BACKGROUND
The consequences of a supplemented very-low-protein diet remain a matter of debate with regard to patient outcome before or after the onset of renal replacement therapy.

OBJECTIVE
We evaluated the long-term clinical outcome during maintenance dialysis and/or transplantation in patients who previously received a supplemented very-low-protein diet.

DESIGN
We assessed the outcome of 203 patients who received a supplemented very-low-protein diet for >3 mo (inclusion period: 1985-2000) and started dialysis after a mean diet duration of 33.1 mo (4-230 mo).

RESULTS
The survival rate in the whole cohort was 79% and 63% at 5 and 10 y, respectively. One hundred two patients continued with chronic dialysis during the entire follow-up, and 101 patients were grafted at least once. Patient outcomes were similar to those of the French Dialysis Registry patients for the dialysis group and similar to the 865 patients who were transplanted in Bordeaux during the same period for the transplant group. There was no correlation between death rate and duration of diet.

CONCLUSIONS
The lack of correlation between death rate and duration of diet and the moderate mortality rate observed during the first 10 y of renal replacement therapy confirm that a supplemented very-low-protein diet has no detrimental effect on the outcome of patients with chronic kidney disease who receive renal replacement therapy.


The fatty acid composition of plasma, red blood cells and platelets were investigated. Human milk was analyzed and the fatty acid composition compared to cow's milk. After lipid extraction and transesterification the methyl esters were analyzed without any further pre-analytical separation steps involved. Using a multidimensional GC-MSD System with cooled injection and flow controlled column switching with cold trapping in between, the methyl esters of furan fatty acids were directly identified by means of their mass spectra. From the ten samples of human milk analyzed only one contained the furan fatty acid 12,15epoxy-13,14-dimethyleicosa-12,14-dienoic acid (F-acid 10, Figure 1), which was also present in the cow's milk sample. Furan fatty acids were found in all blood samples in differing relative amounts. Facids 5,8 and 10 were detected in red blood cells, F-acids 8 and 10 in plasma and in platelets only F-acid 10 was found so far. INTRODUCTION As one of the first furan fatty acids (F-acids, Figure 1) the disubstituted 9,12-epoxy-octadeca-9,11dienoic acid was found in seed oil of exocarpus cupressiformis in 1966 [1]. A series of triand tetrasubstituted propyland pentyl-side chain F-acids were later demonstrated to be present in different species of fish [2-8], in soft corals [9], different plants [10,11], amphibians [12], reptilians [12] and in mammals [13,14], including man [15]. Elaborate studies on the hepatopancreatic lipids of the crayfish procambarus clarkii revealed a total of 30 F-acids [12,16]. Most of these triand tetrasubstituted furan fatty acids belonged to the propyland pentyl-side chain group and only a few were found with butyl-, hexylor even heptyl-side chains in the 5-position. The only 2,5-disubstituted F-acid so far reported, is the one found in exocarpus cupressiformis. Figure 1. Furan fatty acids. The presence of dibasic furanpropionic acids (Figure 10 and Figure 11) in human urine [17] and blood [18] caused further metabolic studies in which the F-acids were regarded as possible precursors [19-22]. Supporting this theory is the fact, that hyperlipidaemic patients treated fish oil showed an increase in the serum concentration of 3-carboxy-4-methyl-5-propyl-2-furanpropionic acid (Figure 10) soon after treatment had started [20]. Later it was shown that the fish oil used contained 14 different furan fatty acids [23]. 3-Carboxy-4-methyl-5-propyl-2-furanpropionic acid as one of the two major furanpropionic acids proved to be a metabolite with several adverse biochemical and physiological effects [24,25], especially in connection with chronic renal failure, where it is found at highly elevated levels in plasma [26]. This report describes a method for the analysis of minor component fatty acids in complex sample matrices. After lipid extraction and transesterification furan fatty acid methyl esters can directly be identified by the use of a multidimensional GC-MSD-system without any further pre-analytical separations. Direct transesterification of the serum permitted the simultaneous analysis of both the furan fatty acids and the furanpropionic acids. F-Acid 10 R1,R2 = CH3 m = 4 n = 10 F-Acid 8 R1,R2 = CH3 m = 2 n = 10 F-Acid 5 R1 = CH3, R2 = H m = 4 n = 10 O (CH2)m (CH2)n R2 R1


Carbon NanoTubes (CNT) form a new class of materials that have attracted interest for a variety of engineering applications. Structurally they are related to graphitic carbon. One can conceptualise the structure of a Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube (SWNT) by imagining a single layer of graphite that is rolled into a tube (Figure 1). The orientation of the graphite plane relative to the axis of the tube, as well as the diameter of the tube, will determine many physical properties; tubes can be insulating, semiconducting, or metallic. When multiple layers of graphite are rolled into a single tube, the resulting structure is called a Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube (MWNT).


These are notes for the course CS-172 I first taught in the Fall 1986 at UC Berkeley and subsequently at Boston University. The goal was to introduce the undergraduates to basic concepts of Theory of Computation and to provoke their interest in further study. Model-dependent effects were systematically ignored. Concrete computational problems were considered only as illustrations of general principles. The notes are skeletal: they do have (terse) proofs, but exercises, references, intuitive comments and examples are missing or inadequate. The notes can be used by an instructor designing a course or by students who either know the material and want to refresh the memory or are exceptionally bright and have access to an instructor for questions. Each subsection takes about a week of the course. Versions of these notes appeared in [Levin 91]. Acknowledgments. I am grateful to the University of California at Berkeley, its MacKey Professorship fund and Manuel Blum who made possible for me to teach this course. The opportunity to attend lectures of M. Blum and Richard Karp and many ideas of my colleagues at BU and MIT were very beneficial for my lectures. I am also grateful to the California Institute of Technology for a semester with light teaching load in a stimulating environment enabling me to rewrite the students' notes. NSF grants #DCR-8304498, DCR-8607492, CCR-9015276 also supported the work. And most of all I am grateful to the students who not only have originally written these notes, but also influenced the lectures a lot by providing very intelligent reactions and criticism.


Recent developments in imaging have given the radiologist an increasingly important role in the management of lymphoma, particularly diagnosis, disease staging and monitoring progress. However, imaging techniques must be applied selectively, depending on the indications, if the patient is to benefit.


The continued interest in political economy-inspired perspectives on economic and social policies is an attempt to understand policymakers as human beings who are influenced by values, votes and other factors that were once thought to be exogenous to policy choices. However, there is still little theorising about those on the other side of the policy equation. This article seeks a better understanding of how ordinary people engage in a very personal way with policy. I present a model of participation grounded in empirical research with members of a poverty-reduction project in Ghana, and a conceptual framework informed by an interpretive or sense-making approach to policy analysis. The model is based on the three principles of 'subjectivity', 'temporality' and 'situatedness': First, human beings make subjective interpretations of policy grounded in their life histories; secondly, temporality is an inherent aspect of how individuals cognitively organise their lives; and thirdly, people experience policy as one of many overlapping contexts in which they are situated.


We discuss a programming language for real-time audio signal processing that is embedded in the functional language Haskell and uses the Low-Level Virtual Machine as back-end. With that framework we can code with the comfort and type safety of Haskell while achieving maximum efficiency of fast inner loops and full vectorisation. This way Haskell becomes a valuable alternative to special purpose signal processing languages.


Covid-19 spreading have caused millions of deaths worldwide and caused sever economic shrinking resulted in high levels of infla-tions. The on going pandemic has pushed the pharmaceutical companies to invent different vaccines to overcome the spreading of the virus and to reduce its effect on health and economy. Unfortunately, the middle and low income countries have been struggling in providing vaccines to their people due to the high expenses associated with vaccines ordering. Thus, the interest in finding a treatment and a prevention of Covid-19 from natural products has increased not in those countries only, even in high income countries. In this review we investigated the promising natural phytochemical compounds and their published mechanism of action in a prestigious peer-reviewed research journal throw different molecular docking and in vivo and vitro techniques. Its was found that the consumption of the medicinal plants containing small phenolic and terpenoids phytoconstituent like as thymoquinone, quercetin, caffeic acid, ursolic acid, ellagic acid, vanillin, and thymol have a great therapeutic effect for curing and preventing viral infections. This review has focused on the small polyphenolic and terpenoids compounds and their potential and mechanism activity against SARS-CoV-2. Our comprehensive analysis provides mechanistic insight into plant components for virus containment prevent infections and provide better solutions through natural therapeutically active


The question of Balzac's scientific vision is not a new one. It is an issue which has been studied in its own right, and also in relation to more purely literary concerns. In a sense, it is not in fact possible to separate Balzac's "scientific vision" from his literary style, since the latter is in part determined by the former. For example, the question of whether Balzac should be considered a "Romantic" or a "Realist" author--one of the most fundamental stylistic questions faced by Balzac scholars--arises largely as a result of the explicitly scientific aspirations of La Comedie humaine. Balzac's formative years were the 1820s and 1830s, at the height of the "bataille romantique," and well before the "bataille realiste" of the 1850s. (1) But the peculiarity of his position is not just a question of timing; it resides more particularly in the fact that the ideas underlying his novelistic creation have much in common with a certain strand of "Romantic thought"--it is close to German Naturphilosophie--but his authorial voice is typically one of detached objectivity; which is to say that it is close to the style which would come to be called "Realist," and quite distinct from the voice of impassioned insight associated with the "Romantic" movement. He seems to combine a "Romantic" vision with a "Realist" style. The strangeness of this mixture is somewhat diminished by the tendency of its different elements to come to the fore in different parts of the cycle of novels. The first part of La Comedie humaine, the Etudes de moeurs, is meant to be an empirical survey of all of the different varieties of Social Being represented in nineteenth-century France, and it is here that Balzac's "Realist" style is most in evidence. In the second two parts, on the other hand--in the Etudes philosophiques and the Atudes analytiques--Balzac expressly presents his "Romantic" notions on the ultimate nature of mankind; and in these sections he does in fact tend to use the voice of impassioned insight rather than the voice of objective R ealism. This divide is not absolute, however, and aspects of Balzac's Romantic philosophy of the human being are very much present in the etudes de moeurs, even though they are expressed here only in implicit terms. Balzac conceived the outline of his novel-cycle at a time of fundamental epistemological re-organization. "Science was undergoing a divorce from "Philosophy" the better to establish itself as an independent type of knowledge. It would no longer be subservient to the former umbrella discipline, but would stand next to it as a different way of knowing about the world. The distinctive mark of the "scientific" approach to knowledge was its objective empirical method; and conversely, the distinguishing mark of the "philosophical" approach was its association with the subjective consciousness. Of course these two approaches did not absolutely have to be antagonistic, or even separate: it was perfectly possible to study a phenomenon initially in an empirical way, before passing on to a more intuitive synthesis of the objective facts, and thus arriving at a speculative explanation of the deep causes of the phenomenon. This is precisely what Balzac aimed to do with his chosen phenomenon: the Social Being. These are the methodological considerations that gave La Comedie humaine its form. What about its theory-content? As a "scientific" investigation into the organisation of the Social Being, it would have to start by taking a position on the fundamental nature of man himself; and this position would have to be derived from a secure position within the established sciences. The concept of "unity" emerging from the "transcendental" approach to the study of animal anatomy in the 1830s was well suited to the novelist's purposes. "Il n'y a qu'un Animal," Balzac famously proclaimed in the "avant-propos" of 1842: all actual animal species are simply variant forms of a single original type. …


Perception and cognition require the integration of feed-forward sensory information with feedback signals. Feed-forward and feedback signals have been associated with specific cortical laminae and specific oscillatory frequencies. We used stimuli of different sizes to isolate spectral signatures of feedforward and feedback signals, and their effect on communication between layers in primary visual cortex of male macaque monkeys. Small stimuli, centered on the neurons' receptive fields elicited broad band gamma frequency oscillations predominantly in the superficial layers. These Granger causal originated in upper layer 4 and lower supragranular layers, in line with existing feed-forward models of oscillatory responses. However, large stimuli extending into the far surround of neurons' receptive fields, generated strong narrow band gamma oscillatory activity across cortical layers. They Granger causal arose in layer 5, were conveyed through layer 6 to superficial layers, and violated existing models of feedback spectral signatures. Equally surprising, with large stimuli, alpha band oscillatory activity arose predominantly in granular and supragranular layers, and communicated in a feed-forward direction. This shows that oscillations in specific frequency bands can be dynamically modulated to serve feedback and feed-forward communication and are not restricted to specific cortical layers in V1


In 2019, a comprehensive study of the internal structure of the talus rock glacier in the Dzhelo River valley was carried out (North-Chuya Range). The identification of the internal structure was performed using electrical resistivity tomography and GPR sounding. In order to compare the internal structure of the rock glacier with its surface morphology, we carried out aerial photography and constructed a digital terrain model. The study revealed that the depth of the rock-ice core varies from 2.5-3 m to 10 m, and the thickness ranges from 7 m to 30 m. The consolidation cores of the rock-ice material are confined to inter-ridge depressions in the rock glacier body. The potential volume of a rock-ice core is 800 thousand m3, which is 53% of the rock glacier total volume, the ice volume in the rock-ice core can be as much as 400 thousand m3.
Key words: Altai; Talus rock glacier; Electrical resistivity tomography; GPR sounding
References
Dyakova, G.S., Ostanin, O.V. (2014). Glyatsialno-merzlotnye kamennye obrazovaniya basseyna r. Chuya (Gornyj Altai). Barnaul: Altai State University. (In Russian).
Goreyavcheva, A.A., Dyakova, G.S., Potapov, V.V., Shein, A.N., Olenchenko, V.V. (2019). Geofizicheskie issledovaniya aktivnogo prisklonovogo glyatsialno-merzlotnogo kamennogo obrazovaniya v doline r. Dzhelo. Geodynamics. Geomechanics and Geophysics. Proceed. XIX All-Russian. Conference, July 22-28, (2019). Publishing House of the Siberian Branch Russian Academy of Science. Available from: http://www.ipgg.sbras.ru/ru/science/publications/publ-geofizicheskie-issledovaniya-aktivnogo-prisklonovogo-2019 (in Russian).
Ostanin, O.V., Dyakova, G.S., Alyabyev, D.Yu., Kovalev M.V. (2019). Issledovanie stroeniya glyatsialno-merzlotnogo kamennogo obrazovaniya v doline r. Dzhelo (Tsentralnyi Altai) Geografiya i prirodopolzovanie Sibiri, 26, 141-148. (In Russian).
Tarakanov, A.G. (1989). O pitanii kamennykh gletcherov Tyan-Shanya. Moscow (In Russian).


Abstract Adsorption of two acid dyestuffs, acid blue 113 (AB) and tartrazine (TA), has been studied from their single and binary solutions by using fly ash (FA) as an adsorbent. The S shaped isotherms observed for dye adsorption from single solutions show that both acid dyes are not preferred at a low concentration region whereas adsorption of the dyes from binary solutions is enhanced via solute-solute interactions. Although the L-shaped isotherm is observed in binary solutions adsorbability of AB decreases in concentrated solutions with respect to single one, time dependency of adsorption is well described with a pseudo-second-order kinetic model as well as the linear relation of Bt vs. t plots (not passing through origin) indicates that film diffusion is effective on dye adsorption. Modeled isotherm curves using isotherm parameters of the Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) equations adequately fit to experimental equilibrium data. Equilibrium adsorption of AB in binary solutions has been quite well predicted by the extended Freundlich and the Sheindorf-Rebuhn-Sheintuch (SRS) models. In general, the isotherm curves constructed in the temperature range of 298–328 K show that the optimum temperature is 318 K for AB removal from both single and binary solutions.


Abstract The composition of water used for irrigation has a significant impact on the production characteristics of the land, yield and irrigation equipment, and therefore its analysis, or assessment of the usability of irrigation water is very important. In this paper, the potential impact of the waters of the Banat watercourses of Moravica, Karaš and Nera is assessed on the basis of monthly water samples from the measuring stations of Vatin, Dobričevo and Kusić, for the period of April-September from the year 2007 to 2017. The assessment was carried out using the classification of irrigation water: FAO, USLL and water categorization according to Nejgebauer, and the Serbian Water Quality Index (SWQI). For the needs of these classifications, a total of 20 water parameters were analyzed: quality, physical, chemical and biological parameters. According to all the classifications, the analyzed watercourses can be a good source of water for irrigation in terms of its quality, but with control and appropriate measures, in particular, the presence of bicarbonate, but also the ratio of Na+ to Ca2+ and Mg2+.


Wikipedia's popularity as an online encyclopedia calls attention to fundamental assumptions about the management and dissemination of information. Drawing on a Bakhtinian framework, this article posits a model of dialogic expertise. Specifically, it argues that, by facilitating an ongoing chain of interdependent and multivocal "utterances," Wikipedia challenges traditional "monologic" expertise. Nonetheless, the site's purportedly democratic defiance of knowledge elites (of encyclopedic publishing, academe, etc.) is compromised by the establishment of a "technocratic" hierarchy. Implications extend to the scholarly debate surrounding dialogue and rhetoric and to our understanding of Wikipedia's success in the context of a cultural anxiety—Americans are at once dependent on an extensive system of experts and uneasy about the deferential distribution of power within that system.


Flash memory has emerged as a high-performing and viable storage alternative to magnetic disks for data-intensive applications. In our work we study how the storage layer of a database system can benefit from the presence of a flash disk. Due to the varying price and I/O characteristics of flash disks the optimal design decisions vary widely across different setups. We study how the system can take advantage of the random read efficiency of inexpensive flash disks by using the latter at the same level of memory hierarchy as magnetic disks in a hybrid setup; our algorithms provide efficient and adaptive data placement that leads to substantial performance improvement. We propose techniques to accurately predict the main memory cache behavior for systems consisting of heterogeneous storage media and selectively allocate memory buffers to devices; thereby, the I/O cost of the system drops significantly, even offsetting wrong data placement decisions. We also explore the design space for a system that uses flash memory as a cache to the underlying storage and propose techniques towards high performance. The experimental results, we believe, exhibit both the potential and necessity of our techniques in future database systems.


The first Painleve hierarchy, which is a sequence of higher order ana- logues of the first Painleve equation, follows from the singular manifold equations for the mKdV hierarchy. For meromorphic solutions of the first Painleve hierarchy, we give a lower estimate for the number of poles; which is regarded as an extension of one corresponding to the first Painleve equa- tion, and which indicates a conjecture on the growth order. From our main result, two corollaries follow: one is the transcendency of meromorphic so- lutions, and the other is a lower estimate for the frequency of fi-points. An essential part of our proof is estimation of certain sums concerning the poles of each meromorphic solution.


Advances in artificial intelligence for computer vision hold great promise for increasing the scales at which ecological systems can be studied. The distribution and behavior of individuals is central to ecology, and computer vision using deep neural networks can learn to detect individual objects in imagery. However, developing supervised models for ecological monitoring is challenging because it needs large amounts of human-labeled training data, requires advanced technical expertise and computational infrastructure, and is prone to overfitting. This limits application across space and time. One solution is developing generalized models that can be applied across species and ecosystems. Using over 250,000 annotations from 13 projects from around the world, we develop a general bird detection model that achieves over 65% recall and 50% precision on novel aerial data without any local training despite differences in species, habitat, and imaging methodology. Fine-tuning this model with only 1000 local annotations increase these values to an average of 84% recall and 69% precision by building on the general features learned from other data sources. Retraining from the general model improves local predictions even when moderately large annotation sets are available and makes model training faster and more stable. Our results demonstrate that general models for detecting broad classes of organisms using airborne imagery are achievable. These models can reduce the effort, expertise, and computational resources necessary for automating the detection of individual organisms across large scales, helping to transform the scale of data collection in ecology and the questions that can be addressed.


Background: Due to COVID-19, telemedicine was incorporated into postpartum care to reduce transmission risk. Research Question: Our objective was to compare postpartum contraception uptake between March 1, 2019–May 31, 2019 and March 1, 2020–May 31, 2020. Study Design/Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of postpartum patients who delivered at the Mount Sinai Hospital System between March 1, 2019–May 31, 2019 and March 1, 2020–May 31, 2020. We recorded postpartum contraception uptake at hospital discharge and at outpatient postpartum visits. We compared four categories: short-acting reversible contraception (SARC), long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), "barrier methods/other" (condoms, diaphragms, spermicides), and sterilization. The 2019 and 2020 patient cohorts did not differ significantly in terms of maternal age, gravidity, ethnicity, or insurance type. This study was approved by the Mount Sinai IRB. Results: 1,106 patients were included in our analysis, 443 and 663 who delivered in 2019 and 2020 respectively. There were no significant differences in the number of patients offered and accepting contraception at hospital discharge and postpartum visit between the 2019 and 2020 groups. Type of contraception given at postpartum visit differed significantly between 2019 and 2020 (p = 0.006), with the 2020 group more likely to use SARC (55 vs. 42%) and less likely to use LARC (15 vs. 24%). Notably, 26% of the 2020 group had telehealth postpartum visits (vs. 0% in 2019). Within the 2020 group, type of contraception differed significantly between in-person and telehealth visits (p = 0.001). Patients who had telehealth visits were less likely to use "barrier/other" methods (14 vs. 32%) and more likely to use SARC (67 vs. 51%). Conclusions: Despite COVID-19, overall uptake of postpartum contraception did not change significantly; however, the type of contraception differed significantly, particularly at telehealth visits. Additional research is needed to understand why telehealth postpartum visits may increase the uptake of short acting contraception and decrease barrier methods.


Text-dependent automatic speaker verification naturally calls for the simultaneous verification of speaker identity and spoken content. These two tasks can be achieved with automatic speaker verification (ASV) and utterance verification (UV) technologies. While both have been addressed previously in the literature, a treatment of simultaneous speaker and utterance verification with a modern, standard database is so far lacking. This is despite the burgeoning demand for voice biometrics in a plethora of practical security applications. With the goal of improving overall verification performance, this paper reports different strategies for simultaneous ASV and UV in the context of short-duration, text-dependent speaker verification. Experiments performed on the recently released RedDots corpus are reported for three different ASV systems and four different UV systems. Results show that the combination of utterance verification with automatic speaker verification is (almost) universally beneficial with significant performance improvements being observed.


Investigating the oral care delivered by nursing staff in acute hospital setting is having a remarkable shortage within the current literature. This was provoked due to lack of previous performed investigation in the acute hospital setting besides inconsistent existence of a standardized and comprehensive oral care knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) instrumentation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess the oral care KAP level for inpatients among nursing staff; to identify possible barriers to the provision of oral care; and to identify training preferences to improve the oral care of inpatients, in acute hospital settings in Hong Kong; and to provide standardized comprehensive KAP based assessment tool that would benefit and guide other future studies. In this study, a cross-sectional survey was conducted after a 55-item self-administered structured questionnaire was developed. A modified KAP tool was developed. The tool includes 4 domains: oral care knowledge, attitude, practice, and experience. Nursing staff was recruited from July 2018 to April 2019 via convenience sampling. Either online or printed questionnaires were completed. Proportions of nursing staff with good KAP, as defined by having 60% of the total score in the respective domain, were estimated with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Analysis of covariance was used to compare the mean scores of KAP among different independent variables and identify the factors associated with good KAP. 404 nursing staff were recruited. Approximately 29.5%, 33.7% and 14.9% of the respondents had good oral care knowledge, attitude and practice, respectively, and 53.2% of the respondents had unpleasant oral care experience. Better oral care practice was associated with higher levels of oral care knowledge (β = 0.1) and oral care attitude (β = 0.3). To conclude: nursing staff in acute hospital settings reported low levels of oral care KAP with variations between the RN, EN and HCA. This study adds to the literature the association between oral care unpleasant experiences and the oral care practice, as well as oral care knowledge and attitude which also in turns associated with practice. The developed standardised tool could be applied for future studies. Recommendations on the future research, training and practices were made.


Objective: Thus far, there is no gold standard for assessing medication adherence although various methods and assessment tools have been used. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of an assessment tool, the Malaysian Medication Adherence Scale (MALMAS). Methods: The MALMAS consists of one domain with 8 items. The face and content validity of the MALMAS was established via an expert panel. The MALMAS was compared to the 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8). A total of 84 patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited from a teaching hospital and randomly allocated to answer either the MALMAS (43 respondents) or the MMAS-8 (41 respondents). A retest was conducted 4 weeks later on each group. Results: Demographic and medical characteristics of participants who answered the MALMAS and MMAS-8 were similar. Reliability analysis of MALMAS produced a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.689 whereas that of the MMAS-8 was 0.504. All items in the MALMAS showed no significant difference in the test-retest analysis, indicating that the MALMAS has achieved stable reliability. There was no difference in psychometric properties of the MALMAS and the MMAS-8. In addition, MALMAS produced similar non-adherence rate as the MMAS-8 (34.9% and 36.6%, respectively; p=0.871). The MALMAS also produced similar results to that obtained from two questions posed via face-to-face interview on medication adherence and the reason(s) for non-adherence (p=0.625 and 0.486, respectively). Conclusion: The 8-item MALMAS developed in this study is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing medication adherence.


A typical feature of Eastern Orthodox churches is the iconostasis which separates the inner sanctuary reserved to the clergy from the nave occupied by the laity, preventing the faithful from glimpsing atthe sacerdotal proceedings behind the screen. In its present form, it is of relatively recent origin, the product of an evolution in design and liturgical function throughout the history of the church. The precursor of the iconostasis was a low screen which enclosed the altar area in the early Byzantine churches but did not exclude the worshippers from a full view of the clergy celebrating. Dozens of screens made of marble or limestone have been discovered in the provinces of Palaestina, southern Phoenicia and Arabia. They are carved with a number of motifs that recur with only minor variations. Among the most common motifs are the Latin cross, the Maltesecross within a laurel wreath, the stephanostaurion, and a cross standing on three semi-circles symbolising the hillock of Golgotha. The latter is sometimes flanked by a pair of sheep or deer. In the 6th century AD, chancel screens also began to appear in synagogues where they are decorated with Jewish motifs. A further stage in the development of chancel screens in churches is the templon, an architrave at a higher level resting on colonnettes. In Russia, the intercolumnar spaces of the templon remained free of icons until the 14th century. Wooden icons began to be inserted in the intercolumnar spaces of the templon in the late 14th and 15th centuries when the great icon painters started to paint full-length figures on icons of monumental proportion. The creation of the iconostasis as a solid wall is due to a combination of cultural and theological factors, including the Hesychast doctrine which favoured the contemplation of icons.


Selection for growth and improved carcass merit has resulted in cattle that are variable in composition of gain during the finishing phase. This study assessed the relative performance among cattle with different levels of initial backfat thickness. It also exploited the ability to track carcass composition in the live animal with ultrasound estimates of backfat and marbling. A procedure was developed to partition and estimate relative efficiency of fat and protein gain. The trial periods were the last 43 or 50 d before slaughter and included 10 pens (average of 27 animals per pen) that ranged in average backfat thickness from 6.3 to 13.1 mm. There was no correlation (r2 = 0.0026) between average backfat thickness and G:F (g/kg of DMI). Correlations between average backfat thickness and ADG or DMI were also nearly zero (r2 = 0.0007 and 0.0042, respectively). Fat deposition from NEg was 3.98 times more efficient than protein deposition. Carcass backfat thickness was a poor predictor of carcass marbling score (r2 = 0.083), even though backfat thickness was an important predictor of the percentage of empty body fat (r2 = 0.807). The results indicate that a measure of backfat thickness on the live animal during the finishing phase is not an effective predictor of future feed efficiency. They also confirm that protein accretion is energetically expensive, and that using a single coefficient for predicting gain from NEg is valid regardless of whether gain is predominantly muscle or fat. These data document that there is little relationship between body composition and marbling score, which is contrary to models that assume a USDA quality grade target at a specified percent fat end point.


Studio teaching in architecture and design traditionally bases on the presence of both instructors and material learning artefacts. Instructors typically give supervision to students one-on-one at their drawing tables. Students, in turn, work with a tangible material such as pens and tracing paper, and scale model material such as cardboard and styrofoam. From this triangle of students, instructors and learning artefacts, the learning emerges. As such, the physical presence of people and stuff is a fundamental premise of the traditional studio learning format. As the object of study in architecture and design is physical – the designed artefacts in the form of objects and buildings – a certain hesitation seems to reside in architecture and design education towards new mediated forms of learning. However, while completely mediated forms of learning such as MOOCs may not be a feasible replacement for the traditional architecture and design studio, forms of blended learning, combining physical and online learning has the potential to make the best of both worlds, enriching studio learning without losing its indisputable merits in architecture and design education. In this paper, the introduction of an online communication platform – Google+ – in a four months urban design studio course is evaluated and discussed concerning its capacity to facilitate a transforming blend. The online platform was used for general instructor/student communication, for student/student communication, as well as for sharing of student work in progress. It also worked as a one-on-one supervision platform for whenever students were in need of supervision and advice outside class hours. The implementation of Google+ into the studio course was experimental and ran alongside the use of official Moodle platform. The students evaluated the positive and negative aspects of both platforms. While they were mostly critical of Moodle, they valued the functionality of Google+ from several perspectives; they also made critical remarks. While the experiment was not entirely successful, it seems beyond doubt that transforming blends have a lot to offer in architecture and design studio teaching.


Most theoretical studies of an electrical double layer, which is formed by an electrolyte in contact with a charged electrode, employ a primitive model in which the solvent is represented by a dielectric continuum. This implicit-solvent model is convenient because computations are comparatively simple. However, it suppresses oscillations in the density profiles of ionic species that result from the discreteness of the solvent molecules. Furthermore, the implicit-solvent model yields poor results for the capacitance. In comparison with experiment at fixed electrode charge density, it predicts a too small electrode potential, and the resultant capacitance is too large. This latter discrepancy can be compensated in part by postulating the existence of an often fictitious inner layer whose properties are parametrized to agree best with experiment. The use of an implicit solvent model and an inner layer helps in correlating experimental results but rests on a faulty microscopic picture. Unfortunately, explicit consideration of solvent molecules poses both theoretical and numerical difficulties and, as a result, studies using an explicit solvent model have been few and far between. In this study, we consider a simple nonprimitive or explicit solvent model in which each solvent molecule is represented by a dimer composed of touching positive and negative hard spheres, with a resulting dipole moment that is equal to that of a water molecule, and the ions are represented by charged hard spheres. The density profiles and charge-potential relationship of this model are examined using the classical density functional theory. We find that the introduction of an explicit solvent increases the electrode potential, at fixed electrode charge, without the need to postulate a parametrized inner layer. Because of the solvent polarity, the ion profiles become strong oscillatory and show local charge inversion near a highly charged electrode surface at all ion concentrations.


The foundation of learning starts for children from pre-school and progresses to young learners in school. They come from various backgrounds with abilities to use home languages and mother tongue. However, their exposure to English Language is very limited due to the importance of this language is neglected as it is seen as impossible to master. Therefore, this paper investigates the effects of jazz chants approach to teach English Language to 30 pupils who are 10-year-old that have low proficiency level in a primary school located in a state in Malaysia. To improve teacher support and student involvement, it is crucial to have suitable strategies in educational contexts that would be able to develop a positive attitude among the pupils and improve their academic performance in English Language. The objective of this paper is to propose language learning strategies for low performance ESL pupils. It will highlight a direction which might improve the second language learning pedagogy in classrooms. Data was collected through pre-test and post-test, and satisfaction questionnaire which was given to the pupils (purposive sampling). The findings showed a marked increase in scores involving 15 students who achieved 100% scores. As a conclusion, they had motivating fun learning experience while they progressed in their learning activities.


For binary two-state Markov sources, we compute the bit-rate for context-independent Golomb coding, sequential coding, and interleaved coding. We also relate these coding methods to image compression work. Sequential coding is a context-dependent method that sequentially codes the source, choosing the order of the elementary Golomb code based on the last bit seen. Interleaved coding codes the even-numbered bits before the odd-numbered bits using elementary Golomb codes of several different orders. Of these methods, we show that no one method is best on all Markov sources.


This updated edition of the industry's classic text combines the theory, practice, and latest technology of spectrum and network measurements in electronic systems to offer a comprehensive and easy way to understand frequency domain measurements. Spectrum and Network Measurements, 2nd Edition has been completely updated to take into account the latest technology, particularly focusing on the shift from analog to digital in communication systems, plus an important new chapter on EMC measurements of radiated and conducted emissions has also been added. Using simplified block diagrams, this book offers a thorough coverage of critical concepts, such as decibels, Fourier analysis, noise effects, impedance matching, intermodulation distortion, reflection measurements, and S-Parameters. By picking up where the majority of electrical engineering programs stop, this title takes basic EE theory and translates it to the world of electronic measurements. This enables the reader to understand the basic theory of signals and systems, relate it to measured results, and apply it when creating new designs.


Preface Medical Foreword by David V. Schapira Legal Foreword by Hon. Raphael Steinhardt Death: Issues and Law Death Comes Alive The Dying Patient The Dying Patient: Nothing But the Truth The Dying Patient: On the Deathbed Right to Die Right to Die: Meanings and Strategy Playing God: The Issues The Last Resort Competence and Incompetence Advance Directives Advance Directives and Death with Dignity Determination of Death Defining Death Anatomical Gifts The Gift of Life: Law and Ethics Law: Forms and Sources Law Forms, Systems and Procedures Sources of Law: How to Look Them Up Appendices Death-Related Statutes and Common Law Doctrines Guide to the Law Library Table of Cases Selected Bibliography Index


Background: Myocardial infarction is an acute emergency which needs rapid assessment, especially for myocardial reperfusion. Aim of the work: To evaluate left ventricle [LV] twist/torsion for assessment of myocardial reperfusion after acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction [STEMI] and to explore its relationship with LV function after 3 months.  Patients and Methods:Forty-five patients with acute STEMI [30 anterior and 15 inferior] with a single culprit lesion were analyzed against 50 healthy subjects. Apical and basal rotations and LV twist/torsion were measured by two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging. Results: LV twist [13.5±2.4 vs 20±0.5] and LV torsion [1.8±0.2 vs 2.9±0.1, P=0.001] were reduced in all STEMI patients. Basal rotation was larger in anterior STEMI than in inferior STEMI and control [-8.09±0.7 vs -3.1±1.03 -6.2±0.6 successively], while apical rotation was significantly lower in anterior STEMI. LV twist and torsion were lower in anterior vs inferior STEMI [11.9±1.1 vs 16.6±1 and 1.7±0.1 vs 2.1±0.1, P=0.001 respectively]. There was moderate positive correlation between baseline LV torsion and LV ejection fraction at 3 months [r=0.500, P=0.001], while negative moderate correlation between baseline LV torsion and LV volumes [LV end-diastolic volume & LV end-systolic volume] [r=-0.444 & r=-0.479 respectively] was reported. Post reperfusion, the best cut-off point of LV torsion predicting LV remodeling was 1.9 with sensitivity 81.3% and specificity 82.8% [AUC =0.85]. Conclusion: Global LV torsion was decreased in acute STEMI patients, soon after reperfusion it showed marked improvement in LV torsion/twist. LV torsion early after reperfusion can predict LV remodeling at 3 months follow up.


In this paper we propose a technique to accelerate the convergence rate of the value iteration (VI) algorithm applied to discrete average cost Markov decision processes (MDP). The convergence rate is measured with respect to the total computational effort instead of the iteration counter. Such a rate definition makes it possible to compare different classes of algorithms, which employ distinct and possibly variable updating schemes. A partial information value iteration (PIVI) algorithm is proposed that updates an increasingly accurate approximate version of the original problem with a view toward saving computations at the early stages of the algorithm, when one is typically far from the optimal solution. The PIVI overall computational effort is compared with that of the classical VI algorithm for a broad set of parameters. The results suggest that a suitable choice of parameters can lead to significant computational savings in the process of finding the optimal solution for discrete MDP under the average cost criterion.


The paper presents the data on Separation and some optical properties of the pigments obtained from the plasmodium of the myxomycete Physarum nudum grown in the dark. Pigment Separation was performed by means of thin-layer chromatography with celulose MN 300 as adsorbent and with the solvent: tert.-butylalcohol, H 2 O, 3N NH 4 OH at the ratio 5:2:1 In these conditions the chromatograms revealed 12 coloured bands from which pigments were eluted and their absorption spectra as well as the spectra of fluorescence emission were determined. The isolated pigments differ from one another by their physical properties (different Rf values, localization of absorption maxima, and behaviour in acid solution). Nevertheless, certain analogies perceptible between particular pigments per-mitted to distinguish 3 families of the studied pigments demonstrating similar properties.


We describe two voice-to-phoneme conversion algorithms for speaker-independent voice-tag creation specifically targeted at applications on embedded platforms. These algorithms (batch mode and sequential) are compared in speech recognition experiments where they are first applied in a same-language context in which both acoustic model training and voice-tag creation and application are performed on the same language. Then, their performance is tested in a cross-language setting where the acoustic models are trained on a particular source language while the voice-tags are created and applied on a different target language. In the same-language environment, both algorithms either perform comparably to or significantly better than the baseline where utterances are manually transcribed by a phonetician. In the cross-language context, the voice-tag performances vary depending on the source-target language pair, with the variation reflecting predicted phonological similarity between the source and target languages. Among the most similar languages, performance nears that of the native-trained models and surpasses the native reference baseline.


Estimation of covariance matrices is a fundamental step in hyperspectral remote sensing where most detection algorithms make use of the covariance matrix in whitening procedures. We present a simple method to estimate all p eigenvalues of a Wishart-distributed sampled covariance matrix (with which an improved covariance can be constructed) when the number of samples (n) is small, n/p >; 1 and less than a few tens. Our method is based on the Marcenko-Pastur (M-P) law, theory of eigenvalue bounds, and energy conservation. We compute an apparent multiplicity for each sampled eigenvalue and then shift the sampled eigenvalues according the maximum likelihood location (M-P mode). We impose energy conservation in two distinct regions; small eigenvalues and large eigenvalues, where the transition between the two regions is found by solving successive first-order regression equation for the sampled data. The method also improves the condition number of the data (small eigenvalues are shifted upward in values), hence, it is also "regularization," where the regularization is a multiplicative vector regularization as opposed to the traditional additive scalar regularization where all eigenvalues are shifted upward by the same value.


Purpose The possibility of exploring other body fluids to identify potential biomarkers of systemic inflammation has emerged as a non-invasive alternative to blood samples for both diagnosis and control of disease activity. We investigated the levels of innate-immunity related biomarkers in saliva, serum, and urine from Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) patients and their correlation to each other and to disease activity. Methods We included 84 SLE patients and 20 controls from the general population, all participants underwent a thorough clinical examination. Disease activity as measured with the Systemic Lupus Activity Measure (SLAM) and SLE Disease Activity Index-2K(SLEDAI-2K) was recorded. Matched saliva, serum, and urine were collected, and the levels of colony-stimulating factor (CSF)-1, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interferon-γ-induced protein (IP)-10, monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 and calprotectin were analysed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and Bead-based Multiplex immunoassay. Results TNF-α, IP-10 and MCP-1 in saliva, serum and urine, and CSF-1 in saliva and serum provided diagnostic ability to distinguish SLE from controls (area under the curve >0.659, p<0.05 for all). CSF-1, TNF-α, IP-10 and MCP-1 in saliva, serum and urine as well as calprotectin in saliva and urine were increased in SLE patients. Levels of CSF-1 in saliva, serum and urine, IP-10 in serum and urine, and calprotectin in saliva and urine, as well as TNF-α, IP-10 and MCP-1 in urine correlated positively with measures of disease activity. TNF-α, IP-10 and MCP-1 in urine and CSF-1 and IP-10 in serum were elevated in patients with active renal disease (p<0.05 all comparisons). Conclusion The proposed biomarkers provide diagnostic ability to distinguish SLE from controls and they also reflect disease activity. This is a promising result suggesting that in some situations either saliva or urine samples might be capable to be an alternative to serum when diagnosing and monitoring patients with SLE.


A generalized matrix fraction description (MFD) criterion for fixed modes with arbitrarily constrained feedback structure is presented. The efficiency of the new criterion in structure analysis is illustrated by a numerical example. This criterion, which generalizes that of B.O. Anderson and D.J. Clements (Automatica, vol.17, p.703-12, 1981), is shown to be more convenient in some cases than other generalized criteria of fixed modes. >


Following Ferdinand Tonnies' distinction between community and society which could be translated also into the distinction between nation and state, it would be difficult if not impossible for modern African countries to practise democracy as understood in Western countries. If at all there is democracy in Africa it must be peculiar and unique. This is predicated on the fact that most African nations consider the state as something "alien" and contrary to their societal values. The main thrust of this paper therefore, is to demonstrate that the modern African state is the product of colonization and imperialism with capitalism as one of its direct consequences. Nationhood, ethno-politics and tribalism are what actually characterize African public space. Consequently, it foreshadows the basic tenets of Western-like democracy which is the respect for the universal human right. Democracy as conceived by Western countries cannot thrive outside the ambit of the state and this is anthetical to Africa's societal values and politics. Keywords: State, Nationhood, Ethno-politics, Democracy and Africa.


As it works to define the relationship between the federal courts and the boards, commissions, and agencies that make up the administrative state, the Supreme Court has long distinguished between public and private rights. Dating from the decision in Murray's Lessee, the public rights doctrine allows Congress to assign some matters either to the Article III judiciary or to non-Article III courts. Despite the doctrine's pedigree, however, courts and commentators disagree about what triggers it. Only two years ago, in Oil States v. Greene's Energy, the Court upheld the patent board's power to review patent validity as a matter of public right. But a spirited dissent argued that patent validity contests require an Article III court. Similar disagreements have peppered the Court's analysis of other public rights questions.

This Article offers a new account of Murray's Lessee and a new synthesis of the public rights doctrine. Murray's Lessee did not turn on Congress's power to manage the government's immunity from suit or on the government's appearance as a party to the litigation (as many have mistakenly assumed). Instead, the Court drew on a distinction between the creation or constitution of new rights and the adjudication of disputes over existing rights. Nineteenth century jurists insisted on judicial control of adjudicatory matters, but deferred when Congress conferred discretionary authority on a board or commission or court to fashion new rights through the issuance of a constitutive decree or order. The distinction between the adjudicative resolution of disputes over existing rights and the issuance of constitutive orders to create new rights does much to explain Murray's Lessee and other controversial applications of the public rights doctrine. Applying this new understanding to Oil States, the Article concludes that although patents issue through a constitutive process, disputes over their validity present adjudicative issues that fall outside the public rights doctrine.


It is widely perceived that projected public spending on transportation infrastructure in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area for the next 20 years will not be enough to halt, let alone reverse, the trend of increasing traffic congestion. Consequently, there has been much debate about how additional sources of local revenues might be raised to finance more transportation spending. This paper develops and implements an analytical framework for estimating the efficiency costs of raising $500 million per annum in local revenue from five possible sources. These sources are increasing labor taxes, property taxes, gasoline taxes, transit fares, and implementing congestion taxes. Our model incorporates congestion and pollution externalities, and it allows for interactions between the different policies. Under our central estimates, the efficiency cost of raising $500 million in additional revenue from labor taxes is $118 million; from transit fares is $136 million; from property taxes is $16 million; from gasoline taxes is $66 million; and from congestion taxes is $19 million. The higher costs of the labor tax and transit fares reflect their negative impact on employment, and on pollution and congestion, respectively. A case could be made on efficiency grounds for using congestion fees and gasoline taxes to raise the revenue, though it should not be overstated. For example, much of the pollution externality is already internalized through pre-existing gasoline taxes, and the inelastic demand for peak-period driving and for gasoline limits the pollution and congestion benefits per dollar of revenue raised. Moreover, the relative advantage of these policies is sensitive to alternative scenarios for external damages. The property tax has a relatively low cost because it reduces pre-existing distortions created by the favorable tax treatment of housing.


Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a non-receptor tyosine kinase present in cell-ECM focal adhesions. As a part of the integrin signalling complex, FAK is implicated to play a role in the mediation of integrin induced cell growth, motility and survival- processes that are also required for tumour development and progression. A role for FAK has thus been proposed in the process of tumorigenesis. In support of this, FAK is found to be upregulated in various different tumours and tumour cell lines. However, the mechanisms that lead to the upregulation of FAK in cancer cells have not been investigated thus far. The first part of this study focused on establishing some of the genetic alterations adopted by cancer cells to elevate the level of FAK protein. We used fluorescent in situ hybridisation ((FISH) to first confirm that fak localised to human chromosome 8q in normal cells. Elevated FAK protein levels in cell lines derived from invasive squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck were accompanied by gain in fak gene copy number in all the cases examined. Moreover, increased fak gene dosage, including genetic alterations like amplification and isochromosome formation, were observed in cell lines derived from human tumours of lung, breast and colon. In addition, conversion from adenoma to carcinoma, in an in vitro model for human colon cancer progression, was accompanied by an elevation in FAK protein level and gain in fak gene copy number. Although, other genes like c-myc, lying near the fak locus, were also found to be co-amplified or increased in copy number, given the biological functions FAK is proposed to play a role, it may contribute in exerting the selective pressure for the re retention of the whole region in increased number of copies. In order to further investigate the role of FAK in tumour development, we studied its importance in cell survival. For this we used an in vitro model of apoptosis, wherein, apoptosis was induced in v-Src transformed Rat-1 cells after serum-deprivation and inhibition of v-Src activity. In particular, we examined the importance of FAK proteolysis in the induction of apoptosis. We found that although induction of apoptosis was accompanied by FAK cleavage, inhibition of FAK proteolysis was unable to promote cell survival. The in vitro model of apoptosis using v-Src transformed Rat-1 cells was also characterised further in this thesis. Like FAK, the v-Src oncoprotein also resides in the focal adhesions where its constitutive kinase activity induces disruption of focal adhesions and cell transformation. Unlike other oncoproteins like c-Myc, and v-Jun, v-Src does not induce cell death under low serum conditions. However, the data described in this thesis suggested that v-Src primes the cells to undergo apoptosis, partly through disruption of integrin signalling, while providing them with a survival signal at the same time. Removal of this survival signal, thus, induced the cells to undergo apoptosis. Further investigations indicated that the surrogate integrin survival signal provided by v-Src required the activation of the PI 3-kinase/Akt pathway, while the MAP kinase pathway did not play any role in the mediation of the survival signalling. In addition, the apoptotic response induced in v-Src transformed Rat-1 cells was shown to be accompanied by activation of caspases, and stress-activated kinase, p38. Cell death was inhibited by overexpression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 or by the inhibtion of caspase and p38 activity simultaneously.


Using data collected for a study of the process of care in a large urban area, the opportunity was taken to examine seasonal variations in consultation patterns. While overall numbers of consultations varied month by month, no seasonal pattern was found. The ratio between patient and doctor-initiated contacts remained stable throughout the year, as did the age, sex and social class of patients consulting. The proportion of consultations that took place in the home increased during the winter months. As expected, seasonal fluctuations in morbidity were most apparent in respiratory disorders, though a small number of non-respiratory problems showed similar variations. There was no discernible seasonal pattern to investigation, referral, and prescribing rates, though wide variation existed between individual general practitioners. The implications of these findings for the design of future studies are discussed.


Two blade-detachment failures in large (600 kW) wind turbine generators were investigated. In the first case, bolt failures were established as the initial failure event. A fatigue crack reached a critical length, fast fracture developed and was then arrested as the bolt unloaded. Crack growth resumed when loading increased with cracking or fracture of adjacent bolts. The problem was identified as one of insufficient preload on the bolts. In the second failure on a different unit, a retaining nut on a blade assembly split, allowing a roller bearing to slide off a shaft and a blade to separate at its attachment hub. The failure was observed to be by fatigue. It was determined that pieces of the outer retaining rib (or flange) on the bearing inner cage had fractured by fatigue and were trapped between the nut and the bearing, producing excessive cyclic loading on the nut by a wedging action as the blade pitch adjusted during a revolution. Fatigue of the rim occurred as a result of inadequate lubrication in the bearing, which led to load transfer across the rollers, onto the rim.


New types of aerostatic air bearing and linear slide systems have been developed. The prototype of a multiple-microhole, instead of a porous-type, air bearing was developed and the surface roughness was improved by finished process. Instead of the conventional drilling process, the air bearing pads were fabricated by using microfabrication technology in this research. The spectral element method was employed to simulate the pressure distribution of air bearing and a comparison was made with experimental results. A granite straight edge was used as linear slide to guide the moving table that was supported by the developed air bearing system. A laser interferometer system was used to assess the performance of the stage.


A new optical configuration producing one-step 360 degrees rainbow holograms is presented. The method makes use of two concave mirrors in confocal position, with an annular aperture between the two. An experimental demonstration is given.


Negative pressure pulmonary oedema (NPPO) is a life threatening condition, manifested due to upper airway obstruction in a spontaneously breathing patient. Upper airway obstruction caused by classic laryngeal mask airway (cLMA) and ProSeal laryngeal mask airway (PLMA) has been reported, and NPPO has also been reported following the use of cLMA. Search of literature did not confirm NPPO following the use of PLMA. We encountered a female patient of NPPO scheduled for incision and drainage of an abscess who had signs of airway obstruction following PLMA insertion. Multiple attempts were made to get patent airway without success. PLMA was replaced with endotracheal tube following which pink frothy secretion appeared in breathing circuit. Patient was managed successfully with ICU care.


The study examines the extent to which government policies redress squatters' problems; levels ofparticipation of squatters in formulating those policies; and top priorities of squatters, as articulated by squatters themselves. To address the above concerns, the study utilized three methods of data collection: (i)a critical examination of policy documents relating to squatters in Jamaica; ( ii) elite inter views with those who make policies affecting squatters; and (ni) a national social survey of squatters. The findings of the study were four-fold: (i) the living conditions of squatters in Jamaica are much worse than the national average; (ii) majority of squatters are women, who are mostly single and, in comparison with male squatters, are less educated, less employed and earn less income; (Hi) government policies relating to squatters have been either limited or a failure; and (iv) there has been little participation by squatters in programmes that affect their lives.


Purpose of review Diet appears to trigger symptoms in the majority of individuals with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and is associated with a reduced quality of life. There has been a recent focus on the role of dietary therapies to manage individuals with IBS. The aim of this review is to discuss the utility of traditional dietary advice (TDA), low-FODMAP diet (LFD) and gluten-free diet (GFD) in IBS. Recent findings Several recent randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been published demonstrating the efficacy of the LFD and GFD in IBS, with the evidence base for TDA being predominantly based on clinical experience, with emerging RCTs evaluating TDA. Only one RCT has been published to date comparing TDA, LFD and GFD head to head, with no difference noted between diets in terms of efficacy. However, TDA has been noted to be more patient-friendly and is commonly implemented as a first-line dietary therapy. Summary Dietary therapies have been demonstrated to improve symptoms in patients with IBS. In view of insufficient evidence to recommend one diet over another currently, specialist dietetic input in conjunction with patient preference is required to determine implementation of dietary therapies. Novel methods of dietetic delivery are required in view of the lack of dietetic provision to deliver these therapies.


Brefeldin A (BFA) is a fungus metabolite that is known to cause the disassembly of the Golgi complex and apoptosis in exposed cells, both of which have been suggested as playing roles in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This study showed that BFA caused neurotoxicity and apoptotic nuclear changes in cultured spinal neurons of rat spinal cord in a dose‐ and time‐dependent manner. The spinal motor neurons were more vulnerable to this neurotoxicity. The cultured spinal neurons showed irreversible disassembly of the Golgi apparatus as early as 1 hr after exposure to BFA. BFA induced the expression and activation of caspase‐12 beginning 8 hr after exposure. The level of the cleaved form of caspase‐3 had increased 12 hr after the addition of BFA. Free radical generation and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential were observed in the later stages of neurotoxicity caused by BFA. Collectively, our data suggests that BFA is an excellent agent for reproducing the pathophysiological features of ALS. This in vitro model may be useful in attempts to study the mechanisms of this neurodegenerative disease and to examine therapeutic potentials. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The Ocean Sciences Award is presented for outstanding and long-standing service contributions to the ocean sciences. Robert Heinmiller will receive the award this year at the 1995 Fall Meeting for developing an electronic mail system for the oceanographic community that has dramatically changed our discipline. He and Susan Kubany founded OMNET Corporation 16 years ago, and they bravely led the way for oceanographers to enter the electronic mail era well before e-mail was fashionable. The OMNET linked oceanographers, helping to advance ocean sciences research projects and information exchange. The two collaborators made e-mail user-friendly—you did not have to be a computer guru to use OMNET. Their pioneering effort created a true sense of community for ocean scientists.


Abstract Recurrent laryngeal papillomatosis is a disease caused by human papillomaviruses (HPVs), which currently does not benefit from a curative treatment. Due to the fact that HPV has the action of modifying cellular DNA, with changes in the expression of interleukins and interferon, with insufficient maturation of T cells and intracellular overpopulation of immunosuppressive cells, the association of RRP (Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis) with an autoimmune disease may cause particular difficulties in the therapeutic management of patients diagnosed with RRP. Immunosuppressive medication negatively influences the development of papillomatosis, increasing the number of local relapses and, respectively, the need for surgical intervention due to the increased viral multiplication and the proliferation of papillomatous lesions. In order to exemplify the difficulties encountered in treating RRP associated with an autoimmune disorder, the authors present the case of a 21-year-old patient diagnosed with juvenile recurrent laryngeal papillomatosis genotype 6, with multiple antecedent surgeries, who was diagnosed with pemphigus vulgaris at the age of 19. The peculiarity of the case lies in the difficulty of managing the RRP associated with an immunosuppressive disorder whose therapeutic indication is cortisone and immunosuppressive treatment, which led to exacerbation of viral multiplication and proliferation of papillomatous lesions.


Abstract Agricultural intensification is a key factor in the decline of many avian populations throughout the world, yet the exact mechanisms that contribute to these declines are relatively unresolved, especially for seed-eating species. We tested the hypothesis that forage quality, particularly protein content, limits productivity in birds consuming diets dominated by agricultural grains and lacking in native forages. We used white-winged doves (Zenaida asiatica) because columbids are highly granivorous and white-winged doves have declined in areas dominated by grain agriculture. We randomly assigned 52 pairs of captive doves to 1 of 2 treatments: we fed one treatment sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and the second sorghum plus native seeds (croton [Croton sp.] and native sunflower [Helianthus sp.]). Birds with access to native seeds fledged 123% more young per pair, with young weighing 32% more at fledging than those fed only sorghum. Doves with access to native seeds selected a diet consisting of 43% sorghum, 32% croton, and 25% sunflower. We conclude that agricultural grains, which typically have high metabolizable energy and low to moderate protein concentrations, are not sufficient for normal productivity of white-winged doves. The lack of native forages with sufficient metabolizable energy and protein content may be a factor in the declining productivity of white-winged doves in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, USA, as well as other species in regions dominated by agriculture.


The dipyridyl-type building blocks 4-amino-3,5-bis(pyridin-3-yl)-1,2,4-triazole (3-bpt) and 4,4'-bipyridine (bpy) have been used to assemble with Zn(II) in the presence of trithiocyanuric acid (ttcH3) to afford two coordination compounds, namely bis[4-amino-3,5-bis(pyridin-3-yl)-1,2,4-triazole-κN(3)]bis(trithiocyanurato-κ(2)N,S)zinc(II), [Zn(C3H2N3S3)2(C12H10N6)2]·2H2O, (1), and catena-poly[[[bis(trithiocyanurato-κ(2)N,S)zinc(II)]-μ-4,4'-bipyridine-κ(2)N:N'] 4,4'-bipyridine monosolvate], {[Zn2(C3H2N3S3)4(C10H8N2)3]·C10H8N2}n, (2). Single-crystal X-ray analysis indicates that complex (1) is a mononuclear structure, while complex (2) presents a one-dimensional chain coordination motif. In both complexes, the central Zn(II) cation adopts an octahedral geometry, coordinated by four N- and two S-donor atoms. Notably, trithiocyanurate (ttcH2(-)) adopts the same bidentate chelating coordination mode in each complex and exists in the thione tautomeric form. The 3-bpt co-ligand in (1) adopts a monodentate coordination mode and serves as a terminal pendant ligand, whereas the 4,4'-bipyridine (bpy) ligand in (2) adopts a bidentate-bridging coordination mode. The different coordination characters of the different N-donor auxiliary ligands lead to structural diversity for complexes (1) and (2). Further analysis indicates that the resultant three-dimensional supramolecular networks for (1) and (2) arise through intermolecular N-H...S and N-H...N hydrogen bonds. Both complexes have been further characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy and elemental analyses.


OBJECTIVE
Spinal conditions and injuries in the pediatric population can necessitate surgical treatment. For many pediatric patients, a return to athletic activity after spinal surgery is a significant postoperative focus. However, there is a lack of standardized guidelines to determine criteria for safe return to play (RTP). To understand clinical criteria for patients to safely RTP, the authors conducted a systematic review of outcomes and the period of time before physicians recommend an RTP for pediatric patients undergoing spinal surgery.

METHODS
English-language publications were searched systematically in the PubMed electronic database, and a review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. Additional relevant studies found via a supplementary literature search were also included. Studies assessing return to athletic activity in a pediatric population after spinal surgery were included. Studies without an RTP, postsurgical activity outcomes, or surgical intervention were excluded.

RESULTS
A PubMed search identified 295 articles, with 29 included for the systematic review. In addition, 4 studies were included from a supplementary literature search. The majority of these studies were retrospective case series and cohort studies, and the remaining studies included questionnaire-based studies, prospective cohorts, and case-control studies. The most common spinal conditions or injuries included spondylolysis, and this was followed by adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Overall, the most frequent recommendation for RTP for noncontact and contact sports was 6 months after surgery (range 1-12 months), and for collision sports it was 12 months after surgery. However, some physicians recommended never returning to collision sports after spinal intervention.

CONCLUSIONS
Most pediatric patients are able to return to some level of sports after spinal surgery. However, no standardized criteria have been proposed, and RTP recommendations vary according to the treating surgeon. In addition, limited data are published on the variation in timelines for RTP with regard to classifications of sports (noncontact, contact, and collision). Further analysis of specific spinal conditions and injuries with postoperative athletic recovery is needed.


Gastric cancer is concerned as the second leading cause of tumor-associated death worldwide after lung tumors and is specified as one of the most common malignant cancers. Given the increasing importance of HOX genes in gastric cancer research, this study was aimed at exploring the expression profile of HOTAIR, HOXC13, HOXC10, HOXC13-AS, and HOXC‑AS3 in gastric cancer. To achieve this goal, 30 pairs of tumor and normal margin samples were assessed for these genes expression analyses via qRT-PCR. result we found that, the HOTAIR, HOXC13, and HOXC10 expression was significantly increased in cancer tissue samples in comparison with adjacent normal tissue samples, P<0.01. Moreover, there were significant positive correlations between the expressions of genes studied: HOXC‑AS3 and HOXC10 (r=0.52, P<0.003), HOXC13-AS and HOXC13 (r=0.57, P<0.001), HOTAIR and HOXC‑AS3 (r=0.39, P<0.03), HOTAIR and HOXC13-AS (r=0.36, P<0.05). The HOXC13 and HOXC10 expression exhibited a significant relationship with both distant metastasis and perineural invasion (metastasis: P<0.014, r=0.443 and P<0.0041, r=0.51 perineural invasion: P<0.025, r=0.41 and P<0.0017, r=0.55). The HOXC13-AS displayed a significant relationship with the sex factor so that in females the expression of this gene was higher than males (P<0.030, r=0.4). Our findings suggest that the expression of HOXC genes and HOTAIR lncRNA increased through gastric tumor progression and thus they possibly participate in malignant transformation and gastric carcinoma metastasis.


The quality of sardine fish oil can be improved by purification method through the step of degumming and neutralization. The aimed of this this study was analysis characteristic of crude sardin fish oil and determined the best method of purification. Degumming was carried out using 30% water and salt at concentration 5%, 8%, 10% b/v. Neutralization process using  NaOH with 16°Be and bleaching using 5% Magnesol XL. All step of refining was done at 50°C, 60°C, 70°C, and 80°C. The result of analysis showed that sardine crude fish oil had 24.86% of palmitic acid as the highest fatty acid, heavy metal was not detected,dencity was 0.92 g/cm3 and viscocity was 51 cPs. The best treatment of purification method was degumming using 5% NaCl at 50°C with rendement 65.37±0.72%; free fatty acid (FFA) 0.38±0.03%; peroxide (PV) 1.07±0.12 mEq/kg; anisidine (p-AnV) 15.18±0.16 mEq/kg; total oxidation value (TOTOX) 17.31±0.39 mEq/kg; and clarity was 75.09± 1.20%.


Study design Systematic review. Background and objectives Preoperative neuromuscular function is predictive for knee function and return to sports (RTS) after reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). The aim of this review was to examine the potential benefits of prehabilitation on pre-/postoperative objective, self-reported and RTS-specific outcomes. Methods A systematic search was conducted within three databases. From the 1.071 studies screened, two randomized control trials (RCTs), two control trials (CTs) and two cohort studies (CS) met the inclusion criteria. Methodological quality rating adopted the PEDro- (RCT, CT) or Newcastle-Ottawa-Scale (CS). Results and conclusions Methodological quality of the included studies was moderate (PEDro score: 6.5 ± 1.7; range 4 to 9). Two studies reported higher increases of the maximal quadriceps torque from baseline to pre-reconstruction: one study in the limb symmetry index (LSI), and one in both legs of the prehabilitation group compared to the controls. At 12-weeks post-reconstruction, one study (from two) indicated that the prehabilitation group had a lesser post-operative decline in the single-leg-hop for distance LSI (clinically meaningful). Similar findings were found in terms of quadriceps strength LSI (one study). At both pre-reconstruction (three studies) and two-year post-surgery (two studies), the prehabilitation groups reached significantly higher self-reported knee function (clinically meaningful) than the controls. RTS tended to be faster (one study). At two years post-surgery, RTS rates (one study) were higher in the prehabilitation groups. The results provide evidence for the relevance of prehabilitation prior to ACL-reconstruction to improve neuromuscular and self-reported knee function as well as RTS. More high quality confirmatory RCTs are warranted. Registration number PROSPERO 2017: CRD42017065491.


A follow-up study of forty-seven patients treated for traumatic lesions of the cervical spine with and without associated neural deficits is presented. Operation was performed six hours to eight months after injury. The objectives of these procedures were to remove any causes of compression of the cord or nerve roots, especially anterior compression, to reduce the dislocation and kyphosis, and to stabilize the cervical spine by interbody fusion.

Preoperative and postoperative care is described as well as the exposure used for different levels of the spine and the three types of bone-grafting procedures that were developed to correct and stabilize the deformities associated with the various fractures and fracture-dislocations encountered.

Normal or satisfactory alignment was regained in all but three of the forty-one surviving patients, and solid fusion occurred in the forty-one surviving patients who were followed long enough to determine the results of fusion.

There was no evidence that the operation had aggravated any neural deficits, although in two of the six patients who died after acute complete transverse cord lesions it was thought that early operation within twelve hours of injury may have contributed to the fatal outcome.

The functional results of operation in terms of relief of neck pain and recovery of cord and nerve-root function were encouraging. The prompt recovery of function of a few patients who had not improved after as long as 3.5 months of non-operative treatment suggested that reduction of the dislocation and correction of the kyphosis, combined with removal of the posteriorly extruded disc material in nine patients, had corrected a vascular insufficiency.

It was concluded that anterolateral operations may be harmful for patients with acute complete transverse lesions of the cord but that traumatic abnormalities causing compression of the anterior part of the cord or traction and consequent anterior pressure on the cord (the result of angulation of the cervical spine) can be eliminated or corrected under direct vision in a way not possible by laminectomy. It was further concluded that fusion is easily effected through the anterolateral approach, whereas after laminectomy posterior fusion may be difficult or impossible.


A simple MATLAB implementation of hierarchical shape functions on 2D rectangles is explained and available for download. Global shape functions are ordered for a given polynomial degree according to the indices of the nodes, edges, or elements to which they belong. For a uniform p-refinement, the hierarchical structure enables an effective assembly of mass and stiffness matrices. A solution of a boundary value problem is approximated for various levels of uniform h and p refinements.


Dental clinicians have been wearing examination gloves routinely during clinical procedures since 1986, when the CDC advised using them as part of standard personal protective equipment recommendations. Initially, latex was virtually the only material available for examination glove construction; however, in recent years, numerous other materials have been utilized for glove construction in response to the increased recognition of latex allergies among patients and dental health care workers. Examination gloves are marketed as "non-sterile" according to the FDA, which sets specific standards governing the manufacturing and distribution of these products. This study examined the prevalence of bacterial organisms present in a variety of freshly opened glove boxes. The same glove boxes were put into clinical use for a period of time and re-tested for the presence of bacteria. The quantity of bacteria present on gloves in the new boxes differed in comparison to the gloves that remained in the used boxes.


With the increasing demand of energy, as a clean green renewable energy, ocean wave energy is paid much attention by the countries especially those along coasts. So far, wave power generation technology has experienced decades of development. In this paper, the development and the main wave power generation devices are introduced, moreover, the latest applications of wave energy and existing problems on wave power generation technology are presented.


The PdCl(2)-promoted reactions of methylenecyclopropanes (MCPs) 1 bearing diaryl substituents on the terminal double bond were carefully investigated. The solvents employed significantly affected the reaction outcomes. It was found that dimeric allylpalladium(ii) complexes 2a-2f can be obtained as the sole products in acceptable to good yields under mild reaction conditions with THF as the solvent, while dimeric allylpalladium(ii) complexes 2a-2f along with another type of dimeric allylpalladium(ii) complexes 4a-4e can be obtained in good to high total yields if N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) was used as the solvent. Moreover, using N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as the solvent in the presence of water, it was found that water can also participate in the reaction to form another type of dimeric allylpalladium(ii) complex 6 as the minor product. All of these dimeric allylpalladium(ii) complexes reported in the paper have been characterized by X-ray crystal structure diffraction.


Acute myopathy in patients being treated for severe asthma has been recognized with increasing frequency since first being described in 1977. We report three patients treated for status asthmaticus who developed severe generalized weakness. Electrophysiologic studies and muscle biopsy revealed evidence of muscle destruction. Each of these patients was treated with high-dose corticosteroids and underwent prolonged neuromuscular blockade with a steroidal muscle relaxant. A review of the literature revealed 15 similar cases. We postulate that the combined effects of corticosteroids and muscle relaxants on the muscle cell may be responsible for this myopathy. Patients treated with corticosteroids and NMBs should be carefully monitored for the development of myopathy.


One of the techniques to increase the value of the software quality is refactoring - the set of activities for code enhancement through altering inner structure and not altering outer behavior of code. It is a technique to clean-up the source code that decreasing the opportunities of code faults. Refactoring can be defined as one of the most significant practices for maintaining the advanced software systems. It has been indicated by the empirical studies that refactoring has positive effect on maintainability and understandability of the software systems. This study introduces a literature review of 22 researches that study and summarize the influence of refactoring and their effect on the attributes of software quality specially maintainability. Through the review, the study sums the following points: (1) applying refactoring activities will increase the values of some attributes of quality like Understandability and maintainability. (2) There are several factors that affect reconstruction activities, including cohesion, coupling, hiding of information and encapsulation, (3) Refactoring helps to improve the source code without changing the behavior of the program, (4) refactoring activates can be applied many times to the source code.


We consider a linear discrete-time optimal control problem where the controller has to choose between measurement and control. The controller is restricted in such a way that at a given time instance, it may either send a control packet to the actuator, or it can request a measurement packet from the sensor. We show that under a quadratic cost structure that does not penalize the control directly, the optimal control is a linear threshold policy, where the controller decides to measure or control by comparing its last measurement of the plant state against a pre-determined threshold


The case of Jonah Gbemre v. Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited made a historic deviation from the usual trend of seeking monetary compensation by host communities in oil-rich regions in Nigeria. Rather, it seeks to correct regulatory shortcomings which were upheld by the court but never enforced. This article argues that the failure to enforce the judgment of the court is a missed opportunity to strengthen the environmental regulatory framework in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. It further argues that if the judgment had been enforced, it could have contributed to the reduction of the militant activities in the region and also encourages a significant change in the pattern of redress sought by litigants whose communities have been affected by the operations of oil multinational corporations in the region.


Background/Aims: Resveratrol is a naturally occurring polyphenol phytoestrogen and one of several constituents of red wine thought to be cardioprotective. We investigated the effect of resveratrol on the expression of the atherogenic chemokine, monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1). Methods: Human umbilical vein endothelial cells were stimulated with interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in the absence or presence of resveratrol. MCP-1 levels were determined by ELISA and MCP-1 mRNA was measured. Results: Resveratrol (1–100 µM) dose-dependently inhibited IL-1β-stimulated MCP-1 secretion, with ∼45% inhibition at 50 µM resveratrol. This was a Gi-protein- and NO-dependent effect. Resveratrol also significantly inhibited MCP-1 gene expression in a Gi-protein-dependent but NO-independent manner. While resveratrol had no effect on MCP-1 mRNA degradation, it inhibited MCP-1 promoter activity and reduced nuclear factor ĸB and activator protein-1 binding activity induced by IL-1β. Moreover, while hemoxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression was induced by resveratrol in human umbilical vein endothelial cells, neither treatment with the HO-1 inhibitor tin-protoporphyrin IX nor siRNA-directed knockdown of HO-1 had any effect on the inhibition of MCP-1 mRNA or protein secretion by resveratrol. Conclusion: These data demonstrate an inhibitory effect of resveratrol on MCP-1 synthesis and secretion, mediated via distinct signaling pathways. The inhibition of MCP-1 may represent a novel cardioprotective mechanism of resveratrol.


2-Methyl-9-hydroxyellipticine (MHE) added to tumoral hepatocyte cultures (400 ng MHE/ml medium) is responsible for a cytostatic effect. This decrease of cellular proliferation and of DNA synthesis is accompanied by an increase of intracellular free spermidine levels. We could not attribute this result to a deviation of this polyamine metabolism. These increased concentrations of free spermidine are connected to a decrease of the amount of nuclear bound polyamines, mainly joined with the RNA fraction. Thus, the cytostatic effect observed with this drug might be related to a decrease in the amount of spermidine connected to RNA; therefore, its intercalating effect is only indirectly responsible for the cellular proliferation decrease.


The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of a locally applied aqueous mistletoe extract (AME) on the growth of urinary bladder carcinoma MB49 in an orthotopic murine model. On day 1, a total of 4 x 10(4) tumor cells was implanted into the bladder of female C57BL/6J mice. The animals were then randomly allocated to three groups of 13 mice each. From day 11 onwards, AME was given intravesically 3 days a week for 4 consecutive weeks at concentrations related to 30 or 300 ng bioactive mistletoe lectin (ML)/ml. The animals received a total volume of 0.1 ml. In the control group, 39% of the mice survived to the end of the scheduled study period in comparison to 69% and 85% in the groups treated with 30 or 300 ng ML/ml, respectively. At necropsy, 80% of the surviving control animals showed a visible solid bladder tumor, whereas only 56% and 18% had tumors in the treated groups. In both cases, the differences were statistically significant at the high concentration in comparison to controls (p < 0.05). A non-significant effect was observed regarding the formation of multiple metastases (40% in controls vs 33% and 18% in the treated groups). From the results, it was concluded that under the conditions described, AME shows antitumoral activity which is considered to be mainly due to the cytotoxic properties of mistletoe lectins, the main effective constituents of mistletoe extracts.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of furcation-involved molars in a patient sample referred for periodontal treatment. A total of 222 patients aged, 14-73 years (mean age 45 years), and with signs of destructive periodontal disease in at least 2 quadrants of the dentition were included in the study. The clinical examination involved assessments of oral hygiene status, gingival conditions, probing pocket depth and presence/degree of furcation involvement. In addition, a full mouth intraoral radiographic examination was performed. The results revealed that 4% of the patients presented with all 12 molars, while 3% had lost all molars. 52% of the individuals had at least 8 molars; 95% of subjects < 30 years of age and 19% in the age 60+ years. In patients aged > or = 40 years, every 2nd molar showed advanced periodontal destruction in the furcation area. The prevalence of furcation involved molars was higher in the maxilla than in the mandible. From the age of 30 years, about 50% of the 1st and 2nd molars in the maxilla showed at least 1 furcation site with deep involvement, while in the mandible a similar prevalence was observed first after the age of 40 years. The highest frequency of furcation involvement was found at the distal site of the maxillary 1st molar (53%), and the mesial aspects of the maxillary 2nd molar showed the lowest frequency (20%). Furcation sites with a probeable trunk region were observed at a frequency of 17-22% at the various tooth sites. It was concluded that tooth morphology may be an important factor that accounts for the variability in prevalence of molar furcation involvement.


Crystals of [Mo(CO)3H(η-C5Me5)](1) suitable for an X-ray structural determination were obtained by reacting equimolar amounts of [Mo(CO)3(C7H8)](C7H8= cycloheptatriene) and C5HMe5 in methanol under hydrogen at room temperature. Complex (1) crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P21 in a unit cell of dimensions a= 8.003(2), b= 12.874(3), c= 7.087(2)A, β= 103.06(2)°, and Z= 2; R′= 0.047 for 1 136 observed reflections. Complex (1) reacts at room temperature with CCl4 to give [Mo(CO)3Cl(η-C5Me5)](2), and with LiBun in the presence of tetramethylethylenediamine (tmen) to give [Li(tmen)2][Mo(CO)3(η-C5Me5)](3). Complexes (2) and (3) were isolated in high yields and were analytically and spectroscopically characterized. Complex (1) does not react with CO2(1 atm), CO2(1 atm), or with other CO2-like molecules (CS2, p-tolylcarbodi-imide).


Molecular dynamics (MD) is a computational technique which is used to study biomolecules in virtual environment. Each of the constituent atoms represents a particle and hence the biomolecule embodies a multi-particle mechanical system analyzed within a simulation box during MD analysis. The potential energies of the atoms are explained by a mathematical expression consisting of different forces and space parameters. There are various software and force fields that have been developed for MD studies of the biomolecules. MD analysis has unravelled the various biological mechanisms (protein folding/unfolding, protein-small molecule interactions, protein-protein interactions, DNA/RNA-protein interactions, proteins embedded in membrane, lipid-lipid interactions, drug transport etc.) operating at the atomic and molecular levels. However, there are still some parameters including torsions in amino acids, carbohydrates (whose structure is extended and not well defined like that of proteins) and single stranded nucleic acids for which the force fields need further improvement, although there are several workers putting in constant efforts in these directions. The existing force fields are not efficient for studying the crowded environment inside the cells, since these interactions involve multiple factors in real time. Therefore, the improved force fields may provide the opportunities for their wider applications on the complex biosystems in diverse cellular conditions. In conclusion, the intervention of MD in the basic sciences involving interdisciplinary approaches will be helpful for understanding many fundamental biological and physiological processes at the molecular levels that may be further applied in various fields including biotechnology, fisheries, sustainable agriculture and biomedical research.


Recently much more attention has been paid to the axially laminated anisotropic (ALA) synchronous reluctance machine (SRM), for its high power factor, great power density and high efficiency, and so on. However, to increase the saliency ratio, the starting cages on the rotor are omitted so that the motor could not start up directly. In the inverter-driven applications, the synchronism between the rotor and the flux could be maintained by making use of the position/speed sensor. But the utilization of sensor will increase the cost and degrade the reliability, or not be applicable in some applications. In this paper, the sensorless direct torque control (DTC) scheme will be applied to ALA-SRM for good robustness and least parameter requirement excluding the stator resistance. It avoids the manipulation of complicated control scheme due to the saturation of parameters, especially the direct axis inductance L/sub d/. The improvements of the integral of stator flux and the hysteresis control of flux magnitude are stated in detail. To validate the theoretical analysis, the whole system was simulated with Matlab and an experimental investigation on a DSP (TMS320LF2407A) controlled 2.2 kW ALA-SRM was implemented. The results verified that the DSP-based control of ALA-SRM is a competitive candidate.


Detailed 3D model was developed for the Nigeria Research Reactor (NIRR-1) recently converted to 12.5% enriched UO2 core during the last quarter of 2018. The KENO3D module of SCALE 6.2.3 was used to visualize the geometry of the system before the criticality safety analysis was performed with the KENO-VI module of the code. This model consists of over 10 different units that are properly placed at their exact position on the global unit. The coordinate of each fuel pin was calculated using the radius of the circle and the pin angular positions. Several reactor physics parameters generated include k-effective values by generation run, the average k-effective, the neutron lifetime, the generation time, the average number of neutron per fission in the system, the average energy group at which fission occurs, and the energy of the average lethargy causing fission in the system. Some of this information was used to determine how fast or thermal the spectrum of the modeled system was. A plot of average k-effective versus the number of generation run was used to determine whether the calculations performed using the input prepared for the modeled NIRR-1 system has source convergence difficulties or not.