The present study is intended to investigate the expansion of haematopoiesis by localised volume selective proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) during treatment with myeloid growth factors. Six consecutive patients were treated with daily subcutaneous injections of recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF, n = 2) or granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF, n = 4) for five days before marrow harvest. MRS investigations were performed prior to treatment (day 0), day 5 and day 12. The patients responded with a rise in blood absolute neutrophil count from median 3.3 x 10(9)/l (range 1.3-7.3 x 10(9)/l) before to 15.6 x 10(9)l (range 6.8-22.0 x 10(9)/l) after treatment. Concomitantly an increase in bone marrow cellularity and myeloid:erythroid ratios documented the stimulation of myelopoiesis. During priming, the light-density cell proliferation rate in marrow samples increased from median 21.9 (range 4.5-31) x 10(3) cpm to 54.7 (range 13.9-94) x 10(3) cpm and the total number of myeloid progenitors enumerated as day 7/14 GM-CFUs per volume aspirated marrow increased from median 11/8 x 10(3) (range 4.0-87.5/2.2-103.0) to 64/76. x 10(3) (range 28.4-1180.6/23.2-2850.0). MRS detected a significant increase in bone marrow "relative water content" day 12, one week after myeloid growth factor treatment was stopped, from median 30.5% (range 16-45) to 79% (range 56-93) (p < 0.05). Haematopoiesis was concommittantly detected in new areas of femur.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The history of the Ukrainian Hamlet shows that in Ukraine the tragedy's cognitive resources have always been efficiently employed as a means of intellectual campaigning. Today Hamlet keeps attracting the most gifted and charismatic translators who attempt to decipher the messages encoded in this masterpiece. The result differs each time depending on the aim and epistemological priorities of the translator. Sometimes new riddles are created. By means of singling out those special ambiguous moments this paper tries to clarify how the opacity of Shakespeare's twilight can be deliberately turned into either a bright day, or a dark night.


We exploit the pre-trained seq2seq model mBART for multilingual text style transfer. Using machine translated data as well as gold aligned English sentences yields state-of-the-art results in the three target languages we consider. Besides, in view of the general scarcity of parallel data, we propose a modular approach for multilingual formality transfer, which consists of two training strategies that target adaptation to both language and task. Our approach achieves competitive performance without monolingual task-specific parallel data and can be applied to other style transfer tasks as well as to other languages.


Given an instance of a hard decision problem, a limited goal is to compress that instance into a smaller, equivalent instance of a second problem. As one example, consider the problem where, given Boolean formulas ψ1,⋯,ψt, we must determine if at least one ψj is satisfiable. An OR-compression scheme for SAT is a polynomial-time reduction that maps (ψ1,⋯,ψt) to a string z, such that z lies in some "target" language L' if and only if Vj[ψj ∈SAT] holds. (Here, L' can be arbitrarily complex.) AND-compression schemes are defined similarly. A compression scheme is strong if |z| is polynomially bounded in n = maxj |ψj|, independent of t. Strong compression for SAT seems unlikely. Work of Harnik and Naor (FOCS '06/SICOMP '10) and Bodlaender, Downey, Fellows, and Hermelin (ICALP '08/JCSS '09) showed that the infeasibility of strong OR-compression for SAT would show limits to instance compression for a large number of natural problems. Bodlaender et al. also showed that the infeasibility of strong AND-compression for SAT would have consequences for a different list of problems. Motivated by this, Fortnow and Santhanam (STOC '08/JCSS '11) showed that if SAT is strongly OR-compressible, then NP C coNP/poly. Finding similar evidence against AND-compression was left as an open question. We provide such evidence: we show that strong AND- or OR-compression for SAT would imply non-uniform, statistical zero-knowledge proofs for SAT-an even stronger and more unlikely consequence than NP ⊆ coNP/poly. Our method applies against probabilistic compression schemes of sufficient "quality" with respect to the reliability and compression amount (allowing for tradeoff). This greatly strengthens the evidence given by Fortnow and Santhanam against probabilistic OR-compression for SAT. We also give variants of these results for the analogous task of quantum instance compression, in which a polynomial-time quantum reduction must output a quantum state that, in an appropriate sense, "preserves the answer" to the input instance. The central idea in our proofs is to exploit the information bottleneck in an AND-compression scheme for a language L in order to fool a cheating prover in a proof system for L̅. Our key technical tool is a new method to "disguise" information being fed into a compressive mapping; we believe this method may find other applications.


Purpose - The aim of the research is to use variations in measured accounting conservatism to gain a deeper understanding about the reporting incentives created by a country's institutional structure. Design/methodology/approach - Geographic proximity, cultural affinity and integrated economic relations provide Greater China with a unique setting for studying cross-country differences in institutional characteristics which affect the demand for accounting conservatism. Ball and Shivakumar contend that the economic role of conditional conservatism is an important attribute of financial reporting quality because it improves the efficiency of contracting, reduces information asymmetry and improves corporate governance. Findings - The empirical results indicate that Hong Kong is the most conservative economy, followed by Taiwan and China, implying that the legal/judicial system, regulatory environment and political economy of different countries are the pivotal forces which drive accounting conservatism. Overall, the evidence suggests that a country's institutional structures interact strongly with reporting incentives in determining accounting conservatism. Originality/value - This research examines cross-country differences in financial reporting quality by contrasting the influence of country-specific institutional factors on financial reporting incentives for conservative accounting practices. It is expected that this research will have important policy implication.


BACKGROUND
 Online media plays an important role in public health emergencies and serves as a communication platform. Infoveillance of online media during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important step toward a better understanding of crisis communication.

 OBJECTIVE
 The goal of this study is to perform a longitudinal analysis of the COVID-19 related content based on natural language processing methods.

 METHODS
 We collected dataset of news articles published by Croatian online media during the first 13 months of the pandemic. Firstly, we test the correlations between the number of articles and the number of new daily COVID-19 cases. Secondly, we analyze the content by extracting the most frequent terms and apply the Jaccard similarity. Next, we compare the occurrence of the pandemic-related terms during the two waves of the pandemic. Finally, we apply named entity recognition to extract the most frequent entities and track the dynamics of changes during the observed period.

 RESULTS
 The results show there is no significant correlation between the number of articles and the number of new daily COVID-19 cases. Furthermore, there are high overlaps in the terminology used in all articles published during the pandemic with a slight shift in the pandemic-related terms between the first and the second wave. Finally, the findings indicate that the most influential entities have lower overlaps for identified persons and higher overlaps for locations and institutions.

 CONCLUSIONS
 Our study shows that online media has a prompt response to the pandemic with a large number of COVID-19 related articles. There is a high overlap in the frequently used terms across the first 13 months, which may indicate the lower quality of reporting in certain periods. However, the pandemic-related terminology is well covered.


A new solution to adaptive control for a linear time-variant multivariable process with unknown parameters is presented. The proposed method requires knowledge of only input and output data and, consequently, no state estimation is necessary. The control signal is generated by a control block placed in series with the process. The control block behaves as the "adaptive" inverse of the process, and has as its input the desired output of the process. The whole control system is asymptotically hyperstable. The control system can solve the main problems encountered in process control: structural differences and parameter variations. In addition, it behaves satisfactorily under the influence of perturbations. The method is extremely simple to implement and quite general in scope. Various examples are included for illustration.


ObjectivesThe aims of our study were to assess different indications of office hysteroscopy and to evaluate the efficiency of this examination to diagnose uterine abnormalities in time of Covid 19 pandemic.MethodsThis is a prospective and descriptive study from March 2020 to November 2020. 54 patients were enrolled in our study. They presented an abnormal uterine bleeding. The indication of hysteroscopy was discussed to know if deferring the procedure could have an impact on patient's condition and outcome. If hysteroscopy was indicated, preference was given to in-office procedure. In case of failure, patients underwent a hysteroscopy in an operating theatre under general or regional anesthesia. All hysteroscopies were performed under specific safety protocol.Results54 patients were enrolled in our study. office hysteroscopy was performed in all cases. The indication was related to a recurrent abnormal uterine bleeding complicated with anemia or associated to a thick endmetrium in post menopausal women. In four cases, office hysteroscopy was performed in infertile women. The failure rate of in-office hysteroscopy was 7.4%. In 16 cases an operative hysteroscopy was performed in an operating room under anesthesia.Two cases of complex endometrial hyperplasia and one case of endometrial carcinoma were diagnosed. No cases of Covid 19 infection have been reported.Conclusions office hysteroscopy is an efficient and safe examination to manage abnormal uterine bleeding in time of Covid 19 pandemic.


With the popularization of smartphones, SNS, which allows easy message exchange, has become popular. On the other hand, a metaverse has attracted attention recently. In the metaverse, participants interact with each other through avatars in a virtual space. Therefore, if we can show participants the existing SNS space as the metaverse, we can provide participants with more intuitive use cases. This manner is beneficial for elderly people who are unfamiliar with using smartphones. In this paper, we propose LINE metaverse. LINE is the most popular messaging application in Japan. The LINE metaverse is characterized by replacing the bot mechanism used for marketing using SNS with a metaverse agent. In the LINE metaverse, elderly people can exchange messages via avatars on the metaverse.


Objective This study was conducted to assess the feasibility of performing 100-kVp electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated coronary CT angiography, as compared to 120-kVp ECG-gated coronary CT angiography. Materials and Methods We retrospectively evaluated one hundred eighty five gender- and body mass index-matched 16-slice coronary CT sets of data, which were obtained using either 100 kVp and 620 effective mAs or 120 kVp and 500 effective mAs. The density measurements (image noise, vessel density, signal-to-noise ratio [SNR] and contrast-to-noise ratio [CNR]) and the estimated radiation dose were calculated. As a preference test, two image readers were independently asked to choose one image from each pair of images. The results of both protocols were compared using the paired t-test or the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results The 100-kVp images showed significantly more noise and a significantly higher vessel density than did the 120-kVp images. There were no significant differences in the SNR and CNR. The estimated reduction of the radiation dose for the 100-kVp protocol was 24%; 7.8 ± 0.4 mSV for 100-kVp and 10.1 ± 1.0 mSV for 120-kVp (p < 0.001). The readers preferred the 100-kVp images for reading (reader 1, p = 0.01; reader 2, p = 0.06), with their preferences being stronger when the subject's body mass index was less than 25. Conclusion Reducing the tube kilovoltage from 120 to 100 kVp allows a significant reduction of the radiation dose without a significant change in the SNR and the CNR.


We consider collective excitations of a Fermi liquid. For each value of the angular momentum $l$, we study the evolution of longitudinal and transverse collective modes in the charge (c) and spin (s) channels with the Landau parameter $F_l^{c(s)}$, starting from positive $F_l^{c(s)}$ and all the way to the Pomeranchuk transition at $F_l^{c(s)} = -1$. In each case, we identify a critical zero-sound mode, whose velocity vanishes at the Pomeranchuk instability. For $F_l^{c(s)} < -1$, this mode is located in the upper frequency half-plane, which signals an instability of the ground state. In a clean Fermi liquid the critical mode may be either purely relaxational or almost propagating, depending on the parity of $l$ and on whether the response function is longitudinal or transverse. These differences lead to qualitatively different types of time evolution of the order parameter following an initial perturbation. A special situation occurs for the $l = 1$ order parameter that coincides with the spin or charge current. In this case the residue of the critical mode vanishes at the Pomeranchuk transition. However, the critical mode can be identified at any distance from the transition, and is still located in the upper frequency half-plane for $F_1^{c(s)} < -1$. The only peculiarity of the charge/spin current order parameter is that its time evolution occurs on longer scales than for other order parameters. We also analyze collective modes away from the critical point, and find that the modes evolve with $F_l^{c(s)}$ on a multi-sheet Riemann surface. For certain intervals of $F_l^{c(s)}$, the modes either move to an unphysical Riemann sheet or stay on the physical sheet but away from the real frequency axis. In that case, the modes do not give rise to peaks in the imaginary parts of the corresponding susceptiblities.


A new high-pressure instrument has been developed with the pressure uncertainty characteristic of free-piston gauges in the 3000 MPa range. It consists of an end-loaded piston-cylinder apparatus modified to use argon as a pressure medium. Pressure is determined from the piston force and the piston seal area with minor corrections for vessel bore dilation and seal friction. Bore dilation is approximately 0.36% and double-valued friction for the piston seal ranges from about 1% to 2%. A force-balance analysis of the piston seal indicates that the friction is highly symmetric. The equilibrium pressure of the Bi I-II transition has been determined in this apparatus to serve as a reference point on the practical pressure scale. Transition pressure measurements were made on 99.9999% pure polycrystalline bismuth. Small piston force excursions were made with both phases present to determine the equilibrium pressure which is insensitive to reaction rate. The Bi I-II equilibrium pressure is (2520 ± 5) MPa at 25 C. This value is 30 MPa (1.2%) lower than Heydemann's [1] value of (2550 ± 6) MPa. It is 8 MPa (0.3%) higher than the value of (2512 ± 3) MPa from Sekoyan et al. [2].


We studied 80 patients with lacunar strokes in the attempt to find a relation between lacunar strokes, arterial hypertension and leucoaraiosis. Leucoaraiosis was found in 47 patients (58,75%) on CT-scan. Our findings emphasize that arterial hypertension is the most important risk factor of leucoaraiosis (p less than 0.003); but we did not find a relation between the admission value of systolic or diastolic blood pressure and leucoaraiosis. Our data do not confirm the hypothesis that leucoaraiosis may be the result of a confluence of several lacunar infarcts, although we found that a rarefaction of cerebral white matter was associated with arterial hypertension.


This paper addresses the issue of uncertainty in the measurements used in public health analysis and decision-making. The Shannon-Wiener entropy measure was adapted to express the uncertainty contained in counting causes of death in official vital statistics from Chile. Based on the findings, the authors conclude that metrological requirements in public health are as important as the measurements themselves. The study also considers and argues for the existence of uncertainty associated with the statistics' performative properties, both by the way the data are structured as a sort of syntax of reality and by exclusion of what remains beyond the quantitative modeling used in each case. Following the legacy of pragmatic thinking and using conceptual tools from the sociology of translation, the authors emphasize that by taking uncertainty into account, public health can contribute to a discussion on the relationship between technology, democracy, and formation of a participatory public.


Random sectioning of particles (compact sets in ℝ3 with interior points) is a familiar procedure in stereology where it is used to estimate particle quantities like volume or surface area from planar or linear sections (see, for example, the survey [23] or the book [20]). In the following, we study the problem whether the whole shape of a convex particle K can be estimated from random sections. If E is an IUR (isotropic, uniform, random) line or plane intersecting K then the intersection Xk = K ∩ E is a (k-dimensional, k = 1 or 2) random set. It is clear that the distribution of Xk determines K uniquely and that if E1,…, En are such flats, the most natural estimator for K would be the convex hull


We propose a decentralized medical trust management system using blockchain-based federated learning for large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) systems. The proposed system enables health institutions to share data without revealing the privacy of data owners. Health institutions form coalitions and the leader of each coalition is elected based on the proposed proof-of-trust collaboration (PoTC) consensus protocol. The PoTC consensus protocol is based on a weight difference game where trust scores, trust consistency value, and trust deviation are factors used for evaluating nodes in the blockchain. The trust of a node is obtained either through direct trust or recommended trust evaluations. Each leader elects an aggregator who has the most credibility to manage the proposed federated learning system. The leaders become the federated clients as well as validators while the aggregator is the federated server. To ensure the decentralization of nodes, a consortium blockchain is employed. Extensive simulations are performed, which show that the proposed system not only demonstrates scalability and credibility without compromising the accuracy, convergence, and resilience properties against malicious attackers but also outperforms existing trust management systems. A security analysis is also conducted, which shows that the proposed system is robust against trust-related attacks.


Bibliometric parameters have become an important part of modern assessment of academic productivity. These parameters exist for the purpose of evaluating authors (publication count, citation count, h-index, m-quotient, hc-index, e-index, g-index, i-10 [i-n] index) and journals (impact factor, Eigenfactor, article influence score, SCImago journal rank, source-normalized impact per paper). Although in recent years there has been a proliferation of bibliometric parameters, the true meaning and appropriate use of these parameters is generally not well understood. Effective use of existing and emerging bibliometric tools can aid in assessment of academic productivity, including readiness for promotions and other awards. However, if not properly understood, the data can be misinterpreted and may be subject to manipulation. Familiarity with bibliometric parameters will aid in their effective implementation in the review of authors-whether individuals or groups-and journals, as well as their possible use in the promotions review process, maximizing the effectiveness of bibliometric analysis.


We study optimal transmission strategies in multi-channel cognitive radio networks where one secondary user (SU) opportunistically accesses multiple orthogonal channels that are owned and utilized by primary users (PU). In dynamic spectrum access networks, the protection of PU's is vital, since no PU would accommodate SU access to its own detriment. Therefore the objective of the problem we study is to maximize the SU throughput while protecting PUs on all channels. At a given time, the SU decides if it transmits and if so on which PU channel it should transmit on in order to protect PU performance. We use a constraint on the expected PU packet collision probability as the protection metric. We consider a general setting where the PUs are unslotted and may have different idle/busy time distributions and protection requirements. Under general idle time distributions, we determine the form of the SU optimal access policy. We also study the special case where PUs have independent, exponentially distributed idle time. For this case, we formulate a linear program that yields an optimal randomized strategy for the secondary user, and also present a tunable heuristic which allows for a tradeoff between complexity and throughput performance.


Different contemporary organisations are using cloud computing application in business operation activities to gain competitive advantages over other competitors. It also helps in promoting flexibility of the business operation activities. Cloud computing involves delivery of different computer resources to data centres over the internet services. Different kinds of delivered computer resources include data storage, servers, database, analytics, software, networking, and other types of data applications etc. In this present era of data breaches, cloud computing ensures security protocols to protect different kinds of sensitive transaction data and confidential information. Use of cloud computing ensures that a third party individual does not tamper the data. Use of cloud computing also provides different kinds of competitive advantages to the organisations. Cloud computing also helps in providing efficiency and a platform for innovation for the contemporary organisations. Theoretical frameworks are usedin the literature review section to determine the important roles of cloud computing in effective data and security management in the organisations. It is also justified in the research work that qualitative methodology is suitable for the researcher to meet the developed research objectives. A secondary data analysis approach has been considered by the researcher in this study to carry out the investigation and meet the developed objectives. From the findings, few challenges associated with the cloud computing system have been identified. Proper recommendations are suggested at the end of the study to help future researchers in overcoming the identified associated challenges.


Synaptic ribbons of rod cells of the red-eared turtle under light-dark (LD) cycle, continuous dark (DD) and continuous light (LL) were examined by electron microscopy. In the LD cycle, several stick-shaped (plate-shaped, three-dimensionally) ribbons formed multilayered ribbon complexes at 1000 hr, and they turned into aggregates of rounded ribbons at 1900 hr (1 hr after light-off). In DD, stick-shaped ribbons were situated singly near presynaptic membranes. Large ribbon complexes consisting of 7-8 parallel layers, as shown in the LD cycle, were not observed. Aggregates of rounded ribbons, or club-shaped ones could not be observed. In LL, aggregates of irregular ribbon fragments were noted. None of the ribbons in this regimen showed sharp contours. Cyclic LD illumination is necessary to form multilayered ribbon complexes and rounded ribbons. Internal circadian rhythm contributes little part to the diurnal changes in the structure of the synaptic ribbons.


Abstract The University of California, Berkeley (UCB), has developed a preconceptual design for a commercial pebble-bed (PB), fluoride salt–cooled, high-temperature reactor (FHR) (PB-FHR). The baseline design for this Mark-I PB-FHR (Mk1) plant is a 236-MW(thermal) reactor. The Mk1 uses a fluoride salt coolant with solid, coated-particle pebble fuel. The Mk1 design differs from earlier FHR designs because it uses a nuclear air-Brayton combined cycle designed to produce 100 MW(electric) of base-load electricity using a modified General Electric 7FB gas turbine. For peak electricity generation, the Mk1 has the ability to boost power output up to 242 MW(electric) using natural gas co-firing. The Mk1 uses direct heating of the power conversion fluid (air) with the primary coolant salt rather than using an intermediate coolant loop. By combining results from computational neutronics, thermal hydraulics, and pebble dynamics, UCB has developed a detailed design of the annular core and other key functional features. Both an active normal shutdown cooling system and a passive, natural-circulation-driven emergency decay heat removal system are included. Computational models of the FHR—validated using experimental data from the literature and from scaled thermal-hydraulic facilities—have led to a set of design criteria and system requirements for the Mk1 to operate safely and reliably. Three-dimensional, computer-aided-design models derived from the Mk1 design criteria are presented.


Zinc is an important co-factor for insulin storage in pancreatic β-cells of different species and the uptake of this ion into insulin containing secretory vesicles is managed by the zinc transporter, ZnT8, a member of the slc30A gene family. Recent studies indicate that this protein is a major autoimmune target in human type 1A diabetes and has also been implicated by genome-wide association studies in type 2 diabetes. Since individuals suffering from type 1 diabetes often develop gastrointestinal motility disorders, we investigated the expression of ZnT8 in the porcine gastrointestinal tract. For this purpose, we studied the cell-type specific expression of ZnT8 in the gut and its co-expression with endocrine hormones that are closely linked to intestinal motility regulation. Nested RT-PCR and immunostaining of sequential serial sections, as well as double-immunostaining using antibodies directed against ZnT8, ghrelin, motilin, neurotensin, serotonin and glucagon-like peptide 1, indicated that ZnT8 is co-localized with ghrelin and motilin. Our findings provide important information about the cell-type specific expression of ZnT8 in the porcine gastrointestinal system. The selective and exclusive expression of ZnT8 in two endocrine cell-types that are engaged in motility functions may be of particular interest for further investigations into type I diabetes-associated gastrointestinal dysfunctions.


Objective: Women with premature ovarian insufficiency, menopause, gonadal dysgenesis, and genetic disorders as well as those with a history of recurrent in vitro fertilization failure may benefit from the assisted fertility techniques. These women experience concerns that directly affect their married life especially in egg donation treatment. This study was conducted to investigate the reproductive health concerns of infertile women who were candidates for egg donation. Materials and methods: This qualitative content analysis was conducted in 17 infertile women who were referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital Infertility Clinic from July 2018 to March 2019. The participants were selected through purposeful sampling. Data were collected through individual in-depth semi-structured interviews. A conventional qualitative content analysis approach was adopted for data analysis using the MAXQDA12 software. Results: The results of data analysis showed five themes, including threatened married life, lack of supportive situation, religious beliefs, psychosocial damage, and damaged feminine identity. Conclusion: Infertility is usually accompanied by a great psychological sadness referred to as "stress of infertility". Assisted reproductive techniques (ART) are also a source of stress for patients; therefore, it has a significant impact on the marital relationship and mental health of infertile women. Hence, there is a need for psychological support from the treatment team to reduce woman reproductive health concerns.


The properties of hydrogen atoms in a nano-diamond grain surrounded by an amorphous carbon shell are studied with Tight Binding computer simulations. Our samples model nano-diamond grains, of a few nanometers in size, that nucleate within an amorphous carbon matrix, as observed in deposition from a hydrocarbon rich plasma. The calculations show that the average hydrogen interstitial formation energy in the amorphous region is lower than in the nano-diamond core, therefore hydrogen interstitial sites in the in the amorphous region are more stable than in the nano-diamond core. This formation energy difference is the driving force for the diffusion of hydrogen atoms from nano-diamond grains into amorphous carbon regions. An energy well was observed on the amorphous side of the nano-diamond amorphous carbon interface: hydrogen atoms are expected to be trapped here. This scenario agrees with experimental results which show that hydrogen retention of diamond films increases with decreasing grain size, and suggest that hydrogen is bonded and trapped in nano-diamond grain boundaries and on internal grain surfaces.


The objective of this study is to test the feasibility of a semi-automated scoring system for the Toronto Western Spasmodic Torticollis Scale (TWSTRS) severity scale in patients with cervical dystonia. The TWSTRS requires training and experience. We previously developed a system to measure neck angle by analyzing three-dimensional position, obtained using Kinect, a marker-less three-dimensional depth sensor. The system can track patients' faces and bodies, automatically analyze neck angles, and semi-automatically calculate the TWSTRS severity scale score. We compared the TWSTRS severity scale scores calculated by the system with the video-based scores calculated by a neurologist trained in movement disorders. A correlation coefficient analysis was then conducted. Absolute accuracy was measured using intra-class correlation (ICC) (3,1), with 95% limits of agreement. To analyze the subscales, Cohen's kappa coefficient (κ) was calculated. A p-value of < .05 was considered statistically significant. Thirty patients were enrolled. Their average age was 52.3±16.0 years, and the male to female ratio was 3:2. The average disease duration was 11.3±12.7 years. Total score measurements by the system were significantly correlated with those rated by the movement disorder-trained neurologist (r = .596, p < .05). There was a significant correlation (r = .655, p < .05) with regard to the automated part of the scale. An adequate ICC (3,1) of .562 was obtained for total severity score (p < .001, 95% confidence interval [CI]: .259–.765), while the equivalent score was .617 for the total automated part (p < .001, 95% CI .336–.798). Our three-dimensional motion capture system, which can measure head angles and semi-automatically calculate the TWSTRS severity scale score utilizing a single-depth camera, demonstrated adequate validity and reliability. This low-cost and portable system could be applied by general practitioners treating cervical dystonia to obtain objective measurements.


This article examines the influence of complementary resources on the performance of incumbents after a radical technological change. In investigating this relationship, we join the technological management literature and the institution-based view of strategy and maintain that the value of complementary resources is contingent on the institutional environment in which the firm operates. In particular, we submit that formal institutions, both economic and political, moderate the relationship between the stock of complementary assets and firm performance. We test our hypotheses in the context of the world mobile telecommunications industry (39 countries and 134 mobile service providers). Our findings reveal how these resources are more valuable for incumbents in markets where market-supporting institutions are weaker and political stability is higher


In this work various methods and algorithms for face and eyes detection are examined in order to decide which of them are applicable for use in a driver fatigue monitoring system. In the case of face detection the standard Viola-Jones face detector has shown best results, while the method of finding the eye centers by means of gradients has proven to be most appropriate in the case of eyes detection. The later method has also a potential for retrieving behavioral parameters needed for estimation of the level of driver fatigue. This possibility will be examined in future work.


The development of new technologies has affected both the procedures of traditional statistical surveys and the perception of their results in the light of other availa-ble sources of information. In this connection, the roleof the verification of statistical hypotheses and of the interpretation and presentation of its results, including the use of statistical significance and p-value, has recently returned as a frequent topic for discussion among the scientific community. The author was inspired to write this paper by a wave of discussion regarding this matter held at the beginning of 2019 in the Natureand The American Statistician journals. The aim of the paper is to present the opportunities provided and challenges posedby the use of big data to the hypothesis verification process and to statistical inference, both in the traditional and Bayesian approaches. The author explains the necessity of discontinuing adopting excessivesimplifications while performing statisticalinference and pre-senting the results of the verification of hypotheses. This involves both the postulate to pay greater attention tothe quality of sampling data, especially in the case of data originating from big data sets, as well as the postulate to providefull information about the statistical model on the basis of which the inference is being performed.


Depressions are prolonged periods of economic downturns often characterised by a rise in unemployment, general fall in commodity prices, lower production levels and in many cases, lack of credit facilities or borrower apathy. Depressions are in many cases triggered by events in a specific economy or a limited number of economies even though their effects tend to transcend the national borders of the economies in question. Three of the most acclaimed depressions that have had a global effect include the Long Depression, the Great Depression, and ongoing the Global Financial Crisis. This paper undertakes to explain the causes of such depressions. It focuses on their origins, their durations as well as the impact of such depressions on the different economies around the world. The paper also draws similarities and differences between the three global depressions as well as the actions taken to end them while highlighting the influence of politics in shaping the events before, during and after the depressions.


A compact four-element dual-band multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system is proposed to achieve high isolation and low channel capacity loss. The MIMO antenna was designed and optimized to cover the dual-frequency bands; the first frequency band is a wide band, and it covers the frequency range of 1550–2650 MHz, while the other frequency band covers the 3350–3650 MHz range. The measured wide-band impedance bandwidths of 1.1 GHz and 300 MHz were achieved in the lower and upper frequency bands, respectively. The proposed structure consists of four novel antenna elements, along with a plus-sign-shaped ground structure on an FR4 substrate. The overall electrical size of the whole dual-band MIMO antenna system is 0.3λ(W) × 0.3λ(L) × 0.008λ(H) for the lower frequency band. It achieved greater than 10 and 19 dB isolation in the lower and upper frequency bands, respectively. The antenna system accomplished an envelope correlation coefficient of |ρ|≤0.08 in the lower frequency band, while it achieved |ρ|≤0.02 in the higher frequency band. The computed channel capacity loss remained less than almost 0.4 bits/s/Hz in both frequency bands. Therefore, it achieved good performance in both frequency bands, with the additional advantage of a compact size. The proposed MIMO antenna is suitable for compact handheld devices and smartphones used for GSM (Global System for Mobiles), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service), WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), LTE (Long Term Evolution), 5G sub-6 GHz, PCS (Personal Communications Service), and WLAN (wireless local area network) applications.


ABSTRACT Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) significantly contribute to the economic growth and competitive advantage of emerging markets, including Silk Road countries. KIBS are not only intermediaries that transfer knowledge through the economy but are also innovators themselves. This paper aims to explore how major innovation drivers influence the implementation of innovation in KIBS. Using a sample of 519 KIBS enterprises from Russia, the results show that human capital increases the implementation of technological innovation, while the link between standardisation and technological innovations is non-linear (an inverted U-shaped). In addition, the multiregional branch network promotes the implementation of all types of innovation, while advertising investments enhance the implementation of technological and marketing ones. These results help to provide some practical suggestions for both innovation managers and policy-makers.


After four months of the oil pollution of Sharm El-Moyia Bay, the species composition, abundance, and distribution of seagrasses and associated macroinvertebrate fauna at oiled and non-oiled sites were investigated. The most abundant Seagrass, Halophila stipulacea, grows to a depth of 3 m on soft bottom substrates with standing crop ranging from 25 to 280 gdwm–2. Leaf morphology and indicators of vegetative and sexual growth suggested that the meadow of this species at different sites of the bay is still healthy, despite being exposed to oil pollution. Biometric analyses indicated that the seagrass Halophila stipulacea was experiencing a seasonal transition and initializing a normal growth pattern from low winter temperature to spring conditions. Based on the field observations it is concluded that while oil pollution may lead to local destruction of macro-invertebrate fauna associated with the seagrass, it also did not cause any degradation to seagrass meadow. There is no conclusive evidence supports that oil floating above the seagrasses may damage them.


We have evaluated the adjuvant activity of rice oil (RO) on the immune response to ovalbumin (OVA), its depots and possible side effects at the injection sites. Immunization of mice with OVA emulsified in rice oil (OVA+RO) resulted in an antibody response significantly higher than that determined in mice immunized with soluble OVA. In addition, these high antibody levels were observed for a period as long as 6 weeks after immunization. However, the adjuvant action of RO was significantly lower to incomplete Freund's adjuvant (IFA). In secondary immune response, the pattern of OVA-specific antibodies stimulated by RO was predominantly IgG1. Despite of the significant humoral response enhanced by RO at no time was noted any lesions at the site of injection. Besides, histological analysis showed that inflammatory reaction caused by RO was mild and transient, suggesting that RO appears to be a safe, effective and chemically define alternative to IFA in many situations.


The aim of this paper is to analyze the theoretical and methodological premises of the National Crusade fo r Quality in Health Care Pro g r a m , w h i ch ...


Introduction Nocturnal cough is a burdensome asthma symptom. However, knowledge about the prevalence of nocturnal cough in asthma is limited. Furthermore, prior research has shown that nocturnal cough and impaired sleep quality are associated with asthma control, but the association between these two symptoms remains unclear. This study further investigates the potential of these symptoms as markers for asthma control and the accuracy of automated, smartphone-based passive monitoring for nocturnal cough detection and sleep quality assessment. Methods and analysis The study is a multicentre, longitudinal observational study with two stages. Sensor and questionnaire data of 94 individuals with asthma will be recorded for 28 nights by means of a smartphone. On the first and the last study day, a participant's asthma will be clinically assessed, including spirometry and fractionated exhaled nitric oxide levels. Asthma control will be assessed by the Asthma Control Test and sleep quality by means of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. In addition, nocturnal coughs from smartphone microphone recordings will be labelled and counted by human annotators. Relatively unrestrictive eligibility criteria for study participation are set to support external validity of study results. Analysis of the first stage is concerned with the prevalence and trends of nocturnal cough and the accuracies of smartphone-based automated detection of nocturnal cough and sleep quality. In the second stage, patient-reported asthma control will be predicted in a mixed effects regression model with nocturnal cough frequencies and sleep quality of past nights as the main predictors. Ethics and dissemination The study was reviewed and approved by the ethics commission responsible for research involving humans in eastern Switzerland (BASEC ID: 2017–01872). All study data will be anonymised on study termination. Results will be published in medical and technical peer-reviewed journals. Trial registration number NCT03635710; Pre-results.


Normal human water intake spans a large range owing to the body's ability to excrete large volumes of water in times of excess and conserve in times of scarcity. Recently, chronic intakes of either large volumes (HIGH) or small volumes (LOW) of water have been investigated. Adaptations within the renal regulation of water through the secretion and reabsorptive actions of the hormone arginine vasopressin and the thirst mechanism have been observed to differentiate these 2 groups during normal living. Increases or decreases in daily fluid intake in LOW and HIGH resulted in appropriate arginine vasopressin and perception of thirst changes, which enabled fluid balance in both of these populations. However, future research should establish if the chronic adaptive mechanisms, by which fluid is regulated have long-term negative outcomes.


Stemflow of xerophytic shrubs was monitored on event basis within a revegetated sand dune. Quantity of stemflow showed a clear species‐specific dependence in combination with the rainfall characteristics. Results obtained revealed that for ovate‐leaved C. korshinskii with an inverted cone‐shaped canopy and smooth bark, the quantity of stemflow in depth accounted for 7.2% of the individual gross rainfall, while it was 2.0% for needle‐leaved A. ordosica with a cone‐shaped canopy and coarse bark. There were significant positive linear relationships between stemflow and individual gross rainfall and rainfall intensity for the two shrubs. An individual gross rainfall of 1.4 and 1.8 mm was necessary for stemflow generation for C. korshinskii and A. ordosica, respectively. Multiple regression analysis showed that the abiotic and biotic variables including the individual gross rainfall, mean windspeed (WS), canopy height, branch length, and canopy volume have significant influence on stemflow for C. korshinskii, whereas for A. ordosica, the notable influencing variables were individual gross rainfall, stem diameter, and leaf area index. Generally, WS has less effect on stemflow than that of rainfall for A. ordosica. The correlation relationship between individual gross rainfall and funneling ratio showed that the funneling ratio attains its peak when the gross rainfall is 13 and 16 mm for C. korshinskii and A. ordosica, respectively, implying that the canopy morphology emerged as determining factors on funneling ratio decrease when the individual gross rainfall exceeds these values. In comparison, higher WS increased the funneling ratio remarkably for C. korshinskii than A. ordosica due partly to the greater branch length and canopy projection area in C. korshinskii. Funneling ratio can be used as an integrated variable for the effects of canopy morphology and rainfall characteristics on stemflow. The implication of stemflow on water balance and its contribution to sustain the shrubs and the revegetation efforts was discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Early mathematics and reading skills underlie later school and career success. Yet, many children struggle to acquire these skills at the same rate as their peers. Often, these challenges are interrelated because both domains share basic underlying factors. Although research considers the development and instruction of these two domains together, practice and policy efforts lag behind, often treating these as completely independent domains. Here, we review the empirical basis for linking mathematics and reading: domain-specific and domain-general connections, neurobiological underpinnings, and shared genetic and environmental factors. Furthermore, we recommend enhanced national policies and practices that place mathematics alongside reading campaigns and integrate the two. Future work should also support empirically based instructional tools for both domains and develop links across instructional efforts.


We present photocurrent (PC) spectroscopy of InAs/InGaAsP (Q1.18) quantum dots (QD) embedded in a PIN diode grown on InP(311)B substrate. From 300K and 77K spectra we deduce the transition energies for ground state of the dots. These energies are sensitive to applied bias and reveal an asymmetric quantum-confined Stark shift (QCSS) attributed to the presence of a strain-induced field in the dots.


This investigation examined whether or not a gender-related effect on theophylline pharmacokinetics and metabolism exists in smoking and nonsmoking subjects with and without the concurrent administration of cimetidine. With a crossover design, 28 healthy men and premenopausal women (14 in each group) were administered intravenous aminophylline before (phase 1) and during (phase 2) a 10-day course of cimetidine, 300 mg four times a day. Statistically significant gender- and smoking-related effects were seen for theophylline half-life and clearance in phase 1, but only the smoking effect was statistically significant for these pharmacokinetic parameters in phase 2. Urinary metabolite excretion patterns demonstrated a greater percentage of excretion of 3-methylxanthine in female smokers than in male smokers in phase 1. Time-averaged urinary clearance of 1,3-dimethyluric acid was greater in female smokers than in male smokers. In phase 2, a significant reduction in the clearance of 1,3-dimethyluric acid was noted in female smokers but not in any other group. The results of our investigation suggest that a significant difference in the pharmacokinetics of theophylline exists that is related to gender and smoking status. Theophylline metabolism also seems to vary according to these factors. Administration of cimetidine results in a significant reduction in clearance of theophylline and abolishes the gender differences but not the smoking differences.


High influenza morbidity due to new antigenic strain AH1N1 was announced in Mexico in spring 2009. Influenza pandemic caused by the virus AH1N1/2009 spread around the world. Two pandemic waves were noted in most European countries: the first one was due to summer months migration, the second wave started in the beginning of common influenza season. We present features of both waves in children from the district of Lodz. We describe mild clinical course in 14 children who came from holiday in Spain with influenza and who were hospitalized and treated with osltamimivir due to unpredictable course of new influenza. We also present 22 influenza cases of the autumn pandemic wave, when children with severe complications of influenza and children from high risk groups were hospitalized and treated with antivirals. Experience that we have gained during 2009 influenza pandemic indicates that International Influenza Control System is very efficient, however more flexibility is required in application of treatment and prophylaxis procedures with new influenza strains. Applied methods of control should mostly depend on the virulence of pandemic strain.


Abstract. Elemental and/or isotopic signatures of calcareous tests of foraminifera are
commonly used to reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions. A major problem,
often referred to as the "vital effect", is that such geochemical signatures
stored in inorganic calcium carbonates differ greatly under the same
environmental conditions, as well as between taxa, species, individuals, etc.
This effect was previously explained by relative contributions between
passive vs. active ion transport patterns, but their details are still under
investigation. In this study, the functional role of pseudopodial structures
during chamber formation is elucidated by detailed observation of
Ammonia beccarii (Linnaeus, 1758) using a time-lapse optical
imaging system and high-resolution electron microscopy. We document triple
organic layers sandwiching carbonate precipitation sites for the first time.
The three major organic layers (outer organic layer, primary organic sheet,
and inner organic layer) are formed by an initial framework of pseudopodia
overlaid with further layer-like pseudopodia. The primary organic sheet seems
to facilitate early calcium carbonate nucleation, then entrapped by double
precipitation sites. We further show that calcification starts when
outer or inner organic layers still exhibit tiny gaps (holes within the
framework) that may serve as pathways for passive ion exchange (e.g.
Mg2+) between seawater and the confined precipitation space.
Nevertheless, the majority of wall thickening occurs when the precipitation
site is completely isolated from seawater, which implies active ion exchange.
This may explain the differences in Mg ∕ Ca ratios in early and later stages of
calcification observed in previous studies. Our study provides insight
into resolving a key "missing piece" in understanding foraminiferal
calcification through culture experiments and in-depth observations of living
animals. Our findings contribute to interpreting and understanding
biogeochemical proxies by showing that the "vital effect", specifically
elemental and isotopic ratios along chamber walls, is directly linked to
spatio-temporal organization of the "biomineralization sandwich" controlled
by the three major organic layers.


The cluster expansion of the quantum-mechanical grand partition function is obtained for a gas of interacting charged particles in a uniform magnetic field. The magnetic field is conveniently included by using a Green function for a charged particle in a uniform field. The theory is applied to calculate the magnetic susceptibility of an electron gas for small magnetic fields. For Boltzmann statistics the equation of state is unaltered to the DebyeHuckel approximation and the field only enters into the quantum-mechanical corrections to this equation. The first terms in a low-density expansion of the susceptibility are obtained. For Fermi-Dirac statistics an exact high-density expansion of the susceptibility to first order in the coupling constant is obtained at zero temperature. The first-order exchange energy is divergent but this divergence is removed by including the ring diagrams.


In our work, we mainly use a lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) to simulate the underlying dynamics of miscible mixtures in binary fluid simulation called TFLBM. However, it suffers from the limitation of only resolving mixture flows with low Reynolds number, and it would blow up when the Reynolds number gets higher. In order to resolve such mixture flows with higher Reynolds number, by further investigation, we proposed to use a subgrid method to stabilize the computation of two fluid mixtures. The idea of the subgrid method is to split the actual velocity field into large-scale (resolved) and small-scale (unresolved) components. The effect of the unresolved motion on the resolved one is included by introducing a so-called eddy viscosity, and the method is also referred to as large eddy simulation (LES).


We present results for masses of excited baryons from a quenched calculation with Chirally Improved quarks at pion masses down to 350 MeV. Our analysis of the correlators is based on the variational method. In order to provide a large basis set for spanning the physical states, we use interpolators with different Dirac structures and Jacobi smeared quark sources of different width. Our spectroscopy results for a wide range of ground state and excited baryons are discussed.


In this thesis we are concerned with the existence of infrared fixed points and the conformal window for gauge theories with fermions. We
are particularly interested in those theories that are candidates for walking technicolor. We discuss the background of technicolor and the techniques relevant to a theoretical understanding of the conformal window. Following this we extend the ideas of metric confinement and causal analyticity to theories with fermions in non-fundamental representations. We use these techniques to, respectively, provide a lower bound on the lower end of the conformal window and to provide a
measure of perturbativity. As well as analytic calculations we use lattice techniques to investigate two particular candidate theories
for walking technicolor - SU(2) with two adjoint fermions and with six fundamental fermions. We use Schrodinger Functional techniques to investigate the running of the theory across a wide range of
scales. We measure both the running of the coupling and an estimator for the fermion mass anomalous dimension, $gamma$. We find that both theories
are consistent with an infrared fixed-point. However, paying particular attention to
our error estimates, we are unable to absolutely confirm their existence. This is a not unexpected result for SU(2) with two adjoint fermions but is rather surprising for SU(2) with only six fundamental fermions. In the region where we are consistent with a fixed point we find $0.05<gamma<0.56$ for $SU(2)$ with two adjoint fermions and $0.135<gamma<1.03$ for $SU(2)$ with six fundamental fermions. The measurement of $gamma$ for $SU(2)$ with two adjoint fermions is the first determination of $gamma$ for any candidate theory of walking technicolor.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the shaping ability of rotary ProTaper and Flexofile in simulated resin root canals.

METHODS
Forty simulated resin root canals were randomly assigned to two groups, one group for rotary ProTaper with crown-down technique and the other for Flexofile with balanced force technique. Change of working length and incidence of canal aberration and instruments failure were recorded. After preparation, the change of root canal curvature and the amount of resin removed at the inner and outer canal walls were measured with Image Pro Plus 5.0. The centring ability and total amount of resin removed were also assessed.

RESULTS
In the model of simulated resin canals, ProTaper instruments maintained working length better. Canals prepared with ProTaper instruments remained better curvature and showed fewer aberration compared with those prepared with Flexofile (P < 0.01). ProTaper instruments performed a better centring ability.

CONCLUSION
ProTaper instruments have a better shaping ability in simulated resin root canals.


Although crizotinib has demonstrated promising efficacy and acceptable toxicity in patients with advanced non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the available evidence in Chinese populations is currently limited. This study compared the progression‐free survival (PFS) of Chinese patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)‐positive, advanced lung adenocarcinoma who received first‐line crizotinib therapy with that of patients who received first‐line standard chemotherapy, and also the PFS benefit of first‐line versus second‐line crizotinib treatment. Data on 80 patients with ALK‐positive, advanced lung adenocarcinoma who received crizotinib or standard chemotherapy as first‐line treatments between June 2013 and December 2014 were retrospectively collected; 26 of the patients received crizotinib as second‐line therapy after progressive disease (PD) occurred on first‐line chemotherapy. Tumor responses were assessed using Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST), version 1.1. The median PFS was 13.3 months (95% CI: 6.5–20.0 months) in patients who received first‐line crizotinib as compared with 5.4 months (95% CI: 4.4–6.5 months) in patients who received first‐line standard chemotherapy (adjusted hazard ratio for progression or death with crizotinib, 0.20; 95% CI: 0.11–0.36; P < 0.001). In patients who received second‐line crizotinib therapy, the median PFS was 9.9 months (95% CI: 6.4–13.4 months). The difference between first‐line and second‐line crizotinib treatment was not statistically significant (adjusted hazard ratio for progression, 0.56; 95% CI: 0.29–1.11; P = 0.092). Thus, there was a significant PFS benefit of first‐line crizotinib versus first‐line standard chemotherapy in Chinese patients with ALK‐positive lung adenocarcinoma. Additionally, crizotinib showed promising efficacy in patients who received it as second‐line therapy after PD had occurred on first‐line chemotherapy.


A new programming style for large-scale parallel programs centered around distributed data structures has emerged. The current parallel program visualization tools were intended for the old style and do not deal with distributed data structures. We show, with several examples of visualizations and animations developed for large scale pC++ programs, that visualizing and animating distributed data structures is an important part of debugging and performance tuning for the new style parallel programs. Our approach is based on a new methodology for recording execution behavior that uses I/O abstractions and compile time source analysis and instrumentation.<<ETX>>


Adaptive gradient methods such as RMSProp and Adam use exponential moving estimate of the squared gradient to compute element-wise adaptive step sizes and handle noisy gradients. However, Adam can have undesirable convergence behavior in some problems due to unstable or extreme adaptive learning rates. Methods such as AMSGrad and AdaBound have been proposed to stabilize the adaptive learning rates of Adam in the later stage of training, but they do not outperform Adam in some practical tasks such as training Transformers. In this paper, we propose an adaptive learning rate rule in which the running mean squared gradient is replaced by a weighted mean, with weights chosen to maximize the estimated variance of each coordinate. This gives a worst-case estimate for the local gradient variance, taking smaller steps when large curvatures or noisy gradients are present, resulting in more desirable convergence behavior than Adam. We analyze and demonstrate the improved efficacy of our adaptive averaging approach on image classification, neural machine translation and natural language understanding tasks.


In reviewing the literature on twin separation, the authors argue that achieving a "relational shift" (the ability to separate yet retain feelings of closeness), may be problematic for this sibling group. A descriptive communication framework is presented using the concepts of relational redefinition and types of verbal and nonverbal codes. Implications are presented for twins developing third-party relationships, inseparable twins, therapy, and research.


In this article, we analyze the historical use of the clemency power at both the federal and state levels; including the factors that occurred during the 20th century which resulted in both presidents and governors gradually using the power less, up until the 1980's. We examine how the "war on crime" and other political and legal changes, including the imposition of new mandatory minimum sentencing laws during the 1980's and 1990's, has led to mass-incarceration at both a national and Oregonian level. We discuss how this new punitive sentencing and incarceration philosophy has resulted in a general souring on the use of the pardon power and is now seen as a challenge to powerful prosecutors who generally oppose clemency as an extra-judicial attack on their own policies. In looking at the current prison population in Oregon, we argue that the current Governor should use her pardon power as tool to mitigate some of the prevalent injustice in Oregon.


The aim of this work was to fit and compare three non-linear models (Wood, Milkbot and diphasic) to model lactation curves from two approaches: with and without cow random effect. Knowing the behaviour of lactation curves is critical for decision-making in a dairy farm. Knowledge of the model of milk production progress along each lactation is necessary not only at the mean population level (dairy farm), but also at individual level (cow-lactation). The fits were made in a group of high production and reproduction dairy farms; in first and third lactations in cool seasons. A total of 2167 complete lactations were involved, of which 984 were first-lactations and the remaining ones, third lactations (19 382 milk yield tests). PROC NLMIXED in SAS was used to make the fits and estimate the model parameters. The diphasic model resulted to be computationally complex and barely practical. Regarding the classical Wood and MilkBot models, although the information criteria suggest the selection of MilkBot, the differences in the estimation of production indicators did not show a significant improvement. The Wood model was found to be a good option for fitting the expected value of lactation curves. Furthermore, the three models fitted better when the subject (cow) random effect was considered, which is related to magnitude of production. The random effect improved the predictive potential of the models, but it did not have a significant effect on the production indicators derived from the lactation curves, such as milk yield and days in milk to peak.


Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of primary tumor volume and uterine body invasion assessed by pre-treatment MRI for uterine cervical cancer patient treated with concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 106 patients with IB‐IIIB cervical carcinoma was performed. Potential prognostic factors were stage, clinical tumor diameter, histology, age, pelvic lymph node, vaginal extension, parametrial invasion, tumor volume and uterine body invasion status. Multivariate analyses were performed to identify the prognostic factor for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Results: The 5-year OS, DFS rate were 59.7 and 56.6%. Using multivariate analyses, a large tumor volume (� 30 ml; P ¼ 0.012) and uterine body invasion (P ¼ 0.020) and positive pelvic lymph node (LN) enlargement (P ¼ 0.040) showed a significantly unfavorable influence on OS. Using these three factors, patients were divided into four subgroups: the OS rates of patients with risk 0 (volume ,30 ml, no uterine body invasion, and negative LN), risk 1 (one of these three factors), risk 2 (two of these three factors) and risk 3 (volume � 30 ml, uterine body invasion, and positive LN) were 96.3, 77.5, 53.0 and 14.8%, respectively (P , 0.0001). Conclusions: Tumor volume and uterine body invasion determined by MRI were significant prognostic factors for patients with cervical carcinoma. Pelvic lymph node enlargement diagnosed by CT also proved to be a significant prognostic factor in OS. Using these three parameters, we devised a practical and effective model to predict OS. The prognostic significance of primary tumor volume and uterine corpus invasion from MRI were evaluated from 106 patients with stage IB-IIIB uterine cervical cancer treated by RT. A large volume (� 30 ml) and corpus invasion showed a significantly unfavorable influence on OS.


Background: V entilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) , the most apparent infection in ICUs; life threatening, symbolizes an additional healthcare burden. Clinical traits and etiological agents vary. Early diagnosis is captious & apt tactic of quantitative culture is advocated. Regular surveillance is imperative to define strategies. The objective was to conceptualize VAP; put forth our experience of its occurrence, causative bacteria, clinical silhouette and associated variables; and to pattern antimicrobial resistance in ICUs; contributing this data to devise more pertinent approach. Methods: A prospective survey, executed at a tertiary care set up (multidisciplinary ICUs) analysed clinical and microbiological aspects of 120 patients (>48 hours-mechanical ventilation) in congruence with a clinical criteria of pneumonia by standard microbiological means. Cases were keenly observed to assess mortality. Results: Occurrence of VAP was 42.5% with dominance of males (65%) and age group of 41-60 years ( Mean ± SD: 42.26 ± 19.53). Late onset type (60.8%) predominated. Principal symptom/sign was fever (82.5%)/crepitation (67.5%). Cases of OP poisoning (21.7%), associated diabetes mellitus (31.7%) were pre-eminent. Gram negative Bacteria (GNB) formed the major etiology (78.6%), cardinal being Acinetobacter baumannii (32.1%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (25%). Multi-drug resistant (MDR)-Acinetobacter baumannii, MDR-Pseudomonas aeruginosa, imipenem resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae and Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) were noticed in 66.7%, 35%, 25% and 42.8% of respective isolates. Mortality record was 21.6%. Conclusions: Reliable mode of isolation (quantitative culture), less invasive sampling (ETA) and antibiotic recycling will augment VAP management. Regular intuition into contemporary trends of antimicrobial profile of etiological agents is crucial to avert undesirable consequences.


Materials with superhydrophobic surfaces have received vast attention in various industries due to their valuable properties, such as their self-cleaning and antifouling effects. These promising superhydrophobic properties are taken into high priority, particularly for medical devices and applications. The development of an ideal superhydrophobic surface is a challenging task and is constantly progressing. Various strategies have been introduced; however, a minority of them are cost-effective. This work presents a facile fabrication of the superhydrophobic surface by using graphene and titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles. The graphene and TiO2 hybrid nanoparticles are dip-coated on a biodegradable thermoplastic poly(lactic acid) (PLA) substrate. The thermoplastic PLA is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is widely utilized in medical devices. The graphene/TiO2 coating is substantiated to transform the hydrophilic PLA film into superhydrophobic biomaterials that can help to reduce hazardous medical-device complications. The surface wettability of the graphene/TiO2 nanoparticle-coated PLA surface was evaluated by measuring the apparent water contact angle. The surface chemical composition and surface morphology were analyzed via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The graphene/TiO2-coated PLA film achieved superhydrophobic properties by demonstrating a water contact angle greater than 150°. The water contact angle of the graphene/TiO2 coating increased along with the concentration of the nanoparticles and the ratio of TiO2 to graphene. Moreover, the graphene/TiO2 coating exhibited excellent durability, whereby the contact angle of the coated surface remained unchanged after water immersion for 24 h. The duration of the effectiveness of the superhydrophobic coating suggests its suitability for medical devices, for which a short duration of administration is involved. This study reports an easy-to-replicate and cost-effective method for fabricating superhydrophobic graphene/TiO2-coated surfaces, which additionally substantiates a potential solution for the manufacturing of biomaterials in the future.


In the next few issues we shall be highlighting some controversial topics in nurse education. Here, Dr Dorothy Kergin discusses the problems for learners and teachers created by the organizational separation of nurse education and nurse practice in Canada. Methods of bridging the gap at McMaster University include the establishment of communication channels, informal sharing of responsibilities and the funding of joint appointments.


Using the terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, we demonstrate the spin reorientation of a canted antiferromagnetic YFeO3 single crystal, by evaluating the temperature and magnetic field dependence of resonant frequency and amplitude for the quasi-ferromagnetic (FM) and quasi-antiferromagnetic modes (AFM), a deeper insight into the dynamics of spin reorientation in rare-earth orthoferrites is established. Due to the absence of 4f-electrons in Y ion, the spin reorientation of Fe sublattices can only be induced by the applied magnetic field, rather than temperature. In agreement with the theoretical predication, the frequency of FM mode decreases with magnetic field. In addition, an obvious step of spin reorientation phase transition occurs with a relatively large applied magnetic field of 4 T. By comparison with the family members of RFeO3 (R = Y3+ or rare-earth ions), our results suggest that the chosen of R would tailor the dynamical rotation properties of Fe ions, leading to the designable spin switching ...


Purpose: The overall objective of this research is to "explore whether shock advertising has a long-lasting positive effect on the smoking cessation among smoking Jordanians in a country where smoking is a deep-rooted social norm." Design/methodology/approach: This research is an exploratory qualitative research. A purposeful sampling technique was used to select participants from a mall intercept and randomly divided into groups of seven. Each group was interviewed in two different focus group sessions (four weeks apart). All focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings: A total of 41 participants took part in the focus group session. Most participants were smokers or second-hand smokers. "Three overarching themes were generated from the focus groups: previous anti-smoking campaign experience, shock advertising (SA) impact, and drawbacks of SA. All participants reported that they have never been exposed to shocking adverts, and the shock appeal has never been applied in any of the anti-smoking or health awareness campaigns in Jordan. This research revealed that incorporating images of children with a mixture of emotional and fear appeals is effective in targeting Jordanian parents' negative consumptive behaviors, which may harm other individuals, especially children. Moreover, most participants commented that the effects of shock adverts would be very short term and would not likely change behaviors". Originality/Value: This research contributes both 'theoretically and practically to the value and effectiveness of shock advertising. This research area is overlooked in MENA countries, particularly Jordan".


OBJECTIVE
To analyze relation of ASXL2 gene mutation with the clinical characteristics, prognosis and C-KIT gene mutation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with AML1-ETO fusion gene.

METHODS
The clinical data of 63 primary AML patients with AML1-ETO fusion gene were collected and retrospectively analyzed. The mutation of ASXL2 gene was directly sequenced by PCR. The clinical characteristics, C-KIT mutation rate and prognosis were compared between the patients with ASXL2 gene mutation (group A) and non-mutation (group B).

RESULTS
Among 63 patients, 8 (12.70%) cases of ASXL2 mutation gene was detected. Hemoglobin level in peripheral blood of patients in group A was significantly lower than that in group B (P<0.01). There was no significant difference in sex, ages proportion of bone marrow blasts, lymph node enlargement, peripheral blood leukocytes count and platelets between the two groups (P>0.05). The infiltration of central nervous system, liver and spleen was not found in both groups. The expression of CD33 in group A was significantly lower than that in group B (P<0.05), but the results of other immunophenotype analysis were not significantly different between the two groups (P>0.05). The remission rate and median survival time were not significantly different between two groups (P>0.05). The detection rate of C-KIT gene mutation were not significantly different between group A and group B (P>0.05).

CONCLUSION
Among AML patients with AML1-ETO fusion gene, ASXL2 gene mutation accounts for a certain ratio, and the peripheral blood hemoglobin concentration and CD33 expression in these patients are often low. At the same time, ASXL2 gene mutation may not be closely related with C-KIT gene mutation.


Introduction: Accessory(s) spleen(s) is the most frequent congenital anomaly of this organ. It`s atypical location, dimensions, the limitation of diagnostic procedures and the controversy regarding the treatment motivated the presentation of this case. Methods: Patient, 57 years, admited by syncope and dyspepsia. Diagnostic examinations showed a nodule in the uncinate process of the pancreas (3,3 x 2,6 cm) and an adjacent lymph node (2,1 x 1,1 cm). Without having a specific diagnosis, coeliotomy was helded and enucleation of the lesion was made, with histologic study that revealed "spleen tissue with expansion of the white pulp" and excision of a inter- cavo-aortic lymph node. Results: The histologic study revealed: "normal spleen tissue" and "reactive lymph node". Conclusions: The possibility of dealing with an accessory spleen should always be considered in cases of intra-abdominal tumour formations. Keywords: Accessory spleen, Splenosis, Pancreatic tumor


Short-texts clustering is currently an important research area because of its applicability to web information retrieval, text summarization and text mining. These texts are often available in different languages and parallel multilingual corpora. Some previous works have demonstrated the effectiveness of a discrete Particle Swarm Optimizer algorithm, named CLUDIPSO, for clustering monolingual corpora containing very short documents. In all the considered cases, CLUDIPSO outperformed different algorithms representative of the state-of-the-art in the area. This paper presents a preliminary study showing the performance of CLUDIPSO on parallel Spanish-English corpora. The idea is to analyze how this bilingual information can be incorporated in the CLUDIPSO algorithm and to what extent this information can improve the clustering results. In order to adapt CLUDIPSO to a bilingual environment, some alternatives are proposed and evaluated. The results were compared considering CLUDIPSO in both environments, bilingual and monolingual. The experimental work shows that bilingual information allows to obtain just comparable results to those obtained with monolingual corpora. More work is required to make an effective use of this kind of information.


The demand for novel fluorescent probes, proficient for indirectly detecting singlet molecular oxygen, 1O2, with a great selectivity and sensitivity is a topic of utmost interest. Approximately from the year 2000, the design and synthesis of dyads containing a chemical trap and a fluorophore has greatly advanced. Before reaction of the probe with 1O2, the interaction between the two moieties results in a turned-off state of the fluorescent unit. After reaction, the interaction between the moieties changes and the probe turns fluorescent, allowing detecting and quantifying 1O2 in a variety of microenvironments. In this chapter, the most relevant efforts to synthesize fluorescent probes are reviewed and classified according to the mechanisms that govern the interaction between the chemical trap and the fluorophore. Special emphasis is given into covering the performance of these fluorescent probes in sensing 1O2 in biological systems. While several attempts have proven successful, further improvement is needed to achieve a suitable fluorescent probe.


The development of the hippocampus and amygdala is particularly sensitive to environmental factors, including socioeconomic status (SES). Studies that have investigated associations between SES and brain development markers have rarely focused on connectivity. Accordingly, this longitudinal study examined whether SES in infancy (parental education and income-to-needs ratio) predicts the functional connectivity of the hippocampus and amygdala in late childhood, and in turn whether functional connectivity is associated with child socioemotional adjustment in a middle-class sample. SES indices were measured when children (n = 28) were 7 months old. When children were 10 years of age, they underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging exam, and their school teachers completed a questionnaire assessing child socioemotional adjustment. Whole-brain regression analyses, including left and right hippocampi and amygdalae as seeds and SES indices as predictors, revealed that higher parental education predicted stronger functional connectivity between the left and right hippocampi and the right amygdala with the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and between the left amygdala and bilateral angular gyrus, after accounting for child age and sex. In turn, the connectivity of these regions was associated with higher child prosocial behavior. These findings contribute to the emerging literature suggesting that SES is associated with variability in the neural substrates of social abilities in children.


Background: The immunopathologic mechanism underlying dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM) remains poorly understood. Many cytokines play a pathogenic role in DM and PM. Interleukin 21 (IL-21) has a pleiotropic effect on inflammation regulation. This study aimed to detect the serum IL-21 level and investigate the expression of IL-21 and IL-21 receptor (IL-21R) in muscle tissues of patients with DM and PM. Methods: Biopsied muscle samples were obtained from 11 patients with DM, 12 with PM, and six controls; mRNA levels of IL-21 and IL-21R were analyzed by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction; and immunohistochemical staining was used to evaluate the protein expression of IL-21 and IL-21R. Serum samples were obtained from 36 patients with DM, 19 with PM, and 20 healthy controls. The serum IL-21 level was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: The expression of IL-21 was upregulated in patients with DM and PM. The IL-21 mRNA level was significantly increased in muscle tissues of patients with DM and PM (DM vs. control, P = 0.001; PM vs. control, P = 0.001), whereas IL-21R mRNA level in patients with DM/PM was not statistically different from that of healthy controls. Immunohistochemical staining showed both IL-21 and IL-21R were significantly expressed in the inflammatory cells in muscle tissues of patients with DM and PM. The serum IL-21 level was also significantly higher in patients with DM/PM than in controls (DM vs. control, 49.12 [45.28, 60.07] pg/ml vs. 42.54 [38.69, 48.85] pg/ml, P = 0.001; PM vs. control, 50.77 [44.19, 60.62] pg/ml vs. 42.54 [38.69, 48.85] pg/ml, P = 0.005). Conclusions: IL-21 expression is upregulated in patients with DM and PM in both muscle tissue and serum. In addition, IL-21R protein is highly expressed in affected muscle tissues of patients with DM and PM. IL-21 may play a pathogenic role through IL-21R in patients with DM and PM.


An investigation is made of the application of the autocorrelation matrix method to the analysis of moveout. A number of multichannel Wiener filters are computed to pass/reject correlated events. Experiments are performed on a variety of synthetic data in order to ascertain how such filters will perform in a given situation. It is shown that very low levels of signal can be successfully recovered and a very close match must exist between the moveouts present in the data and those specified for the particular filter design. The "average" or second order autocorrelation matrix is developed, and a multichannel filter scan of a column from this matrix is incorporated in the former method. Experiments are performed on synthetic data for different noise conditions in order to ascertain the ability of these methods to detect low‐power correlated events. It is shown that such detection can be successful, provided the random noise is not too severe. Results from the analyses of real data records are consistent wit...


This paper advances the hypothesis that translation equivalents may be employed to cast light on the semantic network of a lexeme in its original language. The lexeme investigated is through, which is commonly taken to have the prototypical sense of 'entrance-traversal-exit'. Some recent research, however, has indicated that various instrumental senses are more common in actual usage. The particular question addressed in this paper is how the various senses of through are related to each other. The data consist of all 696 tokens of through in the English language original texts in the English-Norwegian Parallel Corpus. These are first sorted into various semantic classes using normal corpus linguistic methods. The translations into Norwegian of the various senses are then examined with an emphasis on the similarities and differences between them. The basic hypothesis is that the senses that are translated in similar ways in a particular language are felt to be more closely related by users of that language than senses that are translated in very different ways. Restricted as it is to translations into one language, the study does not contain enough data to test this hypothesis, but the evidence presented suggests that it may be worth exploring in greater detail.


The current standard treatment for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma is surgical resection. However, in case the patient does not agree with surgical resection or is not fit for surgery, there are a few alternative treatments. We present a case of an 83‐year‐old male patient with abdominal pain who was diagnosed with polypoid intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in the left intrahepatic duct (IHD) with peripheral IHD dilatation. He refused to undergo curative surgery. Alternatively, he underwent endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) with direct peroral cholangioscopy (POC) using standard upper endoscopy with a transparent cap. At 1‐year follow up, there was no evidence of locoregional recurrence or distant metastasis. We suggest that intraductal EMR could serve as an effective and safe alternative treatment for patients with polypoid intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma using direct POC.


The ability to accurately estimate uncertainties in neural network predictions is of great importance in many critical tasks. In this paper, we first analyze the intrinsic relation between two main use cases of uncertainty estimation, i.e., selective prediction and confidence calibration. We then reveal the potential issues with the existing quality metrics for uncertainty estimation and propose new metrics to mitigate them. Finally, we apply these new metrics to resource-constrained platforms such as autonomous driver assistance systems where the quality of uncertainty estimation is critical. By exploring the trade-off between the model size and the estimation quality, a missing piece in the literature, some interesting trends are observed.


The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic found Italy unprepared to cope with the large concentrated numbers of patients infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who often required hospital admission and in many cases intensive care. This pandemic very quickly overwhelmed the Italian Healthcare System. This paper describes the Active Home Surveillance System (Operations Center for Discharged Patients; COD19) and the Home Hospital Care System (COD20) and presents the clinical data collected and the level of user satisfaction with the service. The Operations Center for Discharged Patients (COD19) is an active surveillance service for home-care patients which involves: (1) monitoring critical clinical conditions; (2) recognizing social and health issues; (3) and providing necessary clinical services in the form of a telemedicine service. COD20 is a patient-specialist video consultation service that allows to perform an assessment of clinical conditions and any need to visit; defining the priority of access to specialist outpatient visits in the presence or manageable with the new video consultation model. This service was immediately necessary during the COD19 monitoring. COD19 and COD20 are based on the Amazon Web Services Serverless certified platform. The COD19 and COD20 platform can be intrinsically utilized for future epidemic outbreaks; also those with non-respiratory transmission; and is sufficiently flexible to adapt to natural catastrophes.


. Ring-LWE based homomorphic encryption computations in large depth use a combination of two techniques: 1) decomposition of big numbers into small limbs/digits, and 2) efficient cyclotomic multiplications modulo X N + 1. It was long believed that the two mechanisms had to be strongly related, like in the full-RNS setting that uses a CRT decomposition of big numbers over an NTT-friendly family of prime numbers, and NTT over the same primes for multiplications. However, in this setting NTT was the bottleneck of all large-depth FHE computations. A breakthrough result from Crypto'2023 [22] managed to overcome this limitation by introducing a second gadget decomposition and by show-ing that it indeed shifts the bottleneck and renders the cost of NTT computations negligible compared to the rest of the computation. In this paper, we extend this result (far) beyond the Full-RNS settings and show that we can completely decouple the big number decomposition from the cyclotomic arithmetic aspects. As a result, we get modulus switching/rescaling for free, and the memory footprint for storing relinearization keys across different levels is considerably lower compared to the CRT-based counterparts, by typically a factor ℓ/ 3 where ℓ is the deepest level of multiplication depth supported. We verify both in theory and in practice that the performance of key-switching, external and internal products and automorphisms using our representation are similar or faster than the one achieved by [22], and we discuss the high impact of these results for people who work on low-level or hardware optimizations as well as the benefits of the new parametrizations for people currently working on compilers for FHE. We even manage to lower the running time of the gate bootstrapping of TFHE by eliminating 12.5% of its FFTs.


In this paper, a general propagation equation of ultrashort pulses in an arbitrary dispersive nonlinear medium is derived using a method based on a consistent and mathematically rigorous expansion of the linear dispersion relation including the medium's nonlinear optical response. A specific case of Kerr media is studied. The obtained ultrashort pulse propagation equation which is called Generalized Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation has a very complicated form and looking for its solutions is usually a very difficult task. Theoretical methods to solve this equation are effective only for some special cases. For this reason, several numerical methods of finding approximate solutions are used. We focus mainly on the methods: Split-Step and Runge-Kutta algorithms. Some numerical experiments are implemented for soliton propagation and interacting high order solitons. These algorithms in connection with the variational method give several interesting results concerning solitons in optical nonlinear media. The results from nonlinear optics to atom optics and vice versa could be transferred by analogy between the propagation equation in the Kerr medium and the Gross-Pitajevski equation for Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs).


A total of 77 patients were treated for recurrent and metastatic colorectal tumours. The follow-up protocols after elective operations are reviewed, making a distinction between interventions for colonic or rectal tumours. The diagnostic and therapeutical principles applied in the cases of the individual recurrences and metastases (i.e., anastomosis recurrence, metachronous tumours, local recurrence, liver, lung, lymph node and bone metastases) and the results are discussed in detail. The author's attitude favouring a more active than the hitherto applied surgical management of the recurrences and metastases of colorectal tumours is presented.


We present a new numerical method for the computation of the forcing term of minimal norm such that a two-point boundary value problem admits a solution. The method relies on the following steps. The forcing term is written as a (truncated) Chebyshev series, whose coefficients are free parameters. A technique derived from automatic differentiation is used to solve the initial value problem, so that the final value is obtained as a series of polynomials whose coefficients depend explicitly on (the coefficients of) the forcing term. Then the minimization problem becomes purely algebraic and can be solved
by standard methods of constrained optimization, for example, with Lagrange multipliers. We provide an application of this algorithm to the planar restricted three body problem in order to study the planning of low-thrust transfer orbits.


Summary In northwestern Germany most natural gas deposits have been sourced by coalification gases derived from the coal-bearing Upper Carboniferous. This is the reason why a new coalification map for the top surface of the Carboniferous (1:500 000) is presented as a supplement and revision of a former map published in 1979 by the same authors. 130 new measurements of vitrinite reflectance (% Rm) from 72 deep boreholes and 60 outcrops have been introduced into the new map. Recent data on the stratigraphy of the top surface of the Carboniferous and its depth below the Permian, Mesozoic and Cainozoic cover, as well as new gas fields (found since 1978) have likewise been incorporated. The coalification pattern of the uppermost surface of the Carboniferous is demonstrated in a cross section running north-south from the Rhenish massif (south of the Ruhr Basin) to the North Sea. The coalification pattern of the Pre-Permian surface in northwestern Germany is controlled – by the predominantly pre-orogenic (pre-Asturian) coalification of the folded Upper Carboniferous in the Rhine-Ruhr area and in the Münsterland – by a more or less intense 're-coalification' in those parts of northwestern Germany which subsided by varying amounts during the Mesozoic and Cainozoic – by the telemagmatic effects of Hercynian striking intrusive bodies of Upper Cretaceous age (the massifs of Bramsche and Vlotho) with their pronounced high rank maxima. Rank maxima in the Gifhorn trough at the upper reaches of the River Weser (south of Hameln) are caused by deep subsidence, especially in Jurassic times, and probably also by geothermal maxima. At the mouth of the River Ems the degree of coalification is surprisingly low, although the Upper Carboniferous, comprising early Westphalian (A and B) is covered by 3500–4000 m of younger sediments. It is assumed that because of a basin that is still strongly subsiding, the degree of coalification will not yet have reached the equilibrium which would relate to the present depth and temperature, and that gas generation and accumulation are still taking place here. The relationship between rank of coal and the occurrence of natural gas deposits generally remain the same as demonstrated in 1979; most gas fields occur where the vitrinite reflectance at the upper surface of the Carboniferous is between 1–2% Rm, — provided, of course, that adequate reservoir rocks of the Upper Carboniferous (Westphalian C, D and Stephanian), Permian (mainly Rotliegendes) and Lower Triassic (Bunter) are present and sealed by evaporites of Permian and Triassic age. A striking exception from the internationally acknowledged 'death line' for the occurrence of natural gas fields (commonly assumed at 3.0–3.5% Rm) is represented by the gas field Uchte where the vitrinite reflectance is 4.5% Rm at the surface of the Carboniferous. This anomaly can be explained by a strong but short telemagmatic heating event, with coalification having preceded porosity loss of the reservoir rocks, and/or by fracture porosity gained through tectonic disturbance of the rocks. This study indicates that the natural gas deposits of the Federal Republic of Germany accumulated in relatively recent geological times, i.e. during the late Mesozoic and/or the Cainozoic, either as a result of an additional subsidence and consequently additional heating of the Upper Carboniferous, or of telemagmatic heating effects.


This thesis investigates the acquisition of verb inflection in Libyan Arabic (LA), and the role of input. It is a case study in which there is a single participant, a girl acquiring LA as a first language, and her parents are the main source of input. Data were collected by observation of naturalistic interactions over a period of thirteen months at home during play time, meal times, and story reading sessions. The thesis contributes to the theoretical debate about the question of whether young children have adult-like syntactic representations, and what role parental/carer input plays in the acquisition of inflectional verb morphology.The results confirm what has been reported in the literature, that very young children optionally use finite verb forms in finite contexts side-by-side with default verb forms. Agreement errors are few. The results also demonstrate that the parents studied do not regularly provide negative evidence, and if they do so, they do not provide it after every error the child makes. The results show that negative evidence has little effect on the acquisition of certain grammatical features from which the child does not recover, even after the error is corrected. This thesis contributes to our knowledge of first language acquisition by presenting data from a variety of the Arabic language family which has not been investigated before. Moreover, it adds new results to the few existing findings about the acquisition of the verbal domain in Arabic. Furthermore, it provides new results about the role of input in language acquisition in general and in the acquisition of Arabic in particular.


Conservation hatcheries are unproven in restoring threatened and endangered populations of salmon to sustainable levels, and may cause more harm than good. Nonetheless, a recent court decision found that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) must include hatchery salmon in Endangered Species Act listings, where NMFS has included those fish as components of the core "evolutionarily significant units (ESUs)." This undercuts efforts for restoration of wild salmon. The
 authors
 of this Policy Forum, therefore, urge that NMFS use a more legally defensible definition of an ESU; artificially propagated individuals should not be included in ESUs, even if they are indistinguishable at indicator genetic loci. Hatcheries generally reduce current fitness and inhibit future adaptation of natural populations. Hence, the legal definition of an ESU must be unambiguous and must exclude hatchery fish.


A 28-year-old man was admitted because of chest pain. Emergency coronary angiography showed a massive thrombus in the proximal segment and another occlusive thrombus in the distal segment of the left anterior descending artery. He was treated with thrombolytic therapy. Repeat coronary angiography showed disappearance of the thrombi in the proximal and distal segments and obvious myocardial bridging in the mid segment. Intravascular ultrasound revealed an atherosclerotic plaque in the segment immediately proximal to the myocardial bridging, but did not reveal any plaque within or distal to the site. He was discharged 12 days later.


Global average infertility rate is about 6– 12%, and in Vietnam at around 7.7%. As a result, there is a high demand for treatment, especially for female infertility. In vitro maturation (IVM) was evaluated and proven to be the most popular and promising at the moment. In long-term cultivation, the follicle was observed to extend, therefore, the usage of a supporting frame is quite necessary to maintain follicle's natural sphere structure as well as completing the mature process. Amniotic membrane is an avascular membrane, composed of collagen, fibronectin, nidogen, proteoglycan, containing a big number of growth – factors with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, low immunogenicity and viscoelasticity properties. Amniotic hydrogel owns structure formed with thin fibers to help preserve the main component as collagen, which can turn to gel form at 37 degree Celsius. With those properties, amniotic hydrogel showed high potential as a scaffold for the follicle. When amniotic hydrogel is used as a scaffold for cultivating of secondary follicle (100 – 130 µm), the size of oocyte and follicle increased after 12 days of culturing, along with the formation of antrum. The results demonstrated the possibility to use amniotic hydrogel as a scaffold for the development of the secondary follicle.