BACKGROUND
Food bank users suffer high food insecurity. Food insecurity increases risk for chronic health conditions. However, chronic pain and its relation to food insecurity among food bank users is unknown. Knowledge about populations with chronic pain is important to direct appropriate public health nutritional strategies.

METHODS
Participants completed a survey including sleep, pain, depressive symptoms and food insecurity measures. Descriptive statistics characterized the burden of chronic pain among the sample, and a series of chi-square and t-tests assessed for demographic differences between food bank users who reported pain compared to those who did not. Logistic regression tested for variables predicting food insecurity.

RESULTS
Within the sample (N = 207), 53% reported a chronic pain diagnosis. Adults with pain were more likely to receive food stamps and to have a mental health condition than those without pain. Regression analyses revealed that depressive symptoms and chronic pain significantly predicted food insecurity when controlling for age and gender.

CONCLUSIONS
Exploring the link between depression, pain and nutritional resources may enhance understanding of causal relationships driving food insecurity. Public health officials should address nutritional needs of adults including those with chronic pain who use food bank services.


Congenital cholesteatomas arise from embryonic epithelial cell rests in the middle ear cleft. We report our series of 19 cases observed in 18 children between 1985 and 1990. Clinical data and surgical observations are analyzed. In regard to the location of the lesions, our findings are consistent with most of what has been reported in the literature. Sixty-eight percent of the lesions originated from the anterosuperior part of the mesotympanum. Only 10% were posterosuperiorly located. Pathogenic mechanisms are discussed with respect to the lesion's primary site.


The development of a theoretical analytical model leads us to consider the recession coefficient as a useful hydrological parameter for studying the hydraulic impacts of an earthquake on spring flow in terms of the increase of persistent discharges and the overall alteration of springs. Both the inertia of the aquifer emptying and the increased pore pressure in the lower part of the aquifer caused by the earthquake contribute to maintaining the discharge of persistent springs. Abundant information on the hydrological phenomena induced or modified by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake (M ∈ [8,9]) and its relationship with present‐day knowledge of the geology and hydrogeology of Portugal and Spain, as well as Spanish spring statistics, have allowed us to identify the factors that most influence the hydraulic sensitivity of aquifers to that earthquake: regional faults, geological boundaries between large geological units, the granite lithology, and aquifers with high recession coefficients. We observe an overall single response, which was an increase in postseismic spring discharges over the entire of the SW quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula (1–24 months). The persisting discharges were concentrated close to the major NE‐SW directional faults located in SW Portugal that are linked to the Azores‐Gibraltar strike‐slip fault. In terms of the geographical distribution of the hydrological phenomena, we observe that in the near and intermediate field of the earthquake source, there were persistent increases in spring flow in hard rocks occurring alongside persistent diffuse discharges, liquefaction, and rising water levels in wells due to consolidation of superficial geological formations.


Thomas Buchell Sworn Marshall Green and Susan Johnson are the property of the Estate of John Bushell. He has been dead three years next March I think. The negroes at the time he died had run away. I don't know how long I think one year. I have known Marshall and Susan all my life I lived on the adjoining farm. I will be twentyone years old next June. The Negro man is older than me considerably the woman three or four years. They have been absent four years. They have been absent ever since except Marshall was taken up last August and taken home and my father allowed him to come after his children and return home. The children were born in Cecil County in Maryland. There were three He had no other children when he came away. John Buchell had 5 or 10 slaves he liberated none. I don't know that ever my uncle used any means to recover these persons. I came after them the first time with my father –I have not seen Marshall since last August. Jos: Joyce Sworn I have been Marshall 15 years or thereabouts. My acquaintance commenced in Cecil County. He was in the possession of John Buchell as his slave. I have no doubt he is the ↑same↑ person I have known as Marshall Green at John Bushell's I have not seen Marshall for 5 years. He was then on J. Bushell's farm. I lived within two miles of the farm. I saw Marshall frequently during the 15 years perhaps 2 or 3 times a week. I have not seen him here before I saw him in the Court I have spoken to him and know him to be the same man.


In India ever since independence, marketing acquire a largely urban bias. Hence, there were very less attempt on the part of marketers to distribute products to satisfy rural needs. An apathetic attitude also due to the assumption that the rural consumer are poor and had no purchasing power to buy expensive branded products. Besides such, lacks of transportation and communication links were also responsible for neglect of the rural consumer by the business firms.


With the rapid spread of web application, the search engine based on personalized services becomes more important in the society. The paper proposes an approach to design and implement a personalized search engine based on Heritrix and Lucene. In particular, the design a web crawler of mobile information with URL hashing algorithm, achieving the multithread and efficient web crawl. Experimental results show the efficient performance.


Introduction: Primary synovial chondromatosis (SC) is a disease of the synovium occurring in the third to fifth decade of life with the peak incidence in the fifth decade and commonly involves the knee in 50% cases. The diagnosis of SC is primarily radiological and intraoperative. Primary SC of the hip is rare, and their prevalence is not known. Case Report: A 7-year-old female child presented with pain and limp left hip for 6 weeks. She had a stiff hip gait. Clinical examination revealed a fixed abduction, flexion deformity, and restricted internal rotation with apparent lengthening of 2 cm. The ultrasonography revealed synovial effusion with synovial deposits. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed features of tuberculous synovitis, inflammatory synovitis, or a rare possibility of SC. Arthrotomy was performed following failed hip aspiration. Multiple chondral loose bodies were noted on incision of capsule. Partial synovectomy was also performed. The synovium histopathology revealed multiple synovial chondral inclusions. A final diagnosis of SC was made. Conclusion: We report this case of primary SC, 7-year-old female patient with symptoms of hip pain, limp, and fixed deformities restricting hip function as a first of its kind in the mentioned age group. Hence, although rare SC may be considered as one of the differential diagnosis in hip symptoms in children <10 years of age.


Objective To study the application of gene chip in detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to rifampin (RFP) and isoniazid (INH). Methods Probes were designed and the gene chip was fabricated according to the 30 single nucleotide polymorphisms of 11 mutations on 4 genes associated with RFP and INH resistance. The mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis were detected by gene chip to analyze the resistance to INH and RFP. Results 85 of 110 (77.3%) strains resistant to INH and 22 of 30 (73.3%) strains sensitive to INH were detected, while 77 of 94 (81.9%) strains resistant to RFP and 40 of 46 (87.0%) strains sensitive to RFP were detected. The results from the gene-chip detection were consistent with the sequence information. Conclusion The gene-chip technology, a fast test with high accuracy, specificity and sensitivity, as shown in our study, is promising in the clinical detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to INH and RFP.


Transparent oxide films are widely employed as antireflection or high reflection coatings, band-pass filters and narrow-band-filters in various optical and electronic devices. The performances of these devices are based on interference effects obtained by alternating layers of high and low refractive indices. Different deposition techniques have been employed for coating glasses with different thin films materials. The metal oxides optical coatings can be deposed on glass substrate by CVD and PVD processes. The heterogeneity between the deposit and the glass substrate is the principal cause of the lack of durability of these coatings. Mono or multilayers materials could be used as colored glazing, which is slightly opaque to the human eye but highly transparent to solar energy. The glazing colors are based on interference in the thin-film coating(s) on the reverse side of the glass. Our research group focuses on investigation of single SiO2 and SiO2-TiO2 multilayers, obtained by dip-coating (DC) deposition technique using sol-gel precursors, as suitable glazing for colored solar-thermal collectors. By optimizing the deposition parameters (number of deposition sequences, time between deposition sequences, immersion and extraction rate, temperature) and the precursor properties (concentration, additives, etc.) we are able to tailor the morphological and optical properties of silica coated glass. Consequently the transmittance has increased up to 93% in UV-VIS and IR regions and the reflectance is < 5% in VIS and IR regions. The samples show various morphologies (mostly dense with grains around 3040 nm) function of the precursor composition (presence of additives) and concentration.


This Work in Progress Research paper aims to contribute to theories relevant to trust, self-efficacy and team effectiveness in engineering student teams. Self-efficacy and trust in teammates are both crucial for team effectiveness. Borrego et al. in a review on team effectiveness within engineering education have highlighted the scarcity of research on psychological constructs, such as trust. This work was inspired by their call for more research that connects engineering education research with the industrial and organisational psychology literature to improve engineering education practice and the outcomes relating to team working. Team working depends on social and communication skills of individual teammates. However, collaborative teams can experience socio-communication challenges. These can be even more pronounced in neuro-atypical (NT) students. With an increasing number of students, hidden or diagnosed, who are neurologically atypical (NAT) within engineering courses investigating ways to support development of trust and self-efficacy has become even more important. Using two real-world case studies, the efficacy of the Computer Orchestrated Group Learning Environment (COGLE), a novel software intervention that supports the development of trust and self-efficacy of individuals in teams of neuro-typical and neuro-atypical students, is investigated using qualitative and quantitative methods. In particular to answer the two research questions: 1. How does the use of COGLE affect the self-efficacy of NT and NAT engineering students learning together? 2. How does the use of COGLE affect the development of trust between a team of NT and NAT engineering students learning together? The case studies show how COGLE can be used within two pedagogical approaches: Flipped Classroom and Project Based Learning, which are commonly used in engineering education. The learning gain data and related effect sizes from both cases show that COGLE was successful in enhancing self-efficacy in all students. Furthermore, both cases show three very interesting results relating to trust: firstly, the teammates developed trust in each other in just 4 two-hour sessions; secondly, the students, including the neuro-atypical students, were able to correct their trust due to varied interactions enabled by COGLE; and finally, as trust and self-efficacy was enhanced before students were asked to work together on a collaborative activity, it helped both neuro-typical and neuro-atypical students to be fully involved in team work, thereby improving the team's effectiveness. The implication for practice is that COGLE can be used to effectively prepare all students for as shown by learning gain and increased levels of trust and enhance team effectiveness.


This paper presents new low-complexity lattice-decoding algorithms for noncoherent block detection of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) signals over complex-valued fading channels. The algorithms are optimal in terms of the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT). The computational complexity is polynomial in the block length; making GLRT-optimal noncoherent detection feasible for implementation. We also provide even lower complexity suboptimal algorithms. Simulations show that the suboptimal algorithms have performance indistinguishable from the optimal algorithms. Finally, we consider block-based transmission, and propose to use noncoherent detection as an alternative to pilot-assisted transmission (PAT). The new technique is shown to outperform PAT.


We report orthotopic (life-supporting) survival of genetically engineered porcine cardiac xenografts (with 3-9 progressive gene modifications) for almost 9 months in baboon recipients. This work builds on our previously reported heterotopic cardiac xenograft (3 gene modifications) survival up to 945 days with an anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody-based immunosuppression. In this current study, life-supporting xenografts containing multiple human complement regulatory, thromboregulatory, and anti-inflammatory proteins, in addition to growth hormone receptor knockout (KO) and carbohydrate antigen KOs, were transplanted. Selective "multi-gene" xenografts demonstrate survival greater than 8 months without the use of adjunctive medications and without evidence of abnormal xenograft thickness or rejection. These data demonstrate that selective "multi-gene" modifications improve cardiac xenograft survival significantly and may be foundational for paving the way to bridge transplantation in humans.


Cerebellar ataxia, mental retardation, and disequilibrium syndrome 4 (CAMRQ4) is early onset neuromotor disorder and intellectual disabilities caused by variants of ATP8A2 . W e report sibling cases and systematically analyze previous literature to increase our understanding of CAMRQ4. Japanese siblings presented with athetotic movements at 1 and 2 months of age. They also had ptosis, ophthalmoplegia, feeding difficulty, hypotonia, and severely delayed development. One patient had retinal degeneration and optic atrophy. Flattening of the auditory brainstem responses and areflexia developed. At the last follow-up, neither patient could sit or achieve head control, although some nonverbal communication was preserved. Whole exome sequencing revealed compound heterozygous variants of ATP8A2 : NM_016529.6:c.[1741C>T];[2158C>T] p.[(Arg581*)];[(Arg720*)]. The p.(Arg581*) variant has been reported, while the variant p.(Arg720*) was novel. The symptoms did not progress in the early period of development, which makes it difficult to distinguish from dyskinetic cerebral palsy, particularly in solitary cases. However, visual and hearing impairments associated with involuntary movements and severe developmental delay may be a clue to suspect CAMRQ4.


A teratological study of suplatast tosilate (IPD-1151T), a new anti-allergic agent which has a suppressive action on IgE antibody formation, was conducted with pregnant Wistar rats. Dosage levels of IPD-1151T 0, 300, 900 and 2700 mg/kg/day were administered to dams orally by gavage on days 7 through 17 of gestation. Two-thirds of dams per group was caesarean-sectioned on day 20 of gestation and their fetuses were removed for examination of external, visceral and skeletal anomalies. The remaining one-third was allowed to deliver naturally. F1 neonates were examined developmental, functional and behavioral parameters and reproductive abilities. The results were as follows: 1. Toxicities on F0 dams in the 2700 mg/kg/day group were salivation, piloerection, and decreases in body weight and food consumption. Seven animals (19.4%) showed severe toxicity and were dead. Toxicity in the 900 mg/kg/day group was a slight decrease in food consumption. The dosage level of 300 mg/kg/day was non-toxic. 2. Toxicities on F1 fetuses in the 2700 mg/kg/day group were a decrease in body weight and an increase in visceral anomalies (main one was ventricular septal defect that might be related to developmental retardation). No toxicities were seen in the 300 and 900 mg/kg/day. 3. In F1 neonates, suppressions of body weight were observed clearly in the male and female 2700 mg/kg/day and slightly in the male 900 mg/kg/day groups. But no changes in parameters of development, function, behavior or reproductive ability were seen in any dosed groups. It was suggested that no effective dose levels of IPD-1151T were 300 mg/kg/day for F0 dams and F1 neonates, and 900 mg/kg/day for F1 fetuses.


There is discrepancy about the effects of regular exercise training on basal leptin level and most of the existing data have been collected from obese/thin subjects. In this study, the effects of one year aerobic exercise was investigated in normal weight untrained healthy volunteer male and female subjects. The sample included 60 non-athletes, male and female university students. First, all samples were randomly divided into four groups. The practice program including selected aerobic exercises and volleyball drills with specific intensity was applied. The blood samples of subjects were taken once 24 h before the first section of the exercise program and 24 h after the last section of the exercise program. Resting plasma leptin level was determined using ELISA method in pre and posttest and in paired sample T test, whereas one way and two way (factorial) ANOVA was used to analyze the data. Studies show that basal plasma leptin levels in healthy young non-athlete individuals in response to regular exercise in the long term did not fluctuate. Aerobic exercise for one year showed no significant effect on plasma leptin levels (that is about the role of fat tissue as the most significant source of leptin), and it seems that it occurs because fat tissue in subjects did not change.


The manufacturing processes of timber screws, which are widely used for wood construction work, include wire manufacturing, heading and threading, case treatment, and coating. A lowcarbon steel wire of AISI 1022 is used to easily fabricate timber screws. The majority of case treatment activities are performed to improve the screw strength without affecting the soft, tough interior of the screws in drilling operation. In this study, the Taguchi method is used to obtain optimum case treatment conditions to improve the mechanical properties of AISI 1022 timber screws. The quality of case-treated timber screws is affected by various factors, such as case treatment temperature, case treatment time, atmosphere composition, and tempering temperature. The effects of case treatment parameters affect the quality characteristics, such as case hardness and torsional strength. It is experimentally revealed that ammonia flow rate, case treatment time, and carbon potential are significant for case hardness, while methanol flow rate, case treatment temperature, and case treatment time are significant for torsional strength. The optimum mean case hardness is 673.1 HV, the optimum mean core hardness is 440.0 HV and, for torsional strength, the optimum mean value is 5.3 N⋅m. The new case treatment parameter settings evidently improve the performance. The strength of the case-treated AISI 1022 timber screws is effectively improved. These results may be used as a reference for fastener manufacturers.


Early Alzheimer's disease detection has become an important research area for many years. Various studies in the field of Alzheimer's disease detection have focused on applying individual feature selection methods. In addition to individual feature selection methods, the ensemble feature selection approach has become a creative field. It advocates the combination of the ranked features from various feature selection methods to obtain better results than the current approaches. Thus, this study aims to build a predictive model for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease using the ensemble feature selection approaches. Also, Alzheimer's disease dataset consists of three target classes: Normal (CN), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, homogeneous and heterogeneous ensemble approaches have been applied in the feature selection process. Two feature subsets are created based on these ensemble feature selection approaches. A predictive model for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease has been build applying Random Forest, Artificial Neural Network, Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine, and Naive Bayes data mining algorithms. The predictive model uses the two feature subsets applying these algorithms separately. Then, the performance results are compared to determine which ensemble feature selection approach performs better than the other. This study revealed that better performance result is provided applying Random Forest algorithm with feature subset obtained using the heterogeneous ensemble feature selection approach (91%).


Among numerous genres of sacred music (such as chorales, hymns, motets, masses, etc.), Requiem, or otherwise Missa pro defunctis, Missa defunctorum (Mass for the Deceased) stands out. It is the Mass for the Deceased, corresponding to the Roman Catholic Missal, that is celebrated mainly during the funeral. Over time, Requiem has become a vocal-instrumental genre, a composition associated with the theme of death and mourning. In the 19th century, two principal forms of the genre of Requiem co-existed: a proud, concert-type form, heavily influenced by secular music, and a more modest, reserved, and more "traditional" liturgical one. The latter was smaller in scope, written for a more modest composition of performers in a simpler music language and of a non-dramatic character. The development of the liturgical Requiem over the period in question was largely affected by the Cecilian Movement, active also in Lithuania. True, it is also possible to discuss an intermediate link between the concert and the liturgical types of Requiem – a concert-type vocal-instrumental Requiem, which could also be performed in liturgy.
 The paper focuses on the manuscripts of the Requiem compositions re-written in the 19th century that were once performed in churches of Vilnius and other cities of Lithuania and currently are stored in in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Reading Room of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania and in the Manuscript Department of the Vilnius University Library. These are copies of the Requiem compositions by the following authors: Gioacchino Albertini (1748–1812), Josef Becher (1821–1888), Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842), Max Filke (1855–1911), Joseph Gruber (1855–1933), Lambert Kraus (1728–1790), Antonio Rosetti (1750–1792), and Johann Baptist Schiedermayr (1779–1840).


BACKGROUND
In the worldwide, there are the pandemic of the virus coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and there is no approved treatment for this disease.

CASE PRESENTATION
This study reported a new case with COVID 19 with neurological symptoms such as headache and loss of consciousness without any symptoms and imaging of COVID 19 in admission but RT-PCR COVID 19 of patient was positive and during hospitalization patient had increasing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volume in sub-arachnoid space, micro-hemorrhaging in basal ganglia and down ward cerebellar tonsile herniation in the brain imaging, also there were rhabdomyolysis and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura in the lab data. Finally, based on abnormal electroencephalogram (EEG), brain death was diagnosed for patient in end of hospitalization. In the 8th of admission day, the patients died after cardiovascular arrest.

CONCLUSION
The COVID 19 can be associated with different symptoms such as neurological complication and brain death was unusual complication in COVID19.


Quince ( Cydonia oblonga Mill.) cvs. Ekmek, Esme, Limon, Ege 2, Ege 22, Ege 25 and Quince-A rootstock pollens were collected in April from the unopened pink balloon-stage flowers on mature trees. The pollen amount was between 20063 pollen/flower ('Ege 25') and 11906 pollen/flower ('Limon') with hemacytometer. The lowest and highest pollen viability were determined from 79.8 (Quince A in day 14) to 97.8% ('Ege 2' in day 0) by IKI. The germination rates in different sucrose and boric acid concentrations in 1% agar changed from 0 ('Limon' in 0% sucrose) to 91.7% ('Ege 2' in 20% sucrose) and from 32.7 (Quince A in 0 mg/L boric acid) to 94.9% ('Ege 22' in 100 mg/L boric acid), respectively. Key words: Cydonia oblonga, pollen, viability, germination.


The lumbar vertebrae are the largest segments of the movable part of the vertebral column, they are elected L1 to L5, starting at the top. The spinal column, more commonly called the backbone, is made up primarily of vertebrae discs, and the spinal cord. Acting as a communication conduit for the brain, signals are transmitted and received through the spinal cord. It is otherwise known as vertebral column consists of 24 separate bony vertebrae together with 5 fused vertebrae, it is the unique interaction between the solid and fluid components that provides the disc strength and flexibility required to bear loading of the lumbar spine. In this work the Segmentation of Spine Image using Median Filter and Canny Edge Detection Algorithm between lumbar spine CT scan spine disc image. The result shows that the canny edge detection algorithm produced better result when compared other edge detection algorithm. Finding the correct boundary in a noisy image of spine disc is still a difficult one. To find out absolute edges from noisy images, the comparative result can be verified and validated with the standard medical values. The result shows that the canny edge detection algorithm performs well and produced a solution very nearer to the optimal solution. This method is vigorous for all kinds of noisy images. Key wordsSpine Disc image, Finite Element Modelling,Median Filter, Canny Edge Detection, CT scan, Magnitude and Edge Length


In this paper, a new real-time approach for audio recognition of waterbird species in noisy environments, based on a Texas Instruments DSP, i.e. TMS320C6713 is proposed. For noise estimation in noisy water bird's sound, a tonal region detector (TRD) using a sigmoid function is introduced. This method offers flexibility since the slope and the mean of the sigmoid function can be adapted autonomously for a better trade-off between noise overvaluation and undervaluation. Then, the features Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients post processed by Spectral Subtraction (MFCC-SS) were extracted for classification using Support Vector Machine classifier. A development of the Simulink analysis models of classic MFCC and MFCC-SS is described. The audio recognition system is implemented in real time by loading the created models in DSP board, after being converted to target C code using Code Composer Studio. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed TRD-MFCC-SS feature is highly effective and performs satisfactorily compared to conventional MFCC feature, especially in complex environment.


A coreset is a tiny weighted subset of an input set, that closely resembles the loss function, with respect to a certain set of queries. Coresets became prevalent in machine learning as they have shown to be advantageous for many applications. While coreset research is an active research area, unfortunately, coresets are constructed in a problem-dependent manner, where for each problem, a new coreset construction algorithm is usually suggested, a process that may take time or may be hard for new researchers in the field. Even the generic frameworks require additional (problem-dependent) computations or proofs to be done by the user. Besides, many problems do not have (provable) small coresets, limiting their applicability. To this end, we suggest an automatic practical framework for constructing coresets, which requires (only) the input data and the desired cost function from the user, without the need for any other task-related computation to be done by the user. To do so, we reduce the problem of approximating a loss function to an instance of vector summation approximation, where the vectors we aim to sum are loss vectors of a specific subset of the queries, such that we aim to approximate the image of the function on this subset. We show that while this set is limited, the coreset is quite general. An extensive experimental study on various machine learning applications is also conducted. Finally, we provide a ``plug and play"style implementation, proposing a user-friendly system that can be easily used to apply coresets for many problems. Full open source code can be found at \href{https://github.com/alaamaalouf/AutoCoreset}{\text{https://github.com/alaamaalouf/AutoCoreset}}. We believe that these contributions enable future research and easier use and applications of coresets.


Localization of mobile devices underground is extremely challenging, with radio propagation (such as used in GPS and VHF) severely attenuated by soil and moisture. However, low frequency magnetic fields are able to penetrate the ground with minimal loss. Mobile underground tracking devices record magnetic field strengths generated by an array of transmitting coils placed above the area of interest. This information is stored in flash memory, for opportunistic upload over a conventional radio link when the device is above ground. As a particular application of this technology, the underground movements of wild European badgers (Meles meles) were tracked in 3-D within their burrow systems, by equipping them with lightweight tracking collars. Typical localization accuracy is 0.45 m RMS over a 15 m × 15 m area and collar lifetime is of the order of 9 months from a 1.4 Ah lithium cell.


This article draws from a larger doctoral study that examines parents' and teachers' perceptions of parental involvement in early childhood learning. The Covid-19 lockdown happened on March 18, 2020, in Cameroon before data collection was completed, therefore presenting an opportunity to investigate home-school relationships during this period. The private nursery school's initiative in organising distance learning during the lockdown was unexpected, considering Cameroon is a lower-middle-income country where most families struggle to afford digital tools for online learning. Thus, I was interested in finding out perceptions of how this was achieved. New approaches for data collection were adopted using WhatsApp messaging and Zoom interviews with parents and teachers; WhatsApp messaging was especially chosen to suit participants' needs in this context. The head teacher was recruited as a teacher-researcher who elicited children's stories through conversation and drawing techniques. There were challenges in renegotiating participants' consent and setting Zoom interviews due to differences in time zones and poor network connectivity. After data collection, retrospective ethical approval was sought to include the additional information in my research. The insights gained from the study can be helpful for researchers concerning emergency response strategies in data collection, steps for gaining further ethical approval and adding knowledge on research methodology about online data collection.


In this study, four statistical models for estimating diffuse solar radiation from global solar radiation in different regions of Thailand have been developed. In developing the models, a 12-year period of global and diffuse solar radiation measured at four of our solar radiation monitoring stations, situated in different regions of Thailand have been analyzed. The statistical models estimate diffuse fraction from clearness index at the hourly scale. The performance of these models have been compared with that of other models. The models developed in this study performed best for most cases.


An analysis of chromosome aberrations in human tumors was performed in 29 cases of soft tissue sarcoma. The tumor tissues were disaggregated with collagenase and the cells cultured for 2-3 days. Analyzable metaphases were obtained in 15 cases, 4 of which showed only normal karyotypes. The remaining 11 tumors showed various numerical and structural abnormalities in their karyotypes: 8 tumors were near-diploid and the remaining 3 were near-triploid. G- and Q-banding analyses revealed clonal abnormalities in the 11 cases with the presence of marker chromosomes; 15 different chromosomes were involved in chromosome rearrangements, chromosomes 1 and 2 being the most frequently affected. Because of the heterogeneity of the tumor group investigated (neurogenic sarcoma, 2 liposarcomas, neurofibrosarcoma, synovial cell sarcoma, fibrosarcoma, mesothelioma, leiomyosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, and hemangiopericytoma), it was impossible to reach any conclusion on the specificity of the cytogenetic abnormalities for a particular tumor type.


Recent studies adopted models of user acceptance of information technology to predict and explain drivers' acceptance of traffic information. Among these frameworks, the most commonly used is the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). However, TAM is too general and does not consider drivers' response in specific traffic conditions or choice scenarios. This study combines an extended TAM with different choice scenarios displayed by Variable Message Signs (VMS) into a Hybrid Choice Model (HCM). Two models are proposed. The first model takes into account the causal relationships among latent variables based on the following hypotheses: Information Quality (IQ) has a positive effect on Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) which, in turn, have a positive effect on the Behavioural Intention (BI) to use traffic information. In the second model, the four latent variables PU, PEOU, IQ, and BI are directly added to the utility function without any causal relationships. 339 drivers with valid licence were interviewed via Stated Preference (SP) survey and the results show that TAM can explain travellers' response to VMS if the causal relationships among latent variables are taken into account. In addition, all hypothesized relationships are strongly supported. Practical and academic implications are also discussed.


Aims Determine the impact of the covid 19 pandemy on the emergency endoscopic activity. Methods The is a retrospective, descriptive and comparative study of epidemiological, clinical and endoscopic characteristics of patients who had emergency ERCP over two successive 8 months:Period(1):01/03/2019-31/10/2019 andPeriod(2):01/03/2020-31/10/2020 in our department of hepatogastroenterology of university hospital Mohammed VIOujda. Results The average age of patients was 62 years(12-93) during period(2) versus 67 years(25-104)during period(1),there were a female predominance in two groups.During period(2) 145 ERCP were performed,87(60 %) were in emergencycontext for acute cholangitis,9 had acute pancreatitis associated,12.6 % were in grade III of acute cholangitis and theaverage of bilirubin before the procedure was 115 mg/l and 54 mg/l after versus 166 ERCP during the period(1),93(56 %)having emergency ERCP for acute cholangitis, and acute pancreatitis was associated in 9 patients,17.2 % were in gradeIII, and the average of bilirubin before the procedure was 130 mg/l and 64 mg/l after during period(1),52.9 % patients whohad placement of prosthesis in period(2) versus 47.3 % in period(1),and 57.5 % patients had an endoscopic sphincterotomyversus 57 % respectively.In period(2),the etiology was lithiasis in 51.7 % patients, tumoral in 43.7 % patients, and hydatidcyst in 4.6 % patients, In period(1)the lithiasis patholology was in 58 % patients, tumoral in 36.8 % patients, two cases ofprosthesis dysfunction,1 with hydatid cyst and 1 with sump syndrom.In period(2),failed drainage was noted in 3(3.4 %)patients:2 patients:surgical drainage,1 patient:nasobiliary drainage, in period(1) 5(5.3 %)patients:3 patients:surgicaldrainage 2 patients:percutaneous drainage. Conclusions The results of our comparative study between period (1) and (2) are the age was around 60, female sexpredominate over male, therefore lithiasis pathology was the most predominant cause due to not having cholecystectomy, followed by the tumoral cause which is tardily diagnosed after complications and requiring drainage, placement of prosthesis was preferred during the covid period to reduce the risk of recurrence, the delay to perform ERCP, complications post-ERCP and hospital staying are decreased during the period(2), given the constraints of the pandemy.


Introduction:
Abdominal wall hernia is a common condition encounter in surgical OPD. There is 2% chance of developing hernia in lifetime wheres umbilical / paraumbilical hernia accounts for 10-14% of all the hernias. Ultimate treatment of abdominal wall hernia is surgery and mesh placement. Early surgery can avoid multiple complications including incarceration of intestine. Multiple patient factors that can cause recurrence of hernia or development of incisional hernia laprotomy incorporate age, male sex, COPD ,diabetes mellitus, somking and obesity. Multiple operative modalities are present for ventral hernias, commonest being laproscopic IPOM and Open sublay. Different meta-analysis recommends that laproscopic hernia repair is best in defect size not more than 10cm.
Objective:
objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of intra-peritoneal (IPOM) mesh repair with open sublay mesh repair for PUH in terms of operative time, post operative pain, hospital stay and recurrence.
Material and Methods:
This study was done in department of surgery at surgical unit III , Lahore General Hospital starting from january 2018 till january 2019. Patients presenting with paraumbilical hernia were admitted from SOPD. An aggregate of 50 participants were included in this study. Majority of patients were females (46 in number) with age ranging from 26 years to 55 years. Rests of patients were males (04 in number) with age ranging from 40 years to 60 years. Patients undergoing open surgery were placed under O-group and patients undergoing laproscopic repair were placed under L-group. Patients were followed up on 10th post-op day, 4 weeks, 6 month and 1 year interval. Inclusion criteria: All patients of both sexes with para umbilical hernia presenting in the SOPD was included in the study. Exclusion criteria: All patients with obstructed, strangulated PUH were excluded in the study. Patients with co-morbid conditions like diabetes mellitus (DM), COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), IHD (Ischemic Heart  Disease) were also excluded.
Results:
50 participants included in this study had age ranging from 26 years to 60 years. Mean duration of operation in L-group was 81 ± 13 minutes while in O-group, duration of operation was 89 ±19 minutes. Hernia defect size in both groups was approximately same. mean size defect was 13.3 ± 2.6 cm2 for L-group and 13.1 ± 2.9 cm2 in O-group. Post-operative Duration of Hospital atay for L-group was 36-60 hours while hospital stay in O-group was 48 to 72 hours. Recurrence rate after 1 year in L-group was 01 while in O-group;recurrence was seen in 02 patients.
Conclusion:
IPOM is a better option in management of paraumbilical / umbilical hernia in terms of operation duration, hospital stay, post-operative pain and recurrence outcomes as compared to open sublay technique.


Formant tracking is one of the most fundamental problems in speech processing. Traditionally, formants are estimated using signal processing methods. Recent studies showed that generic convolutional architectures can outperform recurrent networks on temporal tasks such as speech synthesis and machine translation. In this paper, we explored the use of Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) for formant tracking. In addition to the conventional implementation, we modified the architecture from three aspects. First, we turned off the "causal" mode of dilated convolution, making the dilated convolution see the future speech frames. Second, each hidden layer reused the output information from all the previous layers through dense connection. Third, we also adopted a gating mechanism to alleviate the problem of gradient disappearance by selectively forgetting unimportant information. The model was validated on the open access formant database VTR. The experiment showed that our proposed model was easy to converge and achieved an overall mean absolute percent error (MAPE) of 8.2% on speech-labeled frames, compared to three competitive baselines of 9.4% (LSTM), 9.1% (Bi-LSTM) and 8.9% (TCN).


A newly developed technique using ruthenium red to detect foci of bacterial digestion in mounts of whole leaflets that had been incubated with rumen bacteria was used to compare the digestion of alfalfa, a bloat-causing legume, and sainfoin, a bloat-safe legume. When whole leaflets were suspended in an artificial rumen medium and inoculated with rumen bacteria, massive bacterial adhesion and proliferation were noted at the stomata of alfalfa leaflets after 6 h of incubation, whereas only a few isolated bacteria adhered near the stomata of sainfoin leaflets After 22 h of incubation, the epidermal layers of alfalfa leaflets had peeled away in many areas, revealing an extensive bacterial invasion of the underlying mesophyll tissue in which large bacterial microcolonies had formed in intercellular spaces, and in intracellular spaces in several areas where plant cell walls had broken down. After 22 h of incubation, the surface of sainfoin leaflets resembled that of alfalfa leaflets at 6 h, with bacterial microcolonies adhering to the area surrounding the stomata, but without sloughing of the epidermis. Uninoculated control leaflets of both species showed no surface alteration but part of their normal bacterial flora had proliferated to form microcolonies on the surface after 22 h incubation. Dry matter loss due to leaching or bacterial digestion when whole leaflets of legumes were suspended in an artificial rumen medium, alone or with rumen bacteria, was significantly higher in the bloat-causing group. Values of leaching and of bacterial digestion were positively correlated. We conclude that reported differences in plant anatomy, and in cell wall chemistry, produce distinct rates or organic nutrient release from legume leaflets, and that these same differences produce an equally distinct susceptibility of leaflets to bacterial invasion, plant cell rupture, and the consequent release of intracellular plant components. The rate of release of organic nutrients from legume leaflets may be important in the etiology of foamy pasture bloat. This technique of in vitro digestion of whole leaflets followed by ruthenium red staining shows some promise of providing a rapid and qualitative test to distinguish, within a species, cultivars that may differ in their bloat-related characteristics.


Modern society uses almost all the elements present in the natural world. Although there have long been calls for the sustainable use of the resources that provide these elements and the building of human societies that are in harmony with the environment, the survival of the human race is increasingly at risk as a result of qualitative changes to the environment as a whole. Implementation by the society of methodologies for diagnosing and tracking these various elements of the natural environment and their relationships with humans are now required. Elements transport in the spheres on the surface earth and the human society and human body. Information on the concentrations and stable isotopes of elements is powerful in tracing the transportation of materials and have been applied in studies on the atmosphere-hydrosphere circulation, ecological service, and the life, health and history of humans. We propose a session to discuss development and applications of environmental traceability methods to achieve traceable system. Especially, we encourage to present a research based on Environmental Isotope Study, which integrates isotopic studies in various disciplines, such as geochemistry, hydrology, ecology, geology, mineralogy, anthropology, food science (identification of origins), and forensics.


Background: simulation and three-dimensional visualization of object motion is a prerequisite for any surgical planning system. Orbital hypertelorism is a disease, which is most commonly associated with craniofacial malformations. We have developed a surgical planning system for planning and evaluation of orbital hypertelorism surgery. In our system CT-based virtual surface models fitted by oriented bounding boxes (OBB) are manipulated. Three-dimensional motion as well as a correction surgery can be simulated. Both are controlled by collision detection. The computer-based interactive surgery simulation systems (CISSS) presented here can take virtual surgical operation and forecast facial features after the correction of orbital hypertelorism.


Biosupramolecular assemblies combining cucurbit[n]urils (CB[n]s) and proteins for the targeted delivery of drugs have the potential to improve the photoactivity of photosensitizers used in the photodynamic therapy of cancer. Understanding the complexity of these systems and how it affects the properties of photosensitizers is the focus of this work. We used acridine orange (AO+) as a model photosensitizer and compared it with methylene blue (MB+) and a cationic porphyrin (TMPyP4+). Encapsulation of the photosensitizers into CB[n]s (n = 7, 8) modified their photoactivity. In particular, for AO+, the photo-oxidation of HSA was enhanced in the presence of CB[7]; meanwhile it was decreased when included into CB[8]. Accordingly, peroxide generation and protein fragmentation were also increased when AO+ was encapsulated into CB[7]. The triplet excited state lifetimes of all the photosensitizers were lengthened by their encapsulation into CB[n]s, while the singlet oxygen quantum yield was enhanced only for AO+ and TMPyP4+, but it decreased for MB+. The results obtained in this work prompt the necessity of further investigating these kinds of hybrid assemblies as drug delivery systems because of their possible applications in biomedicine.


The chitosan was degraded by the cheap, efficient, and commercially available enzymes in hydrochloric acid solution. The effect of molar ratio of added HCl to NH2 of chitosan on the degradation was investigated, and the favorable ratio was between 0.50 and 0.95. The chitooligomer hydrochlorides were directly prepared by this simple method. The chitooligomer hydrochlorides were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, differential thermal analysis, and Fourier transform infrared. These results show that the obtained chitooligomer hydrochlorides were much more stable than the chitooligomer acetates. This preparation procedure of chitooligomer hydrochlorides was simple and cheap, and helpful for the preservation of chitooligomers. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009


Functional asymmetries in the ON and OFF pathways of the primate visual system were examined using simultaneous multi-electrode recordings from dozens of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in vitro. Light responses of RGCs were characterized using white noise stimulation. Two distinct functional types of cells frequently encountered, one ON and one OFF, had non-opponent spectral sensitivity, relatively high response gain, transient light responses, and large receptive fields (RFs) that tiled the region of retina recorded, suggesting that they belonged to the same morphological cell class, most likely parasol. Three principal functional asymmetries were observed. (1) Receptive fields of ON cells were 20% larger in diameter than those of OFF cells, resulting in higher full-field sensitivity. (2) ON cells had faster response kinetics than OFF cells, with a 10–20% shorter time to peak, trough and zero crossing in the biphasic temporal impulse response. (3) ON cells had more nearly linear light responses and were capable of signaling decrements, whereas OFF cells had more strongly rectifying responses that provided little information about increments. These findings suggest specific mechanistic asymmetries in retinal ON and OFF circuits and differences in visual performance on the basis of the activity of ON and OFF parasol cells.


We present an algorithm for subpixel material identification that is invariant to the illumination and atmospheric conditions. The target material spectral reflectance is the only prior information required by the algorithm. A target material subspace model is constructed from the reflectance using a physical model and a background subspace model is estimated directly from the image. These two subspace models are used to compute maximum likelihood estimates for the target material component and the background component at each image pixel. These estimates form the basis of a generalized likelihood ratio test for subpixel material identification. We present experimental results using HYDICE imagery that demonstrate the utility of the algorithm for subpixel material identification under varying illumination and atmospheric conditions.


RNA polymerase I (Pol I) is the most specialized eukaryotic Pol. It is only responsible for the synthesis of pre-ribosomal RNA (rRNA), the precursor of 18S, 5.8S and 28S rRNA, the most abundant cellular RNA types. Aberrant Pol I transcription is observed in a wide variety of cancers and its down-regulation is associated with several genetic disorders. The regulation and mechanism of Pol I transcription is increasing in clarity given the numerous high-resolution Pol I structures that have helped bridge seminal genetic and biochemical findings in the field. Here, we review the multifunctional roles of an important TFIIF- and TFIIE-like subcomplex composed of the Pol I subunits A34.5 and A49 in yeast, and PAF49 and PAF53 in mammals. Recent analyses have revealed a dynamic interplay between this subcomplex at nearly every step of the Pol I transcription cycle in addition to new roles in chromatin traversal and the existence of a new helix-turn-helix (HTH) within the A49/PAF53 linker domain that expands its dynamic functions during the Pol I transcription process.


INTRODUCTION
Ulegyria is a cortical lesion affecting neighbouring vascular zones, which gives the convolutions a mushroom-like appearance. It is an important cause of occipital epilepsy. AIM. To correlate patients diagnosed clinically, electrically and morphometrically with ulegyria and epilepsy by comparing the thickness of the cortex in the zones affected by ulegyria with the normal cortical thickness reported in the literature and the average cortical thickness of healthy subjects.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Ten patients with ulegyria confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging were included in the study; all of them were submitted to a clinical interview, an electroencephalographic study and cortical morphometric analysis based on volumetric T1 sequences.

RESULTS
Findings included a predominance in males, neurodevelopmental retardation and epilepsy. Ulegyria was mainly parietooccipital, frequently bilateral, with statistically significant thinning of the cortical thickness in the site of the lesion and an increase in the thickness of the cortex in the areas surrounding the lesion.

CONCLUSIONS
We report on a series of patients with ulegyria with characteristics similar to those existing in the literature and by means of morphometry we detected an increase in the thickness of the cortex around the areas affected by ulegyria. These findings could point to the presence of adaptive neuroplasticity in the neurons that surround the scar tissue or they may be the result of mechanical changes of normal tissue in response to the loss of volume of the ulegyria-affected area, although these data need to be replicated in a study with a greater number of patients.


A series of 119 patients undergoing elective resection for diverticular disease has been reviewed. The indications for resection were classified into two major groups--those with severe infections ("complicated" diverticulitis), comprising 58 patients, and those with minimal infections, comprising 61 patients. The majority of the resections were limited to the sigmoid colon (101 patients). Fifteen patients underwent left hemicolectomy, whilst three had total colectomy. Thirty-six patients (30%) had a proximal defunctioning stoma--18 prior to resection and 19 at the time of resection. Anastomotic defects were noted in 15 patients (12.6%), but these were of clinical significance only in eight (6.7%). There were two deaths (1.7%) and 17 wound infections (14.3%). The group classified as "complicated" diverticulitis included the great majority of the patients requiring colostomy (32 out of 37), almost all those with anastomotic defects (14 out of 15), and most of the patients who had postoperative complications.


The Constitutional Treaty of the European Union cannot be said to be a Constitution in the same sense that the term is generally used in most European countries. It is not a Constitution in the same sense that the German, Italian or Czech constitutions. This is mainly so because neither the procedure through which it was elaborated, not itscontents, comply with what deliberative democracy requires and expects from a constitution-making process and its outcome. On the one hand, the European people or peoples played almost no role in the signalling of the constitutional moment. The Laeken Convention did not have much of a relationship with European general publics, and it could only marginally exceed its own mandate of preparing the ground of the labours of the IGC. The IGC remained a secretive and diplomatic event, almost completely divorced from European publics. On the other hand, the Constitutional Treaty is unlikely to ensure the full democratic character of European Union laws. By means of assigning constitutional status to all the four parts of the Constitution, the Convention and the IGC give rise to a serious risk of over-constitutionalisation, which would result in a closing of the political space open to European and national legislatures. Moreover, the Constitutional Treaty only marginally improves the position of the European Parliament in the law-making process. Moreover, the Constitution consolidates and amplifies the unbalance which prevails between the simplified lawmaking procedures on issues related to the actual construction of a single market, and the extremely demanding procedures, with multiple veto points, which apply to marketcorrectingmeasures. This is amplified by the reinforced protection which the Draft Treaty offers to economic liberties, and values associated to them (such as price stability). All this entails that the Constitutional Treaty is not the democratic constitution of the European Union, and it cannot be considered on a par with nationalconstitutions. Having said that, the Constitutional Treaty is a further and major step in the process of European integration. By consolidating the primary law of the Union, by its modest but relevant substantive reforms, the Constitutional Treaty prepares theground of a future democratic constitution-making process.


The magneto-ionic theory for drifting plasma at large drift velocities is discussed by using Einstein's special theory of relativity and the Lorentz transformation, for the case where the drift velocity, the static magnetic field, and the electromagnetic wave propagation are all in the same longitudinal direction. It is shown that the algebraic equation thus found for the refractive index is identical with the one found previously in the first-order approximation for small drift velocities.


The study follows up on the contention that self-controlled feedback schedules benefit learning, because they are more tailored to the performers' needs than externally controlled feedback schedules (Chiviacowsky & Wulf, 2002). Under this assumption, one would expect learning advantages for individuals who decide whether they want to receive feedback after a trial rather than before a trial. Participants practiced a sequential timing task, and all could decide the trials on which they received feedback. One group ("self-after") decided after every trial whether they wanted to receive feedback for that trial, while another group ("self-before") made that decision before each trial. The self-after group showed learning benefits on a delayed transfer test (novel absolute timing requirements) with regard to overall timing and relative-timing accuracy. Thus, self-controlled feedback was more effective when the learner could make a decision about receiving feedback after the trial. This seems to support the view that self-controlled feedback benefits learning, because learners can make a decision about feedback based on their performance on a given trial.


ABSTRACT Animal Vehicle Collision, commonly called roadkill, is an emerging threat to drivers and wild animals, increasing fatalities every year. Currently, prevalent methods using visible light cameras are efficient for animal detection in daylight time. This paper focuses on locating wildlife close to roads during nocturnal hours by utilizing thermographic obtained images, thus enhancing vehicle safety. In particular, it proposes an intelligent system for animal detection during nighttime that combines the technique of Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) with a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). The proposed intelligent system is benchmarked against a variety of CNN's like basic CNN and VGG16-based CNN and also with the machine learning algorithms such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), Decision Tree Algorithm (DT), Linear Regression (LR), and Gaussian Naïve Bayes (GNB). The proposed detection system was tested on a set of real-world data acquired with a thermal camera on the move in the city of San Antonio, TX, USA that includes images of wild deer. Obtained results exhibit that the HOG-CNN combination achieved approximately 91% correct detection accuracy of wild deer on roadsides, while it outperformed the rest of the tested machine learning algorithms.


Brown planthopper(BPH), Nilaparvata lugens, is a major pest of rice. Its spatial distribution of different generations in Guangdong Province was studied by using variograms. The results showed that this population distributed in a clump pattern in rice fields during the 1st rice season. 3 generations of this population had different spatial structures, with the clump range of 400 km, 200 km and 205 km respectively in the 1st rice season. The simulation distribution maps of BPH, which was interpolated by Ordinary Kriging, showed that the density of BPH populations in west Guangdong province were higher than that in the east. The effect of sampling size on the spatial structure of BPH was not significant.


Positive homogeneity is represented as a constraint 0-homogeneity and generalized into z-homogeneity, called also z-end point linearity. Several special z-homogeneous aggregation functions are studied, in particular semicopulas, quasi-copulas, copulas, overlap functions, etc.


The 3D thermal-hydraulics analysis based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has a role to analysis more detail the reactor safety, especially for pebble-bed typed High Temperature Reactor (HTR). A realistic pebble arrangement becomes a challenge to be modeled based on the Simple Cubic (SC), Body-Centered Cubic (BCC) and Face-Centered Cubic (FCC). Furthermore, CFD calculation could utilizes laminar model as well as turbulence model such as ,  and Reynold stress model (RSM). Therefore, the objective of this reseach is to analyze the effect of turbulence model on temperature and coolant velocity distribution using FCC on pebble-bed typed HTR as well as investigation of the turbulence models. The comparison shows that all models are acceptable for HTR-10 case with the difference by the range of 0.03-0.33% for the temperature parameters, in which the minimum different is obtained by  model.


A model for the calculation of the current-voltage characteristics of strained In/sub 0.52/Al/sub 0.48/As/In/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As on InP substrate High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMT's), based on a variational charge control model, is presented. A polynomial fit of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) density is used for the calculation of the current-voltage characteristics. The effect of strain is introduced into the 2DEG density versus gate voltage relation. Very good agreement between the calculated and measured I-V characteristics was obtained. In addition, our results show that, for an indium mole fraction of the In/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As channel in the range 0.53-0.60, increasing the indium mole fraction lowers the threshold voltage and hence increases the drain current at the same gate bias. >


Due to increasing power demand there are huge requirements for construction of new transmission lines. But ROW (Right of Way) problems are hindering the erection of transmission lines. So instead of erecting new lines the existing AC lines are modified to simultaneous AC-DC lines to increase their power transfer capability close to their thermal limits. This thesis presents the method to convert an existing double circuit EHVAC line into a simultaneous AC-DC transmission line. A triple circuit ac transmission line is compared with a simultaneous AC-DC line. Both the systems are studied and transmission angle of double circuit line is varied up to 800 which is generally not possible for a pure ac line. Sending end power, receiving end power and transmission losses of both the systems are found out and percentage power upgradation is calculated. Simulation is carried out using MATLAB/SIMULINK.


Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) is a class of highly conserved proteins which is involved in essential functions as molecular chaperones and in the acquired tolerance processes. The HSP70 family of proteins is encoded by two genes, a heat shock cognate 70 (Hsc70), and an inducible heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) gene. In this work, the cDNA of Chinese softshelled turtle Pelodiscus sinensisHsp70 (designated PS-Hsp70)was cloned by the techniques of homological cloning and rapid amplification of cDNA end (RACE). The full length of PS-Hsp70 cDNAwas 2365 bp, consisting of a 5' -terminal untranslated region (UTR) of 64 bp, a 3' -terminalUTR of 393 bp, and an open reading frame (ORF) of 1908 bp encoding a polypeptide of 635 amino acids with a theoretical molecular weight of 69.81 kDa and an estimated isoelectric point of 5.37. BLAST analysis revealed that the PSHsp70 gene shared high similaritywith other Hsp70 genes. Three classical Hsp70 family signatures sequences were found in the PS-Hsp70 deduced amino acid sequence by InterPro analysis. The results indicated that the PS-Hsp70 was a member of the heat shock protein 70 family. A semiquantitiveRT- PCRmethodwas used to analyse the tissue specific expression of PS-Hsp70. The spatial mRNA expression of PS-Hsp70 gene were constitutively in the Pelodiscus sinensis tissues including muscle, liver, ovary, testis, kidney, spleen, lung and heart, with the highest level in testis.


Aim: The study aimed to characterize a broad spectrum light curing unit (LCU) by measuring the light beam profile output of the LCU using a spectrometer-based method and correlate it with a standard camera-based beam profile method. Materials and Methods: A broad spectrum LED LCU (Ascent OL5, CAO Group) was mounted above a spectrometer (MARC® Resin Calibrator, BlueLight Analytics) at exposure distances of 1.0, 1.5 or 2.5 mm. The position of the center of the LCU was aligned with the spectrometer's cosine corrector sensor, and then moved in 1-mm increments in the x-y plane, while concomitantly recording the irradiance. The recorded irradiance was systematically organized and reported in function of the distance from the center of the LCU exiting window. Using a standard camera-based beam profiler, a beam profile of the LCU was obtained and the above approach was emulated to the beam profile. For both methods, the irradiance decreases related to the value measured at the center position was analyzed by calculating the slope, using a linear correlation. Results: Both methods showed that moving away from the center showed decreased irradiation. The beam profile of the LCU is asymmetric. The inhomogeneity of the beam was slightly lower with farther distance from the LCU's light exciting window. Conclusion: The spectrometer-based method was able to characterize the beam profile of the LCU and can be used in the evaluation of LCUs.


Summary Water transport in vascular plants depends on the hydraulic conductance of the xylem system, which is dependent on the anatomical properties, number, diameter, and length of the xylem vessels. The ability to transport water through their stems influences not only the growth of many horticultural crops, but also the post-harvest quality of cut flowers. In this study, we investigated the effects of different average daily temperatures (ADT) and the difference between day-time (DT) and night-time (NT) temperature (DIF) on stem size, the length of xylem vessels within the stem, and the length of individual vessel elements within a vessel, in Zinnia elegans. Two Z. elegans cultivars, 'Envy' and 'Purple Prince', were grown in climate chambers under all nine combinations of three DT and three NT temperatures (viz. 17ºC, 21ºC, or 25ºC). An increase in ADT was positively correlated with the lengths of the stems, internodes, and xylem vessels in both cultivars. However, the lengths of the xylem vessels were influenced more strongly than the lengths of the stems. Increasing the ADT from 17ºC to 25ºC increased stem lengths by approx. 15%, but more than doubled the lengths of the xylem vessels. The increase in xylem vessel lengths was only partly (< 10%) due to an increase in the lengths of individual vessel members, which implies that temperature (ADT) had a greater influence on the number of fused vessel elements per xylem vessel. A negative DIF (i.e., lower DT than NT temperatures) decreased stem lengths and a positive DIF increased stem lengths. DIF had no effect on xylem vessel length, probably because, other than in stem length, xylem vessel length was positively correlated with NT temperature.


The recent discovery by the Daya-Bay and RENO experiments, that θ(13) is nonzero and relatively large, significantly impacts existing experiments and the planning of future facilities. In many scenarios, the nonzero value of θ(13) implies that θ(23) is likely to be different from π/4. Additionally, large detectors will be sensitive to matter effects on the oscillations of atmospheric neutrinos, making it possible to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and the octant of θ(23). We show that a 50 kT magnetized liquid argon neutrino detector can ascertain the mass hierarchy with a significance larger than 4σ with moderate exposure times, and the octant at the level of 2-3σ with greater exposure.


Since the Apollo 16 mission in 1972, Bacillus subtilis served as bacterial model organism in space. Due
to the ability to form highly resistant endospores and complex biofilms, it was used to investigate the
effects of unshielded space radiation as well as the limits of life in space. Within the International
Space Station (ISS), fungal and bacterial biofilms already emerged as a burden that could harm the
spacecraft due to material corrosion as well as the crew by causing infections. The ISS is a sensitive
environment in which biofilm associated clogging or contaminating of life-support systems (water,
electricity, cooling or ventilation) could lead to a termination of the mission. So far, little is known
about the effects of biofilm formation under the influence of space conditions, such as altered
gravity or enhanced radiation levels. Unfortunately, space research is very expensive,
time-consuming and experimentally limited. In order to investigate single space conditions without
conducting a space experiment, single parameters can be simulated under laboratory conditions.
In frame of this thesis, B. subtilis was used as model organism to intensively study biofilm formation
and sporulation as well as germination properties of spores grown under simulated microgravity
(sim-µg). The aim was to elucidate the structure and the biological response of biofilms to sim-µg and
further spaceflight-relevant conditions to optimize the preparation of flight experiments and to make
space travel safer.
B. subtilis NCIB 3610 and biofilm-deficient mutants in the same background were exposed to sim-µg
by using a fast-rotating 2-D clinostat and biofilm formation was compared to terrestrial gravity (1g).
First, a method was developed to generate standardized colony biofilms on membrane filters to
guarantee reproducible results. Surface structures (topography) of biofilms grown under both
conditions did not exhibit structural differences by white-light profilometry, but exhibited changes in
the surface hydrophobicity. Whereas REM and TEM images of biofilm cross sections showed
differences in cell phenotypes and in the abundance of matrix components. Phenotypic appearance
of biofilms as well as growth(rates) were not affected by sim-µg, neither in CFU or spore
composition. A transcriptome analysis of young biofilms showed that approximately 7 % of the
transcripts differed due to the influence of sim-µg. Based on proteome analyses 10 (72 h) - 20 %
(24 h) differences in the proteome of young and mature B. subtilis biofilms were found. In addition,
no differences in sporulation rates, but in the germination behavior of spores isolated from biofilms
were observed. Spores isolated after sporulation in sim-µg, tended to germinate spontaneously in
water, which is atypical compared to 1g-cultivated spores. The time-resolved heterogeneity in
germination of individual spores was reduced in sim-µg spores, which exhibited a uniform
germination behavior. In addition, various space parameters were investigated, such as ionizing and
heavy ion radiation, which showed no difference in survivability between spores/biofilms formed
under both gravitational conditions.
In the frame of this thesis it was shown that the simulation of microgravity changes the B. subtilis
biofilm formation with respect to its structure but not its resistance to space parameters. In addition,
spores produced under sim-µg showed a more homogeneous germination behavior than 1g spores
and tended to germinate spontaneously.


A list decoder generates a list of more than one codeword candidates, and decoding is erroneous if the transmitted codeword is not included in the list. This decoding strategy can be implemented in a system that employs an inner error correcting code and an outer error detecting code that is used to choose the correct codeword from the list. Probability of codeword error analysis for a linear block code with list decoding is typically based on the "worst case" lower bound on the effective weights of codewords for list decoding evaluated from the weight enumerating function of the code. In this paper, the concepts of generalized pairwise error event and effective weight enumerating function are proposed for evaluation of the probability of codeword error of linear block codes with list decoding. Geometrical analysis shows that the effective Euclidean distances are not necessarily as low as those predicted by the lower bound. An approach to evaluate the effective weight enumerating function of a particular code with list decoding is proposed. The effective Euclidean distances for decisions in each pairwise error event are evaluated taking into consideration the actual Hamming distance relationships between codewords, which relaxes the pessimistic assumptions upon which the traditional lower bound analysis is based. Using the effective weight enumerating function, a more accurate approximation is achieved for the probability of codeword error of the code with list decoding. The proposed approach is applied to codes of practical interest, including terminated convolutional codes and turbo codes with the parallel concatenation structure


We describe an AIDS patient who had a recurrence of Pseudomonas meningitis to illustrate three points. First, the use of sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim in AIDS patients for prophylaxis of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia may cause the various body sites to be colonized with resistant species such as P aeruginosa. Second, Pseudomonas meningitis can recur in a patient with AIDS after a month of appropriate therapy. Finally, imipenem is a poor choice for Pseudomonas meningitis, even when alternative therapies appear much less attractive. High doses of imipenem should not be used for fear of seizures, and lower doses only produce resistant organisms in the CSF.


Background: Studies focused on pregnant women with congenital heart disease (CHD)–associated pulmonary hypertension (PH) are scarce and limited by small sample sizes and single-center design. This study sought to describe the pregnancy outcomes in women with CHD with and without PH. Methods: Outcomes for pregnant women with CHD were evaluated retrospectively from 1993 to 2016 and prospectively from 2017 to 2019 from 7 tertiary hospitals. PH was diagnosed on the basis of echocardiogram or catheterization. The incidence of maternal death, cardiac complications, and obstetric and offspring complications was compared for women with CHD and no PH, mild, and moderate-to-severe PH. Results: A total of 2220 pregnant women with CHD had completed pregnancies. PH associated with CHD was identified in 729 women, including 398 with mild PH (right ventricle to right atrium gradient 30–50 mm Hg) and 331 with moderate-to-severe PH (right ventricle to right atrium gradient >50 mm Hg). Maternal mortality occurred in 1 (0.1%), 0, and 19 (5.7%) women with CHD and no, mild, or moderate-to-severe PH, respectively. Of the 729 patients with PH, 619 (85%) had CHD-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension, and 110 (15%) had other forms of PH. Overall, patients with mild PH had better maternal outcomes than those with moderate-to-severe PH, including the incidence of maternal mortality or heart failure (7.8% versus 39.6%; P<0.001), other cardiac complications (9.0% versus 32.3%; P<0.001), and obstetric complications (5.3% versus 15.7%; P<0.001). Brain natriuretic peptide >100 ng/L (odds ratio, 1.9 [95% CI, 1.0–3.4], P=0.04) and New York Heart Association class III to IV (odds ratio, 2.9 [95% CI, 1.6–5.3], P<0.001) were independently associated with adverse maternal cardiac events in pregnancy with PH, whereas follow-up with a multidisciplinary team (odds ratio, 0.4 [95% CI, 0.2–0.6], P<0.001) and strict antenatal supervision (odds ratio, 0.5 [95% CI, 0.3–0.7], P=0.001) were protective. Conclusions: Women with CHD-associated mild PH appear to have better outcomes compared with women with CHD-associated moderate-to-severe PH, and with event rates similar for most outcomes with women with CHD and no PH. Multimodality risk assessment, including PH severity, brain natriuretic peptide level, and New York Heart Association class, may be useful in risk stratification in pregnancy with PH. Follow-up with a multidisciplinary team and strict antenatal supervision during pregnancy may also help to mitigate the risk of adverse maternal cardiac events.


The objective of this paper is to present an overview of the possibilities of the laser melt injection (LMI) methodology to enhance the surface of light-weighted metals by adding hard ceramic particles in the top layer, with the aim to enhance the wear resistance and to increase the hardness. In particular, the LMI process and the resulted microstructures are exemplified on two material systems, i.e., SiC particles in Al and WC particles in Ti-6Al-4V. The microstructural response on loading of both systems is studied by in situ deformation tests and the microstructure is analysed in detail by advanced microscopy techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and orientation imaging microscopy (OIM). It is shown that the LMI method is a suitable technique to create a MMC layers on metal substrates. The formation of reaction layers between the particles and the matrix may have a positive contribution on the bond strength between the particles and the matrix. However, the amount of reaction products in the matrix of the coatings should be minimised to improve the properties of the MMC layers.


Twenty-two Chinese patients with pheochromocytomas including 18 surgical and four autopsy cases were reported. The incidence at autopsy was 0.048%. The tumours were most common in the sixth and the fourth decades in males and females, respectively. There was no sex predilection. The incidence of bilaterality was 4.5% and the tumours were more common on the right side. 9.1% of the tumours were malignant and they were larger than their benign counterparts. Solid and diffuse pattern and mixed pattern were the most common histologic patterns. Minor histological features included hyaline globules (64%), nuclear pseudo-inclusions (55%), lipid degeneration (4.5%) and peri-adrenal brown fat (18%). All of them were strongly positive for the three pan-neuroendocrine markers (neuron-specific enolase, synaptophysin and chromogranin) confirming the usefulness of these markers in diagnosing pheochromocytoma.


Sarcoptes scabiei classically presents with pruritic burrows. In addition to finger and toe web lesions, the penis and scrotum of men, the breast and areola of women, and the buttocks and axillae of both gender are common locations for mite-associated lesions. Scabies surrepticius refers to mite-related lesions that are not classical in morphology and/or distribution; there are several subtypes of non-classic or atypical scabies. Scabies surrepticius not only occurs in immunosuppressed individuals, but also in infants and children, and in elderly patients. An elderly woman developed mite-related bilateral erythematous painful palmar pustules that were clinically suspicious for a primary neutrophilic dermatosis; she also had a concurrent bacterial infection. The diagnosis of surrepticius scabies was established after evaluation of the deeper levels of her tissue biopsy specimen demonstrated a mite in the epidermis. All of her symptoms and lesions resolved after treatment with oral and topical antiscabetic therapy, and systemic antibiotics. Since the clinical presentation of the mite-related lesions can mimic those of other dermatologic or systemic conditions, a high degree of suspicion for the diagnosis of mite infestation must be entertained. Therefore, the clinician should consider the possibility of scabies surrepticius in any patient who develops new cutaneous lesions that are not typical for a defined dermatosis or do not resolve or improve after treatment.


Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth most common cancer and the second most frequent cause of cancer-related deaths, accounting for 10.4% of cancer deaths worldwide. Despite the improvements, estimated cure rates for patients with advanced stages remain poor, and in the metastatic setting, chemotherapy is the mainstay of palliative therapy and results in objective response rates (ORRs) of only 20–40% and median overall survivals (OS) of 8–10 months. Therefore, many investigators believe that the potential for making significant progress lies in understanding and exploiting the molecular biology of these tumors to investigate new therapeutic strategies to combat GC, such as specific immunotherapy. In this paper, we analyze the different approaches used for immune-based (especially dendritic and T cells) therapies to gastric cancer treatment and discuss the results obtained in preclinical models as in clinical trials.


Disulfide-stabilized Fvs (dsFvs) are recombinant proteins composed of a heavy-chain variable domain (VH) of an antibody connected via a disulfide bond to the light-chain variable domain (VL). In single-chain Fvs (scFvs), a peptide connector links VH and VL. The dsFv form of the anti-Tac monoclonal antibody which reacts with the alpha subunit of the IL2 receptor was recently reported to be more stable and to aggregate less during renaturation than anti-Tac(scFv). In addition, it could be produced in a better yield owing to less aggregation. However, the yields are still too low to permit the production of material for clinical trials in which the dsFv will be used to image or treat IL2 receptor (CD25)-containing tumors. To increase the efficiency by which VH and VL associate and form a disulfide bond during renaturation, we have prepared an Fv form of anti-Tac which is both single chain and disulfide stabilized (scdsFv). The recombinant protein is expressed in Escherichia coli, where it accumulates in inclusion bodies. Using inclusion body protein as the reference point, the yield of purified anti-Tac(scdsFv) was 13% compared with 2% for anti-Tac(dsFv). Anti-Tac(scdsFv) has equivalent binding affinity, immunoreactivity after radiolabeling and stability. The results show that a linker between VH and VL facilitates heterodimer formation and leads to disulfide bond formation in a higher percentage of the molecules renatured. Thus anti-Tac(scdsFv) is the preferred form of anti-Tac(Fv) to be used for clinical studies. We anticipate that scdsFvs will be the optimum recombinant form of Fv to produce from bacteria.


This document introduces the Workshop on Verification and Validation (V&V) of CFD for Offshore Flows, to be held during OMAE2012. It presents a brief introduction to the purpose of Verification and Validation with the identification of the goals of code and solution verification and validation. Within this context, three test-cases are proposed: Case-I of code verification, Case-II of solution verification and Case-III of solution verification and validation. Case-I consists on a 3D manufactured solution of an unsteady turbulent flow. Case-II is an exercise on the canonical problem of the infinite smooth circular cylinder flow at different Reynolds numbers. Case-III is a more complex flow around a straked-riser. The participants are asked to perform at least one of these test-cases. The objectives for the three proposed test-cases are presented, together with a detailed description of the numerical settings to be used, and the results to be obtained and sent to the Workshop organization. At the end some considerations on general conditions, paper submission, deadlines, and encouragements are stated.


Purpose

Concern for the state of architectural education in East Africa was a catalyst for this exploration of socialisation, which sought to understand socialisation and its influence on educational outcomes in the region. Socialisation within architectural education has long been known to influence how students acquire important aspects of the profession, building both values and a cultural ethos in the process. An appreciation of these processes in the context of East Africa adds to the wider understanding of the implicit curriculum in architectural education. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

An ethnographic study was undertaken in five architecture schools across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, making use of a mixed method approach incorporating document analysis, a questionnaire study, participant observations and focus group discussions as the data gathering instruments. Focus group discussions, as the primary data gathering method, acknowledged the social context of the study, with data gathered from multiple sites across the region.

Findings

As an integral component of architectural education, socialisation was evident at all stages of the educational process. Within the educational realm, contrasting expectations of students and instructors were evident, leading to conflicts that influenced the values acquired by students. This was seen in attitudes towards contemporary architectural issues within architectural education, and suggests that socialisation can at times have pronounced negative consequences.

Originality/value

The wider study represents the first comprehensive review of architectural education in the context of East Africa, and contributes to the global appreciation of the influence of socialisation on educational outcomes.


BACKGROUND
Some studies have shown a higher incidence of thyroid cancer in patients with insurance coverage and higher socioeconomic status (SES), and a higher thyroid cancer stage in patients with lower SES, suggesting SES-related health disparity in thyroid cancer. However, it is not known if the same is evident under a universal healthcare system such as that in Canada.

METHODS
We used data from the Canadian Thyroid Cancer Consortium, a large thyroid cancer registry that collects data from two major thyroid cancer referral centers (London, Ontario, and Halifax, Nova Scotia). We included patients who presented with thyroid cancer between 1998 and 2011. We determined age at presentation, sex, and thyroid cancer status using the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging criteria. Individuals' postal codes were used to retrieve data from the Canadian census for the years 1996, 2001, and 2006 to approximate household income. Ordered logistic regression was used to determine odds ratios of presenting with more advanced stage thyroid cancer as they relate to income, age, and sex.

RESULTS
We included 1701 patients: 1334 cases from London and 367 from Halifax. Thyroid cancer was diagnosed more frequently in the higher SES groups (p<0.001). Compared to patients in the top income quintile, patients in the lowest and second-lowest income quintiles had significantly higher odds of having more advanced stage thyroid cancer at presentation (OR 1.58, p=0.002; 1.37, p=0.024 respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
Our study suggests that, similar to countries that lack a universal healthcare system, health disparity in thyroid cancer also exists in Canada. It appears that while thyroid cancers were diagnosed more frequently in Canadian patients of higher SES, Canadian patients in the lower SES groups had more advanced stage thyroid cancer at presentation.


Wikipedia has been turned into an immensely popular crowd-sourced encyclopedia for information dissemination on numerous versatile topics in the form of subscription free content. It allows anyone to contribute so that the articles remain comprehensive and updated. For enrichment of content without compromising standards, the Wikipedia community enumerates a detailed set of guidelines, which should be followed. Based on these, articles are categorized into several quality classes by the Wikipedia editors with increasing adherence to guidelines. This quality assessment task by editors is laborious as well as demands platform expertise. As a first objective, in this paper, we study evolution of a Wikipedia article with respect to such quality scales. Our results show novel non-intuitive patterns emerging from this exploration. As a second objective we attempt to develop an automated data driven approach for the detection of the early signals influencing the quality change of articles. We posit this as a change point detection problem whereby we represent an article as a time series of consecutive revisions and encode every revision by a set of intuitive features. Finally, various change point detection algorithms are used to efficiently and accurately detect the future change points. We also perform various ablation studies to understand which group of features are most effective in identifying the change points. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that rigorously explores English Wikipedia article quality life cycle from the perspective of quality indicators and provides a novel unsupervised page level approach to detect quality switch, which can help in automatic content monitoring in Wikipedia thus contributing significantly to the CSCW community.


Warping-Based Approach to Offline Handwriting Recognition Douglas J. Kennard Department of Computer Science, BYU Doctor of Philosophy An enormous amount of the historical record is currently trapped in non-indexed handwritten format. Even after being scanned into images, only a minute fraction of the existing records can be manually transcribed / indexed with reasonable amounts of time and cost. Although progress continues to be made with automatic handwriting recognition (HR), it is not yet good enough to replace manual transcription or indexing. Much of the recent HR work has focused on incremental improvements to methods based on Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) and other similar probabilistic approaches. In this dissertation we present a fundamentally new approach to HR based on 2-D geometric warping of word images. The results of our experimentation indicate that our approach is significantly more accurate than an existing whole-word approach used for word-spotting, and may also be better than HMM-based HR approaches. Since it is a completely new method, we also believe there is potential for improvement and future work that builds on this approach. In addition, we demonstrate that the approach can be used effectively in the related application domain of signature verification and forgery detection.


Yield of nanometer-scale devices is increasingly challenging due to the increasing contribution of systematic defects that are affected by the product design itself. While inline inspection has been the conventional tool used to detect and isolate significant yield limiting mechanisms, there is a need to augment this information with the analysis of electrical test results obtained using electrical structural test of the final product. The biggest challenge is employing new methods and tools that can accommodate the voluminous amount of data that can accumulate during this process. This paper describes the methods and tools required to manage the data in both time and data-volume efficiency. The described methodology includes the levels of data accumulation and the processing at the various levels; at the tester, offline pre-processing to convert the electrical failures to the specific physical circuit elements causing the fault, and then to the yield management system


Bacterial persistence, the ability of bacteria to survive high concentrations of antibiotics for extended periods of time, is an important contributing factor to therapy failure and development of chronic and recurrent infections. Several recent studies have suggested that this persistence is mediated primarily by (p)ppGpp, through its interactions with toxin–antitoxin modules and polyphosphates. In this study, we address whether these key players play a role in mycobacterial persistence against antibiotics. We targeted these specific pathways in Mycobacterium smegmatis by constructing deletion strains of (p)ppGpp synthetase/hydrolase (relA), polyphosphate kinases (ppk1 and ppk2), exopolyphosphatases (ppx1 and ppx2), and the lon protease. None of these mutant strains exhibited altered levels of persisters against isoniazid and ciprofloxacin, when compared with wild‐type strain. Even under conditions in which the stringent response usually gets activated, these strains displayed wild‐type persister levels. Interestingly, we also found that unlike Escherichia coli, maintaining M. smegmatis in exponential phase by repeated passaging does not eliminate persisters suggesting that at least against the antibiotics tested, stationary‐phase dependent persisters (type I) are not the major contributors. Thus, our data demonstrate that multiple mechanisms of antibiotic persistence exist and that these vary widely among different bacterial species. © 2018 IUBMB Life, 70(9):836–844, 2018


Vascular perfusion of gaseous oxygen has been used to prolong the in vitro survival of a number of isolated organs, and has been shown to improve the hypothermic preservation of ischemically injured kidneys that were subsequently transplanted. We have investigated the mechanism of this effect. Rabbit kidneys were subjected to 60 min of warm ischemia prior to preservation for 24 hr with Ross, Marshall, and Escott's hypertonic citrate solution, with or without retrograde oxygen persufflation (ROP) via the renal vein. It was found that adenine nucleotide levels were almost doubled in the ROP-preserved kidneys, principally due to higher adenosine triphosphate (ATP) concentrations. It was shown that cytochrome oxidase activity was unaffected by ischemia or preservation method, but studies with the metabolic inhibitors ouabain and a mixture of cyanide and iodoacetate suggested that ATP was being synthesized during the storage period but was also being utilized to power the active volume-regulating pump. Morphological examination revealed a much greater degree of cell swelling and cytological injury in the kidneys not subject to ROP, and the interstitial space appeared much reduced in the latter group. At the ultrastructural level, the ROP-treated kidneys showed generally well-preserved mitochondria, mostly in the energized "orthodox" configuration. In contrast, the mitochondria in the nonpersufflated kidneys were generally in the "condensed" deenergized state. We conclude that the provision of sufficient oxygen by ROP allows the continued production of ATP in sufficient quantities to permit improved maintenance of cellular volume and morphology under the conditions of low-temperature storage that we have studied.


In this paper, a total stress analysis method for gravity quay mills is suggested. The method can evaluate the displacement of the quay walls considering the effect of excess pore pressure developed in backfill soils. This method changes the stiffness of backfill sails according to the expected magnitude of the excess pore pressure. For practical application, evaluation methods are suggested for determining the excess pore pressure ratio developed in the backfill soils and the backfill stiffness that corresponds to the excess pore pressure ratio. This method is important in practical applications because the displacement of the quay mills can be evaluated by using only the basic input properties in the total stress analysis. The applicability of the suggested method was verified by comparing the results of the analysis with the results of 1-g shaking table tests. From the comparison, it was found that the calculated displacements from the suggested method showed good agreement with the measured displacements of the quay walls. It was also found that the excess pore pressure in backfill soils is a governing influence on the dynamic behavior of quay walls.


The time span needed for obtaining a functional cartilage substitute using tissue engineering strategies, together with the need for specific patient oriented constructs has stimulated the growing interest for developing "off-the shelf" products. One way to deliver such products is based on long-term storage processes, such as cryopreservation, that will provide the clinical substitute available as needed and could be adapted to an autologous immediate solution for the patient. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of cryopreservation on the chondrogenic differentiation characteristics of human mesenchymal derived stem cells isolated from adipose tissue and encapsulated in κ-carrageenan hydrogels. These bioengineered constructs are anticipated to participate in a cartilage regeneration strategy providing temporary habitation for cell survival, proliferation and production of an extracellular matrix which is expected to replace the hydrogel, enhancing the regeneration of native tissues in clinical settings. The results obtained show that the hydrogels withstand the cryopreservation with dimethyl sulfoxide, maintaining their structural integrity, while assisting cells proliferation and chondrogenic potential after cryopreservation. Thus, cell encapsulation systems of natural based hydrogels seem to be an interesting approach for the preservation of cartilage tissue engineered products.


ABSTRACT BTS is set of equipment from radio which direct related with MS (Mobile Station ) through air interface to service an area the coverage of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication )/CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). BTS consist of antenna system , power lasing , radio frequency ,and all digital signal process. Role from BTS is very important about radiated and receive not only data but also signal in each operator. Deciding the right location to build BTS especially in area Kediri influenced by geographic condition like the highest points that can be a obstacle, location of subdistrict, river location, road site high , population and location of BTS. So that BTS�s providers need to get plan of BTS�s placement optimally. Geographic Information System is information system of computer that is used for putting in, saving, cheking, recalling, processing, analyzing, and resulting in geographic referenced data.. Geographic Information System integrated spasial data and attribute data.Based on the explanation, Geographic Information System can used to make supporting decision in planning of BTS�s location, in the end, it will be get a good quality for BTS�s provider in communication network development. In this last project, we makes a Geographic Information System (GIS) which have web base about site information and BTS�s range from some cellular operators in Kediri City.There are an analysis and visualization in web form, it can be used as reference especially for decision makers to searching and deciding these location with BTS range in Kediri City, so it can be showed spot blank in area of Kediri City. Key Words : Geographic Information System (GIS), Base Transceiver Station (BTS)