We consider the problem of a user searching for information over a sensor network, where the user does not have prior knowledge of the location of the information. We consider three information search strategies: i) a source-only search, where the source (user) tries to locate the destination by initiating search which propagates as a continuous time random walk (Brownian motion); ii) a source and receiver driven "sticky" search, where both the source and the destination send a search or an advertisement, and these leave a "sticky" trail to aid in locating the destination; and iii) where the destination information is spatially cached (i.e., repeated over space), and the source tries to locate any one of the caches. After a random interval of time with average t, if the information is not located, the search times-out, and the search is unsuccessful. For a source-only search, we show that the probability that a search is unsuccessful decays as (log(t))/sup -1/. When both the source and the destination send search packets or advertisements, we show that the probability that a search is unsuccessful decays as t/sup -5/8/. Further, faster polynomial decay rates can be achieved by using a finite number of searches or advertisements. Finally, when a spatially periodic cache is employed, we show that the probability that a search is unsuccessful decays no faster than t/sup -1/. Thus, we can match the decay rates of the source and the destination driven search with that of a spatial caching strategy by using an appropriate number of search packets. The sticky search as well as caching utilize memory that is spatially distributed over the network. We show that spreading the memory over space leads to a decrease in memory requirement, while maintaining a polynomial decay in the search failure probability. In particular, we show that the memory requirement for spatial caching is larger (in an order sense) than that for sticky searches. This indicates that the appropriate strategy for searching over large sensor networks with little infrastructure support would be to use multiple search packets and advertisements using the sticky search strategy.


Lightning surges often occur on the 500 kV SUTET (Extra High Voltage Air Line) transmission line. Therefore a reliable protection system design is needed to minimize damage due to lightning surge disruption and to maintain continuity in power flow. The authors use the concept of lightning performance and arrester performance as parameters for its reliability design. In this research, the concepts of lightning performance and arrester performance are used as parameters for their reliability design. In this case, the high category IKL (Isokreaunic Level) is used, which is 91 strikes / km2 / year. In determining the design of substation equipment, the performance of arresters at SUTET 500 kV is also analyzed by using the margin protection formula. Based on the arrester performance analysis and calculation of the protection margin, the protection system in GITET (Extra High Voltage Main Station) is more appropriate to use MOV EXLIM 550 kV arresters, power transformers (BIL: 1425kV), CVT (BIL: 1550 kV), CT (BIL: 1550 kV), BSI (BIL: 1550 kV), and CB (BIL: 1550 kV) with a protection margin of more than 20%


The K+ channel of HeLa S3 cells in metaphase was analyzed by inside-out and whole cell patch-clamp techniques. The channel had the characteristics of strong inward rectification, small conductance (22 pS at -100 mV), and dependence on intracellular Ca2+. We investigated the cell cycle dependency of the channel, using cells synchronized by harvesting them at the mitotic stage. The cell capacitance increased gradually with increases in the cell volume toward the S phase. The inward K+ currents through the channel at fixed membrane potentials were highest in early G1 and then decreased with time to a minimum in the S phase, increasing again in the M phase. The permeabilities at fixed membrane potentials were also highest in early G1, decreased to minima in the S phase, and increased again toward the next mitosis. In contrast, mean amplitude and the open probability of the single channel at a fixed membrane potential (-60 mV) did not change significantly during the cell cycle. Therefore the capacitance increases with progression of the cell cycle, whereas the permeability decreases from early G1 to an apparent minimum in the S phase. These changes may be caused by cell cycle-dependent changes in the number of channels.


Bilinear systems under output injection equivalence are considered. The aim of this paper is to study what happens when a slight perturbation affects the coefficients of the matrices defining a bilinear equation in C n . For this goal we will use the Arnold's techniques, that is to say we will construct a versal deformation of a differentiable family of bilinear systems which are the orthogonal linear varieties to the orbits of output injection equivalent bilinear systems. Versal deformations provide a special parametrization of bilinear systems space, which can be applied to perturbation analysis and investigation of complicated objects like singularities and bifurcations in multi-parameter bilinear systems.


Purpose
Small and medium enterprises (SME) significantly alleviate poverty and generate employment to achieve sustainable economic growth. Using electronic devices, e-commerce allows an immediate and advanced communication service to accomplish business transactions. Considering logistics provider as a case, this paper aims to examine the impact of adopting an e-commerce technology on its customers' and agents' satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors use the difference in difference methodology to examine these effects and find positive impacts on both customers and service providers.

Findings
As SMEs are widely considered as the powerhouse of an economy, the authors' findings suggest that using e-commerce not only makes an SME agent more efficient but also accelerates an SME business transaction, which ultimately helps to achieve sustainable economic growth.

Originality/value
A few studies are conducted in examining the impact of SME on economy. However, according to the authors' knowledge, this is the first research that examines the impact of e-commerce on SME.


There is an active but unpublicised industry of New Zealand trustees who look after foreigners' money. Also, taxpayers from other countries sometimes use New Zealand as a haven. Some trustees for foreign funds have a reasonably substantial presence in New Zealand; others may be single-purpose New Zealand-incorporated companies with nominal capital where the directors are resident abroad and where funds are administered abroad by custodian trustees on behalf of the New Zealand trustee. Issues relating to tax law and trust law arise from trusts that have a relatively minimal presence in New Zealand. The New Zealand legislature recently passed legislation that imposes compliance and reporting requirements on such trusts.


An investigation of the effects of various error components in a mobile robot system, which uses a navigation line, was previously reported by the author in 1985. An analysis of the effects of these error components on the navigation line-width determination and obstacle-range determination is presented that provided equations that are used to predict the error resulting from changes in various system parameters. In particular, the change in the rotation angle of the robot sensor about its optical axis, called the roll angle, is examined. Numerical examples showing the characteristics of the derived error equations are also given. >


When utilities are additive, we uncovered in our previous paper (Bogomolnaia et al. "Dividing Goods or Bads under Additive Utilities") many similarities but also surprising differences in the behavior of the familiar Competitive rule (with equal incomes), when we divide (private) goods or bads. The rule picks in both cases the critical points of the product of utilities (or disutilities) on the efficiency frontier, but there is only one such point if we share goods, while there can be exponentially many in the case of bads. We extend this analysis to the fair division of mixed items: each item can be viewed by some participants as a good and by others as a bad, with corresponding positive or negative marginal utilities. We find that the division of mixed items boils down, normatively as well as computationally, to a variant of an all goods problem, or of an all bads problem: in particular the task of dividing the non disposable items must be either good news for everyone, or bad news for everyone. If at least one feasible utility profile is positive, the Competitive rule picks the unique maximum of the product of (positive) utilities. If no feasible utility profile is positive, this rule picks all critical points of the product of disutilities on the efficient frontier


The Terai region in Nepal has water resources with very low head and medium to high discharge conditions. Hence, the people of the Terai region are not being able to utilize the water resources available near them due to the limitation of technology. This study is intended to serve the purpose of further research of ultra-low head gravitational water vortex turbines useful for power generation in the Terai region. Gravitational water vortex turbine is an ultra-low head turbine which can operate in as low head as 0.7m with similar yield as conventional hydroelectric turbines characterized with positive environmental yield. This study has been carried out in two phases. In the first phase, two different turbines are to designed and fabricated and the performance characteristics of the new turbine are to be compared with that of the installed turbine. The second phase includes the design and fabrication of the conical basin. Experimental tests will be carried out and the performance of the system with the use of a conical basin will compared with that of the system using the cylindrical basin. A site testing also has been carried out to ensure the performance of system. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jie.v10i1.10895 Journal of the Institute of Engineering, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2014, pp. 140–148


Improving the specific activity and thermostability of psychrophilic xylosidase is important for improving its enzymatic performance and promoting its industrial application. Herein, a psychrophilic xylosidase AX543 exhibited activity in the temperature range between 0 and 35 °C, with optimum activity at 20 °C, which is lower than that of other reported psychrophilic xylosidases. The thermostability, specific activity, and catalytic efficiency of the site-directed variants G110S, Q201R, and L2 were significantly enhanced, without affecting the optimal reaction temperature. Comparative protein structural analysis and molecular dynamics simulation indicated that these improvements might be the result of the increased hydrogen bonds interaction and improved structural rigidity. Furthermore, homologous module substitution with four segments demonstrated that the psychrophilic characteristics of AX543 are the results of the whole protein structure, and the C-terminal segment A4 appears to be more essential in determining psychrophilic characteristics, exhibiting potentiality to produce more psychrophilic xylosidases. This study provides valuable structural information on psychrophilic xylosidases and also offers attractive modification strategies to modify catalytic activity, thermostability, and optimal reaction temperature.


BACKGROUND
The efficacy of some probiotic strains for the management of lactose intolerance remains to be established.

AIM
To evaluate the effects of a 4-week consumption of a probiotic product containing Lactobacillus casei Shirota and Bifidobacterium breve Yakult (10(7)-10(9) CFU of each strain) on symptoms and breath hydrogen exhalation after a lactose load in lactose-intolerant patients and whether the beneficial results persisted after probiotic discontinuation.

METHODS
Twenty-seven patients with lactose maldigestion and intolerance participated in this study, which comprised 4 hydrogen breath tests: baseline condition (20 g lactose), after lactase ingestion (9000 FCC units), at the end of 4-week probiotic supplementation, and a follow-up test performed 3 months after probiotic discontinuation. For each test, the area under the breath hydrogen concentration vs time curve (AUC(180 min)) was calculated, and symptom scores were recorded.

RESULTS
The probiotic combination significantly reduced symptom scores (P < .01) and breath hydrogen AUC (P = .04) compared with the baseline condition. The comparison with the lactase test showed that symptom scores were similar (P > .05), despite the significantly higher (P = .01) AUC values after probiotic use. In the follow-up test, symptom scores and breath hydrogen AUC values remained similar to those found at the end of probiotic intervention.

CONCLUSION
Four-week consumption of a probiotic combination of L casei Shirota and B breve Yakult seems to improve symptoms and decrease hydrogen production intake in lactose-intolerant patients. These effects may persist for at least 3 months after suspension of probiotic consumption.


We report a new Li-superionic chloride, Li2Sc2/3Cl4, that crystallizes in a disordered spinel structure, and exhibits an ionic conductivity of 1.5 mS cm−1 with a low activation energy barrier for Li+ ion diffusion of 0.34 eV. This material is the first spinel-type superionic halide. Structural elucidation via powder neutron diffraction reveals a significantly disordered Li+-ion distribution over available tetrahedral and octahedral sites within the lattice, forming an infinitely 3D connected Li+ ion diffusion pathway comprised of face-sharing octahedra and tetrahedra. Due to the high oxidative stability of Li2Sc2/3Cl4, all solid state lithium batteries employing Li2Sc2/3Cl4 and high voltage cathodes (LiCoO2, LiNi0.6Mn0.2Co0.2O2 or high-Ni LiNi0.85Mn0.1Co0.05O2) – without any coating – exhibit excellent electrochemical performance up to 4.6 V in terms of capacity retention and cycle life.


The horizontal response spectra using the observed ground motions from 15 Fukuoka earthquake series, including main earthquake (2005/03/20; Mw=6.5), were analysed and then were compared to both the seismic design response spectra (Regulatory Guide 1.60), applied to the domestic nuclear power plants, and the Korean Standard Design Response Spectrum for general structures and buildings (1997). 178 horizontal ground motions, without considering soil types, were used for normalization with respect to the peak acceleration value of each ground motion. The results showed that response spectrum have strong dependency on epicentral distance. The results also showed that the horizontal response spectra revealed higher values for frequency bands at two frequency bands (about 8 ? 10 and 16- 20 Hz) than Regulatory Guide 1.60. The results were also compared to the Korean Standard Building Design Spectrum for the 3 different soil types and showed that thehorizontal response spectra revealed higher values for almost all period bands than the Korean Standard Response Spectrum (500 yrs; Return Period; Seismic province 1; SE soil conditions). Through the qualitative improvements and quantitative enhancement of the observed ground motions, the diversity of the observed ground motions should be considered more significantly to improve the certainty of response spectrum.


Herpes simplex virus (HSV) resistance to antiviral treatment is a real concern among immunocompromised population. Mutations localized in the thymidine kinase (TK) and/or the DNA polymerase (pol) genes are mainly responsible for those resistance issues. Thus, it is becoming important to increase knowledge in this area and to develop new therapeutic strategies. Also, HSV has this unique biological property to invade the nervous central system and causes encephalitis. During this type of infection, an important immunological process occurs. However, this inflammatory response is still very controversial and needs to be elucidated. The main objectives of this doctoral thesis consisted of: 1the characterization of antiviral resistance and 2the elucidation of the brain inflammatory response to HSV. The first part consisted in the development of an in vitro system allowing the characterization of several mutations in the TK and/or the DNA pol genes responsible for antiviral resistance and the elaboration of a new antiviral strategy. The second part was to characterize the inflammatory response following the induction of HSV-1 encephalitis in a mouse model and to develop an alternative immunomodulatory approache. Mutations localized in conserved and non-conserved regions of the TK are associated with ACV resistance. Hydroxyurea increases the activity of nucleoside (ACV) and nucleotide (CDV) analogues. A delayed glucocorticoid treatment is highly beneficial by decreasing the brain viral load as well as pro-inflammatory cytokine production in the brain of infected mice. TNF-α and IL-1β permit the initiation of an innate immune response allowing a control of the viral replication and an efficient transition to the adaptive immune response required for viral clearance during HSV-1 encephalitis. A prophylactic treatment with a TLR3 agonist significantly increases the mean life expectancy and survival rate of mice infected with HSV-1 compared to non-treated mice. The experimental models developed during this Ph. D. allow a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of resistance and of the brain inflammatory response to the HSV.


Seventeenth-century writers were fascinated by the emotional turmoil that jealousy provoked, and their jealous characters feel darker and more psychologically realistic than earlier representations. What needs more scrutiny is the relationship between violent jealousy, gender, and class in the early modern period. We have, for example, largely overlooked the fact that Shakespeare's most jealous husbands are married to the only children of important men. This essay argues that Desdemona's social location—that is to say, her position as the female heir of a senator—provides a powerful catalyst for the kind of intense jealousy her husband develops. As the play dramatizes the tragic consequences of sexual jealousy, it also registers anxieties about the spectacular potential of the noble body—anxieties that would become increasingly urgent in the first half of the seventeenth century.


This report discusses Congress' power to override presidential vetoes. The President's veto authority is among his most significant tools in legislative dealings with Congress. It is effective not only in preventing the passage of legislation undesirable to the President, but also as a threat, sometimes forcing Congress to modify legislation before it is presented to the President.


Introduction: Leprosy is an infectious disease that leads to many problems. Leprosy can be transmitted through a close, long, and intense relationship with patient. Therefore, the patient's family have a greater risk on Leprosy transmission. The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors which have correlation with family's behavior in the prevention of Leprosy transmission. Method: This was a correlational research with cross sectional approach. Population were family of leprosy patient who were recorded at Kecamatan Semampir. Samples were 14 respondents, taken by purposive sampling. The independent variables were perceived benefits of action, perceived barriers to action, perceived self-efficacy, and activity-related affect. While, dependent variable was family's behavior in the prevention of Leprosy transmission. Data were collected by using questionnaires and observation, then analyzed by using Spearman's Rho Test with level of significance α≤0.05. Result: The result had showed that perceived benefits of action (p= 0.478); perceived barriers to action (p= 0,478); perceived self-efficacy (p= 0,679); and activity related affect (p= 0.519) have no correlation with family's behavior in the prevention of Leprosy transmission. Discussion: It can be concluded that behaviour specific cognition and affect were not have correlation with family's behavior in the prevention of Leprosy transmission. Further studies are expected to develop and may identify a significant correlation by increasing the number of samples. The results of this study can be used by nurses to find the dominant factors or other factors in HPM that correlation with family's behavior in the prevention of Leprosy transmission.


AIM
In the past, Pneumocystis jirovecii belonged to the Protozoa group, but is currently taxonomically included in the kingdom Fungi. P. jirovecii is an opportunistic pathogen, responsible for pneumocystis pneumonia with frequent complications of immunocompromised patients. Delayed initiation of appropriate therapy increases the risk of death in immunocompromised patient. The aim of this work was to determine and evaluate the reliability of methods of laboratory diagnosis of pneumocystosis used in routine laboratories as well as the occurrence of this disease in patients from Slovakia during 19 years.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The diagnosis is based on microscopic examination (Giemsa- and Gram-Weigert-staining) and detection of parasite DNA by classical or real-time PCR in bronchoalveolar lavage and sputum.

RESULTS
Pneumocysts were detected in 190 persons (5.7%) from the whole group of patients. Cancer patients represented the riskiest group in terms of pneumocystosis, which was confirmed by the highest percentage (57.9%) of individuals infected with P. jirovecii. Compared with the PCR, 33.7% sensitivity and 100% specificity of microscopy was calculated by using a binary classification test. Molecular methods are more sensitive in the detection of P. jirovecii compared to microscopic evidence and currently represent a reliable detection system in the diagnosis of pneumocystosis.

CONCLUSION
In view of the increasing number of immunocompromised persons, diagnostics of P. jirovecii in patients with pulmonary complications is essential. This was also confirmed in our study, where the number of examinations and detection of this opportunistic pathogen increased over the years.


Over the past few years there has been remarkable success flying imaging telescope systems suspended from suborbital balloon payload systems. These imaging systems have covered optical, ultraviolet, sub-‐millimeter and infrared passbands (i.e. BLAST, STO, SBI, Fireball and others). In recognition of these advances NASA is now considering ambitious programs to promote planetary imaging from high altitude at a fraction of the cost of similar fully orbital systems. The challenge with imaging from a balloon payload is delivering the full diffraction-‐limited resolution of the system from a moving payload. Good progress has been made with damping mechanisms and oscillation control to remove most macroscopic movement in the departures of the imaging focal plane from a static configuration, however a jitter component remains that is difficult to remove using external corrections. This paper reports on work to demonstrate in the laboratory the utility and performance of actuating a detector focal plane (of whatever type) to remove the final jitter terms using an agile hexapod design. The input to this demonstration is the jitter signal generated by the pointing system of a previously flown balloon mission (the Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory, STO). Our group has a mature jitter compensation system that thermally isolates the control head from the focal plane itself. This allows the hexapod to remain at ambient temperature in a vacuum environment with the focal plane cooled to cryogenic temperatures. Our lab design mounts the focal plane on the hexapod in a custom cryostat and delivers an active optical stimulus together with the corresponding jitter signal, using the actuation of the hexapod to correct for the departures from a static, stable configuration. We believe this demonstration will make the case for inclusion of this technological solution in future balloon-‐borne imaging systems requiring ultra-‐high resolution.


Aim: To evaluate the effect of illegal crude oil refining activities on soil microorganisms using standard microbiological methods.
Study Design: This study employs laboratory experimental design, statistical analysis of the data and interpretation.
Place and Duration of Study:  Soil samples were taken once a month for three months (May- July, 2018) from Ke in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria, where illegal crude oil refining activities are ongoing.
Methodology: Using standard microbiological methods, total culturable heterotrophic bacterial counts, total fungal counts, Hydrocarbon utilizing bacterial and fungal counts were analysed to evaluate the effect of the activities. Total hydrocarbon content of the soil samples was also analysed.
Results: The populations of the total heterotrophic bacterial, fungal and hydrocarbon utilizing bacterial (HUB) and fungal (HUF) counts of the contaminated soil were enumerated. The mean total heterotrophic bacterial counts in Station 1 around the pot ranged from 2.5 x 105 to 1.8 x 106cfu/g, fungal counts ranged from 2.1 x 103 to 4.4 x 104cfu/g, HUB (HUB) counts ranged from 4.2 x 104 to 6.4 x 105cfu/g and hydrocarbon utilizing fungal (HUF) counts ranged from 1.5 x 103 to 4.0 x 103cfu/g. The results of soil samples taken 20m away from the Pot location ranged from 7.0 x 105 to 8.2 x 106cfu/g for total heterotrophic bacterial counts, fungal counts ranged from 2.3 x 103 to 1.5 x 104cfu/g, HUB ranged from 4.7 x 104 to 5.7 x 105cfu/g and HUF ranged from 2.0 x 103 to 3.5 x 103cfu/g. Also, the results of total heterotrophic bacterial counts for Station 2 ranged from; 4.3 x 105 to 3.3 x 106cfu/g, fungi 2.0 x 103 to 3.3 x 104cfu/g, HUB ranged from 3.8 X 104 to 5.4 x 104cfu/g  and HUF 1.6 x 103 to 3.5 x 103cfu/g, while 20m away from the Pot total heterotrophic bacteria ranged from 1.3 x 107 to 6.5 x 107cfu/g, fungi 5.8 x 103 to 1.4 x 105cfu/g, HUB 5.4 x 104 to 1.1x 105cfu/g and HUF 3.1 x 103 to 4.7 x 104cfu/g. While the control samples taken from inside the community where no such activity is on, ranged from 2.6 x 107 to 7.9 x 107cfu/g for total heterotrophic bacterial counts, total heterotrophic fungal counts ranged from 2.8 x 104 to 5.3 x 104cfu/g, HUB 2.0 x 102 to 3.1 x 102cfu/g and HUF 2.0 x 101 to 2.3 x 101cfu/g. twelve bacterial genera were identified and eight fungal genera: Bacillus, Alcaligenes, Flavobacterium, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Micrococcus, Proteus, Serratia, Enterobacter, Streptococcus, Escherichia, Staphylococcus, Penicillum, Aspergillus, Fusarium, Mucor, Rhizopus, Geotrichum, Candida, and Cladosporium. Total hydrocarbon content ranged from 106 to 281mg/kg across the locations.  When compared with the control, it was observed that the microbial population and diversity were adversely affected. These variations observed in the microbial population are indicative of the effect of the illegal refinery on the soil microorganisms.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicates that the continuous contamination of the soil environment by the activities of illegal crude oil refining, lead to a decrease in microbial population and diversity. This may result in devastating ecological damage, adversely affecting the ecological balance which may affect food chain and in turn animals and humans.


Dairy buffaloes are reared in the field with lack of practice of proper feeding, exposing them to postconception decline in milk yield (MY). A series of studies were conducted to investigate the issue. Data of three large farms comprising 30912 MY records were analyzed. Post-conception (PC) MY decline was investigated at a private dairy herd on 23 pregnant and 17 non–pregnant buffaloes. Role of milk progesterone levels (MPL) with the PC decline in MY was investigated in 40 adult lactating dairy buffaloes belonging to three groups: i) PRT (pregnantration traditional); ii) PRS (pregnant-ration supplemented); iii) NPRT (non-pregnantration traditional). Reduction in MY was effected by location, conception season, lactation week, gestation month and parity. Gestation month contributed to the reduction in milk yield by 1.4%. Third parity showed the least reduction. The predicted reduction was highest (-4.48 L/wk) in high than moderate and low yielders. In the high yielders the cost of this supplementation was ten times less than the loss due to MY decline. It may be concluded that the onset of pregnancy in dairy buffaloes results in drastic decline in MY at an early stage. Concentrates supplementation induced a raise in progesterone levels which in turn, affected the milk yield negatively (r=-0.61, P<0.001).


To explicate M. Snyder's (1987) construct of self-monitoring (SM), a new Q-sort prototype is introduced. Analyses of Q-sorts by both observers and self demonstrated cross-method convergent validity for the revised 18-item Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS-R) and its Public Performing subscale; however, neither scale showed discriminant validity against measures of extraversion. The Other-Directedness items remaining on the SMS-R correlated neither with the other measures of SM nor with extraversion. These findings suggest that the scale revision led to a conceptual shift toward extraverted (and away from other-directed) features of self-presentation. To adequately assess the conceptual domain of SM phenomena, researchers should administer the original 25-item SMS (not the abbreviated 18-item SMS-R) and score Public Performing and Other-Directedness separately to examine their individual and joint effects.


Microscale hydrogels have been shown to be beneficial for various applications such as tissue engineering and drug delivery. A key aspect in these applications is the spatial organization of biological entities or chemical compounds within hydrogel microstructures. For this purpose, sequentially patterned microgels can be used to spatially organize either living materials to mimic biological complexity or multiple chemicals to design functional microparticles for drug delivery. Photolithographic methods are the most common way to pattern microscale hydrogels but are limited to photocrosslinkable polymers. So far, conventional micromolding approaches use static molds to fabricate structures, limiting the resulting shapes that can be generated. Herein, we describe a dynamic micromolding technique to fabricate sequentially patterned hydrogel microstructures by exploiting the thermoresponsiveness of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-based micromolds. These responsive micromolds exhibited shape changes under temperature variations, facilitating the sequential molding of microgels at two different temperatures. We fabricated multicompartmental striped, cylindrical, and cubic microgels that encapsulated fluorescent polymer microspheres or different cell types. These responsive micromolds can be used to immobilize living materials or chemicals into sequentially patterned hydrogel microstructures which may potentially be useful for a range of applications at the interface of chemistry, materials science and engineering, and biology.


This article assesses the effect of labor demand and labor supply conditions on distribution of poverty across small communities in Michigan. The poverty model used for the analysis is based on the production behavior of the communities' residents, and is estimated using Census 2000 data. The difference in regional poverty rates is explained primarily by variation in the quality and quantity of communities' labor supply. Significant differences among rural, metropolitan, and metropolitan-adjacent communities are detected in determinants of poverty. In particular, a weak labor demand contributes to higher rates of rural poverty. Moreover, poverty rates are more persistent in rural areas and small towns. A higher average age of labor force is associated with a decrease in poverty rates. However, this effect becomes evident only after the ages of thirty-five to thirty-seven in rural areas, implying a slower accumulation of experience than in urban areas. Results imply that urban and rural poverty should be treated with area-specific policies that accommodate the difference in sources of poverty.


In accordance with the concept of a laboratory clinical diagnostic program proposed by I. S. Balakhovskiĭ (1997), a programmed system is developed, which realizes the method of nonlinear calibration of devices in a clinical diagnostic laboratory.


Four new fawcettimine-related alkaloids (1–4), together with 17 known ones, were isolated from club moss Phlegmariurus squarrosus. Notably, compound 1 was the derivative of lycoflexine with an unprecedented additional methyl group at C-17. Their structures were determined by extensive spectroscopic analysis, including 1D and 2D NMR, and HR-MS, as well as by comparison with the literature data. All new compounds were tested for their β-site amyloid precursor protein (APP)-cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activities.


A solution of the Zeno paradoxes in terms of a discrete space is usually rejected on the basis of an argument formulated by Hermann Weyl, the so-called tile argument. This note shows that, given a set of reasonable assumptions for a discrete geometry, the Weyl argument does not apply. The crucial step is to stress the importance of the nonzero width of a line. The Pythagorean theorem is shown to hold for arbitrary right triangles.


Daniel Bronson-Lowe, PhD; Shoana M. Anderson, MPHObjective To examine the impact of a minimum interval schedule for administering diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and acellular pertussis vaccine (DTaP) in infants during a statewide pertussis outbreak on receipt of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV).
 Design Retrospective cohort study using the state immunization registry.
 Setting Arizona.
 Participants Arizona children born between February 1 and September 30, 2005, who received their initial DTaP dose during a statewide pertussis outbreak (N = 45 129).
 Main Exposures Children who received at least 1 dose of DTaP on the minimum interval schedule (minimum interval group) compared with children who received all doses of DTaP on the standard childhood and adolescent immunization schedule (standard group).
 Outcome Measures Timing and receipt of 3 doses of the DTaP, IPV, and PCV.
 Results Compared with children in the standard group, children in the minimum interval group were more likely to receive 3 doses of DTaP (relative risk, 1.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.32-1.35), 3 doses of IPV (1.27; 1.25-1.29), and 3 doses of PCV (1.37; 1.35-1.39).
 Conclusion Recommending a minimum interval DTaP schedule during a statewide pertussis outbreak had a positive association with the receipt of IPV and PCV, 2 vaccines normally administered at the same time as DTaP.


This paper explores and highlights the value given to craftsmanship or techne in the community of liefhebbers and artists associated with the pictures of collections genre. Taking as its case study a group of gallery interiors by the probable inventor and leading light of the genre, Frans II Francken, it places pictures of collections within the reform of attitudes towards manual dexterity and the mechanical arts that took place in the Early Modern period. Antwerp gallery interiors exemplify the intellectual metamorphosis of the hand, urging us to see in them an appeal both to the senses and to the intellect, which are fused together by the skilled artist's technical facility.


ABSTRACT The world over, drastic transformation of higher education systems is presenting universities with significant opportunities and challenges. Accordingly, universities need highly effective decision-making systems through which they can adopt the decisions they need to reap the opportunities whilst avoiding the challenges associated with transformation. At Makerere University (MU), Uganda, however, decision-making is ineffective, which is affecting the university's ability to respond to the opportunities and challenges its transformed environment is presenting. Informed by the propositions of Systems Theory as they apply to organisational decision-making, therefore, decision-makers' perceptions of the university's decision-making process were surveyed to ascertain whether there is cooperation, hierarchy, order and feedback among the units involved in the process. It was found that although the process is hierarchical, it is marred by uncooperativeness, disorder and poor feedback mechanisms. To enhance decision success, therefore, MU is urged to review its decision-making process to ensure that the units involved therein operate synergistically.


Secretions from the nose and nasopharynx (NPS) are more readily accessible than tracheobronchial secretions (TBS) for clinical investigations, but it is unclear whether changes in mediator release in the nasopharynx reflect similar changes in the tracheobronchial tree. In order to clarify this question, NPS and TBS were taken from 20 children with tracheotomy and tested for the presence of leukotriene C4 (LTC4) and uteroglobin-like protein (UTG-LP). LTC4 and UTG-LP were measured both when the children were healthy and when they had clinical evidence of an acute respiratory tract illness. The mean concentration of LTC4 in NPS and TBS increased during illness although the mean concentration in NPS was significantly higher than in TBS during respiratory illness. In healthy children UTG-LP was detected only in TBS. During acute respiratory illness the concentration of UTG-LP in TBS decreased but remained significantly higher than in NPS. Data presented in this study indicate that changes in the LTC4 concentration in NPS appear to reflect changes in LTC4 concentration in TBS although the levels of LTC4 in NPS were significantly higher than in TBS. An inverse correlation between the concentrations of LTC4 and UTG-LP in NPS and TBS was demonstrated.


The analysis of bilateral trade flows features prominently in empirical research in international economics. Various different international statistical sources are available for researchers and commonly used. Unfortunately, the data happen to differ quite substantially across the different sources. It is the task of this project to identify those differences, quantify them, and track their origin and to demonstrate the consequences of differences in the data for estimation of fundamental relationships such as the gravity equation. We find the largest discrepancies in a comparison of UN and OECD databases to the IMF and Eurostat trade data. In the most extreme cases the differences to reported trade flows in other data sources amount to as much as 40 billion $ in measured export flows and to as much as 50 billion $ in bilateral "mirrored imports". Most importantly we find that these differences carry over to econometric results in applications of the gravity model, one of the workhorses of empirical trade research. Parameters of key variables such as log bilateral distance, common borders, common language, or a colonial relationship dummy variable vary substantially and do not even have a stable sign when using one database versus the other. Hence, heterogeneous reporting standards across data sources and the inhomogeneous sample coverage have a non-trivial impact on the quantifications of trade costs in empirical research.


As technology continues to scale down dramatically into 130nm and below, the impacts of process-induced variations on interconnect as well as device become more severe and significant in 130nm and below design. In order to predict changes of circuit characteristics due to process-induced variations accurately and efficiently, the DFM-Aware design environment has been developed and verified.


Abstract The "white cerebellum sign" is a striking neuroradiological finding, resulting from diffuse hypodense brain lesions in both cerebral hemispheres while sparing the cerebellum. This indicates widespread ischemic damage or expanded cerebral edema associated with the loss of white-gray matter differentiation. It is commonly reported in pediatric cases with severe neurological conditions, usually resulting in a poor prognosis. We present a case of a three-month-old female infant who was managed for confirmed acute bacterial meningitis complicated by status epilepticus, where the Computed tomography scan (CT scan) showed the "white cerebellum sign" in relation to diffuse cerebral hypoxic-ischemic lesions. However, the patient had a favorable outcome following treatment. This case underscores the importance of early recognition in cases presenting with the "white cerebellum sign". It highlights the potential for a positive prognosis even in severe neurological conditions when appropriate interventions are promptly administered.


Purpose
Models of integrated care are prime examples of complex interventions, incorporating multiple interacting components that work through varying mechanisms to impact numerous outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to explore summative, process and developmental approaches to evaluating complex interventions to determine how to best test this mess.

Design/methodology/approach
This viewpoint draws on the evaluation and complex intervention literatures to describe the advantages and disadvantages of different methods. The evaluation of the electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO) mobile application and portal system is presented as an example of how to evaluate complex interventions with critical lessons learned from this ongoing study.

Findings
Although favored in the literature, summative and process evaluations rest on two problematic assumptions: it is possible to clearly identify stable mechanisms of action; and intervention fidelity can be maximized in order to control for contextual influences. Complex interventions continually adapt to local contexts, making stability and fidelity unlikely. Developmental evaluation, which is more conceptually aligned with service-design thinking, moves beyond these assumptions, emphasizing supportive adaptation to ensure meaningful adoption.

Research limitations/implications
Blended approaches that incorporate service-design thinking and rely more heavily on developmental strategies are essential for complex interventions. To maximize the benefit of this approach, three guiding principles are suggested: stress pragmatism over stringency; adopt an implementation lens; and use multi-disciplinary teams to run studies.

Originality/value
This viewpoint offers novel thinking on the debate around appropriate evaluation methodologies to be applied to complex interventions like models of integrated care.


The case of a 58-year-old man with a pruritic rash involving the pubic area that had been undiagnosed for 30 years is presented. At least 15 different primary care physicians and dermatologists evaluated the patient during this time period. Multiple treatments were unsuccessful and a definitive diagnosis was not rendered. Wood lamp evaluation of the pubic area revealed hair shaft concretions that were confirmed on histologic evaluation to be white piedra (WP). The patient was successfully treated with topical ketoconazole and the eruption completely resolved. Our case raises awareness of the use of Wood lamp and dermoscopy to evaluate for parasitic infections of the pubic hair shafts when nonspecific dermatitis presents in this area.


The malazie of the Os lunatum ist one of the most frequent aseptic bone-necroses. It is found mainly with patients between the age of 25 and 35 years. That means that most of our patients are working full time. We give a clinical report of the disease and discuss the different aetiopathogenetic mechanisms according to the literature. In addition we give a cronological survey over possible methods of treatment both conservative and operative. We describe our method of treatment introduced by Mittelmeier (1965). In this method the gap that arises by resection of the Os lunatum is filled with a helved piece of soft tissue. This filling-material consists of a volar helved piece of the joint-capsula and of epitendinosus tissue of the deep flexor-tendons. In the Orthopaedic University Hospital in Homburg/Saar we have a casuistic of 42 cases treated by this method. This is the biggest casuistic in the literature as fare as we know. We report our results of treatment based an a clinical and X-ray examination. With this method we had satisfying longterm results in 80% of the cases. Even after years we hardly found an arthrosis between Os naviculare and radius. According to these results we recommend the method after Mittelmeier for the treatment of the malazie of the Os lunatum even for severe cases with fragmentation and collaps of the Os lunatum.


Pemphigus Vulgaris is a chronic autoimmune mucocutaneous disease, in which oral lesions could be the first site observed, although skin and other mucous membranes may also be affected. Clinically, the lesions are characterized by many painful blisters that rapidly rupture resulting in erosions and/or multiple ulcers in the oral mucosa and skin, which can be difficult to differentiate from other vesiculobullous or ulcerative disorders. Many patients may be misdiagnosed and improperly treated for a long time. It is considered a serious chronic disease and its treatment represents a real therapeutic challenge. We present 8 case reports of pemphigus vulgaris, in which a thorough evaluation was made, recording patient age and sex, the location and extent of the lesions, their signs, symptoms and treatment, with emphasis on the difficulty of the diagnosis and clinical management of these patients.


The Association of Dental Groups' Undergraduate Bursary Award (Professionalism) is an annual award for undergraduate entries relating to professionalism in dentistry. It is open to all UK dental undergraduates, whether dentists, hygienists, therapists or clinical dental technicians, and has three prizes: gold, silver and bronze. The competition involves answering two questions: 'Describe what the term "dental professional" means to you, ensuring that you cover each of the main domain headings?' and 'Describe a time and situation in which you have had to demonstrate dental professionalism and explain which aspect of the main domain headings were relevant in the circumstances?' The 2016 Silver Prize was awarded to Danny Watts, and here we present his essay on what the term 'dental professional' means to him.


Acoustic voice analysis is an effective, cheap and non-invasive tool that can be used to confirm the initial diagnosis and provides an objective determination of the impairment. The nonlinearities of the voice source mechanisms may cause the existence of chaos in human voice production. Voice pathology can cause to addition colored noise to voice wave. Added noise to a chaotic signal causes reduction of the deterministic property and therefore increases correlation dimension of signal. Surrogate data analysis can measure this deviation and give a criterion for amount of noise added to the chaotic signal. By using this criterion a threshold level is set to separate disordered voice from normal voice and 95% accuracy is achieved.


BACKGROUND
Latissimus dorsi, grade III tendon tears are an uncommon injury. There are very few cases reported in the literature, but most importantly, no cases could be found that relate to soccer.

OBJECTIVE
To present a successful, non-operative rehabilitation program for a professional athlete, after a grade III latissimus dorsi tear.

CASE DESCRIPTION
A 37 year old healthy, elite professional soccer goalkeeper was injured during a championship game. The athlete fell on his left side with an outstretched and externally rotated upper extremity in order to catch a ball that was going very close to the left pole of his goal-post. After on-field and off-field clinical examinations, the diagnosis was a left latissimus dorsi tendon tear which was later confirmed by MRI as a grade III tear.

INTERVENTION
During the first two weeks, intervention consisted of anti-inflammatory treatment and light therapeutic exercises. As the pain was subsiding and the strength was returning, the treatment shifted to purely strengthening and functional training.

RESULTS
Four weeks after the injury, the athlete presented with pain 0/10 in all functional activities and full ROM in both active and passive movements. Before discharge, the athlete underwent a sport specific training program, without any complains, that cleared him to participate in normal training with the rest of the team. Three months after the injury the strength of the player's left shoulder was 5/5 in all movements.

CONCLUSION
The protocol used yielded an accelerated return to sport (soccer) and function compared with other published research after a grade III latissimus dorsi tendon tear. One year later, the goalkeeper was still playing in the same competitive level without any re-injuries or complains, which means that this treatment protocol withstood the test of time.


BACKGROUND
This randomized controlled clinical trial was designed to compare the clinical outcomes of guided tissue regeneration with calcium sulfate graft and membrane (CS) versus guided tissue regeneration with collagen membrane (CM) or open flap debridement (OFD) only in terms of clinical attachment gain in periodontal intrabony defects.

METHODS
Fifty-one systemically healthy, non-smoking subjects affected by moderate to severe chronic periodontitis were recruited. The subjects had one deep intrabony defect with a probing depth (PD) > or =6 mm and were randomly divided into three equal groups (17 subjects per group). Subjects were surgically treated with OFD (OFD group), OFD with CS (CS group), or OFD and CM (CM group). One year after surgical treatment, a complete clinical examination and a surgical reentry were performed. The pre- and post-therapy clinical parameters, including PD, clinical attachment level (CAL), gingival recession (GR), and intrasurgical parameters (defect bone level [DBL]), were compared.

RESULTS
After 1 year, the clinical and intrasurgical parameters showed statistically significant changes from baseline within each group for all of the evaluated parameters (PD and CAL, P <0.001; GR and DBL, P <0.05). Differences (PD, CAL, and DBL, P <0.001; GR, P <0.05) were also seen across the three groups. The CM and CS groups had significantly smaller PD, CAL, and DBL values than subjects treated with only OFD. Groups treated with regenerative techniques had a significantly greater PD reduction and CAL and DBL gain compared to the OFD group. No significant differences were seen between CM and CS. Conversely, the CM group showed a significantly greater GR increase compared to OFD and CS.

CONCLUSIONS
Both regenerative treatments produced additional clinical benefits over OFD alone. Moreover, the use of CS may minimize post-surgical recession.


The market-based adjustable contract for customized goods or services has emerged in outsourcing practices. Its objective is to minimize the operational risks inherent in today's volatile environment of operations. Our research reveals several important properties of this contract through a continuous-time analytical approach. Specifically, we consider the determination of this contract between two risk-averse firms through a Nash bargaining process. We derive the optimal adjusting mechanism analytically and extensively analyze the application boundary of the market-based adjustable outsourcing contract. We conclude by discussing implications for practice and research.


The presence of residual stresses within engineering components is often a key feature in determining their usable lifetimes and failure characteristics. Residual surface compression can, for example, restrict the propagation of surface cracks through the bulk. As a consequence, it is essential to characterize the magnitude and spatial distribution of residual stresses and, at least for non-destructive testing, this is most widely achieved using diffraction of neutron and high energy synchrotron radiations. This book aims to provide a detailed description of the methodology used to determine residual stresses. The major emphasis is placed on the neutron method, this being the more widely established approach at present. It contains 20 chapters contributed by 23 authors, divided into five major parts. The overall layout is very logical, with the first part giving a general introduction to the use of neutrons and x-rays for materials research and summarizing the methods used for their production. Part 2 considers the more specific aspects of extracting the residual stress distribution within a bulk sample and includes some valuable comments on a number of potential experimental problems, such as the determination of the stress-free lattice parameter and the effects of broadening of the Bragg peaks. The experimental facilities currently available or under development are described in part 3, with the remaining two parts devoted to general and specific applications of the residual stress measurement technique. As expected with such a large number of different authors, there is some variation in style and quality. However, the text is generally easy to follow and, more importantly, it is largely free of the problems of inconsistent notation and dupication of material that can afflict multi-authored texts. My only negative comment concerns the latter portion of the book devoted to specific applications of the technique, which is illustrative rather than comprehensive. In particular, there is no clear justification for the particular choice of topics included. Chapters devoted to the more important areas of residual stresses in aerospace components and within the chemical industry would probably have more general interest than, for example, the one devoted nuclear fusion reactors. The publication of this book is rather timely, with a current expansion in the experimental facilities available for the measurement of residual stresses, including dedicated diffractometers for the study of engineering components. To the best of my knowledge, there is no comparable text currently available. In my opinion, this book provides both an accessible introduction to the topic for new students in this particular area and a useful reference text on the current status of the field to more established researchers. Stephen Hull


Russia is on the second place among European countries in the number of completed cycles of assisted reproductive technologies (ART). The proportion of children conceived using ART becomes annually higher. The present review summarises data on the impact of new reproductive technologies on the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases are presented. Potential health risks in the introduction of ART in babies born are discussed in numerous studies, the impact on all stages of embryo- and organogenesis is noted. The greatest problem is a possible increase in the incidence of congenital malformations (CM) in children after ART compared to the latter in the natural population. The frequency of CM is due not only to the use of APT, but also to factors such as genetic characteristics, age and state of health of the mother, aggravated obstetric-gynecological history, multiplicity, low birth weight of the fetus. In children conceived with ART, often appear early symptoms of systemic endothelial dysfunction, metabolic disorders (lipid metabolism, glucose level), congenital heart defects (interventricular septum defect, small cardiac development abnormality (false chord), open arterial duct, open oval window). There is a need to improve prenatal diagnostics of CM in early pregnancy and regular medical examinations of children conceived with ART.


In order to determine calcium intake, 1,450 French-Canadians of both sexes, all age groups and various socio-economic status, were recruited in Montreal and Laval using a stratified randomized selection. One thousand and sixty-five (73%) subjects completed food records: 82.4% for a period of seven days, the others for periods varying from one to six days, providing 6,590 days of food records. Subjects ranged in age from one month to 95 years with a mean age of 35.1 years. No seasonal variation in calcium intake was observed. On average, men consumed more calcium than women. This difference was significant for age groups 13 to 15, 19 to 24 and 25 to 49 (p < 0.05). Womens' diets, however, had a higher calcium density than those of men, except among 10-15-year-olds. Mean calcium intake exceeded the RNI for the Canadian population in all age groups except females aged 10 to 15 years, and both men and women aged 50 years and over. The results of this study suggest that those in the study region most at risk for insufficient calcium intake are adolescent females and older men and women.


Responses to potential threats to welfare vary greatly between species. Even closely related animals often differ in their fear of humans and/or novelty; their behavioural responses to pain; and when captive, their overall welfare and the form and frequency of their stereotypies. Such species differences stimulate hypotheses about I) the way that responses to challenge co-vary with other biological traits; 2) the adaptive value of particular responses; and 3) the factors predicting responses to evolutionarily new scenarios, such as captivity. We illustrate how these ideas can be statistically tested with multi-species comparisons, and show how techniques such as the Comparative Analysis of Independent Contrasts can be used to control for any non-independence of data points caused by species' relatedness. For each of the three types of hypothesis, we then provide several welfare-relevant examples including one that has been fully tested (respectively, the relationships between sociality and anti-predator behaviour in antelopes; predation pressure, foraging niche and neophobia in parrots; and home range size and stereotypy in carnivores). Ultimate explanations such as these, based on species' ecology and evolutionary history, have great explanatory appeal. Species comparisons can also have great practical value, allowing the test of hypotheses that would be almost impossible to investigate experimentally, and generating principles that allow predictions about the welfare of similar unstudied species. Multi-species data, for example from the many taxa held in zoos, thus hold enormous potential for increasing the fundamental understanding of animal welfare.


We describe here a patient with dystrophy of all 20 nails, which has persisted for five years after the resolution of alopecia areata. We feel that the term "20-nail dystrophy" is best used to describe a clinical entity that can have several causes.


Ionization coefficients are deduced from photomultiplication measurements on a wide range of AlxGa1-xAs (x = 0 - 0.60) structures where the high-field region thicknesses vary from >1 µm down to 0.05 µm. Despite the dead space becoming an increasing fraction of the device thickness as the thickness reduces, these coefficients implicitly include its effect such that they can be used within the simple local ionization model to quantify the avalanche processes in depletion regions as thin as 0.1 µm. This success is attributed to the fact that only a limited range of devices with comparable geometries access the same high electric field when the dead space becomes significant. An `effective' or averaged coefficient can therefore be defined for the devices which access this field. The presented coefficients render more complex models unnecessary for most multiplication calculations.


Wireless sensor networks WSNs are getting popular for their deployment in unattended environments, where a registered user can log in to the network and access data collected from the desired sensor. Because of limited resources and computation power in sensor nodes, an authentication protocol should be simple and efficient. M.L. Das proposed a two-factor authentication scheme for WSNs. Because his scheme uses only one-way hash function and XOR operation, it is well suited for resource-constrained environments. Because of some flaws in Das's scheme, several improved schemes have been introduced. In this paper, we show that Das's scheme and its derivatives not only have security imperfections but also do not provide key agreement. To overcome their security shortcomings, we propose a novel user authentication scheme with key agreement for WSN. We furnish security analysis of the proposed protocol to show its robustness to various attacks as well as analyze its performance to determine its efficiency. We provide protocol analysis and verification of the proposed protocol. Compared with the existing schemes, it is more robust and offers better security. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Background: Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), which remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The emergence of drug-resistant strains of MTB has put status of TB to threatening levels. Aim of the Work: was to detect MTB along with rifampicin (RIF) resistance using Genexpert (MTB/RIF). Its diagnostic, sensitivity and specificity were evaluated by comparing with conventional technique. Patients, Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted on two hundred and seven Egyptian patients at Abbasia Chest Diseases Hospital, from November 2016 to December 2017, and comprised clinically and radiologically diagnosed TB suspected cases. This study was approved by the Ethical Committee of faculty of medicine, Alazhar University and the Ethical Committee of Ministry of Health and after Verbal consents from the patients or their parents were taken. Pulmonary specimens (sputum and bronchial lavage) and pleural effusion as an extra-pulmonary specimen were included. All samples collected were sent to TB laboratory of Abbasia Chest Diseases Hospital for further analysis. Result: Out of the 26 Genexpert (MTB/RIF) positive samples for MTBC, 3 (11.54%) showed RIF resistance and diagnosed as MDR-TB. Using LJ and MGIT cultures for drug sensitivity test (DST) on 31 and 34 positive TB samples; respectively, the same three specimens showed resistance to rifampicin (RIF). Four positive specimens were also resistant to streptomycin (STR) using the previously mentioned cultures. Moreover, resistant to INH was reported in five positive TB samples using the same cultures. Finally, it was found that all positive specimens were sensitive to Ethambutol (ETH). Conclusion: Although the conventional methods remain the gold standard for diagnosing pulmonary TB, delayed diagnostic times demand for more rapid and sensitive nucleic acid amplification techniques. Genexpert (MTB/RIF) assay is simple, rapid and accurate method for detecting mycobacterial tuberculosis


Introduction Osteopontin (OPN; also known as SPP1), an immunomodulatory cytokine highly expressed in bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMΦ), is known to regulate diverse cellular and molecular immune responses. We previously revealed that glatiramer acetate (GA) stimulation of BMMΦ upregulates OPN expression, promoting an anti-inflammatory, pro-healing phenotype, whereas OPN inhibition triggers a pro-inflammatory phenotype. However, the precise role of OPN in macrophage activation state is unknown. Methods Here, we applied global proteome profiling via mass spectrometry (MS) analysis to gain a mechanistic understanding of OPN suppression versus induction in primary macrophage cultures. We analyzed protein networks and immune-related functional pathways in BMMΦ either with OPN knockout (OPN KO ) or GA-mediated OPN induction compared with wild type (WT) macrophages. The most significant differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were validated using immunocytochemistry, western blot, and immunoprecipitation assays. Results and discussion We identified 631 DEPs in OPN KO or GA-stimulated macrophages as compared to WT macrophages. The two topmost downregulated DEPs in OPN KO macrophages were ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1), a crucial component of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), and the anti-inflammatory Heme oxygenase 1 (HMOX-1), whereas GA stimulation upregulated their expression. We found that UCHL1, previously described as a neuron-specific protein, is expressed by BMMΦ and its regulation in macrophages was OPN-dependent. Moreover, UCHL1 interacted with OPN in a protein complex. The effects of GA activation on inducing UCHL1 and anti-inflammatory macrophage profiles were mediated by OPN. Functional pathway analyses revealed two inversely regulated pathways in OPN-deficient macrophages: activated oxidative stress and lysosome-mitochondria-mediated apoptosis (e.g., ROS, Lamp1-2, ATP-synthase subunits, cathepsins, and cytochrome C and B subunits) and inhibited translation and proteolytic pathways (e.g., 60S and 40S ribosomal subunits and UPS proteins). In agreement with the proteome-bioinformatics data, western blot and immunocytochemical analyses revealed that OPN deficiency perturbs protein homeostasis in macrophages—inhibiting translation and protein turnover and inducing apoptosis—whereas OPN induction by GA restores cellular proteostasis. Taken together, OPN is essential for macrophage homeostatic balance via the regulation of protein synthesis, UCHL1-UPS axis, and mitochondria-mediated apoptotic processes, indicating its potential application in immune-based therapies.


WE wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest. A structure for nucleic acid has already been proposed by Pauling and Corey1. They kindly made their manuscript available to us in advance of publication. Their model consists of three intertwined chains, with the phosphates near the fibre axis, and the bases on the outside. In our opinion, this structure is unsatisfactory for two reasons: (1) We believe that the material which gives the X-ray diagrams is the salt, not the free acid. Without the acidic hydrogen atoms it is not clear what forces would hold the structure together, especially as the negatively charged phosphates near the axis will repel each other. (2) Some of the van der Waals distances appear to be too small. Another three-chain structure has also been suggested by Fraser


Research shows that brain damage can have serious long- and short-term effects on a person's memory and overall function of life. Football has the most recorded concussion injuries of any other sport. What has yet to be examined is the relationship between playing football and working memory recall when there is no concussion. This study looked at 56 college football players and 28 non-football players to examine the effect concussions have on a person's working memory. This study found a significant interaction between group type (football player or non-football player) and concussion status (history of concussion or no history of concussion) with respect to working memory performance. Specifically, non-football players with no concussions earned the highest working memory test scores, followed by non-football players with concussions, then by football players with concussions, and finally football players with no concussions. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed. Further research is needed to understand why these outcomes occurred.
Faculty Mentor: Ava Santos


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a multifactorial disorder determined by the interaction of genetic, metabolic, and environmental factors. In the common late-onset familial and sporadic forms of AD apolipoprotein E type 4 allele (APOE-epsilon4) is now widely accepted as a major risk factor. The association of estrogen treatment with a reduction in the risk of AD together with the modulation by estrogen of the secretory metabolism of the amyloid precursor protein offers new possibilities for identification of other AD susceptibility genes, as those encoding for the estrogen receptors (ERs). A total of 193 patients with sporadic late-onset AD, meeting the NINCDS-ADRDA criteria, and a total of 202 control subjects, age and education matched, were included in this study. PvuII and XbaI ERalpha and HhaI APOE gene polymorphisms were evaluated in genomic DNA by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The frequency of the various ERalpha genotypes by the combination of P, p and X, x was calculated for controls and AD patients stratified based on ApoE typing. When the two ERalpha gene polymorphisms were analyzed in combination, 7 genotypes were recognized, with a significantly increased prevalence of PPXX genotype in AD patients compared to controls (P = 0.0001). Risk of AD increased by a factor of 7.6 (CI [1.10-62.3]) in homozygous APOE-epsilon4 individuals with PPXX ERalpha genotype. These results are consistent with a segregation of PPXX ERalpha genotype with a higher risk of developing late-onset sporadic AD in the Italian population. The ERalpha gene appears to interact with the APOE-epsilon4 genotype in determining AD susceptibility.


The parametric loudspeaker is a novel type of loudspeaker that can project a directional sound beam. It is commonly used in creating personal sound zone and projecting private messages to a targeted audience. However, the parametric loudspeaker possesses a very poor bass (or low-frequency) response due inherently to the nonlinear acoustic principle generating sound from ultrasound in air. A psychoacoustic signal processing method known as "virtual bass" has been successfully implemented in some consumer electronics with miniature or flat loudspeaker unit, aiming to enhance their bass performances. In this paper, we adapt this "virtual bass" approach for parametric loudspeakers. Unlike conventional loudspeakers, the parametric loudspeaker brings in an added degree of complexity in "virtual bass" enhancement due to its inherent nonlinear acoustic property. Accordingly, a new preprocessing technique is proposed for the parametric loudspeaker to psychoacoustically reproduce the low-frequency components within an octave below its cut-off frequency.


Reactive synthesis from high-level specifications that combine hard constraints expressed in Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) with soft constraints expressed by discounted sum (DS) rewards has applications in planning and reinforcement learning. An existing approach combines techniques from LTL synthesis with optimization for the DS rewards but has failed to yield a sound algorithm. An alternative approach combining LTL synthesis with satisficing DS rewards (rewards that achieve a threshold) is sound and complete for integer discount factors, but, in practice, a fractional discount factor is desired. This work extends the existing satisficing approach, presenting the first sound algorithm for synthesis from LTL and DS rewards with fractional discount factors. The utility of our algorithm is demonstrated on robotic planning domains.


The physics goals of the International Linear Collider (ILC) require a significant improvement in the calorimetric performance relative to previous generations of detectors. Sampling electromagnetic calorimeters (ECAL) using silicon diodes as the active media are widely considered as a suitably performant—but very expensive–solution. A new digital approach to electromagnetic calorimeter design based on 50 μm pitch Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors is presented as an alternative solution which could offer (at least) the same performance at significantly reduced cost.


This study was conducted to see whether implementing information gap tasks in EFL English classrooms affect students' speaking abilities. To have homogeneous subjects, a standardized test was given to 50 female elementary students studying English at Tasnim Language Institute in Mahabad. Thirty four students whose grades were between one standard deviation above and below the mean were selected and then were divided randomly into two equal groups. One of the groups served as the experimental and the other as the control group. Then, as a pretest, a standardized speaking test, which was in the form of an oral interview, was administered to both groups to determine their level of speaking. Afterwards, a set of communicative tasks based on the information-gap principle adopted from Levy & Murgatroyd (2009) and incorporated into seventeen lesson plans. The tasks were presented to the experimental group as treatment within seventeen sessions during the last twenty and twenty five minutes of the class time. In the end, the standard speaking test was administered to both groups as a post test and the results were analyzed using t-test. The results revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the oral interview exam. This study calls for incorporation of information-gap tasks in Iranian EFL classes as an integral part of the syllabus in private language institutes.


The development of lead free solder with high thermo-mechanical fatigue resistance is an ongoing task of the electronic industry. One possibility to improve the strength of solder materials is particle reinforcement. This paper reports on the effects of adding different sizes and contents of Ni particles in low silver lead-free solder. For this purpose, nickel (Ni) particles of the sizes 100 nm, 1 (μm and 5 (μm were mixed into a Sn1.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC105) solder. The wetting and voiding behavior of the solder, as well as the microstructure, shear strength and fracture modes of solder joints were examined.High concentrations and finer powders resulted in higher wetting angles and a decrease in the spreading rate. With increasing particle concentration and smaller particle sizes, the void concentration increased significantly. This is most likely due to an increase in viscosity of the solder melt and a reduction of pore mobility. At low particle additions of 0.1 wt.% a small decrease in thickness of the interfacial intermetallic composites (IMCs) was demonstrated. At high concentrations, however, the IMC thickness increased due to the attachment of IMCs and agglomerates at the interfacial IMC layer. A decrease in shear strength was observed with increasing particle content. This decrease could be attributed to the reduction of the load bearing surface by the pores, as well as the stress concentrations at pore edges. Using a vacuum-overpressure reflow process, the maximum pore content of solder paste reinforced with 1wt.% 1 μm Ni particles was reduced to below 1 vol.%. This resulted in a maximum shear strength improvement of about 5 MPa compared to unreinforced SAC105. With the 100 nm and 1 μm powders, there was a development towards exclusively ductile fracture behavior. With the 5 μm powders, quasi-brittle fracture behavior occurred more frequently, supposedly due to the increasing attachment of IMCs at the interface.


BACKGROUND
There is considerable public and scientific interest in the declining age of pubertal timing. Prenatal and postnatal stress has been proposed to relate with earlier pubertal timing, but it remains unknown whether intrapartum stress may affect pubertal timing as well.

OBJECTIVE
This study aims to examine the potential effect of caesarean delivery on pubertal timing in boys and girls.

METHODS
This study was based upon the nationwide Puberty Cohort nested within the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC) from 2000 to 2003. A total of 15,731 mother-child pairs with complete information on delivery mode and puberty were included in the main analysis. The delivery mode was categorised into non-instrumental vaginal delivery (reference), instrumental vaginal delivery, elective caesarean delivery before labour, emergency caesarean delivery during labour and un-specified caesarean delivery. Children's pubertal development were self-reported in web-based questionnaires from 11 years of age and every 6 months throughout puberty (2012-2019), including Tanner stages 2-5, menarche, voice break, first ejaculation, axillary hair growth and the onset of acne. Regression models for censored, normally distributed time-to-event data were used to estimate mean monthly differences in age at attaining the different pubertal milestones and the average of all these estimates for each sex (a combined indicator of pubertal timing).

RESULTS
A total of 2810 participants were born by caesarean delivery (17.9%). Neither elective nor emergency caesarean delivery was associated with earlier age at achieving the pubertal milestones in boys or in girls. For the combined indicator, the mean age differences for elective caesarean delivery and emergency caesarean delivery were 0.1 (95% CI -1.1, 1.4) months and -0.7 (95% CI -2.0, 0.5) months in boys and 0.7 (95% CI -0.7, 2.0) and 0.2 (95% CI -1.3, 1.7) in girls.

CONCLUSIONS
This study does not suggest a clinically important effect of caesarean delivery on children's pubertal timing.


A five-floor bee hotel was constructed using wooden pallets in an area of urban grassland in Ipswich, United Kingdom. Within one month of construction, two grasshopper species were observed using the hotel, with nymphs in shaded, uncut grass at the base, while adults were observed on all five floors and the roof. On the fourth floor, a stridulating field grasshopper, Chorthippusbrunneus, was sighted on two separate occasions. Further research is required to determine whether bee hotels may be an effective 'shade' refuge for grasshoppers in open grassland, while also providing an effective platform for stridulation.


In this reply to Kuhle , I will respond to her comments on the role of insight in lucid dreaming, especially regarding the question of whether it may be knowledge-based or instead express a sensorial experience. My answer rests on experimental findings, acknowledging Kuhle's remarks, and taking her methodological challenges into account. I will challenge her proposal that insight might be called a state, opting for a definition of a transient thought atypically embedded within the state of dreaming, which may suffice to retrospectively call a REM dream lucid, but which will not satisfy the assumptions underlying the existence of a state.


Abstract. Urban flooding exposure is generally investigated with the assumption of
stationary disasters and disaster-hit bodies during an event, and thus it
cannot satisfy the increasingly elaborate modeling and management of urban
floods. In this study, a comprehensive method was proposed to simulate
dynamic exposure to urban flooding considering residents' travel behavior.
First, a flood simulation was conducted using the LISFLOOD-FP model to
predict the spatiotemporal distribution of flooding. Second, an agent-based model was used to simulate residents' movements during the urban flooding period. Finally, to study the evolution and patterns of urban flooding exposure, the exposure of population, roads, and buildings to urban flooding was simulated using Lishui, China, as a case study. The results showed that water depth was the major factor affecting total urban exposure in Lishui. Urban exposure to fluvial flooding was concentrated along the river, while exposure to pluvial flooding was dispersed throughout the area (independent from the river). Additionally, the population distribution on weekends was more variable than on weekdays and was more sensitive to floods. In addition, residents' response behavior (based on their subjective consciousness) may result in increased overall exposure. This study presents the first fully formulated method for dynamic urban flood exposure simulation at a high spatiotemporal resolution. The quantitative results of this study can provide fundamental information for urban flood disaster vulnerability assessment, socioeconomic loss assessment, urban disaster risk management, and emergency response plan establishment.


Access to relevant information adapted to the needs and context of the user is a main challenge in the Internet world. Recent studies have dynamically enhanced the user query with the related user's preferences, which are stored in user's profile for providing personalized results; however, not all user preferences are relevant in all situations. As far as we know, these studies don't take into account the state of the current activity during the information retrieval process. This paper presents a method to reformulate user queries depending on his profile together with the state of the task that he is undertaking when the information retrieval process takes places. Here suppose, that the queries we consider are related to some current task at hand. The UML state diagram is chosen for modeling the current task in order to detect the transitions at time intervals with the task state changes. In this paper, a new concept of SRQ (State Reformulated Queries) is introduced and used to reformulate queries. The result obtained by SRQ is more relevant than that obtained by the initial query for the current task at hand.


Abstract The first total synthesis of cryptopyranmoscatones A3 and B4 has been accomplished from d-ribose or but-3-ynol. The key steps involved in the synthesis are oxa-Michael addition, highly diastereoselective Brown allylation, and ring closing metathesis (RCM) and cross metathesis (CM) reactions.


Abstract Multiple myeloma (MM) is the second most common form of blood cancer characterized by clonal expansion of malignant plasma cells within the bone marrow. MM is a complex, progressive, and highly heterogeneous malignancy, which occurs via a multistep transformation process involving primary and secondary oncogenic events. Recent advances in molecular techniques have further expanded our understanding of the mutational landscape, clonal composition, and dynamic evolution patterns of MM. The first part of this review describes the key oncogenic events involved in the initiation and progression of MM, together with their prognostic impact. The latter part highlights the most prominent findings concerning genomic aberrations promoted by gene expression profiling (GEP) and next-generation sequencing (NGS) in MM. This review provides a concise understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of the MM genome and the importance of adopting emerging molecular technology in future clinical management of MM.


We study Higgs production under the influence of a light, scalar dark energy field with chameleon-like couplings to matter. Our analysis is relevant for hadron colliders, such as the Large Hadron Collider, which are expected to manufacture Higgs particles through weak boson fusion, or associated production with a Z or W. We show that the corrections arising in these models are too small to be observed. This result can be attributed to the gauge invariance of the low energy Lagrangian. As a by-product of our analysis, we provide the first microphysical realization of a dark energy model coupled to the electromagnetic field strength. In models where dark energy couples to all matter species in a uniform manner we are able to give a new, stringent bound on its coupling strength.


Optical lattices with a complex-valued tunneling term have become a standard way of studying gauge-field physics with cold atoms. If the complex phase of the tunneling is made density dependent, such a system features even a self-interacting or dynamical magnetic field. In this paper we study the scenario of a few bosons in either a static or a dynamical gauge field by means of exact diagonalization. The topological structures are identified computing their Chern number. Upon decreasing the atom-atom contact interaction, the effect of the dynamical gauge field is enhanced, giving rise to a phase transition between two topologically nontrivial phases.


Surveillance videos are becoming immensely popular nowadays due to the increasing usage of surveillance systems in various places around the world. In such applications, cameras capture and record information over long durations of time, which result in large quantities of data, necessitating specialized compression techniques. Conventional video compression algorithms are not sufficient and efficient enough for such videos. In this paper, a novel two-stage compression system for surveillance videos is proposed that can automatically adapt the compression based on the semantic content of the video data. The initial stage consists of an "intelligent interesting event detector" that discards groups of frames in which no interesting events are detected, effectively reducing the size of the video without any loss in video quality. The removal process is robust to minor illumination variations and other small periodic movements. In the second stage, the remaining frames are compressed by HuffYUV codec which is a lossless compression scheme. Results indicate that compression ratios that can be achieved by our system are very encouraging and we demostrate the effectiveness of our system on seven different surveillance videos consisting of a wide range of scenerios


Prevention is the most important measure against osteoporosis, since bone mass, once it is lost, cannot be recovered. Bone mass, in both men and women, reaches a maximum level in the 20s to 30s age range, and maintains this level or slightly increases toward the 40s, and gradually decreases thereafter. In particular, bone mass dramatically decreases in postmenopausal women because of a decrease in serum estrogen level. Bone mass is influenced by genetic and environmental factors such as mechanical loading, nutrition, and lifestyle, besides gender, age, and metabolic factors. Among these factors, mechanical loading, i.e. exercise, and nutrition seem to be important in maintaining bone health, since they are expected to improve with changes in lifestyle. Routine exercise and a diet rich in minerals and vitamins, throughout life, both contribute to maintaining bone health.


The resonant behavior of the fluid trapped in the narrow gap between a floating LNG and an LNG carrier in a side-by-side offloading operation is investigated in this study employing a numerical wave flume. The wave flume is based on the finite volume solution of the Navier-Stokes equations to account for the viscous dissipation. The waveFoam toolbox, a modified version of the standard OpenFOAM multiphase flow solver interFoam developed by Jacobson et al (2011) has been used for the purpose of wave generation and relaxation inside the computational domain. This method has a quite high efficiency as it takes advantage of the potential flow theory for wave generation purpose and the viscous flow theory for inside the wave tank, respectively. The volume of fluid (VOF) method first introduced by Hirt and Nichols (1981) is used to capture the free surface oscillations at the air and water interface. Water waves are generated at a reasonable distance from the inlet boundary and two rectangular relaxation zones at the inlet and outlet boundaries of the domain have been implemented to suppress wave reflection at the outer boundaries as well as waves reflected internally in the computational domain. The influence of incident wave frequency on resonance wave height and frequency is examined. Numerical results of free surface evolution at different incident wave frequency seem to agree well with the experimental results of Saitoh et al (2006) and numerical results of Lu et al (2008). In order to justify the effect of bilge keels on flow separation at the bottom corner of the ship, four different corner configurations have been investigated and compared to the base sharp edged case. It is observed that the magnitude of the free surface elevation at the resonance frequency increases significantly by about 10 times the incoming wave height while the peak of resonant frequency curves shifts to higher frequencies in the higher curvature modes compared with the base case.© 2014 ASME


Transcatheter pulmonic valve implantation has emerged as a safe and effective alternative to valve surgery in patients with surgically corrected congenital heart disease. In cases where the transcatheter approach has failed, or was thought to be technically challenging, a hybrid approach to pulmonic valve implantation has been described. This approach involves a small subxyphoid incision made by the cardiac surgeon and implantation of the pulmonic valve through the appropriate delivery sheath through this incision. Here we describe a case of a successful implantation of a Melody valve in a 12 kg child with tetralogy of Fallot. To our knowledge this is the smallest child to have undergone this procedure reported. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The UNESCO International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019 (IYIL) came to an end shortly before the publication of this issue of NJAS. According to UNESCO's Strategic Outcome Document for IYIL, over eight hundred IYIL events were held around the world in 2019. In Africa, these events ranged from a major regional gathering of the African Union Commission and African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) at the African Union Commission Headquarters in Addis-Ababa, to plans for the development of a reality TV game show in Nigeria entitled "Can You Really Speak Your Language?"
In this volume, Onyumbe & Koni Muluwa take a historical approach to the phonology of Cibinji cya Ngusu, a Bantu language of DRC, highlighting some of the less common Bantu sound changes observed in this language. Sonkoue Kamdem presents new data on the previously undescribed tense-aspect system of Mengaka, a Grassfields language spoken in Cameroon, providing a beautiful illustration of the complexity inherent in even a "basic" description of the tense-aspect system of many African languages: Although Sonkoue Kamdem restricts her description to affirmative main clause contexts, and aims to describe chiefly the primary (temporal semantic) functions of the markers, the distinctions shown are numerous, with hints of even greater complexity if pragmatic functions are considered. Fongang presents new data and a morphosyntactic analysis of the na focus particle in Cameroon Pidgin English (also known as Kamtok and Cameroon Creole English), drawing connections to similar phenomena in other pidgin and creole languages. Like Cameroon Pidgin English, African creoles and many contact varieties are well-developed, full-fledged languages with intricate grammatical systems, and they often have huge numbers of first- and second-language speakers (see e.g. Yapko 2016; Sande 2015). Therefore, they merit the same quality and scope of linguistic research as other indigenous languages, even if their so-called "lexifying" languages, from which much of the vocabulary is derived, did not originate on the African continent. Finally, Dione offers Lexical-Functional Grammar analyses of prominent linguistic features in Wolof, a Niger-Congo language that is spoken mostly in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania.


The use of point-of-care ultrasound is becoming increasingly common among non-radiologist clinicians. There has also been increased interest in the bedside assessment of fluid status in hemodialytic patients. Lung ultrasound and inferior vena cava collapsibility index measurement methods may assist the detection of fluid overload. Current information on the role of POCUS in regard of the assessment of predialytic fluid overload in hemodialytic children is scarce. In this article, we aim to review and emphasize the importance of a non-invasive bedside method of assessing the predialytic volume overload of children based on the published literature. Well-designed studies with larger samples are needed to prove the reliability of the use of lung ultrasound and inferior vena cava collapsibility index in the assessment of predialysis fluid overload in children.


Indicators of oxidative stress (OS), systemic inflammation, metabolism and redox status of glutathione (GSH) were investigated and compared in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction on electrocardiograms (STEMI), and patients with unstable angina (UA). The elevated and decreased myeloperoxidase level, superoxide dismutase activity, and moderate increased plasma levels of interleukin-6, while maintaining the antioxidant potential, were found in Group 1. Disorders in pro-/antioxidant balance and systemic inflammatory response were manifested in UA. Increased GSH concentration (and total GSH) in erythrocytes has been established for STEMI patients and the decreased GSH for UA patients. Thus, a significant shift of erythrocytes redox to oxidization and increase (unlike STEMI patients) of glutathione peroxidase activity were recorded. Mechanisms of the pro- and antioxidant functions of red blood cells in acute coronary syndrome are considered. The role of red blood cell glutathione to provide more oxidized intravascular environment for S-glutathionylation and optimization of redox signaling in target cells is pronounced.


Skeletal muscle powers animal movement, making it an important determinant of fitness. The classic excitation-contraction coupling, sliding-filament and crossbridge theories are thought to describe the processes of muscle activation and the generation of force, work and power. Here, we review how the comparative, realistic muscle physiology typified by Journal of Experimental Biology over the last 100 years has supported and refuted these theories. We examine variation in the contraction rates and force-length and force-velocity relationships predicted by these theories across diverse muscles, and explore what has been learnt from the use of workloop and force-controlled techniques that attempt to replicate aspects of in vivo muscle function. We suggest inclusion of features of muscle contraction not explained by classic theories in our routine characterization of muscles, and the use of phylogenetic comparative methods to allow exploration of the effects of factors such as evolutionary history, ecology, behavior and size on muscle physiology and mechanics. We hope that these future directions will improve our understanding of the mechanisms of muscle contraction, allow us to better characterize the variation in muscle performance possible, and enable us to infer adaptation.


At least two redundant calculators (2a,2b) are each capable of performing identical calculating tasks. The output of each calculator is directed to a comparator (4) and to a multiplexer (5) which is controlled by the comparator (4) and directs the output from one of the calculators to the output (6). Control units (8a,8b,10a,10b) check the operation of each calculator. The comparator (4) can direct the output of the calculator to be correct by the control units (8a,8b,10a,10b) to the output (6) in the event that the comparator detects a difference between the outputs from the two calculators.


Maintenance planning and control, more specifically preventive maintenance, has become a critical tool for companies that want to incorporate cost reduction strategies into their facilities. This tool has made significant advances and its application is increasingly evident in the industry. There are several types of methods used to perform maintenance and most companies use the unplanned corrective maintenance method to solve any problems, which is very disadvantageous in view of the losses related to long downtime. the execution of equipment changes, in addition, the periodicity of failures that occur in the equipment are much greater in corrective maintenance systems, because there is no study that enables the prevention of these failures. In this context, this paper approaches the model of a preventive maintenance plan in a river vessel electrical system, using reliability data for the planning of the steps and choosing the periodicity of stopping to perform the tasks.


This paper focuses on time management as a cooperative task. Based on an analysis of the cultural complexity of scheduling surgical operations in a large clinic, possibilities of using information technology are explored. A computer system can be used to facilitate and change the negotiation of resource deployment in complex organizations by a) providing an integrated view of time management problems and decision-making within a complex organization, and b) by improving coordination. The paper discusses some design options for such a system which combines negotiation support with an automatic scheduling device and critically examines the rationale for an organization to accept and implement such a system.


Shear stress-dependent nitric oxide (NO) formation prevents immoderate vascular constriction. We examined whether shear stress-dependent NO formation limits exercise-induced coronary artery constriction after beta-adrenergic receptor blockade in dogs. Control exercise led to increases (P < 0.01) in coronary blood flow (CBF) by 38 +/- 5 ml/min from 41 +/- 5 ml/min and in the external diameter of epicardial coronary arteries (CD) by 0.24 +/- 0.03 mm from 3.33 +/- 0.20 mm. CD and shear stress were linearly related. After propranolol, CD fell (P < 0.01) during exercise (0.08 +/- 0.03 from 3.23 +/- 0.19 mm), and the slope of the relationship between CD and shear stress was reduced (P < 0.01). This slope was not further altered by the additional blockade of NO formation. In propranolol-treated resting dogs, flow-dependent effects of intracoronary adenosine to mimic exercise-induced increases in shear stress (after propranolol) led to increases (P < 0.01) in CD (0.09 +/- 0.02 from 3.68 +/- 0.27 mm). Thus both shear stress-dependent NO formation and beta-adrenergic receptor activation are required to cause CD dilation during exercise. Suppression of beta-adrenergic receptor activation leads to impaired shear stress-dependent NO formation and allows alpha-adrenergic constriction to become dominant.


Mutants exb of Escherichia coli are insensitive to colicin B and excrete into their culture media a material that inhibits colicin activity and that appears to be the bacterial lipopolysaccharide.