This study was carried out to investigate the pulping and papermaking characteristics of lotus (Nelumbo nucifera G.) leafstalk for the development of high performance paper. Anatomical and chemical properties of the lotus leafstalk were analyzed. The pulping and papermaking properties of the lotus leafstalk by conventional alkali and sulfomethylated pulping processes were also evaluated. The length and width of fibers were 0.06-3.32 ㎜ (av. 1.23 ㎜) and 3.47-25.6 ㎛ (av. 20.7 ㎛), respectively. The length and width of vessel elements were 0.07-0.78 ㎜ (av. 0.20 ㎜) and 14.1-330.0 ㎛ (av. 54.13 ㎛), respectively. The fiber length/fiber width ratio was 60.20. The extractives (cold water, hot water, 1% NaOH and ethanol-benzene) and lignin content of lotus leafstalk were higher than those of plant bast fiber. The contents of holocellulose, lignin, and ash were 73.8%, 24.3%, and 4.3%, respectively. The pulp yields based on pulping methods were sulfomethylated pulping av. 52%, and alkaline pulping av. 42%. The conventional alkaline pulping shows better pulp and sheet properties than the sulfomethylated pulping which was modified pulping processes. But the sulfomethylated pulping shows higher brightness than alkali pulping. In the consequence of FE-SEM observation, lotus leafstalk pulp consists of various kinds of thin walled fibers which have large amount of small pits.


TEMPI syndrome is a rare disease associated with plasma cell neoplasms. Although previous studies have reported that bortezomib is effective as a first-line treatment for TEMPI syndrome, some cases are refractory to this treatment. Pomalidomide, a kind of immunomodulatory drug, is widely used for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and could be administered without dose modification in patients with renal dysfunction. We present a case of bortezomib-refractory TEMPI syndrome with renal insufficiency that was successfully treated with a combination of pomalidomide and low-dose dexamethasone with minimal adverse effects, followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (ASCT). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of TEMPI syndrome that was successfully treated with pomalidomide. Pomalidomide may be suitable for patients who do not respond to a proteasome inhibitor-based treatment. In addition, a subsequent ASCT could also be effective for achieving a further treatment response.


This study was carried out with the aim to examine internal audit practices and financial performance of construction companies in Nigeria. In order to actualize the objectives of the study, various literature and theoretical issues was discussed. The instrument used for the purpose of this research was gathered through primary source. The researcher administered a total of two hundred (200) questionnaires to respondents, out of which one hundred and eighty-eight (188) was retrieved and was used for the presentation and analyses. The hypotheses were tested using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression technique. The findings from analysis revealed among other things that there is a positive and significant relationship between size of the internal audit, experience of the internal audit, qualification of the internal audit and Financial Performance. The study also revealed that there is a positive and insignificant relationship between independence of internal audit and Financial Performance. In line with the findings, we recommend that the internal auditor should have maximum independence from the industry they work in. The internal audit activities must be positioned in such a way that it may obtain cooperation from industry that is being audited that have free, unrestricted access to all functions, records, property and personnel including those charged with governance.


Background and Aim: Teachers are a large group of professional voice users that several risk factors and voice demands causes various voice complaints among them. As the voice is multidimensional, the aim of this study was acoustic and perceptual measurement of teachers' voice and comparing the findings between two groups with many and few voice complaints. Methods: Sixty female teachers of high school in Sari, north of Iran, were chosen by available sampling to participate in this cross-sectional study. According to a voice complaints questionnaire, 21 subjects located in few voice complaints and 31 in many voice complaints group. After a working day subjects completed a voice self-assessment questionnaire. Also, teachers'voice were recorded during three tasks including sustained vowels /a/ and /i/, text reading and conversational speech. Acoustic parameters were analyzed by Praat software and 2 speech-language pathalogists performed auditoryperceptual assessment by GRBAS (Grade, Roughness, Breathiness, Asthenia, Strain) scale. Results: Comparing of the voice self-assessment between the two groups demonstrated statistically significant difference (p<0.05); however results of the acoustic and auditory-perceptual measurement did not show significant diffrence. Conclusion: Despite prevalent voice problems in teachers, there are various conditions in terms of complaints and assessments methods. In this study, only a remarkable deviation documented in the client-based assessments in many voice compliants group in comparison with few voice compliants, which would be probably related to different individual's perception of voice problem between two groups. These results support paying attention to self-assessments in clinical process of voice problems.


Carbapenems have been used for the treatment of systemic infections caused by Enterobacteriaceae . However, recent studies suggested that some Enterobacteriaceae are producing carbapenemases, which has limited the treatment options for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae . Some of the emerging carbapenemase resistant Enterobacteriaeae that are causing multi-drug resistant systemic infections include Escherichia coli , Klebsiellae pneumoniae, Providencia rettgeri , Proteus mirabili, Pantoea species, Citrobacter koseri and Acinetobacter baumanii . There is therefore the need for alternative treatment regimens for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae . This study determined the in vitro efficacy of Alchornea cordifolia on carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae using agar well diffusion and well microplate dilution method. Serial dilutions of the ethanolic crude extract of the leaves were prepared and used against the carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae . The phytochemical screening was also performed to determine the antibacterial compounds. The christmas bush leaves extracts concentrations ranging from 50 mg/ml – 200 mg/ml showed active diameter zone of inhibition. The ethanolic extract of Christmas bush leaves had minimum inhibition concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration of 3.13mg/ml indicating significant antibiotic activity against the carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae . The phytochemical screening of the Christmas bush leaves showed the presence of antimicrobial phytochemicals such as flavonoids. This offers the possibility of developing effective antimicrobial agent to treat multi-drug resistant systemic infections. Therefore, there is the need to determine the toxicological effect and perform clinical trials of the active antimicrobial compounds isolated in the leave extracts of Christmas bush shrub. Keywords: Alchornea cordifolia , Flavonoids, Antibacterial, Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/10-10-03 Publication date: May 31 st 2020


This paper presents the feasibility of the removal of asphaltenes from aqueous solutions by using low- cost natural adsorbents such as light expanded clay aggregate (LECA), perlite and bentonite. The structure of adsorbents was characterized by XRD, FTIR, and SEM before and after the adsorption of asphaltenes. The effect of the adsorbent type, initial asphaltene concentration, particle size of the adsorbent and temperature on the adsorption capacity was investigated. The results showed that at the initial asphaltene concentration of 125 mg L-1, contact time of 24 h, temperature of 50°C and adsorbent dosage of 1 g, the removal of asphaltenes onto LECA, perlite and bentonite was 53.59, 93.01 and 99.77%, respectively. Also Langmuir and Freundlich models were applied to describe the experimental data. The results indicated a good fit by Langmuir isotherm. Thermodynamic parameters such as ∆H, ∆S and ∆G were also calculated. It was revealed that the adsorption was spontaneous and of exothermic nature, which was evident by decreasing the randomness of the dye at the solid and liquid interfaces. The characteristic results and dimensionless separation factor (RL) showed that perlite and bentonite can be employed as an alternative to commercial adsorbents for the removal of asphaltenes from the aqueous solution and oil.


The present invention comprises a housing (2), directed towards the actuator (1) comprising a rotor (3) capable of movement with respect to the acting direction of the actuator housing (2), the actuator (1) is at least temporarily rotor It includes forward unit connected to (3). Advancing unit is at least one deformation unit 6 and each represents at least one deformation device (5) for the deformation of the deformation unit (6), at least one deformation device (5) is the total of the modified unit 6 as a result of transformation in such a way that a length of the action change direction, is adapted to transform the deformation unit (6) at right angles to the working direction of the actuator (1). The invention also relates to the actuator (1) a semiconductor lithography projection exposure system 310 for having the according to the invention, the method of operation of the actuator 1 according to the invention.


Rice(Oryza sativa L.) as a photophilous crop,often encounters low-light environment during the growth stage in rice-producing areas particularly in Sichuan.Low-light stress seriously affects the morphology,physiology,grain yield and quality of rice.However,the response of rice root system to low-light stress is not so far clear.Therefore,we seeks to examine the responses of five rice varieties to low-light stress at different growth stages through pot experiments under artificially-controlled shading condition using white cotton yarn screen.By a completely randomized design,the pot experiments were carried out on the experimental farm of Sichuan Agricultural University in 2009.In experiment 1,one-layer and two-layer white cotton yarn screens,which shaded about 53 % and 73 % of the full light intensity respectively,were covered on the top of rice canopy of Gangyou 906 at tillering-elongation stage,elongation-booting stage,booting-heading stage,and heading-maturing stage respectively.In experiment 2,the response of root system of Ⅱ you 498,Gangyou 188,Gangyou 527 and Chuanxiang 9838 to shading was studied at tillering-elongation stage and booting-heading stage by covering with one-layer white cotton yarn screen.The screens were more than 2.0 m above the ground to ensure good ventilation and were large enough to fully cover the shaded plots.Plants without covers were set as control(CK).Root/shoot ratio,root volume,maximal root length,root total absorbing area,root active absorbing area and root α-naphthylamine oxidizing activity were analyzed at the end of shading treatment.The results were as follows: 1) Root volume,root total absorbing area and root active absorbing area of Gangyou 906 were decreased with the increase of shading degree before filling stage,resulting in root growth retard(Fig.1,2).At tillering-elongation stage and elongation-booting stage,shading greatly(P 0.05) reduced root volume,and the decline was severe with the increase of low-light stress.As compared with the control,root volume was significantly decreased(P 0.05),but the decrement with treatment of 53 % shading was greater than that of 73 % shading at booting-heading stage.Root total absorbing area and active absorbing area significantly(P 0.05) decreased with the increase of shading intensity at elongation-booting stage and booting-heading stage.After heading stage,the root system growth was promoted,while the root senescence was delayed under 53 % shading treatment.Meanwhile,the root volume,root total absorbing area and active absorbing area increased by 14.6 %,17.5 % and 39.5 % respectively with 53 % shading treatment.However,73 % shading treatment had negative effects on root volume,root total absorbing area,root active absorbing area and α-naphthylamine oxidizing activity in roots(Fig.1-3).2) The responses of different varieties to shading treatment were different.Shading significantly(P 0.05) reduced root α-naphthylamine oxidizing activity,root absorbing area and active absorbing area of Ⅱyou 498,Gangyou 188 and Gangyou 527(Table 3,4),leading to the hindrance of the formation and capacity of moisture and mineral nutrients of root system.But for Gangyou 906,the root α-naphthylamine oxidizing activity with 53% and 73% shading treatment at tillering-elongation stage and booting-heading stage were 104.7 %,35.5 %,83.2 %,and 0.5 % respectively higher than those of non-shading treatment.It can be concluded that different degrees of shading have different influences on root system characteristics of rice at each growth stage,and strong shade-tolerant variety such as Gangyou 906,can reduce the disadvantaged effect on grain yield of rice by improving the vigor of root system.It also suggests that the root α-naphthylamine oxidizing activity and root active absorbing area can be used as effective indicators to identify the low-light tolerance of rice with the grey correlation degree analysis(Table 5).All these results lay a theoretical foundation for the selection of shade-tolerant variety and the improvement of cultivation technology.


Inappropriate therapy of postoperative pain in laparoscopic cholecystectomy may lead to late mobilization, patient dissatisfaction, delayed hospital discharge, and chronic pain development. Our objective was to identify the best therapeutic strategy available to the anesthesiologist for the acute postoperative pain of patients submitted to elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy. This is a systematic review that included 36 complete articles indexed in the Medline, Scopus, Web of Science and LILACS databases, with a five-year time cut (2012 to 2016), resulting from controlled and randomized studies that were submitted to qualitative analysis. In a proposal for multimodal analgesia, it is important to consider the contraindications, adverse effects, dose and optimal timing of interventions. Non-opioid drugs, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)/cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors, gabapentin/pregabalin, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists, and others. Opioids may be used at low doses associated with multimodal therapy or are restricted to cases where non-opioid multimodal analgesia is insufficient. We conclude that there is no consensus as to the best analgesic strategy to be implemented in the acute postoperative pain of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, which requires its applicability in an individualized way, based on the scientific evidence found in the literature. As contribution to medical learning and practice, we point out the theoretical enrichment of the analgesic drug options available for the therapy of postoperative pain in patients submitted to elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and alert the team to consider the adverse effects of the interventions implemented.


The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of using the EFQM model in Czech companies on business success. The study is based on primary data collected from top managers of selected 477 Czech private companies which are incorporated and located in the Czech Republic. Primary data were collected by the method of oral questioning. The companies under research were selected with the method of non-probability purposive sampling, or more precisely by assumption and occasional selection. The research was carried out in the Czech Republic between October 2018 and January 2019. The relationships are analyzed using relevant regression techniques. From the results generated by research methodology, the EFQM model has a very important weight and plays a key role in the strategic planning of the company. This fact is confirmed by the high direct effect, as well as by the high indirect effect between both variables. These results indicate that the using of the EFQM model constitutes a key piece in the strategic planning of the company to achieve of business success.


1. Monitoring programmes serve to track changes in the distribution and abundance of species. A major problem with most monitoring programmes is that species detection is imperfect and some populations are inevitably missed. Estimates of abundance and distribution are biased when detection probabilities are not taken into account. 2. Data were analysed from a large-scale volunteer-based amphibian monitoring programme using recently developed methods for estimating site occupancy. The analysis revealed that detection probabilities were much smaller than 100%, and varied among species and between years in an unpredictable way despite the fact that standardized field methods were used. Different environmental covariates best explained variation in detection probabilities among species and between years. It is therefore very difficult to standardize field methods in a way that eliminates such variation. 3. When detection probabilities were not taken into account, estimates of the proportion of sites where a species occurred and estimates of trends in site occupancy were biased. Bias was large and was related to detection probability. 4. Site occupancy models are a useful tool for monitoring the distribution of amphibians (and other animals and plants). These methods should be useful for assessing 'favourable conservation status' as required under the European Habitats Directive.


In this paper, we propose a study of progressive development of the structure of corpus collected starting from the discussion forums. These are the first results from an ethnographic description of constitution and analysis practices of a corpus located within an interdisciplinary project. At first, we describe the personal digital documents folder of a researcher, relative to his corpus analysis of interactions of social support online. Next, we examine the constitution of a shared corpus, result of the pooling of individual corpora, small size, produced by researchers participating in the project, each individual corpus reflecting his producer's perspectives of research.


A 72-year-old man with no symptoms was admitted to our hospital to investigate increased cardiothoracic ratio on chest radiography. There were no specific physical findings but the cardiac sound was weak. Electrocardiography showed low voltage in all leads. Thyroid function was within normal limits. Echocardiography revealed massive pericardial effusion. Pericardiocentesis was performed, and 1,800ml of gold paint-like opaque fluid was drained. Microscopic examination revealed cholesterol crystals, so the diagnosis was cholesterol pericarditis. Cytologic examination revealed no malignant cells, and no bacteria was cultured. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was not amplified using the polymerase chain reaction method of pericardial fluid. Further analysis showed reduction of apo-B in the pericardial fluid, suggesting involvement in the precipitation of cholesterol.


In this thesis we make predictions of extreme elements of large-scale structure (LSS) in the universe. We base our study on the concordance cosmological model, the Lambda Cold-Dark-Matter (ΛCDM) model, and in doing so we utilise a suite of very large N-body,dark-matter-only simulations. To understand LSS throughout cosmic history, it is vital to quantify the evolution ofthe numbers of objects in the universe. To this end, we perform a numerical investigation into the abundance of dark matter haloes across an unprecedented combination of redshifts and masses. For the very young universe (z > 6), a fit is presented for the numbers of rare haloes that hosted the energetic objects that drove reionization. At lower redshifts we predict number counts of galaxy groups and clusters, the observation of which forms perhaps our current, best method of interpreting nature on large scales. Our low redshift results are based on simulations with very large volumes, which allows us to probe rare objects in a ΛCDM universe, including massive clusters, voids and extreme-velocity mergers. These objects challenge our understanding of the universe by exhibiting the extremes of the ΛCDM model. With the possible exception of the Bullet Cluster, our simulation results are in line with current observations. We study the late-time Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect using a (6 h−1Gpc)³ volume simulation which contains enough particles (6000³) to resolve luminous red galaxies. From these data we calculate the expected ISW-LSS cross-correlation signal in a ΛCDM universe. The signal is found to be strongest for LSS surveys that can probe redshift ranges of z ~ 0.2 to 0.8. The ISW effect promises to be an important measure of the evolution of dark energy, the overall understanding of which is perhaps the most important current goal in cosmology.


Cysts of the minor salivary glands are common, but that of the parotid glands are rate. A case of cyst of the parotid gland in a 13-year-old girl was present. The patient was referred to our clinic by her doctor because of massive painless swelling in the right side of the parotid area. Mechanical trauma, laceration, chronic obstruction due to stricture, and the presence of a sialolith and chronic sialoadenitis can account for the formation of parotid retention cysts in same cases. In this case, no obvious etiologic factor (s) could be determined, but calculus of Stensen's duct was suspected. The mass was removed surgically, and the histopathological diagnosis was a retention cyst of the parotid gland. No evidence of recurrence was observed up to date.


Clinicians at Nebraska Methodist Hospital, a not-for-profit acute care facility, developed and implemented an automatic interchange program for the ACE inhibitor class of drugs. This article presents the ACE inhibitor review upon which the formulary decisions were based as well as the initial clinical and economic results of the interchange program. (This pdf version includes an appendix that was not included in the print issue)


Within a recent project at Siemens Communication, we developed a new programming concept called virtual radio engine (VRE), with the goal to provide an efficient development environment for software defined radio (SDR) applications. VRE separates the development process into two steps: first, the application is described in a hardware-independent way using the VRE programming language, and then the implementation is done (to a great part) automatically by the VRE code generator system. As the hardware underlying SDR requires parallel architectures of different kinds to achieve the required high performance within a low power consumption budget, hardware-specific requirements are excluded from the VRE program. Instead, a separate hardware description file supplements the program. Therefore, the application can be described without any prior knowledge of the target hardware, and the same program can be implemented on different parallel hardware platforms. This paper concentrates on the VRE programming language and the graphic representation of VRE programs using Simulink. Special emphasis is given to the representation of different types of control flow.


Pedagogical Conversational Agents (PCAs) have the advantage of offering to students not only task-oriented support but also the possibility to interact with the computer media at a social level. This form of intelligence is particularly important when the character is employed in an educational setting. This paper reports our initial results on the recognition of users' social response to a pedagogical agent from the linguistic, acoustic and gestural analysis of the student communicative act.


Correlated double sampling is widely used in imaging arrays to eliminate noise generated when a CCD's sense capacitance or a CMOS sensor's photodiode is reset after signal integration and readout. Instead, we suppress photodiode kTC noise using a SoC implementation for progressive reset; supporting SoC components include a feedback amplifier having elements distributed amongst the pixel and column buffer, a tapered reset clock waveform, and reset timing generator. The reset method does not swell pixel area, compel processing of the correlated reset and signal values, or require additional memory. Theoretical analysis is presented along with experimental results. Integrated in a 1920 by 1080 imager having 5 /spl mu/m by 5 /spl mu/m pixels in 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS, measured random noise for 5.5-fF detector capacitance is /spl sim/8 e- to 225 MHz video rate with image lag <0.12%. Random noise of /spl sim/30 e- is otherwise predicted and achieved using conventional reset. Sensor S/N ratio with progressive readout is /spl ges/52 dB at 60 Hz and 72 Hz frame rate.


This paper presents an analysis of the potential for public libraries to act as e-government intermediaries (EGIs). EGIs are defined by the UK government as 'organisations from the private or voluntary sectors offering services targeted at groups of customers' (Cabinet Office, 2003b: 18). Intermediaries can assist people with their e-government use in recognition of the fact that although governments around the world are establishing e-government services, usage remains low in certain geographic areas and among disadvantaged sections of the population. In this paper, the characteristics of successful EGIs will be identified with the aim of establishing good practice in breaking down the digital divide and opening up e-government services to those who may benefit the most from them.


Topical administration of triptolide (TP) is effective in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but it can also induce skin irritation. Previous studies have used data mining strategies to analyze the application of Tripterygium wilfordii in the treatment of RA and have shown that TP and ferulic acid (FA) can be used in combination due to their component compatibility. The aims of the present study were to investigate the mechanisms underlying the effects of TP treatment and to identify its effects on metabolism and oxidative damage in the skin. MTT assay results suggested that the HaCaT cell survival rate was significantly increased when the compatibility ratio of TP to FA was 1:100. Moreover, the combination of TP with FA (TP + FA) did not significantly affect the activities of the cytochrome P40 (CYP) enzymes CYP family 1 subfamily A member 2 (CYP1A2), CYP2E1 and CYP3A4, when used as a 'cocktail'. It was found that TP + FA significantly decreased the production levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), superoxide dismutase and malondialdehyde in HaCaT cells, while significantly increasing levels of glutathione and catalase. In addition, TP + FA significantly increased nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 protein expression, compared with TP alone. Thus, the present results indicated that the underlying mechanism of TP + FA efficacy may be related to decreased ROS production level in HaCaT cells, increased production levels of key antioxidant factors and increased antioxidant activity of the epidermis, all of which were correlated with a protective effect against oxidative damage.


Groundwater-fed lakes in northeastern Germany are characterized by significant lake level changes, but for only a few lakes are in situ water level measurements available. In this study, we test the potential of RapidEye satellite images for indirectly reconstructing lake level changes. The lake levels are derived by intersecting water-land borders with a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM). Based on Lake Furstenseer (LF), we define requirements and limitations of the method. Water-land borders were extracted automatically from the 37 RapidEye images available for the period between 2009 and 2014. Otsu's threshold was used for the NIR band and for the normalized difference water index (NDWI). The results were validated with in situ gauging, contour lines from the DEM, and in situ Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) measurements of the shoreline. Using an ideal shoreline subset, the lake levels could be reconstructed with decimeter accuracy using the NIR water-land border, but the levels were systematically underestimated by 0–20 cm. The accuracy of the reconstructed lake level retrieval strongly depends on the precision of the water-land border retrieval, on the accuracy of the DEM, and on the lake level itself. A clear shift of the water-land border with increasing lake level is also essential for the unambiguous reconstruction of different levels. This shift needs to be several times larger than the pixel size. The biggest challenges for lake level reconstruction are the presence of vegetation at the shorelines, the quality of the topographic data in the underwater area, the slope of the shoreline, and shadows in combination with low solar angles.


I am happy to strive to add an appoggiatura – if my comments might be considered a minor bridge towards a deferred conclusion – to the very stimulating set of articles by Michelle Duncan, David Levin and Fred Moten that appear in this issue. It struck me that these three articles can be read as imbroglio in that they offer contest, or dissonant engagement, more than seamless convergence. Indeed, by underscoring the complexities that haunt our habits of reception in 'artistic' practice, these essays further the passion and urgency in listening closely to less audible aspects in any cultural production including opera.


Providing high-quality chest compressions to patient in sudden cardiac arrest is a key action that should be taken by medical professionals as soon as possible after its recognition. Long-term keeping resuscitation, particularly chest compressions, can lead to fatigue rescuers which in turn may result in a decrease of the efficiency and quality of these treatments. Accordingly, it may be helpful to use commercially available medical devices for mechanical compression of the victim's chest. The aim of this study is to present selected devices for mechanical chest compressions of patient in cardiac arrest. Examples of such devices are: Lund University Cardiac Arrest System-LUCAS, AutoPulse Resuscitation System, Corpuls CPR, Life-stat CPR, Thumper CPR. Different between them are: mechanics of operation, construction, power source, size or also weight. Effectiveness and efficiency of all described devices have been confirmed by many scientific studies. Nevertheless, there are still no clear projects, which could become the basis for international organizations such as the European Resuscitation Council or American Heart Association to introduce these devices as a standard of patient care in the state of sudden cardiac arrest. Using of mechanical chest compression devices influence for providing the permanent quality of treatments, enables patient transport in cardiac arrest as well as relieves rescue team. It is necessary to conduct more studies which could confirm their effectiveness and also which could improve them.


We previously showed that reactive oxygen metabolites (ROM) serum levels were associated with the DAS28 in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In this study, we aimed to investigate whether ROM would be predictive of the CDAI-, SDAI- or Boolean-remission. Fifty-one biologic agents (BA)-naïve RA patients were included in this observational study. Associations between ROM, C-reactive protein (CRP), MMP (matrix metalloproteinase)-3, DAS28-ESR, CDAI, SDAI, and health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) at 12 weeks and the DAS28-, CDAI-, SDAI-, and Boolean-remission at 52 weeks were investigated. The DAS28-, CDAI-, SDAI- and Boolean-remission rates at 52 weeks were 66.7, 52.9, 54.9 and 54.9%, respectively. A multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that ROM and HAQ at 12 weeks were associated with the CDAI-, SDAI- and Boolean-remission at 52 weeks. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses demonstrated that the cut-off value for CDAI remission was 389.5 U.Carr, and that for SDAI and Boolean remission was 389.5 U.Carr. ROM at 12 weeks of initial treatment with BAs was a predictor for the CDAI-, SDAI-, and Boolean-remission at 52 weeks. Serum levels of ROM may be a useful biomarker in the current treatment strategy aiming at the early remission of RA.


Compound-specific isotope analysis using gas chromatography interfaced to isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/IRMS) was applied for the determination of delta13C values of the marine halogenated natural product 2,3,3',4,4',5,5'-heptachloro-1'-methyl-1,2'-bipyrrole (Q1). The delta13C value of a lab-made Q1 standard (-34.20 +/- 0.27 per thousand) was depleted in 13C by more than 11 per thousand relative to the residues of Q1 in dolphin blubber from Australia and skua liver from Antarctica. This clarified that the synthesized Q1 was not the source for Q1 in the biota samples. However, two Australian marine mammals showed a large variation in the delta13C value, which, in our experience, was implausible. Since the GC/IRMS system was connected to a conventional ion trap mass spectrometer by a post-column splitter, we were able to closely inspect the peak purity of Q1 in the respective samples. While the mass spectra of Q1 did not indicate any impurity, a fronting peak of PCB 101 was identified in one sample. This interference falsified the delta13C value of the respective sample. Once this sample was excluded, we found that the delta13C values of the remaining samples, i.e. liver of Antarctic brown skua (-21.47 +/- 1.47 per thousand) and blubber of Australian melon-headed whale (-22.80 +/- 0.33 per thousand), were in the same order. The standard deviation for Q1 was larger in the skua samples than in the standard and the whale blubber sample. This was due to lower amounts of skua sample available. It remained unclear if the Q1 residues originate from the same producer and location.


Three Irish children, two of them siblings, developed megaloblastic anemia around one year; deficiency of intrinsic factor (I.F.), presumably congenital, was shown by Schilling tests and assay of gastric juice. Congenital pernicious anemia (P.A.), in contrast to adult P.A., shows normal gastric mucosa and acidity and no antibodies to gastric mucosa or I.F. Adult type P.A., with gastric atrophy and achlorhydria, if occurring in childhood, can be called "juvenile P.A.," "congenital P.A." being reserved for the type described here. P.A. associated with polyendocrinopathy and the type described by Imerslund due to specific B12 malabsorption should be named accordingly. Congenital P.A.'s inheritance is thought to be autosomal recessive.
 Growth retardation and acceleration appeared to be related to B12 deficiency and treatment. I.Q.'s of around 70 in each child may represent the effects of B12 deficiency on cerebral growth. An initial malabsorption of B12 was shown to improve markedly with B12 treatment. In diagnosis of megaloblastic anemia, only that due to B12 deficiency will respond to dosage of 2 to 5 µg B12 (intramuscular) daily. Early diagnosis and treatment may prevent brain damage.


Chronic or heavy smoking can lead to different forms of pathologic remodeling in the airways and distal lung. There is an 8% to 19% prevalence of interstitial lung disease (ILD) in chronic smokers who were unaware that they had a lung disorder. Descriptive pathologic and radiologic analyses have enabled a number of clinical diseases to be identified and grouped within a range of smoking-related ILDs. We review the radiology, pathology, and clinical management of pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis, respiratory bronchiolitis–associated ILD, and desquamative interstitial pneumonia. We discuss the difficulties of classification and also where the new entity of airspace enlargement with fibrosis fits into the current grouping. The prognosis for these conditions is variable depending on the intrinsic behavior of each condition. Smoking cessation is the first-line therapy of choice for any smoking-related ILD, whereas treatment with corticosteroids and other agents forms an important, but occasionally futile, intervention.


A study was conducted at Mahailluppall ama, in the Low country Dry zone (DL1b) of Sri Lanka, during Maha (2008/2009) to determine the fertilizer requirement of Okra when planted at closer spacings. Three (03) fertilizer levels (T1- DOA recommendation/ plant, 2 - DOA recommendation/ unit area and T3- 1 ½ times DOA recommendation/ unit area) were tested using Okra varieties Haritha and Green Tender (F1 Hybrid). Concurrently, another set of treatments were employed to find out the effect of removal of leaf immediate belowe the fruit at the time of harvesting on yield. Treatments were arranged according to the Split plot design (Variety as the main plot factor and fertilizer as the subplot factor) with three replicates. Yield per plant, yield per hectare, plant height, number of fruits per plant, fruit length, fruit diameter and the average fruit weight were measured. Yield per plant was significantly higher in T1 (188.3±19.4g) than T2 (154.2±13.1g) while T3 (176.6±19.9 g) was not significantly different from other treatments. Yield per hectare was significantly higher in T1 (8.5±0.60 t/ha) while variety Haritha produced significantly higher yield/ha (8.7±0.38 t/ha) compared to the Hybrid (6.0±0.33 t/ha). There were no significant differences found between plant height, fruit length and fruit diameter with the fertilizer treatments. However, a significant difference was observed in plant height between varieties since the Hybrid was taller, but fruit characteristics such as length and diameter were not significantly different between the two varieties. These results revealed that, fertilizer application on a per plant basis leads to higher yield per hectare at closer spacing. However, it appears that, the same per plant yield together with preferable fruit characteristics could be obtained by providing 1 ½ times the fertilizer recommendation, which is cost effective, compared to fertilizer application as per plant basis. Removal of the immediate lower leaf to the harvested fruit could not produce significant differences in relation to any growth or yield parameters measured.


Natural and deteriorated rubber latex samples were analyzed for bacteriological and physicochemical quality. Bacterial isolates obtained after 24 h of incubation ranged from 1.5×106 cfu/ml to 1.58×108 cfu/ml, corresponding to three weeks-deteriorated and natural rubber latexes respectively. However, after 48 h of incubation, the bacterial counts in the natural rubber latex, one week deteriorated rubber, two weeks deteriorated and three weeks deteriorated rubbers were 1.7×108 cfu/ml, 1.094×108 cfu/ml, and 7.1×107 cfu/ml respectively. Heterotrophic fungal counts ranged from 3.2×107 to 7.8×107 cfu/ml corresponding to three weeks-deteriorated and natural rubber latexes respectively. Statistical analysis for bacterial and fungal isolates showed that there was no significant difference in the mean bacterial and fungal counts within the samples at 95% confidence interval. Microorganisms isolated from natural and deteriorated rubber samples include Acetobacter spp., Enterococcus spp., Aspergillus spp., Actinomyces spp., Penicillin spp., Saccharomyces spp. Physicochemical analysis showed a weakly acidic condition of natural rubber latex and an extreme degree of hardness in all the deteriorated rubber samples.


The entomogenous anamorphic fungus Isaria takamizusanensis has not been resolved clearly in its teleomorphic state. We succeeded in inducing ascostroma formation by incubating conidiomata of I. takamizusanensis on cicada adults in a moist chamber. We observed the ascostroma and conducted a phylogenetic analysis based on ITS rDNA and EF-1α genes. The morphology of the ascostroma was identical to that of Cordyceps ryogamimontana. In the phylogenetic tree inferred from EF-1α, the isolate from the partspores grouped with nine strains derived from conidia of I. takamizusanensis, which was distinct from a clade including Purpureocillium lilacinum. Moreover, a conidial structure identical to that of I. takamizusanensis was rediscovered on the holotype specimen of C. ryogamimontana. As a result, we propose a new name, Purpureocillium takamizusanense, which is a combination of the teleomorph-anamorph connection of C. ryogamimontana-I. takamizusanensis, in accordance with the 'one fungus, one name' concept of the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants (ICN).


Protein kinase C from rat brain and human neutrophils was chromatographically separated on a hydroxylapatite column connected to a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system. Protein kinase C from rat brain was separated into three peaks (types I, II, and III). In contrast, only two types were obtained from human neutrophils matching type II and type III in brain. In cell membranes from unstimulated human neutrophils type III was predominant, but mainly type II was translocated to the membranes upon stimulation with phorbolmyristatacetate (PMA). Both types were equivalently activated by phosphatidylserine, diolein, and magnium and presented identical Km for ATP.


Background: Every year 287,000 women die from pregnancy related complications.
Methods: Systematic reviews of interventions to reduce maternal mortality in developing countries with meta-analysis or meta-synthesis where appropriate.
Results: Participatory learning and actions cycles with women's groups significantly reduce maternal and neonatal mortality, training and supporting TBAs also reduces perinatal mortality. Clinical officers performing caesareans section do not seem to cause any more maternal or perinatal mortalities than doctors. Prophylactic antibiotics reduce infectious morbidity in surgical abortion, yet the effect on miscarriage surgery is unclear. Cell salvage in ectopic pregnancy and caesarean section appear to be a safe and effective alternative in the absence of homologous transfusion. Motivational interviews may have potential to improve contraceptive use short term. Symphysiotomy may be a safe alternative to caesarean section. The anti-shock garment may improve outcomes when used in addition to standard obstetric haemorrhage management. Potential solutions to emergency transport for pregnant women include motorcycle ambulance programmes, collaboration with local minibus taxis services, and community education and insurance schemes.
Conclusion: Several interventions reviewed in this thesis can be utilised to aid reduction in maternal mortality, however the level of evidence available within each review varies, some allowing firm inferences with others more tentative.


Abstract Increased use of dicamba and/or glyphosate in dicamba/glyphosate-tolerant soybean might affect many sensitive crops, including potato. The objective of this study was to determine the growth and yield of 'Russet Burbank' potato grown from seed tubers (generation 2) from mother plants (generation 1) treated with dicamba (4, 20, and 99 g ae ha-1), glyphosate (8, 40, and 197 g ae ha-1), or a combination of dicamba and glyphosate during tuber initiation. Generation 2 tubers were planted near Oakes and Inkster, ND, in 2016 and 2017, at the same research farm where the generation 1 tubers were grown the previous year. Treatment with 99 g ha-1dicamba, 197 g ha-1glyphosate, or 99 g ha-1dicamba + 197 g ha-1glyphosate caused emergence of generation 2 plants to be reduced by up to 84%, 86%, and 87%, respectively, at 5 wk after planting. Total tuber yield of generation 2 was reduced up to 67%, 55%, and 68% when 99 g ha-1dicamba, 197 g ha-1glyphosate, or 99 g ha-1 dicamba + 197 g ha-1 glyphosate was applied to generation 1 plants, respectively. At each site year, 197 g ha-1 glyphosate reduced total yield and marketable yield, while 99 g ha-1 dicamba reduced total yield and marketable yield in some site-years. This study confirms that exposure to glyphosate and dicamba of potato grown for potato seed tubers can negatively affect the growth and yield potential of the subsequently grown daughter generation. Nomenclature: Dicamba; glyphosate; potato, Solanum tuberosum L; soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr


The natural history of untreated nontraumatic avascular necrosis of the femoral head has a very poor outcome because of the high percentage of collapse of the head. Among the more conservative surgical treatments available, flexion intertrochanteric osteotomy, aimed at rotating the intact posterior portion of the femoral head into the weightbearing portion of the acetabulum, gives satisfying long-term results when planned and performed carefully on selected patients. In general, this includes young and highly motivated patients who have a diagnosis of Ficat Stage II or Stage III idiopathic avascular necrosis. According to the Merle d'Aubignè hip score, avascular necrosis with a complete or slightly reduced range of motion represents the best indication. The results of this procedure on 24 patients at a mean followup of 122 months were satisfactory in 15 patients (62.5%). Nine patients (37.5%) had a conversion to total hip arthroplasty, none of which was associated with technical difficulties related to the initial surgical procedure. Pain and walking ability improved in all patients postoperatively compared with preoperatively, although improvement in range of motion was not observed.


In this work, the ε-Ga2O3 thin film was grown on sapphire substrate by using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method, and then was used to fabricate a deep-ultraviolet (DUV) photodetector (PD). The ε-Ga2O3 thin film shown good crystal quality and decent surface morphology. Irradiated by a 254 nm DUV light, the photodetector displayed good optoelectronic performance and high wavelength selectivity, such as photoresponsivity (R) of 175.69 A/W, detectivity (D
 *) of 2.46×1015 Jones, external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 8.6×104% and good photocurrent-intensity linearity, suggesting decent DUV photo-sensing performance. At 5 V and under illumination with light intensity of 800 μW/cm2, the photocurrent gain is as high as 859 owing to the recycling gain mechanism and delayed carrier recombination; and the photocurrent gain decrease as the incident light intensity increase because of the recombination of photogenerated carriers by the large photon flux.


chloris) is a resident Philippine bird species. In accordance with the objective of the All Birds Barcoding Initiative (ABBI) to barcode all bird species in the world, this study reports the first barcodes of T. chloris using the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI). COI sequences from this species as well as from other members of the family Alcedinidae available in Genbank and the Barcodes of Life Data (BoLD) Systems were compared in order to test for the utility of COI to delineate species. Monophyly of the species was established, supporting the use of barcodes for species discovery. Sequences between T. chloris and T. sanctus, however, revealed a close association between the two species which warrants further taxonomic review. T


OBJECTIVE Possession of an apolipoprotein E (APOE)&egr;4 allele has been shown to be associated with a poor outcome after closed head injury and spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage but not after ischemic stroke. This study assessed the influence of the APOE genotype on outcome in patients admitted to a neurosurgical unit with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage. METHODS A total of 100 patients with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage were studied. Four patients were excluded because the diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage was not confirmed. The incidence of rehemorrhage and delayed ischemia and the outcome at 6 months were determined using the Glasgow Outcome Scale. APOE genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction and restriction enzyme digestion. RESULTS Allele frequencies in this patient group were 0.04 for &egr;2, 0.86 for &egr;3, and 0.1 for &egr;4. Of 96 patients, 72 had an aneurysmal hemorrhage and 1 had a hemorrhage from an arteriovenous malformation. In 14 patients, the results of angiography were negative, and in 9, no angiogram was performed. Of the 96 patients, 20 had one or more &egr;4 allele. Outcome at 6 months was no worse in patients with one or more &egr;4 allele than in those with no &egr;4 allele (odds ratio, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.35–2.74). None of the 12 patients who experienced delayed ischemic deterioration had an &egr;4 allele. Of the 20 patients with an &egr;4 allele, 3 had a rehemorrhage, as compared with 6 of 76 patients without an &egr;4 allele. CONCLUSION There was underrepresentation of the &egr;4 allele in this group when compared with previously studied cases of subarachnoid hemorrhage with a fatal outcome and with the general population. This suggests that patients with the &egr;4 allele who have a subarachnoid hemorrhage are less likely to be admitted to a neurosurgical unit. This study does not support an association between possession of an &egr;4 allele and poor outcome in patients admitted to a neurosurgical unit with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage, although the wide confidence interval does not preclude a clinically relevant association between APOE genotype and outcome. The findings indicate that an association between genotype and the development of delayed ischemic complications after subarachnoid hemorrhage may be possible.


Dopamine is intimately linked with the modes of action of drugs of addiction. However, although its role in the initiation of drug abuse seems relatively uncomplicated, its possible involvement in the development of compulsive drug taking, and indeed vulnerability and relapse, is less clear. We first describe a modern reinforcement learning view of affective control, focusing on the roles for dopamine. We then use this as a framework to sketch various notions of the neuromodulator's possible participation in initiation and compulsion. We end with some pointers towards future theoretical developments.


How to find and select services in enterprise applications when building Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) platform has become a hot research topic. The existing QoS-based services selection and binding approaches always pay attention to the quality of successful service execution, and lose sight of the possibility that the services execution would be failed. Unfortunately, in many loose-couple environments, the services can't guarantee the executing will success. For this case, this paper proposes an optimized service selection algorithm for complex event processing, named Greedy Service Selection (GSS) algorithm. This algorithm is to choose and execute a service instance which has the greatest "benefit/cost" ratio in all service instances, taking into account the services failed possibility. Experiments results show that this algorithm is efficient for service selection in Enterprise Service Bus platform.


Hyperbolic partial differential equations (PDEs) cover a wide range of interesting phenomena, from human and hearth-sciences up to astrophysics: this unavoidably requires the treatment of many space and time scales in order to describe at the same time observer-size macrostructures, multi-scale turbulent features, and also zero-scale shocks. Moreover, numerical methods for solving hyperbolic PDEs must reliably handle different families of waves: smooth rarefactions, and discontinuities of shock and contact type. In order to achieve these goals, an effective approach consists in the combination of space-time-based high-order schemes, very accurate on smooth features even on coarse grids, with Lagrangian methods, which, by moving the mesh with the fluid flow, yield highly resolved and minimally dissipative results on both shocks and contacts. However, ensuring the high quality of moving meshes is a huge challenge that needs the development of innovative and unconventional techniques. The scheme proposed here falls into the family of Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) methods, with the unique additional freedom of evolving the shape of the mesh elements through connectivity changes. We aim here at showing, by simple and very salient examples, the capabilities of high-order ALE schemes, and of our novel technique, based on the high-order space-time treatment of topology changes.


Introduction. Streptococcus constellatus collectively with Streptococcus anginosus and Streptococcus intermedius constitute the Streptococcus anginosus (formerly Streptococcus milleri) group. Though they are commonly associated with abscesses, bacteremia with subsequent septic thrombophlebitis is extremely rare, and resulting mortality is infrequent. Case Presentation. We report a case of a previously healthy 60-year-old African American female who presented with Streptococcus constellatus bacteremia associated with septic thrombophlebitis to the right ovarian vein extending into the inferior vena cava. She was urgently treated with antibiotics and anticoagulation. Conclusion. Septic thrombophlebitis has a clinical presentation that is often misleading. Therefore, a high clinical index of suspicion and the use of appropriate imaging modalities (computed tomography) are essential in recognizing and confirming this diagnosis. Prompt treatment is warranted. Surgical thrombectomies have been successfully replaced by a combination of antibiotics and anticoagulation therapy.


Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia ( ALL) is the most common type of leukemia in children. It represents about 75% of all leukemia types in children less than 15 years old and peak incidence at (2-5) years old. The study was designed to evaluate the effect of chemotherapeutic regimens used for Iraqi children with ALL by assessing anthropometric parameters, oxidative state markers, and metabolic state. This prospective randomized clinical study was carried out on (30) newly diagnosed children with ALL (6 months – 8 years old) in Iraq. According to the FAB-classification, the patients grouped as L1 group (n=16) and L2 group (n=14). A healthy children (n=14) were involved and considered as a control group to compare their normal data with these of patients groups. The IGF-I, albumin, total serum protein, BMI, TAS, and LDH were determined at baseline, 1 st , 2 nd , and 3 rd months of the treatment regimen. The results showed that the mean level of serum IGF-I in both patient groups was significantly lower than that of control children at baseline, and it is increased significantly after receiving treatment while no significance difference between patients of both groups. Serum albumin, total serum protein, and BMI showed no significant differences in both patient groups when compared with the control group at baseline and after receiving treatment, also, between patients of both groups. TAS showed a significant reduction at baseline and after receiving treatment of both patients' groups when compared with the control children, and there was a significant difference between patients of both groups. For LDH, there was a significant elevation in the mean level at baseline for both patients' groups when compared with the control children, while after receiving treatment a significant reduction noticed in both groups when compared with control children and no significance difference between patients of both groups. These results can give indication for the effect of chemotherapy on the growth and nutrition of ALL children through their effects on IGF-I, which has a direct effect on GH and the reduction in the levels of total proteins and albumin, which may affect BMI, while the reduction in TAS during chemotherapy treatment may result in disruption of cells metabolism which will affect the normal body homeostasis. Keywords: ALL, Growth, IGF-I, Chemotherapy.


MOTIVATION
During development of the mammalian embryo, histone modification H3K4me3 plays an important role in regulating gene expression and exhibits extensive reprogramming on the parental genomes. In addition to these dramatic epigenetic changes, certain unchanging regulatory elements are also essential for embryonic development.

RESULTS
Using large-scale H3K4me3 chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-Seq) data, we identified a form of H3K4me3 that was present during all 8 stages of the mouse embryo before implantation. This "stable H3K4me3" was highly accessible and much longer than normal H3K4me3. Moreover, most of the stable H3K4me3 was in the promoter region and was enriched in higher chromatin architecture. Using in-depth analysis, we demonstrated that stable H3K4me3 was related to higher gene expression levels and transcriptional initiation during embryonic development. Furthermore, stable H3K4me3 was much more active in blood tumor cells than in normal blood cells, suggesting a potential mechanism of cancer progression.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


In this study we analyzed the diversity of the halophilic bacteria community from Rambla Salada during the years 2006 and 2007. We collected a total of 364 strains, which were then identified by means of phenotypic tests and by the hypervariable V1-V3 region of the 16S rRNA sequences (around 500 bp). The ribosomal data showed that the isolates belonged to Proteobacteria (72.5%), Firmicutes (25.8%), Actinobacteria (1.4%), and Bacteroidetes (0.3%) phyla, with Gammaproteobacteria the predominant class. Halomonas was the most abundant genus (41.2% isolates) followed by Marinobacter (12.9% isolates) and Bacillus (12.6% isolates). In addition, 9 strains showed <97% sequence identity with validly described species and may well represent new taxa. The diversity of the bacterial community analyzed with the DOTUR package determined 139 operational taxonomic units at 3% genetic distance level. Rarefaction curves and diversity indexes demonstrated that our collection of isolates adequately represented all the bacterial community at Rambla Salada that can be grown under the conditions used in this work. We found that the sampling season influenced the composition of the bacterial community, and bacterial diversity was higher in 2007; this fact could be related to lower salinity at this sampling time.


Acetyl-CoA synthase (ACS) is involved in the bacterial carbon oxide conversion pathway. The binuclear nickel sites in ACS enzyme and two biomimetic synthetic compounds containing a Ni(II)Ni(II) unit (1 and 2) were compared using XAS/XES. EXAFS analysis of ACS proteins revealed similar Ni-N/O/S bond lengths and Ni-Ni/Fe distances as in the crystal structure in oxidized ACS, but elongated Ni-ligand bonds in reduced ACS, suggesting more reduced nickel species. The XANES spectra of ACS and the dinickel complexes showed overall similar shapes, but less resolved pre-edge and edge features in ACS, attributed to more distorted square-planar nickel sites in particular in reduced ACS. DFT calculation of pre-edge absorption and Kβ2,5 emission features reproduced the experimental spectra of the synthetic complexes, was sensitive even to the small geometry differences in 1 and 2, and indicated low-spin Ni(II) sites. Comparison of nickel sites in proteins and biomimetic compounds is valuable for deducing structural and electronic differences in response to ligation and redox changes.


In both low and normal renin essential hypertensive groups, urinary excretion of kallikrein quantity by direct radioimmunoassay and activity by kininogenase assay were significantly lower than those in normal subjects. In comparing between normal and low renin groups, no difference was found in kallikrein quantity, while kallikrein activity tended to be lower in the low renin group than in the normal renin group. A significant positive correlation was observed between kallikrein quantity and activity in the normal subjects, the normal renin group and the low renin group. However, the slope of the regression line in the low renin group was significantly more moderate than that in the normal renin group, and tended to be more moderate than that in normal subjects. The addition of kallikrein inhibitors (aprotinin and gabexate mesilate) resulted in a significant suppression of enzymatic activity but not of enzyme quantity. These findings suggest that suppression of the renal kallikrein system in both groups of essential hypertension was confirmed by the decreased excretion of kallikrein both as enzyme quantity and activity, and that in the mechanism of the suppression of urinary kallikrein activity in the low renin group, the renal kallikrein inhibitors may play some role.


Background Ondansetron is a widely used anti-emetic for the prevention and treatment of nausea and vomiting for patients in critical care. Recent retrospective cohort studies suggest the potential beneficial effects of ondansetron in critically ill patients. In this study, we investigate the impact of ondansetron use on patient outcomes after cardiac surgery. Material and Methods The MIMIC-III database was used to identify two types of cardiac surgical patients: those who were administered early ondansetron and those who were not given this early medication in the first 48 h in the postoperative period. Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate the effect of ondansetron exposure on 90-day mortality, acute kidney injury, and malignant ventricular arrhythmias. Sensitivity analyses utilizing the inverse probability of treatment weighting and covariate balancing propensity score models were conducted to test the robustness of our findings. Results A total of 12.4% of patients received ondansetron. Ondansetron use was associated with a lower risk of 90-day mortality in the multivariable logistic regression model (OR: 0.31, 95% CI: 0.13 to 0.72; P = 0.006) and sensitivity analyses. Additionally, ondansetron exposure was associated with less postoperative acute kidney injury (OR: 0.82, 95%CI: 0.69 to 0.96; P = 0.017) but did not increase the risk of postoperative malignant ventricular arrhythmias (OR: 0.38, 95%CI: 0.09 to 1.16; P = 0.191). Conclusions In a population of cardiac surgical patients, early postoperative use of ondansetron appears to be associated with decreased 90-day mortality and acute kidney injury.


Muscles are one of the basic building blocks of our body, which allows us to perform various movements. As a result of the contraction and relaxation of the muscles, myoelectric signals are formed and movement is provided. EMG signal is obtained by measuring these signals with electrodes. By processing EMG signals, human movements can be imitated and used in many different areas.The human hand can perform many combinations of hand gestures thanks to the different mobility of the fingers. For this reason, it can be easier for the prosthetic hands to perform different hand gestures by moving the fingers independently. In this context, the aim of the research is to propose a model by processing EMG signals so that finger gestures can move independently. EMG signals were acquired using myo armbands. Data set was created with 5 finger gestures and resting hand gestures. The data set was filtered, the part where the gesture was performed in the preprocessing was determined and the windowing process was applied. The classification process was performed by eliminating the features of the EMG signals. In the 100 ms 50% overlapping window, 95.8% classification success was achieved by using the SKNN method with the EWL feature. When the experimental results were examined, it was observed that a successful model was created.In this study, a model for prosthetic arm control was proposed by processing finger data. This model is feasible for prosthetic arms and it is estimated that the functionality of the prosthetic arm will be increased by processing finger data.


Purpose
Adoption of integrated MOS based pseudo-resistor (PR) structures instead of using off-chip passive poly resistors for analog circuits in complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology (CMOS) is an area-efficient way for realizing larger time constants. However, issue of common-mode voltage shifting and excess dependency on the process and temperature variations introduce nonlinearity in such structures. So there is dire need to not only closely look for the origin of the problem with the help of a thorough mathematical analysis but also suggest the most suitable PR structure for the purpose catering broadly to biomedical analog circuit applications.

Design/methodology/approach
In this work, incremental resistance (IR) expressions and IR range for balanced PR (BPR) structures operating in the subthreshold region have been closely analyzed for broader range of process-voltage-temperature variations. All the post-layout simulations have been obtained using BSIM3V3 device models in 0.18 µm standard CMOS process.

Findings
The obtained results show that the pertinent problem of common-mode voltage shifting in such PR structures is completely resolved in scaled gate linearization and bulk-driven quasi-floating gate (BDQFG) BPR structures. Among all BPR structures, BDQFG BPR remarkably shows constant IR value of 1 TΩ over −1 V to 1 V voltage swing for wider process and temperature variations.

Research limitations/implications
Various balanced PR design techniques reported in this work will help the research community in implementing larger time constants for analog-mixed signal circuits.

Social implications
The PR design techniques presented in the present piece of work is expected to be used in developing tunable and accurate biomedical prosthetics.

Originality/value
The BPR structures thoroughly analyzed and reported in this work may be useful in the design of analog circuits specifically for applications such as neural signal recording, cardiac electrical impedance tomography and other low-frequency biomedical applications.


Professor L. Hawkes welcomed the paper as marking a big advance in our understanding of the Tertiary igneous rocks of Iceland. To have been able to distinguish, in the pile of basic lavas, the flows of the central volcano from the fissure flood-basalts was a notable achievement. The general picture of volcanic activity the author had demonstrated was paralleled by that in central Iceland in historic times. Now that the field-relationships of the rocks had been elucidated it was to be hoped that a petrographical study would be made in the laboratory. The author attributed the thinness of the central lavas to flow on a slope. Did these lavas thicken on reaching the plain? Professor F. H. Stewart asked whether the author would say more about the nature of the gabbro and granophyre fragments in the agglomerates and about the rock referred to as representing an 'emulsion' of acid and basic magmas. Were any of the Icelandic volcanoes in this region eroded deeply enough to show ring-dykes or cone-sheets? Dr M.J. Le Bas expressed concern at Dr Walker's use of the word andesite. The rocks so described did not appear to resemble to any great extent typical andesites such as were found in the orogens. Would not some other term, perhaps trachybasalt, be more appropriate for these Thulean rocks? Mr I. L. Gibson said that the author had convincingly demonstrated the interdigitation of the surrounding flood-basalts with the lavas of the flank of the volcano. Throughout the paper


Web accessibility should be a part of the Web design process instead of being a post-design repair process. Thus, it should be more integrated within the internal authoring tools' mechanism of generating new accessible Web contents. Web pages are usually composed of small pieces of HTML code which, dynamically nested and combined, generate full Web pages. This Web composition, specially when creating Web pages from data extracted from heterogeneous or external sources, should have accessibility into account in order to guarantee that the final page being constructed is accessible. This paper presents the set of rules that, in a Web composition process, a design tool must follow in order to guarantee that the Web pages being generated are accessible. These rules are formalized with W3C standards like XPath and XQuery expressions (so they are vendor-neutral). We also present WSLS as an accessibility enabled authoring tool that makes this task feasible, and focus on how this tool incorporates accessibility into the process of generating new Web contents.


The left clavicle of a 52-year-old patient was fractured at a road traffic accident in 1991. Three months after uneventful recovery axillary vein thrombosis developed on the side of the trauma, which was treated conservatively. One year after the trauma embolization of the left hand developed. The cause was an intimal tear with application thrombus, which were successfully excised. The case proves the importance of awareness of late vascular complications after blunt traumas.


Although vaccination is efficacious and prevents infection in the general population, there is limited data about Coronavirus disease‐19 (Covid‐19) occurrence after vaccination in cancer patients. It was aimed to evaluate the efficacy of BNT162b2 (Pfizer–BioNTech) and CoronaVac vaccines against Covid‐19 in patients with cancer. In this single‐center, retrospective, cross‐sectional, and descriptive study, the data of cancer patients referred to the medical oncology clinic of a university hospital were analyzed. The sample of the study consisted of cancer patients who had Covid‐19 or were vaccinated against Covid‐19. A total number of 2578 patients were included in the study. Of the patients, 2000 have never been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and 578 patients have had a positive reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) for Covid‐19. It was found that 2094 patients (81.2%) were fully vaccinated, and 484 patients (18.8%) did not receive full‐dose vaccination. A statistically significant difference in Covid‐19 occurrence was found between the patients who had full‐dose vaccination or not (p = 0.000). In in‐group comparisons of full‐dose vaccinated patients, while no difference was observed between two doses of BNT162b2 (Pfizer–BioNTech) and three doses of CoronaVac (p = 0.432), a statistically significant difference was observed between all other groups (p < 0.005). When the data of 578 patients who experienced Covid‐19 was analyzed, a statistically significant difference was observed between the groups who were full‐dose vaccinated and those who were not (p = 0.000). It is recommended that this vulnerable patient group should be prioritized in vaccination programs, and full‐dose vaccination (at least two doses of vaccines) should be completed as soon as possible.


Digital research is taking the humanities by storm. This can be read not only from the many digital humanities programs in education and research in universities around the world but also from the attention for new media practices in humanities and art departments. Famously, and thought-provokingly, media theorist Lev Manovich—strongly rooted in film and media studies—set out to develop a means by which the visual analysis of big data sets of digitized cultural materials could help the study of art and culture transition into the era of big data or, as he calls it, 90the era of "more media" (Manovich, 2009). Often met with scrutiny by art historians, not in favor of a quantitative approach to the arts, Manovich insisted with this "cultural analytics" program on expanding the study of culture by including the vast amounts of user-generated content. As he wrote as early as 2009: "Think about this: the number of images uploaded to Flickr every week is probably larger than all objects contained in all art museums in the world." Manovich developed the Software Studies Initiative, where he and his team developed software such as Image Plot, for the analysis of large visual data sets. Manovich applies his methods both to digitized materials (such as Time magazine covers) as well as—more recently—to born-digital content (such as selfies on Instagram).


The author considers the legislative problems of the effectiveness ensuring of prosecutor's supervision at the stage of preliminary investigation, pays particular attention to the prosecutor's demand of corrective actions in connection with the legislation violations committed by the investigator in the course of criminal investigation, and suggests making appropriate changes in the norms of the Criminal-Procedural Code, governing the legal status of the prosecutor, the head of the investigative agency and the investigator.


Acknowledgements Preface I. Du Bois' School Education The World in Great Barrington At Fisk University Harvard Years In Berlin II. Du Bois at the Turn of the Century The Darkest Age in African American History Du Bois' Diagnosis and Remedies for the "Negro Problem" The Study of the "Negro Problem" III. Du Bois-Washington Controversy Booker T. Washington: Up From Slavery Washington's Program in Perspective DU Bois and Washington: Concensus and Conflict IV. Du Bois and the Problem of the Color Line, 1900-1930 The Fate of African Americans in the Promise African Americans in the Promise Land Broader Vision and New Strategies "Africa Sentiment" and Pan-American Movement V. African American 'Economic Nation Within A Nation" A Nation" and "Self-Segregation" "Seeking a New Path" Clash with NAACP over the issue of "Segregation" Reactions of African American Intellectual Community VI, Du Bois in Post-World War Years Du Bois' Concept of Socialism World-wide Color Line and DU Bois' Though of Anti-colonialism "For Permanent World Peace" Continued Interest in Africa's Destiny and Pan-Africanism Epilogue Bibliography Index


In a distinct subset of patients, traditional gastric conduits are not available as esophageal replacements, due to either intrinsic disease, tumor involvement, or previous surgery. Esophageal reconstruction in this group can prove daunting. Colonic interposition can be considered as an alternative conduit, but the "supercharged" jejunum (SPJ) may also serve as another option for total esophageal reconstruction. With an experienced hospital team familiar with esophageal surgery and microvascular reconstruction, morbidity is acceptable and long-term functional benefits may exist with this conduit. This article will review the indications and potential problems with the SPJ and will try to impart some of the important technical points that have been identified to minimize the risk of this complex but useful esophageal reconstruction.


The title compound, C13H10Cl2N2S, represents a monoclinic polymorph of the previously reported orthorhombic form [Ramnathan et al. (1996 ▶). Acta Cryst. C52, 134–136]. The molecule is twisted with the dihedral angle between the benzene rings being 55.37 (7)°. The N—H atoms are syn to each other, which contrasts their anti disposition in the orthorhombic form. In the crystal, molecules assemble into zigzag chains along the c axis via N—H⋯S hydrogen bonds. Chains are connected into layers via C—H⋯Cl interactions, and these stack along the a axis.


Four pigeons received conditional discrimination training in which reinforcement contingencies were related to specific combinations of color and form, but were unrelated to either color or form considered separately. During discrete-trial training, each response in the presence of two of four color-form displays produced reinforcement and terminated the trial; responding to the other two displays was never reinforced, and each such response prolonged the particular trial on which it occurred. Subsequently, the subjects received multiple-schedule training in which responding to either of the displays previously associated with reinforcement was now reinforced on a variable-interval schedule, and extinction was the schedule again correlated with the other two displays. After differential responding to the stimuli was clearly evident, intensity of the combination displays was changed in subsequent training sessions. Complex stimulus control was generally maintained across variation in intensity, although there were temporary disruptions in performance associated with onset of some of the intensity changes. Finally, a component-stimulus test revealed considerably more responding to the forms than to the colors.


Corporate mobilization can be made realistic if policy facilitation is provided by the government sector. This research study aimed at exploring the possibility of a mechanism that will attract substantial investments from the private sector by mobilizing the existing capital market. To do so, the research within its objective framework examined the essential policy framework from the literature review, the existing legal, financial and planning and housing policies posing impediments to the prospective participation of the corporate sector in land and housing activities. This included but not necessarily restricted to the land administration, land legislatives, cadastral mapping system and current planning techniques used and the operational constraints it would pose upon the prospective mobilization of the corporate financing in land and housing development. The research study then finally intended to arrive at the framework that could possibly facilitate or promote corporate finance in land and housing sector in a greater way. The finding from the research is then translated into a framework for increased participation for corporate sector in land and housing that chiefly included following aspects.  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jie.v10i1.10880 Journal of the Institute of Engineering, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2014, pp. 69–79


This paper presents a novel mechanism that seeks to allow people to explore large collections of loosely structured audio. The approach provides a lightweight preview mechanism that allows people to explore the audio collection by providing supporting information (analogous to the use of tooltips in visual interfaces) We present an evaluation of these "preview cues" towards developing a design heuristics for their deployment.


Two new genetic evaluations on carcass data, extracted from the Normabev database, have been developed by the UMT 3G (Gestion Genetique et Genomique des populations bovines). The first (VB) is a multibreed evaluation of sires on their ability to produce veal calves. It evaluates sires of dual-purpose breeds Montbeliarde (MON) or Normande (NOR) and sires of beef breeds mated with dairy cows. The second (JB) evaluates sires of the MON, NOR and Simmental (SIM) breeds on their ability to produce young bulls for slaughter. The JB evaluation considers three traits simultaneously (carcass weight, age at slaughter and carcass conformation), the VB four (the same three, plus meat color). Heritability estimates are moderate to quite high for carcass weight and conformation (0.12 to 0.37, depending on the breed and the evaluation), lower for age at slaughter and meat color (0.05 to 0.27). Genetic correlations between carcass weight and conformation and between carcass weight and age at slaughter are favorable. Genetic correlations between JB traits on one hand and VB, milk production and female type traits on the other hand were also estimated. These correlations are low to moderate (favorable) between JB and milk production. Hence, meat production traits can be improved without compromising genetic trends on milk production traits too much. JB traits are favorably correlated with VB (0.32 to 0.70) and female type traits.
VB polygenic evaluations became official in 2015. JB polygenic evaluations will be official in 2017. JB and VB genomic evaluations are currently developed in MON and NOR, following the methodology applied in other dairy cattle genomic evaluations.


Number of Hansen's disease (HD) in Indonesia is classified as number three in the world after India and Brazil. New HD patients tend to increase since there is a possibility that seropositive HD is turning into manifest HD. Phyllanthus niruri  Linn is an herb that stimulating human immunity to protect from diseases. The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of P niruri extract to the IgM anti PGL - 1 level of seropositive contact of HD patients. Thirty two subjects aged 12-25 year were recruited for this study. The P. niruri group received 50 mg P. niruri extract/day orally for one month. Seropositive HD was determined by examining IgM anti PGL– 1 level. Daily intake was determined by recall method. There was no significant difference daily intake between two groups ( P > 0.05).  The IgM anti PGL - 1 level in subject with P. niruri showed lower decrement than the control group, but it was of insignificant difference ( P = 0.171). There was no significant change of IgM anti PGL – 1 level between both groups. However, IgM anti PGL – 1 level in the subject in the Phyllantus niruri Linn showed lower decrement.


In this perspective, we review two new strategies for computational design and discovery of two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal (TM) free electro-catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). The "2D binary compound" strategy for designing ORR electro-catalysts shows promising applications, which benefits from abundant intrinsic catalytic sites for the adsorption of reaction intermediates. And with the "activated B site" strategy for designing NRR electro-catalysts, several novel NRR electro-catalysts with extremely low limiting potential are developed. Computational-simulation-driven material design from a bottom-up method could not only provide rational strategies, but also accelerate the discovery of novel materials.


The ability of Density Functional Theory to predict the electronic and magnetic properties of semi-infinite graphene with a single bare edge has been probed. In order to improve the accuracy of spin-unrestricted calculations performed with semilocal density functionals, higher-level methods including double hybrid density functionals and many-body perturbation theory have been applied to the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons model systems. We show that the antiferromagnetic or ferromagnetic tendencies of the corresponding electronic ground states strongly depend on the choice of the density functional. In addition the relative stability of the armchair and zigzag edges has been investigated, emphasizing the importance of using methods beyond semilocals density functionals.


In this article I explore a racist period in the history of Canadian education that has received scattered attention from scholars of Canadian educational history. This particular example of racism involved the use of intelligence tests to confirm notions of racial superiority and inferiority. For the 1925 Putman-Weir Survey of the School System in British Columbia Professor Peter Sandiford, of the University of Toronto, subjected the province's schoolchildren to a regime of  intelligence tests. This became problematic when he found that the results achieved by "Oriental" or Asian (Chinese and Japanese Canadian) schoolchildren were superior to those achieved by white children. I discuss how this instance of anti-Asian sentiment fits into the broader educational history of Vancouver's schools and the troubling pattern of racism within the overall history of British Columbia. This use of scientific racism through intelligence testing is disturbing and warrants closer examination within the context of its own time period. It is a cautionary historical tale about popular social attitudes and the drive for a dominant Anglo-white racial identity in the province.


This panel was convened at 11:00 a.m., on Thursday, March 31, 2016, by its moderator, Kathleen A. Doty of the Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia School of Law, who introduced the panelists: Jonathan E. Davis of the Office of the Legal Adviser, United States Department of State; Gary Brown of United States Marine Corps University; and Tara McGraw Swaminatha of DLA Piper LLP. * INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY KATHLEEN A. DOTY ([double dagger]) Deterrence has long been at the heart of the U.S. security strategy. While deterrence typically is considered in the context of nuclear weapons, the rise of computer network exploitation and cyber attacks against the United States has driven policymakers to incorporate the concept into discussion of cybersecurity. This is most recently reflected in the 2015 Department of Defense Cyber Strategy, (1) which emphasizes the criticality of developing a comprehensive cyber deterrence policy in the face of escalating cyber threats. Developing and implementing such a policy comes with great challenges. As it is commonly understood in the nuclear framework, deterrence does not neatly transfer to the world of cyber. Cyber attacks may be committed by both state and nonstate actors, and attribution for attacks can be daunting on account of ever-changing technology. The attacks themselves may take a myriad of forms and warrant a corresponding range of state responses. Moreover, the role that the private sector can or should play in deterring cyber attacks remains unclear, despite the general interplay of government and the private sector in the area of cybersecurity. To explore such questions, the American Society of International Law Nonproliferation, Arms Control, and Disarmament Interest Group convened this panel, featuring three experts who represented a range of perspectives. Jonathan Davis, from the State Department's Office of the Legal Adviser, focused his remarks on state actors. In particular, Davis considered: the form a deterrence strategy in the cyber context might take; the circumstances under which such a cyber attack constitutes the use of force; and the availability of state responses, such as self-defense, countermeasures, and retorsion. Gary Brown, a professor of cybersecurity at the United States Marine Corps University and formerly the first Senior Legal Counsel for U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade, Maryland, focused on the differences between deterring state and nonstate actors. Brown highlighted both the desirability and the difficulty of attributing malicious cyber activity, committed by nonstate actors, to a state. Tara McGraw Swaminatha, Of Counsel at DLA Piper, emphasized the need for partnership between government and the private sector in all areas of cybersecurity. So as to afford greater protection, she argued, the concept of critical infrastructure should be expanded to include the mass quantities of personal data that are currently maintained by the private sector. REMARKS BY JONATHAN E. DAVIS ** In thinking about how international law applies to states' cyber activities and the implications for cyber deterrence, it is helpful first to address two questions: who and what are we trying to deter? There is no single answer to these questions like there is in the case of strategic nuclear deterrence, where what states seek to deter is clear: a first nuclear strike by another state. In contrast, a cyber deterrence strategy could be intended to address a broad spectrum of actors and activities. Who we seek to deter could range from nonstate actors, like cyber criminals and terrorists, to state actors. And what we seek to deter could include: cybercrime (which is generally motivated by financial gain); cyber attacks designed to harass or create a nuisance for the victim for political or other noneconomic motives; cyber attacks designed to coerce the victim to act or not act in a certain way (e. …


Geochemical reactions are ubiquitous for subsurface energy extraction and storage applications, like geothermal electricity production or hydrogen storage, but also for other applications aiming at reducing climate change like underground CO2 disposals [1]. Those reactions lead to mineral dissolution/precipitation that can modify the different properties of the reservoir rock and the caprock. For example, porosity of the porous material depends strongly on the dissolution/precipitation of the solid phase. It can thus affect the evolution of its permeability, a key parameter for most of those applications that involve the transport of a fluid through the reservoir. Moreover, the mechanical behavior and rupture of geomaterials is also strongly affected by dissolution/precipitation phenomena. In the case of cemented rocks, debonding can occur during weathering and strongly weakens the material [2]. This strength degradation has also been highlighted during oedometric tests in the case of granular materials presenting no cohesion [3]. In the case of underground storage applications, if a strength reduction is induced in the caprock, cracks can be created, leading to a migration pathway and leakage. It can also affect the behavior of faults in the vicinity of the reservoir and induce earthquakes [4]
Granular material (like in fault) or sedimentary rock can be modeled by the discrete element method (DEM). This method was first developed by Cundall and Strack to model the micromechanical behavior by reproducing more accurately the interactions in an assembly of grains. In the classical approach, grains are modeled as disks (2D) and spheres (3D), however, real particles can be highly irregular. These complex shapes of the grains influence greatly the macroscopic mechanical behavior of the material [5] and accurate models should aim at capturing this complexity. To do so, different approaches have been developed in the frame of DEM like particles cluster, ellipsoids, polygonal (2D) or polyhedral (3D) particles [6]. The latter is the most accurate solution, but it tends to overestimate the roundness of the particles and show some limitations to reproduce experimental results [7]. Recently, a level-set discrete element model was developed and allowed to capture the complex shape of the grains and reproduce experimental results [8].
To model grain dissolution/precipitation, discrete elements are often considered with a homogenous decrease/increase of the particle diameter. But in some cases, like pressure-solution, the dissolution/precipitation are localized. Hence, the dissolution occurs in the high-stress area, whereas the precipitation occurs in the low-stress area with a large solute concentration. This diffusive mass transfer is done within the pore fluid. Considering the granular material as a phase, the phase-field theory (PF) is a good candidate to model with physics-based laws an addition or reduction of the quantity of material locally. The dissolution at the contact is controlled by the introduction of mechanical and chemical energy into the Allen-Cahn formulation on the phase variables, whereas the precipitation and the mass conservation are verified by a coupled diffusion formulation on the solute concentration.
In this study, an extension to the discrete element method is developed to simulate the irregular shapes of particles in a granular material and their heterogeneous change using the phase-field variable as a particle's geometrical descriptor. This method, available on https://github.com/AlexSacMorane/PFDEM_ACS_MultiGrains, is applied to reproduce results from previous experiments on K0 evolution [9]. The influence of the grain shape has been highlighted. Then, the model is used to investigate on the pressure-solution phenomenon at several grains level [10]. For example, a so-called Andrade creep law has been reproduced.
In conclusion, this new framework enables us to model chemo-mechanical couplings, considering the true shape of the grain. It is used to investigate the influence of the different physical phenomena (dissolution, precipitation or diffusion) controlling the rate of material compaction and of the macro properties evolutions, as the porosity, permeability or strength.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the new mechanism of temozolomide (TMZ) induced anti-tumor effects on glioblastoma cells in vitro.

METHODS
Grade IV glioma cell lines SHG44 and U251 cells were treated with TMZ. MTT test was used to determine the proliferation of glioma cells. Hoechst 33342 assay was used to detect apoptosis in the tumor cells. The cell cycle progression was assessed by flow cytometry. The level of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) was detected using DCFH-DA probe. real-time PCR assay and Western blotting were used to analyze the expression of SIRT1.

RESULTS
Treatment with TMZ for 72 hours inhibited cell proliferation (P < 0.05) and induced apoptosis in the two cell lines in a concentration-dependent manner. TMZ at 100 µmol/L significantly resulted in G(2)/M cell cycle arrest (66.16%, 69.65%), and triggered a robust increase in cell apoptosis [(33.4 ± 1.8)% and (26.8 ± 3.2)%]. TMZ remarkably increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production (P < 0.05), indicating an overexpression of signal for SIRT1 activation.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that temozolomide mediates anti-tumor effects on glioma cells in vitro via ROS-dependent SIRT1 signaling pathway, therefore, provide a theoretical evidence for a new approach to improve the treatment of glioma in future.


Live, virtual, and constructive training that integrates dismounted warfighter training with convoy training, pilot training, and other systems has been demonstrated to reduce training time, and studies have shown that a high level of immersion and the illusion of presence in a VR environment contribute to this success. However, current force-on-force training simulators lack one major quality that is needed to impart this strong sense of presence for warfighters: the consequence of getting shot. Simulated return-fire systems have been developed for different purposes including military, police and entertainment. Some use projectiles, but that approach is usually limited to a shoot house configuration rather than outdoors. Other methods use on-body electrodes to provide electric shock or tactors that physically strike the body using solenoids or pneumatics. These systems face challenges of either low body localization (with a small number of tactors) or tethering (if a real-time connection to electricity or air is needed to power the tactors). In this paper, a tactile vest containing commercially available vibrating pagers is evaluated. These pagers allow a focused alert to be given to a Warfighter, indicating the bodily location of the shot and appropriate direction for return fire. They are also cost-effective and easily replaceable. The evaluation included a simple training mission while receiving either vibrotactile feedback vs. auditory spoken alerts of virtual sniper hits and direction of fire. Results showed that a tactile vest made from commercial off-the-shelf pagers performed well as an indicator of fire and could be viable option for integration with future LVC training, especially given its low cost. Also, results suggested that there may be strong individual differences between people in terms of their ability to process vibrotactile vs. auditory feedback while cognitively loaded.


Economics has long had a theory of 'crime and punishment'. This theory provides predictions about the effects of law enforcement activity on criminals' actions but can it provide investigative advice? This paper extends the theoretical framework by identifying the possibility of 'economic profiling' of criminals and terrorists. Investigative psychologists attempt to derive the characteristics of offenders from the characteristics of the crime to develop an offender profile. The assignment of individuals to a 'class' involves the application of a classification scheme or typology. If the characteristics of a crime can be assigned to a particular type, the offender will have certain characteristics. This may assist law enforcement in identifying and finding the offender. A logical extension of the expected utility analysis of crime and terrorist behaviour is the development of a methodology of economic profiling based upon an economic-behavioural typology of criminal and terrorist behaviour. It is the purpose of this paper to provide some first steps in the development of such a framework. These first steps are cast in the context of an investigative economist seeking to develop an economic profile of a lone wolf terrorist.


Bar code scanning data pertaining to the urban carbohydrate market were analysed. Emphasis was placed on the strategic importance of the data to the marketing of maize meal products. Elasticities indicate that maize meal and potatoes tend to be relatively price inelastic, whilst bread and rice are more price elastic. Important results emanating from the analyses are that the relative price and the convenience of a product play an important role in the purchasing of a product in the carbohydrate market. Characteristics of the consumers of maize meal were determined for both Black and White consumers, thereby enabling a more informed targeting of advertising campaigns. Other strategic information extracted from the data indicates the practical nature and usefulness of such data.


Unstructured sparse neural networks are an important class of machine learning (ML) models, as they compact model size and reduce floating point operations. The execution time of these models is frequently dominated by the sparse matrix multiplication (SpMM) kernel, C=A× B, where A is a sparse matrix, and B and C are dense matrices. The unstructured sparsity pattern of matrices in pruned machine learning models along with their sparsity ratio has rendered useless the large class of libraries and systems that optimize sparse matrix multiplications. Reusing registers is particularly difficult because accesses to memory locations should be known statically. This paper proposes Sparse Register Tiling, a new technique composed of an unroll-and-sparse-jam transformation followed by data compression that is specifically tailored to sparsity patterns in ML matrices. Unroll-and-sparse-jam uses sparsity information to jam the code while improving register reuse. Sparse register tiling is evaluated across 2396 weight matrices from transformer and convolutional models with a sparsity range of 60-95% and provides an average speedup of 1.72× and 2.65× over MKL SpMM and dense matrix multiplication, respectively, on a multicore CPU processor. It also provides an end-to-end speedup of 2.12× for MobileNetV1 with 70% sparsity on an ARM processor commonly used in edge devices.