ABSTRACT Background Obesity is a major health problem with increasing prevalence and directly contributes to the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Selenoprotein P (Se P) is a novel hepatokine that affects glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism, and correlating with insulin resistance, inflammation, and atherosclerosis. Plasma Se P level is one of the promising biomarkers for predictions or diagnoses/prognoses of the diseases. Objective Evaluating the serum level of Selenoprotein P in overweight, obese, and lean individuals and its relation to insulin resistance and cardiometabolic parameters. Subjects and Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Outpatient Endocrinology Clinics, Internal Medicine Department, Menoufia University Hospitals on 90 individuals that were divided into two groups: (group I) 50 overweight and obese individuals (with body mass index (BMI) in the range 25.0–29.9 kg/m2 and ≥30.0 kg/m2, respectively) and (group II) 40 lean individuals with BMI in the range (18.5–24.9) kg/m2. All subjects were subjected to detailed history taking, clinical examination, and laboratory investigations including fasting and 2 hours postprandial blood sugar, lipid profile, fasting serum insulin level, Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR), and serum Se P. Results Se P concentrations were significantly increased in overweight and obese group than lean group (p < 0.001). Se P concentration was related to various cardio-metabolic parameters. In overweight and obese group there was a significant positive correlation between serum Selenoprotein p level and waist circumference (WC) (r −0.453, p <0.001), hip circumference (HC) (r = 0.464, p < 0.001), waist-hip ratio (WHR) (r −0.506, p < 0.001), visceral adiposity index (VAI) (r = 0.323, p = 0.022), fasting serum insulin (r = 0.585, p < 0.001), and HOMA-IR (r = 0.570, p < 0.001). Conclusion Circulating Se P concentrations is elevated in obesity and related to insulin resistance, visceral adiposity, and atherogenic index of plasma.


The maxillary sinus graft procedure is the treatment of choice to increase the vertical bone height in the atrophic posterior maxilla to place dental implants. It is considered as a routine surgical procedure with predictable results. However, complications have been reported with this grafting procedure. With any surgical procedure, complications may arise, and the surgeon must be prepared to effectively manage the complication. In addition to detailed knowledge of the maxillofacial anatomy, recognition of surgical emergencies and its management is critical for the implant surgeon. A case of brisk, prolonged pulsatile hemorrhage during the sinus graft procedure is described, and its intra-operative management with topical Thrombin is presented.


Abstract The Lofoten Contourite Drift is located below c. 1000 m water depth on the continental slope off northern Norway. It has a maximum thickness of about 360 m and correlation to published seismic stratigraphy implies a Neogene age. The drift probably originated from the deposition of suspended sediments derived from winnowing of the shelf and upper slope. The geometry of the uppermost part of the drift is characterised by maximum thickness at the mound crest, which implies that it is probably presently active. Within gravity core JM97-950/1 (1160 m water depth), the upper 86 cm represents sediments resulting from Holocene winnowing of the shelf and upper slope. The underlying sediments, to 5.5 m core depth, were deposited in a late Weichselian glacimarine environment as revealed by its content of ice-rafted debris and the dating results. Late Weichselian drift growth is consistent with a circulation system transporting surface water northeastward along the continental margin of Norway also during the Weichselian. The downslope sediment input to the study area was probably relatively low during glacial periods due to the evolution of the nearby mainland area, the Lofoten Islands. These islands may have acted as a sediment barrier causing large fluvial and/or glacial drainage systems from central Fennoscandia to be routed south and north of the study area. As a result, alongslope sediment transport has provided the main sediment input to this part of the continental slope.


When a beam of electrons encounters an increasing magnetic field along its vector of motion, conservation of the magnetic moment results in the formation of a crescent or horseshoe shaped velocity distribution. A scenario analogous to this occurs in the terrestrial auroral zone where particles are accelerated into the polar regions of the Earth's magnetic dipole and expand adiabatically in velocity space. The resultant horseshoe shaped velocity distribution has been shown to be unstable with respect to a cyclotron-maser type instability. This instability has been postulated as the mechanism responsible for auroral kilometric radiation and thermal radiation from other astrophysical bodies. In this paper we present the results of recent numerical simulations and laboratory investigations of radiation emissions from electron beam which have been subject to magnetic compression. Electron beam diagnostics demonstrated the formation of the desired velocity distribution. Radiation was generated at both 11.7GHz and 4.45GHz by an electron beam of current 5-25A and energy 75kV subject to magnetic compression ration of up to 30. Conversion efficiencies between beam and radiation power were achieved of up to 2.5% and strong agreement was achieved between the numerical investigations and the experimental measurements.


We investigated the effect of denervation upon the concentration of carnitine, the activity of carnitine palmityltransferase and carnitine acetyltransferase in the "red" soleus and "white" extensor digitorum longus muscles of the rat. Soon after denervation a marked drop in the amount of muscle carnitine was observed, that was more pronounced in the "red" soleus. The activity of both CPT and CAT decreased in both types of muscle, but CPT activity decreased to a greater extent in the soleus than in the EDL. These data may be indicative of a more impaired fat combustion in the "red" than in the "white" muscle following denervation.


A first-principles study on the mechanical stability, elastic and thermodynamic properties of WN2 with P63/mmc and P-6m2 phases are reported using the pseudo potential plane wave method within the generalized gradient approximation. The calculated equilibrium parameters are in good agreement with the available theoretical data. A complete elastic tensor and crystal anisotropies of the ultra-incompressible WN2 are determined in the wide pressure range. By the elastic stability criteria, it is predicted that P63/mmc and P-6m2 phases in WN2 are not stable above 175.1 GPa and 170.1 GPa, respectively. Finally, by using the quasiharmonic Debye model, the isothermal and adiabatic bulk modulus, and the heat capacity of WN2 are also successfully obtained.


Abstract The Yakima fold belt is a series of asymmetric, east-west anticlines separated by much broader synclines in the thick and otherwise horizontal sequence of Columbia River basalt flows. The folds have grown progressively over the last 17 Ma in response to regional north-south compression and east-west extension. This stress and strain pattern is reflected on a regional scale by the highly oriented north-northwest-south-southeast basalt feeder dykes, by the WNW- (right-lateral) and NNE- (left-lateral) trending conjugate fault system, and by the presence of a similar strain field measurable in the basalt flows today. Peripheral to the Yakima fold belt, pre-basalt structures of different orientations project under the basalt pile. Some of these structures have continued to develop during and after basalt extrusion and have influenced structures in the basalt flows which are, therefore, 'forced'.


Human RNASET2 acts as a powerful oncosuppressor protein in in vivo xenograft-based murine models of human cancer. Secretion of RNASET2 in the tumor microenvironment seems involved in tumor suppression, following recruitment of M1-polarized macrophages. Here, we report a murine Rnaset2-based syngeneic in vivo assay. BALB/c mice were injected with parental, empty vector-transfected or murine Rnaset2-overexpressing mouse C51 or TS/A syngeneic cells and tumor growth pattern and immune cells distribution in tumor mass were investigated. Compared to control cells, mouse Rnaset2-expressing C51 cells showed strong delayed tumor growth. CD86+ M1 macrophages were massively recruited in Rnaset2-expressing C51-derived tumors, with concomitant inhibition of MDSCs and CD206+ M2 macrophages recruitment. At later times, a relevant expansion of intra-tumor CD8+ T cells was also observed. After re-challenge with C51 parental cells, most mice previously injected with Rnaset2-expressing C51 cells still rejected C51 tumor cells, suggesting a Rnaset2-mediated T cell adaptive immune memory response. These results point at T2 RNases as evolutionary conserved oncosuppressors endowed with the ability to inhibit cancer growth in vivo through rebalance of intra-tumor M1/M2 macrophage ratio and concomitant recruitment of adaptive anti-tumor CD8+ T cells.


New approaches for experimental immunosuppression have been reviewed. These include the following: 1) cyclosporin A, a metabolite from fungus that suppresses multiplying but not resting T and B lymphocytes and can be used in pulsed manner with interspersed drug-free periods; 2) total lymphoid irradiation (transplantation tolerance in rats has been achieved by pretransplant radiation); 3) thoracic duct drainage, which is being revived following its demonstrated effectiveness in the treatment of some autoimmune disease; 4) hyperbaric oxygen (HBOX). We have found that HBOX 2 1/2 ATA for five hours daily depresses cell-mediated immunity in mice and that this can be reversed by intravenous administration of autologous macrophages.


A scene is usually abstract that consists of several less abstract entities such as objects or themes. It is very difficult to reason scenes from visual features due to the semantic gap between the abstract scenes and low-level visual features. Some alternative works recognize scenes with a two-step framework by representing images with intermediate representations of objects or themes. However, the object co-occurrences between scenes may lead to ambiguity for scene recognition. In this paper, we propose a framework to represent images with intermediate (object) representations with spatial layout, i.e., object-to-object relation (OOR) representation. In order to better capture the spatial information, the proposed OOR is adapted to RGB-D data. In the proposed framework, we first apply object detection technique on RGB and depth images separately. Then the detected results of both modalities are combined with a RGB-D proposal fusion process. Based on the detected results, we extract semantic feature OOR and regional convolutional neural network (CNN) features located by bounding boxes. Finally, different features are concatenated to feed to the classifier for scene recognition. The experimental results on SUN RGB-D and NYUD2 datasets illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method.


Abstract Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) represents one of the most common indications for lung transplantation, accounting for approximately one third of all procedures performed worldwide to date. Despite this extensive experience, questions remain about the appropriate timing of transplantation in the natural history of COPD, the optimal procedure to perform, and the survival benefit achieved. Less commonly encountered obstructive lung disorders for which transplantation is occasionally performed include emphysema due to α-1-antitrypsin deficiency, lymphangioleiomyomatosis, and Langerhans cell histiocytosis. Like COPD, the application of transplantation to these rare disorders also poses several questions. This article explores issues that arise when lung transplantation is utilized for treatment of both common and uncommon obstructive lung disorders.


ABSTRACT The phytohormones auxin and cytokinin are key regulators of plant development, and both regulate almost all aspects of plant growth and development. Communication between auxin-cytokinin signaling pathways has been the subject of intense research. However, few studies have focused specifically on the development of the early gynoecium. We have recently discovered that cytokinin signaling plays a role in the regulation of auxin biosynthesis and transport in the ovary region of the gynoecium, and that the transcription factor SPATULA (SPT) is necessary. Here, we provide evidence that indicates that cytokinin and auxin have a synergistic relationship at the medial domain during gynoecium development, and that SPT is important for this interaction.


Abstract. Accurately quantifying sediment fluxes in large rivers draining tectonically
active landscapes is complicated by the stochastic nature of sediment inputs.
Cosmogenic 10Be concentrations measured in modern river sands have
been used to estimate 102- to 104-year sediment fluxes in these
types of catchments, where upstream drainage areas are often in excess of
10 000 km2. It is commonly assumed that within large catchments, the
effects of stochastic sediment inputs are buffered such that 10Be
concentrations at the catchment outlet are relatively stable in time. We
present 18 new 10Be concentrations of modern river and dated
Holocene terrace and floodplain deposits from the Ganga River near to the
Himalayan mountain front (or outlet). We demonstrate that 10Be
concentrations measured in modern Ganga River sediments display a notable
degree of variability, with concentrations ranging between ∼9000 and
19 000 atoms g−1. We propose that this observed variability is driven
by two factors. Firstly, by the nature of stochastic inputs of sediment (e.g.
the dominant erosional process, surface production rates, depth of
landsliding, degree of mixing) and, secondly, by the evacuation timescale of
individual sediment deposits which buffer their impact on catchment-averaged
concentrations. Despite intensification of the Indian Summer Monsoon and
subsequent doubling of sediment delivery to the Bay of Bengal between ∼11 and 7 ka, we also find that Holocene sediment 10Be
concentrations documented at the Ganga outlet have remained within the
variability of modern river concentrations. We demonstrate that, in certain
systems, sediment flux cannot be simply approximated by converting detrital
concentration into mean erosion rates and multiplying by catchment area as it
is possible to generate larger volumetric sediment fluxes whilst maintaining
comparable average 10Be concentrations.


ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals still have to meet external regulations while delivering compassionate patient care. This reflections article provides a solution for certified stroke programs to continue to meet stroke certification requirements. One area of focus, in this article, is stroke education. Because of "shelter-in-place orders," there were no visitors permitted at the bedside, yet we know that high-quality poststroke education is important to improve outcomes. The purpose of this reflections article is to share what has worked at my institution. INNOVATIONS: We found that calling family members to engage them in stroke education was a great option. They seemed engaged, took notes, and asked questions. Nurses document details from these phone encounters in the patient's medical record. Many people placed the call on speaker so other family members could listen to the education session. While family members were at home, telehealth nursing has its own set of challenges. Although telehealth is not a perfect solution, it was one we found most reasonable and found it to work well through this unprecedented time. SUMMARY: These strategies are being shared to promote dissemination of innovative nursing interventions that will help to continue providing loved ones with the information and education they deserve to receive even during the COVID-19 pandemic.


The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the accuracy of gynecology and obstetrics residents when performing ultrasonographic estimation of fetal weight. The total of 400 ultrasonographic estimations of fetal weight and corresponding neonatal weight were collected and divided into 3 groups according to physicians' experience (junior and senior residents, staff physicians). The accuracy of fetal weight estimation correlated positively with the level of physicians'experience. The proportional difference between ultrasound estimation and actual birth weight varied from 8.45% to 6.88% (junior residents 8.45%, senior residents 6.95%, staff physicians 6.88%). The proportion of ultrasonograhic estimates that fell within 10% of birth weight varied from 59.09% to 79.21% (junior residents 59.09%, senior residents 78.44%, staff physicians 79.21%). Senior residents reach a highly acceptable accuracy in ultrasonographic estimation of fetal weight which is comparable to staff physicians.


In recent years, due to the active development of distributed computing technologies, the automation of computations based on these technologies became very important for solving the problems of qualitative research of binary dynamic systems, which are widely used as mathematical models in cryptography, bioinformatics, the study of fault tolerance of computer networks, and some other domains. In this regard, the issues are actualized of developing tools and providing infrastructures for the microservice-based implementation of scientific applications, which are characterized by the dynamism of resource requirements and oriented to use in a hybrid cloud environment. We offer microservice-oriented tools for the automation of solving computationally complex problems of a qualitative study of attractors of binary dynamic systems in a hybrid computing environment. This study is based on the Boolean constraint method and allows the finding of evolutionary parameters of system states (such as, for example, radius, period, and branching) without modeling system dynamics. These tools provide the agents implemented as web-services for the integration of resources of on-premises computers with cloud resources using Dew computing. An example of the application of the developed tools is given.


The initial steps in N-linked glycosylation involve the synthesis of a lipid-linked core oligosaccharide followed by the transfer of the core glycan to nascent polypeptides in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Here, we describealg11, a new yeast glycosylation mutant that is defective in the last step of the synthesis of the Man5GlcNAc2-PP-dolichol core oligosaccharide on the cytosolic face of the ER. A deletion of the ALG11 gene leads to poor growth and temperature-sensitive lethality. In analg11 lesion, both Man3GlcNAc2-PP-dolichol and Man4GlcNAc2-PP-dolichol are translocated into the ER lumen as substrates for the Man-P-dolichol-dependent sugar transferases in this compartment. This leads to a unique family of oligosaccharide structures lacking one or both of the lower arm α1,2-linked Man residues. The former are elongated to mannan, whereas the latter are poor substrates for outerchain initiation by Ochlp (Nakayama, K.-I., Nakanishi-Shindo, Y., Tanaka, A., Haga-Toda, Y., and Jigami, Y. (1997) FEBS Lett. 412, 547–550) and accumulate largely as truncated biosynthetic end products. The ALG11gene is predicted to encode a 63.1-kDa membrane protein that by indirect immunofluorescence resides in the ER. The Alg11 protein is highly conserved, with homologs in fission yeast, worms, flies, and plants. In addition to these Alg11-related proteins, Alg11p is also similar to Alg2p, a protein that regulates the addition of the third mannose to the core oligosaccharide. All of these Alg11-related proteins share a 23-amino acid sequence that is found in over 60 proteins from bacteria to man whose function is in sugar metabolism, implicating this sequence as a potential sugar nucleotide binding motif.


Beyond enabling protection of the child, disclosure of child sexual abuse makes it possible for the abused individual to access social and therapeutic support. Whether child sexual abuse is disclosed in childhood or adulthood research findings emphasise the significance of the disclosure context in facilitating full disclosure and in protecting against long term psychological and emotional difficulties. However, despite the literature identifying the need for a compassionate, non judgemental context a number of countries have established "truth commissions" as a means to investigate and acknowledge institutional child sexual abuse.
The present study argues that there might be a serious conflict between the psychological knowledge base and the State-led procedures for hearing disclosures of abuse. In order to investigate this further this study interviewed a sample of male adult survivors of institutional child sexual abuse in Ireland. The research sought to understand how these men constructed the process of sharing their story of abuse with the Government-established "Irish Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse" and "Residential Institutions Redress Board" and, subsequent to the publishing of the report of the commission, with the Irish public.
In line with the social constructionist epistemological perspective a critical approach to discourse analysis, integrating features from discursive psychology and Foucauldian discourse analysis, was used to examine the discourses of the male participants when speaking about the disclosure of child sexual abuse to the Commission, and to consider the functions which this discourse may serve both individually and in the socio-political context.
The research found that men sexually abused as children in Irish institutions draw on the "genocide" discourse to construct their historical abuse as a wider abuse of their human rights due to their low socioeconomic position within a hierarchical class system. The participants presented the "great wall of silence" as a disciplinary practice operating within society in order to maintain social regulation and control through the silencing of disclosures of abuse, thereby forcing them to bury their experience and take up the position of isolated, "locked away" child. Justice was constructed as multi-faceted, incorporating financial retribution but with the ultimate goal being "to be heard, to be believed". Significantly the men drew on the "being abused all over again" discourse to construct the process of disclosure to the Irish Commission as a disappointment of their hopes for justice: a painful, harsh system which replicated the cold, discriminatory and abusive context of their childhood.
It is considered that this study will contribute to the literature on male survivors of child sexual abuse, and the commission as a context for disclosure. The findings may also inform counselling practice and public policy. The findings are theoretically framed by the clinical literature on cognitive-behavioural and psychodynamic therapy in order to inform clinical practice. Recommendations are made for future research.


This research addresses the multiple modalities of play of five-year-old children at school environment, analysing its cognitive and affective-relational aspects. It is based on a piagetian approach, joint with a winnicottian one. It focuses on the age of five, at the Intuitive Pre-Operational Period and it considers the individual differences. It is developed on a private school of a great-sized city. Initially, it characterises the ludic environment according to Cumulative Environmental Stimulation Inventory (CESI) of Perez-Ramos; Perez-Ramos. Follows the performing of ten ludic observations, at the Toy Libary and the Playground. As to the CESI, data reveals that the available area is excellent but misused; the Toy Librarian's formation is also lacking. Regarding the observed games, a predominance of collective Symbolic Play is registered, with strong imaginary content and theme centred on the family and competitions; there is still much physical activity and rules are featured already. The rule games are also observed, albeit demonstrating need of clarification for correct use of the games. The research verifies the little time school reserves for the ludic, how much children need to play and the great pleasure taken in it, as well as its contribution to the integrated development of children and the construction of their self-sufficiency and socialisation.


It is analyzed the effect of chess training using a methodology focused on development of cognitive and socio-emotional competences or focused on tactical training, with a sample of compulsory education. In a quasi-experimental design: chess group 1, focused on comprehensive training (n= 110); chess group 2, focused on tactical training (n= 60); and comparison group, basketball and football activities (n= 60). Dependent variables analyzed, applied at the beginning and end of the academic course, were: cognitive competence, as assessed by performance testing; socio-emotional competence, through self-evaluation test; and chess competence, through performance test. Results showed that comprehensive training group improves not only in basic cognitive skills (attention and memory), as the group 2, but also in more complex cognitive skills (association, analysis and synthesis, planning and forecasting, etc). In socio-emotional level, not only in somatizations and classroom behavior, but also in self-esteem, motivation and attitude toward study. It is concluded that school children who practice chess obtained significantly superior results, in contrast to those who practice other activities (football or basketball), in cognitive and socio-personal skills, especially when a sensible comprehensive training methodology used.


Abstract This article proposes a general fixture layout design framework that directly integrates the system equation with the convex relaxation method. Note that the optimal fixture design problem is a large-scale combinatorial optimization problem; we relax it to a convex Semi-Definite Programming (SDP) problem by adopting sparse learning and SDP relaxation techniques. It can be solved efficiently by existing convex optimization algorithms and thus generates a near-optimal fixture layout. A real case study in the half-to-half fuselage assembly process indicates the superiority of our proposed algorithm compared to the current industry practice and state-of-art methods.


Cryogenic cutting is becoming an attractive machining method for difficult-to-cut materials. However, it's very difficult to analyze directly their cutting mechanism at low temperature. In order to better understand the various physical phenomena in the cryogenic cutting of titanium alloy, the Charpy impact test of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy at low temperatures (as low as -196 °C) was undertaken in this work. The Charpy absorbed energy of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy at low temperatures was investigated firstly. Then, by observing the microscopic and macroscopic morphology of the fracture, the impact properties and fracture modes of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy at low temperatures were analyzed. It was found that the impact toughness of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy reduces when the temperature decreases from 20 °C to -196 °C, and the fracture appears a tendency to become brittle. Meanwhile, three kinds of areas, i.e. shear lip area, fiber area, and radiation area, were found on the fracture morphology at each temperature. Those areas correspond to the shear fracture zone, crack initiation zone, and crack extension zone, respectively. With the decrease in temperature, the proportion of fiber area decreases, and the radiation area appears and increases gradually. However, fiber areas were still observed on the macroscopic morphology of the fracture under − 196 °C, which suggests that Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy still has the ability to deform plastically at such low temperatures. The research result in this work provide a fundamental support for analyzing the cutting mechanism of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy at low temperatures.


Saltwater fishing tournaments have proliferated in number in recent years. Fishing tournaments in Texas are not regulated nor are there different fishing regulations for tournament and non-tournament anglers. As prize money and the number of events as well as their impacts have increased, some anglers have expressed the need for increased regulation of tournaments and their participants. The objectives of this study were to better understand the problems involved in saltwater fishing tournaments, to identify tournament and non-tournament angler preferences for possible fishing regulations, and to examine within group differences in attitudes, opinions, and preferences regarding salt water tournament issues. A stated preference choice approach, which uses hypothetical scenarios to derive individuals' preferences, provides an understanding of the relationships of multiple factors as they contribute to preferences or choice behavior. Using seven different management and expectation attributes (i.e., catch and release, bait restriction, tournament entrance fee, tournament type, trip cost, family event, and tournament size), we generated 56 choice sets. The mail survey was conducted with seven different versions of the questionnaire and each questionnaire had eight choice sets. From the conditional logit estimation, all primary attributes of angler preference were statistically significant. Not surprisingly, fishing participation was preferred to no participation in tournaments, but anglers strongly favored tournaments where catch and release behavior was promoted, where there were no bait restrictions, and tournaments were held by non-profit organizations rather than by other entities. Likewise, anglers showed a strong preference for tournaments with a greater variety of family events held, fewer numbers of tournament participants, and where a higher percentage of the tournament fee went to the management agency to support fishery management costs. We used scenario analysis to gain additional insights to angler behavior and preferences as a part of tournament management decision-making. Page 882 57th Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute


In contrast with developing countries, where the study of circulation occupies a central position, the literature on temporary mobility in the developed world is sparse and unsystematic. This paper examines reasons for this fragmentation and endeavours to situate tourism within the wider context of temporary and permanent population movements. It is suggested that temporary moves have three distinctive dimensions - duration, frequency and seasonality - which present a formidable methodological challenge. Despite this, it is argued that both forms of movement can be usefully classified under production-related and consumption-related headings. Against this framework we explore similarities and differences in the intensity, composition and spatial patterns of temporary and permanent moves using data from the Australian population Census. The findings point to processes of complementarity and substitution which underline the interconnectedness of different forms of mobility at the individual and aggregate levels across space and through time.


A 72-year-old woman presented with a 3-day history of increasing breathlessness on effort, orthopnoea, and nocturnal dyspnoea in the absence of chest pain or haemoptysis. She was a life-long smoker of 10 cigarettes per day but her medical history was otherwise without note and she was not taking any regular medication. On examination she was thin, neither anaemic nor clubbed and was clinically euthyroid. The pulse was 150 beats/min, blood pressure 130/90 mmHg. There were signs of biventricular failure with a raised venous pressure, bilateral ankle oedema, bibasal crackles and a left pleural effusion. A 3/6 pan systolic murmur was audible at the cardiac apex with radiation to the left axilla. Routine blood tests, including thyroid function tests, were normal apart from a mild derangement in liver function tests consistent with hepatic congestion. An electrocardiogram revealed atrial flutter with a 2 : 1 AV block and a chest X-ray was consistent with cardiac failure. A subsequent echocardiogram confirmed a dilated cardiomyopathy, severe mitral regurgitation, secondary tricuspid regurgitation and a globally reduced cardiac output. A small pericardial effusion was also noted.

The patient was treated along standard lines with diuretics and an angiotensin-converting enzyme …


OBJECTIVE
To explore clinical effect of vacuum sealing drainage (VSD) combined with discontinuous windowing technique for repairing large area exposed wounds of Achilles tendon.

METHODS
From July 2009 to May 2014, 11 patients with large exposed wounds of Achilles tendon were treated, including 5 males and 6 females with an average age of 43 years old (aged from 7 to 65 years old). Among them, 4 cases were skin necrosis caused by heavy objects abrasion and contusion; 3 cases were caused by distal tibiofibula fractures; 3 cases were caused by bicycle-spoke injuries; 1 case was caused by diabetes. Areas of exposed Achilles tendon were from 6 cmx3 cm to 14 cmx5 cm without tendon rupture or bone exposed. After debridement, discontinuous fenestration on Achilles tendon was made by knife blade parallel with longitudinal axis of Achilles tendon, combined with Vacuum Sealing Drainage (VSD) treatment.

RESULTS
After drainage treatment with one VSD cycle (5 to 7 days), abundant fresh granulation tissues were growing on all wounds and survived well after the second phase dermatoplasty. All patients were followed up for 12 to 24 months, the color of skin flap was good, the texture was soft without burst. At 3 to 4 months after operation, subcutaneous fat was appeared under the flap, the skin was sliding, movement of ankle joints was good. No delayed Achilles tendon rupture were occurred.

CONCLUSION
Vacuum sealing drainage (VSD) combined with discontinuous fenestration is a simple, safe and effective method for repairing large area exposed wounds of Achilles tendon,which could minimize the secondary damage caused by wounds of skin flap grafting.


Click-evoked compound action potentials recorded in normal-hearing patients through a monopolar electrode placed on the intracranial portion of the eighth nerve were compared with the responses recorded in patients with high-frequency hearing loss or with high- and low-frequency hearing losses. That multiple peaks appear in the compound action potential in patients with hearing loss implies that click sounds elicit successive and separated volleys of neural excitation in the ascending auditory pathway, whereas click sounds in patients with normal hearing mainly give rise to a single volley of neural activity. This difference in the pattern of auditory nerve activity might explain why there are often multiple peaks in the brain stem auditory evoked potentials in patients with hearing loss and that the peaks are often less well-defined than peaks in patients with normal hearing.


Introduction: The description of plants used in Ayurveda can be traced from hundreds of written texts. Dadima (Punica granatum L.), of family Lytheraceae, is one among the plants described under Phala Varga, a classification of Aahara Varga mentioned by ancient scriptures of Ayurveda; it is highlighted for its wide range of use as an Aahara (diet) and Aushadha (drug) in different diseased conditions. Single-hand information about this plant is still lacking. Aim: To obtain comprehensive information on Dadima (as an aushadha) different classical texts of Ayurveda. Results: Thirty-two names, known as Paryaya (synonyms), have been attributed, highlighting its morphological characteristics and pharmacological properties and actions. Dadima, as an ingredient, is included in 634 formulations. Among 530 Aushadha Kalpana (a drug), 433 were indicated for its internal use, 93 for its external use, and 4 for its external as well as internal use. Dadima is indicated in 80 different diseased conditions; among them, the maximum formulations have been found to be used in Atisara (76). Various research activities, such as antidiarrheal, cardioprotective, nephroprotective, antiarthritic, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory, have been reported to validate Dadima as an ingredient of various Ayurveda indications. Conclusion: Dadima as a single drug or as an ingredient in 530 formulations have been indicated for its use as an Aushadha in 80 different diseased conditions. Dadima, a drug of Phala Varga, is a very important fruit and has a wide range of clinical indications.


Lessons of Assam Sanjib Baruah THE Assam election where a spectacular 85 per cent of the electorate participated and the coming to power of the Asom Gana Parishad have important implications for the Indian polity. The inauguration of an exceptionally youthful ministry, that consists mostly of student leaders of the Assam movement, at a public ceremony attended by 200,000 people was the latest and possibly the grand finale of the six-year old Assam movement. Not many observers could have predicted the outcome of the election. Most observers basing themselves on past voting patterns of linguistic, religious and caste groups and the presumed reaction of these groups to the Assam movement and to the accord had feared that the election would only bring about a coalition government and a period of continued political instability. However, the Assam accord seems to have significantly reconstituted Assam's political universe and voters did not vote along lines anticipated by most analysts. Moreover, the unprecedented participation inevitably posed problems for analysts; earlier voting patterns were inadequate to predict the outcome of an election with such high levels of participation. The inability on the part of national political parties and observers to grasp the meaning of the election for various groups in Assam, to some extent parallels their failure to understand the historical meaning of the Assam movement.


Nanocrystalline powders of the composition Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 were obtained by Mechanical alloying (high-energy ball milling). X-ray diffraction studies show that these compounds are completely into the perovskite phase. Detailed studies of electrical and mechanical properties of PZT as a function of temperature (and frequency) showed the high permittivity of 20653 at Curie transition temperature. Temperature variation of longitudinal modulus and internal friction of these ceramics at 104 kHz frequency were studied in the wide temperature range of 30°C-420°C. The internal friction measurements showed sharp stress induced relaxation peaks in the present composition corresponding to those temperatures where the minima were noticed in temperature variation of longitudinal modulus behavior. This dielectric and internal friction behaviour was explained in the light of polaron hopping mechanism and structural phase transitions in the present piezoelectric compositions.


We examine whether complement factor C3 or C5 is synthesized by human skin–derived mast cells and whether their synthesis is regulated by cytokines. C3 and C5 mRNAs were assessed by RT-PCR, and proteins by flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, Western blotting, and ELISA. C3 and C5 mRNAs were each expressed, and baseline protein levels/106 cultured mast cells were 0.9 and 0.8 ng, respectively, and located in the cytoplasm outside of secretory granules. C3 accumulated in mast cell culture medium over time and by 3 d reached a concentration of 9.4 ± 8.0 ng/ml, whereas C5 levels were not detectable (<0.15 ng/ml). Three-day incubations of mast cells with IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-17, IFN-γ, IL-6, or anti-FcεRI did not affect C3 protein levels in culture medium, whereas incubations with PMA, TNF-α, IL-13, or IL-4 enhanced levels of C3 1.7- to 3.3-fold. In contrast with C3, levels of C5 remained undetectable. Importantly, treatment with TNF-α together with either IL-4 or IL-13 synergistically enhanced C3 (but not C5) production in culture medium by 9.8- or 7.1-fold, respectively. This synergy was blocked by attenuating the TNF-α pathway with neutralizing anti–TNF-α Ab, soluble TNFR, or an inhibitor of NF-κB, or by attenuating the IL-4/13 pathway with Jak family or Erk antagonists. Inhibitors of PI3K, Jnk, and p38 MAPK did not affect this synergy. Thus, human mast cells can produce and secrete C3, whereas β-tryptase can act on C3 to generate C3a and C3b, raising the likelihood that mast cells engage complement to modulate immunity and inflammation in vivo.


Near-term quantum computers are expected to work in an environment where each operation is noisy, with no error correction. Therefore, quantum-circuit optimizers are applied to minimize the number of noisy operations. Today, physicists are constantly experimenting with novel devices and architectures. For every new physical substrate and for every modification of a quantum computer, we need to modify or rewrite major pieces of the optimizer to run successful experiments. In this paper, we present QUESO, an efficient approach for automatically synthesizing a quantum-circuit optimizer for a given quantum device. For instance, in 1.2 minutes, QUESO can synthesize an optimizer with high-probability correctness guarantees for IBM computers that significantly outperforms leading compilers, such as IBM's Qiskit and TKET, on the majority (85%) of the circuits in a diverse benchmark suite. A number of theoretical and algorithmic insights underlie QUESO: (1) An algebraic approach for representing rewrite rules and their semantics. This facilitates reasoning about complex symbolic rewrite rules that are beyond the scope of existing techniques. (2) A fast approach for probabilistically verifying equivalence of quantum circuits by reducing the problem to a special form of polynomial identity testing. (3) A novel probabilistic data structure, called a polynomial identity filter (PIF), for efficiently synthesizing rewrite rules. (4) A beam-search-based algorithm that efficiently applies the synthesized symbolic rewrite rules to optimize quantum circuits.


The eGovernment policy focus has moved over the last five years from being mainly concerned with efficiency to being concerned both with efficiency and effectiveness. This paper examines the current and future development of eGovernment policy making, and the critical role that measurement and impact analysis has in it. From an almost exclusive focus on the efficiency impacts of eGovernment over government itself, there is a clear movement towards an increased attention on effectiveness impacts, as well as to wider governance impacts. This is going hand-in-hand with a change away from measuring only the inputs and outputs of eGovernment initiatives towards a much greater emphasis on analysing and measuring the outcomes for constituents and the impacts on society as a whole, for example through increased public value. In addition, the article considers likely future eGovernment measurement trends which involve moving both policy target setting and measurement from central government to local government, from the back-office to the front-office, and to front-line professional staff, whether care or medical professionals, police, community workers, teachers, etc. Taking this further, it also seems likely that in the future, constituents themselves will also be involved in policy target setting and measurement when directly related to their own use of public sector services and facilities. The new approach will be to measure local and specific targets through, for example, constituent (user) surveys, for which mass collaboration Web 2.0 tools could probably be used. One of the benefits of such a local, small scale approach is that it is also more immediate and real time, and reduces the need to 'wait forever for the decisive evidence'.


Laser interference lithography is an established fabrication technique for periodic arrays such as photonic crystals (PCs). In this paper, we report the fabrication of a TiO2-organic hybrid periodic array by nanosecond laser interference lithography. TiO2organic hybrid films were prepared from titanium tetra-n-butoxide and 2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl acetoacetate (MEAcAc) by the sol–gel method. The films were irradiated by using 10 ns pulses of 355 nm diffracted light from a Nd:yttrium–aluminum– garnet laser. The complexes formed by the Ti alkoxide and the MEAcAc were decomposed by laser irradiation, and the irradiated parts remained as periodic dot arrays on the substrate after the development. The two-dimensional array of this TiO2organic hybrid material was calcined at 4501C and formed an anatase TiO2 dot array. The refractive index measured was 2.00. These dots were crack free and adherent to the substrate.


Highly controlled electronic correlation in twisted graphene heterostructures has gained enormous research interests recently, encouraging exploration in a wide range of moiré superlattices beyond the celebrated twisted bilayer graphene. Here we characterize correlated states in an alternating twisted Bernal bilayer–monolayer–monolayer graphene of ∼ 1.74°, and find that both van Hove singularities and multiple correlated states are asymmetrically tuned by displacement fields. In particular, when one electron per moiré unit cell is occupied in the electron-side flat band, or the hole-side flat band (i.e., three holes per moiré unit cell), the correlated peaks are found to counterintuitively grow with heating and maximize around 20 K – a signature of Pomeranchuk effect. Our multilayer heterostructure opens more opportunities to engineer complicated systems for investigating correlated phenomena.


Cycloheximide, 5-azacytidine, and 4-methoxybenzoyl-beta-bromoarylate (Cytembena) block the development of experimental acute pancreatitis in rats when mediated by the administration of 5% bile solution into the pancreas in vivo. Six hours after drug treatment the pathological changes, evaluated macroscopically or using histological sections of the pancreas, were significantly decreased. The drugs affected the amount of abdominal fluid and lowered its lipase and amylase activity. The known inhibitory mechanism of the active drugs and the possible advantage of cycloheximide for clinical use are briefly mentioned.


A series of Schiff bases (2a-f) have been prepared by the condensation of 5-bromofuran-2-carboxyhydrazide (1) with different aromatic and heterocyclic aldehydes. The synthesis of various 2-(substituted phenyl/quinolin 2-yl/6- methoxy naphthalen 2-yl)-3-(5'-bromofuran-2'-carboxamido) – thiazolidine-4-ones (3a-f) by cyclocondensation reaction between schiff bases (2a-f) and thioglycolic acid. Cyclocondensation of Schiff bases (2a-f) with thiolactic acid resulted 2-(susbstituted phenyl)-3-(5'-bromofuran-2'-carboxamido)–5-methyl thiazolidine - 4 - ones (4a-f). The structures of all the synthesised compounds were confirmed by their elemental analysis and IR, 1H NMR spectral data. All the synthesised compounds have been screened for their antimicrobial activity.


Abstract Fossil leaves of the Voltziales, an ancestral group of conifers, rank among the most common plant fossils in the Triassic of Gondwana. Even though the foliage taxon Heidiphyllum has been known for more than 150 years, our knowledge of the reproductive organs of these conifers still remains very incomplete. Seed cones assigned to Telemachus have become increasingly well understood in recent decades, but the pollen cones belonging to these Mesozoic conifers are rare. In this contribution we describe the first compression material of a voltzialean pollen cone from Upper Triassic strata of the Transantarctic Mountains. The cone can be assigned to Switzianthus Anderson & Anderson, a genus that was previously assumed to belong to an enigmatic group of pteridosperms from the Triassic Molteno Formation of South Africa. The similarities of cuticle and pollen morphology, together with co-occurrence at all known localities, indicate that Switzianthus most probably represents the pollen organ of the ubiquitous Heidiphyllum/Telemachus plant.


A high-average-power, high-pulse-energy picosecond chirped pulse amplification (CPA) laser system based on an extra-large-mode-area (XLMA) triple-clad fiber (TCF) was demonstrated. The ultrashort pulses, generated from all-fiber mode-locked oscillator, stretched and then were pre-amplified to 10 W through a series of fiber power amplifiers. Subsequently, the average output power was amplified to 620 W corresponding to a pulse energy of 0.62 mJ via XLMA TCF. Additionally, the amplified pulses were compressed to a pulse duration of 7.6 ps with an average power of 423 W and a compression efficiency of 68.2%. The ultrashort laser is a promising light source for application of water-guided laser processing, albeit with a beam quality factor of 20 and 21 along two orthogonal axes.


A novel substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) multibeam antenna based on the parabolic reflector principle is proposed and implemented at 37.5 GHz, which takes the advantages of low loss, low profile, high gain, and mass producible. A prototype of the proposed antenna with seven input ports generating a corresponding number of output beams is fabricated in a standard PCB process. The measurements are in good agreement with the simulations, and the results demonstrate that this type of printed multibeam antenna is a good choice for communications applications where mobility and high gain are simultaneously required.


Abstract Background The Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) is a commonly used 28‐item measure of motivation orientation. However, the scale has not been examined using methods to distinguish between state and trait aspects of motivation. We applied Generalizability Theory to appraise the psychometric properties of the AMS and to differentiate items measuring state or trait motivation within the AMS. Methods One hundred and thirty medical students completed the 28‐item AMS at three time points. Generalizability Theory was applied to examine the generalizability of the AMS (total and sub‐scales) and to estimate state and trait aspects of student motivation. Results The overall AMS showed high generalizability (G = .93) in assessing student motivation across student populations and occasions, whereas the AMS subscales demonstrated low levels of generalizability. The majority of the AMS items scored high for the state component index suggesting movement between motivational priorities while maintaining the overall stability of the individual motivation levels. Conclusions The total AMS is suitable as a reliable measurement of motivation among student populations with high generalizability of scores across students and assessment occasions. Measuring trait motivation using the total AMS score instead of subscale scores reduces measurement error and optimises instrument reliability.


An ecologically inspired optimization algorithm, called invasive weed optimization (IWO), is presented for the design of non-uniform, planar, and circular antenna arrays that can achieve minimum side lobe levels for a specific first null beamwidth while avoiding the mutual coupling effects simultaneously. IWO recently emerged as a derivative-free real parameter optimizer that mimics the ecological behavior of colonizing weeds. For the present application, classical IWO has been modified by introducing a more explorative routine of changing the standard deviation of the seed population (equivalent to mutation step-size in evolutionary algorithms) of the algorithm. Simulation results over three significant instances of the circular array design problem have been presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the modified IWO algorithm. The design results obtained with modified IWO have been shown to comfortably beat those obtained with other state-of-the-art metaheuristics like genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), original IWO and differential evolution (DE) in a statistically meaningful way.


Current ideas on the formation of the Galaxy are reviewed. Many of the observed characteristics of our Milky Way System are consistent with a scenario in which the Galaxy formed inside out, with the inner part of it evolving by rapid collapse of a single protogalaxy, while the outer halo was accreted over an extended period. A number of possible problems with this "Standard Model" are discussed and summarized in section 5.


The central theme of this paper is to establish an improved understanding of the nature of Continuous Improvement (CI) in R&D organisations and to provide key concepts for analysing CI practices within the scope of an Integrated Quality Management System. In particular, the paper looks at the management processes used to capture project and process learning and how this learning can be used in practice for further improvements. Case studies reported here exemplify that CI and quality enabling factors have been inseparably linked. It was concluded that the CI process within R&D can have an influence at three levels: project, process and strategic. In each of these levels, CI enabling mechanisms have been identified and the functioning of these within an Integrated Quality Management System are discussed.


Abstract The paper delineates stages in the interpretation of religion in Burma. Beginning with colonial constructions, the discussion moves to subsequent studies in anthropology and history from which emerged an emphasis on localised articulations of Theravada Buddhist traditions. Others examined religion as a site for colonial resistance and as a means for engaging issues of modernity. More recent interpreters focused on Buddhist voices in the public domain of contemporary Burma and some recent studies moved beyond received boundaries of inquiry to consider religions among ethnic minorities and diaspora communities. The final section charts future development in the study of religion in Burma.


BACKGROUND
Cardiomyopathy is a condition with heart failure caused by a reduction in the contractility of the heart. Peripartum cardiomyopathy is a rare, but serious condition, characterised by development of heart failure during the last month of pregnancy or the first five months after delivery.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We present a case in which a woman pregnant with twins developed heart failure a few days after giving birth. We give a short report of symptoms, clinical signs, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis for subsequent pregnancies.

RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION
The condition was initially diagnosed and treated as pneumonia, but despite treatment and improvement in her laboratory tests, her condition worsened. The symptoms were dyspnoea, peripheral oedemas and pulmonary oedema. Peripartum cardiomyopathy was diagnosed after echocardiography. Treatment of heart failure with diuretics, nitroglycerine, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and beta blocker was given with good results. This case is presented in order to draw attention to a rare, but serious condition in pregnancy or the postnatal period which easily can be misjudged or mistreated.


The cultural identity of the Bahamas owes much to its West African and British colonial heritages and to its physical proximity to the United States. A combination of African and European elements - rhyming spirituals, anthems, rushin' music at watch-night services, wake and setting-up songs; ringplays, fire dance, jump-in-dance, quadrille music (rake-'n'-scrape music), goombay, and junkanoo - can be seen in musical traditions throughout the Caribbean, including art music.


Tick-borne diseases such as Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS) are of concern as new issues in public health and conservation medicine.  The SFTS virus especially is a fatal infection for feline animals. The emergence of STFS has been reported in China, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam. Tsushima Islands, located between Kyushu Island of Japan and South Korea, are known as the habitat of the endangered Tsushima leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis euptilurus). The Ministry of the Environment of Japan reported the first case of SFTS infection in the free-ranging Tsushima leopard cat in 2022. Here, we report our investigation of the tick fauna on Tsushima Islands and its comparison with the abundance of Tsushima sika deer (Cervus nippon pulchellus). The flagging method was used at five collection sites on Tsushima islands in May 2022. We collected 131 ticks of three species, Haemaphysalis longicornis (127 individuals), H. formosensis (3) and Amblyomma testudinarium (1), among which H. longicornis was the dominant species. The abundance of H. longicornis increased with increased Deer Impact Score, which represents relative deer density based on five deer signs (bark stripping on Cryptomeria japonica or Chamaecyparis obtusa trees, browsing marks on the understory vegetation, deer fecal pellets, deer tracks, and deer trails). This study indicated that deer abundance may be an important factor in determining H. longicornis abundance. Notably, H. longicornis is known to serve as vector for several tick-borne pathogens, including SFTS virus. The relationships between ticks and wildlife hosts are expected to provide essential information from the perspectives of vector control, disease risk prediction, and conservation of rare species.


Guideline development process A panel of clinicians with an interest in liver disease and alcoholic liver disease (ALD), approved by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Governing Board, wrote and discussed this Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) document between November 2016 and March 2017. The guidelines were independently peer reviewed, and all contributors to the CPG disclosed their conflicts of interest by means of a disclosure form provided by the EASL Office prior to work commencing. The EASL Ethics Committee reviewed the composition of the panel to eliminate the potential for real or perceived bias. The CPG panel conflict of interests are declared in this submission.


The Sturge-Weber syndrome consists of a unilateral port-wine hemangioma of the skin along the trigeminal distribution and is accompanied by an ipsilateral leptomeningeal angioma. Glaucoma is present in approximately half of the cases. The Nevus of Ota is a melanocytic pigmentary disorder, most commonly involving the area innervated by the trigeminal nerve. Elevated intraocular pressure, with or without glaucomatous damage, is observed in 10% of the cases. We report the first case of glaucoma associated with Sturge-Weber syndrome and Nevus of Ota in Korea.


In Mexico, the theropods represents a poorly known group of dinosaurs, the scarce material had been referred only to "family" level. As a result of paleontological research carried on in the State of Coahuila, dental remains belonging to theropods were recovered. The identified genera are Saurornitholestes, cf. Troodon, as well as Tyrannosauridae and an indeterminate theropod. The theropod diversity of Coahuila is similar to that described for the Big Bend National Park, Texas, confirming the existence of a distinct dinosaurian biogeographic province in the southern Great Plains of North America. If the presence of Troodon at this latitude is confirmed, it would suggest that the geographic distribution of this theropod genus was much wider than previously supposed.


The anomalous non-Hermitian dynamical phenomenon with the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) attracts wide attention due to its novel physics and promising applications. Here, we propose a new type of non-unitary discrete-time quantum walk system demonstrating the NHSE and anomalous non-Hermitian dynamical phenomena, including the dynamical chiral phenomenon, the funneling phenomenon on the domain wall, and the anomalous reflection on the phase impurity. Furthermore, we design the quantum circuit experiments of these quantum walk systems and numerically simulate them with quantum noises to verify the robustness of the non-Hermitian dynamical phenomenon on the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. Our work paves the way for implementing the non-Hermitian dynamical phenomenon on the quantum circuit.


Detection of human presence and activity event classification are of importance to a variety of context-awareness applications such as e-Healthcare, security, and low impact building. However, existing radio frequency identification tags, wearables, and passive infrared approaches require the user to carry dedicated electronic devices that suffer from problems of low detection accuracy and false alarms. This study proposes a novel system for non-invasive human sensing by analysing the Doppler information contained in the human reflections of WiFi signal. Doppler information is insensitive to stationary objects, thus there is no need for any scenario-specific calibration which makes it ideal for human sensing. We also introduce the time-frequency domain feature vectors of WiFi Doppler information for the support vector machine classifier towards activity event recognition. The proposed methodology is evaluated on a software defined radio system together with the experiment of five different events. The results indicate that the proposed system is sufficient for indoor context awareness, with 95.3% overall accuracy for event classification and 93.3% accuracy for human presence detection, which outperforms the traditional received signal strength approach where accuracy is 69.3% for event classification and 83.3% for human presence detection.


We conducted meteor wind observations with the middle and upper atmosphere (MU) radar at Shigaraki, Japan (35°N, 136°E), utilizing an interferometer to determine the arrival angle of a meteor echo. We found that meteor echoes are widely distributed in zenith angles as large as 50° and that the narrow main lobe of a transmitting antenna cannot effectively detect meteor trails but that the sidelobes of the antenna illuminate most of meteor trails. Wind velocity profiles determined using meteor echoes are consistent with MU radar observations determined using turbulence echoes. The amplitudes and phases of both diurnal and semidiurnal tides were analyzed for a 96-hour continuous run in September 1989, which agreed reasonably well with the characteristics of tides determined from Kyoto meteor radar observations.


The author presents phases in the work on the database within the European HERA project Music Migrations in the Early Modern Age: the Meeting of the European East, West and South (2013–2016), illustrated by two case studies from the Croatian lands. Vinko Jelic from Rijeka and Ivan Lukacic from Sibenik were contemporaries of the Parnassus Musicus Ferdinandaeus generation but their output was not included in the anthology. The data on their life, education and work was entered in the database, as well as data on 3500 other European musicians investigated in the MusMig project. On the basis of the search results, their timelines and possible encounters with other musicians are outlined.


The Imjin and North Han River are sharing watershed between South and North Korea. In Imjin river basin, the April 5th darn and Hwanggang darn which are already constructed or on constrution, causes problems in water supply in the downstrean area. At the same time, in the North Han River basin, the Imnam darn is being operated for diversion to Anbyeon Youngman Hydropower Plant and it gives rise to conflict between South and North by reducing streamflow in the North Han River of South Korean side. Therefore, a cooperative framework needs to be built for settling the pending issues. In this study, based on the theory of conflict resolution in the international shared river basin, the practical alternatives are suggested. These approaches are expected to help in preparing reasonable resolution ahead of seeking political decision. Also, in order to preparing consistent and reasonable river management measures, the South-North shared river management commission was suggested.


MOHAMMAD NUR FIKRI: "THE ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS'
MONOLOGUE (QUALITATIVE RESEARCH)"
There are two forms of speaking skills, namely: monologue and dialogue.
Monologue is a part of speaking skill. Monologue is the speech of one person who
expresses his thoughts and feelings in a particular situation and shows his definite
conclusion. Monologue is generally prepared speech. The speaker even may have the
plan of his speech. Sometimes it can be unprepared as well.
Speaking is the verbal use of language to communicate with others. Its
function is to convey message which lays in the structure and meaning of all
languages, whether this is written or spoken.
In this case, the researcher tries to analyze about the students construct
their ideas in the simply monologue text and how the overall meaning of the
monologue text constructed.
The research product is hoped to be able to analyze of students'
monologue. And to speak by using monologue as text, can understand and create
kinds of texts either speaking as well as writing.
This thesis uses qualitative approach in which the researcher uses some
technique: recording data, transcribing data, coding data, classifying data, interpreting
data. This study chooses this method for some reasons. Firstly, qualitative method is
the good method in studying plural reality. Secondly, it presents the relation between
the researcher and the research itself directly. And thirdly, it is more sensitive and
more adaptive to the influential precision with message value, and norm.
Having analyzed the data, the writer found there are: the ideas
organization in the text produced by students, constructing ideas in the monologue
text, the analyzing aspect of IAIN's student in descriptive text, and the meaning
construction in the text produced by students was used three meaning there are,
ideational, interpersonal, and textual meaning as the meaning construction in the text
produced by students.
From the result above, it can be known that there are: The informants can
speak a foreign language within the topics, speak English and express themselves
confidently, communicatively.


To display motion pictures, the driving circuit of an AC plasma display panel (PDP) applies alternating high voltages to selected panel electrodes for only a few microseconds at a time. To direct these high-voltage sequences, the PDP controller produces timed control signals. It also performs PDF-specific video processing work. Recent research on improving the performance of PDPs has resulted in the development of many sophisticated driving methods. The elaborate control schemes for these new driving methods require more flexibility and more scalability than traditional hard-wired controllers can provide. This paper presents a 32-bit processor-based PDP controller, which consists of an application specific processor and several peripheral modules necessary for PDP control. Using software programming, the proposed PDP controller provides the flexibility to implement varied control schemes without hardware redesign. We proved our design by constructing a PDP system, using the proposed PDP controller. The FPGA implementation of the controller runs at 50 MHz, and the system successfully displays motion pictures on a 42-inch panel with XGA resolution


An FPGA implementation of a multilayer perceptron neural network is presented. The system is parameterized both in network related aspects (e.g.: number of layers and number of neurons in each layer) and implementation parameters (e.g.: word width, pre-scaling factors and number of available multipliers). This allows to use the design for different network realizations, or to try different area-speed trade-offs simply by recompiling the design. Fixed point arithmetic with pre-scaling configurable in a per layer basis was used. The system was tested on an ARC-PCI board from altera/spl trade/ several examples from different application domains were implemented showing the flexibility and ease of use of the obtained circuit. Even with the rather old board used, an appreciable speed-up was obtained compared with a software-only implementation based on Matlab neural network toolbox.


The article is devoted to the problems of dialog as one of the ways of increasing knowledge and motivation of foreign students in the field of Russian language and culture.


Being a metallic transition-metal dichalcogenide, monolayer vanadium diselenide (VSe2) exhibits many novel properties, such as charge density waves and magnetism. Its interfaces with other materials can potentially be used in device applications as well as for manipulating its intrinsic properties. Here, we present a scanning tunneling microscopy and synchrotron-based x-ray photoemission spectroscopy study of the surface charge transfer doping using efficient electron-withdrawing and electron-donating materials, i.e. molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) and potassium (K), on molecular beam epitaxy-grown monolayer VSe2 on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). We demonstrate that monolayer VSe2 is immune to MoO3 and K doping effects. However, at the monolayer edges where the local chemical reactivity is higher due to Se deficiency, MoO3 is seen to react with VSe2 to form molybdenum dioxide (MoO2) and vanadium dioxide (VO2). Compared to the obvious charge transfer doping effects of MoO3 and K on HOPG, the electronic structure of monolayer VSe2 is barely perturbed. This is attributed to the large density of states at the Fermi level of monolayer VSe2 carrying metallic character. This work provides new insights into the chemical and electronic properties of monolayer VSe2, important for future VSe2-based electronic device design.


In 1940, during the early days of WW II, Japan began demanding the cooperation of French colonial authorities in Vietnam as part of the Japanese war effort against China. By the summer of 1941, Japanese military forces had occupied all of Vietnam. Although this led directly to the imposition of Allied sanctions against Japan and the outbreak of a wider war in the Pacific, within Vietnam itself the collaborationist Vichy French regime that was in place by that time did not resist. Despite Japanese occupation, routine French colonial administration of Vietnam continued throughout most of WW II, until March 1945, when the Japanese finally seized power directly and disarmed and interned the French. The following day, the Japanese named the last Nguyen Dynasty ruler, Bao Dai (1913–1997; emperor, 1926–1945; head of state, 1949–1955), emperor of a nominally independent Vietnam, within the Japanese-controlled Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Meanwhile, the Japanese occupation of Vietnam during WW II had created an opportunity for the Vietnamese communists to call for a united front of all patriotic Vietnamese to resist Japan. After spending thirty years in exile, some time in late 1940 or early 1941 the communist leader Nguyen Sinh Cung returned to Vietnam (where he finally actually assumed his most famous alias, "Ho Chi Minh"). There, at a meeting near the Chinese border in May 1941, a front organization (deliberately intended to downplay the communist leadership role) was formed – called the League for the Independence of Vietnam, but commonly known as the Viet Minh – and it began to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. The French Withdrawal, and America's War The Japanese surrender at the end of WW II, in August 1945, left Vietnam in chaos. Northern Vietnam at the time of surrender was only just beginning to recover from a catastrophic famine that had claimed the lives of one or two million people earlier that spring. Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh appeared to be virtually the only forces on the ground that were opposing the Japanese and attempting to deal with the famine – by, for example, leading attacks on warehouses where rice had been diverted and stored for Japanese use.


Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) represents one of the major causes of chronic morbidity where, airflow limitation is caused by a mixture of small airways disease and parenchyma destruction.Objective: to correlate the clinical characteristics of patients with COPD with imaging classification into phenotypes.Patients and Methods: Thirty patients with stable COPD were examined by chest CT. Bronchial wall thickness is evaluated by measuring the wall area percentage by identifying the trunk of the apical bronchus of the right upper lobe, while the extent of emphysema was assessed using the percentage of lung voxels with X-ray attenuation values less than -950 HU {automatically calculated by special software}.Results: Three phenotypes were found: A phenotype (airway-predominant) , 66.6% of total, E phenotype (emphysema predominant), 20% of total and M phenotype (mixed), 13.3% of total.Conclusions: Using volumetric chest CT in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases determine three disease patterns. Airway predominant disease which correlate to patients who have clinical & spirometric pattern of chronic bronchitis rather than emphysema. Emphysema predominant on CT correlated with patients with clinical findings of lung hyperinflation rather than bronchial inflammation. Patients with mixed CT findings combined of both previously mentioned types found to be correlated with those with overlapped clinical patterns of both chronic bronchitis & emphysema.


This book presents the rich spirituality that Vatican II offers to all the faithful, a spirituality that has been widely neglected. Debates over the Council s theological and pastoral teaching continue to distract attention from the Council s central message about the universal call to holiness. Such holiness attends to the manifold presence of the risen Christ, the life of the liturgy, the Scriptures that lead and feed us, the prophetic, priestly and pastoral mission of all believers, and the need to hear the cry of the poor.


This article argues against the economic globalization agenda. It describes the impact of economic globalization on Canada, explores ways for university adult educators to challenge the pro-globalization forces, and calls for adult educators to take a strong stand on this issue.


Much as the social landscape in which languages are spoken shifts, language too evolves to suit the needs of its users. Lexical semantic change analysis is a burgeoning field of semantic analysis which aims to trace changes in the meanings of words over time. This paper presents an approach to lexical semantic change detection based on Bayesian word sense induction suitable for novel word sense identification. This approach is used for a submission to SemEval-2020 Task 1, which shows the approach to be capable of the SemEval task. The same approach is also applied to a corpus gleaned from 15 years of Twitter data, the results of which are then used to identify words which may be instances of slang.


Today, continuous working of power inverter drives is mandatory for several applications. Damages to materials, machines or even risks to human life have to be absolutely avoided. In the literature, fault-tolerant algorithms and architectures to achieve a successful fault handling are investigated. Researchers aim at reducing the number and cost of additional components, improving at the same time the inverter performances under postfault conditions. Cost, post-fault power derating and increasing distortion are usually conflicting requirements. In this paper, a fault-tolerant three phase inverter is presented. A reconfigurable architecture and a novel fault-tolerant algorithm is designed to reduce DC Link Voltages unbalance. The system is modeled in PSIM-MATLAB/Simulink environment. The power stage model is implemented in PSIM environment. The fault-tolerant algorithm is implemented in MATLAB-Simulink environment. The SimCoupler module is used to perform co-simulation of the entire model. Simulation results are shown to test performances of the proposed algorithm.


Established methods of Boolean minimization have previously unseen potential as an efficient and unrestricted means of fuzzy structure discovery, becoming particularly useful within a design methodology for the automatic development of fuzzy models. Traditionally used in digital systems design, logic minimization tools allow us to exploit the fundamental links between binary (two-valued) and fuzzy (multivalued) logic. In this paper, we show how logic optimization plays an integral role in a two-phase fuzzy model design process. Adaptive logic processing is realized as the discovered Boolean structures are augmented with fuzzy granules and then refined by adjusting connections of fuzzy neurons, helping to further capture the numeric details of the target systems behavior. Accurate and highly interpretable fuzzy models are the result of the entire development process.


ABSTRACT Focusing on social networking site (SNS) users, this research conceptualizes, theorizes on and tests information systems (IS) use reduction herein defined as users' attempt to reduce their use of an IS to levels that seem reasonable to them to avoid negative implications. IS use reduction is more realistic for many users than full discontinuance, more prevalent than many other corrective behaviors, and can have many desirable outcomes. Yet, knowledge regarding this behavior has been limited. It therefore warrants more attention in IS research and a growing need to develop interventions aimed at helping users reducing excessive IS use such as SNSs. We suggest that IS use reduction can be motivated by negative consequences of excessive SNS use and that the way users translate such states into SNS use reduction intentions can be explained by a contextual and nuanced adaptation of Bandura's self-regulation of motivation and self-reactive framework. A survey study (study 1, n=257) was used to theorize and test the determinants of SNS use reduction intentions, and a longitudinal experimental study (study 2, n=127) extended the validity of the survey study findings, established causality and examined whether the manipulation the survey study predictors can produce actual SNS use reduction.


Background Salt reduction are crucial in the management of hypertension. Over the past few decades, Series of national activities and studies focusing on salt reduction and salt intake education were promoted by the Chinese government. However, the current status of dietary sodium and potassium intake of Chinese population is unclear. Objective The aim of this study is to analyze the status of dietary salt and potassium intake in the Chinese population through summarizing the previous studies from 1998 to 2011 and then propose appropriate initiatives. Design Relevant studies from 1998 to 2011 were considered for review if they satisfied the following criteria: 1) Papers reported on epidemiological survey or intervention observation conducted in Chinese participants; 2) Salt intake was estimated by urinary Na measurements, food weighted record method or food frequency questionnaire; 3) A stratified random sample is recruited, representative of participants aged over 15 years; 4) The sample size is larger than 200; 5) The participants do not have hypertension, stroke or other chronic diseases. Results The average salt intake in Chinese residents dropped almost 30% from 15.24 g/d in 2000 to 10.6 g/d in 2010, while it was still higher than the recommended amounts by World Health Organization. The change of salt intake in northern and Southern China was respectively -3g/d and -0.5 g/d nearly ten years. Dietary salt intake in northern areas was still higher than in southern areas, but this gap between them became smaller. In urban and rural areas, the amount of Salt intake respectively decreased about 30% and 20% from 2003 to 2010. However the mean salt intake level was still higher in rural areas compared to urban areas (5.93 ± 1.90 g/d vs. 5.26 ± 1.72 g/d). In rural China, the major source of dietary sodium was added salt (69.7%), followed by soy sauce (8.5%), processed food (6.8%), and Monosodium glutamate (3.4%). Additionally, potassium intake did not change significantly among the past decade, the average dietary potassium intake is about 1.8 ± 0.7 g/d which is below the recommended standard, while the Na/K ratio decreased from 3.7 ± 2.2 in 2000 to 2.8 ± 1.8 in 2009. Conclusions Reducing sodium intake should be still a public health priority. According to sources of salt intake, sodium replacement and salt substitution might be feasible. Given potassium supplementation has an antihypertensive effect similar to that of salt restriction, replacing sodium with potassium in salt may be an effective way in blood pressure control in China. In addition, changing unhealthy eating habits through national health education is equally important to the implementation of salt reduction.


Enzymatically separated tobacco leaf cells took up amino acids, uracil, and uridine from the incubation medium and incorporated them into proteins and RNA, respectively, at a linear rate for approximately 30 hours. Both uptake and incorporation were light-dependent, although cells prepared from preilluminated plants or preillumination of cells allowed some uptake and incorporation to occur in the dark. The light was necessary to satisfy a photosynthetic requirement, but could be replaced in part by ATP in the medium.Several lines of evidence support the conclusion that the rate of uptake of amino acids, uracil, and uridine was dependent upon the subsequent incorporation of these compounds into macromolecules.


Abstract Priority setting for the evaluation of health technologies in the Netherlands is exclusively based on the scientific merits of individual research proposals. This process has not resulted in satisfactory allocation of resources. Therefore, societal criteria for setting priorities for health technology assessment have been proposed as an adjunct to scientific criteria. These societal criteria include the burden of disease, uncertainty about the (cost-)effectiveness of the intervention at issue, the potential benefits of the research project, and its potential impact on health care. To realize the full potential of this model for priority setting, a number of methodological issues need to be addressed. Joint efforts of researchers and policy makers in this field are necessary for future progress.


The soil environmental pollution situation has been severe in recent years, but studies on evaluating with bioavailability testing and prediction models are lacking, which makes it difficult to accurately assess the ecological risks of contaminated soil. As an important indicator of bioavailability, the bioaccessibility of cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and lead (Pb) in the soil was analyzed in this study. The bioaccessibility content and their corresponding soil property data were screened and systematically analyzed to explore the relationship between bioaccessibility content and soil properties. Furthermore, some testing methods for bioaccessibility were summarized to analyze the relationship between bioaccessibility content, test methods, and bioavailability content. Additionally, the bioaccessibility content prediction models were established. The results showed that there was a strong correlation between the bioaccessibility content and the total content of heavy metals (P<0.01) and a significant (P<0.05) correlation with the soil pH. Different test methods had obvious effects on bioavailability. The proportion of bioaccessibility content determined via various test methods was as follows:in vitro gastrointestinal tract simulation>chemical reagent extraction. The proportions of bioaccessibility content of Cd and Pb in natural soil were relatively high, with mean values of 42.12% and 37.33%, respectively, indicating that Cd and Pb had higher risks of being absorbed by soil organisms. Moreover, 30 bioaccessibility prediction models for five heavy metals were constructed, which involved the soil properties and test methods. The results of this study can provide scientific information and bioaccessibility prediction models that can help in accurately assessing the ecological risks of contaminated soil.


Statutory tax rates of a country do not reflect a country's true tax competitiveness, we propose
and show that government debt to GDP ratio (GOVDEBT) of a country is a better proxy for
its tax competitiveness. Using a comprehensive sample of 1,884 completed cross-border
acquisition transactions from the U.S. to other OECD countries, we document that the U.S.-
target country GOVDEBT difference is significantly and positively related to both deal
announcement return and post-deal tax saving of the acquirer. The GOVDEBT difference is
also significantly and positively related to U.S.-target country deal flow. The findings remain
robust when we control for the potential endogeneity of GOVDEBT difference. Our findings
strongly suggest that tax avoidance is an important driver of U.S.-OECD cross-border deal
flow and it increases shareholder wealth for U.S. acquirers.


Background: Obesity is a major public health problem worldwide. Bariatric surgery can reduce body weight, and it is one of the better ways to improve metabolic disease and lifestyle. The aim of this study was to explore a new cohort of patients with obesity and evaluate the gender differences and the steatosis status within the gender group. Methods: A cohort of 250 adult obese patients with BMI ≥ 30 and age >18 years, eligible for gastric bariatric surgery at Pineta Grande Hospital, Castel Volturno (Italy) was studied. Results: The prevalence in women was higher (72.40%) than men (27.60%). Overall, results indicated many statistically significant gender differences in hematological and clinical parameters. Analysis of the subcohorts based on the severity of steatosis revealed differences of this condition between the genders. Steatosis was more prevalent in the male subcohort, but female patients revealed greater within-group differences. Conclusions: Many differences were found not only in the total cohort but also between the gender subcohorts, both in the presence and absence of steatosis. We can conclude that the pathophysiological, genetic, and hormonal patterns affecting these patients delineate different individual profiles.


A two-step method was developed to homogeneously insert carbonic anhydrase (CA, E.C. 22.214.171.124) into Michael-adduct-based coatings. CA was first covalently coupled to an N-vinylformamide-based water-soluble polymer. Unlike native CA, the resulting polymer/CA system could be dispersed within a film matrix. The enzyme-containing coating (ECC) hydrolyzes p-nitrophenyl propionate in buffered media at high rates retaining approximately 7% apparent activity. In comparison, other two-step techniques for the chemical coupling of CA to the coating surface were less efficient and led to coatings with significantly less activity. A three-step immobilization process coupling the enzyme to the surface of a partially hydrolyzed coating also raised retention of activity after coating synthesis. CA-ECC is stable under ambient conditions retaining 45% activity after 90 days of storage at room temperature.


BACKGROUND
Numerous cartilage grafts from a number of donor sites have been described, each with a different shape and size. These donor sites include the nasal septum, costal chondral cartilage, and the conchal bowl. Although harvests from the conchal bowl are commonly-employed, the techniques have been minimally-described in the literature, particularly as it applies to rhinoplasty.

OBJECTIVES
The authors identify differences in the conchal bowl cartilage parameters that could aid in the planning and harvesting of conchal grafts during augmentation rhinoplasty.

METHODS
The authors dissected ears from fourteen cadavers (eight females and six males), ranging between 59 and 77 years of age. The conchal bowls were isolated, after which a reference point or was marked at the junction of the helical root and the conchal extension of the helical root. A cartilage grid was mapped out at 3-mm interval divisions with a horizontal limb axis parallel to the helical root extension and a vertical limb axis perpendicular to the latter. Conchal cartilage width, height, and thickness were then measured. Axial tissue slices were harvested and histologic preparations completed with hemotoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining to delineate microscopic characteristics of the cartilage.

RESULTS
Maximum conchal bowl width ranged from 1.9 to 2.9 cm and was widest on average over the cymba (2.4 ± 0.3 cm). Maximum conchal bowl height ranged from 1.7 to 3.1 cm and was greatest on average over the region posterior to the junction of the helical root and conchal bowl (2.4 ± 0.5 cm). Conchal bowl thickness ranged from 1.9 to 4.4 mm and was observed thickest over both the conchal extension of the helical root (3.5 ± 0.4 mm) as well as over a distinct region in the inferior-anterior aspect of the cavum (3.7 ± 0.9 mm). No difference in thickness was observed between the conchal extension of the helical root (3.5 ± 0.4 mm) and the distinct region in the inferioranterior aspect of the cavum (3.7 ± 0.9 mm; P > .05). Naturally-occurring cartilaginous divisions were appreciated on histologic specimens located at the junction of the cavum and external auditory meatus and at the junction of the helical root and conchal extension of the helical root.

CONCLUSIONS
The results, examination, and outline of conchal bowl parameters from cadaver cartilage demonstrated in this article will aid the surgeon in effectively obtaining the appropriate cartilage grafts for placement during rhinoplasty.


Xie & Xu (2000) present a model for mapping quantitative trait loci in an autotetraploid population. However, one aspect of their model, namely gamete formation, does not properly represent the biological process in autotetraploid species. This paper gives a more realistic formulation for this part of the model, and discusses the consequences for multipoint mapping.


Pavement performance is the ability of pavement to remain in an acceptable condition to serve the intended users over a period of time. There are several principal, combined factors that affect flexible pavement performance such as environmental conditions, pavement materials, and traffic loads. Vehicle overloading is considered one of the most significant causes of accelerating flexible pavement deterioration, reducing the pavement's design life, and affecting the overall sustainability of the pavement system. Therefore, researchers are continuously examining pavement systems with a view to finding the most suitable solutions for sustainable development in road construction systems in order to reduce both costs and pollution. In this study, we present a framework to conduct nonparametric and parametric survival analysis for asphalt pavement test sections, to assess the influence of using reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) on fatigue service life, to indicate the most significant subset of risk factors (covariates), and to study the effect of overweight axles on flexible pavement performance. All the data concerned were extracted from the long-term pavement performance (LTPP) program. The Kaplan–Meier (KM) survival probability curves of multiple pavement distresses were developed to compare the failure probability for various distresses and to determine the median survival time for each distress. The fatigue survival curves for the test sections using RAP and virgin materials were developed separately and the equality of the two survival curves was tested and affirmed. Several parametric survival analyses were conducted to select the most significant subset of covariates. For fatigue cracking and, after dropping the insignificant predictors, a model was developed to show the quantitative relationship between fatigue failure time and potentially influential factors. The analysis indicated that the increase in the percentage of overloaded axles from 0% to 20% can reduce the fatigue survival life of flexible pavement by up to 55%. In the absence of overweight axles, a one-inch increase in asphalt layer thickness can extend the fatigue service life by about half a year. However, in the presence of 20% of overweight axles, a one-inch increase in thickness can extend the fatigue service life by only 0.22 years. Therefore, additional virgin materials and resources are needed to maintain traffic conditions in the road network and to compensate for the reduction in fatigue service life. Moreover, the effect of the increase in overweight axles from 0% to 15% on reducing the fatigue survival life is found to be similar to the effect of increasing the AADTT tenfold. Therefore, the sustainability of pavement is directly affected by the fatigue survival life.


Amniotic fluid (AF) is the first fluid to enter the gastrointestinal tract. Preterm birth is leading to a sudden interruption of AF swallowing. Understanding the composition of amniotic fluid is crucial to implement strategies preventing intestinal injury in preterm infants. We hypothesized that the fetal gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is exposed to melatonin and antioxidant enzymes via amniotic fluid throughout prenatal development. Amniotic fluid samples from 76 pregnant women with a median (range) gestational age of 38.0 (14.3–40.1) weeks have been collected. Immediately after birth blood samples were collected from the umbilical vein (n = 53). Median (Interquartile range) melatonin concentration was 30.5 pg/ml (12.7–118.3) and superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) concentration was 84 ng/ml (59–123). Extracellular glutathione peroxidase concentration was either not detectable or exceptionally low. We found a positive correlation between melatonin concentration in amniotic fluid and gestational age (Spearman's correlation coefficient, r = 0.570, p<0.001), while SOD1 concentration in amniotic fluid was inversely correlated with gestational age (r = −0.246, p = 0.032). Compared to serum samples, melatonin concentration was statistically significantly higher in amniotic fluid (p<0.001). Our results indicate that the fetal gastrointestinal system is continuously exposed to melatonin and SOD1 via the amniotic fluid throughout prenatal development.


The invention relates to digital transmission. It particularly relates to a method of transmitting data using multi-carrier Code-division Multiple Access (CDMA) for accessing a transmission system. The method comprises a step of modulating the data to be transmitted using Orthogonal Frequency-division Multiplexing (OFDM) for producing OFDM modulated data symbols and a step of spreading the OFDM modulated data symbols with spreading codes including a set of predefined sequences, wherein the sequences are predefined so that they satisfy predetermined auto-correlation and/or cross-correlation criteria within a region around the zero-time offset of the correlation function, defined as an interference Free Window (IFW).


The dehydration of isopropanol (B) by batch heteroazeotropic distillation (BHAD) is studied by dynamic simulation. The mixture also contains methyl ethyl ketone (A) and toluene (E) as pollutants. The water (C) content of the feed (ca. 2 mass%) is much lower than that of the B-C azeotrope. B can be obtained as residue by conventional batch distillation (BD) under a very high reflux ratio and considerable loss of B, only. The loss of B can be considerably decreased by BHAD. Toluene, already present in the mixture, can be a suitable entrainer (E), since it forms a ternary heteroazeotrope with isopropanol and water.Dehydration is feasible by Mode II, Strategy A of BHAD, that is, the two liquid phases of the condensate are separated in a decanter, and the whole amount of E-rich phase is refluxed, while that of E-lean phase is withdrawn as distillate. As the production is very slow because of the high (E-rich/E-lean) phase ratio, several operational strategies are studied in order to make it faster. These include taking a homogeneous fore-cut to remove methyl ethyl ketone, and Strategy B of Mode II, where part of the E-rich phase is also taken as distillate.


Hostel gains its popularity due to the rapid growth of urban tourism in Indonesia. The hostel not only offers afforda- ble accommodation, but it also has a more innovative design. In the current social media age, most of the hostel need to be photogenic because the interior has become a part of a branding strategy. Since most of the hostel markets through OTA (online travel agency), their profile image are important to attract customer. These made hostel interior looks appealing on camera gaze. Many of design strategies corporate graphic visualization, unique propor- tion/composition to fit in camera angle. The technique of mural/graffiti often uses to promote photogenic image on small spaces/ alternative spaces. The feature of graphic as well as image composition has widely used to provoke customer imagination on 'advertised' space. The relation of spatial effect between spatial-image relation will be examined to create a new perspective of interior design. These studies choose 3 hostels located ' Mural Villages' in Yogyakarta. This hostel is a form of adaptive interior from house to a hostel. In this article, the study focused on aes- thetic side of those interior adaptation, as well as the application of mural to create a photogenic space. The mural's technique and its relation to other interior elements will be examined to seek a new perspective on spatial-image ar- ticulation on interior space.

Keywords interior design, mural, hostel design, graffiti , info-graphic, interior element


This article evaluates EU policies on public services – particularly public network services from the citizens point of view. It is first argued that citizens perceptions are important because the provision of fundamental services is at stake and because they constitute the infrastructure necessary for social and economic development. Citizens' "voice" can, therefore, be known, analysed and used in the design of improved policy on public services along with other indicators. Changing EU policy on public services is synthesised and classified into two main phases in section two. Citizen satisfaction with public services as revealed through surveys from 1997 to 2007 is explored in the third section. In the discussion, the prospects for EU policy on public services are considered and, it is argued that, from the perspectives of subsidiarity and proportionality, policy towards strengthening the common market is being increasingly uploaded to the supranational level in the form of directives, whilst cohesion and redistribution policies are being downloaded to the national level or dealt with at the supranational level by "soft" instruments.