The purpose of the article is to reveal the personal factors of facilitative interaction that most effectively influence on the successful realization of the subjects' activity in general and cognitive activity in particular. Methods of the research. The following theoretical methods of the research were used to solve the tasks formulated in the article: a categorical method, structural and functional methods, the methods of the analysis, systematization, modeling, generalization. The results of the research. It has been proved that some misunderstandings in the perception of a task or a problem were a major factor affecting facilitative interaction. Another factor that may indirectly cause the effect of the presence of observers is the state of arousal in which a person is performing this task or Address for correspondence, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Copyright: © Khupavtseva Nataliia The article is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) ПРОБЛЕМИ СУЧАСНОЇ ПСИХОЛОГІЇ 364 ISSN 2227-6246 (Print) ISSN 2663-6956 (Online) 2020. ВИПУСК 49 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32626/2227-6246.2020-49 http://journals.uran.ua/index.php/2227-6246 DOI (article): https://doi.org/10.32626/2227-6246.2020-49.363-385 © Khupavtseva Nataliia problem at the time. It was noted that a sufficiently strong level of excitation decreases substantially at the presence of observers, and a weak level – in a case of absence of observers. Consequently, the presence of observers generally facilitates a simple task and impairs the resolution of a complex, incomprehensible or intangible subject. Another factor that needs to be taken into account is the relationship between the disturbance caused by the presence of observers or participants in a joint activity and the performance of that activity, which requires a clear coordination of personal movements or efforts. The skills of «emotional teaching» are defined, which can be called the techniques of pedagogical facilitation (based on empathy, respect, sincerity): teachers ignore the emotional manifestations of their students, thereby causing their aggression; teachers' statements, as a rule, do not correspond to feelings, they are not sincere, except in some cases when they condemn and blame the students; the teacher responds not to the true feelings of each student, but to those that he / she himself / herself imparts to him / her, in his / her own statements he / she only sometimes is sincere, but tries not to express positive emotions; the teacher responds only to the superficial feelings of the student, but does it quite accurately and often he / she is not afraid to express both positive and negative feelings, but does not confirm it aloud, expresses his / her feelings in a non-verbal way; the teacher responds to the hidden, deep feelings of each student, helps students to understand why they feel in such a way, gives a sincere reaction at both verbal and non-verbal levels, both positive and negative, while negative assessment does not diminish the student's self-esteem in any way. Conclusions. The author of the article proposed the personal factors which in a great degree determined the effectiveness of facilitative interaction: a moderate level of anxiety of the person; incomplete (partial) understanding of the teacher's task or problem; the average level of nervous excitement that facilitates the acceptance of facilitative interaction in the process of performing the activity; the emotional presentation of the context of a task or a problem or the emotional teaching of educational material in a case of pedagogical facilitation; compression of the sphere of authoritative influence on pupils; mutual understanding of participants of the facilitative interaction; mutual acceptance of individual psychological qualities of each other; abilities to put oneself on the place of others, to identify himself / herself with them; to actualize trust of participants of facilitative interaction; updating the subjectivity of the person (in this case, the most important are subjective parameters of the teacher's person, which are necessarily taken into account by pupils or students,


Direct-detection optical code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems employing overlapping pulse-position modulation (OPPM) schemes are proposed. A union upper bound on the bit error rate is derived taking into account the effect of both multiple-user interference and receiver shot noise. The photodiodes' dark currents are neglected in order to have some insights on the problem. Performance characteristics are then compared to the traditional on off keying (OOK) and pulse-position modulation (PPM) schemes. It is shown that under the constraints of both throughput and chip time, the OPPM system outperforms both traditional systems.


OBJECTIVE
The main objective was to determine the incidence and causative pathogens of osteomyelitis and septic arthritis in Icelandic children, as well as presenting symptoms and diagnosis.

METHODS
A nationwide retrospective review was done of all children <18 year old, 1996-2005. Subjects were divided into three equal age groups, 0-5, 6-11 and 12-17 years old. Cultures were reviewed and postive and negative cases compared.

RESULTS
Over the study period 220 cases were identified, 161 osteomyelitis and 59 septic arthritis cases. The incidence increased significantly over the period (p=0.019), mostly in the youngest age group (p<0.001) with osteomyelitis. Incidence of cases with a pathogen identified was unchanged over the period while culture negative cases increased significantly (p<0.001). Median age for osteomyelitis (6,1 years) was higher than in cases of septic arthitis (1,8 years) (p=0.003). A pathogen was identified in 59% of cases with osteomyelitis and 44% with septic arthritis. S. aureus was most common (65% and 27%, respectively) and K. kingae was second most common pathogen (7% and 11%, respectively). Methicillin resistant S. aureus was not identified. The tibia and knee were the predominant sites for osteomyelitis and septic arthritis respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
An increased incidence was found in the youngest age group with osteomyelitis, especially in cases without a pathogen identified. The most commonly cultured pathogen was S. aureus, followed by K. kingae. A more sensitive technique to identify pathogens might be indicated in culture negative cases.


Tumor cells have long been known to successfully evade immune surveillance mechanisms.In order to curtail the tumor progression as well as to develop effective therapeutic anti-tumor strategies, key immune regulators,or so-called immune checkpoints, havebeen recognizedas playing an important role. To prevent excess tissue damage,immune checkpoints that refer to a number of inhibitory players involved in immune responses,are crucial for maintaining self-tolerance and modulating the duration and amplitude of physiological immune responses.Therapies targeting such immune checkpoints such as CTLA-4 and PD-1 have shown great clinical successas they boost the already existing immune response working against the tumorprogression. To identify novel immune checkpoints it becomes crucial to comprehensively analyze the wealth of existing knowledge regarding key signaling pathways, theircross-talk with immune regulators, protein expression profiles in tumor tissues, and patient outcomes data. These data silos require a big data analytics approach to successfully hypothesize, query and derive meaningful conclusions from this data. With a proprietary big data analytics platform PharmGPS™, we have identified a number of immune checkpoints that have clear therapeutic potential for solid tumor regenesis. First, second and third degree associations between tumorigenic pathways and immune checkpoints were identified and preliminary findings will be presented. Citation Format: Sheetal Kaw, Sanatan Upmanyu, Himani Sharma, Krishnan Nandabalan. Targeting immune checkpoints: using a big data approach for their identification, prioritization and application. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 64. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-64


Background The disease modifying drug leflunomide is widely used in the therapy of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Its active metabolite, A771726, leads to inhibition of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase, an enzyme necessary for pyrimidine de-novo synthesis. Since activated lymphocytes expand their pyrimidine pool, A771726 decreases their proliferation. A771726 also suppresses TNF mediated nuclear factor kappaB activation. We were therefore interested if A771726 also would be capable to influence transendothelial migration (TEM) of peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMC). Objectives Methods We investigated the TEM of PBMC, which migrated through endothelial cell monolayers in an in-vitro model. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (EC) were cultured to confluence on collagen gels and then incubated with human PBMC of healthy blood donors. PBMC were recollected in three groups: 1) cells that did not adhere to the endothelium, 2) cells that bound to the endothelium, 3) cells that had migrated through the endothelium, and then counted by microscope. Experiments in which EC and PBMC as well as only EC were treated with A771726 (in the absence or presence of uridine) were compared to simultaneously performed control experiments. No increased toxicity on the PBMC treated with the doses of A771726 used in our experiments, was observed. Paired T Test was used for statistical evaluations. Results 24 h incubation of PBMC and EC with A771726 induced a significant decrease in TEM (8 ± 6% vs. 16 ± 12% migrated cells, p = 0.004). Furthermore, 24 h preincubation of solely the EC with A771726 inhibited the TEM of untreated PBMC (11 ± 9% vs. 15 ± 8% migrated cells, p = 0.043), indicating direct effects of A771726 on EC. Uridine significantly reversed the decrease in TEM when incubating PBMC and EC with both uridine and A771726 (15 ± 10% vs 9 ± 7% migrated cells, p = 0.023). Conclusion Our results demonstrate that leflunomide may have direct anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting the extravasation of PBMC, possibly via downregulation of adhesion molecules on EC and mononuclear cells. These data suggest, that leflunomide, besides its influences on lymphocyte proliferation, also reduces recruitement of mononuclear cells to inflammatory sites.


Abstract We consider matching, rewriting, critical pairs and the Knuth–Bendix confluence test on rewrite rules in a nominal setting extended by atom-variables. We utilize atom-variables instead of atoms to formulate and rewrite rules on constrained expressions, which is an improvement of expressiveness over previous approaches. Nominal unification and nominal matching are correspondingly extended. Rewriting is performed using nominal matching, and computing critical pairs is done using nominal unification. We determine the complexity of several problems in a quantified freshness logic. In particular we show that nominal matching is
$$\prod _2^p$$
 -complete. We prove that the adapted Knuth–Bendix confluence test is applicable to a nominal rewrite system with atom-variables, and thus that there is a decidable test whether confluence of the ground instance of the abstract rewrite system holds. We apply the nominal Knuth–Bendix confluence criterion to the theory of monads and compute a convergent nominal rewrite system modulo alpha-equivalence.


The development of a colorimetric severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection assay with the WHO published ASSURED criteria is reported, in which the biosensor should have the following characteristics of (i) being affordable for low-income communities, (ii) sensitive, (iii) specific, (iv) user-friendly to be used by non-skilled personnel, (v) rapid and robust, (vi) equipment-free, and (vii) delivered to the end-users as a simple and easy to use point-of-care tool. Early viral infection detection prevents virus spread and controls the epidemic. We herein report the development of a colorimetric assay in which SARS-COV-2 variants can be detected by colorimetric observation of color on the sensing cotton swab surface. Using the developed biosensor assay, it is possible to discriminate between the various SARS-CoV-2 variants with a LOD of 100 ng/mL within 4 min including sample preconcentration and incubation step. The results illustrated the development of a SARS-CoV-2 colorimetric biosensor that can be mass produced, with low-reagent cost, and can be read-out visually in the field by nonskilled personnel.


Background: Osteoporosis is among the top five conditions causing disability for elder particularly in women. Unfortunately, Egyptian women were reported to have a lower bone mineral density compared to their Western counterparts. So, this study was conducted to assessed knowledge and beliefs of menopausal women about osteoporosis, and their possible associated factors.
Methods: Across-sectional study was conducted on 208 menopausal women recruited from both rural and urban settings, Mansoura, Egypt. An interviewing questionnaire was used to assess socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge and health beliefs of participants about osteoporosis.
Results: The overall Osteoporosis Knowledge Assessment Tool (OKAT) and Osteoporosis Health Beliefs Scale (OHBS) mean scores were 10.8±3.52 and 140.9±18.1; respectively. High education was the only significant predictor to OKAT mean score (P= 0.011). Linear regression revealed understanding symptom and knowledge of preventive factors as strong significant (P≤0.001) predictors for women perceptions to the benefit of exercises and susceptibility to osteoporosis (R2 = 0.205 and 0.167; respectively).
Conclusions: This study reflects limited knowledge and modest perceptions toward osteoporosis among menopausal women. Knowledge was significant predictor of women health beliefs towards osteoporosis. Gender based preventive programs may help to reduce the burden of osteoporosis in Egyptian community.


This study offers longitudinal insight into the impact of three SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations on humoral and cellular immunity in patients with solid cancers, patients with hematologic malignancies, and persons without cancer. For all cohorts, virus-neutralizing immunity was significantly depleted over a period of up to 9 months following the second vaccine dose, the one striking exception being IL2 production by SARS-CoV-2 antigen-specific T cells. Immunity was restored by the third vaccine dose, except in a substantial number of patients with hematologic malignancy, for whom both cancer type and treatment schedule were associated with nonresponse. Thus, whereas most patients with myelodysplastic syndrome were conspicuously good responders, some patients with other hematologic malignancies receiving cancer therapies within 2 weeks of vaccination showed no seroconversion despite three vaccine doses. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2 exposure during the course of the study neither prevented immunity waning, even in healthy controls, nor guaranteed vaccine responsiveness. These data offer real-world human immunologic insights that can inform health policy for patients with cancer. Significance: Global health policy reliant on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine effectiveness is underpinned by our understanding of the durability of protection offered by sequential vaccinations and the efficacy of boosting, especially in immunocompromised patient populations who might constitute virus reservoirs. Here, we have: (i) clarified in patients with cancer the degree of waning of antibodies, serum neutralization titres against parental virus and variants of concern, and T-cell responses; (ii) evaluated the immune response among patients with cancer to a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine; and (iii) provided safety data following the third dose of the BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine in patients with cancer.


Introduction: In order to provide adequate antenatal care, accurate gestational age assessment is critical.
Recent research suggests that, in addition to normal biometric indicators, kidney length should be considered when calculating the duration of pregnancy by ultrasonography.
Materials and Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study of 120 pregnant women was conducted in a single centre. Kidney length was assessed at two-week intervals between 24 and 40 weeks, in addition to usual biometric measures. A total of 240 renal vertical measurements were recorded, with the average of the right and left renal lengths being used to determine the final kidney length. The mean and standard deviations for each variable were determined using descriptive analysis. Pearson regression coefficients were used to find the association between gestational age and other foetal characteristics and to evaluate which regression model provides the best fit for prediction of gestational age.
Results: The length of the foetal kidneys grew longer as the pregnancy progressed (from 23.2 mm at 24 weeks to 40.1 mm at 40 weeks). The regression formula (gestational age = 2.195 + 0.942 X kidney length) demonstrated a good degree of correlation (R2 0.97, p<0.001, SE of prediction 4.7 ± 3.9), which was superior to other prediction models employing standard biometric parameters.  When femur length was included in a stepwise manner to multiple regression models with several conventional factors, there was a considerable improvement in forecasting gestational age. Conclusion: The current study found that foetal kidney length is a credible indication of gestational age between 24 and 40 weeks of pregnancy, and that it may be useful in pregnancies with incorrect dates, the absence of a dating scan, and women who conceived during nursing.


We develop a proper nonempirical spin-density formalism for the van der Waals density functional (vdW-DF) method. We show that this generalization, termed svdW-DF, is firmly rooted in the single-particle nature of exchange and we test it on a range of spin systems. We investigate in detail the role of spin in the nonlocal correlation driven adsorption of H_{2} and CO_{2} in the linear magnets Mn-MOF74, Fe-MOF74, Co-MOF74, and Ni-MOF74. In all cases, we find that spin plays a significant role during the adsorption process despite the general weakness of the molecular-magnetic responses. The case of CO_{2} adsorption in Ni-MOF74 is particularly interesting, as the inclusion of spin effects results in an increased attraction, opposite to what the diamagnetic nature of CO_{2} would suggest. We explain this counterintuitive result, tracking the behavior to a coincidental hybridization of the O p states with the Ni d states in the down-spin channel. More generally, by providing insight on nonlocal correlation in concert with spin effects, our nonempirical svdW-DF method opens the door for a deeper understanding of weak nonlocal magnetic interactions.


The evolution of web services becomes necessary because it is inevitable that services will evolve overtime and clients will always ask for new features. Unfortunately the current standards do not support necessary mechanisms to ensure the behaviour evolution of the web services. This problem becomes more complex for dynamically adaptation and for web service upgrade by non-backwards-compatible changes. In this paper we present an approach to manage the behaviour evolution of web services and adapt dynamically their clients by providing a set of change operators for services and a set of adaptation rules for clients. This approach is validated within a framework proposed at the end of this paper.


This report describes a 72-year-old female patient with a previous history of cured breast cancer who presented with acute monocular visual disturbances, intense unilateral headache, painful temporal artery palpation, high erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and pain and weakness of the femoral muscles. These symptoms and signs were suggestive of temporal arteritis, but the finding of the temporal artery biopsy was negative, and the patient did not respond to corticosteroid treatment. Later, whole body bone scintigraphy revealed dissemination of malignancy throughout her skeleton including the skull. To our knowledge, this is the first report to show that a metastasis in the temporal bone can closely mimic temporal arteritis.


For interferometric measurements of step height standards with different roughness on either the upper or base levels, a shift of the reflection plane and hence a different height compared with a mechanical stylus measurement is assumed. This paper investigates an evaporated aluminium step height standard consisting of six steps with different roughnesses of the upper levels. Comparison measurements between a high-resolution stylus instrument, an interference microscope with two different objectives and two high-precision interferometers have been made. The agreement between the measurements of the two interference microscopes and the phase shifting interferometer was very good. The maximum deviation was less than 9 nm for steps up to 8 mu m height. Comparing the optically and the mechanically measured step heights, no systematic height differences were observable.


Unpaired image-to-image translation is to translate an image from a source domain to a target domain without paired training data. By utilizing CNN in extracting local semantics, various techniques have been developed to improve the translation performance. However, CNN-based generators lack the ability to capture long-range dependency to well exploit global semantics. Recently, Vision Transformers have been widely investigated for recognition tasks. Though appealing, it is inappropriate to simply transfer a recognition-based vision transformer to image-to-image translation due to the generation difficulty and the computation limitation. In this paper, we propose an effective and efficient architecture for unpaired Image-to-Image Translation with Transformers (ITTR). It has two main designs: 1) hybrid perception block (HPB) for token mixing from different receptive fields to utilize global semantics; 2) dual pruned self-attention (DPSA) to sharply reduce the computational complexity. Our ITTR outperforms the state-of-the-arts for unpaired image-to-image translation on six benchmark datasets.


In order to reconstruct the environments of peat deposition in southern Florida and to better understand the coal-forming processes, it was necessary to improve the techniques for collecting and analyzing modern phytogenic sediments. The need for minimizing compaction and distortion of organic sediments during field sampling required the development of a modified piston corer. The partial vacuum created by such a piston reduces compaction and holds the sediment in proper position in the coring tubes on the downstroke as well as during the uplift. Relatively undistorted microtome sections (15μ thick) were cut from oriented samples of peat impregnated with paraffin. By comparison with reference slides of modern plant tissues, it was possible to identify the genera and sometimes the species of plants contributing to the peat even though there were only much-altered fragments of these plants present. Vertically oriented sections are especially useful, because they can be easily compared with thin sections of coals. The method proved successful for study of peats of many different compositions and textures. A field test of the environmental interpretations made from oriented microtome sections showed a very good correspondence between actual surface environments and environments which had been predicted solely from analysis of microtome sections of surface peat. However, describing the vegetation in terms of the relative proportions of particular species proved to be more speculative. A relatively close correspondence was also exhibited between paleoecological interpretations made from oriented microtome sections of peat and those made by palynologic analyses. However, each method has its advantages, and interpretations based on the combined data of both methods are superior to those obtained by using either one alone.


To the Editor: —I appeal to the fountainhead of medical knowledge for information on a subject of greatest personal and community importance. Shall I take a physic? And shall I give a physic to practically all my patients? I have not taken a physic for more than fifteen years and am in perfect health. My intestinal exit operates as faithfully as the inlet, with an almost unvarying ratio of one to three. Traffic occasionally slows up a bit and as a consequence terminal unloading facilities may be put to some test, but this is never extreme and there have been no failures nor needed repairs. Once in a long time I have a cold but in no instance has a cold ever slowed up deliveries. Years ago I always took a physic for my colds, which always did two ugly things to me: They always gave me a bellyache and


Introduction Menstruation is the physiologic manifestation of cyclic uterine bleeding due to shedding and proliferation of the endometrium following invisible action and interplay of hormones mainly through the hypothalamus-pituitary-ovarian axis. Lack of proper menstrual hygiene predisposes women to different infectious and chronic obstetric and gynecological problems. Therefore, this study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude, practice and its associated factors of menstrual hygiene among high school students in North Wollo Zone, Woldia, Ethiopia.Methods A Facility based cross-sectional study was implemented from October 1-December 10, 2018. The data was collected using structured, pretested questioners among female high school students. Systematic random sampling technique was implemented. Data was entered and analyzed through Epi data 3.1 and SPSS respectively.Results This study revealed that 365(89.2%), 200(48.9%) and 196(47.9%) of the study participants have good knowledge, good practice and good attitude about menstrual hygiene respectively. Being grade 10 students [AOR=3.96, 95% CI =2.0-7.8], and having good practice of menstrual hygiene (AOR=2.52, 95% CI= 1.26-5) had positive association with menstrual hygiene knowledge. Maternal education level (AOR=1.86, 95% CI=1.18-2.9), being grade 10 students (AOR =2.3, 95% CI=1.48-3.56) were associated factors for practicing menstrual hygiene. Being grade 10 students (AOR=1.9, 95% CI=1.2-2.8), age ≥18 years (AOR=1.67, 95% CI=1.09-2.55) were statistically and positively associated with the attitude of menstrual hygiene.Conclusion This study revealed that the knowledge of the study participants towards menstrual hygiene was high whereas attitude and practice regarding menstrual hygiene was low. Being grade 10 students and having good practice were the associated factors of knowledge. Higher level maternal of education, being grade 10 students and having good knowledge towards menstrual hygiene were the identified associated factors for practicing of menstrual hygiene. Being grade 10 students and age ≥18 were statistically and positively associated with the attitude of menstrual hygiene. Therefore, creating awareness to reproductive health groups, educating their families and parents can change their poor practicing and attitude of menstrual hygiene.


We examined the diets of reintroduced tule elk (Cervus elaphus nannodes Merriam) and resident Columbian black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus Richardson) inhabiting the coastal prairie-scrub mosaic of Tomales Point, the northernmost portion of the Point Reyes Peninsula, Calif., during 1979-81. The elk diet differed between years whereas the deer diet did not. The pattern of seasonal quality of elk and deer diets, as measured by fecal nitrogen (FN) was similar between species and years. This was achieved although botanical composition differed between herbivores in some seasons. Dietary overlap was lowest in the wet winter months when fecal nitrogen was highest and vegetative standing crop was lowest. Conversely, dietary overlap was highest in the dry summer months when fecal nitrogen was lowest and vegetative standing crop highest. Both herbivore species showed selection and avoidance of certain plant species in June of both years. These findings are compared to other cervid-habitat systems.


Tests set up on mice and rats brought evidence that spironolactone, progesterone, testosterone-propionate, methylandostendiol, desoxycorticosterone-acetate, methyltosterone, diethylstilbestrol, preparation PCN, megesterol-acetate and mestranol disply a catatoxic action, whose degree depends upon the method of evaluation and the animal species. A pattern for selection of catatoxic agents is proposed and some aspects of their mode of action are discussed.


The recent death of Ray Moore, one of the fathers of interval mathematics, inspired these thoughts on why interval computations — and several related areas of study — are important, and what we can learn from the successes of these areas' founders and promoters.


Background Three-dimensional printing is being utilized in clinical medicine to support activities including surgical planning, education, and medical device fabrication. To better understand the impacts of this technology, a survey was implemented with radiologists, specialist physicians, and surgeons at a tertiary care hospital in Canada, examining multidimensional value and considerations for uptake. Objectives To examine how three-dimensional printing can be integrated into the paediatric context and highlight areas of impact and value to the healthcare system using Kirkpatrick's Model. Secondarily, to explore the perspective of clinicians utilizing three-dimensional models and how they make decisions about whether or not to use the technology in patient care. Methods A post-case survey. Descriptive statistics are provided for Likert-style questions, and a thematic analysis was conducted to identify common patterns in open-ended responses. Results In total, 37 respondents were surveyed across 19 clinical cases, providing their perspectives on model reaction, learning, behaviour, and results. We found surgeons and specialists to consider the models more beneficial than radiologists. Results further showed that the models were more helpful when used to assess the likelihood of success or failure of clinical management strategies, and for intraoperative orientation. We demonstrate that three-dimensional printed models could improve perioperative metrics, including a reduction in operating room time, but with a reciprocal effect on pre-procedural planning time. Clinicians who shared the models with patients and families thought it increased understanding of the disease and surgical procedure, and had no effect on their consultation time. Conclusions Three-dimensional printing and virtualization were used in preoperative planning and for communication among the clinical care team, trainees, patients, and families. Three-dimensional models provide multidimensional value to clinical teams, patients, and the health system. Further investigation is warranted to assess value in other clinical areas, across disciplines, and from a health economics and outcomes perspective.


Fuzzy modeling provides methods and techniques for qualifying and quantifying imprecise and uncertain information. The main advantages of fuzzy design representation are fluency, abstraction and continuity, at a level similar to that of analogue techniques, as well as the possibility of local autonomy, i.e. segmentation of a representation into self-regulating and cooperating components. The paper investigates the applicability of fuzziness to digital architectural sketching of floor plan layouts. Based on an analysis of the paradigmatic dimension in analogue floor plan sketches three alternative forms are proposed: (1) Canonical objects with tolerances, (2) objects described by minimal and maximal values, and (3) point sets which decompose the form of an object into a number of discrete, autonomous particles that describe the object by their position and spatial or structural relationships.


Finite-size scaling analysis turns out to be a powerful tool to calculate the phase diagram as well as the critical properties of two dimensional classical statistical mechanics models and quantum Hamiltonians in one dimension. The most used method to locate quantum critical points is the so called crossing method, where the estimates are obtained by comparing the mass gaps of two distinct lattice sizes. The success of this method is due to its simplicity and the ability to provide accurate results even considering relatively small lattice sizes. In this paper, we introduce an estimator that locates quantum critical points by exploring the known distinct behavior of the entanglement entropy in critical and non critical systems. As a benchmark test, we use this new estimator to locate the critical point of the quantum Ising chain and the critical line of the spin-1 Blume-Capel quantum chain. The tricritical point of this last model is also obtained. Comparison with the standard crossing method is also presented. The method we propose is simple to implement in practice, particularly in density matrix renormalization group calculations, and provides us, like the crossing method, amazingly accurate results for quite small lattice sizes. Our applications show that the proposed method has several advantages, as compared with the standard crossing method, and we believe it will become popular in future numerical studies.


Expertise and skill assessments are a common aspect of working in an enterprise, but manual assessments are onerous and quickly outdated. Automated assessments can alleviate these problems, albeit at the risk of being inaccurate. In this short paper, we focus on the problem of how to design an engaging learning system in the presence of potentially inaccurate automated expertise assessments; especially when the users are in their early stage of using the system. We explore two dimensions associated with reporting automated expertise assessments to users: i) the inclusion of a social comparison, and ii) the precision of how expertise scores are presented. In a controlled experiment (N=60), we examined the impact of these dimensions on the perceived accuracy of the assessments, the perceived utility of the system, and peoples' willingness to share expertise scores within the enterprise.


The gene is frequently mutated and abnormally activated in many cancers,and plays an important role in cancer development. Metabolic reprogramming occurs in malignant tumors,which can be one of the key targets for anti-tumor therapy. gene can regulate lipid metabolism through AKT-mTORC1 single axis or multiple pathways,such as lipid synthesis pathways and degradation pathways. Similarly,lipid metabolism can also modify and activate RAS protein and its downstream signaling pathways. This article overviews the current research progress on the interaction between lipid metabolism and ,to provide insight in therapeutic strategies of lipid metabolism for -driven tumors.


The Assault on Privacy 1 is an important book. It is also a very good one. Professor Miller's purpose is to examine the effect of the technological revolution of the last twenty years on individual privacy. He explores the astonishing progress in computer development, and the amazing feats of data collection, storage, retrieval, and computation and arrangement that are now or will soon be possible and describes the concrete uses to which those techniques can be applied. For example, in a time of conscious social restructuring, they may be used to assist the government in obtaining, ordering, and utilizing vast amounts of information about our burgeoning population; they have made possible the creation of regional credit bureaus, upon which the expansion of consumer credit relies; they have added new dimensions to a struggling educational system; and they have given industry a means for testing and evaluating an expanding workforce. Independent of Professor Miller's concern with the effect of these developments upon individual privacy, his description of the new computer technology and its possible applications in an increasingly complex world is of interest to anyone seeking to understand one of the crucial developments of the twentieth century. Turning to the question of how society insures that the harnessing of this intimidating technology is not accompanied by a serious loss of human dignity, Professor Miller examines the federal government's current management of the enormous quantity of personal information that it has acquired. He then concisely traces the present legal framework-the so-called "law of privacy"-to which an individual aggrieved by an application of the new computer technology might turn for protection and redress, and concludes by outlining a new legal framework through which a fine balance between the need for technological effi-


We have studied a modified Frenkel–Kontorova (FK) model with alternant coupling potential. From it, we obtain a coupling conservative map, it shows that the gold-mean number is not the last broken winding number, and the broken critical value is varied with the variance of strength of spire. The phase diagram becomes asymmetric in a period. The Devil's staircase and generalized dimension are different from those of the standard FK model.


It has been reported in the literature that raceway measurement made during the decreasing gas velocity is relevant to operating blast furnaces. However, no raceway correlation is available for decreasing gas velocity and none of the available correlations either in increasing or decreasing gas velocity take care of frictional properties of the material. Therefore, a systematic experimental study has been carried out on raceway hysteresis. Based on experimental data and using dimensional analysis, two raceway correlations, one each for increasing and decreasing gas velocity, have been developed. Results of these correlations have been compared with the data obtained from literature on the cold models and plant data along with some experimental data. A good agreement exists between the correlations and other data.


During the 'War to the Death', which took place in Venezuela (and parts of modern-day Colombia) between 1813–1815, there was an extensive campaign of symbolic violence on both the patriot and royal sides, with various types of massacres being carried out against specific targets and by specific groups, with racialized or gendered overtones often laid over the more obvious political categories. For example, when American patriots captured royalist strongholds, European Spaniards (including elderly men) were hauled out of their homes, paraded around in feminizing poses, such as being placed side-saddle on mules, before they were executed. Similarly, royalist commanders ridiculed patriot women sympathizers as traitors to their God and King (not to mention their biology) and executed them in ways that aimed to restore the women's gender submission, which could include rape, hanging upside down to emphasize their genitalia, and ripping stomachs open to reveal (and simultaneously ruin) wombs. Both the royalist and patriot sides engaged in body-related communication through the sending of notes written in blood, the hanging of corpses in sacred places, the taking of ears and other body parts to be worn as part of a triumphant Indian-style war costume. Both sides courted the local slave population and incorporated imagined elements of African warfare to augment their message. Depending on the particular context, rumours of imagined African-style cannibalism were floated among populations to create fear and hostility. The essay will be based on eight years of archival research in Venezuela, Spain, Britain and the United States, along with contemporary memoirs, correspondence, newspaper accounts, travelogues, and the extensive secondary literature in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.


Convened by Pope John XXIII, the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) profoundly changed the self-image and life of the Catholic Church. But understanding, interpreting, and implementing Vatican II still remain a task far from completed. Pope Francis has given fresh impetus toward practicing the Council's teaching about a humble, servant Church that pursues justice and peace for the whole world.
This book explores and presents Vatican II's developments in doctrine about divine revelation; the nature, mission, and collegiality of the Church; religious freedom; and the divine grace that reaches all human beings. It takes up the profound significance of the liturgy constitution, which opened the way for the Council's subsequent teaching.
In documenting the renewal and reform conveyed by the message and meaning of Vatican II, this book illustrates the scholarship and accessible style for which Gerald O'Collins has become renowned.


Multimodality imaging has an increasing role in the management of a large number of diseases, particularly if both functional and structural information are acquired and accurately registered. Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) imaging is currently an integral part of prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment procedures, providing high-resolution anatomical detail of the prostate region. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging with 11C-choline is a sensitive functional imaging technique that can identify biochemical states associated with prostate cancer. We believe that merging these prostate imaging technologies will help identify the location and aggressiveness of prostate cancer. We envision using dual PET-TRUS prostate imaging to guide biopsy, guide treatment procedures, and detect local recurrence earlier than is currently possible. Hence, we have developed a dual PET-TRUS prostate imaging system and protocol designed to allow accurate 3-D image registration. We have evaluated this PET-TRUS system by performing dual PET-TRUS imaging of custom phantoms. We describe here our dual-modality imaging system, custom phantoms and phantom study results. We also discuss our investigation of the PET-TRUS registration accuracy. We measure an average PET-TRUS registration error for our phantom studies of 2.1 ±1.7 mm in the x direction, 1.9 ±1.6 mm in the y direction, and 0.6 ±0.2 mm in the z direction. This registration accuracy is sufficient for some clinical applications such as biopsy guidance and early detection of recurrence.


Introduction: UV light is the principal cause of photoaging, a kind of aging. The problem arises because it is less enjoyable. Utilizing the secretome of adipose stem cells (ASC), which is rich in growth factors, could be a novel anti-photoaging therapy. The secretome of ASCs has been extensively examined for their role in wound healing, but their function in photoaging has just lately been investigated. This study looked at changes in epidermal and dermal thickness, expression of MMP-1 and TIMP-1, as well as dermal collagen density to assess the influence of the secretome of ASC in photoaging treatment.
Methods: 28 male Wistar rats, 10-12 weeks old, were randomly assigned to one week of acclimation in each of four groups: UV-irradiated group with topical secretome of ASC (Group P1); UV-irradiated group with topical vehicle only (Group P2); only topical secretome of ASC, non-UV-irradiated (Group P3); and non-UV-irradiated and no topical treatment (Group P4) (Group P0). Prior to treating the rats, the UV exposure was administered for six weeks. Then, for a period of four weeks, the secretome ASC was administered as a treatment.
Results: The epidermal and dermal thickness were significantly improved after four weeks treatment compared to UV irradiated with topical vehicle only group (p<0.05). The expression of TIMP-1 and dermal collagen density were significantly increased (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Secretome of ASC may be a solution for photoaging skin.


Abstract. We introduce Monte Carlo methods to compute the solution of elliptic equations with pure Neumann boundary conditions. We first prove that the solution obtained by the stochastic representation has a zero mean value with respect to the invariant measure of the stochastic process associated to the equation. Pointwise approximations are computed by means of standard and new simulation schemes especially devised for local time approximation on the boundary of the domain. Global approximations are computed thanks to a stochastic spectral formulation taking into account the property of zero mean value of the solution. This stochastic formulation is asymptotically perfect in terms of conditioning. Numerical examples are given on the Laplace operator on a square domain with both pure Neumann and mixed Dirichlet–Neumann boundary conditions. A more general convection-diffusion equation is also numerically studied.


The product of a team of 81 scientists, 11 photographers and 20 artists, who examined the status of nearly 4,000 species, the 2008 Red List of Venezuelan Fauna includes 748 taxa, 198 of which are threatened, two regionally extinct and two extinct. It is based on the 2008 third edition of the Red Book of Venezuelan Fauna, published for the first time in 1995, re-edited in 1999 and reprinted in 2003. To compile the information for the fourth edition, and with the support of Shell Venezuela, Provita has launched an experiment by opening the consultation to the public, and inviting anyone interested to comment on the 2008 text. Taking advantage of the MediaWiki platform (http:// www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki), WikiEVA (whose last three letters stand for Especies Venezolanas Amenazadas, Threatened Species of Venezuela) aims to increase the participation of the public in accessing and contributing information on the nation's biodiversity (http://wikieva.org.ve). Although WikiEVA will initially focus on animals, expansion to plants is already in development. Because it is online and real-time, WikiEVA offers a mechanism for keeping the information on Venezuelan species current. Rather than having to coordinate large-scale updates of the database every 4–5 years, and then publish the next edition of the Red List, publication will now follow the simpler process of curating the data in the wiki and packaging them as the species accounts that characterize Red Lists. A team of three general editors and 18 editors by taxonomic group oversee the process, invite additional collaborators and verify the assessments. The WikiEVA database currently holds templates for 2,828 species in 14 Classes. Information taken from the third edition of the Fauna Red Book (http://wikieva.org.ve/ documentos/LRFV.pdf) was used to create draft species accounts for those 202 that are either threatened or extinct, and the templates for the other 2,626 are available for data entry. The team of editors has begun updating existing species accounts and compiling data for new ones but everyone is invited to become a contributor. Editing WikiEVA species accounts is very simple: all that is required is to sign up. Creating a user and obtaining a password from the site are the only steps needed to change or update text. Contributors may report sightings, document threats, propose conservation actions, and upload photographs and images. All of the content of each species account is available for editing, comment or discussion. Although WikiEVA is designed for a wide range of potential users interested in the conservation of Venezuelan biodiversity, a primary goal is to promote it among schoolchildren and their teachers, as well as among university students and their professors. Experience with the fauna red books has shown that these are key audiences and keen user groups who do not have ready access to updated information on the country's biodiversity. We now aim to encourage them to contribute their experience and knowledge as well as to use the information. Previously, major efforts were made to distribute red books through, for example, the national network of public libraries, but electronic distribution will be more efficient and cost effective, taking advantage of increasing access to the Internet in educational and academic institutions. Additional benefits include reduction in the use of paper for printing, and saving the costs of transporting books. Ultimately, the success of WikiEVA will be best expressed by its impact on the conservation of Venezuelan threatened species. National and local governments will be able to use WikiEVA to inform environmental policies but may also use it to report on any action they take on behalf of threatened species in their jurisdiction. The publication of the fourth edition of the Red Book of Venezuelan Fauna is planned for 2013, and the book will be freely available online and will not be printed on paper.


Objectives To examine the association between housing types and COVID-19 infection (or mental health) during the early stages of the pandemic by using the large-scale individual-level All of Us Research Program COVID-19 Participant Experience (COPE) survey data. We hypothesise that housing types with a shared component are associated with elevated COVID-19 infection and subsequent mental health conditions. Design A retrospective case–control study. Setting Secondary analysis of online surveys conducted in the USA. Participants 62 664 participant responses to COPE from May to July 2020. Primary and secondary outcome measures Primary outcome measure is the self-reported COVID-19 status, and the secondary outcome measures are anxiety or stress. Both measures were applied for matched cases and controls of the same race, sex, age group and survey version. Results A multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that housing types with a shared component are significantly associated with COVID-19 infection (OR=1.19, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.3; p=2×10−4), anxiety (OR=1.26, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.4; p=1.1×10−6) and stress (OR=1.29, 95% CI 1.2 to 1.4; p=4.3×10−10) as compared with free-standing houses, after adjusting for confounding factors. Further, frequent optional shopping or outing trips, another indicator of the built environment, are also associated with COVID-19 infection (OR=1.36, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.8; p=0.02), but not associated with elevated mental health conditions. Confounding factors are controlled in the analysis such as ethnicity, age, social distancing behaviour and house occupancy. Conclusion Our study demonstrates that houses with a shared component tend to have an increased risk of COVID-19 transmission, which consequently leads to high levels of anxiety and stress for their dwellers. The study also suggests the necessity to improve the quality of the built environment such as residential housing and its surroundings through planning, design and management, ensuring a more resilient society that can cope with future pandemics.


Abstract Nonparametric control charts that can detect arbitrary distributional changes are highly desirable due to their flexibility to adapt to different distributional assumptions and changes. However, most of the nonparametric control charts in the literature either can only detect location changes, or involve intensive computation. In this article, we propose a new nonparametric adaptive CUSUM chart. The proposed control chart can detect arbitrary distributional changes and is computationally efficient. Its self-starting nature makes the proposed control chart applicable to situations where no sufficiently large reference data are available. The proposed control chart also has a built-in post-signal diagnostics function that can identify what kind of distributional changes have occurred after an alarm. Our simulation study and real data analysis show that the proposed control chart performs well across a broad range of settings, and compares favorably with existing nonparametric control charts.


Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second most common cause of dementing symptoms after Alzheimer's disease. Bilateral common carotid artery stenosis (BCCAS) has been established a VaD model in mice. The α-lipoic acid (α-LA) is known as an antioxidant which eliminate many reactive oxygen species. So many clinical and basic researches were attempted to determine whether α-LA can recovery of cognitive function under the neurodegenerative conditions but an action mechanism is still not unclear. 8-weeks old c57BL/6 mice were subjected and they were divided into the sham-operation group (SHAM), the BCCAS group (BCCAS) and the BCCAS treatment with α-LA (BCCAS+α-LA; 100 mg/kg, daily IP injection). Subjects were given surgical operation and administered vehicle and α-LA up to 30 consecutive days. On day 28, we evaluated a cognitive and behavioral functions via Morris water maze task for 7 days. After the behavior test, subjects were sacrificed to investigate an action mechanism. In Morris water maze test, the BCCAS group reveal a decreased in cognitive function than SHAM group, but the BCCAS+α-LA group show similar results compare to the SHAM group. The removed brains were sectioned and performed Western blot to examine molecular mechanisms of action. PSD95, VAMP8, SNAP29, and P62 proteins were decreased in the BCCAS group than the SHAM group, however the BCCAS+ α-LA tend to be increased PSD95, VAMP8, LC3B and decreased SNAP29 compare with the BCCAS group. And P-RAPTOR, P-mTOR and PARP increased in BCCAS group than the SHAM group but this is attenuate in the BCCAS+ α-LA group. These results indicated that chronic cerebral blood flow hypoperfusion could make a cognitive dysfunction such as vascular dementing. Interestingly, a chronic treatment with α-LA might be protective effects in this BCCAS mice model accompany with a neural protection and an autophagy mechanism. These results suggested that autophagy induction by α-LA can give an effect of neuronal survival in vascular dementia mimic animal studies. This research


In this paper the new concept of totally omnipresent operators is introduced. These operators act on the space of holomorphic functions of a domain in the complex plane. The concept is more restrictive than that of strongly omnipresent operators, also introduced by the authors in an earlier work, and both of them are related to the existence of functions whose images under such operators exhibit an extremely wild behaviour near the boundary. Sufficient conditions for an operator to be totally omnipresent as well as several outstanding examples are provided. After extending a statement of the first author about the existence of large linear manifolds of hypercyclic vectors for a sequence of suitable continuous linear mappings, it is shown that there is a dense linear manifold of holomorphic monsters in the sense of Luh, so completing earlier nice results due to Luh and Grosse-Erdmann.


In this Letter, we propose and analyze a switchable integrated optical waveguide device employing a modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer, capable of generating nondegenerate, maximally spatial-mode entangled photon pairs. Using an integrated electro-optic phase modulator, we show the possibility of on-demand switching of spatial-mode entangled state from a Φ+ to a Ψ+ state and vice versa. Such a versatile device with the potential of easy manipulation of the "spatial-mode" degree of freedom, should be very interesting in realizing integrated optical chips for quantum information processing.


Introduction: Pyogenic hepatic abscess secondary to migration and perforation of the gastrointestinal tract by an ingested foreign object is extremely uncommon. case report: this report presents an unusual case of a healthy 25-year-old young male who developed a hepatic abscess subsequent to the ingestion of dental wires, which became lodged in the splenic flexure of the colon. the patient denied any history of swallowing a foreign body. He presented when clinical signs of a hepatic abscess had developed. On microscopy, the specimen revealed streptococcus milleri 3+. the patient was successfully treated with metronidazole, percutaneous drainage of the abscess, and snare removal of the dental wires. conclusion: to our knowledge, only one other case report detailing a hepatic abscess secondary to ingested dental wires has been published. As such, more established protocols for the management of an atypical hepatic abscess are required.


The paper puts a set of questions: why the current account of oil exporting Russia is not only positive but also comparatively stable; what management of the balance of payments is made to support this surplus and how does it impact the economic development of Russia; what are the prospects of the evolution of the balance of payments in the light of tasks of national economy modernization? As a respond to the first two questions the paper analyzes the structure of the balance of payments and principal instruments used by the Bank of Russia to manage it as well as the contradictory impact of this management on economic development of the country. The scenario of active modernization of national economy is put forward as the basis for the analysis of the future evolution of the balance of payments of Russia.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

Stromal cells in the tumor microenviroment play an important role in development and progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Aim of this study is to identify the stromal cell related genes which may promote distant metastasis in NPC. Materials and methods: Differently expressed genes were accessed by comparing nasopharyngeal carcinoma and distant metastasis by microarray. Then stromal cells related genes were analyzed by using statistics tools. Five selected genes were validated in 112 nasopharyngeal carcinoma specimens. Results: We have identified 3360 genes up-regulated (P < .05)and 2327 genes down-regulated(P < .05) in distant metastasis versus primary nasopharyngeal carcinoma, among the differently expressed genes,111 stromal cells related genes were picked up according to previous researches for cluster analysis and pathway analysis. Upon validating 5 selected genes (BIRC3,FRAS1,NPNT,POSTN,PCSK6) in 112 additional NPC cases, the authors found that expression of POSTN was negative correlated significantly with lymph node involvement (p = 0.006)and clinical stage(p = 0.035) at the moment of diagnosis and FRAS1 was negative correlated with disease-free survival (p = 0.002) and distant metastasis survival (p = 0.02).Conclusion: Increasing knowledge of metastasis promotion of stromal cells related genes may provide feasible explanations underlying NPC progression and metastasis along with the development of biomarkers for screening high-risk populations.

Citation Format: Liangru Ke, Jinna Chen, Lin Wang, Yahui Yu, Yanfang Ye, Weixiong Xia, Xing Lv, Jing Yang, Xiang Guo, Yanqun Xiang, Xinyuan Guan. Differential expression of stromal cell-related genes between primary nasopharyngeal carcinoma and distant metastasis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 2177. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-2177


Sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) are associated with episodes of extreme winter weather, often leading to significant societal impacts. Using observations alone, it is hard to quantify the SSW impact on surface extreme weather, because the observational record only covers ∼40 events. Climate models provide an effective way to increase this sample size, potentially into 1000s of events, but only if we trust that they capture SSW processes well. We evaluate the representation of stratosphere‐troposphere coupling associated with SSWs in 10 models from the sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). In general, the models and the reanalysis have different patterns of tropospheric precursors, but similar stratospheric responses to precursors. The individual CMIP6 models capture the main spatial features of surface impact: A negative phase of the Northern Annular Mode (NAM), with distinctive alternating positive and negative temperature anomalies across the northern hemisphere. We assess the time evolution of SSW surface impacts for individual models over different regions and construct an overview of how well each model captures surface impacts. Models perform particularly well in simulating the surface impact evolution over the Baffin Bay and Siberia regions. Over the United States, Northwest Europe, and the Middle East, there is less agreement among models. Models underestimate the magnitude of temperature anomalies associated with SSWs over the Middle East and over the Eastern Seaboard of North America, but the magnitude of the circulation responses are comparable with reanalysis.


Dear Readers, It is with some trepidation but much pleasure and relief that I present this volume 'Students Making Sense' to you. It has been a long time inthemaking! Ifirstexploredthepossibilityof publishing some of my students' work back in 2001. During 2003 I had the vision for this issue and with support from the team at TAMARA began to develop the idea further.


The capacity to edit genomes using CRISPR-Cas systems holds immense potential for countless genetic-based diseases. However, one significant impediment preventing broad therapeutic utilization is in vivo delivery. While genetic editing at a single cell level in vitro can be achieved with high efficiency, the capacity to utilize these same biologic tools in a desired tissue in vivo remains challenging. Non-integrating RNA virus-based vectors constitute efficient platforms for transgene expression and surpass several barriers to in vivo delivery. However, the broad tissue tropism of viral vectors raises the concern for off-target effects. Moreover, prolonged expression of the Cas proteins, regardless of delivery method, can accumulate aberrant RNAs leading to unwanted immunological responses. In an effort to circumvent these shortcomings, here we describe a versatile RNA virus-based technology that can achieve cell-specific activity and self-inactivation by combining host microRNA (miRNA) biology with the CRISPR-Cas12a RNA-guided nuclease. Exploiting the RNase activity of Cas12a, we generated a vector that self-inactivates upon delivery of Cas12a and an accompanying CRISPR RNA (crRNA). Furthermore, we show that maturation of the crRNA can be made dependent on cell-specific miRNAs, which confers cell-specificity. We demonstrate that this genetic editing circuit delivers diminished yet sufficient levels of Cas12a to achieve effective genome editing whilst inducing a minimal immunological response. It can also function in a cell-specific manner thereby facilitating in vivo editing and mitigating the risk of unwanted, off-target effects.


Abstract Meteorologists have devoted considerable attention to studies of the use and value of forecasts in a simple two-action, two-event decision-making problem generally referred to as the cost-loss ratio situation, An N-action, N-event generalization of the standard cost-loss ratio situation is described here, and the expected value of different types of forecasts in this situation is investigated. Specifically, expressions are developed for the expected expenses associated with the use of climatological, imperfect, and perfect information, and these expressions are employed to derive formulas for the expected value of imperfect and perfect forecasts. The three-action, three-event situation is used to illustrate the generalized model and the value-information results, by considering examples based on specific numerical values of the relevant parameters. Some possible extensions of this model are briefly discussed.


Abstract : Rarefied helium and nitrogen flow expanding into vacuum through 150 micron high and 1.5 cm long channels is studied experimentally and numerically with the DSMC method. Different types of channel walls are examined, both polished and rough with well characterized roughness shaped as triangles and rectangles. The pressure varies from 200 to 13,000 Pa, with the gas mean free path being both much larger and much smaller than the roughness size of about 20 micron. A conical surface roughness model applicable for the DSMC method is proposed. An expression relating this model to the Cercignani-Lampis scattering model is derived. Good agreement between the numerical and experimental results is observed for the rough walled channel.


In dimension reduction problems, the adopted technique may produce disparities between the representation errors of two or more different groups. For instance, in the projected space, a specific class can be better represented in comparison with the other ones. Depending on the situation, this unfair result may introduce ethical concerns. Aiming at overcoming this inconvenience, a fairness measure can be considered when performing dimension reduction through Principal Component Analysis. However, a solution that increases fairness tends to increase the reconstruction error. In other words, there is a trade-off between equity and performance. In this context, this paper proposes to address this trade-off in Fair Principal Component Analysis problems by means of a multi-objective-based approach. For this purpose, we adopt a fairness measure associated with the disparity between the representation errors of different groups. Moreover, we investigate if the solution of a classical Principal Component Analysis can be used to find a fair projection. Numerical experiments attest that a fairer result can be achieved with a very small loss in the reconstruction error.


This paper describes an analysis and a performance limit of a vibrational energy harvester with a novel slit-and-slider structure. This structure has a separable electret and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) parts. In the MEMS parts, movable electrodes slide due to external vibration and receive electrical field that is periodically modulated by slits of fixed electrodes. The structure was fabricated based on MEMS technology and produced an ac current of 170 pA with an external vibration of amplitude of 1 m/s2 at a frequency of 1166 Hz. Since the structure is separable, individual characterization of the electret and movable electrodes was performed. On the basis of their quantitative analyses, a structural model was constructed and validated. The model showed a way to optimize structural and material parameters for enhancement of output power and predicted a performance limit of 2.5 × 10-3 μW and 6.1% as output power and harvester effectiveness, respectively. This value of effectiveness is comparable to that of conventional non-MEMS-based large energy harvester around 1 cm3, which indicates feasibility of MEMS-based small energy harvesters around 0.01 cm3 by appropriate designing.


Current intrusion detection systems (IDSes) fall into two very limiting categories: appearance-based or behavior-based. These rely on specifying good vs. bad behavior in terms of patterns in the malicious input or in the trace of execution during the attack. Some successful IDS systems have specified attacks in terms of information flow and the influences data sources have on the system, but only in very limited domains such as control data attacks, and typically using information flow tracking mechanisms customized to their purpose. Intrusion detection based on a general method for information flow tracking would allow for very explicit and general definitions of attacks that precluded entire categories of vulnerabilities and exploits, but our current methods for dynamic information flow tracking (DIFT) are inadequate to make this a reality.
 DIFT works by tagging (or tainting) data and tracking it to measure the information flow throughout the system. Existing DIFT systems have limited support for address and control dependencies, and therefore cannot track information flow within a full system, except in an ad-hoc, application-specific fashion. As a first step toward making information flow a new paradigm for intrusion detection, we present a prototype DIFT system that supports address and control dependencies in a general way. As a motivating example to demonstrate this system, we define an attack by the amount of control that external network entities have over what a networked system is doing. This coarse definition is not precise enough to detect attacks but serves as a demonstration of our approach to DIFT. We measure the amount of information flow between tainted sources and the control path of the CPU for a variety of scenarios and show that our prototype system gives intuitive, meaningful results.


In this letter, we analyze a genetic toggle switch recently studied in the literature where the expression of two repressor proteins can be tuned by controlling two different inputs, namely the concentration of two inducer molecules in the growth medium of the cells. Specifically, we investigate the dynamics of this system when subject to pulse-width modulated inputs. We provide an analytical model that captures qualitatively the experimental observations reported in the literature and approximates its asymptotic behavior. We also discuss the effect that the system parameters have on the prediction accuracy of the model. Moreover, we propose a possible external control strategy to regulate the mean value of the fluorescence of the reporter proteins when the cells are subject to such periodic forcing.


Identifying target industry sectors for community economic development is a complex problem. The Community-Business Matching (CBM) Model is a tool that assists in identifying desirable industry sectors for sustainable economic development. The framework of the model is based on two measures, "Desirability" and "Compatibility", between a community and industry sectors. A case study of two Vermont communities will be presented.


doses of codeine for two or three days. The authors deprecate abrupt withdrawal in addicts/ with strong habits as cruel, dangerous, and unnecessary. An extremely valuable book would, however, be even more valuable if someone could be found to undertake the prodigious task of compiling an adequate index. Perhaps such an index could be issued as a supplement to the volume? It would be an inventory of a real treasure house.


Let? be the set of all frameworks in? consisting of rods connected by universal hinges with a?given junction scheme and with given point of fastening of some hinges. The problem is to find conditions for a?framework to be reconstructible from the space? of its self-stresses. In other words, under what conditions is? the unique framework in? with the given space? of self-stresses? A?complete answer to this question is obtained only for frameworks in the line. We also investigate geometric properties of the image of the rigidity map which are related to the study of frameworks admitting self-stresses.


1135 Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering & Sciences Publication Retrieval Number: E9990069520/2020©BEIESP DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.E9990.069520  Abstract: Nowadays, signal processing is very common in machine learning. Tools like MATLAB and PRAAT made this really easy. Best example is google search using voice, this can be mostly beneficial for illiterate people and children. I have collected the sample of speech of 160 people of different age group, different genders, and at different and constant time as databases and then these databases are analysed.. Each database consists of samples of human speech uttering the same first 10 alphabets of hindi varnamala .I have used two parameters i.e. formants and intensity for analysing the results of database.I have also characterized it into the form of constant time and variant time. Our aim is to identify the voices of a person on the basis of age and gender through different paremeters like frequency and formants


A recombinant haplotype between the class I and class II major histocompatibility loci of inbred miniature swine has made it possible to study the role of the corresponding antigens in in vitro and in vivo immune responses. Before examining the effects of selective SLA locus matching on allograft survival, it was deemed necessary to determine the corresponding effects on in vitro parameters of immunity. The results presented in this paper indicate that: (1) a difference at the class II loci was required for a maximal proliferative response which depended on the haplotype combination used; (3) in cell‐mediated cytoxicity assays, the class I antigens were found to be the primary targets for lysis. Although optimal CTL generation required the presence of both class I and class II antigen differences, CTL were sometimes generated in the absence of a known class II difference. The weak, intermittent cytotoxicity seen in these cultures of class II difference. The weak, intermittent cytotoxicity seen in these cultures of class II matched cells could be augmented by the addition of third party, class I matched, class II mismatched, stimulator cells. Taken together, these data provide evidence for the conservation of function of antigen class between species. They also provide further evidence for the two‐signal hypothesis of CTL generation. They, also provide further evidence for the two‐signal hypothesis of CTL generation. Thus, MHC recombinant swine provide a model for the study of the effect of antigen class on in vitro and in vivo immunobiology.


Background and aims: Several studies have indicated that there is an association between maternal prenatal substance use and offspring externalising disorders. However, it is uncertain whether this relationship is causal. Therefore, we updated a previously conducted systematic review to determine if the literature supports 1) a causal role of maternal prenatal substance use on offspring externalising disorders and 2) whether these associations differ across externalising disorders. Methods: We searched Web of Science, Embase, PsycINFO and Medline databases. We included studies that examined smoking, alcohol or caffeine use during pregnancy as an exposure, and diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder (CD) and oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) in offspring as an outcome. Studies on non-English language, fetal alcohol syndrome and comorbid autism spectrum disorders were excluded. Risk of bias assessment was conducted using Newcastle Ottawa Scale (NOS) and where possible meta-analysis was conducted for studies classed as low risk of bias. Results: We included 63 studies. All studies were narratively synthesised, and 7 studies were meta-analysed on smoking and ADHD. The majority of studies (46 studies) investigated the association between smoking and ADHD. Studies which accounted for genetic effects indicate that the association between smoking and ADHD is unlikely to be causal. Studies on alcohol exposure in all the outcomes reported inconsistent findings and no strong conclusions on causality can be made. Studies on caffeine exposure were mostly limited to ADHD and these studies do not support a causal effect. Conclusions: There is no causal relationship between maternal smoking during pregnancy and attention-deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) in offspring. However, given that the majority of identified studies investigated the association between ADHD and smoking exposure, findings with alcohol and caffeine exposures and conduct disorder (CD) and oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) need more research, especially using more genetically sensitive designs.


Andrographolide is the main constituent of Andrographis paniculata Ness which was poorly soluble in water. As diterpenoid lactone andrographolide has many biological activity, some of them ara immunostimulant, antimalaria, hepatoprotector and anti mutagenic. The objectives of this study were to find out influence of polyvinylpirrolidon (PVP) K-30 to increase dissolution rate of andrographolide by solid dispersion in water and dissolution media pH 8,0. In this research andrographolide were divided in 6 groups that are physical mixture and solid dispersion by ratio 1:3; 1:5 and 1:9. Result of these study showed that the X-ray difraction patterns of physical mixture have crystal intensity as same as andrographolide crystal. But solid dispersion showed lower intensity. The solid dispersion system increase dissolution rate of andrographolide isolate. Increasing of dissolution rate a function of the ratio of drug to PVP used. Studies of dissolution rate have shown that coprecipitate of andrographolide-PVP K-30 (1:9) is better combination than 1:5 and 1:3. Keywords: andrographolide, PVP K-30, solid dispersion and dissolution rate


In this paper, we continue our investigation of a one-dimensional, two-component, quantum many-body system in which like particles interact with a pair potential s(s + 1)/sinh 2 (r), while unlike particles interact with a pair potential −s(s + 1)/cosh 2 (r). For an equal number of particles of the two components, the ground state for s > 0 corresponds to an antiferromag-net/insulator. Excitations consist of a gapless pair-hole–pair continuum, a two-particle continuum with gap and excitons with gap. For −1 < s < 0, the system has two gapless excitations — a particle-hole continuum and a two spin-wave continuum. Using finite-size scaling methods of conformal field theory, we calculate the asymptotic expressions and critical exponents for correlation functions of these gapless excitations at zero temperature. The conformal structure is closely related to the Hubbard model with repulsive on-site interaction.


Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the practices of Shariah governance (SG) systems in terms of their guidelines, current operational procedures, internbal policies and structures and regulatory framework of Islamic banks in Bangladesh from the viewpoints of Shariah, Tawhidic approach/ontological approach and Shuratic process of Islamic corporate governance and institutional theory.

Design/methodology/approach
A semi-structured interview tactic has been applied to attain the objective. Overall, data has been collected from the regulators, Shariah supervisory board members, Shariah department executives and experts from the central bank and Islamic banks of Bangladesh.

Findings
The study finds that Islamic banks do not follow complete Shariah principles in all aspects of SG nor violate them fully in their overall functions due to less accountability, which contradicts the concept of the Tawhidi epistemological process of Islamic corporate governance. Islamic banks announce that they are following Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) guidelines, but in practice, they do not follow the instructions accurately because all of the standards and policies of AAOIFI and the Islamic Financial Services Board are not applicable in Bangladesh due to its cultural, legal and regulatory structures. It is found that Islamic banks in Bangladesh have a lower practice of maqasid as-Shariah and Tawhidic approach and Shuratic process.

Research limitations/implications
The study significantly contributed to the central bank of Bangladesh and Islamic banks by exploring the SG systems for their further enhancement. The research provides some suggestions for improving existing SG systems and enhancing more application of SG guidelines and Shariah principles in the overall operations of the Islamic banks in Bangladesh.

Originality/value
This research extends the literature regarding the Islamic banks' SG practices in Bangladesh. The study also contributes to Shariah, Tawhidic approach/ontological approach and Shuratic process of Islamic corporate governance and institutional theory by exploring the Islamic banks' existing SG practices in Bangladesh.


T. E. Cerling writes: Wright & Vanstone (1991) raise some issues concerning the use of carbon isotopes in palaeosols to estimate the CO2 content of the palaeo-atmosphere. I take this opportunity to clarify some of the points made in our previous research (Cerling 1984, 1991; Cerling et al. 1989, 1991; Quade et al. 1989a, b Quade et al. in press) and to discuss some of the potential problems in using palaeosols in this way. The issues raised by Wright & Vanstone include: (1) the model to describe the isotopic composition of pedogenic carbonate in soils; (2) the problem of identifying pedogenic carbonate in the geological record; and (3) the problem of the presence of C4 or CAM plants in the geological record. Model for the isotopic composition of pedogenic carbonate in the vadose (unsaturated) zone. Wright & Vanstone (1991) have considerably simplified the diffusion-reaction model of Cerling (1984, 1991) and present it as an empirical model with some elements of the model of Salomons et al. 1978 which was slightly modified by Salomons & Mook (1986). The diffusion-reaction model is critical to the discussion because it makes a number of specific predictions concerning modern soils which can be tested; it further predicts that isotopic composition of pedogenic carbonate has 13C-enriched values at high atmospheric CO2 levels, which is the basis for the paper by Cerling (1991). Some of the specific predictions that are clear from the work of Cerling (1984) are that: (a) there is an isotopic gradient in the uppermost part of


Epidemiological studies suggest that nerve growth factor (NGF) is associated with a reduced risk of acute or chronic neuropathies. We studied the synergistic protective effect of picroside II and NGF against the oxidative stress in PC12 cells induced by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The fluorescent probe CDCFH was used to assess the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, and MTT assay, morphological observation as well as LDH leakage test were conducted to measure cellular injury. The H2O2-induced cytotoxicity was significantly attenuated in the presence of picroside II (25 microg/ml ) and NGF (2 ng/ml). Cultures with this combined treatment possessed decreased level of ROS while increased cell survival, as compared to that of picroside II or NGF alone-treated cells. Accordingly, it was concluded that their synergistic protective activities against oxidative stress in vitro were demonstrated in various aspects, including reversing morphological changes, enhancing the ability of cell proliferation and ROS scavenging. Such action supports the therapeutic potential of picroside II and NGF in treating nervous disorders based on their synergistic effect.


Rivers provide the dominant pathway of terrigenous sediment to the ocean. The density difference between riverine and salt water as well as the density anomaly contributed by sediment have important consequences on the delivery, transport and ultimate fate of the sediment issued from the land. Most fresh water outflows produce positively buoyant plumes; however, the aggregation and settling of sediment cause the route of sediment transport to diverge from the route of fresh water flow. Sediment is trapped in frontal zones, both in estuaries and on the inner shelf, often resulting in large increases in the concentration of sediment relative to the riverine source. At high concentrations, the density anomaly due to the sediment itself contributes to the vertical stability of the flow, often increasing the trapping efficiency of the frontal zone. Sediment trapping may also occur within the wave boundary layer on the continental shelf, leading to high concentrations within a layer only on the order of 10 cm thick, but which may represent an important cross-shelf conduit of sediment. The high concentration layers formed both by frontal trapping and by wave boundary layer trapping can attain excess densities large enough to initiate down-slope motion on the continental shelf, resulting in an important cross-shelf transport process. Because of these trapping processes, the formation of highconcentration layers, and the occurrence of hyperpycnal plumes, the transport of sediment in river-influenced environments is often dominated by near-bottom fluxes rather than fluxes in the surface plume. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


The paper addresses practical capabilities of artificial neural networks (ANNs) in developing measurement-based continuous-time dynamic equivalents for power systems. Our method is based on a set of measurements at boundary nodes between a subsystem that is to be modeled in detail ("retained" portion of the system) and the part that is to be replaced by a simplified ("equivalent") model. We are particularly interested in combining standard physics-based models with signal-based models derived from measurements. We utilize a color-coding scheme to distinguish between physics-based models (clear or white box) at one end, the signal-based models (opaque or black box) at the opposite end, and mixed (gray box) models in the middle. The paper also proposes a way for combining classical and ANN-based equivalents in a hybrid model implemented in a standard software environment for transient analysis (in this case, ETMSP). Our conclusions are based on simulations performed on a model of a benchmark multimachine power system derived from the WSCC system.


Objective: To compare the efficacy, retention rates, and complications of two types of silicone lacrimal punctal plugs in patients with or without Sjögren syndrome. Methods: We studied 36 patients with keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) including 17 cases with Sjögren syndrome (SS) and 19 without SS. The fluorescein and rose bengal staining scores and the Schirmer values with and without nasal stimulation were evaluated before and after insertion of the Eagle Plugs and the punctal plugs (FCI Punctal Plugs). The retention rates and complications of these plugs were also investigated. Results: The staining scores were significantly improved after the insertion of the plugs, but the Schirmer values did not increase significantly in either SS or non-SS patients. A spontaneous loss of the plugs was observed in 29% of all plugs within 1 month after insertion. The Eagle Plugs were lost more frequently, and plugs in the upper punctum were lost more often for the Eagle Plugs. There was one case of granulomatous proliferation and two cases of punctal infection with the FCI Punctal Plugs. Conclusions: Both types of punctal plugs led to an improvement of the fluorescein and rose bengal staining scores in eyes with KCS. The difference in the retention rate and complications between the two types of plugs was probably caused by the differences in the material and the design of the plugs. Close monitoring is necessary to check for loss of plugs and to prevent complications.


Nine new transition-metal dithiocarbamates involving ferrocene (Fc), namely, [M(FcCH(2)Bzdtc)(2)] (M=Ni(II) (1), Cu(II) (2), Cd(II) (3), Hg(II) (4), Pd(II) (5), Pt(II) (6) and Pb(II) (7); Bzdtc=N-benzyl dithiocarbamate) and [M(FcCH(2)Bzdtc)(3)] (M=Co(II) (8) and UO(2) (VI) (9)), have been synthesised and characterised by micro analyses, IR spectroscopy, (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy, and in three cases by single-crystal X-ray analysis. The peak broadening in the (1)H spectrum of the copper complex indicates the paramagnetic behaviour of this compound. A square-planar geometry around the nickel and copper complexes and distorted linear geometry around the mercury complex have been found. The latter geometry is attributed to the bulkiness of the methylferrocenyl and benzyl groups. The observed single quasi-reversible cyclic voltammograms for complexes 2, 8 and 9 indicate the stabilisation of a metal centre other than Fe in their characteristic oxidation state. These complexes have been used as a photosensitiser in dye-sensitised solar cells.


The identification and analysis of protein complexes is usually achieved by performing in vitro experiments. We describe a translocation-based method for studying protein complexes in living cells. Annexin A4, a phospholipid- and calcium-binding protein, translocates from the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm to plasma and nuclear membranes in response to elevated intracellular calcium levels. By fusing a bait protein, for instance, a core component of a protein complex or a similarly relevant peptide, to the annexin, translocation of both bait and its interacting target proteins are readily monitored in living cells in response to a single treatment. Proteins of interest are fused to a variety of fluorescent proteins suitable for multiparameter imaging. Using this generally applicable approach, we were able to visualize the formation of protein complexes in their natural environment. Specifically, we detected the hierarchical assembly of four-component protein complexes in single cells.


A type of home-made reduced activation martensitic steel, high silicon (SIMP) steel, is homogeneously irradiated with energetic Fe ions to the doses of 0.1, 0.25 and 1 displacement per atom (dpa), respectively, at 300°C and 1 dpa, at 400°C. Microstructural changes are investigated in detail by transmission electron microscopy with cross-section technique. Interstitial defects and defect clusters induced by Fe-ion irradiation are observed in all the specimens under different conditions. It is found that with increasing irradiation temperature, size of defect clusters increases while the density drops quickly. The results of element chemical mapping from the STEM images indicate that the Si element enrichment and Ta element depletion occur inside the precipitates in the matrix of SIMP steel irradiated to a dose of 1 dpa at 300°C. Correlations between the microstructure and irradiation conditions are briefly discussed.


The aim of this study was to assess food availability for the dibbler (Parantechinus apicalis) on Boullanger and Whitlock Islands in different habitats and seasons. This was assessed by capturing ground-dwelling invertebrates in pitfall traps in winter, spring and autumn. A quantitative faecal-pellet analysis was conducted to determine the composition of the diet. There were no significant differences in the number of invertebrates captured in the different seasons, or in the different habitat types on the islands. The proportion of plant versus animal matter in the faecal pellets did not change significantly between the seasons. The diet consisted of ~20% plant material. The scat analysis showed that dibblers consumed at least 10 orders of invertebrates ranging in length from 0.1 mm to 25 mm with an average size of 4.5 ± 0.4 mm. The dibblers did not select for a particular size or taxon of prey, but fed on any invertebrates that were readily available to them. This suggests that dibblers are essentially insectivorous dietary generalists and opportunists. The information gathered in this study could be applied when considering available food resources at future translocation sites for dibblers. W R Foo d a its S. M et al


An efficient and economical route for synthesizing well-defined dendrimer-like polymers with long subchains has been developed based on the "arm-first" divergent approach. First, a linear seesaw-type polystyrene (PSt) macromonomer with one alkynyl group at the center and one bromo group at each end was prepared as the constituent unit, and a tri-arm star PSt with three terminal bromo groups as the first generation of dendrimer-like PSt (G1). Then, the second generation of dendrimer-like PSt (G2) carrying six terminal bromo groups was obtained through: (1) the transformation of the terminal bromo group of the former generation (G1) into azido group; (2) alkynyl–azido click reaction between the dendrimer-like polymer and the linear seesaw-type macromonomers; (3) the removal and recovery of excess macromonomers through precipitation in a selective non-solvent. Repeating these steps led to the formation of dendrimer-like PSt up to the fifth generation (G5) with polydispersity index below 1.18. Interestingly, excess PSt macromonomers were separated from the mixture of click reaction by selective precipitation instead of time-consuming fractionation and re-used in the following generation growth, promoting the efficiency and economy of the overall synthesis. The entire generation growth was monitored by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and gel permeation chromatograph with a multi-angle laser light scattering detector. The thermal and solution properties of dendrimer-like PSts were investigated from the viewpoint of generation number, based on the measurements of glass transition temperature and intrinsic viscosity.


Behavior-specific praise (BSP) is a low-intensity strategy widely used to encourage appropriate behavior. We sought to explore the vast literature base for BSP, which spans 50 years, to better understand for whom and under what conditions BSP has demonstrated effectiveness. We conducted a comprehensive review of school-based intervention studies (k = 57) involving BSP with school-age students. First, we identified outlets in which these 57 studies (from 52 articles) were featured. Second, we described the 1,947 total student participants and the educational contexts in which these interventions occurred—the vast majority of students were served in general education and many displayed challenging behaviors (e.g., students with emotional and behavioral disorders). Third, we examined how BSP was implemented and evaluated with the Pre-K–12 population, noting three distinct areas of research: teacher-delivered BSP, student-delivered BSP, and professional learning to increase BSP. Fourth, we examined how BSP was employed as an independent and dependent variable, with more than 96% of studies featuring BSP as an outcome measure. Finally, we investigated the extent to which social validity (33 studies), generalization (11 studies), and maintenance (26 studies) were assessed. We conclude with a discussion of limitations and directions for future inquiry.


New-found interest in sweet potato production in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. has been steadily increasing in the last several years. Sweet potatoes are usually grown for fresh market use and novel marketing strategies and new consumer niches are providing farmers options of growing new sweet potato varieties with exciting colors and flavor profiles that are adapted to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. Petite sweet potatoes have gained market attention because they are easier to handle and faster to cook compared to U.S. No. 1 storage roots. The goal of this research was to determine the performance and adaptableness of eight commercial sweet potato varieties and two unreleased accessions for U.S. No.1 and Petite sweet potato production under black plastic mulch tailored for the mild temperate growing conditions of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. Two in-row spacings (15 cm and 30 cm) and two harvest dates (90 and 120 days after planting, DAP) were evaluated during the 2018 and 2019 growing seasons. Our results showed that the ideal harvest time is at least 120 DAP compared to an early harvest at 90 DAP as there was a 2-fold difference in marketable yield at both 15 and 30 cm in-row spacing with marketable yield between 20 and 54 t ha−1. 'Averre' and 'Beauregard' produced the highest U.S. No. 1 and Petite yields under both in-row spacing treatments harvested at 120 DAP for both years evaluated, though the general effect of in-row spacing and DAP interaction (separate years) on yield performance was cultivar specific. We also found that growing degree days is a better predictor for harvest than days after planting, with an accumulation of at least ~700 GDD (base temperature 15.5 °C) or ~1300 GDD (base temperature 10 °C) for both U.S. No. 1 and Petite roots. Additional studies are required to identify the stability of cultivars tested and treatments imposed with environmental interactions in this region. In addition, there is an urgency for updated sweet potato management practices exclusively designed for sweet potato varieties for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S.


Abstract Background and Aims: Lifestyle (exercise and dietary) modification is the mainstay of treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, there is paucity of data on effect of intensity of exercise in management of NAFLD, and we aimed to study the effect of variable intensities of exercise on NAFLD. Methods: The study was performed in the Department of Gastroenterology of the SCB Medical College, Cuttack and the Biju Patnaik State Police Academy, Bhubaneswar. The subjects were police trainees [18 in a moderate intensity exercise group (MIG) and 19 in a low intensity exercise group (LIG)] recruited for a 6-month physical training course (261.8 Kcalorie, 3.6 metabolic equivalent in MIG and 153.6 Kcalorie, 2.1 metabolic equivalent in LIG). NAFLD was diagnosed by ultrasonography, with exclusion of all secondary causes of steatosis. All participants were evaluated by anthropometry (weight, height, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference), assessed for blood pressure and biochemical parameters (blood glucose, liver function test, lipid profile, serum insulin), and subjected to transabdominal ultrasonography before and after 6 months of physical training, and the results were compared. Results: Both the groups had similar BMI, fasting plasma glucose, AST, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, insulin, and homeostatic model assessment-insulin resistance (known as HOMA-IR) (p>0.05). However, subjects in the LIG were older and had lower alanine transaminase, higher triglycerides and lower high-density lipoproteins than MIG subjects. There was a significant reduction in BMI (27.0±2.1 to 26.8±2.0; p=0.001), fasting blood glucose (106.7±21.6 to 85.8±19.0; p<0.001), serum triglycerides (167.5±56.7 to 124.6±63.5; p=0.017), total cholesterol (216.8±29.2 to 196.7±26.6; p=0.037), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (134.6±21.4 to 130.5±21.9; p=0.010), serum aspartate transaminase (39.3±32.2 to 30.9±11.4; p<0.001), serum alanine transaminase (56.6±28.7 to 33.0±11.3; p<0.001) and HOMA-IR (2.63±2.66 to 1.70±2.59; p<0.001) in the MIG. However, changes in these parameters in the LIG were non-significant. Hepatic steatosis regressed in 66.7% of the NAFLD subjects in the MIG but in only 26.3% of the LIG NAFLD subjects (p=0.030). Conclusions: Moderate rather than low intensity physical activity causes significant improvement in BMI, serum triglycerides, cholesterol, serum transaminases and HOMA-IR, and regression of ultrasonographic fatty change in liver among NAFLD subjects.