Red Fuji apple ( Malus domestica Borkh, cv. 'Nagafu No. 2') fruit was used to study the variation of pigment content and the activity of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) in the peel and sugar content of apple flesh during growth and development after bag removal. The transcription regulatory factor MYB10d (GenBank Accession Number: GQ183802) was cloned and its expression in fruit was measured at different stages after bag removal. The results showed that total chlorophyll content significantly declined in double-bagged fruit as compared to control fruit, and this effect was more pronounced for chlorophyll a than chlorophyll b. Carotenoid content declined less than the chlorophyll content. Anthocyanin content was noticeably lower than control fruit at bag removal but rapidly rose following removal. The anthocyanin content exceeded the control value on the 6 th day following removal and was approximately double the control group on the 8 th day after bag removal. The activity of PAL tended to rise and then declined after bag removal in the treated fruit, while that of the control fruit decreased slowly. On the 2 nd day after removal, the activity of PAL in treated fruit exceeded the control fruit and reached a maximum on the 6 th day after bag removal. The total soluble sugar content was somewhat reduced by bagging. However, the total soluble sugar content (fructose and glucose) increased after bag removal, although, it was lower than the control fruit and showed a significant positive correlation with anthocyanin content. Sucrose content increased rapidly until the 4 th day after bag removal and then declined. MYB10d -coded protein, a member of the MYB transcription factor family was related to anthocyanin biosynthesis. Quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) was employed to examine the gene expression levels at different phases after bag removal, and the results indicated that MYB10d expression in treated fruit reached a maximum on the 2 nd day after bag removal and declined sharply thereafter. Conversely, MYB10d expression in control fruit remained stable.


Exoatmospheric nuclear effects, such as those that would be encounter by reentry bodies, provide instantaneous (near zero-duration), impulsive loading of structures. Endoatmospheric nuclear effects possess an impulse that is finite in duration, but whose rise time is still instantaneous. The commonality of these loadings is that they initiate waves propagating through structures, resulting in extremely short duration accelerations to free surfaces where accelerometers are mounted. Over the years, attempts have been made to measure free surface accelerations using ceramic, quartz, and piezoresistive accelerometers. This paper describes the lessons learned, and looks to the future. It also provides a history of shock accelerometer development.


The Next-Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) has the potential to be a workhorse for the discovery and study of paired supermassive black holes either at large separations (dual) or in tightly bound systems (binary). In this chapter, we outline the science case for the study of these supermassive pairs, and summarize discovery methods that can be used at radio wavelengths to discover them: including morphological, spectral, and time-domain identifications. One critical aspect of this work is that multi-messenger binary black hole studies may be possible with the ngVLA when combined with gravitational-wave searches using pulsar timing array techniques. However, long-baseline interferometery (>>1000 km) will make this possibility more likely by expanding the redshift range at which radio emission arising from two separate black holes may be resolved and studied.


Objective: There is increasing evidence that the ATP generating enzyme creatine kinase (CK) is involved in hypertension. The enzyme is central to the regeneration of ATP by using creatine phosphate and ADP, thereby forming creatine and ATP. We recently showed that beta-guanidinopropionic acid (GPA), a creatine analogue and competitive CK inhibitor, effectively and safely reduced blood pressure in the spontaneously hypertensive rat. This renders GPA to be potentially beneficial for blood pressure lowering. However, no human data are available. Therefore, according to FDA and EMEA guidelines, we assessed the tolerability of a subtherapeutic GPA dose in man. Figure. No caption available. Design and method: In this randomized, placebo and active controlled, triple blind, single center trial (randomization 1:1:1), we included healthy male volunteers, 18 to 50 years old, BMI 18.5–29.9 kg/m2, recruited in the Netherlands. The interventions consisted of one week daily oral administration of GPA in a subtherapeutic dose of 100 mg, creatine 5 gram, or placebo. The primary outcome was the tolerability of GPA as a descriptive measure, in an intent-to-treat analysis. Results: Twenty four randomized participants received the allocated intervention (8 in each treatment arm) and 23 completed the study. One participant in the placebo arm dropped out because of an external event in his family. He experienced no side effects, including not during a re-challenge with the assigned drug. GPA was well tolerated. There were no serious or severe adverse events with GPA, creatine and placebo after 1 week of active treatment, and no significant differences in safety measures including self-reported data obtained with structured and unstructured questionnaires. No abnormalities were reported from physical examination, laboratory determined toxicity including kidney and liver parameters, or cardiovascular safety including QT interval between treatment arms (Table 1). Conclusions: To our knowledge, these are the first human data of the specific CK inhibitor and potential new blood pressure lowering agent GPA. We found no evidence of toxicity with subtherapeutic doses, and will proceed to assess safety and tolerance in a dose-escalation trial in humans. Clinical trial registration number The Netherlands National Trial Register (NTR) number 4444, registered March 9, 2014.


The Egyptian general metallic company produces a huge amount of zinc skimmed during galvanization process. This work aims to study physical treatment of zinc skimmed from galvanized process of Egyptian general metallic company to attain fractions reach with zinc suitable for alloying process and preparation of chemical compounds. The suggested experimental program involves hand sorting to remove iron pieces, sieving of representative sample of zinc skimmed and dividing it to four groups according to size from 10mm to 75 micron in order to treat each group separately. The grinding process was carried out for the coarse fractions. The physical separation such as fluidized bed up-stream column, air classifier and flotation was carried out on the fine fraction less than 75 micron. Results showed that the zinc assay and distribution increase in the coarse fraction of the skimmed zinc. The grinding process of coarse fractions larger than 1.161mm leads to increase zinc assay from 70% to 83% and about 27% by weight of the sample was obtained with zinc assay 83% by weight. The grinding of size fraction (-1.161+0.075mm) showed that zinc assay increases from 48% to 76%. The treatment of fines (less than 0.075mm) using fluidized bed, air classifier and flotation improves the zinc assay and recovery. The zinc assay increases from 44% to 56%. © 2005 SDU. All rights reserved.


Iron oxide nanoparticles (INOPS) are a potential contrast agent for magnetic resonance (MR) tracking of transplanted endothelial cells. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of INOPS labeling on endothelial cells. The mixture of INOPS and poly-l-lysine (PLL) was used to label human endothelial cells. Labeling efficiency was examined by Prussian blue staining, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic absorption spectrometry. The effect of iron oxide concentration on cell viability and proliferation were determined. The correlation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and apoptosis was also examined. In vitro MRI scanning was carried out using a 1.5T MR system. INOPS-PLL could be readily taken up by endothelial cells and subsequently induce MRI signal intensity changes. However, higher labeling concentration (>50 μg/ml) and longer incubation (48 h) can affect cell viability and proliferation. Mitochondrial damage, apoptosis, and autolysosmes were observed under high INOPS-PLL concentrations, which were correlated to ROS production. INOPS-PLL nanoparticles can be used to label transplanted endothelial cells. However, high concentration of INOPS can impair cell viability, possibly through ROS-mediated apoptosis and autophagy.


In the last decade slope failure intensity and frequency has increased. This article investigates slope failure distribution and trend change and the tendency of spatial direction of slope failures in the Klang Valley Region (KVR) of Malaysia. The change in land cover especially for urbanization and population pressure has notably influenced spatial and temporal variations in slope failure occurrences in the KVR. This study recognized two significant impacts of slope failures: increase in intensity and frequency of slope failures from 1991 to November 2011 and spatial direction of slope failures in the KVR. Both of these effects create severe stresses on the population of the KVR. The study observed that the temporal and spatial advances of slope failures would continue to increase in intensity and frequency in the not so distant future as the environment would become more stressful as a result of urbanization. The knowledge generated from the work would be valuable to all stakeholders affected by slope failures in the KVR and lead the way towards achieving a more sustainable slope development planning in the future.


We propose ways to improve the performance of fully connected networks. We found that two approaches in particular have a strong effect on performance: linear bottleneck layers and unsupervised pre-training using autoencoders without hidden unit biases. We show how both approaches can be related to improving gradient flow and reducing sparsity in the network. We show that a fully connected network can yield approximately 70% classification accuracy on the permutation-invariant CIFAR-10 task, which is much higher than the current state-of-the-art. By adding deformations to the training data, the fully connected network achieves 78% accuracy, which is just 10% short of a decent convolutional network.


Patients with acute-severe-nonthyroidal illnesses had FT4 and T3 values below the normal range with the magnitude of change greater for T3 than FT4. Some patients had depressed and some had elevated TSH values. In the recovery phase, FT4 levels appeared to rise before T3 levels and TSH exhibited an exaggerated increase. These results are consistent with other studies which suggest that dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis may be associated with anomalous results for thyroid function test parameters in patients with acute-severe-nonthyroidal illnesses. This anomaly should be given due consideration when interpreting results of thyroid function test parameters in such patients.


Abstract: Nearly three probiotic strains ( PBR1, PBR2 and PBR3 ) were isolated from the gut of marine Grouper, Epinephelus longispinnis and they were identified as Bacillus sp. (PBR1), Streptobacillus sp. (PBR2), Streptococcus sp. (PBR3) by conventional biochemical characterisations. T hree tests (Acid Tolerance, Bile salt concentration and auto-aggregation assay) were carried out for probiotic characterization. The strains were acid tolerance up to a low pH of 3, had the ability of resistant to 0.3% bile salt concentration and auto-aggregation capacity even long time interval of six hours. Later the potential of these three probiotic strains for the growth of Zebra fish was investigated. Three probiotic feed were prepared and their effects were compared with those of control feed. After 15 days of feeding trials the growth parameters like Food conversion Efficiency and Food Conversion Ratio were assessed. The food conversion efficiency were found to be significantly (p<0.05) higher in groups that received Probiotic feed than in the control, whereas food conversion ratio was lower. The fishes fed with probiotic bacterial PBR2 mixed feed exhibited better growth efficiency when compared to rest of feed fed fishes as well as control feed fed fishes. Thus it was found that the strains not only exhibit the characters of probionts, could also promote the growth of ornamental fish effectively and thus marine gut isolate play an important role as a probiotics in aquaculture nutrition.


A carbonate field in Saudi Arabia is undergoing major development requiring water injection wells to provide peripheral matrix water injection as pressure maintenance to support oil production. The field is characterized by a tar mat zone, which potentially could isolate the oil reservoir from the planned pressure support and serve as a barrier for the water injection. Therefore, the injection wells were geosteered horizontally right above the tar "barrier" into the transition zone between the heavy and lighter oil, which poses a challenge in assuring adequate pressure support to the producers, without leaving pockets of relatively high oil saturation behind the waterflood front. To address transmissibility uncertainty between producers and the injectors, long-term injection (LTI) pilot tests were designed utilizing one water injector and six observation wells to capture pressure signals. Building the surface facility to deliver the required test as planned was challenging, starting with the seawater as a source, to the water treatment and ending with pump selection. This paper discusses the unique layout of the LTI surface equipment, a mini-plant by itself, and how operational challenges were overcome in the field. The authors highlight some operational issues related to the LTI test that had almost 90% efficiency from operating over 200 days and over 2 million barrels of injected filtered and treated seawater volume, as well as presents valuable insights to demonstrate how a project of this scale was successfully executed and more value added to the development plans. The unique equipment layout is composed of twin sea-submerged, skid-mounted electrical submersible pumps (ESPs), 6" hoses, filtration unit, a chemical treatment unit, eight 500 bbl storage tanks, and a horizontal pumping system (HPS). The layout of the surface facility components, their performance and the importance of continuous water injection in addressing the test goals are discussed. The injection well performance was monitored by integrating Joshi's equation to Hall Plot and slope analyses to provide means of more meaningful use of injection pressure and rate data. The synergy of the mini-plant components coupled with engineered performance monitoring tools were enablers in this test design to help unlock more reserves. Overall, the test was a great tool to qualify field development plan assumptions, indicating that less powered water injectors than initially planned are required.


We consider transmit beamforming for single-carrier frequency-division multiple access (SC-FDMA) transmission over frequency-selective multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels. The beamforming filter is optimized for minimization of the sum of the mean-squared errors (MMSEs) of the transmitted data streams after equalization. Here, MIMO minimum mean-squared error linear equalization (MMSE-LE) is considered. We prove that for SC-FDMA transmission eigenbeamforming diagonalizing the overall channel together with a nonuniform power distribution is the optimum beamforming strategy in the MMSE sense. The derived optimum power allocation is similar in spirit to classical results for the optimum continuous-time transmit filter for linear modulation formats obtained by Berger/Tufts and Yang/Roy. Moreover, we present a modification of the beamformer design to mitigate an increase of the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) which is in general associated with beamforming. Simulation results demonstrate the excellent performance of the proposed beamforming algorithm.


Two-dimensional solidification analysis during rheology forming process of semi-solid aluminum alloy has been studied. Two-phase flow model to investigate the velocity field and temperature distribution is proposed. The proposed mathematical model is applied to the die shape of the two types. To calculate the velocities and temperature fields during rheology forming process. the each governing equations correspondent to the liquid and solid region are adapted. Therefore, each numerical model considering the solid and liquid coexisting region within the semi-solid material have been developed to predict the defects of rheology forming parts. The Arbitral)' Boundary Maker And Cell(ABMAC) method is employed to solve the two-phase flow model of the Navier-Stokes equation. Theoretical model basis of the two-phase flow model is the mixture rule of solid and liquid phases. This approach is based on using the liquid and solid viscosity. The Liquid viscosity is pure liquid state value, however solid viscosity is considered as a function of the shear rate, solid fraction and power law curves.


BACKGROUND
Diacylglycerol (DAG) suppresses the postprandial increase in serum triglycerides, and has antiobesity effects. On the other hand, plant sterol esters (PSE) lower serum cholesterol levels in hypercholesterolemia. Thus, DAG-containing PSE (PSE/DAG) would be expected to maintain an appropriate serum cholesterol level and decrease the risk of arteriosclerotic disorders. Several recent studies, however, report negative effects of PSE on serum fat-soluble (pro)vitamin levels. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of PSE/DAG on serum retinol, beta-carotene, and alpha-tocopherol levels using a threefold excess of the effective dose obtained in our previous study.

METHODS
A randomized placebo-controlled double-blind parallel study was performed in healthy and mildly hypercholesterolemic subjects, in which the subjects ingested 1.2 g PSE/30 g DAG for 2 weeks in the form of mayonnaise-type products. Triacylglycerol (TAG) mayonnaise was used as a control.

RESULT
There were no subjective adverse effects or changes in serum retinol, alpha-tocopherol, and beta-carotene levels, abdominal symptoms, hematologic values, or blood biochemical values.

CONCLUSION
Ingestion of a threefold excess of PSE/DAG for 2 weeks had no adverse effects compared to ingestion of conventional TAG mayonnaise.


Objectives: This study examines the sociodemographic differences between elective and nonelective admissions for failure to thrive (FTT). We investigate associations between admission type and hospital resource utilization, including length of stay and feeding tube placement. Methods: We included children <2 years old with FTT in the nationwide Kids' Inpatient Database. We described differences between elective and nonelective admissions using Fisher exact and t tests. To assess associations of admission type and hospital resource utilization, we used negative binomial and logistic regression for length of stay and feeding tube placement, respectively. Results: In this study of 45,920 admissions (37,224 nonelective vs 8696 elective), we found differences by race and ethnicity, income, and insurance type, among other factors. Compared to elective admissions, nonelective admissions had higher proportions of infants who were Black, Hispanic, and of lower-income. Nonelective admissions were associated with longer lengths of stay (incidence rate ratio 1.46; 95% CI: 1.37–1.55), independent of child age, sex, neighborhood income, insurance, admission day, chronic conditions, and location. Nonelective admissions were associated with lower odds of feeding tube placement compared to elective admissions (adjusted odds ratio 0.62; 0.56–0.68). In the stratified analyses, children of racial and ethnic minority groups admitted nonelectively versus electively had relatively higher odds of feeding tube placement, while White children had relatively lower odds of feeding tube placement. Conclusion: There are various sociodemographic differences between elective and nonelective FTT admissions. Future research is warranted to elucidate drivers of these differences, particularly those related to racial and ethnic disparities and structural racism.


This study reflects on assessment of the micro economic factor hindering the growth of Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange market. The main target of this study was to determine the factors hindering the growth of Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange market. Four examined variables such as money supply exchange rate, inflation rate and interest rate were considered. The study employed quantitatively approach where four variables were tested by hypothesis. Moreover only secondary data were used to analyze the variables whereby the multiple regression model is used to relate the micro economic variables and stock exchange growth at Dar es salaam stock market. The findings in this study revealed that, four investigated variables in this study, one which is interest rate was found to have the negative relationship with Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange index. The inflation rate, exchange rate and money supply were statistically insignificant explaining the variability of Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange market. I recommend that, the government should manage well the micro economic policies in order to give confidence to our investors and attract new investors. Researchers can use the study findings and explore on more variables that were not used in this paper, such research can even use different modeling techniques to investigate the variables in the study.


Endothelial cells control vascular tone by releasing nitric oxide (NO) produced by endothelial NO synthase. The activity of endothelial NO synthase is modulated by the calcium concentration and by post-translational modifications (eg, phosphorylation). When NO reaches vascular smooth muscle, soluble guanylyl cyclase is its primary target producing cGMP. NO production is stimulated by circulating substances (eg, catecholamines), platelet products (eg, serotonin), autacoids formed in (eg, bradykinin) or near (eg, adiponectin) the vascular wall and physical factors (eg, shear stress). NO dysfunction can be caused, alone or in combination, by abnormal coupling of endothelial cell membrane receptors, insufficient supply of substrate (l-arginine) or cofactors (tetrahydrobiopterin), endogenous inhibitors (asymmetrical dimethyl arginine), reduced expression/presence/dimerization of endothelial NO synthase, inhibition of its enzymatic activity, accelerated disposition of NO by reactive oxygen species and abnormal responses (eg, biased soluble guanylyl cyclase activity producing cyclic inosine monophosphate) of the vascular smooth muscle. Major culprits causing endothelial dysfunction, irrespective of the underlying pathological process (aging, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension), include stimulation of mineralocorticoid receptors, activation of endothelial Rho-kinase, augmented presence of asymmetrical dimethyl arginine, and exaggerated oxidative stress. Genetic and pharmacological interventions improve dysfunctional NO-mediated vasodilatations if protecting the supply of substrate and cofactors for endothelial NO synthase, preserving the presence and activity of the enzyme and reducing reactive oxygen species generation. Common achievers of such improvement include maintained levels of estrogens and increased production of adiponectin and induction of silent mating-type information regulation 2 homologue 1. Obviously, endothelium-dependent relaxations are not the only beneficial action of NO in the vascular wall. Thus, reduced NO-mediated responses precede and initiate the atherosclerotic process.


There is disagreement in the literature about the relative rates of heat loss from a large animal surrounded by either air or water. Here, it is shown that, in most circumstances, the rate at which heat is lost by a large body is significantly greater when it is immersed in water than when it is surrounded by air, assuming that the two fluids are at the same temperature. The only circumstance when this may not apply is when comparing air with fresh water when both are at a temperature somewhere between 0°C and 6°C, the animal is still and water or air currents are negligible. Under these conditions, free convection in water is weak or non–existent, and so the combined effect of conduction and free convection in air becomes comparable to or even greater than that of conduction alone in water. However, in these circumstances, radiation is the dominant mode of heat loss to both media, and so heat losses are approximately the same in both air and water.


Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an important role in the innate immune response to HIV infection. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TLR7 (Gln11Leu) gene has been associated with a rapid decline of CD4T cell count. Hence, we assessed the TLR7 (rs179008, Gln11Leu (A/T) and rs179009, IVS2-151 (A/G)) polymorphism in 150 HIV-infected individuals naïve to ART and 158 healthy controls. The genotyping of TLR7 Gln11Leu (A/T) and IVS2-151 (A/G) polymorphisms was done using the PCR-RFLP method. In univariate analysis, none of the genotype and haplotype of TLR7 Gln11Leu (A/T) and IVS2-151 (A/G) polymorphism differed significantly between HIV-infected individuals and healthy controls. The occurrence of TLR7 rs179009AG genotype in the codominant model and rs179009 AG-GG genotype in the dominant model was significantly reduced in HIV-infected individuals as compared to healthy controls (18.0% vs. 29.1%, OR = 0.42, P = 0.016; 26.7% vs. 36.7%, OR = 0.52, P = 0.016). TLR7 rs179009AG genotype was significantly underrepresented in the intermediate HIV disease stage compared with healthy controls (OR = 0.03, P = 0.04). TLR7 rs179009AG genotype expressed higher in tobacco-consuming HIV-infected individuals compared with nonusers (OR = 1.71, P = 0.47). In conclusion, rs179009 AG-GG and AG genotypes were found reduced in HIV-infected individuals as compared to healthy controls; their higher prevalence in health individuals clearly support that they are associated with reduced risk of acquisition of HIV-1 infection.


We study workers' reactions to changes in the gender composition of top management during a merger or acquisition, finding that an increase in the number of female top managers within their occupation makes male workers more likely to quit, and female workers less likely to quit. These effects vary across occupations, depending on the female share, and male workers' aversion to female managers is strongest when the female share nears 50 percent. The effects also vary over time and with age, becoming smaller in more recent years and among younger males, but increasing with education level. We find little evidence that these preferences are driven by pecuniary effects.


Objective
To establish a real-time quantitative PCR method to detect Psammosilene tunicoides β-actin, and to provide a reference gene for the detection of Psammosilene tunicoides genes by q PCR.

Methods
Specific primers were designed based on the conserved region of the β-actin gene( Gen Bank) and were used to amplify β-actin by PCR. β-actin was also used as a reference gene in the q PCR analysis of glycosyltransferase gene( UGT) expression in the roots,stems,and leaves of Psammosilene tunicoides.

Results
The length of the β-actin gene amplicon from Psammosilene tunicoides was 153 bp and shared relatively high homology with β-actin found in Vaccaria segetalis, Myosoton aquaticum and Portulaca oleracea. Furthermore, UGT was revealed to be stably expressed in different Psammosilene tunicoides tissues when β-actin was employed as the reference gene.

Conclusion
β-actin is a reliable and suitable reference gene for studies on the expression of triterpenoid saponin biosynthesis-related genes in Psammosilene tunicoides.


Objectives. We compared (1) characteristics of adolescents who are and are not entitled to receive free vaccines from the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program and (2) vaccination coverage with meningococcal conjugate (MCV4), quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV4), and tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccines among VFC-eligible and non-VFC-eligible adolescents. Methods. We analyzed data from the 2009 National Immunization Survey-Teen, a nationally representative, random-digit-dialed survey of households with adolescents aged 13–17 years (n=20,066). Differences in sociodemographic characteristics and provider-reported vaccination coverage were evaluated using t-tests. Results. Overall, 32.1% (±1.2%) of adolescents were VFC-eligible. VFC-eligible adolescents were significantly less likely than non-VFC-eligible adolescents to be white and to live in suburban areas, and more likely to live in poverty and to have younger and less educated mothers. Nationally, coverage among non-VFC-eligible adolescents was 57.1% (±1.5%) for ≥1 dose of Tdap, 55.4% (±1.5%) for ≥1 dose of MCV4, and 43.2% (±2.2%) for ≥1 dose of HPV4. Coverage among VFC-eligible adolescents was 52.5% (±2.4%) for ≥1 dose of Tdap, 50.1% (±2.4%) for ≥1 dose of MCV4, and 46.6% (±3.5%) for ≥1 dose of HPV4. Only 27.5% (±1.8%) of non-VFC-eligible adolescents and 25.0% (±2.9%) of VFC-eligible adolescents received ≥3 doses of HPV4. Vaccination coverage was significantly higher among non-VFC-eligible adolescents for Tdap and MCV4, but not for one-dose or three-dose HPV4. Conclusions. Coverage with some recommended vaccines is lower among VFC-eligible adolescents compared with non-VFC-eligible adolescents. Continued monitoring of adolescent vaccination rates, particularly among VFC-eligible populations, is needed to ensure that all adolescents receive all routinely recommended vaccines.


The title tetrasubstituted phosphazene, C16H48Cl2N7P3Si4, is
formed by the reaction of P3N3Cl6 with heptamethyldisilazane,
HpMDSA. The compound is the first trans non-geminal
tetrasubstituted derivative of this class of compounds to be
structurally characterized. The molecule lies on a
crystallographic twofold rotation axis.


Background Exercise therapy is an effective treatment in patients with knee and hip osteoarthritis. However, face-to-face therapy is an expensive regimen. Blended exercise therapy, in which face-to-face contact is combined with a web-based program, might be a cost-effective alternative. Moreover, a blended intervention supports home-exercises and self-management through technology which is available at any time and place. We developed the blended intervention e-Exercise, a 12-week program in which up to five usual physical therapy sessions are integrated with a web-based program. Objectives The objective of this study was to evaluate the short-term effectiveness of e-Exercise compared to usual physical therapy for patients with knee and/or knee osteoarthritis. Methods A multicentre cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted. A number of 247 physical therapists were randomly allocated to e-Exercise (intervention group) or usual physical therapy (control group). The web-based part of e-Exercise is based on graded activity principles. Individual assignments for a central activity, such as walking or cycling, are gradually increased and supported with strength/stability exercises and information modules. Program progress can be evaluated during the face-to-face sessions. Content of these sessions were in both groups based on the Dutch physiotherapy guideline Osteoarthritis Hip-Knee which recommend education, self-management promotion, exercise therapy and if necessary manual therapy. Primary patient-outcomes, measured at baseline and after 12 weeks, were physical functioning and physical activity. Secondary outcome measures were pain, tiredness, quality of life, self-efficacy and the number of physical therapy sessions. Data were analysed using a mixed linear model. Results Totally, 208 patients were included. There were no significant differences in baseline demographics between the intervention (N=108) and control group (N=100). 176 (85%) participants completed the follow-up questionnaire. After 12 weeks, none of the primary outcome measures were significant different between groups. Within group analyses, however, showed for both groups a significant improvement in physical functioning (IG: +4.1 points/100, p<0.01; CG: +5.3 points/100, p<0.01). Participants in the intervention group reported an increase of 23.7 minutes (p=0.03) physical activity per day, the control group an increase of 13.1 minutes (p=0.21). However, no significant differences were found for physical activity measured with ActiGraph accelerometers. With respect to the other outcomes, tiredness reduced significant (p<0.02) more in the intervention group (-1.3 points/10) compared to the control group (-0.5 points/10). Within both groups there were significant improvements for pain, tiredness, quality of life and self-efficacy. The intervention group received 5 face-to face sessions (range 2–16), the control group 12 (range 2–29). Conclusions In this study we found that e-Exercise is an effective treatment option in patients with knee and hip osteoarthritis. Subgroup-analysis, long-term effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of e-Exercise compared to usual physical therapy are forthcoming. Disclosure of Interest None declared


A prototype of a CCD programmable transversal filter is described. The tap weights have been implemented by on-chip voltage-controlled variable MOS capacitors. The summation of the weighted tap signals uses a charge-sensing technique. The performance of the filter has been demonstrated by suitable measurements indicating a nonlinear distortion below -45 dB.


There is a need for both a better understanding of the technical drivers of shiny appearance in hair and for standard methods and measures of shine. To this end, we develop standard treatment methods for changing hair shine and examine a number of image-based measurements of luster. Using psychophysical techniques to get a perceptual reference, we find that available technical measures are difficult to use when trying to quantify the small changes in shine associated with treatment.


Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify effects of a psychiatric and mental health nursing class to improve knowledge about schizophrenia, attitudes toward mental illness, and learning satisfaction after using an illness narrative of a patient with schizophrenia. Methods: This study was in nonequivalent control group and a pretest-posttest design. Of the 88 nursing students, the 34 in the experimental group received 5 hours of lectures on schizophrenia plus 2 hours of learning using a patient's illness narrative. The control group (n=54) received only the 5 hours of lectures on schizophrenia. During September, 2017, an online survey was used to collect data before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using t-tests and Mann-Whitney U tests with SPSS Statistics version 22.0. Results: There were no differences for knowledge on schizophrenia or for attitudes toward mental illness between the experimental group and the control group after the intervention. However, learning satisfaction was significantly higher in the experimental group compared to the control group (Z=-2.18, p=.029). Conclusion: Findings indicate that patient illness narratives could be a useful tool to improve learning satisfaction in nursing students. Therefore, using patient illness narratives in nursing classes is recommended.


This paper presents a survey of Bolboschoenus species found in Bosnia and Herzegovina and includes an identification key, distribution data and maps of localities for each species in Bosnia and Herzegovina based on a revision of herbarium specimens from SARA, private collections of the authors, literature data and field observations. The following species are native to Bosnia and Herzegovina: B. glaucus, B. maritimus and B. planiculmis. In this paper, B. planiculmis is reported as a species new to the flora of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was discovered at two localities in August of 2015 and 2016 during field work along the banks of the river Bosna (East Central Bosnia). The paper presents a short morphological description and photographs, as well as a summary of distribution of the species.


In order to realize safe and stable operation of a water-cooled W/Cu divertor under high heating condition, the exact knowledge of its subcooled boiling heat transfer characteristics under different design parameters is crucial. In this paper, subcooled boiling heat transfer in a water-cooled W/Cu divertor was numerically investigated based on computational fluid dynamic (CFD). The boiling heat transfer was simulated based on the Euler homogeneous phase model, and local differences of liquid physical properties were considered under one-sided high heating conditions. The calculated wall temperature was in good agreement with experimental results, with the maximum error of 5% only. On this basis, the void fraction distribution, flow field and heat transfer coefficient (HTC) distribution were obtained. The effects of heat flux, inlet velocity and inlet temperature on temperature distribution and pressure drop of a water-cooled W/Cu divertor were also investigated. These results provide a valuable reference for the thermal-hydraulic design of a water-cooled W/Cu divertor.


Nd-doped CeO2 nanopowders were prepared using the non-aqueous sol–gel method. The effect of Nd content on the defect structure of the powders and their water adsorption energetics was investigated. The effect of Nd doping on the thermal stability and electrical properties of CeO2 is well established, but there has only been limited study of the influence of Nd addition on the interaction of gases with the surface of the doped materials. In particular, there is limited knowledge about the impact of Nd doping on the surface interaction with water vapor, which is of great significance for many catalytic applications. The present work explores these water–surface interactions by implementing a combination of methods, including thermal gravimetry, water adsorption calorimetry, and computational modeling. Results show that water uptake increases with increasing amounts of Nd doping, but the normalized integral adsorption enthalpy is not affected. Analysis using density functional theory (DFT) shows that adding Nd to CeO2 not only increases the number of adsorption sites but also creates a wider distribution of adsorption energies. The DFT calculations provide an explanation of the apparently anomalous experimental finding that Nd addition increases the heat of adsorption (ΔHads) of the first water molecule compared to undoped CeO2.


Tympanis species (Leotiales) are plant pathogens distributed mostly in northern temperate ecosystems. The diversity and identity of some species remains unclear. Tympanis vagabunda, found in Sicilia (Italy) on dry twigs of Rosa, Rubus, and Pistacia, is one example of an obscure and poorly known species. During the study of its type specimen in S, which contained one twig with a wood anatomy fitting neither of the three mentioned hosts, the microanatomic structures indicated that it belongs to the genus Rutstroemia (Helotiales). To investigate its identity, the types of R. fruticeti, R. juniperi, R. urceolus, and R. longiasca were studied for comparison. The species for which molecular data were available were included in a dataset that contained identified species of Rutstroemia, along with other select species from the families Rutstroemiaceae and Sclerotiniaceae. R. fruticeti, a saprobe frequently reported from Rubus fruticosus in Europe, is found to be a later synonym of T. vagabunda, and the combination Rutstroemia vagabunda is proposed. R. juniperi is an infrequently reported European species on twigs of Juniperus and is morphologically hard to distinguish from R. vagabunda; available molecular data support its recognition as a distinct species. R. longiasca differs from R. vagabunda in its black apothecia, smaller asci, and narrower ascospores. R. urceolus differs from R. vagabunda in having black apothecia and smaller inamyloid asci, and excipulum at the flanks and margin is composed of dark-walled hyphae.


Abstract We quantified the acoustic characteristics of the habitats of two wild populations of pygmy marmosets, in Amazonian Ecuador to evaluate their effects on vocal signal structure. We obtained measures of ambient noise, sound attenuation and reverberation through recordings and broadcasts of exemplars of two short-range vocalizations and one long-range vocalization of the marmosets. Ambient noise levels differed among habitats. The calls of pygmy marmosets had frequencies that coincided with relatively quiet regions of the ambient noise spectra of the habitats. The three vocalization types were degraded similarly in all habitats. The two short-range signals, with a pulsatile structure, were more affected by reverberation than was the long-range, less pulsatile vocalization. This degradation could be used by the marmosets to estimate the distance of the caller animals. We obtained data on context of vocalizations from six groups of pygmy marmosets, three from each population, in both the dry and rainy seasons. The use of Trills, J calls and Long calls was related to the distance between the calling animal and the potential receivers suggesting that marmosets are using the calls in a way appropriate to the effects of habitat acoustics. Copyright 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .


This paper reports on a study which investigated the effectiveness of an explicit instruction approach in a Japanese university setting with third-year science and technology students in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. The two aims of this study were: 1) to explore changes in students' attitudes and understanding of summary writing, and 2) to observe changes in the ability of students to incorporate specific ideas of summary writing. First, students were given a short questionnaire about their current knowledge and background related to summary writing to provide a base measure. Next, the instructor presented information about specific features of summary writing. Then, students were introduced to a short TED Talk on a technical topic as the content material. Using this content, students were put into groups to discuss and identify the main points of the talk. For homework, they were assigned to write individual summaries. In the next class, students shared their individual summaries with their group members and produced a second draft to be evaluated. Finally, a post-questionnaire about summary writing was given to students. In the future, the researchers aim to make lessons like the above part of an on-line Learning Management System (LMS) that they are currently developing.


A Dy3+ doped yttrium–aluminium borate (Dy:YAB) crystal has been optically characterized. The refractive indices at seven different wavelengths, ranging from the visible to the near infrared (IR), have been measured and the Sellmeier curves have been calculated. The polarized optical absorption spectra have been obtained at room temperature, and the Judd–Ofelt parameters have been calculated. The lifetime of the upper laser level 4F9/2 has been estimated and compared with the experimental value. Evidence of high luminescence quantum efficiency of the 4F9/2 state in YAB is provided by measured lifetimes.


Speech technology plays an important role in our everyday life. Among others, speech is used for human-computer interaction, for instance for information retrieval and on-line shopping. In the case of an unwritten language, however, speech technology is unfortunately difficult to create, because it cannot be created by the standard combination of pre-trained speech-to-text and text-to-speech subsystems. The research presented in this article takes the first steps towards speech technology for unwritten languages. Specifically, the aim of this work was 1) to learn speech-to-meaning representations without using text as an intermediate representation, and 2) to test the sufficiency of the learned representations to regenerate speech or translated text, or to retrieve images that depict the meaning of an utterance in an unwritten language. The results suggest that building systems that go directly from speech-to-meaning and from meaning-to-speech, bypassing the need for text, is possible.


Welsh is "infamous for his representations of men and masculinity, most notoriously his 'hard men'" (Jones, 2010; p.54), who "effectively highlight[s] and problematise[s] our own contemporary anxieties regarding unstable gender roles in transition" (p.54). Masculine anxiety is a broad term which perhaps, in one way or another, can be applied to the thematic content of the majority of Welsh's fiction, but begins to undermine the complexity of Welsh's characters and the temporal and physical landscape in which they are situated. These generalisations inspire questions rather than reliable conclusions. Are the issues of failing national identity an integral counterpart of the postmodern fragmentation of masculinity and its hegemonic forms, and as such are they causal instigators of deviant psychologies and violence within Welsh's 'hard men', or, as this thesis suspects, is there a more complicated relationship between place, heritage and psychology?

Borrowing from (without strictly following) Actor Network Theory's methodology in which a network of actors is explored in relation to their connections and influences upon one another, the understanding of masculine violence can explored in detail, providing a thorough insight into Begbie's psychological identity which has been previously lacking from critical literature in the dismissal of his character as a "proto-typical hard man" (McGuire, 2010; p.9), unworthy of further study beyond this limited observation of violent masculinity in operation. Given Begbie's revival within The Blade Artist, and the recent release of T2 Trainspotting, it becomes ever more pertinent to give consideration to the complexity of his character beyond the "often comical cartoon figure of the film [Trainspotting]" (Morace, 2007; p.127) and the standard ticket of 'Scottishness' adhered to his specific breed of psychopathic intensity.

Considering masculinity's hegemonic associations which physiological gender, to its complicated relationship with sociocultural structures and national identity, alongside the pervasive possibility for a mental predisposition for depravity that falls within the classification of legitimate psychopathy, this body of work will use Francis Begbie as a conduit through which to explore the creation of a hyperbolic cocktail of violent masculine identity. This thesis will dismantle the general understanding of male violence in accordance with broad homogenous structures of masculinity within Welsh's fiction, specifically in its depiction of the network topography of Francis Begbie's masculine identity, the function of violence within his character, and his subsequent expression of potentially psychopathic behaviour.


It is well known that cavitation erosion in fuel injectors can prevent reliable engine performance after only several thousand hours of operation. However, current simulation tools lack the ability to link flow predictions within the fuel injector to both the efficacy of combustion strategies and lifetime of the injector. Multiphase flow simulation predictions were studied and compared between an informed baseline injector geometry and an x-ray scanned eroded injector geometry. Overall, erosion was found to decrease the fuel mass delivery and injection velocities. A two-stage static coupling approach was employed to link the predicted injection conditions from non-eroded and eroded injectors with the external spray simulations under reacting conditions. Combustion modeling in this coupled approach was carried out using the Unsteady Flamelet Progress Variable approach with a detailed chemical mechanism for n-dodecane, comprising of 2,755 species and 11,173 reactions. Erosion in the injectors led to lower rates of spray penetration in comparison to the baseline configurations. Analysis of the reacting spray simulations revealed an insensitivity of ignition to erosion, yet shorter lift off lengths, higher levels of the soot, and lower levels of NOx were predicted in the eroded injector.


Mammalian U2AF65 and UAP56 are required for prespliceosome (PS) formation. We tested the predictions that the yeast UAP56 homolog, SUB2, is required for the same step and functions collaboratively with MUD2, the yeast homolog of U2AF65. Unexpectedly, sub2-1 extracts accumulate PS-like complexes. Moreover, deletion of MUD2 exacerbates the cs phenotype of sub2 alleles yet suppresses both the ts sub2-1 and the lethal Deltasub2 phenotypes. We propose that Sub2 functionally interacts with Mud2 both before and after PS formation. In the absence of Mud2, Sub2 function becomes dispensable.


Escherichia coli (E. coli) is the most common Gram-negative bacteria causing neonatal meningitis. The occurrence of bacteremia and bacterial penetration through the blood-brain barrier are indispensable steps for the development of E. coli meningitis. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) represent the major bactericidal mechanisms of neutrophils to destroy the invaded pathogens. In this protocol, the time-dependent intracellular ROS production in neutrophils infected with meningitic E. coli was quantified using fluorescent ROS probes detected by a real-time fluorescence microplate reader. This method may also be applied to the assessment of ROS production in mammalian cells during pathogen-host interactions.


A computation algorithm for inertia matrix of wheel pair taking into account the manufacturing inaccuracies is suggested. It is based on quaternion matrices, which take into consideration the skew of symmetry axes and the shift of substructures within permissible limits.


Abstract

Pachydermoperiostosis (PDP) is the primary form of hypertrophic osteoarthropathy which accounts for 5% of all cases of the disorder. It is a rare hereditary disorder that is associated with digital clubbing, polyarthritis, cutis verticis gyrata, Seborrhea, eyelid ptosis, and hyperhidrosis. In this case report, we discussed a case of an incomplete form of primary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy characterised by evidence of bone abnormalities without pachydermia.

Keywords: Pachydermoperiostosis, hypertrophic osteoarthropathy, periostosis.


Boys and young men continue to make up 81 percent of the Youth Justice System (YJS) in England and Wales, yet dominant discourses on young people who have been identified as having offended largely neglect to examine the potential role of masculinity in offending and interventions. This article aims to fill the gap of research in this area by exploring the role masculinity may play as understood by practitioners. It concludes that practitioners closely link "localized forms of hegemonic masculinity" to offending behavior of boys and young men.


A new approach based on interval analysis is developed to find the global minimum-jerk (MJ) trajectory of a robot manipulator within a joint space scheme using cubic splines. MJ trajectories are desirable for their similarity to human joint movements and for their amenability to path tracking and to limit robot vibrations. This makes them attractive choices for robotic applications, in spite of the fact that the manipulator dynamics are not taken into account. Cubic splines are used in a framework that assures overall continuity of velocities and accelerations in the robot movement. The resulting MJ trajectory planning is shown to be a global constrained minimax optimization problem. This is solved by a newly devised algorithm based on interval analysis and proof of convergence with certainty to an arbitrarily good global solution is provided. The proposed planning method is applied to an example regarding a six-joint manipulator and comparisons with an alternative MJ planner are exposed.


Careless responding and keeping students motivated for different tests have been common problems in many areas, especially in education. This study's objective was to demonstrate a novel approach to detect careless responding using person-fit indices developed within the field of psychometrics combined with a random forest. The data used was obtained from various tests in the Math Nation virtual learning platform. The result of person-fit indices as previously used measures of careless responding as well as the result of a random forest classifier to capture careless responding were compared by Receiver Operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and the area under the curve (AUC). The result showed that random forest combined with person-fit indices outperformed person-fit indices directly in detecting careless responding. Some important applications of this method for applied researchers are discussed in the conclusion section.


These are, of course, easily verifiable separately from the definition of an involution range, but I have not seen any coherent geometrical proof of all four, nor indeed any geometrical reason why there should be just four such relations. The following discussion, I think, throws a little more light on the matter. Four intersecting straight lines forming a complete quadrilateral determine four triangles, and each line may be regarded as a transversal to the sides of the triangle formed by the other three. Taking a triangle a/3y with a transversal meeting fly at a', ya at fl', a/3 at y', we have the " Menelaus ratio "


The Praetor's edict is said to be vague. Its contents are often better understood in the light of the broader context of legal and factual circumstances. Thus, the significance of the edict's editio stipulationis may be explained by analyzing its legal context and the practice with respect to the stipulatio, both of which establish that the stipulator was bound to inform the other party to the contract. That obligation may explain other specific features of the rules which applied to a verbal contract, in particular as regards the ambiguitas contra stipulatorem. An offence against the edictal obligation 'totam stipulationem edere' entailed that the stipulator would be worse off, but the sanction against him was not precisely stated. The very vague character of the edict may in this case have strengthened its effectiveness.


Background: The outcomes of pregnancy in immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) remain controversial. We sought to evaluate the effect of pregnancy on the progression of IgAN as well as the impact of IgAN on pregnancy outcomes. Methods: We systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase for cohort or case-control studies. OR reductions were calculated with a random-effects model, and kidney outcomes and adverse pregnancy events were analyzed. Results: Our literature search returned 652 relevant articles; 4 studies were included, providing data of 376 pregnancies in 273 patients with IgAN and that of 241 IgAN who did not become pregnant. Four hundred sixty seven patients with chronic kidney disease stages 1-2 were included. Pregnancy in patients with IgAN did not increase the risk of adverse renal events including doubling of serum creatinine, 50% decline in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and end-stage kidney disease (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.55-1.70; p = 0.90; I2 = 0.0%, p = 0.79). There was no significant difference in the change in estimated GFR at the end of follow-up in the pregnant and non-pregnant groups (weighted mean difference 0.1 ml/min/1.73 m2 (95% CI -4.85 to 5.04 ml/min/1.73 m2), p = 0.97; I2 = 0%, p = 0.95). Women with IgAN had high rates of infant loss (12.2, 7.4-19.4%), preterm delivery (8.5, 5.9-12.1%), low birth weight (9.5, 6.7-13.3%), and preeclampsia/severe preeclampsia (7.3, 4.9-10.6%). Conclusions: Pregnancy in IgAN patients with preserved kidney function did not accelerate deterioration of renal function. But pregnant women with IgAN are at higher risk of pregnancy complications.


Construction industry is an important industry and remains so with the continuation of the development process especially in the developing countries. On the other it is very risk and hazard. As industry when compared to other industries financial losses and bodily injury and death, and resulting human, social impacts are more in the case of construction.  Mishaps also contain significant costs that are not insurable. Financial deliberations contains direct costs like medical reimbursement and  hidden costs includes loss of competence by breaking up crew, cost to train fresh or changed employee, damage to equipment and tools, cost experienced by delays. Many researchers have been suggested risk management techniques to minimize the losses in the industry and very few companies may be implemented the suggestions.  The goal of this study is to recognize and rank risks in construction projects. This study proposes the hierarchical dependencies between the criteria. The variations and factors have been investigated via questionnaire and is an element of an on-going research into the application of risk management in major projects. To know the performance and applicable of proposed model set of data collected from different industries by using the informal approaches such as intuition and experiences the study is conducted to prioritize and manage risks.


Adrian Meehan (2018): Lithium-associated hyperparathyroidism: Prevalence, Pathophysiology, Management. Örebro Studies in Medicine 174. Lithium has been used in the treatment of bipolar disorder, formerly called manic depression, for nearly seven decades. Lithium-associated hyperparathyroidism (LHPT) is an ill-defined and less well known possible side-effect of chronic lithium therapy and was first described in 1973. The condition has been considered to be rare, though there exists conflicting evidence as to its prevalence, its pathophysiological background, and, if and when identified, what the appropriate medical or surgical treatment should be. The principal aim of this thesis was to understand and more comprehensively characterise this condition through studying a large patient cohort, with regards its prevalence, development, and additionally by providing an evaluation of surgical management up until now. In Study I a population of 423 lithium-treated out-patients (251 women, 172 men) were recruited from Jönköping and Örebro County. We found that 18% met the criteria for hyperparathyroidism (HPT) and that a further 21% had intermittent episodes of hypercalcaemia. We then examined, in Study II, the effects of lithium only in patients with bipolar disorder and compared them, firstly, to patients with bipolar disorder without lithium and, secondly, to a control population. In total, 563 individuals participated in the study. Hypercalcaemia was found to be strongly associated to lithium therapy (adjusted OR 13.45; 95% CI 3.09, 58.55; p=0.001). Study III is a descriptive study of calcium homeostasis in 297 lithium-treated patients from Jönköping where three main groups could be discerned: 178 were normocalcaemic (60%), 102 hypercalcaemic (34%), and 17 hypocalcaemic (6%). Many patients demonstrate robust fluctuations in serum calcium intermittently. Of those with suspected LHPT, 31% had urinary calcium excretion values below 1.2 mmol/24hrs. Study IV analysed surgical results of 78 parathyroidectomies in 71 patients with concurrent lithium therapy. In strong contrast to surgical outcomes in those with primary HPT, the overall cure-rate was lower (58%) and the predominant histological diagnosis was hyperplasia (52%). Two patients had double adenomas. Factors which should be particularly taken into consideration while monitoring lithium-treated patients are age, gender and lithium-duration.


We present results from experiments, numerical simulations and analytic modeling, demonstrating enhanced hohlraum performance. Care in the fabrication and handling of hohlraums with walls consisting of high-Z mixtures (cocktails) has led to our demonstration, for the first time, of a significant increase in radiation temperature compared to a pure Au hohlraum that is in agreement with predictions and is ascribable to reduced wall losses. The data suggest that a National Ignition Facility ignition hohlraum made of a U:Au:Dy cocktail should have {approx}17% reduction in wall losses compared to a similar gold hohlraum.


Angiographic findings in a case of liver amyloidosis are reported. Focal amyloid deposits in the gastrointestinal tract, with irregularity and narrowing of intrahepatic vessels, may mimic an intrahepatic mass. A correct diagnosis can be obtained if the patient's history and angiographic findings are evaluated carefully.


&NA; Recent articles related to corneal storage, surgery outcome, and complications of corneal and conjunctival grafts are reviewed. It appears that the addition of insulin and human epidermal growth factor may benefit storage solutions. Several multivariant analyses of risks for graft rejections are included, and include corneal vascularization, failed previous grafts, and preoperative endothelial damage. Transverse keratotomy as a method of controlling astigmatism after grafting may be effective. The incidence of acute hydrops in patients with keratoconus is about 2.8%. Free conjunctival grafts are reported to be useful in repairing failed filtering blebs and persistent bleb leaks.


Abstract Cell suspension cultures of Chenopodium rubrum accumulate high amounts of metabolically active glucose esters of p-coumaric and ferulic acid. Pulse-labelling experiments using [14C]phenylalanine and application of the phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) inhibitor L-α-aminooxy-β-pnenylpropionic acid (AOPP) revealed that the glucose esters are subject to high turnover. A considerable portion of the ferulic acid was found as an insoluble component, probably bound to cell wall material. Application of m-fluoro-DL-tyrosine (MFT), an effective inhibitor of tyrosine biosynthesis via L-arogenate, markedly increased the amount of 1-p-coumaroyl-and 1-feruloyl-glucose accumulated.


The formation and rheological behavior of a viscoelastic wormlike micellar solution in an aqueous solution of a nonionic fluorinated surfactant, perfluoroalkyl sulfonamide ethoxylate, of structure C8F17SO2N(C3H7)(CH2CH2O)10H was studied. Temperature-induced viscosity growth is observed even at low-surfactant concentration (approximately 1 wt %), and viscosity reaches the maximum at a temperature T(eta)-max. Upon successive increases in the temperature, the viscosity decreases, and ultimately a phase separation occurs. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements confirm the presence of cylindrical aggregates at low temperature, which undergo continuous one-dimensional growth with increasing temperature, and ultimately, an indication of a slight lamellarlike structural pattern is observed, which probably comes from the formation of micellar joints or branching. Such changes in the microstructure result in a decrease in the viscosity and stress-relaxation time, while the network structure is retained; the trends in the evolution of shear modulus (Go) and relaxation time (tauR) with temperature are in agreement with this. With increased surfactant concentration, the temperature corresponding to the viscosity maximum (T eta-max) in the temperature-viscosity curve shifts to lower values, and the viscosity at temperatures below or around T eta-max increases sharply. A viscoelastic solution with Maxwellian-type dynamic rheological behavior at low-shear frequency is formed, which is typical of entangled wormlike micelles. Rheological parameters, eta(o) and Go, show scaling relationships with the surfactant concentrations with exponents slightly greater than the values predicted by the living-polymer model, but the exponent of tauR is in agreement with the theory. Dynamic light-scattering measurements indicate the presence of fast relaxation modes, associated with micelles, and medium and slow modes, associated with transient networks. The disappearance of the slow mode and the predominance of the medium mode as the temperature increases support the conclusions derived from SAXS and rheometry.


Summary
Holistic understanding of health is one of the key principles of health promotion indicating that the health status of individuals and populations is determined by a variety of environmental, economic, social and personal factors. Traditionally, research focus has been on school-aged children and school-based interventions and less on pre-school children and their families' engagement in promoting health in everyday life. The aim of the present study was to explore factors that parents of pre-school children in the Nordic countries experienced as influencing health lifestyles in their children's everyday lives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 parents of pre-school children in the five Nordic countries. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. The parents identified themselves as the primary shapers of their children's lifestyles and described influencing factors related to themselves as well as to their immediate surroundings and the larger society. Attaining a health lifestyle in everyday life of Nordic parents with pre-school children appeared to be all about the 'management of time when attempting to live up to expectations'. Pre-school children's lifestyles are to a great extent intertwined with their parent's lifestyles and should be approached, both in research and practice, accordingly. Parents of pre-school children in the Nordic countries appear to be living their everyday lives straining to adapt to norms prevailing in society and may need encouragement and support in managing time in order to promote health lifestyles for themselves and their children.


Oxidative stress contributes to the pathogenesis of various hepatic injuries. Thioredoxin (TRX) is an indicator of oxidative stress, reported to be increased in the serum of patients with chronic hepatitis C with the progression of fibrosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical significance of the expression of TRX and thioredoxin-binding protein-2 (TBP-2), which is a negative regulator of TRX function, in the liver of patients with chronic hepatitis C and the relationship of this to the efficacy of interferon (IFN) treatment. A retrospective study was performed using the liver biopsy specimens obtained before IFN treatment from 69 patients with chronic serotype 1 hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. TRX and TBP-2 mRNA levels in the liver biopsy specimens were amplified by real-time RT-PCR. The serum TRX protein level was estimated with a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit, and the expression of TRX protein in the liver was examined immunohistochemically in 19 patients. There was no association between the serum TRX level and the TRX level in the liver. There was a significant correlation between the expression level of TRX protein in the liver and the TRX mRNA level in the liver. TRX and TBP-2 levels in the liver tended to decrease slightly with increased fibrosis stage, although not significantly. The TRX level in the liver tended to increase with hepatitis activity index, although not significantly. TBP-2 mRNA levels in the liver were significantly higher in responders than non-responders to the IFN therapy (p<0.05). Among patients who had a high viral load of >850 KIU/ml, the TRX level in the livers of non-responders was significantly lower than that in the livers of responders (p<0.05). TRX and TBP-2 mRNA levels in the liver before IFN therapy may predict the outcome of IFN therapy in patients with chronic serotype 1 HCV infection.


Affordable insurance coverage remains a challenge in many economies demanding public-private support to mitigate disaster risks. The private sector can play an important role in creating public awareness to adopt financial protection against these risks. The lack of insurance penetration is common in developing countries and needs a careful innovative initiative in the agricultural sector specifically. Keeping in view the success of flood insurance schemes globally, it may be a viable option to help rural farmers during recurring catastrophic events in Pakistan. Present research study was conducted to evaluate weather-induced risks, farmers' mitigation strategies and determining factors affecting the willingness of the farmers to adopt flood insurance schemes. The study used primary data randomly collected through a field survey from 240 farmers of three disaster-hit districts of Punjab during 2018-19. Binary regression was applied to estimate the results. The results of descriptive statistics show that most farmers (80%) consider floods a major weather-induced threat. At the farm level, money savings, diversified agriculture and keeping a high plinth of the house were among the main strategies to mitigate the risks of flood disasters. Factors like education level, off-farm earnings and involvement of farmers in other mitigation programs had a positive and significant contribution to enhancing willingness to participate in a flood insurance scheme. In contrast, higher land size, farmers relying on credit facilities, more contact with agriculture extension staff, and raised houses/plinth of the house were negatively affecting the adoption of flood insurance schemes. The findings can guide the agricultural policymakers and National Disaster Management Authorities towards improving their efforts to mitigate the negative impacts of floods and enhancing the willingness to adopt crop insurance schemes. These findings and measures can promote private insurance companies to propagate their initiatives for public welfare through the launch of insurance schemes more progressively.


With increasing concerns about security, the need for highly secure physical biometrics-based authentication systems utilizing \emph{cancelable biometric} technologies is on the rise. Because the problem of cancelable template generation deals with the trade-off between template security and matching performance, many state-of-the-art algorithms successful in generating high quality cancelable biometrics all have random projection as one of their early processing steps. This paper therefore presents a formal analysis of why random projections is an essential step in cancelable biometrics. By formally defining the notion of an \textit{Independent Subspace Structure} for datasets, it can be shown that random projection preserves the subspace structure of data vectors generated from a union of independent linear subspaces. The bound on the minimum number of random vectors required for this to hold is also derived and is shown to depend logarithmically on the number of data samples, not only in independent subspaces but in disjoint subspace settings as well. The theoretical analysis presented is supported in detail with empirical results on real-world face recognition datasets.


This study confirmed a mixture multiphase model based on the Euler–Euler method to predict snow deposition in road cuttings. A scaled model experiment was conducted in the Mayitas region of Xinjiang to verify the numerical simulation accuracy, which revealed a good agreement. Regarding the formation mechanism of drifting snow disasters in road cuttings, the wind speed in the simulation results was analyzed in detail. The results indicated that the low-wind speed area is positively correlated with the vortex size and that snow deposition occurs between the vortex separation point and vortex reattachment point. The appearance and disappearance of the secondary vortex can divide the snow cover process into three stages, and the second phase after secondary vortex emergence represents the period of a rapid increase in the snow thickness. Snow cornices are the leading emergence cause of secondary vortex. The related critical snow storage capacity should also be considered to measure the snow storage capacity of road cutting types.


Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) suffers from the small sample size (SSS) problem. Researchers have proposed several modified versions of LDA to deal with this problem. However, a solid theoretical analysis is missing. We analyze LDA and the SSS problem based on learning theory. Originally derived from Fishers criterion, LDA can also be formulated as a least square (LS) approximation problem. In this way it can be clearly shown that LDA is an ill-posed problem and thus is inherently unstable. In order to transform the ill-posed problem into a well-posed one, a regularization term is necessary. We establish a new approach to discriminant analysis. We call it discriminant learning analysis (DLA). DLA is well-posed and behaves well in the SSS situation.
Parzen Windows as a nonparametric method has been applied to a variety of density estimation as well as classification tasks. While it converges to the unknown probability density in the asymptotic limit, there is a lack of theoretical analysis on its performance with finite samples. We establish a finite sample error bound for Parzen Windows, and discuss its properties. This analysis provides interesting insight to Parzen Windows as well as the nearest neighbor method from the point of view of learning theory.
Texture is an important property of surfaces that enables us to distinguish objects. There are several approaches to computing texture features. Of particular interest is multi-channel filtering because of its simplicity. However, the main difficulty associated with such an approach is the resolution of decomposition. Most techniques proposed are optimized with respect to image representation, thus giving no direct guarantee for good feature separation. This dissertation proposes a systematic method for learning optimal filters for texture classification. Since the filter training in the proposed technique is naturally tied to classifier training, the resulting filters are optimized with respect to classification.
This dissertation also investigates the use of subspace analysis methods for learning low-dimensional representations for classification. We propose a kernel-pooled local discriminant subspace method and compare it against competing techniques: kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) and generalized discriminant analysis (GDA) in classification problems. We evaluate the classification performance of the nearest-neighbor rule with each subspace representation.


Laundry liquid waste is the remain water of clothes washing process which causes toxic effects to the biotic area in the water in case of the liquid waste without proper processing. Phytoremediation is a system which is conducted by plants to break a contaminant compound into the non-hazard materials. This research aimed to analyze the mechanism to reduce phosphate content in laundry liquid waste by through phytoremediation process which had been done by using Echinodorus paleafolius and Equisetum hyemale . The research is quantitative descriptive in which the data analysis method was descriptive. The research was conducted in 17 May to 10 June 2016 in the Laboratory of Water Quality of Perum Jasa Tirta Jl. Surabaya No. 2A Malang . The research results showed that the phosphate content in laundry liquid waste exceed of threshold limit value of liquid waste standard which has been issued as PP No. 82 Year 2001. Therefore, this over limit of phosphate content is hazardous to be released to the environment. Echinodorus paleafolius is able to reduce the phosphate content as much as 3.451 mg within the high-density-phosphate waste and as much as 2.271 mg within the lower one. However Equisetum hyemale could not be used to reduce the phosphate content even though it could reduce acidity degree (pH) as much as 3.7 unit within this liquid waste through phytoremediation process. The implementation of the research results was the contextual handout which is completed with colored pictures.


Author(s): Restall, Matthew B. | Abstract: [Grant D. Jones. Maya Resistance to Spanish Rule: Time and History on a Colonial Frontier. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989. 382 pp.]


This study sheds light on differences in the frequency of mother-child activities during the
children's early life stages. Using data on children aged 2-3 and 5-6 from the German Socio-
Economic Panel (SOEP), we answer two questions: (i) To what extent does the frequency of
activities vary between families? (ii) What changes in the frequency of activities occur for
each child with the birth of a new sibling? Our results indicate that (i) The frequency with
which mothers engage in activities is affected by the combined effects of the number of siblings,
children's sex, and birth order. In particular, as sibship size increases, mothers undertake
more activities with firstborn than with middle, younger, and even only children. (ii)
Children who already have a younger sibling receive an attention boost through the birth of a
new sibling, while others experience a reallocation of activities. To account for these results,
we go beyond the resource dilution hypothesis and offer an alternative explanation which assumes
either an increase of efficiency in time spent in maternal activities or a spillover effect
of other siblings on the overall level of activity with increasing sibship size.


We describe a rare case of a young woman with a large cystic adenomyotic lesion that was treated laparoscopically. The patient presented with severe dysmenorrhoea refractory to common analgaesics. She was initially diagnosed with right-sided ovarian endometrioma. MRI revealed a cystic lesion of 4 cm attached to the right uterine wall. Under laparoscopic vision, the uterine lesion was identified on the right portion of the uterine fundus close to the round ligament. Monopolar diathermy was used to dissect the lesion. When the incision reached the cystic cavity, dark-brown content flowed from the cyst. After resection was complete, the surgical wound was closed with two-layer interrupted sutures. The patient made a good recovery and was discharged the following day. Since patients with cystic adenomyosis are young, a minimally invasive procedure such as laparoscopic excision is considered optimal. The exact topography of the lesion is crucial in determining the site of the incision.


Abstract Construction supervision companies (CSCs) in China are engaged by owners mainly to ensure a project is constructed safely and to the quality standards as required under the law in a supervision system that has existed for decades, their credibility and integrity being vital for project safety assurance and quality control. Recently, the Chinese government has proposed a credit scoring mechanism to assess the credibility of CSCs and requested the incorporation of credit scores into the CSC selection processes for public projects. This study investigates the status quo of the credit scoring mechanism and evaluates how credit scores have impacted the competitiveness of CSCs when bidding for supervising public projects by analyzing the bidding results of 5582 public projects and credit scores of 514 CSCs in Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province in China. The results show that (1) the average CSC credit scores have followed a downward trend in recent years; (2) the score weights in the selection process have significantly increased and the scores start to impact on bidding results when their weights are at or above 4%; (3) signs of local protectionism have been observed as local CSCs have significantly higher credit scores than non-local CSCs; and (4) high scoring CSCs are more competitive than others in terms of revenue generation. The study provides an insightful understanding of China's existing credit scoring mechanism and its impact on the selection of CSCs for public sector projects, often a major concern of policymakers, researchers, and industry practitioners.


This paper examines some positive and normative aspects of the inflation indexation of public and private pensions. The analysis showsthat alternative indexing arrangements may have far less impact on actual patterns of risk bearing than is usually thought to be the case. In so far as inflation indexing has real effects, there is no presumption that they are beneficial. In particular, the pre-commitment aspects of publicindexing may not be efficient. There are sound reasons to believe that voluntarily agreed on, non-indexed private pensions may well be efficient.Non-indexed pensions may result in an efficient allocation of risks given the other assets and liabilities of pension issuers and beneficiaries. In this case, indexation would impede the efficient allocation of risks. In this paper is also developed an ICOLI (interteinporal cost of living index) which is superior to conventional price indices as a way of evaluating the changes in real well being,associated with changes in wealth. The use of this measure has significant implications for the indexation of pensions, and for the question of what assets should be held in pension portfolios.


Xihoumen bridge has become one of the bridge with worst environment because of nature environment of island and the suspension bridge with king-size. The evaluation for Xihoumen bridge is very important to perform the corresponding maintenance measures for Xihoumen bridge. In the paper, Bayesian network is proposed to the large-type bridges evaluation. Evaluation indexes of the large-type bridges are analyzed. The large-type bridges evaluation model based on Bayesian network is created. Xihoumen bridge is employed to testify the feasibility of Bayesian network in the large-type bridges evaluation.


Nowadays, the superior electrical and mechanical properties of second generation (2G) practical coated conductor (CC) tapes make them viable options for various applications such as power cables, magnets and coils. The CC tapes are composite conductors where the constituent layers are directly affected by the mechanical and the electromechanical properties of the superconducting layer under operating conditions. It is therefore important to investigate the strain effect on the critical current (Ic) and to determine the irreversible limits for Ic degradation in CC tapes. However, standards or codes for testing the electromechanical properties of high-temperature superconductors are lacking. Therefore, the establishment of a test method or procedure for determining the electromechanical properties of 2G CC tapes in both engineering and practical aspects is needed. This study is a standardization activity, wherein the strain/stress sensitivity of Ic and the reversible strain/stress limits for Ic degradation of practical CC tapes using uniaxial tension tests were evaluated at 77 K and self-field. The reversible strain/stress limits of CC tapes were defined and the reversible recovery of Ic during loading–unloading was measured when using the 99% Ic (ε) recovery, 99% Ic0 recovery and 95% Ic0 retention criteria. The electromechanically determined irreversible limits were also compared to the mechanically determined stress and strain at the yield point. The obtained reversible stress limits showed a similar value regardless of criteria adopted, excepting Sample 2. However, the irreversible strain limit value obtained using the 99% Ic(ε) recovery criterion showed the largest value as compared to the cases using other criteria. Through repeated tests, the electromechanical test procedure of the CC tapes was evaluated based on statistical estimates. The obtained results can provide a fundamental basis for establishing test procedures comparing the criterion that should be considered in determining irreversible limits, whether normalized to the original state Ic value, Ic0 or determined using the reversible degradation of Ic(ε) at residual strain, when unloaded.


Verification and Simulation share many issues, one is that simulation models require validation and verification. In the context of simulation, verification is understood as the task to ensure that an exe- cutable simulation model matches its conceptual counterpart while vali- dation is the task to ensure that a simulation model represents the sys- tem under study well enough with respect to the goals of the simulation study. Both, validation and verification, are treated in the literature at a rather high level and seem to be more an art than engineering. This paper considers discrete event simulation of stochastic models that are formu- lated in a process-oriented language. The ProC/B paradigm is used as a particular example of a class of simulation languages which follow the common process interaction approach and show common concepts used in performance modeling, namely a) layered systems of virtual machines that contain resources and provide services and b) concurrent processes that interact by message passing and shared memory. We describe how Petri net analysis techniques help to verify and debug a large and de- tailed simulation model of airport logistics. We automatically derive a Petri net that models the control flow of a Proc/B model and we make use of invariant analysis and modelchecking to shed light on the alloca- tion of resources, constraints among entities and causes for deadlocks. This paper is a revised version of (1).


It is highly likely that we have seen a significant change in the attitude to evidence when related to wound care products. In March, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) released medical technology guidance on wound debridement (NICE, 2014). There are important issues associated with this, not least the level of clinical evidence that NICE acknowledged in making this recommendation.


Coriolanus, the last one in William Shakespeare's tragedies, deals with a unique tragic death of the Roman hero Coriolanus in a time of transition from monarchy to republicanism. In Coriolanus Shakespeare sharply delineates such political matters as the class struggle between plebeians and patricians so far as for it to be called the most political play in his entire tragedies. However, Shakespeare gives no clear indication of his political outlook in the play, keeping a critical distance aloof from the world of politics. Whatever might be considered political is all dissolved into the desire of Coriolanus as a unique Roman hero. Coriolanus is indeed an experimental tragedy in that it combines the political history of the transitional Roman era and the general rubric of the tragedy genre newly constructed by his genius. The intense conflict is suggested to be going on endlessly between the hero who tries to achieve an essentialist ideal self and the contingent political situations which are dependent on the desire of the self-interested public. The singularity of Coriolanus derives from a primordial sense of the world split between the distorted image of the unprincipled commoners and an alienated private selfhood of the hero Coriolanus whose desire is ironically determined by patriarchy, an ideology which is oppressive yet strangely appropriated by such woman figures as Volumnia in the play. Understanding Coriolanus requires not only a correct evaluation of the failure of both the individual Coriolanus and the distorted political world of Rome but also a penetration of Shakespeare's complicated socio-historical vision. Shakespeare brings out a gap between the private and the public and presents his tragic world view deriving, though in a complex mode, ultimately from the skepticism of the later Renaissance. More specifically, Coriolanus can be considered also to have reflected the socio-political and moral instabilities of Jacobean England.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the efficacy, indication and complication of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with cool-tip needle in patients with hepatic malignancies.

METHODS
421 patients with hepatic malignancies underwent ultrasound-guided RFA with cool-tip needle under local anaesthesia. The tumor size was from 1.0 to 15 cm in diameter with an average diameter of 4.3 cm.

RESULTS
The complete ablation (CA) rate was 91.4% (382/418) in the patients with a tumor < 3 cm, 78.9% (97/123) in those with a tumor of 3 to 5 cm and 37.6% (35/93) in the patients with a tumor > 5 cm. No patient died or changed to celiotomy during the 1121 times of RFA for 634 lesions in 421 patients. No hemorrhage occurred in any of these patients after the RFA treatment. The complications included abdominal pain in 32.3% (136/421), nausea in 9.0% (38/421), fever in 34.9% (147/421) and biliary leakage in 0.2% (1/421) of the patients.

CONCLUSION
Ultrasound-guided percutaneous radiofrequency ablation with cool-tip needle is effective and safe in the treatment of liver tumors.


The chemical grafting of acrylamide methacrylic acid (AAM-MAA) mixture onto poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibers using azobisisobutyronitrile as a chemical initiator was investigated. The use of MAA as a comonomer increased the amount of AAM introduced to the PET fiber up to 33.0%, while the grafting of AAM onto fibers alone gave low graft yields. This synergistic effect was found to be at its highest when an AAM-MAA mixture having 30 wt % AAM was used. The grafting increased dyeability with both acidic and basic dyes, and increased diameter and decreased the density of the fibers. The thermogravimetric analysis results revealed that the decomposition temperature of the fibers decreased with grafting. The electron micrographs showed that grafting changed the surface morphology of the fiber and a shell-like heterogeneous structure occurred at the surface at high graft yields.


Background: Recently, an immunosuppressive motif was identified in the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein complex. Results: Both d- and l-stereoisomers of the motif inhibit T-cell receptor activation and preferentially bind T-cells over B-cells. Conclusion: The motif immunomodulates T-cells through interactions occurring within the membrane milieu. Significance: This study provides new insights into the immunosuppressive activity of the envelope glycoprotein complex and the molecular recognition within the membrane. An immunosuppressive motif was recently found within the HIV-1 gp41 fusion protein (termed immunosuppressive loop-associated determinant core motif (ISLAD CM)). Peptides containing the motif interact with the T-cell receptor (TCR) complex; however, the mechanism by which the motif exerts its immunosuppressive activity is yet to be determined. Recent studies showed that interactions between protein domains in the membrane milieu are not always sterically controlled. Therefore, we utilized the unique membrane leniency toward association between d- and l-stereoisomers to investigate the detailed mechanism by which ISLAD CM inhibits T-cell activation. We show that a d-enantiomer of ISLAD CM (termed ISLAD d-CM) inhibited the proliferation of murine myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)-(35–55)-specific line T-cells to the same extent as the l-motif form. Moreover, the d- and l-forms preferentially bound spleen-derived T-cells over B-cells by 13-fold. Furthermore, both forms of ISLAD CM co-localized with the TCR on activated T-cells and interacted with the transmembrane domain of the TCR. FRET experiments revealed the importance of basic residues for the interaction between ISLAD CM forms and the TCR transmembrane domain. Ex vivo studies demonstrated that ISLAD d-CM administration inhibited the proliferation (72%) and proinflammatory cytokine secretion of pathogenic MOG(35–55)-specific T-cells. This study provides insights into the immunosuppressive mechanism of gp41 and demonstrates that chirality-independent interactions in the membrane can take place in diverse biological systems. Apart from HIV pathogenesis, the d-peptide reported herein may serve as a potential tool for treating T-cell-mediated pathologies.


Vision and Language Navigation (VLN) requires an agent to navigate to a target location by following natural language instructions. Most of existing works represent a navigation candidate by the feature of the corresponding single view where the candidate lies in. However, an instruction may mention landmarks out of the single view as references, which might lead to failures of textual-visual matching of existing methods. In this work, we propose a multi-module Neighbor-View Enhanced Model (NvEM) to adaptively incorporate visual contexts from neighbor views for better textual-visual matching. Specifically, our NvEM utilizes a subject module and a reference module to collect contexts from neighbor views. The subject module fuses neighbor views at a global level, and the reference module fuses neighbor objects at a local level. Subjects and references are adaptively determined via attention mechanisms. Our model also includes an action module to utilize the strong orientation guidance (e.g., "turn left'') in instructions. Each module predicts navigation action separately and their weighted sum is used for predicting the final action. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on the R2R and R4R benchmarks against several state-of-the-art navigators, and NvEM even beats some pre-training ones. Our code is available at https://github.com/MarSaKi/NvEM.


Kinetic analysis with mathematical models has become increasingly important to quantify physiological parameters in computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), and dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI (DCE‐MRI). The modified Kety/Tofts model and the graphical (Patlak) model have been widely applied to DCE‐MRI results in disease processes such as cancer, inflammation, and ischemia. In this article, an intermediate model between the modified Kety/Tofts and Patlak models is derived from a mathematical expansion of the modified Kety/Tofts model. Simulations and an in vivo experiment involving DCE‐MRI of carotid atherosclerosis were used to compare the new extended graphical model with the modified Kety/Tofts model and the Patlak model. In our simulated circumstances and the carotid artery application, we found that the extended graphical model exhibited lower noise sensitivity and provided more accurate estimates of the volume transfer constant (Ktrans) and fractional plasma volume (vp) than the modified Kety/Tofts model for DCE‐MRI acquisitions of total duration less than 100–300 s, depending on kinetic parameters. In comparison with the Patlak model, we found that the extended graphical model exhibited 74.4–99.8% less bias in estimates of Ktrans. Thus, the extended graphical model may allow kinetic modeling of DCE‐MRI results with shortened data acquisition periods, without sacrificing accuracy in estimates of Ktrans and vp. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Purpose: To investigate the potential of computed tomography (CT) imaging features and texture analysis to differentiate between mass-forming pancreatitis (MFP) and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Materials and Methods: Thirty patients with pathologically proved MFP and 79 patients with PDAC were included in this study. Clinical data and CT imaging features of the two lesions were evaluated. Texture features were extracted from arterial and portal phase CT images using commercially available software (AnalysisKit). Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify relevant CT imaging and texture parameters to discriminate MFP from PDAC. Receiver operating characteristic curves were performed to determine the diagnostic performance of predictions. Results: MFP showed a larger size compared to PDAC (p = 0.009). Cystic degeneration, pancreatic ductal dilatation, vascular invasion, and pancreatic sinistral portal hypertension were more frequent and duct penetrating sign was less frequent in PDAC compared to MFP. Arterial CT attenuation, arterial, and portal enhancement ratios of MFP were higher than PDAC (p < 0.05). In multivariate analysis, arterial CT attenuation and pancreatic duct penetrating sign were independent predictors. Texture features in arterial phase including SurfaceArea, Percentile40, InverseDifferenceMoment_angle90_offset4, LongRunEmphasis_angle45_offset4, and uniformity were independent predictors. Texture features in portal phase including LongRunEmphasis_angle135_offset7, VoxelValueSum, LongRunEmphasis_angle135_offset4, and GLCMEntropy_angle45_offset1 were independent predictors. Areas under the curve of imaging feature-based, texture feature-based in arterial and portal phases, and the combined models were 0.84, 0.96, 0.93, and 0.98, respectively. Conclusions: CT texture analysis demonstrates great potential to differentiate MFP from PDAC.


The present inquiry considers the nature and meaning of elder participation in information technology and the degree to which computer-mediated communication increases in the social capital of elder adults. This study compares 27 elder computer participants and 27 nonparticipants by means of open-ended interviews. Three primary themes emerged from the interviews. The first concerns the different conceptions of old age held by the computer-participants and the nonparticipants, and in particular, differing views on learning capacity in later life. The second concerns their intentions of applying information technology. The third concerns the learning problems of operating computers. The findings from the current study also show that older persons are able to study and to use computers if a good training program exists that encourages them to do so. On the other hand, it cannot be dismissed that those who chose to participate and to study computer use may have done so because they had a stronger prior desire and/or ability to engage in this particular undertaking. It might be that the elderly information technology participants had a positive approach to the computer, a priori, and perhaps a better capability for learning new things as well.