Immune checkpoint blockade antibodies specific to programed death-1/ligand-1 (PD-1/PD-L1) shows durable clinical responses in various cancers but benefit only to a small portion of patients. The failure of immunotherapy is likely due to the complex network of immunosuppressive mechanisms present in advanced tumors. Radiation (RT) modifies tumor microenvironment and causes tumor antigen release, and thus augment efficacy of immunotherapy. Interleukin 12 (IL-12) and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulator factor (GM-CSF) have shown potent antitumor activities through activating innate and adaptive immunities, as well as reprogramming myeloid cells to a phenotype that favors immune activation. The aim of this project is to compare the therapeutic efficacy of two types of combination therapy: RT combined with IL-12/GM-CSF (RT/12GM) versus RT combined with anti-PD-L1 antibody (RT/PD-L1), and to dissect the molecular mechanisms of the antitumor responses. Our data showed that RT/12GM led to tumor regression in a majority of mice with large established tumors and suppressed liver metastasis, while RT/PD-L1 could only suppress primary tumors but not metastatic tumor. Mechanistic analysis showed that RT/12GM was superior to RT/PD-L1 in inducing accumulation of CD8+ T cells in tumor and in augmenting both NK and CD8+ T cells cytotoxicity in tumor and liver. Interestingly, RT/12GM also induced infiltration of tumor-associated neutrophils (TAN) and impaired their immunosuppressive functions. Depletion experiments showed that both CD8+ T cell and TAN were required for tumor regression in RT/12GM. Together, our results demonstrate that RT/12GM represent a powerful alternative therapy against both primary and metastatic tumors.


This study was executed to elucidate the length-weight relationship (LWR) yet the annual condition of the Labeo bata (Hamilton, 1822), an immensely important fishery of Bangladesh.  Overall, 447 specimens employed during this study were collected by using traditional fishing gear (cast net). Total length (TL) of each individual was measured closest to 0.1 cm and whole body-weight (BW) nearest to 0.01 g accuracy, respectively. The values of 'b' indicated negative allometric growth patterns for males (b= 2.913) whilst an isometric value for females (b= 3.038) and both sexes (b= 2.989), respectively. Furthermore, the Fulton condition factor value was highest for males (0.98) over females (0.97). All of these outcomes will bring advanced scientific knowledge and will be helpful for sustainable management of this least concern fish species (Labeo bata) in the river ecosystem of Bangladesh.


Currently, BIO-based and tuple-based approaches perform quite well on the span-based semantic role labeling (SRL) task. However, the BIO-based approach usually needs to encode a sentence once for each predicate when predicting its arguments, and the tuple-based approach has to deal with a huge search space of O ( n 3 ) , greatly reducing the training and inference efficiency. The parsing speed is less than 50 sentences per second. Moreover, both BIO-based and tuple-based approaches usually consider only local structural information when making prediction. This paper proposes to cast end-to-end span-based SRL as a graph parsing task. Based on a novel graph representation schema, we present a fast and accurate SRL parser on the shoulder of recent works on high-order semantic dependency graph parsing. Moreover, we propose a constrained Viterbi procedure to ensure the legality of the output graph. Experiments on English CoNLL05 and CoNLL12 datasets show that our model achieves new state-of-the-art results under both settings of without and with pre-trained language models, and can parse over 600 sentences per second.


The present study was designed to investigate the effect of kaempferol on oxidative mitochondrial damage in liver of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Diabetes was induced into adult male albino rats of the Wistar strain, by intraperitoneal administration of STZ (40 mg/kg body weight (BW)). Kaempferol (100 mg/kg BW) or glibenclamide (600 µg/kg BW) was administered orally once daily for 45 days. Diabetic rats showed a significant elevation of mitochondrial thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) levels in liver as compared to control rats. The level of enzymatic (superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx)) and non-enzymatic (reduced glutathione (GSH)) antioxidants were decreased significantly in liver mitochondria of STZ-induced diabetic rats as compared to control rats. Administration of kaempferol or glibenclamide resulted in significant decrease in TBARS and significant increase in SOD, GPx and GSH when compared to diabetic control rats. The activities of mitochondrial enzymes such as isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH), alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (α-KGDH), succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), and malate dehydrogenase (MDH) decreased significantly in STZ-induced diabetic rats. In addition, the activities of mitochondrial respiratory chain enzymes such as NADH dehydrogenase and Cytochrome c-oxidase also decreased significantly in STZ-induced diabetic rats as compared to control rats. Administration of kaempferol or glibenclamide resulted in significant reversal of these enzymes' activities to near normal when compared to diabetic control rats. Thus, obtained results indicate that administration of kaempferol attenuates the mitochondrial damage in STZ-induced diabetic rats.


Gold-catalyzed formal [4+2] benzannulation between enynal or enynone units, including ortho-alkynyl (oxo) benzenes, and 2π-systems, such as alkynes and carbonyl compounds (enol forms), produces aromatic ketones in good to high yields. By simply changing the catalyst from gold to copper-Bronsted acid system, decarbonylated aromatic compounds can be prepared in the reactions using alkynes as the 2π-system. An efficient synthetic approach to angucyclinone antibiotics, (+) -ochromycinone and (+) -rubiginone B2, is developed by applying the present benzannulation to an intramolecular version. The reaction proceeds most probably through the formation of the benzo [c] pyrylium ate complex via the intramolecular nucleophilic addition of the carbonyl oxygen atom to the alkyne part of enynal or enynone units, which is induced by carbophilic gold catalyst.


ABSTRACT: Profession Education subject has wide coverage lecture material and tend to be regarded as a theoretical matter. Profession Education conventionally, students will only examine theoretically and less meets the subject goals. Evaluation shows that it needs improvement efforts from material aspects, strategies, and assessment systems in Profession Education lectures. The study focused on the description of the implementation and effect of GI in Professions Education subject, a description of EOOAT-based assessment implementation. Subjects of this study were students of Chemical Education Islamic University of Indonesia who took Profession Education subject in the academic year 2016/2017. Lectures conducted with the collaboration of lecturers and expert lecturers from National University of Malaysia. The research instruments include course outline, lecture events unit, hand outs, diagnostic tests, project assessment, cognitive assessment, self-assessment, student satisfaction questionnaires, and expert lecturer's assessment questionnaire. Lectures conducted in accordance with the stages in the GI, namely: identification of topics, planning investigations, execution of investigations, preparation of the final report, presentation of the final report, an evaluation of progress. Oriented learning outcomes should ideally use a rating system that can give a continuous process and performance. With EOOAT-based assessment, teachers can determine the difficulties and competencies that have not reached by the students. Lecturers can further specify corrective measures in learning to allow students to achieve competence expected. Data research shows that GI learning and EOOAT-based learning has a positive impact. The final grade point average of students was 79.2. The average score of student satisfaction was 92.5. The expert lecturer's assessment scores were 95.8. From self assessment showed that students understand the lecture material and the interest in the teacher profession was increased after the lecture. Keywords:  group investigation, EAOAT assessment, profession education Received: 15 June 2017, Revised: 4 August 2017, Accepted: 1 September 2017


Ensemble Monte Carlo simulation of two-dimensional electron transport is performed for a biased undoped AlGaN/GaN channel. The effect of hot phonons on electron drift velocity and energy dissipation is investigated, the model is found correct within a factor of ~2 when LO-phonon conversion lifetime is assumed to be 0.35 ps.


Abstract. Retirement communities offer the promise of a fulfilling life in old age. Purposefully planned and constructed with the intention of encouraging consumption through the promotion of successful ageing and a space in which to enjoy it, the success of retirement communities rests partially on the images used in attendant advertisements. Using content analysis to analyze the text of informational brochures provided to potential residents, this paper examines the images used to sell retirement communities. The sentences are classified into one of three categories: successful ageing, physical attributes of the community and old age related decline. The results show the overwhelming use of positive images to describe retirement community living and a denial of old age related physical decline. Most of the sentences in the brochures relate to the availability and plethora of leisure amenities in retirement communities, or endorse the idea of successful ageing by describing residents as active, healthy individuals with money to spend.


Wealth is highly concentrated among a few very rich individuals. The usual models of wealth transmission offer life-cycle and family motives for bequests. The hypothesis here is that those motives are not likely to be active for very rich individuals. Using a sample of french estate records over-weighted in very rich individuals, we show, by estimating a model with two endogenous alternative regimes, that the variables influencing the bequests of the less rich are not active for the very wealthy.


The exocyst is an octameric complex involved in docking or tethering of secretory vesicles to fusion sites of the plasma membrane. Sec6 is the core subunit of the exocyst complex. Here we identify an isoform of Sec6, deposited as Exocyst complex component 3-like (Exoc3l) in the database, by in silico screening using rat Sec6 as a probe. The amino acid sequence of Exoc3l has 31% identity and 53% similarity with that of Sec6. RT-PCR analysis reveals that Exoc3l is expressed in insulin-secreting MIN6 cells as well as in various tissues including pancreatic islets and brain. In co-immunoprecipitation experiments, Exoc3l was found to interact with Sec5, Sec8, and Sec10, all of which are binding partners of Sec6 in the exocyst complex. Furthermore, overexpression of a deletion mutant of Exoc3l in MIN6 cells suppressed glucose-stimulated secretion. These results suggest that Exoc3l is involved in regulated exocytosis of insulin granules.


A credit linked note (CLN) is a type of funded credit derivative in which the investor in the note, the credit protection seller, makes an upfront payment to the issuer of the note, the protection buyer. If no credit event occurs during the life of the note, the redemption value of the note is paid to the investor upon maturity. If a credit event does occur, then a value less than par is paid out to the investor upon maturity. For the investor, a CLN may entail some additional credit risk in return for a coupon that is somewhat higher than for other comparable investments in the market. This article explains how CLNs work and discusses some recent applications.


Parametric instabilities in the presence of sinusoidal plasma density modulation are considered analytically and by numerical integration of the coupled mode equations. The density modulation tends to reduce temporal and spatial growth rates. If there is a linear density gradient in addition to the density modulation, the usual convective saturation exists for small modulation; however, above a certain threshold modulation, the convective saturation is replaced by absolute growth. This result is in qualitative agreement with earlier work on plasma with linear density gradient plus turbulence.


Have you ever thought about the potentialities coming about if Michael Jordan chose to emulate previous figures such as Muhammad Ali, John Carlos, and Tommie Smith regarding social activism? Michael Jordan has often been criticized for his failure to speak on social matters. Like Jordan, contemporary Black male athletes' engagement in social activism has been minimal, unmatched to that of their predecessors of decades ago. The article employs transformational leadership principles and social cognitive theory (SCT) to analyze the link between Michael Jordan and the lack of Black male athlete activism in the current era. Implications for current and future generations of Black male athletes are discussed. Future research directions are also presented for scholars interested in Jordan's impact on Black male athlete activism.


To verify experimentally the model of permeabilized hepatocytes, the degree of cell permeability was assessed using trypan blue and polarographycally determined cell respiration rate upon succinate (0.35 mM) and a-ketoglutarate (1 mM) oxidation. Oxidative phosphorylation was stimulated by ADP (750 μM). Hepatocyte permeabilization depends on digitonin concentraion in medium and on the number of cells in suspension. Thus, the permeabilization of 0.9-1.7 million cells/ml was completed by 25 μg/ml of digitonin, permeabilization of 2.0-3.0 million cells/ml--by 50 μg/ml of digitonin and permeabilization of 4.0-5.6 million cells/ml--by 100 μg/ml. Thus, the higher is the suspension density, the higher digitonin concentration is required. Treatment of hepatocytes with digitonin resulted in a decrease of endogenous respiration rate to a minimum upon 20-22 μg of digitonin per 1 million cells. Supplementation of permeabilized hepatocytes with α-ketoglutarate maintained stable respiration rate, on the level higher than endogenous respiration at the corresponding digitonin concentration, unlike the intact cells. Respiration rate of permeabilized hepatocytes at the simultaneous addition of α-ketoglutarate and ADP increased to the level of intact cell respiration, irrespective of digitonin concentration. Addition of solely succinate and especially succinate plus ADP markedly intensified the respiration of permeabilized hepatocytes to the level higher than that of intact cells. The dependence of succinate-stimulated respiration on digitonin concentration reached maximum at 20-22 αg of digitonin per 1 million cells. Optimal ratio of digitonin amount and the cell number in suspension is expected to be different in various tissues.


The effect of cold treatment (0 degrees C) on the survival of different developmental stages of the fruit-fly Drosophila melanogaster, and the dynamics of stress protein synthesis in the salivary gland were investigated. It was shown that low temperature stability of the D. melanogaster depended on both the stage of development and the duration of the low temperature influence. The synthesis of new proteins was determined in the cells of the salivary glands of 5-day old larvae after cold treatment. They were distinguished from the heat shock proteins with the exception of the protein with molecular weight 70 kDa.


Background: The gate control theory asserts that non-painful stimuli can block pain perception. The ShotBlocker™ device is a plastic disk with blunt projections that rests on the skin, and we hypothesize that it will reduce pain during hand injections. Methods: This is a prospective randomized trial of 117 patients undergoing injections for common hand conditions. Patients were randomized into 3 groups: device, placebo (device with projections removed), and control. Patients recorded on an analog pain scale the pain severity of the injection, as well as their most recent tetanus shot. A normalized pain score was obtained from the difference between the injection and tetanus shot pain scores. The mean non-normalized and normalized scores for each treatment group were compared to the control group using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results: There were 91 women and 26 men. Common diagnoses included trigger finger (n = 53), DeQuervain's tendonitis (n = 33), and basal joint arthritis (n = 22). The groups did not differ significantly in age, gender, or diagnosis. Mean pain score in the device group was 5.2 out of 10, and it was 5.7 for the control group. The normalized pain score in the device group was significantly lower than the control group. Normalized and non-normalized pain scores for the placebo group were not significantly lower than the control group. Conclusions: The shot blocking device effectively reduced pain of injection versus controls when pain scores were normalized for pain tolerance. The modified device did not reduce the pain of injection, suggesting that gate control is the mechanism of action.


Java has plenty of Pleistocene sites that have recorded the development and changes of environment, as well as human beings and their cultures since more than a million years ago. The distribution of most of those sites is around the Solo Basin and along the Bengawan Solo River. However, there are also some sites, which are physiographically solitary, namely Patiayam at the feet of Mount Muria and Semedo at the east end of a mountain range in Bogor – North Serayu Zone. This article will present the current development and comparison of geological, paleontological, and archaeological data from Patiayam and Semedo, which is very valuable because they will increase our understanding of quaternary prehistory in Java, which thus far has always been dominated by data from the sites around the Solo Basin and along the Bengawan Solo River.


Teenage pregnancy has been viewed with increasing concern in recent years. In the United Kingdom, the issue became a public health priority through the incorporation of targets for reducing teenage pregnancy in the "Health of the Nation" strategy.1 The continuing political importance of teenage pregnancy is marked by the current government's decision to commission a report by its Social Exclusion Unit. Although the UK has the highest teenage fertility rate in Europe, the perception of teenage pregnancy as an increasing problem is false; the live birth rate to teenage women in the UK in 1987 was 30.9/1000 compared with 49.7/1000 in 1970.2

Health concerns have focused on the medical risks to the young mother and her infant. Teenage women …


The large-scale networks of suppliers and buyers in industrial districts have rarely if ever been studied as social networks due to analytical complexity and rarity of datasets. We quantitatively analyzed such a complex system to identify its mechanisms of integration. Tests of the small-world model failed because of a power-law degree distribution, shorter-thanrandom average distances, and lack of local clustering. The scale-free network model was also rejected because primarily hubs organized the network not preferences of suppliers. A directed acyclic graph (DAG) model explained the structural properties. Finally, in lieu of small-world or scale-free models, we offer statistical evidence that the DAG should be a general property for the complex production networks, as modeled by Harrison White.


We develop the \textit{a posteriori} error analysis of three mixed finite element formulations for rotation-based equations in elasticity, poroelasticity, and interfacial elasticity-poroelasticity. The discretisations use $H^1$-conforming finite elements of degree $k+1$ for displacement and fluid pressure, and discontinuous piecewise polynomials of degree $k$ for rotation vector, total pressure, and elastic pressure. Residual-based estimators are constructed, and upper and lower bounds (up to data oscillations) for all global estimators are rigorously derived. The methods are all robust with respect to the model parameters (in particular, the Lam\'e constants), they are valid in 2D and 3D, and also for arbitrary polynomial degree $k\geq 0$. The error behaviour predicted by the theoretical analysis is then demonstrated numerically on a set of computational examples including different geometries on which we perform adaptive mesh refinement guided by the \textit{a posteriori} error estimators.


Inertial measurement units (IMUs) offer an attractive way to study human lower-limb kinematics without traditional laboratory constraints. We present an error-state Kalman filter method to estimate 3D joint angles, joint angle ranges of motion, stride length, and step width using data from an array of seven body-worn IMUs. Importantly, this paper contributes a novel joint axis measurement correction that reduces joint angle drift errors without assumptions of strict hinge-like joint behaviors of the hip and knee. We evaluate the method compared to two optical motion capture methods on twenty human subjects performing six different types of walking gait consisting of forward walking (at three speeds), backward walking, and lateral walking (left and right). For all gaits, RMS differences in joint angle estimates generally remain below 5 degrees for all three ankle joint angles and for flexion/extension and abduction/adduction of the hips and knees when compared to estimates from reflective markers on the IMUs. Additionally, mean RMS differences in estimated stride length and step width remain below 0.13 m for all gait types, except stride length during slow walking. This study confirms the method's potential for non-laboratory based gait analysis, motivating further evaluation with IMU-only measurements and pathological gaits.


The PI and PID control of DC-DC converter with solar energy circuit are presented. Then separately excited motor is connected in the end of load side. The Armature voltages of separately excite motor is controlled along with pulse with modulation technique circuit. Closed loop operation is done using PI and PID controllers. In this paper PI and PID controller is used based on the error signal and reference signal. Performance of the load is increased due to applying the gate signal at switching device and the same time it receives superior output voltage. In these paper two full wave converters, separately excited motor, step- up transformer, PI filter and closed loop PI and PID control circuit are used to control the motor. Finally Motor speed, torque and armature current are measured as well as tested.


The dehydrogenation of purine nucleotides in position 8 is not a severe lethal injury. In addition, the dehydrogenation in the eight position of adenine is not an effective mutagenic event. The dehydrogenation in the eight position of guanine is a mutagenic damage. As to the induction of point mutations, 3H is not more hazardous than external gamma-radiation delivered in equivalent doses.


During COVID 19 pandemic every home-bound school, college, and university student was using computers and electronic gadgets for social networking and online education. To assess the effects of these gadgets on ocular and vision-related problems, very little research had been done on the Pakistani population, especially among university students. An analytical cross-sectional study was carried out on 355 students of University of the Punjab. Questionnaire-based data were collected by measurement of tearfilm breakup time(TBUT), the number of corneal dry spots, Schirmer's test, and conjunctival impression cytology(CIC). Pearson correlation analysis was done on CIC score versus TBUT, Schirmer's test and Goblet Cell Density (GCD). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for mean comparison of visual acuity, TBUT, cornea spots, and Schirmer's test to see the significance of the results. P-value≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. Out ofthe 355 students, 65% were females. The mean age of the students was 22.30 ± 6.8 years. At each level of visual acuity, there was no statistically  significant difference between the meansof the different levels of visual acuity (F=0.488, p=0.614). A statistically significant meandifference was found between CIC score and TBUT (F=208.45p=<0.001), CIC score andcornea spot (F=39.31, p=<0.001), CIC score and Schirmer's test (F=5.83, p=0.001). Forthe early diagnosis and management of CVS, in addition to applying the validated questionnaire and clinical dry eye tests, the Conjunctival impression cytology can be tested on a larger population to be proven as a gold slandered test.


Majoritic garnets discovered as diamond inclusion in several localities originated from the deep upper mantle or the mantle transition zone. Some of them show evidence of partial transformation to low‐pressure phases of pyropic garnet and clinopyroxene during transportation to the Earth's surface. The degree of partial transformation can be used potentially as a unique speedometer on the average ascent rate of diamond through the entire upper mantle. Here we present experimental results on the back transformation kinetics of majoritic garnet into pyropic garnet and clinopyroxene by time‐resolved in‐situ synchrotron X‐ray diffraction measurements. We observed that back transformation occurs by grain‐boundary nucleation and diffusion‐controlled growth at 6.5–7.5 GPa and 1020–1300°C. The transformation mechanisms are similar to those observed in natural diamond. The temperature dependence of diffusion‐controlled growth rates were determined from the kinetic data obtained, which was used to constrain the survival time of majoritic garnet in diamond. We found that the ascending velocity in the normal mantle convection is far too slow to satisfy the time limitation for the survival of majoritic garnet, indicating that such diamonds have been transported directly from the deep mantle by the rapid kimberlite magma within a few days.


In order to realize the high efficiency quality classification and three-dimensional visualization of engineering rock mass and to solve the technical difficulties of the traditional rock mass quality evaluation method such as high labor intensity, long process time consumption, many intervention processes such as scale measurement and manual calculation, and nonintuitive classification results, this paper puts forward a 3D visual rock mass quality evaluation method and system based on close-range photography, which optimizes the traditional rock mass quality evaluation method, makes the rock mass classification threedimensional and visible, and realizes the estimation of unrevealed rock mass quality evaluation index. ,e research results show the following: (1) ,e method of storing joint information by close-range photography and extracting joint information by human-computer interaction improves the working efficiency and the process is safe and controllable compared with the traditional method of collecting fracture parameters. (2) Based on the statistical analysis of 97 groups of roadway survey data, the comprehensive statistical regression formula between BQ value of Chinese national standard and RMR value is given, and there is a good correlation between BQ value and RMR value of rock mass quality index. (3) Based on the power-inverse ratio method, the three-dimensional model of rock mass classification of the mine was established, and the cutting model obtained the current distribution diagram of rock mass quality grade, providing scientific reference for drilling, blasting, support, and other production design optimizations.


This study aims to determine the adoption innovation and to know the level of adoption innovation of palm farmer for the Integration Systems of Palm Oil Cattle Programs (SISKA) in Kampar. The data collection method using survey methods. The population in this study were farmers who applied SISKA's program and farmers who no longer apply SISKA's program. The samples of this technique are 31 persons, including respondents who applied and had not apply SISKA's program. Analysis data used descriptive method. Variable characteristics of farmers and adoption of innovation analyzed using Likert Scale. The results showed that the Innovation Adoption Program (SISKA) by knowledge stages in average category, persuasion stage in average category, decision stage divided into two parts, the decision adopting included in low category, decision not to adopting included in average category. Implementation stage classified in very low category and at the confirmation stage in very low category. The level of innovation adoption by the farmers against SISKA program in Kampar obtained with low category.


Users of information systems in timecritical domains are under pressure to digest and process information that is vital for their task. Too often analysts receive the important information buried within a collection of insignificant data and information. Sorting through such a cluttered display and finding the critical information requires a high level of attention and becomes even more challenging with the increasing amounts of information available. Especially in timecritical domains, the problem of information assessment is replaced by the problem of avoiding the timeintensive efforts to review all the available information. The focus of this dissertation was the combination of knowledge representation, information visualization, and human-centered computing to reduce the probability of such information overload, defining the field of decision-centered visualization (DCV). The DCV approach is unique in how it ties together information visualization and knowledge representation in time-critical and information-intensive environments to support the user's situation awareness. The knowledge representation for DCV as it is defined in this thesis corresponds to the conceptual and architectural requirements of DCV to enable decision- centered applications. The goal of this work was a knowledge representation approach that is user-centered, allows scalable information handling, supports knowledge- based information visualization, flexibly supports various kinds of display and presentation systems, and can be realized in a dynamic network environment - all aspects of information systems typically encountered in time-critical domains like air traffic control. Part of the solution introduced in this work was the scalable combination of domain ontologies and domain databases for human-centered and knowledge-based information visualization. The domain ontology as the knowledge structuring element of the representation is integrated with the scalability advantages of databases, together representing the visualization-relevant aspects of a domain. This thesis extends the current information visualization theory by socalled presentation requirements (PRs). PRs allow the abstract analytical description of information, particularly for the support of situation awareness. By describing entity types, their attributes, and relationships between entity types, knowledge about the information in the domain can be combined with knowledge about the necessary information visualization to users under time pressure. This is enabled by using presentation types and data types for the description of information visualization environments, leaning on and extending the current information visualization models with aspects for time-critical and information-intensive domains. With the help of so-called DCV transformations, this work enables the flexible guidance of various display systems by a DCV system tuning the visualization to the current situation, to the task that the user is working working on, and to the role of the user in the current situation. Depending on the needs of the user and the used display system, filtered and prioritized information can be flexibly mapped to visual structures and presented in an effective and efficient way. The results of this work are most applicable to the area of emergency management and are also applied to the field of visual analytics, an integrated field between data mining and information visualization in the area of very information-intensive domains. Here, the presentation requirements enable the reduction of the complexity of the information on an abstract level based on the provided semantics, before any data instances have to be considered.


Basal cell carcinoma is a common condition facing the plastic surgeon. When formally excised, a surrounding margin of normal skin is included in an attempt to ensure complete excision. We set out to investigate our excision margins in a prospective study of 100 basal cell carcinomas in 86 patients treated by conventional surgical excision. The edge of each lesion was delineated, an excision margin was drawn, and the closest point was identified and measured. The tumours were excised, and the specimens were examined to determine the closest histological margin. A comparison was made between the marked surgical margins and the margins observed on microscopy. The mean observed surgical margin was 3.0 mm and the mean histological margin was 3.7 mm; 44% of the margins agreed to within 1 mm, 79% to within 2 mm and 92% to within 3 mm. There were four incomplete excisions, all at the lateral margin. There was agreement in the position of the closest margin in 69% of cases. The measured surgical excision margins correlated well with those assessed histologically, as did the position of the closest margin. Given a 3 mm margin, 96% of lesions would have been excised completely. We feel that our current practice represents a satisfactory balance between maintaining a low rate of incomplete excision and minimising the sacrifice of normal skin.


The purpose of this thesis is the development of options for the reduction of the carbon footprint at an electric utility company. A case study details a systematic approach to reduce corporate greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade. The study focuses on providing three principle outputs: 1) process maps whereby the company may systematically identify its current carbon footprint, 2) scenario analyses to project its future carbon emissions over a ten year period and, 3) recommended actions to reduce GHG emissions over the next decade. A number of recommendations for emission reductions are made. The findings suggest that the degree to which an organization addresses its GHG emissions is substantially influenced by organization-specific social, regulatory, technological and economic forces. The case study reveals that by perceiving corporate carbon management as a periphery objective, organizations limit their ability to reduce GHG emissions and to improve their corporate performance.


The EDGES low-band experiment has measured an absorption feature in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), corresponding to the 21 cm hyperfine transition of hydrogen at redshift z ≃ 17, before the era of cosmic reionization. The amplitude of this absorption is connected to the ratio of singlet and triplet hyperfine states in the hydrogen gas, which can be parametrized by a spin temperature. The EDGES result suggests that the spin temperature is lower than the expected temperatures of both the CMB and the hydrogen gas. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed in order to explain this signal, for example by lowering the kinetic temperature of the hydrogen gas via dark matter interactions. We introduce an alternative mechanism, by which a sub-GeV dark matter particle with spin-dependent coupling to nucleons or electrons can cause hyperfine transitions and lower the spin temperature directly, with negligible reduction of the kinetic temperature of the hydrogen gas. We consider a model with an asymmetric dark matter fermion and a light pseudo-vector mediator. Significant reduction of the spin temperature by this simple model is excluded, most strongly by coupling constant bounds coming from stellar cooling. Perhaps an alternative dark sector model, subject to different sets of constraints, can lower the spin temperature by the same mechanism.


This study's objective is to examine tourist and resident experiences of creative tourist attractions through the development of an experience quality-destination model and assess the interrelationships among model factors: experience quality, perceived value, satisfaction, and destination image. The research was conducted across several creative tourism attractions in Bandung, Indonesia including cultural/traditional dancing, crafting, painting and games. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to the visitors after they enjoyed the experience. Of the 421 questionnaires collected, 400 were useable for further analysis.  The hypotheses are examined by using Partial Least Square (PLS). The proposed experience quality-destination model is a good fit for both the tourist and resident samples. For the tourist sample, all the direct effects among variables in the model are significant except for perceived value's effect on destination image. For the resident sample, experience quality directly influences perceived value, and perceived value directly affects both satisfaction and destination image. The total effect of experience quality on destination image is significant for both samples.


Amitriptyline (AMT) is commonly used in the management of children with irritable bowel syndrome. AMT is pro-arrhythmogenic and increases the risk of sudden cardiac death. However, there is not enough data regarding the cardiac toxicity in therapeutic doses of AMT in children and the need for screening electrocardiogram (EKG). Errors in computer EKG interpretation are not uncommon. In a risk-prevention study, the authors sought to identify the true incidence of prolonged corrected QT (QTc) interval and other arrhythmias in children with irritable bowel syndrome before the initiation of AMT. Out of the 760 EKGs screened, 3 EKGs demonstrated a true prolonged QTc after the careful manual reading by a pediatric cardiologist and they were not picked by computer-generated reading. The authors conclude that screening EKG should always be performed on children before initiating AMT therapy. Also, the computer-generated EKG needs to be verified by a pediatric cardiologist to avoid serious misinterpretations.


Isothermal amplification reactions represent an important and exciting approach to achieve widespread, low cost, and easily implemented molecular diagnostics. This work presents a modified recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) reaction, which can be directly coupled to a simple electrochemical measurement to ultimately allow development of a nucleic acid-based assay for antibiotic resistance genes. It is shown that use of reagents from a standard RPA reaction kit allows incorporation of horse radish peroxidase-labeled thymine nucleotides into amplified DNA strands, which can be detected via an amperometric signal readout for detection of important gene sequences. The assay is exemplified through detection of fragments of the oxacillin resistance gene in Escherichia coli cells bearing a drug resistance plasmid, achieving a potential limit of detection of 319 cfus/mL and an unoptimized time to result of 60 min. This work serves as a suitable demonstration of the potential for a system to deliver detection of key drug resistance genes at clinically relevant levels.


Healing of the anterior cruciate ligament was studied in 170 male rabbits. One group included immature animals that had open epiphyses, and a second group consisted of only mature animals. In one knee of each animal, the anterior cruciate ligament was transected either completely or partially, and in the contralateral knee a sham operation was carried out. Mechanical testing and histological studies of the ligaments were done immediately postoperatively and at two weeks, six weeks, three months, and one year. As we expected, there was no regeneration after complete transection of the anterior cruciate ligament, and all of the animals in which this procedure was done had severe osteoarthrosis of the joint at three months. Postoperatively, the partially sectioned ligaments exhibited one-third of the strength of the ligaments on the side on which the sham operation had been done in the immature animals and one-fourth of the strength of the ligaments on the side on which the sham operation had been done in the mature animals. Subsequently, there was secondary complete rupture of 20 per cent of the partially sectioned ligaments. The remaining 80 per cent of the partially sectioned ligaments were clearly weaker two weeks after the operation than immediately postoperatively, but this was also true on the side on which the sham operation had been done. At six weeks, the initial postoperative strength of the partially sectioned ligaments had been regained. At one year, the ligaments of the immature animals were two-thirds as strong as those on the contralateral side, and those of the mature animals were three-fourths as strong as those on the contralateral side. The ligaments were markedly elongated, especially in the mature animals. At three months, stiffness of the ligaments returned to normal. Histologically, the defect was filled with tissue that was still somewhat different from normal ligamentous tissue.


In this paper I seek to explore the possibility of a meaningful relationship between Thomas More's Weltanschauung , personality and background, on the one hand, and the formation of the concept of utopia, on the other. In some important respects, ultimate make-up of Utopia reflects several convergent aspects of More's complex personality: his admiration for St. Augustine, whose De Civitate Dei was one of More's favorite books and traces of which can be found in Utopia ; his being a man of the Renaissance and inhabiting the same intellectual world as that inhabited by Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, Erasmus of Rotterdam and others; probably deriving from that, his propensity toward re-creation and re-shaping the existing order of things, from a personal level (as self-reformation) to a much higher level (as cosmopoiesis, to use Giuseppe Mazzotta's term); the mysterious nature of the whole utopian project, along with the somehow ironical tone in which the book is written. These – and other – aspects make More's Utopia not only a remarkably rich and complex work of literature, but also, in some oblique way, the testimony of an outstanding effort of self-configuration through writing.


Narrowing of rural population reproduction and decline of its qualitative characteristics is one of the determinants of the threat to the economic and socio-cultural security of a separate settlement, region and a country. Decline in the quality of human resources is manifested in the deterioration of the main characteristics of the health status of regional society that is partly a consequence of an increased economic burden on the working population put by a retired from an active economic activity population that requires life-support and social protection. A share of the latter is rising due to the general aging of the Russian population on the whole and in the Urals economic region in particular, the increased number of disabled and unemployed single women with small children. These provisions relate, primarily, to a rural part of the Russian society, in our case to the rural population of the Urals. Peculiarities of the rural way of life are connected with the peculiarities of work and life of residents: the subordination of labor to rhythms and cycles of the year, more severe than in the city, working conditions, poor labor mobility opportunities for residents, a large fusion of work and life, immutability and complexity of work in the household and at farms, a set of leisure activities is limited. Revitalization of the demographic behavior of the family, realization of its socializing function is one of the most important ways to solve social and economic problems of the modern village. Based on sociological surveys conducted by the authors during 2008-2013 at the Institute of Economics of UB RAS actual social and economic problems of rural families in the Urals are analyzed, their impact on demographic behavior and on formation of labor and socio-economic characteristics of offspring.


the Induction of Embryonic Primordia by Implantation of Organizers Different ("Über Induktion von Embryonanlagen durch Implantation artfremder Organisatoren"), . The dissertation was the culmination of five experiments on three species of newt embryos of the genus Triton (presently Triturus [10] ), performed during the summers of 1921 and 1922, experiments that confirmed Spemann's organizer [11] concept. Spemann and Mangold published the dissertation in a 1924 edition of Roux's Archives for Microscopic Anatomy and Developmental Mechanics ( Roux's Archiv für Mikroskopische Anatomie und Entwicklungsmechanik [12] ). Mangold's experiments arose from issues raised in Spemann's 1918 article "On the Determination of the First Organ Systems of the Amphibian Embryo" ("Über die Determination der ersten Organanlagen des Amphibienembryo I-IV"). In this 1918 article, Spemann found that by transplanting a piece of the blastopore [13] lip of a newt embryo into the embryo of a second newt, a second nervous system structure (a neural tube [14] ) formed in the host. Spemann's results suggested that the blastopore [13] lip acquired its fate before adjacent areas, and could then exert its influence on the development of surrounding tissues. This result became the basis of the organizer [11] concept; that is, the idea that certain regions of the


The concept of nutrigenomics in medical philosophy has been delineated at length to focus attention the usefulness of diet to ward off malaise and diseases. Attention has been emphasize on nutrigenomic, dimension, background, development, basics and scope for the understanding of the subject matter. As a result the nutrigenomics can be linked with seven fundamental theoretical and functional principles that augments the diet therapy.


The feasibility of using nonwoven polypropylene fiber (NWPP) as the filter media to treat oil-in-water emulsion was studied. Both static adsorption experiments and dynamic filtration in coalescence bed were made. Due to the hydrophobic property of NWPP, the oil adsorption happened immediately when contacted with NWPP. The equilibrium was achieved after 50min adsorption. The Freundlich isotherm fits the experimental data well. The data was analyzed with three adsorption kinetic models: the pseudo first order, second order adsorption kinetics as well as the intra-particle diffusion models. The results showed that the second order adsorption kinetic was more accurate to correlate the experimental data. After the dynamic filtration processes using 4.0g NWPP, the oil removal efficiency could achieve 95%. It also found that the low flow rates would be better to treat oil-in-water emulsion in dynamic condition using NWPP as the filter media.


Abstract Fractal metaphor could be introduced to organization studies to elaborate on those organizational concepts that call for self-organization, self-similarity, similarity persistence in different organizational levels, symmetrical expansion, homogeneous discipline and quality, omnipresent controlling measures, and growth, as well as the organizational processes and procedures that require recursion. Organizational power is an abstract entity which could precisely be explained via a metaphorical fractal. Thus, Sierpinski Triangle, a familiar geometrical fractal has been applied in the paper with the purpose to unfold the fractal characteristics of the power within organizations. Such an approach presumes power characteristics as hierarchical, pyramidal, distributive, recursive, accumulative, dependent, comparative, and unequal. The discussions through the paper could contribute to future organization theorists to form an idea on two ubiquitous concepts of organizational power: directionality and dimensionality. Moreover, the paper theorizes the triangular combination of need, interest, and relationship as ontological elements of potential power and a fourth entity (enforcement) in combination with the three previous elements as the necessary elements of every pragmatic power.


The subgingival microbiota in 14 persons with HIV-periodontitis was examined. Subgingival plaque samples were collected with paper points, transported in VMGA III, and plated on anaerobic enriched brucella blood agar and various selective media. HIV-periodontitis sites revealed Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, Wolinella recta, Peptostreptococcus micros, and Bacteroides intermedius, each averaging 7% to 16% of the cultivable subgingival flora in positive patients. High levels of spirochetes also were detected in diseased sites with phase-contrast microscopy. Low levels of Candida albicans or enteric Gram-negative rods were recovered in the subgingival flora in 7 HIV-periodontitis patients or Bacteroides fragilis, Fusobacterium necrophorum, Fusobacterium varium, and Eubacterium aerofaciens were recovered in 8 patients. These findings suggest that the major components of the subgingival microbial flora in HIV-periodontitis are similar to those associated with adult periodontitis in systemically healthy persons. However, HIV-periodontitis lesions also may contain organisms which are rarely found in common types of periodontitis. The etiological significance of specific periodontal organisms in HIV-periodontitis awaits further longitudinal study.


OBJECTIVE
To document the opinion of members of the Catalonian Society of Family and Community Medicine regarding the acceptance of gifts and other arrangements from the drug industry, and their influence on prescribing.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study with triangulation involving quantitative and qualitative methods.

SETTING
Catalonia (northeastern Spain), June 2002.

PARTICIPANTS
Family physicians who were members of the Society and who had a known e-mail address.

MAIN MEASURES
Standardized questionnaire. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis.

RESULTS
The types of gifts and other arrangements that were considered ethically acceptable by the largest percentage of respondents were publicity items (82.5%), free samples (78.1%), and financial support for training activities (74.3%). Accepting direct economic compensation (2.2%), coverage of travel expenses (20.6%) or a free dinner (40.1%) was considered less ethical. More than 50% of the participants felt that accepting these arrangements did not influence their prescribing practices, and only 38.3% felt that economic compensation for prescribing a given medication did influence these practices. Arrangements by industry representatives that benefited professionalism, the center or the patients, but that did not represent any purely personal benefit, were considered acceptable. Participation by the industry in training events was accepted, although participants would prefer less industry involvement. Some participants described strategies to prevent gifts and other arrangements from influencing prescribing practices.

CONCLUSIONS
The percentage of members surveyed who considered that gifts from industry influenced prescribing was low, despite evidence to the contrary. A finding of note was that some professionals considered ethical certain types of relationships of questionable legality. Informants noted the need to initiate debate on this topic.


Abstracts presented at the 8th International Symposium on Memory and Awareness in Anesthesia (MAA8)s presented at the 8th International Symposium on Memory and Awareness in Anesthesia (MAA8) Milwaukee, WI, USA, June 2–5, 2011 (*Indicates non-member. All authors have certified that, where appropriate, studies have been conducted with the approval of the relevant Human Ethics Committee or Animal Experimental Review Committee.) Neuroimaging consciousness and anaesthesia


The ongoing on-site comparison BIPM.EM-K12 is part of the BIPM programme implemented to verify the international coherence of the primary resistance standards. It allows National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) to validate their implementations of the quantum Hall effect (QHE) for dc resistance traceability by comparison to the reference maintained at the BIPM. The realization of the ohm from the QHE-based standard of the NMIs at 100 Ω is compared with that realized by the BIPM from its own transportable quantum Hall resistance standard. This comparison is usually completed by scaling measurements from 100 Ω to 1 Ω and 10 kΩ through the measurement of the resistance ratios 100 Ω/1 Ω and 10 kΩ/100 Ω, respectively. In October 2019, a new BIPM.EM-K12 on-site comparison was carried out at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS). It was the first time the KRISS participated in this comparison programme. Measurements of the 100 Ω transfer standard in terms of the SI value of the von Klitzing constant, R K, agreed to 4 parts in 1010 with a relative combined standard uncertainty u c = 24 × 10−10. Measurements of 10 kΩ/100 Ω and 100 Ω/1 Ω ratios agreed to 8 parts in 1010 with u c = 26 × 10−10 and to 2 parts in 1010 with u c = 23 × 10−10, respectively. Main text To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database kcdb.bipm.org/. The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCEM, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA).


Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) allows the direct localization of DANN and RNA sequences on chromosomes, in cells and in tissue. The technique is based on hybridization between target sequences of single-strand DNA of chromosomes or cell nuclei with marked complementary specimens. The signal is amplified using fluorochrome-marked specific antibodies and made visible under a microscope. Signals from painted chromosomes, stained subchromosomal regions or localized single probes are generally visible when an epifluorescence microsope is used. In order to view and display different fluorochromes, single filter sets, as well as double and triple bandpass filters, are in use. For multiple fluoroscence imaging, lenses with high numerical aperture, mostly oil immersion systems, are recommended. In conventional photomicrography, triple exposure on high-speed film (e.g., 400-1,000 ASA) is more or less the limitation. Opto=electronic methods using a CCD and laser summing techniques have considerably extended the application range of multiple fluorescence techniques. By means of digitized images, simultaneous detection of multiple-labelled objects and ratio imaging up to 24 colors are possible today. Current FISH approaches are based on chromosome-painting probes to distinguish all 24 chromosomes by their unique spectral signatures.


BACKGROUND
Detection of bacterial antigen in stool specimens (HpSAT) is a new promising tool for diagnosing Helicobacter pylori infection.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate diagnostic accuracy of HpSAT in the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We evaluate the presence of Helicobacter pylori infection by the rapid urease test and the 13C-urea breath test in endoscopic biopsies. Patients who were positive for both tests were considered to have Helicobacter pylori infection. Patients negative for both tests were considered free of infection. The presence of Helicobacter pylori infection was also determined in stool specimens by means of HpSAT.

RESULTS
The sensitivity of HpSAT was 92.8%, the specificity 92.3%, the positive predictive value 98.1% and the negative predictive value 75%.

CONCLUSIONS
HpSAT is a reliable tool for diagnosing Helicobacter pylori infection.


From May, 1977 to May, 1978, the Transportation Centre, University of Saskatchewan conducted four surveys to determine seatbelt usage rates in Saskatchewan. The surveys were conducted prior to and after, the passage of a law on July 1, 1977, requiring seatbelt use by front seat occupants of motor vehicles. The surveys were conducted at sampling stations on urban streets, provincial highways and municipal roads. The results of the May, 1978 survey were analyzed to determine what relationships exist between usage rates and various vehicle characteristics. Usage rates when examined using cross-tabulations appeared higher for certain types of vehicles: compact or sub-compact vehicles, foreign models, etc. However, when the data was analyzed using multiple regression techniques, only the year of vehicle manufacture showed a consistently high level of significance.


Inhibitors of histone deactylases (HDACs) are emerging as potent anti-cancer agents for treatment of patients with hematopoietic and solid tumors. However, most of these compounds exhibit limitations, including off-targets and toxicity. To improve the efficacy and target specificity of drugs, we developed the compound, SP-1-161 conferring HDAC inhibition activity and ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) activation. The purpose of this study is to develop a therapy that optimizes the protective effects of ATM activation in normal tissue with the sensitizing effects of HDAC inhibition in cancerous tissue into a single molecule. The compound SP-1-161 was rationally designed by optimizing ATM activation by the cap domain of a hydroximic acid, screened against a panel of Class I and Class II HDAC enzymes, and identified as a pan-HDAC inhibitor with nanomolar potency (IC 50 = 8 nM). Western analysis confirms that SP-1-161 increases acetylated histone H3/H4 and α-tubulin and ATM activation in MCF7 cells. Phosphorylated ATM was gradually increased within 1 - 4 hrs in a time-dependent manner. SP-1-161 was then tested in normal breast epithelial (184A1) and breast cancer (MCF7) cell lines to determine its cytotoxicity and effect on radiation clonogenic survival in combination with graded radiation exposure. The data showed that the cytotoxicity values (IC 50 ) were low micro-molar ranges. Furthermore, SP-1-161 protected 184A1 cells (from D 0 = 1 Gy to D 0 = 1.4 Gy) while increasing sensitivity of MCF7 cells to IR (from D 0 =1.6 Gy to D 0 =1.12 Gy). Together, our results demonstrate that SP-1-161 is an unprecedented radio-chemo therapeutic agent for treatment of cancers while protecting normal cells. Citation Format: Scott Grindrod, Alfredo Velena, Mira Jung. Development of dual function small molecules as therapeutic agents for cancer treatment [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4054. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4054


Theoretical and experimental investigations on the response time improvement of biased and unbiased long-wave infrared (LWIR) HgCdTe detectors operating at temperatures T = 230K were presented in this paper. MOCVD technology is an excellent tool in fabrication of different HgCdTe detector structures with a wide range of composition, donor/acceptor doping and without post grown ex-situ annealing. Donor doping efficiency in (111) and (100) oriented HgCdTe layers has been discussed. The time constant is lower in biased detectors due to Auger suppression phenomena and reduction of diffusion capacitance related to wider depletion region. The relatively high bias currents requirements and excessive low frequency noise which reduces the detectivity of biased detectors inspire researches on the time constant improvement of unbiased detectors. The response time of high-operating temperature (HOT) LWIR HgCdTe detectors revealed complex behavior being dependent on the applied the reverse bias, the operating temperature, the absorber thickness and doping, the series resistance and the electrical area of the devices.


Both Narratology and Digital Humanities look back on a remarkable history of research and progress. One after the other, the narratological and the digital research communities evolved into large international and interdisciplinary networks. While cooperation between the two disciplines would be possible and beneficial in many areas, they often still work in parallel rather than together. A workshop at Hamburg University brought together Literary Studies researchers from Narratology and from Digital Humanities to (a) discuss requirements for and possibilities of a digital operationalisation of analytical categories from Narratology and Literary Studies and (b) theoretically reflect upon possible connections between more traditional and digital approaches. The present volume combines the workshop contributions from both disciplines and thus attempts to further the bridge-building and dialogue.


It is my privilege to report on the activities of the National Executive and your elected president, for the period March 2008 to March 2009.


The underweight and overweight of under-five children in Indonesia are considered as a serious problem by WHO. One of factor affecting is parents' urge in fulfilling their child's nutritional needs is often behind a less precise of feeding practice, this will have an impact on children's daily eating behaviour because children with 3 to 5 years old showed an attitude picky eater and included into active consumers. This study is intended to identify the relationship between mother's feeding behavior with 3 to 5 years old children's eating behavior in Babakan Sari, Kiaracondong District. The study used a descriptive correlation method with the cross-sectional approach and proportional random sampling technique. The samples of the study were 89 people. The data were collected through the instrument Comprehensive Feeding Practice Questionnaire (CFPQ) for the practice of children feeding and Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) for the children eating behavior. The data were analyzed through univariate and bivariate analysis used Chi-Square test. The results showed that 58,4% of the respondents conducted a less precise feeding practice and 78,7% of the mothers perceives eating behavior children have a good eating behavior. It can be concluded that is no relation between the practice of mother's feeding behavior with the 3 to 5 years old children's eating behavior in Babakan Sari, Kiaracondong District (p-value > 0,05).


Arterioportal fistulas are a rare complication of abdominal interventions. They can remain asymptomatic for a long time and manifest with symptoms of portal hypertension. We present the case of a 65-year-old man admitted to the emergency room with increasing fatigue and melena. He had a history of partial gastrectomy with Billroth II reconstruction 40 years earlier for peptic ulcer perforation. On physical examination, he was pale and presented a machinery-type murmur in the epigastric area. Blood tests revealed iron deficiency anaemia of 5.6 g/dL. During hospitalisation, he required several blood transfusions and maintained melenas. An abdominal CT angiography showed a fusiform aneurysm of the left gastric artery draining to the venous portal-splenic confluent. He was successfully treated with transarterial coil embolisation of the left gastric artery aneurysm. The correct diagnosis of arterioportal fistulas can be very challenging, whereas the standard treatment with coil embolisation offers a low morbidity resolution of symptoms.


Five cases of carvical trachea stenosis are reported in this paper. One was caused by traffic accident. The remaining four resulted from long-term compression by enlarged thyroid glands inducing tracheomalacia and absorption. Tracheatomies were performed on all the patients because of asphyxia. But decanulation failed owing to tracheomalacia. Pre-neck fixations were performed in all patients in order to solve the problem of trachea stenosis, and then the cannulas were removed successfully. During a one-year follow up, all patients healed clinically with no dyspenea.


The Genetics Society of America's Edward Novitski Prize recognizes a single experimental accomplishment or a body of work in which an exceptional level of creativity and intellectual ingenuity has been used to design and execute scientific experiments to solve a difficult problem in genetics. The 2017 winner, Jonathan Hodgkin, used elegant genetic studies to unravel the sex determination pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans. He inferred the order of genes in the pathway and their modes of regulation using epistasis analyses—a powerful tool that was quickly adopted by other researchers. He expanded the number and use of informational suppressor mutants in C. elegans that are able to act on many genes. He also introduced the use of collections of wild C. elegans to study naturally occurring genetic variation, paving the way for SNP mapping and QTL analysis, as well as studies of hybrid incompatibilities between worm species. His current work focuses on nematode–bacterial interactions and innate immunity.


We review realistic models that reproduce quantum theory in some limit and yield potentially new physics outside that limit. In particular, we consider deterministic hidden-variables theories (such as the pilot-wave model) and their extension to " quantum non-equilibrium, " and we consider the continuous spontaneous localization model of wave function collapse. Other models are briefly discussed.


Introduction: The misfortunate incident of formation of a urogenital fistula remains a major challenge for surgical urologists worldwide. Such fistulae may not be a life-threatening problem, but surely the women face demoralization, social boycott and even divorce and separation. The fistula may be vaginal, recto-vaginal or a combination of the two. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that in the developing nations, nearly 5 million women annually suffer severe morbidity with obstetric fistulae being the foremost on the list. The objective of our study was to enunciate the patient demography, patient profile, incidence, type of surgery, as well as the long-term outcomes encountered in the management of all types of genital fistulae at a tertiary care centre. Materials and Methods: 50 consecutive patients, attending the outpatient department with urogenital fistulae, were studied during the period of 5 years from July 2005 to July 2009. All female patients with complaints of urinary incontinence and fecal incontinence and dribbling, patients having a history of obstructed labor, radiotherapy, instrumental delivery, foreign body or trauma and with a history of hysterectomy (abdominal/ vaginal) and lower segment caesarean section (LSCS) were included. A thorough urological examination included a dye study using methylene blue, Renal function tests, X-ray KUB and intravenous urography (IVU). Cystoscopy along with examination under anaesthesia (EUA) were done to assess the actual extent of injury. All patients were subjected to appropriate surgical interventions via the same combination of surgeons . Post operatively, prophylactic antibiotics were administered to all patients and patients were managed till discharge and followed thereafter via regular outpatient visits for a period of 3 years. Results: Age of patients ranged from 21 to 40 years. 64% patients hailed from rural areas, 76% were from the lower socio-economic strata, 40% illiterate and 69% were short Statured. Vesico vaginal fistulae (VVF) was seen in 64% cases of which 50% were due to obstructed labor, 19% cases post LSCS and 31% cases post total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH). 68% of urogenital fistulae were between 1 to 3 cms. We obtained a 75% cure rate in UVF, 87.5% cure rate in RVF while a 93.75% cure rate was observed in patients with VVF. 76% of all patients were cured while 8% had a recurrence, probably due to the large size of fistula. Conclusion: Genital fistula is preventable, yet it remains a significant cause of morbidity among females of reproductive age group. Despite facilities available, certain conditions like physical, social, economic, illiteracy, and a very casual attitude towards maternal health and children birth practices limit utilization of services for women. It is important that the modern health care providers should be aware of these aspects, so that they can recognize services that are appropriate and acceptable to the people. Thus, one must agree that in cases of urogenital fistulae, "prevention is better than cure".


This study evaluates the potential of a foraminifera-based transfer function to reconstruct the Holocene paleobathymetric evolution of the Po Delta area (northern Adriatic Sea). The Northern Adriatic Transfer Function (NATF) is based upon the largest modern Adriatic database existing in the literature (Jorissen, 1988). The performance of the NATF suggests a strong relationship between observed and foraminifera-predicted water depths (r2jack = 0.95) with relatively precise reconstructions (RMSEP = ~5 m) within the depth range of 8 to 100 m. We applied the NATF to a fossil marine succession in 40-meter-long core from the southern part of the modern Po Delta. The transfer function produced a shallowing-upward trend of paleowater depths from about 30 to 10 m within the interval of 5500-400 cal yr BP.

The deepest reconstructed water depths (>18 m) are from the inner shelf deposits at the base of the marine succession (~29–27 m core depths). The transition to a prodelta setting at 4700 cal yr BP is associated with oscillations in water-depth reconstructions and should be treated with caution because of the unstable and complex paleoenvironmental conditions. Thereafter, from core depths of ~27 to 15m, shallower paleowater depths(<18 m) characterize the prodeltaic succession that was deposited as the Po Delta system developed. The shallowest paleowater depths (11–8 m) characterize the uppermost deposits, in line with the shallowing-upward, progradational trend.

These results suggest that subtidal foraminifera-based transfer functions can be useful tools in reconstructing the paleobathymetric history of subsurface deposits in modern deltaic systems.


BACKGROUND
The goal of surgery for colorectal cancer is cure. Unfortunately post-operative mortality occurs. This study aims to identify co-morbidity and causes of mortality in the post-operative period in relation to direct technical complications of surgery.

METHODS
All consecutive patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer were included. Co-morbidity was determined via the Charlson co-morbidity score. The post-operative course was studied and cause of death within 30 days was determined. Patients were divided in two groups: group 1 died within 30 days after surgery and group 2 survived for longer than 30 days.

RESULTS
Twenty three out of 333 patients (6.9%) with colon cancer and 6 out of 112 (5.3%) with rectal cancer died in the post-operative period. Patients in group 1 were significantly older than patients in group 2 (P<0.001). Patients in group 1 with colon cancer also significantly had more often a higher stage of cancer (P=0.03). The Charlson co-morbidity score for patients with colon cancer in group 1 was mean 5.17 (SD 1.57, range, 1-8), and for rectal cancer mean 4.83 (SD 2.32, range, 2-7). There was no difference in Charlson co-morbidity score when patients from groups 1 and 2 were compared. In group 1, 13 (44%) died as a direct consequence of technical surgical complications. Sixteen patients died due to complications because of pre-existing co-morbidity.

CONCLUSIONS
Post-operative mortality very often is the direct result of pre-existing co-morbidity and not always the direct result of the surgical procedure.


A 33-year-old male developed stiffness of the left neck and pain of the left shoulder two years previously. Six months prior to admission, he noticed tingling sensation of the left 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers and motor weakness of the left hand, both of which gradually progressed. On admission, positive neurological findings were neck pain on dorsal extension, left hemiparesis more advanced in the upper limb, diffuse muscle atrophy of the left upper limb, hyperreflexia of the left upper and lower limbs with positive Babinski sign and dysesthesia corresponding to the left C3-T5 sensory dermatomes. Enhanced CT and Metrizamide CT myelography showed a large extra- and intra-dural mass from the C1 segment to the medulla oblongata on the left. Angiography disclosed a fusiform aneurysm of the left vertebral artery. Proximal ligation of the left vertebral artery was performed. Postoperatively, clinical signs were markedly improved and shrinkage of the aneurysm was demonstrated on postoperative Metrizamide CT myelogram. Pathogenesis of diffuse muscle atrophy of the left upper limb was undetermined, but was probably not due to disturbance of the anterior spinal artery because of good visualization of the artery on the angiogram. Indication of the proximal ligation of the vertebral artery with an aneurysm was discussed.


Abstract γ-Tubulin is an ubiquitous MTOC (microtubule-organizing center) component essential for the regulation of microtubule functions. A 1.8 kb cDNA coding for γ-tubulin was isolated from CHO cells. Analysis of nucleotide sequence predicts a protein of 451 amino acids, which is over 97% identical to human and Xenopus γ-tubulin. When CHO cells were transiently transfected with the γ-tubulin clone, epitope-tagged full-length, as well as truncated polypeptides (amino acids 1-398 and 1-340), resulted in the formation of cytoplasmic foci of various sizes. Although one of the foci was identified as the centrosome, the rest of the dots were not associated with any other centrosomal components tested so far. The pattern of microtubule organization was not affected by induction of such γ-tubulin-containing dots in transfected cells. In addition, the cytoplasmic foci were unable to serve as the site for microtubule regrowth in nocodazole-treated cells upon removal of the drug, suggesting that γ-tubulin-containing foci were not involved in the activity for microtubule formation and organization. Using the monomeric form of Chlamydomonas γ-tubulin purified from insect Sf9 cells (Vassilev et al., J. Cell Sci. 108: 1083, 1995), interaction between γ-tubulin and microtubules was further investigated by immunoelectron microscopy. Microtubules incubated with γ-tubulin monomers in vitro were associated with more gold particles conjugated with γ-tubulin than in controls where no exogenous γ-tubulin was added. However, binding of γ-tubulin to microtubules was not extensive and was easily lost during sample preparation. Although γ-tubulin was detected at the minus end of microtubules several times more frequently than the plus end, the majority of gold particles were seen along the microtubule length. These results contradict the previous reports (Li and Joshi, J. Cell Biol. 131: 207, 1995; Shu and Joshi, J. Cell Biol. 130: 1137, 1995), which might be ascribed to the difference in the level of protein expression in transfected cells.


Despite extensive work on macrosomia, it is impossible to predict women at risk. Current prediction strategies which include clinical examination and ultrasound are imprecise. This study aims to determine the risk factors associated with macrosomia. It was a descriptive, retrospective chart review of women delivered of macrosomic neonates over a two-year period from 2015-2016. Detailed clinical and demographic information was recorded. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS (version 25.0 IBM, Armonk, New York, USA). Of 22 244 singleton deliveries, 415 were macrosomic infants (1.9%). The mean birth weight for macrosomic infants was 4.39 ± 0.43 (range 4-5.15) kg and males were more in number and weight. Macrosomic infants occurred more in age groups 25-29 years and peaked with BMI ≥30 kg/m2. Majority were cesarean sections compared to vaginal deliveries (56.6% vs 43.4%; p=0.006) respectively. Vaginal delivery of macrosomic infants was associated with complications. Significant differences were found between fetal macrosomia and clinical characteristics such as body mass index, parity, advanced maternal age, and male fetal sex. Hypoglycaemia was most frequent in infants born to non-diabetic mothers (98.1%). Antenatal risk factors are important in the prediction of macrosomia, but fetal and maternal outcome depends on labour management.


Tissue dissociation, a crucial step in single‐cell sample preparation, can alter the transcriptional state of a sample through the intrinsic cellular stress response. Here we demonstrate a general approach for measuring transcriptional response during sample preparation. In our method, transcripts made during dissociation are labeled for later identification upon sequencing. We found general as well as cell‐type‐specific dissociation response programs in zebrafish larvae, and we observed sample‐to‐sample variation in the dissociation response of mouse cardiomyocytes despite well‐controlled experimental conditions. Finally, we showed that dissociation of the mouse hippocampus can lead to the artificial activation of microglia. In summary, our approach facilitates experimental optimization of dissociation procedures as well as computational removal of transcriptional perturbation response.


When an individual make a cash payment, he needs to consider about the amount to be paid, the coins and banknotes which are available and amount of change. For central banks and retailers, it is of interest to understand how this individual choice process works. The literature of currency use concerns primarily theory given certain assumptions which can present appreciate denomination range by statistical analysis. Literature surveys try to answer the question that which is the best selection of available coins and banknotes in the wallet to fulfill the charge. There is no mathematical model which can optimize a specific denomination range of coins and banknotes. In this paper, we aim at modeling this process where denomination range of banknotes and coins are optimized through a mathematical model in which all parameters are assumed to be certain in a single period in any economy. Finally, some numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model.


In this paper, we propose a simple method to predict salient locations from news article text using a knowledge base (KB). The proposed method uses a dictionary of locations created from the KB to identify occurrences of locations in the text and uses the hierarchical information between entities in the KB for assigning appropriate saliency scores to regions. It allows prediction at arbitrary region units and has only a few hyperparameters that need to be tuned. We show using manually annotated news articles that the proposed method improves the f-measure by > 0.12 compared to multiple baselines.


Fluorometholone and Sodium Cromoglycate are used in the treatment of allergic conjunctivitis. A validated HPLC method was developed for the assay of them. The method was performed on BDS HYPERSIL C18 column (250x4.6 mm, 5μ) and the mobile phase consisted of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (pH 4.5, 0.025M) - Acetonitrile (40:60, V/V) which pumped at a flow rate 1.0 ml/min at ambient temperature. 20 μl of drugs sample solutions were monitored at two fixed wavelengths (lambda = 240.0 nm for Sodium Cromoglycate and 330.0 nm for Fluorometholone). The proposed method was validated in terms of linearity, accuracy, precision and limits of detection and quantitation according to ICH


For almost a century the wages fund doctrine existed as an important part of Classical economic thought. It formed the theoretical basis of the Classical analysis of the labour market, and was employed by political economists and popularizers of political economy when discussing the role of trades unions, the impact of machinery, the effect of the Poor Laws and other policy issues.

This thesis applies the ideas of Imre Lakatos to the history of the wages fund doctrine in order to analyze and appraise its development and decline. The theoretical framework employed is based on Lakatos' methodology of scientific research programmes and the methodology of historiographical research programmes. Various elements of this framework are then applied to the history of the wages fund doctrine. It is argued that the hard core of the wages fund research programme emerged gradually in the work of the early Classical writers and was fully formed by the 1820s. A major counterexample to the programme — the 'monster' of money wages — is analyzed using the concepts developed by Lakatos in his Proofs and Refutations [1976].

It is argued that the programme made theoretical progress at the hands of Ricardo, Senior and Mill but that this progress halted in the 1850s. The 1860s saw a major debate concerning the wages fund doctrine prompted the events of that decade, and this debate is analyzed in detail using the tools and concepts of the Lakatosian framework. The thesis rationally reconstructs the wages fund doctrine and the recantataion debate as 'scientific' and provides evidence that the methodology of historiographical research programmes continues to make theoretical progress.


This paper is the first of a projected series of reports on the nuclear configuration and the fiber connections of the telencephalon in reptiles, birds, and mammals. It is hoped that such studies may aid in a better understanding of the morphologic pattern common to this forebrain region in all these forms, and that it may contribute somewhat to a further appreciation of some of those factors which, during the course of phylogeny, have led to modifications and variations of this common pattern resulting in the appearance of those differentiations and specializations of structure which characterize the various classes constituting these orders and in some instances individual members of these classes. Since in the course of phylogeny, the hemispheres begin their development under the influence of the olfactory system, it is fitting that studies of this type should begin with a consideration of the primary and secondary olfactory centers.


Localized collocation methods based on radial basis functions (RBFs) for elliptic problems appear to be non-robust in the presence of Neumann boundary conditions. In this paper we overcome this issue by formulating the RBF-generated finite difference method in a discrete least-squares setting instead. This allows us to prove high-order convergence under node refinement and to numerically verify that the least-squares formulation is more accurate and robust than the collocation formulation. The implementation effort for the modified algorithm is comparable to that for the collocation method.


Interaction of chemicals in a mixture, their biotransformation and adverse impact, if any, on environment and workroom atmosphere needs to be evaluated to identify the nature of potential toxic effects elicited by constituent chemical(s) in a mixture.  The nature of chemical interaction(s) through which an individual chemical in a mixture undergoes metabolism and/or biotransformation in the target tissue could be helpful in evaluation of its toxic potential. Gasoline is a unique example of such chemical mixture where interaction of aromatics viz., benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene (BTEX) traverses through a common metabolic pathway involving cytochrome P-450 dependent mixed function oxidases.  Travis et al. [1] has quantitatively evaluated that gasoline vapor has an antagonistic effect on benzene metabolism and its biotransformation products.  It was reported that 1000 ppm gasoline vapor had the same inhibitory effect as 500 ppm toluene on the metabolism of 290 ppm benzene, indicating that there may be many confounding factors in gasoline which might affect the metabolism of benzene in turn affecting its toxicity at the molecular level. It has been reported that benzene causes myelotoxicity through its bioactive metabolites.  Such biotransformation mechanisms involve cytochrome P-450 dependent Phase-I enzymes and the products are further detoxified through Phase-II enzymes.  It was therefore considered pertinent to study the impact of gasoline blended with 1, 3 and 5% benzene concentrations.  Female albino rats weighing 200–250 gm were exposed by dermal route to gasoline blended with varying benzene concentrations, @ 2 g/kg body wt., six days a week over a period of 90 days.  The activities of hepatic mixed function oxidases, viz., aniline hydroxylase and aminopyrene demethylase as a monitor of Phase-I enzymes and Glutathione-S-Transferase for Phase-II enzyme was estimated along with free glutathione levels.  Serum creatine kinase was also estimated to assess the extent of muscular dystrophy.  The results of this sub chronic study will be discussed in the context of interaction of gasoline with varying concentration of benzene in experimental animals. Keywords: mixed function oxidases, benzene, toxicology, gasoline


In the context of Mexico-U.S. international transborder mobility at the turn of the century, this article argues that undocumented migration from Chiapas to the United Sates was carried out through social and family networks in order to resolve different needs and had different impacts in migrant families' places of origin. The author uses a qualitative local methodological approach based on ethnographic work and semi-structured interviews. One of the article's contributions is to show that migration produces economic, social, and family changes locally and at the level of the home, generating restructurings of different intensities in certain spheres of the social order in places of origin.


Construction management firms in Korea have mainly focused on the key management areas of time, cost, quality and safety management in line with a rapid change of construction industry recently. However, a risk management is considered comparatively less important found from our research on an investment by the firms for training, system establishment. This has been identified that the construction management firms have taken an approach of dealing with risks with their experience, insight rather than managing risks with a systemized principles or proper tools. Therefore, the current system for risk management was identified by analyzing risk factors and work process in this research and systemized process for risk management of the identified risk factors was suggested. This research is expected to be a basis on establishing standard gudiance for risk management and risk management tools.


Background: In Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB), high IL17 level was corelated with severe tissue damage while low level was associated with mortality. High levels of IL-17 and IL 23 were found in patients with a high bacterial load. TB treatment is carried out by combination of anti-tuberculosis drugs for a period of 9 to 24 months. This study aimed to analyze the differences in IL-17 and IL-23 levels before and after treatment compared to healthy controls, and their relationship with conversion AFB smear. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted with total 38 subjects diagnosed as DR-TB using a molecular rapid test and 34 normal subjects as case and control groups. Examination of sputum AFB, IL-17 and IL-23 levels were carried out at the start of treatment and 30 days after treatment. Treatment was given in short term and individul drugs resistant regiments. Results: The average levels of IL-17 and IL 23 before treatment compared to those after treatment showed no significant difference (p=0.153; p= 0.328). When compare to healthy controls group, the mean levels of IL-17 and IL 23 before treatment was not significantly different (p= 0.883; p= 0.928), whereas after 1 month treatment were significantly different (p= 0.047; p=0.042). An increase of IL-17 levels followed by an increase in IL-23 levels (p=0,000 r=.0.872). TB treatment affected the conversion rate of 97.4% with linear association. Conclusion: The levels of IL-17 and IL-23 after treatment were increasing and significantly different with healthy group. These related with the high AFB conversion rate.


The gap between supply and demand for computer scientists has its roots in children's perception that programming is "hard and boring." The Web extra at http://youtu.be/5FSbA_YMsNE is a video showing students at Aspen Creek K-8 in Broomfield, Colorado, using AgentSheets, a program developed by author Alex Repenning to design video games in an after-school program. Repenning designed AgentSheets to encourage interest in Computer Science careers and scientific thinking in students.


Recently, a number of deep-learning based models have been proposed for the task of Visual Question Answering (VQA). The performance of most models is clustered around 60-70%. In this paper we propose systematic methods to analyze the behavior of these models as a first step towards recognizing their strengths and weaknesses, and identifying the most fruitful directions for progress. We analyze two models, one each from two major classes of VQA models -- with-attention and without-attention and show the similarities and differences in the behavior of these models. We also analyze the winning entry of the VQA Challenge 2016.
Our behavior analysis reveals that despite recent progress, today's VQA models are "myopic" (tend to fail on sufficiently novel instances), often "jump to conclusions" (converge on a predicted answer after 'listening' to just half the question), and are "stubborn" (do not change their answers across images).


ABSTRACTNation-Building and Ethnic Boundaries in China?s NorthwestThis thesis will analyse the identity politics of the Chinese party-state?s nation-building project in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It will examine how the party-state intends to overcome the barrier of ethnic boundaries in the production of a shared sense of multi-ethnic, national belonging. Uyghurs and Han can be thought of as belonging to different civilisations (Chinese and Turkic-Islamic) but in modern times they are often thought of as divided by ethnic boundaries. The party-state?s idea of the Chinese nation (Zhonghua Minzu) is a nation-building project to eliminate these boundaries so as to produce a multi-ethnic nation. Fieldwork was conducted after the riots of July 2009 engulfed the region. Ethnically targeted violence against both Han and Uyghurs destabilised the city of �r�mchi and challenged the party-state?s vision of China as a unified and harmonious nation. The official Chinese explanation was that this was an internationally funded and synchronised terrorist attack but Uyghur rights groups have blamed tensions on government policy repressing Uyghur culture and stoking Han nationalism.The theoretical framework employed draws from the concepts of production and performativity in Post-Structuralist and Critical International Relations (IR) theory, particularly the work of Cynthia Weber (1998) and David Campbell (1998). The critical approach adopted here takes security as a process of performative enactment of identity, which produces the units we take for granted as worthy of security. The analysis will examine official performances of what it means to be Chinese and Uyghur. It will then ask how these performances are received and (re)performed by members of the postulated nation. The party-state seeks to include Uyghurs as Chinese but it also excludes and securitises Uyghur Turkic and Islamic identities as ?outside? threats to the unity of the nation.The research is a result of one year of fieldwork (September 2009-August 2010) in �r�mchi, the capital city of Xinjiang. This was the first ethnographic study of responses to the violence of July 2009. Furthermore, the incorporation of Han perspectives has been very limited thus far in the literature on Xinjiang. The analysis uses a top-down approach, which employs discourse analysis of official texts to understand what type of national identity the party-state seeks to produce. However, these methods are coupled with a bottom-up analysis using ethnographic methods, particularly detailed, semi-structured interviews, to explore how these official discourses are received. The perspectives of Han and Uyghurs in Xinjiang can inform us how nation-building will unfold and what type of social dynamics it will engender. Analysing perspectives on the nation from below can help us understand the type of nation we expect to be produced in China rather than the type of nation the party-state narrates. The findings of this research demonstrate that both Uyghurs and Han are turning official Chinese nationalist discourses against themselves to articulate separate ethnic nations. Uyghurs frame China as an assimilationist transgression of ethnic boundaries for the benefit of the Han. Han frame their nation as under threat from Uyghurs and articulate China as a Han nation. The party-state?s nation-building project is unintentionally producing insecurity and reinforcing ethnic boundaries which remain obstacles to a shared sense of nationhood.


Easing water apart Traditional setups for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen operate either in acid or in base. A bipolar membrane can potentially enhance efficiency by bridging acidic hydrogen evolution to basic oxygen evolution. Oener et al. undertook a systematic study of how catalysts paired with such a membrane might accelerate the preliminary step of water dissociation into protons and hydroxide ions. Using insights from this study for optimal catalyst integration, they were able to substantially lower the overpotential of a bipolar membrane electrolyzer. Science, this issue p. 1099 A systematic study of water-dissociation catalysts enhanced performance of bipolar membranes for electrolysis. Catalyzing water dissociation (WD) into protons and hydroxide ions is important both for fabricating bipolar membranes (BPMs) that can couple different pH environments into a single electrochemical device and for accelerating electrocatalytic reactions that consume protons in neutral to alkaline media. We designed a BPM electrolyzer to quantitatively measure WD kinetics and show that, for metal nanoparticles, WD activity correlates with alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction activity. By combining metal-oxide WD catalysts that are efficient near the acidic proton-exchange layer with those efficient near the alkaline hydroxide-exchange layer, we demonstrate a BPM driving WD with overpotentials of <10 mV at 20 mA·cm−2 and pure water BPM electrolyzers that operate with an alkaline anode and acidic cathode at 500 mA·cm−2 with a total electrolysis voltage of ~2.2 V.


Abstract The social-philosophical discourse of the last 20 years pictured recognition mainly as medium of human autonomy. In recent years however, concerns have been raised over whether recognition might not occasionally work in the opposite direction, as means of subjection. This article contends that these concerns rely on a misconstruction of the relationship between recognition and subjection as merely contingent. Developing themes from Foucault's work, it argues that recognition rather always necessarily involves a moment of subjection. In the first part, I show that Foucault, especially in his power-analytic writings, can plausibly be read as theorist of recognition insofar as every relation of power presupposes the recognition of the other as free. In the second part, I elaborate that every concrete relation of power depends on conditions - knowledge and norms - that precede it and that are formed and transformed in complex historical processes, in which the authority of individual subjects is always only a limited one. Against this background, it will become visible that recognition indeed allows us to conduct ourselves autonomously as certain kinds of subjects according to certain norms but as such also always subjects us as it ties our freedom to conditions that we remain largely exposed to.


Background: Various treatments have been proposed for chronic low back pain (CLBP), but recent guidelines and reviews recommend regular physical exercise. However, some other studies have reported opposite results that sling exercise (SE) and other exercises (OE) did not differ in improving CLBP. Objectives: To systematically review and meta-analyze the effects of SE on CLBP in studies published in Korea. Design: A Systemic Review and Meta-analysis. Methods: Randomized controlled trials comparing SE with OE and modality therapy (MT), published up to June 2020, were identified by electronic searches. Primary outcomes were pain and disability. The weighted mean difference (WMD), stand mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using a random-effects model. Results: Based on the results of the meta-analysis, SE was effective for pain in the comparison of SE and MT [short-term: WMD=-1.64, 95% CI (-3.06, - 0.22); long-term: WMD=-0.34, 95% CI (-0.42, -0.26)]. It was effective for pain in the comparison of SE and OE [short-term: WMD=-1.18, 95% CI (-2.15, - 0.20); long-term: WMD=-0.66, 95% CI (-0.89, -0.43)]. It was also effective for disability in the comparison of SE and MT [short-term: SMD=-15.82, 95% CI (- 23.10, -8.54)]. We found no clinically relevant differences in disability between SE and OE. Heterogeneity was high in the comparison of SE and overall variables. Conclusion: If SE is applied to physical therapy to improve the main symptoms of CLBP patients, it may contribute to their recovery. More high-quality randomized studies on the topic are warranted.