatty acids and/or CUR. CUR decreased the levels of cellular lipids and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, and increased the mitochondrial DNA copy number and superoxide dismutase activity in fatty L02 cells. However, these effects were blocked after SIRT3 silencing. It was concluded that postnatal overfeeding damaged mitochondrial biogenesis and antioxidant response, and increased hepatic lipids and the severity of high-fat-induced NAFLD, while CUR alleviated hepatic steatosis, at least partially, by enhancing mitochondrial function through SIRT3.


A technique for collecting cervical mucus in ewes is described. By a surgical procedure, the cervix was fixed to the ventral abdominal wall to enable mucus to be collected continuously into a container attached to the ewe. Mucus was collected successfully by this method for up to 14 months.


The nucleotide sequences of two cloned fragments of human DNA which function as templates for RNA polymerase III in vitro confirm their identities as members of the Alu family of human interspersed repetitive DNA sequences (1,2). The interspersed and repetitive nature of these sequences in the genome was demonstrated by hybridization of nick-translated DNA from one of these clones to total genomic DNA and to DNA of individual random clones from a lambda Ch4A-based human genomic library. Short, direct terminal repeats of non-conserved sequence flank the 300 nucleotide Alu family conserved sequence. Within the Alu family sequence is found a 40-nucleotide region which is directly repeated 135 nucleotides downstream. This 40 nucleotide sequence is found once in the murine B1 interspersed repetitive sequence family (8). This and other evidence indicates that the human Alu family resembles a partial duplication of the murine B1 sequence.


Rana catesbeiana tadpoles immunized with the main hemoglobin component of the adult frog of the same species produced precipitating and agglutinating antibodies against the immunogen. After natural metamorphosis, the immunized froglets have as their only major hemoglobin a protein immunologically and electrophoretically different from the major hemoglobin of control froglets.


The pH-dependent polymerization of human leukocyte interferon A produced by recombinant DNA technology was investigated by potentiometric hydrogen ion titration and sedimentation velocity analytical ultracentrifugation. The titration curve is completely reversible from pH 6.2 to 2.5. Analysis of the side-chain carboxyl residues by using the Linderstrøm-Lang equation yields a linear plot from pH 5.2 to 3.5. The resulting pKint and W values are 4.66 +/- 0.06 and 0.036 +/- 0.004, respectively. The titration curve from pH approximately 9.6 to 7 is also reversible. However, the reverse titration from pH 7 to 6 results in a time-dependent variation of pH. Sedimentation velocity analysis yields an increase in the corrected sedimentation coefficient, S20,w, from 2.0 to 4.0 S over a pH range of 2.5-9 at 0.38-0.25 mg/mL total protein concentration. The concentration dependence of the sedimentation coefficient at pH 7.0 over the range of 0.05-6.0 mg/mL results in a positive slope which is typical for self-aggregating systems. This aggregation phenomenon is discussed in terms of its ramifications for interferon therapy.


Glutaraldehyde-preserved bovine pericardium (GPBP) is evaluated as a bioprosthesis for the reconstruction of surgical defects in the thoracoabdominal wall. The mechanical properties of bovine pericardium preserved at different concentrations of glutaraldehyde were studied. Samples preserved in 0.5% glutaraldehyde showed a significantly higher tensile strength (11.7 +/- 0.8 N/mm2) than samples preserved in 2.5, 5, or 10% (similar to pericardium preserved in normal saline). The percentage of elongation was significantly lower than samples preserved in 1, 2.5, and 5% glutaraldehyde. GPBP at 0.5% was used to repair experimentally induced defects of the abdominal wall (n = 9), chest wall (n = 6), diaphragm (n = 6), and sternum (n = 7). All animals presented adequate tolerance to the material used and no case of infection or rejection of the material was seen in any of the animals. Finally, 0.5% GPBP was used clinically in a series of 40 patients: postincisional abdominal hernia (n = 30), inguinal hernia (n = 8), diaphragmatic hernia (n = 1), and congenital pelvic defect with prolapse of abdominal organs (n = 1). Surgical use showed that GPBP was a very manageable material and long-term results were good in 37 patients with a mean follow up of 18 months (range 5-35 months). Six patients presented seroma formation (all abdominal hernia patients), three of which eventually developed infection and had the GPBP patch removed at 3, 5, and 7 months postoperatively. The rest of the patients presented good scar formation with adequate resistance at the area of implantation. GPBP is a biological material with sufficient resistance to be used surgically in the repair of thoracoabdominal defects. Ideal concentration of glutaraldehyde to be used in the preparation-preservation of the material is 0.5% since higher concentration negatively affect its tensile rupture strength and elongation.


SUMMARY

A study was carried out on the effects of hay-making, hay-making after sod removal, and grazing with different intensities on the bryophyte flora in a moist grassland dominated by Holcus lanatus and in a very wet grassland dominated by Juncus effusus. The effects of grazing and the abandoning of a heathland area were also compared. The bryophytes were recorded in 1972, 1976 and 1983. In the grazed and the cut plots in the moist grassland area the average number of bryophytes and the degree of cover did not differ, but in the cut plots the degree of cover of bryophytes characteristic for litter became smaller. In the grazed plots, in which the vascular plant composition diverged with the grazing intensity, the bryophyte flora did change, but not diverge. After sod cutting mainly colonist species were present initially, but after 10 years, the number of perennials had increased considerably. In the cut plots in which sods had been removed the degree of cover of bryophytes, especially colonists, became greater than in the cut plots in which sods had not been removed. In the grazed and the cut plots in the very wet grassland area the average number of bryophytes did not diverge, but in the cut plots the degree of cover became highest and the proportion of litter species became smallest. The number of bryophytes remained high in the grazed heathland, but declined in the abandoned area, whereas the degree of cover decreased in both areas. Several species characteristic for heathland disappeared in the grazed area, whereas all 'heathland-species' disappeared in the abandoned area, which turned into woodland.


Introduction: Any major surgery like lower uterine Caesarean Section (CS) can be hazardous due to postoperative nosocomial infection. Pregnant mothers are at greater risk during such surgical intervention as compared to vaginal delivery. Prophylactic antibiotic administration is a standard practice across the globe to prevent such anticipated postoperative infection. Aim: To evaluate the prophylactic antimicrobial use with regards to the choice of antimicrobials, dose, route, timing and duration, any possible Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) as well as to assess the frequency of the postoperative morbidity due to infection (if any). Materials and Methods: A prospective observational databased study was conducted in the Department of Pharmacology in collaboration with Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Burdwan Medical College and Hospital, Burdwan, West Bengal, India, from February 2016 to October 2017. Study was conducted on 1944 pregnant women of reproductive age group planned or scheduled for elective/emergency lower segment CS, but otherwise healthy and received prophylactic antimicrobials for the surgery. They were prospectively observed regarding the treatment they received with focus on antimicrobial agents from the period of antimicrobial prophylaxis during their stay at hospital to till their discharge. Demographic data, vital signs, indication of CS, postoperative infections and ADR if any were recorded in predesigned proforma. The study population was divided into two groups: group A included 995 mothers, who received ceftriaxone sodium (1 g intravenously) and metronidazole (15 mg/kg) infusion and group B included 949 mothers, who received ampicillin (2 g intravenously), metronidazole (15 mg/kg) infusion and injection gentamycin (5 mg/kg) for 0.5 hour before initiation of CS. The data were statistically analysed by standard statistical software Microsoft Excel 2010 and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) sotware version 27.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) expressed as mean and standard deviation and percentage. Independent t- test and Chi-square test were used for analysis. Results: The mean age of group A was 22.36±3.07 years and group B was 22.76±2.47 years. Endomyometritis was documented in 4 (0.4%) from group A and 2 (0.21%) from the group B. Wound infection was present in 3 (0.3%) for group A and five (0.5%) for the group B. Infection related complications like chest infection seen in 7 (0.7%) for group A and in 3 (0.31%) for group B and urinary tract infection was noticed in 6 (0.6%) for group A and 5 (0.52%) for group B. Any incidence of maternal mortality was not evident among the two study groups and statistically insignificant ADR like vomiting and maculopapular rash (p-value=0.324) was observed in both the study groups with the use of above-mentioned antimicrobial therapy. Conclusion: Prophylactic use of ceftriaxone plus metronidazole and combination of triple antimicrobial therapy of ampicillin, metronidazole, and gentamycin therapy at the usual standard dose were commonly used antimicrobials at the present set up and they are safe and equally effective in decreasing considerably the incidence of post caesarean maternal infection thereby reducing their morbidity and mortality


Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT) has been used as cellular immunotherapy against hematological cancers for more than six decades. Its therapeutic efficacy relies on the cytoreductive effects of the conditioning regimen but also on potent graft-versus-tumor (GVT) reactions mediated by donor-derived immune cells. However, beneficial GVT effects may be counterbalanced by acute GVHD (aGVHD), a systemic syndrome in which donor immune cells attack healthy tissues of the recipient, resulting in severe inflammatory lesions mainly of the skin, gut, and liver. Despite standard prophylaxis regimens, aGVHD still occurs in approximately 20–50% of alloHCT recipients and remains a leading cause of transplant-related mortality. Over the past two decades, advances in the understanding its pathophysiology have helped to redefine aGVHD reactions and clinical presentations as well as developing novel strategies to optimize its prevention. In this review, we provide a brief overview of current knowledge on aGVHD immunopathology and discuss current approaches and novel strategies being developed and evaluated in clinical trials for aGVHD prevention. Optimal prophylaxis of aGVHD would prevent the development of clinically significant aGVHD, while preserving sufficient immune responsiveness to maintain beneficial GVT effects and immune defenses against pathogens.


Parallelization of A* path planning is mostly limited by the number of possible motions, which is far less than the level of parallelism that modern processors support. In this paper, we go beyond the limitations of traditional parallelism of A* and propose Speculative Path Planning to accelerate the search when there are abundant idle resources. The key idea of our approach is predicting future state expansions relying on patterns among expansions and aggressively parallelize the computations of prospective states (i.e. pre-evaluate the expensive collision checking operation of prospective nodes). This method allows us to maintain the same search order as of vanilla A* and safeguard any optimality guarantees. We evaluate our method on various configurations and show that on a machine with 32 physical cores, our method improves the performance around 11x and 10x on average over counterpart single-threaded and multi-threaded implementations respectively. The code to our paper can be found here: https://github.com/bakhshalipour/speculative-path-planning.


The dissociative adsorption reaction of hydrogen on noble metals is believed to be well-described within the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. In this work, we have experimentally derived translational energy distributions for selected quantum states of H2 and D2 formed in associative desorption reactions at a Au(111) surface. Using the principle of detailed balance, we compare our results to theory carried out at the same level of sophistication as was done for the reaction on copper. The theory predicts translational excitation that is much higher than is seen in experiment and fails to reproduce the experimentally observed isotope effect. The large deviations between experiment and theory are surprising because, for the same reactions occurring on Cu(111), a similar theoretical strategy agreed with experiment, yielding "chemical accuracy". We argue that electron-hole pair excitation is more important for the reaction on gold, an effect that may be related to the reaction's later transition state.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background and Purpose: Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) assess patients' perception of health care. We aimed to identify all reported PREMs for stroke care and critically appraise psychometric properties of PREMs validated for patients with stroke. Methods: Studies on the development, validation, or utilization of PREMs for adult patients with stroke were systematically identified. The Consensus-Based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments criteria were used to appraise psychometric performance. Results: We included 18 studies, examining 13 PREMs. Two PREMs had been developed for stroke care: Consumer Quality Index: Cerebrovascular Accident and Riksstroke. Consumer Quality Index: Cerebrovascular Accident was given a positive psychometric assessment, but its length and limited language applicability impede clinical implementation. Riksstroke was appraised as doubtful. Eleven PREMs were generic. The psychometric performance of 5 generic PREMS, validated for patients with stroke, received conflicting assessments. Six generic PREMs had not been validated in patients with stroke and were therefore not assessed for instrument performance. Conclusions: Thirteen PREMs have been published for use in stroke care. The stroke-specific Consumer Quality Index: Cerebrovascular Accident has favorable psychometric performance but lacks practical feasibility. Other PREMs have inadequate or unknown psychometric properties. This indicates the need for developing stroke-specific PREMs to support quality improvement and enhance patient-centered care.


Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the leading cause of neurological disability among young and middle-aged adults. One of the most devastating consequences of MS in this relatively young population group is unemployment. Although certain demographic and disease factors have been associated with employment, few studies have examined the contribution of person-specific factors, such as personality. Objective: The goal of this study was to determine the extent to which personality, demographics, and clinical measures contribute to unemployment in MS. Method: A total of 101 individuals with MS who were enrolled in a clinical trial on cognition underwent a brief neuropsychological battery and completed questionnaires related to vocation, mood, fatigue, and personality. Neurological impairment was measured with the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Results: Employment status was related with disease duration, MS subtype, level of neurological impairment, fatigue, performance on measures assessing information processing speed (Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT)), learning and memory (Selective Reminding Test), and the personality characteristic of persistence. Based on a forward logistic regression analysis, EDSS, SDMT, and persistence were the strongest predictors of employment status. Conclusions: These findings underscore the importance of personality on outcomes in MS and point to the need for more clinical attention and research in this area.


With the increasing use of recycled materials from civil construction, mainly as substitute for some aggregates in concrete mixtures, it is necessary to obtain technical information on the performance of these new mixtures. National and international research on the use of ceramic waste in concrete production highlight good results of this new material's mechanical performance in environmental situations. However, little is known about its behavior at high temperatures. In this context, we sought to verify the performance of concrete mixtures produced with aggregates from ceramic block waste at high temperatures, with evaluation of their residual mechanical strength, axial compressive strength and elastic modulus, and also their tendency to spalling in fire situations. The RILEM-129 MHT method [1] was used for the assessment of residual mechanical strength, and the tendency to spalling was evaluated according to the procedure suggested by Souza and Moreno [2]. In both these evaluations, there is no national standard, and, in the case of spalling, not even an international standard. Three concrete mixtures were used, one prepared with natural coarse basalt aggregate (reference) and the other two by replacing part of this natural aggregate with aggregate from ceramic block waste (40% and 100% of substitution in volume). In the end, it is concluded that the substitution of natural coarse aggregate for lightweight aggregate from ceramic block waste can be an excellent alternative to increase the resistance of concrete to fire. Thus, the results of mechanical strength and spalling in a fire situation, unprecedented in our country, can greatly support the decision-making about the use of this alternative material in the national construction industry.


In approaching a consideration of this subject, pediatricians should take a broad view of their interest in children. They are concerned with all aspects of the child's life—with the child as an individual. In some parts of his life their contribution to his well-being is direct and controlling; in other parts, indirect and advisory. From no part of his protection and training are they entirely excluded. The present plans for child health in this country have been perfected over a long period of careful planning. There has been a slow development in which many persons and agencies have been involved and to which pediatricians, especially the members of this society, have contributed leadership and many hours of thought and work. Progress has been made in the application of this program in all parts of the country, but in no community as yet has a perfect record of accomplishment been attained,


Female mating history can have a strong effect on male fertilization success. Although males often prefer to mate with virgin females, they often also engage with mated females. As the intensity of sperm competition can differ among mated females, males are expected to evolve means to identify their status. In spiders, males often use female silk to gather information about female quality. Males of many spider species deposit mating plugs into female genitalia to hinder further copulations. We tested whether males of the foliage‐dwelling, plug‐producing spider Philodromus cespitum, which is an important natural enemy of pests, discriminate between females of different mating status and whether they can determine the extent of genital plugging in mated females solely on the basis of cues gained from deposited female silk. We presented males with draglines of females that varied in either mating status (virgin vs. mated), the extent of plugging (small vs. big plug), or the age of the plug (fresh vs. old plug) and examined their mate preferences. Additionally, we tested whether males were attracted to volatile cues produced by female bodies. Our experiments revealed that males preferred draglines of virgin females to those of mated females, and mated females with small plugs to those with large plugs. They were also attracted to female volatile cues. This study suggests that males are able to extract fine‐scale information on mating status from female draglines.


We extend the transformational model of social activity proposed in recent realist social theory by importing into it a theory of technological objects and technological change. The paper begins with an account of the transformational model, focusing particularly on the relationship between routines and social rules. We then outline a theory of what we call the 'technical identity' of technological objects, drawing on the notion of collective assignments of agentive functions proposed by the philosopher John Searle. Finally, we link this theory to the transformational model and derive three broad categories of technological change. The framework as a whole is illustrated with empirical material drawn from a recent study of the shift from analogue photography to digital imaging in consumer photography.


Many ecological patterns are sensitive to spatial and temporal scale, but no general protocol has emerged for dealing with scale-dependence. We suggest that power laws, regularly used in the study of body size, can be applied to many such features. We used these techniques to describe two scale-sensitive aspects of caribou (Rangifer tarandus): population densities of North American herds when measured at varying spatial extents, and speeds of radiotracked individuals when observed at varying temporal resolutions. Log-log regression was applied, based on the power formula, Y= cX z. Non-isometric relationships existed for abundance versus area of the population range, but the pattern differed between groups. For sedentary caribou, animal numbers increased more slowly than spatial extent (z = 0.503). For migratory populations, this relationship was hyper-allometric (z > 1), and densities were generally lower for continental herds compared to insular Newfoundland herds living without wolves (Canis lupus). We surmise that defining population bounds may be more subjective for sedentary herds; migratory herd densities may increase with increasing population size. Distance moved versus the interval between radiolocations was also non-isometric (z = 0.551). We standardized these movements to eliminate the confounding effects of scale, enabling comparisons across seasons and populations. The power formula helps to clarify the debate over the use of ratios, where variables may change non-isometrically. Power laws may enable the synthesis of ecological patterns sensitive to scales of space and time.


The authors propose new approximations to the time-dependent optical potential coupling that part of the Hilbert space in which standard truncated close coupling equations are solved (P space) and the complementary Q space. They define a dynamical basis in P space allowing for a transparent separation of P-Q and Q-Q coupling from P-P coupling, thus ensuring that account for the latter exactly within any approximate scheme. Studying the time structure of the evolution operator in Q space, they are led to propose a non-Markovian scheme going beyond the instantaneous approximation. Alternatively, a topological study of the coupling between P and Q space leads to a doorway space approximation consisting in a dynamical extension of the P space by that part of the Q space to which it is directly coupled.


To the Editor.— In the article "Stimulant Medications Precipitate Tourette's Syndrome," by Lowe et al (1982; 247:1729), an apparent causal relationship between administration of stimulant medications and the development of Tourette's syndrome is described. In the practice of child psychiatry, I have encountered children for whom stimulants had been prescribed on a "trial basis" approach, and without the benefit of a thorough clinical assessment. Experience also indicates that these drugs are prescribed in dosages that are excessive for the patients' needs. It would have been helpful if more detailed data would have been provided about the 15 patients in the authors' sample, such as (1) dosages and duration of administration for each drug, and (2) whether any "drug vacations" from stimulants were instituted, and for how long.


Abstract Background: Despite the developments in diagnosis and treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, there is a high likelihood in the development of resistance to trastuzumab. In general, HER2-positive patients with deteriorated health face negative clinical outcomes. The present study is conducted to systematically explore the medicinal properties of trastuzumab in HER2-positive breast cancer patients. Methods: Randomized controlled trials investigating the clinical properties of including trastuzumab to treat HER2-positive breast cancer cases will be sourced by exploring these online-based databases: MEDLINE, BIOSIS, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Central Register of Controlled Trials, and WanFang. Two independent authors will screen the literature, gather data, and assess the quality of selected studies. The significance of the relationship between the medical properties of trastuzumab when incorporated to treat HER2-positive breast cancer cases will be evaluated according to the relative risk, mean differences or standardized mean differences, and 95% confidence interval. Results: The outcomes from this review shall be issued in a journal that will be reviewed by peers. Conclusion: The conclusions presented in this review will serve as a reference for clinical practitioners and scholars to determine whether trastuzumab is an effective and safety intervention for treating HER2-positive breast cancer patients. Ethics and dissemination: Since this study is a systematic review of published studies, an ethical approval is not needed. Systematic review registration number: March 31, 2021.osf.io/wvqkf (https://osf.io/wvqkf/).


Objectives: The present study was carried out to determine the phytochemical constituents and in vitro antioxidant activities of leaf extracts of Alternanthera brasiliana (L). Kuntze (A. brasiliana) and Alternanthera bettzickiana regel (A. bettzickiana).Methods: Preliminary phytochemical screening was performed in petroleum ether, chloroform, acetone, ethanol, hydroethanolic and water extracts of leaves of A. brasiliana and A. bettzickiana. The level of alkaloids, flavonoids, total phenolic content, tannins, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, GSH, and total proteins were determined in hydroethanolic, ethanol, and water extracts. Antioxidant activity of the hydroethanolic leaf extracts of A. brasiliana and A. bettzickiana were determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate free radical scavenging assay, nitric oxide scavenging assay, superoxide anion scavenging assay, ferric reducing antioxidant power assay, total antioxidant capacity, and reducing power assay.Results: The phytochemical screening of six different extracts of A. brasiliana and A. bettzickiana revealed the presence of various phytonutrients. Quantitative analysis of secondary metabolites in ethanol, hydroethanolic and water extracts of leaves of A. brasiliana and A. bettzickiana showed the presence of high amount of secondary metabolites in the hydroethanolic extract. In vitro, antioxidant assay of two plant extracts revealed that A. bettzickiana was more potent than A. brasiliana in scavenging free radicals.Conclusion: The different extracts from A. brasiliana and A. bettzickiana and specifically the hydroethanolic extract of A. bettzickiana revealed several properties such as rich source of phytonutrients, higher free radical scavenging properties, and significant antioxidant capabilities. Therefore, the bioactive compound should be isolated in future studies and could be used as a safe and serve as a potential source of natural antioxidants.


The androgen receptor (AR) has potential clinical relevance in metastatic breast cancer (mBC) since it might be a treatment target and has been associated with endocrine resistance. A minimal‐invasive way to determine AR expression on metastatic tumor cells is by characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Here, we assessed AR mRNA expression in CTCs (CTC‐AR) and in matched primary tumor samples from mBC patients representing different breast cancer subtypes. In addition, we explored CTC‐AR‐status in relation to outcome on endocrine therapy. AR, and 92 AR or estrogen receptor (ER) related genes, were measured in CellSearch‐enriched CTCs from 124 mBC patients and in 52 matched FFPE primary tissues using quantitative reverse‐transcriptase PCR. AR in CTCs was considered positive if the expression was 1 standard deviation higher than the expression measured in 11 healthy blood donors. A total of 31% of the mBC patients had AR‐positive (AR+) CTCs. 58% of the matched CTC and primary tumor samples were discordant with respect to AR status, observing both switches from AR+ to AR‐negative (AR‐) and vice versa. There was no statistically significant difference in progression‐free survival for patients treated with ER‐targeting drugs and CTC‐AR‐status (13 AR+/ 37 AR‐ cases, p = 0.28). Thus, AR can be determined in RNA isolated from CTCs, with in our set 31% AR‐positive samples. Given the discordance between AR status in CTC samples and corresponding primary tumors, determination of AR expression in CTCs might be a promising tool to select mBC patients for AR inhibiting agents.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the prevalence of coeliac disease (CD) in an adult population with Turner's syndrome (TS). Design A clinic population with TS was screened using a serological test for CD.

METHODS
Two hundred and fifty six patients with TS were included in the study. Five patients had existing diagnoses of CD. The remaining 251 asymptomatic patients were screened using an IgA endomysium antibody (EMA) test. Positive cases were offered endoscopy with duodenal biopsy. HLA typing was undertaken in existing cases and new EMA-positive cases.

RESULTS
Of the 251 patients screened, eight were found to be EMA positive (3.2%). Seven patients proceeded to duodenal biopsy on which all were confirmed histologically to have cluster of differentiation (2.8%). The prevalence of subclinical cluster of differentiation in the population can therefore be estimated between 2.8 and 3.2%. The total population prevalence of CD, including the previously diagnosed cases, is estimated between 4.7 and 5.1%. Ten patients with histologically confirmed cluster of differentiation underwent HLA typing of which eight were HLA-DQ2 positive, one was HLA-DQ8 positive and one was negative to both HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8.

CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates an increased prevalence of cluster of differentiation in an adult population with TS over the general population. This is consistent with previous data published in paediatric populations.


For more than a century, it was assumed that plural societies were unconducive to democratic government and assimilation a necessity. The end of the Cold War reopened the question of self-determination and the concomitant issue of minority rights not only in Europe but also worldwide. As a result, minority rights and multiculturalism are emerging as the consensus position on democracy in plural societies. But it would be inaccurate and potentially unwise to regard this pluralist perspective as a universal remedy for the problems of diversity. Instead, the history of academic debate and public policy in this area as surveyed here is testimony to the fact that there can be no categorical imperatives when addressing problems of democratic governance in plural societies; both academics and policy-makers would do well to remember that crucial fact.


The focus in this report is strategies that address the disadvantages experienced byminority background students in schools within the United Kingdom (UK) and the wider policy context in which these operate. More specifically, the focus is on four groups ofstudents:• Ethnic minority students including refugee and asylum seekers' children;• Gypsy/traveller students;• Students in care (Looked After Children - LAC); and,• Linguistic minorities e.g. Gaelic, Welsh.The devolved nature of government in the UK means that while some broad principlesare common across the four nations that constitute the UK (England, Northern Ireland,Scotland and Wales), the particular emphases adopted and the strategies developed tofoster social inclusion vary from one to another. In addition, there is no integrated policyfor social inclusion but rather separate policy statements for each of the categories ofdisadvantage identified in the study. All four countries within the UK have a combinationof private and state-funded schooling. In much, if not all, of this report the emphasis ison the state-funded sector.


ABSTRACT Macroautophagy/autophagy is an important innate and adaptive immune response that can clear microbial pathogens through guiding their degradation. Virus infection in animals and plants is also known to induce autophagy. However, how virus infection induces autophagy is largely unknown. Here, we provide evidence that the early phase of rice black-streaked dwarf virus (RBSDV) infection in Laodelphax striatellus can also induce autophagy, leading to suppression of RBSDV invasion and accumulation. We have determined that the main capsid protein of RBSDV (P10) is the inducer of autophagy. RBSDV P10 can specifically interact with GAPDH (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase), both in vitro and in vivo. Silencing of GAPDH in L. striatellus could significantly reduce the activity of autophagy induced by RBSDV infection. Furthermore, our results also showed that both RBSDV infection and RBSDV P10 alone can promote phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), resulting in GAPDH phosphorylation and relocation of GAPDH from the cytoplasm into the nucleus in midgut cells of L. striatellus or Sf9 insect cells. Once inside the nucleus, phosphorylated GAPDH can activate autophagy to suppress virus infection. Together, these data illuminate the mechanism by which RBSDV induces autophagy in L. striatellus, and indicate that the autophagy pathway in an insect vector participates in the anti-RBSDV innate immune response. Abbreviations3-MA: 3-methyladenine; AMPK: AMP-activated protein kinase; ATG: autophagy-related; co-IP: co-immunoprecipitation; DAPI: 4ʹ,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole; dpf: days post-feeding; dsRNA: double-stranded RNA; GAPDH: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; GST: glutathione-S-transferase; RBSDV: Rice black-streaked dwarf virus; TEM: transmission electron microscope.


Fosfomycin trometamol (FT), an antibiotic active against the common urinary pathogens, may be demonstrated in adequate urine concentrations up to 36-48 h after a single oral dose of 1-2 g. This pharmacokinetic peculiarity seems to indicate that this antibiotic may be used in single doses in the therapy of lower urinary tract infections (UTIs) in infants and children. The efficacy and safety of FT in single oral doses was compared with those of netilmicin (NM), an aminoglycoside antibiotic with a demonstrated efficacy in bolus doses against UTIs, shown in a multicentric study. One hundred and thirty-five children with lower UTI, diagnosed on the basis of fever (less than 38 degrees C), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (less than 25 mm/l h) and C-reactive protein (less than 20 micrograms/ml), were included in the study: 71 received 2 g of FT, 64 5 mg/kg of NM. Cure, defined as persistence of sterile urine up to 30 days after therapy, was reached in 80.2% of children in the FT group and in 81.2% of children in the NM group. Persistence of infection was demonstrated in 7 and in 3 children, respectively. Recurrence of infection was noticed in 7 patients in the FT group and in 9 in the NM group. No differences between FT- and NM-treated children are demonstrable even if the patient population is analyzed according to the higher risk of UTI because of the presence of an anatomical and/or functional abnormality of the urinary tract or due to a previous tendency to recurrent UTIs. FT is as effective as NM in the treatment of lower UTIs in infants and children.


The Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW) involves servicing a set of customers, with earliest and latest time deadlines, with varying demands using capacitated vehicles with limited travel times. The objective of the problem is to service all customers while minimizing the number of vehicles and travel distance without violating the capacity and travel time of the vehicles and customer time constraints. In this paper we describe a λ-interchange mechanism that moves customers between routes to generate neighborhood solutions for the VRPTW. The λ-interchange neighborhood is searched using Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search strategies. The initial solutions to the VRPTW are obtained using the Push-Forward Insertion heuristic and a Genetic Algorithm based sectoring heuristic. The hybrid combination of the implemented heuristics, collectively known as the GenSAT system, were used to solve 60 problems from the literature with customer sizes varying from 100 to 417 customers. The computational results of GenSAT obtained new best solutions for 40 test problems. For the remaining 20 test problems, 11 solutions obtained by the GenSAT system equal previously known best solutions. The average performance of GenSAT is significantly better than known competing heuristics. For known optimal solutions to the VRPTW problems, the GenSAT system obtained the optimal number of vehicles.


We investigate the value of the near-infrared imaging from upcoming surveys for constraining the ellipticities of galaxies. We select galaxies between 0.5 ≤ z < 3 that are brighter than expected Euclid sensitivity limits from the GOODS-S and N fields in CANDELS. The co-added CANDELS/HST V+I and J+H images are degraded in resolution and sensitivity to simulate Euclid-quality optical and near-infrared (NIR) images. We then run GALFIT on these simulated images and find that optical and NIR provide similar performances in measuring galaxy ellipticities at redshifts 0.5 ≤ z < 3. At z > 1.0, the NIR-selected source density is higher by a factor of 1.4 and therefore the standard error in NIR-derived ellipticities is about 30% smaller, implying a more precise ellipticity measurement. The good performance of the NIR is mainly because galaxies have an intrinsically smoother light distribution in the NIR bands than in the optical, the latter tracing the clumpy star-forming regions. In addition, the NIR bands have a higher surface brightness per pixel than the optical images, while being less affected by dust attenuation. Despite the worse spatial sampling and resolution of Euclid NIR compared to optical, the NIR approach yields equivalent or more precise galaxy ellipticity measurements. If systematics that affect shape such as dithering strategy and point-spread function undersampling can be mitigated, inclusion of the NIR can improve galaxy ellipticity measurements over all redshifts. This is particularly important for upcoming weak lensing surveys, such as with Euclid and WFIRST.


SARS-Cov-2 infection, due to inflammation processes, can affect autonomic nervous system and heart rate variability (HRV) even after disease. Previous studies showed significant changes in HRV parameters in severe (including fatal) infection of SARS-Cov-2. However, HRV analysis for the asymptomatic or mild-symptomatic Covid-19 patients have not been reported. In this study, we suggested that there is an influence of a SARS-Cov-2 infection on the HRV in such patients after weeks form disease.Sixty-five ECG Holter recordings from young (mean age 22.6 ± 3.4 years), physically fit male subjects after 4-6 weeks from the second negative test (considered to be the beginning of recovery) and twenty-six control male subjects (mean age 23.2 ± 2.9 years) were considered in the study. Night-time RR time series were extracted from ECG signals. Selected linear, frequency as well as nonlinear HRV parameters were calculated. We found significant differences in Porta's symbolic analysis parameters V0 and V2 (p<0.001), α2 (p<0.001), very low frequency component (VLF; p=0.022), and respiratory peak (from PRSA method; p=0.012). These differences may be caused by the changes of the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system as well as by the coupling of respiratory rhythm with heart rate due to an increase in pulmonary arterial vascular resistance.The results suggest that the changes in the HRV, thus autonomic nervous system, are measurable after a few weeks from the beginning of the recovery even in the post-Covid group of young and physically active population. We indicated HRV sensitive markers which could be used in the long-term monitoring of recovered patients.


The long-horned beetles (Cerambycidae) of Prince Edward Island are surveyed. Records of 28 species of cerambycids new to the province are provided, increasing the known fauna of this family on the island to 38 species. One species, Pogonocherus penicillatus LeConte, is removed from the list of the province's fauna. Additionally, one exotic species, Rhopalophora tenuis (Chevrolat), is reported as intercepted from merchandise imported from Mexico. This fauna is examined in relation to its distribution within the province, biogeographical components, island biogeography, the composition of the regional fauna, the impact of anthropogenic activities, and adventive species. All these provide lessons to improve our understanding of the biodiversity of the province.


Background Recent data suggest that both word valence and arousal modulate subsequent cognitive processing. However, whether valence or arousal makes a stronger contribution to cognitive processing is less understood. Methods The present study performed three experiments that varied the valence (positive or negative) and arousal (high or low) of prime-target word pairs in a lexical decision-priming task. Affective priming was derived from pure valence (Experiment 1), pure arousal (Experiment 2), or a combination of valence and arousal (Experiment 3). Results By comparing three types of priming effects, we found an effect of valence on affective priming was obvious regardless of whether the relationship of the prime-target varied with valence, arousal, or the combination of valence and arousal. In contrast, an effect of arousal on affective priming only appeared in the condition that based on the arousal relationship of the prime-target pair. Moreover, the valence-driven priming effect, arousal-driven priming effect, and emotional-driven priming effect were modulated by valence type but not by arousal level of word stimuli. Conclusion The present results revealed a pattern of valence and arousal in semantic networks, indicating that the valence information of emotional words tends to be more stable than arousal information within the semantic system, at least in the present lexical decision-priming task.


An outbreak of Bordetella bronchiseptica pneumonia occurred in a breeding colony of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). 16 animals, all except one under 12 months of age, died suddenly. Extensive lesions of pneumonia and pleurisy were found at necropsy and B. bronchiseptica was isolated from the nasopharynx, trachea and lungs. Older animals had only a mild rhinitis. Colonization of the nasal mucosa occurred in 71 of 156 marmosets.


Irrigation water management increasingly depends on good water flow measurement. Too frequently, flow disturbances from upstream elbows, the well pump, or other pipe fittings, produce distorted flow profiles that are detrimental to the proper installation and operation of common flow meters used in pipes, and the flumes and weirs used in canals associated with irrigated agriculture. Field conditions often force installation of pipe flow meters and flumes closer to these upstream disturbances than specified by standard installation recommendations. Special methods to condition flows to generate usable flow profiles over short distances are commercially offered for pipes meters Less expensive methods have been used in irrigation applications, but have been only partially studied to define their application limits. The historical installation recommendations for pipe meters and flumes are summarized and still recommended for inclusion in future constructions. For retrofit situations the field experiences and limited laboratory information on alternate approaches are presented. Suitable flow profiles for acceptable metering results in pipes can be obtained at distances about one-halfto one-third the usual, historical, pipe-length requirements. These profiles, while nearly symmetrical, may be more uniform, or piston-like, than the fully developed shape.


Pivotal to the evolution and success of Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions has been the development of supporting ligands that give rise to highly active catalysts. This chapter summarizes the theory, development and catalytic applications of the most prominent ligand families that are prevalent in modern cross-coupling processes. Special emphasis was placed on providing up-to-date information on several ligand characteristics such as cone angle, bite angle and basicity/nucleophilicity and their roles in the design of catalyst systems that have become the state of the art in challenging cross-coupling reactions.


The strongly nonlinear regim e of D yakonov-Shur instability is studied analytically and by com puter sim ulations. Theinstability leadstohigh-am plitudestationary oscillations caused by shock waveform ation in theFET channel.Thenum erically found shape and speed ofthe shock wavesare well described in term s ofthe conventionalhydrodynam ics. The am plitude ofstationary oscillationsisdeterm ined.


The water retention characteristics of soil play a significant role in controlling its behavior (viz., strength, volume change, and cracking characteristics) during drying and wetting. In the case of marine soils, the water retention characteristics during drying and wetting cycles depend on both matric suction and osmotic suction. Studies by earlier researchers have mainly focused on soils with low osmotic suction and are applicable to higher degrees of saturation. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies that quantify the hysteresis associated with drying and wetting cycles for marine soils. In this context, the present work attempts the estimation of osmotic suction for marine soil by the experimental measurement of total and matric suction at different stages of drying and wetting by employing Dewpoint PotentiaMeter (WP4C). The study also evaluates hysteresis associated with matric, osmotic, and total suction. It has been observed from the study that osmotic suction has a significant influence on water retention characteristics of marine soils and attains a threshold value for a relatively dry state of the specimen. Furthermore, the hysteresis associated with matric suction is observed to be quite reproducible for different specimens, whereas for osmotic suction, some deviation is observed. The study presents the methodology for experimental quantification of osmotic suction, which would be quite useful in understanding the water retention behavior of marine soils in a more scientific way. It is opined that the findings of the study would be useful for understanding the influence of osmotic suction on marine soil behavior with respect to desiccation cracking during drying and time rate of settlement.


Measurements of the vibrations of adsorbed gases using inelastic neutron scattering can provide detailed information about adsorbent-adsorbate interactions. The relationship between these interactions and the experimentally observable scattering intensities are discussed in the first section of the review which introduces the cross section for one-phonon scattering. The theory is then extended to take specific account of adsorbate-adsorbate coupling, and the interactions between the vibrations of an adsorbate and its substrate. In the experimental part the dissociative chemisorption of hydrogen by metals is discussed in some detail, and an attempt is made to identify comprehensively the origins of the different excitations observed by various experimentalists. Dissociative chemisorption of small molecules, such as H2O and C6H6, is also covered before the review turns to the physisorption of gases at polar and graphitic surfaces.


The present study investigates the potential of waste tires to produce a valuable adsorbent material for application in wastewater treatment. In the first stage, the pyrolysis of ground rubber tire was explored using non-isothermal and isothermal thermogravimetric analysis experiments. The effect of operating parameters, such as heating rate and pyrolysis temperature, on the pyrolysis product yields was considered. The slow pyrolysis of ground rubber tire was taken up in a large-scale fixed-bed reactor for enhanced char recovery. Four pyrolysis temperatures were selected by thermogravimetric data. The product yields were strongly influenced by the pyrolysis temperature; at higher temperatures, the formation of more gases and liquid was favored, while at lower pyrolysis temperatures, more char (solid fraction) was formed. The produced chars were characterized in terms of mineral composition, textural properties, proximate analysis, and structural properties to identify the relationships between the pyrolysis temperature and the char properties. In a second step, a series of activated chars were prepared, starting from the pyrolytic chars via chemical and/or physical activation methods. Then, the activated chars were characterized and tested as adsorbents for atrazine and ibuprofen. Adsorption experiments in aqueous media were carried out in a small-scale batch reactor system. Chemical activation seems appropriate to significantly reduce the inorganic compounds initially present in ground rubber tire and contribute to an important increase in the surface area and porosity of the chars. Adsorption experiments indicated that chemically activated chars exhibit high aqueous adsorption capacity for atrazine.


Accurate knowledge of wind directions plays a critical role in atmospheric dynamics exploration, numerical weather prediction and Tropical Cyclone (TC) research. This study proposes a new method for wind direction retrieval from TC Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. Unlike conventional approaches, which estimate wind directions from singlepolarization imagery, the method utilizes dual-polarized (VV and VH) signals to obtain continuous wind directions across moderate and extreme wind speed regimes. The technique is developed based on the Histogram of Oriented Gradient descriptor and the Hann window function. In addition, the neighbouring information is introduced to alleviate sharp directional variations. As case studies, the wind directions in TCs Karl and Maria are derived and subsequently verified by simultaneous dropsonde and ASCAT (ambiguity-removed) measurements. The encouraging results suggest that the wind direction retrieval method based on dual-polarization SAR imagery can be useful in extracting wind direction and contribute to further exploitation of SAR images in TC studies.