Purpose: To establish the feasibility of indirectly estimating aneurysm sac pressurization from recordings of aortic pulsatile wall motion (PWM) using M-mode ultrasonography before and after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). Methods: Twenty consecutive patients (mean age 72 years; 19 men) scheduled for EVAR in a single institution underwent M-mode ultrasonography 1 day before EVAR to record PWM of the abdominal aortic aneurysm wall during the cardiac cycle, along with simultaneous blood pressure measurements. The recording was repeated the first postoperative day. Pressure-strain elastic modulus (Ep) was calculated from the preoperative displacement and pressure data. This value and the postoperative PWM were used to inverse estimate pulse pressure in the abdominal aortic aneurysm sac post EVAR. Immediate pressure reduction post EVAR was compared between groups of endoleak vs no endoleak and expansion vs no expansion during 6-month follow-up. Results: Intraobserver variability of the method presented a mean value of 0.04 mm with a 1.2-mm coefficient of variation (95% limits of agreement −1.16 to 1.24 mm). PWM was significantly reduced postoperatively (1.2 vs 0.3 mm, p<0.001) as was pulse pressure exerted on the aneurysm sac (67 vs 16 mm Hg, p<0.001). The pressure reduction was similar between the endoleak vs no endoleak groups (79% vs 75%, p=0.65), but it was significantly greater in the no expansion group (79.5%) vs the group with aneurysm expansion (50%, p=0.008). Conclusion: M-mode ultrasonography may provide a useful adjunct during EVAR surveillance to noninvasively estimate sac pressurization and identify aneurysms at risk of enlargement.


Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARgamma) ligands have been used for several years as modulators of insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism. Recent data from numerous studies have shown that PPARgamma ligands have numerous beneficial effects in the vasculature. They have been shown to regulate proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells as well as improving endothelial cell function. They improve blood pressure by actions at the resistance arteries and kidneys. Clinical trials have indicated that PPARgamma ligands can minimize the development of atherosclerosis as well as regulating other vascular inflammation. PPARgamma has been detected in all the cells found in the vessel wall as well as those cells associated with vascular pathophysiologies. In the monocyte/macrophage, PPARgamma ligands downregulate production of inflammatory cytokines and migration. Also, PPARgamma ligands regulate the expression of SR-A and CD36 receptors that take up lipids in the macrophage. PPARgamma has also been demonstrated to act through the liver X receptor alpha to increase the activity of reverse cholesterol transport in these cells. In dendritic cells and T-cells, PPARgamma ligands have been shown to inhibit activation and the initiation of inflammation. Inflammatory cytokines are downregulated in animal models administered PPARgamma ligands, leading to decreased atherosclerosis. While PPARgamma ligands have been useful in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, the important vasculoprotection elicited by these compounds could prove to be of greater benefit in the future.


This qualitative study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse examines phenomenological meanings surrounding motivations for club drug use in a sample of HIV seroconverted and seronegative gay and bisexual men. Grounded in the cognitive escape model (CEM), this study sought to clarify the synergistic relationship between club drug use, risky sexual behavior, and seroconversion. Sixteen seropositive participants were drawn from a large-scale (n = 450), longitudinal, mixed-method investigation of club drug use among gay and bisexual men in New York City from 2001–2004 and matched with 16 seronegative participants for race/ethnicity, most-frequently used substance, and educational level. Total sample size consisted of 32 participants. Sample size consisted of 13 (41%) Black/African-American, 12 (37.5%) White/Caucasian, 5 (15.5%) Hispanic/Latino, and 2 (6%) mixed/other race/ethnicity participants. Findings suggest behavioral outcomes of club drug use and HIV seroconversion result from complex interactions between physical, emotional, and social motivations.


In-context learning (ICL) for large language models has proven to be a powerful approach for many natural language processing tasks. However, determining the best method to select examples for ICL is nontrivial as the results can vary greatly depending on the quality, quantity, and order of examples used. In this paper, we conduct a case study on text simplification (TS) to investigate how to select the best and most robust examples for ICL. We propose Metric-Based in-context Learning (MBL) method that utilizes commonly used TS metrics such as SARI, compression ratio, and BERT-Precision for selection. Through an extensive set of experiments with various-sized GPT models on standard TS benchmarks such as TurkCorpus and ASSET, we show that examples selected by the top SARI scores perform the best on larger models such as GPT-175B, while the compression ratio generally performs better on smaller models such as GPT-13B and GPT-6.7B. Furthermore, we demonstrate that MBL is generally robust to example orderings and out-of-domain test sets, and outperforms strong baselines and state-of-the-art finetuned language models. Finally, we show that the behavior of large GPT models can be implicitly controlled by the chosen metric. Our research provides a new framework for selecting examples in ICL, and demonstrates its effectiveness in text simplification tasks, breaking new ground for more accurate and efficient NLG systems.


Aim Children with congenital heart diseases are at the greater risk of respiratory tract infection such as pneumonia. Recurrent pneumonia is one of the most major challenge for paediatric physicians. The aim of this study is to investigate risk factors of congenital heart diseases to recurrent pneumonia children. Methods This was a retrospective study of under five-year-old children hospitalized in Hasan Sadikin General Hospital Bandung Indonesia from 2015 to 2018. Congenital heart diseases and pneumonia, as well as recurrent pneumonia, were identified. Congenital heart diseases diagnosis with and without pneumonia were reviewed. Results Of 6997 hospitalized children, in 1258 (18.0%) congenital heart diseases were found, of which 232 (18.4%) had recurrent pneumonia. Most of those had left to right (L to R) shunt, 213 (91.8%). Congenital heart diseases in children aged under 1 year, 144 (62%) were more preponderant than in those aged 1-5 years. More than a half, 119 (51.3%) were males. Left to right shunt was documented as having recurrent pneumonia, of which patent ductus arteriosus and ventricular septal defect were the most common type in congenital heart diseases. Ventricular septal defect had a possibility for recurrent pneumonia by 1.551 times, and malnutrition 2.591 times. Conclusion Ventricular septal defect and malnutrition were identified as risk factors for recurrent pneumonia. Those patients require multidisciplinary approach to prevent respiratory complications.


The present report describes a male newborn with a pulsatile structure beneath the sternum. Echocardiography showed common atrium, a single ventricle, mitral atresia, double outlet right ventricle, subpulmonary stenosis, small pulmonary artery branches, and a thin walled ventricular diverticulum suggestive of Cantrell's syndrome. The diverticulum was resected to prevent life threatening events such as arrhythmias, thrombogenicity, and spontaneous rupture of diverticulum. Maternal use of carbamazepine during pregnancy seems to be the etiologic factor. Iran J Med Sci 2007; 32(1): 48-50.


Keywords: Perception, Basketball Event

This research is based on the growth phenomenon basketball event in Indonesia in the last five years. Includes one event among college basketball named LA Lights Campus League. With its development into a national basketball event is expected to LA Lights Campus League did not disappoint the people or PT Djarum as a party promoter. This requires the perception of the public who had witnessed the implementation of LA Lights Campus League, especially in Malang.
So this research to assess how interested the public perception of the basketball event LA Lights Campus League. It can be a perception suggestions and criticism and can be used as inputs and outputs for the organizers LA Lights Campus League. To get a complete knowledge of the study was conducted at three universities in Malang. Perception is the opinion of the individual after seeing an object. Grace (2005: 51) who cites Desiderato said that the perception is the experience of objects, events, or relationships concluded obtained by interpreting the information and messages. Perception of the public about the LA basketball event Lights Campus League is expected to improve the implementation of the LA event Lights Campus League next.

Through a qualitative research strategy of data collection techniques using interviews and documentation of the data obtained were analyzed using the transcripts from the interviews with informants. Furthermore, analyzing the results of interviews. Starting from comparing equation informant's view, differences of opinion, experience different or innovative ideas as inputs or suggestions from informants for the event LA Lights Campus League. Also would be associated with the theory and principles of social perception.
Results of research on SME student members on three basketball univeersitas shows similarities of perception of the event LA Lights Campus League. The similarity lies in (1). assessment of the event L.A. Lights Campus League, (2). suggestions and criticisms of L.A. Lights Campus League, (3). Increased promotion event L.A. Lights Campus League in the medium of television. In addition, the informant disagreement about the media's role in the promotion of LA Lights Campus League. Can thus be concluded that the public perception of the basketball event LA Lights Campus League is a common support for a basketball event LA Lights Campus League and differences of opinion about the campaign informant LA Lights Campus League through the mass media. On these results, can be recommended to the parties as Bimbi Sportainment LA event organizer Lights Campus League to become an input in the implementation of LA basketball event Lights Campus League in order not to disappoint people or PT Djarum as event promoter.


Violence in sports activities in ancient Greece had always been the main course of its development.The admiration of violence by the ancient Greek can be seen from all sorts of tales and legends about the origin of sports competitions in ancient Greece.The hardship and bloodiness of the ancient Greek in the process of blending of mul-tiple races were reflected in the description of violence in the Homer Epic.Since the slave city-state system in an-cient Greece forced militarized sports activities to become an ordinary state of life of the ancient Greek,such a state of existence virtually constituted the foundation for violent sports competition of the ancient Greek.Finally,the an-cient Greek blended violence and civilization into competitive sports,and they mutually restrained and restricted to achieve a sort of perfect dynamic balance.


BACKGROUND Because of limitations of the esophageal balloon technique, the value of using esophageal pressure (Pes)–guided end-expiratory transpulmonary pressure (PL-exp) to maintain lung recruitment in adult respiratory distress syndrome is controversial. This study aimed to investigate whether tailoring PL-exp to greater than 0 was enough to maintain lung recruitment. METHODS Ten pigs with severe lavage-induced lung injury were mechanically ventilated in a decremental positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) trial that was reduced from 20 to 6 cm H2O after full-lung recruitment. Respiratory mechanics, blood gases, hemodynamic data, and whole-lung computed tomography scans were recorded at each PEEP level. Open-lung PEEP (OL-PEEP) was determined by computed tomography, while Pes-guided PEEP (Pes-PEEP) was to maintain PL-exp greater than 0. RESULTS OL-PEEP was higher than Pes-PEEP, which induced a higher PL-exp at OL-PEEP than at Pes-PEEP (4.6 [1.6] cm H2O vs. 1.2 [0.6] cm H2O, p < 0.001). Compared with OL-PEEP, the nonaerated lung region was significantly increased at Pes-PEEP. Superimposed pressure (SP) of the lung tissue between the esophageal plane and the dorsal level was higher at Pes-PEEP than at OL-PEEP, whereas PL-exp at the dorsal level was lower at Pes-PEEP than at OL-PEEP (−1.5 [0.7] cm H2O vs. 2.5 [1.5] cm H2O, p < 0.001). The SP correlated with PL-exp at the dorsal level and the nonaerated lung region. CONCLUSION In this surfactant-depleted model, maintaining PL-exp just greater than 0 using Pes was unable to maintain lung recruitment; this was partly caused by a lack of compensation for the increased SP between the esophageal plane and the dorsal level.


Nowadays, the demand for online storage is increasing. Customers store their data and can retrieve them anytime and from anywhere without having to care about back up and data recovery. SLAs between Cloud providers and customers determine the level of service guaranteed by the former. A customer can be anyone from an individual person to enterprises. Customers have different needs and preferences. Our proposed system permits the creation and enforcement of customized SLAs, where customers choose the requirements that they need fulfilled. The proposed SLAs are associated with content terms pertaining to the nature of the content of the data stored. SLA enforcement is based on rules that are updated in runtime in order to proactively detect possible SLA violations and handle them in an appropriate manner.


High-resolution subbottom profiling and sediment coring within a 100-sq mi area off South Pass of the Mississippi delta have resulted in: (1) a detailed bathymetric chart of the area; (2) a three-dimensional structural chart of the sediments to a subbottom depth of 100 m; and (3) characterizing the surface sediments in terms of lithology, shear strength, water content, bulk density, and compressibility. The bathymetric chart was constructed on a 1/2 mi grid supplemented by surveys of the area of other agencies. One of the more interesting features of the area was the delineation of a series of gullies. These features are compared with those contoured by F. P. Shepard in 1940. The seismic data revealed that the subbottom structure of the delta front and of the area seaward is characterized by numerous slump features. The sediment in the area is classified as a high water content, low shear strength, underconsolidated, rather homogeneous silty clay. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1903------------


Background: The epidemic scourge of rickets in the 19th century was caused by vitamin D deficiency due to inadequate sun exposure and resulted in growth retardation, muscle weakness, skeletal deformities, hypocalcemia, tetany, and seizures. The encouragement of sensible sun exposure and the fortification of milk with vitamin D resulted in almost complete eradication of the disease.
Objectives: this paper is going to resolve the exiting problems of rickets by correctly diagnosing and offering the proper treatment.
Methods: In this paper, we present an expert system for rickets diagnosis which will helps doctors to explore everything related to the problems of rickets. We look forward to offer simplified answers to most of the rickets disease.


Compared with other well established liver enzyme parameters, carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) offers a new method for the identification of chronic alcoholism. The dependence of CDT and alcoholism/abstinence was studied in 29 controls and 64 alcoholics (both groups comprising men and women). In contrast to the currently used parameters GOT, GPT, gammaGT, LDH and MCV, CDT measures chronic alcoholism exclusively. CDT is dependent on sex but not age. In chronic alcoholism its rate increases significantly, but drops quickly after a short time of abstinence. CDT variations may be a specific and sensitive indicator of alcoholism or abstinence and possibly the duration.


Objectives: To determine if there is any significant association between ABO blood groups and ischemic heart disease (IHD). Methods: The study was performed at Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), Lahore. Study duration was from January 2012 to September 2012. This study included 200 IHD patients and 230 control individuals. Self design questionnaire was used to collect information regarding risk factors. Standard agglutination test was performed to determine the blood groups. Data was analyzed on SPSS 16. Results: The prevalence of blood groups in IHD group was 34% in blood group A, 29% in blood group B, 14% in blood group AB and 23% in blood group O. In control group the distribution of B, A, AB and O blood groups were 34.4%, 20.9%, 12.6%, 32.2% respectively. Rh+ve factor was prevalent in 90.5% among IHD group and 92.6% in control subjects. The prevalence of IHD was more in males (63.5%) as compared to females (36.5%). Mean age was 56.4±0.86 (yrs) and BMI was 26.4±0.33 (kg/m2). The prevalence of hypertension was 58.5%, diabetes was 53%, family history of cardiac disease was 45%, 35.5% of patients were doing exercise regularly, 58.5% used ghee, and 58% were smokers. Conclusion: Subjects with blood group A had significantly (p< 0.05) higher risk of developing IHD as compare to other blood groups.


This paper proposes a novel Human-Robot Interactive System where users can interact with the robotic system using hand gestures, even from a distance, through a smartphone-based IoT-Controller Framework. The system is primarily designed to help people with vocal and hearing impairments. A mobile application records user gestures shown in front of a smartphone and sends the data to a server. The server performs gesture recognition and forms a command which is sent to the robotic system. The robotic system performs the required task based on the given command. The robotic system is set to carry out an object pick and place operation based on the gesture commands in the system's initial experiments. The accuracy of both the gesture recognition model and the object grasping task were measured, along with the time taken for the system to complete the entire task. Experimental results showed that the system performed well, achieving 100% accuracy in object grabbing and gesture recognition, and the average time taken by the system to complete the robotic pick and place task was around 78 seconds.


In Finland and Sweden the KBS-3 concept has been chosen for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel in crystalline rock. Recent experiments have shown that heterogeneity of rock may play a major role in the transport of radionuclides. Autoradiographic methods have been proven to be able to assist the characterization of heterogeneous structures. In this study we tested a novel filmless autoradiographic device called Beaver^TM which applies a micro patterned gaseous detector in order to quantitatively map beta emissions from C-14 atoms. The studied samples were impregnated with C-14-labelled methylmethacrylate (C-14-MMA) and polymerized to C-14-PMMA with thermal initiator. The Beaver^TM was then used to determine the spatial distribution of the C-14-PMMA by measuring the C-14 emissions. The porosity is determined from the amount of C-14-PMMA in the rock sample and results were compared to ones from phosphor imaging plate autoradiography. The resulting images show a heterogeneous distribution of porosity which arises from the different minerals. The samples were chosen from three sites that have been used recently for in situ diffusion experiments: Olkiluoto (Finland), Äspö (Sweden) and Grimsel (Switzerland).


Chinese participation in educational overseas programs has steadily increased over the past several years. Chinese parents and youth see these types of programs, specifically short-term programs, as a means to gain exposure to a foreign country and its culture before possibly studying in that country. This capstone paper explores the value of such programs by examining their long-term impact while considering other factors that may influence Chinese desire to participate in these programs. The research in this paper reveals that overseas youth programs that incorporate sound pedagogy and elements of experiential learning in their design have potential to be successful in creating the meaningful intercultural experiences that Chinese parents and their children seek in short-term overseas programs. Furthermore, a program that recognizes cultural interests that appeal to Chinese youth have the potential to be successful. The findings in this capstone paper support the development of The Heart of Basketball; a short-term overseas youth program that promotes personal development and cross-cultural competencies in its participants via a basketball-based pedagogy. A partnership with an American high school opens the door to the school's internationalization efforts and fulfills the participants' parents' preference that their children experience the culture of the region in which they intend to send their child to study in the future.


Real-time and human-interpretable decision-making in autonomous systems is a significant but challenging task, which usually requires predictions of possible future events from limited data. While machine learning techniques have achieved promising results in this field, they lack interpretability and the ability to make online predictions for sequential behaviors. In this paper, we introduce a time-incremental learning framework to predict the labels of time-series signals that are received incrementally over time, referred to as prefix signals. These signals are being observed as they are generated, and their time lengths are shorter than their corresponding time horizons. We present a novel decision tree-based approach to learn a finite number of Signal Temporal Logic (STL) specifications from a given dataset and construct a predictor based on them. Each STL specification serves as a binary classifier of the time-series data and captures a specific part of the dataset's temporal properties over time. The predictor is built by assigning time-variant weights to the STL formulas, which represent their classification impacts. The weights are learned using neural networks to minimize the misclassification rate of classifying prefix signals with different time lengths. The predictor is then used to predict the labels of prefix signals by computing the weighted sum of their robustnesses with respect to the STL formulas. The effectiveness and classification performance of our algorithm is evaluated on urban-driving and naval-surveillance case studies.


Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the pathogen that most commonly triggers infection-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and ectopically infects CD8(+) T cells in EBV-associated HLH (EBV-HLH). We recently described an EBV-HLH patient who had a clonally expanded population of EBV-infected CD8(+) T cells with CD5 down-regulation. To determine whether this finding could serve as a useful marker for EBV-HLH, we investigated 5 additional patients. We found a significant increase in the subpopulation of CD8(+) T cells with CD5 down-regulation and bright human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR expression in all patients with EBV-HLH but not in patients with infectious mononucleosis or in control subjects. Such T cells were frequently found to be larger cells that stained positive for a specific T cell receptor VB. We also demonstrated that those cells were the major cellular target of EBV, and their numbers progressively declined in parallel with the serum ferritin levels. All together, our findings reveal the immunophenotypic characteristics of EBV-infected CD8(+) T cells and may provide a valuable tool for the diagnosis of EBV-HLH.


Community attitudes drive societal expectations, influencing government and industry regulations that determine standards of care for industries reliant on animals. It is important for dog industry stakeholders to understand public perceptions and attitudes, to inform management strategy
 priorities relating to animal welfare. This study sought to determine if the welfare status of dogs (Canis familiaris) is important to people and whether the perceived level of welfare varies with dog context (eg companion, protection, stock herding, assistance, sporting, free-roaming,
 wild, etc). Over 2,000 self-selected adults completed a voluntary, internet-based questionnaire. Responses were received from more than twelve countries and from a range of stakeholders with varied experiences. Perceived welfare status of dogs varied significantly across 17 dog contexts and
 roles, from extremely low (eg fighting dogs) to very high (eg guide dogs). Over 95% of respondents agreed that the welfare of dogs was very important to them. Demographic features of respondents did not relate to meaningful differences in reported importance of canine welfare or ratings of
 perceived welfare of dogs. The constructs underlying how people perceive the welfare of dogs appear complex and multi-dimensional. As public scrutiny forces reassessment of the welfare status of animals used in various contexts, proactive management of perceived welfare issues by companion
 and working dog industry stakeholders, including government, industry organisations, advocacy groups, and animal welfare researchers, is likely to be key to the sustainable participation of dogs in these roles.


Physical and chemical enviromental pollutants' negative effect on human health is known. Those pollutants may cause different cancer types especially after exposure to high doses for a long time. In this article, environmental exposures to radiation, arsenic, cadmium, lead, chrome, nickel and current genetic analysis methods to detect effects of mutagens will be summarized.


Mass media play an important role in the relationship between science and society being the main (or even only) way that non-scientists get information about scientific and technological achievements. Different ways of science coverage in mass media (chosen themes, contexts, triggers and sources) create public image of science, influence elevation of some scientific issues onto the public agenda, contribute to public legitimation and support of science, and, eventually, to its funding. Mass media science coverage indicates the public attention and interest values to science. The contemporary interactions between science, mass media and the general public are therefore an area of foreign social research over the last decades.
 This paper reviews some key issues of the English-speakingresearch of the relationship between science, public and mass media. In the first part, a survey of science news history and of mass media interaction with science is presented. Their transformation as a result of globalization, new communication technologies development and the formation of a new media environment is also shown.
The second part focuses on the public perceptions of science and scientists and on the development of public scientific literacy. A review of some approaches to promoting a positive image of science and to the popularization of scientific research is presented with three models of interaction between science and society as examples: deficit model, dialogue model and participation model.


There is growing evidence that enteral feeding tubes are associated with increased mortality and complication rates in patients with advanced dementia. Buried Bumper Syndrome is an uncommon, but well documented late complication of PEG placement. Our case report reinforces this recognised risk of PEG feeding in an elderly, cognitively impaired patient.


Background Cardiorenal syndrome type 2 (CRS-2) is common in end-stage chronic heart failure (CHF). Peritoneal ultrafiltration (pUF) may entail clinical functional improvement and a reduction in hospitalizations. Methods Thirty-nine consecutive end-stage CHF patients with stable CRS-2 were initiated on ambulatory pUF after interdisciplinary cardiological/nephrological evaluation and prospectively followed for 1 year. All-cause hospitalization was the primary end point. Secondary end points included mortality, treatment alteration and change in weight, NYHA functional class or quality of life (QoL). Outcomes were compared both within the pUF cohort (365 prior to initiation) and with 39 matched CHF patients receiving standard medical treatment. Results Compared with pretreatment, there was a trend to a reduction in 1-year hospitalization days in the pUF group (P = 0.07). One-year mortality was 33% in the pUF group and 23% in the matched control cohort. pUF was stopped in eight patients (18%) due to recurrent peritonitis (n = 3), insufficient ultrafiltration (n = 3) or cardiac recompensation (n = 1). Compared with standard medical treatment, pUF significantly improved volume overload (P < 0.05), NYHA functional class (P < 0.001) and mental health (P < 0.05). Moreover, hospitalization days for all causes as well as cardiovascular hospitalization days were significantly reduced during the interim periods in the pUF group (P < 0.05 and P < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions pUF is effective in improving the clinical condition of end-stage CHF patients suffering from CRS-2. Randomized controlled trials are needed to clarify the effects of pUF on hospitalization and mortality in these patients.


The painted red lines on the wooden carved acupuncture statue of Western Han Dynasty in Laoguanshan, illustrate the running courses of the"eleven meridians"on the body surface in the early meridian doctrine. The carved white lines show the body surface running courses of the"twelve meridians"in the meridian doctrine and the Sanjiao images in Sanjiao doctrine. The dots on the wooden carved acupuncture statue are of two categories, one of them is of regulatory, round and concave spots, which are carved before the process of lacquer undercoat. The other category is of different sizes and in irregular forms, which are carved simultaneously with those white lines. Altogether there are over one hundred dots in these two categories, representing the mai shu (transport point of vessels). The wooden carved acupuncture statue reflects the distinct characteristics on the running courses of meridians, Sanjiao doctrine, the nomenclature and localization of"mai shu"in Bianque medicine, which provides the most powerful evidence for the confirmation of the correlation between Laoguanshan excavated documents and Bianque medicine.


AIM
To describe the development and initial validation of a questionnaire measuring functional vision in dogs.

METHODS
A 17-item survey was designed to quantify functional vision in dogs. The Vision Impairment Score (VIS) was determined by summing responses to each question. Questions were assigned to one of five subcategories: overall vision, daily activities, peripheral vision, near vision, and distance vision. Content validity was established during development phases, and construct validity via comparing results of known groups (blind vs sighted; normal vs impaired vision; surgery to improve vision vs nonrestorative surgery), and through factor analysis. Concurrent criterion validity was determined with use of a validated health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) assessment tool. Reliability and responsiveness assessments were investigated using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and effect size (ES), respectively.

RESULTS
Responses (221) from 201 dog owners were included. Compared to sighted dogs (n = 153), blind dogs (n = 48) had a higher VIS and greater impairment in all subcategories. Among sighted dogs, a higher VIS was obtained in dogs with low vision compared to those with normal vision (P < 0.001). A higher VIS was associated with poorer HRQL (P < 0.001). Perfect reliability was obtained for 6/17 questions, and excellent reliability for 11/17 questions (intraclass correlation 1.0 and >0.9, respectively), and the VIS was highly responsive to therapeutic intervention (effect size 1.46).

CONCLUSION
Results suggest the VIS may be clinically useful in assessing and obtaining a quantifiable measure of functional vision in dogs. Ongoing validation of the tool for clinical use is needed.


Breast cancer is one of the few tumors where the judgment of level of protein expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) directly results in therapy. Although the pathologist is not the prescribing physician, their "reading" of ER, PR, and Her2 can result in prescription of life-saving therapies. As a result of that, many studies have been done to attempt to be more quantitative in the assessment of exactly how much protein is on the slide. However, these efforts have largely failed to gain clinical acceptance, even up to April 2010, when the ASCO/CAP guidelines recommended, but did not require, a quantitative approach. Key reasons for the hesitation to require quantification included lack of standardization, lack of data on pre-analytic variables and lack of a universally accepted reproducible quantitative method. This presentation will examine the current methods for quantitative measurement of ER and Her2 in breast cancer tissue including review of the current technologies and devices for both IHC and quantitative immunofluorescence (QIF). Then issues and some new data related to standardization and pre-analytic variability will be presented. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2010;70(24 Suppl):Abstract nr ES6-1.


The Influence of application of the mean strain on the fatigue life was investigated for Type 316 stainless steel in the simulated pressurized water reactor (PWR) primary water environment. Low-cycle fatigue tests were conducted for a constant mean strain by controlling the strain range to be 1.2%. The applied strain rates were 0.4%/s, 0.004%/s, or 0.001%/s. The applied mean strain was 15% in nominal strain. In addition, cold worked specimens were also used for the tests without applying the mean strain. The cold working simulated the application of mean strain without an increase in surface roughness due to the application of plastic deformation. By inducing the cold working at low temperature, the influence of martensitic phase on the fatigue life was also examined. The PWR water environment reduced the fatigue life and the degree of the fatigue life reduction was consistent with the prediction model of the code issued by the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) and NUREG/CR-6909 Rev. 1. Increases in the maximum peak stress and stress range caused by cold working did not cause any apparent change in the fatigue life. It was revealed that the 10.5 wt% martensitic phase and the increase in the surface roughness caused by the application of 15% mean strain did not bring about further fatigue life reduction. The current JSME and NUREG/CR-6909 models were applicable for predicting the fatigue in the PWR water environment even when the mean strain or cold working was applied.


Recent experiments in Bi2Sr1Ca1Cu2O8+δ[7] demonstrated that the fluctuation diamagnetism in strong magnetic field at the vicinity of the critical temperature significantly differs from the behavior predicted by fluctuation diamagnetism theories based on Ginzburg-Landau model within the lowest Landau level approximation. In this study, we extend previous theoretical result to the T < Tc region and incorporate to the theory contributions from higher Landau levels. Comparison with experimental results shows a good agreement with the theory for an optimally doped sample, while for under-doped sample the agreement is poor at low temperature.


Purpose: This study aims to explore the imaging–clinic relationship and an optional imaging biomarker of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by using texture analysis on arterial enhancement fraction (AEF). Materials and Methods: The HCC patients treated in No. 2 Interventional Ward, ShengJing Hospital of China Medical University from June 2018 to June 2019 were enrolled, for whom tri-phasic enhanced CT scans were acquired. Perfusion analysis and texture analysis were then performed on the tri-phasic enhanced CT images. After the region of interest (ROI) of viable HCC was drawn, 13 AEF textures describing the values distribution were conducted. A between-groups comparison of AEF textures was made where the cases had grouping properties, a correlation analysis was made between AEF textures and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) as well as other clinical data which were digital, and regression analysis was made when a significant correlation was found. SPSS 19.0 (IBM) was utilized for statistical analysis; a significant difference was considered when P < 0.05. Results: Twenty-five HCC patients were enrolled. Several AEF textures were found to have a correlation with clinical features, including previous surgery history, age, glutamic oxaloacetylase, indirect bilirubin, creatinine, and AFP. The majority of AEF textures (up to 9/13) were found to have a correlation with AFP (SD, variance, uniformity, energy, entropy, inertia, correlation, inverse difference moment, and cluster prominence), while six or seven textures have a linear or cubic relationship with AFP (SD, variance, uniformity, inertia, correlation, cluster prominence, plus inverse difference moment). Conclusion: The AEF textures of HCC are strongly correlated with and are impacted by AFP, which may enable AEF to act as an optional imaging biomarker of HCC.


This study explores the issue of increasing numbers of pupils being excluded from primary school. Permanent exclusion is high on the agenda, both in the local authority where the research took place and nationally. There is a vast amount of literature relating to exclusion from school, although its focus tends to be on exclusion from secondary school. Previous research indicates that there are a range of interacting factors which lead to pupils being permanently excluded from school, and that different schools and areas have different rates of school exclusion. Previous research indicates that EPs may contribute to schools' work with pupils who are at risk of exclusion from primary school. Thematic analysis was used to explore perceptions of twelve school staff and nine Educational Psychologists. The study focuses on two areas: perceptions related to the reasons for increasing numbers of pupils being excluded from primary school, and how Educational Psychologists might support schools to reduce the numbers of pupils being excluded from primary school. Three main themes are identified related to the reasons for increasing numbers of primary school exclusion: the changing educational landscape; systems of non-mainstream provision and changing demands of school staff. Educational Psychologists might support primary schools to reduce the numbers of pupils excluded from primary school, focussing at national, local authority and school level. The current study supports previous research which suggests that primary school exclusion is caused by a range of interactive factors. Tension around the issue of inclusion is a key factor in the increasing numbers of pupils being excluded from primary school. Through Educational Psychologists explicitly measuring their impact in relation to subsequent fixed term or permanent exclusion of pupils, Educational Psychologists will be able to develop a clearer evidence base of the way that their approaches support primary schools to reduce exclusion.


Trichoderma reesei (Tr.) cellulases, which convert cellulose to reducing sugars, are a promising catalyst used in the lignocellulosic biofuel production. Improving Tr. cellulases activity, though very difficult, is highly desired due to the recalcitrance of lignocellulose. Meanwhile, it is preferable to enhance the cellulase's promiscuity so that substrates other than cellulose can also be hydrolyzed. In this work, an attempt is made to improve the catalytic activity of a major endogluanase Tr. Cel7B against xylan which crosslinks with cellulose in lignocellulose. By using quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, the transition state of the xylo‐oligosaccharide hydrolysis is identified. Then, mutations are introduced and their effect on the transition state stabilization is ranked based on the free energy calculations. Seven top ranked mutants are evaluated experimentally. Three mutants A208Q, A222D, and G230R show a higher activity than the wild‐type Tr. Cel7B in the hydrolysis of xylan (by up to 47%) as well as filter paper (by up to 50%). The combination of the single mutants can further improve the enzyme activity. Our work demonstrates that the free energy method is effective in engineering the Tr. Cel7B activity against xylan and cellulose, and thus may also be useful for improving the activity of other Tr. cellulases. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 1171–1177. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The surgical strategy for treating intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPNM) of the peripheral branches continues to be controversial. The extension of the surgical resection is still under debate, especially in patients with non-invasive lesions. In these patients, the objective is to preserve as much of the remaining parenchyma as possible. We present the case of a 39-year-old man with a history of recurring episodes of acute pancreatitis. Multislice computed tomography (MSCT) and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) showed a pancreatic cyst located in the posterior region of the head of the pancreas, which probably communicated with the main pancreatic duct (Fig. 1). The size of the tumor was 19 mm. Serum levels of CA 19.9 and CEA were normal. The preoperative evaluation was completed with endoscopic ultrasound, which ruled out the presence of other nodules. With the diagnosis of IPNM of the peripheral branches, we decided to resect the lesion. The patient was taken to the operating room with the intention of performing a laparoscopic Whipple procedure. An extended Kocher maneuver was done with complete mobilization of the head of the pancreas. Intraoperative ultrasound enabled us to precisely locate the lesion, which was protruding from the posterior side. At that time, we decided to perform enucleation with preservation of the pancreatic parenchyma and the duodenum. The cyst was dissected with an electroscalpel, and the communicating duct was identified and ligated while preserving the main pancreatic duct and enucleating the tumor (Fig. 2). The frozen histology sections of the cyst showed lowgrade dysplasia. The patient recovered without complications and was discharged from the hospital on the fifth day post-op. The definitive pathology report determined the lesion to be a borderline IPNM. The patient has been symptom-free after 4 months of follow-up. The extension of the pancreatic resection for the surgical treatment of peripheral branch IPNM continues to be a topic of debate. In patients with non-invasive tumors, the long-term results in terms of endocrine and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency should be taken into special consideration. Conservative procedures seem to be an alternative to major pancreatic resections in this type of disease. Central and distal spleen-preserving pancreatectomies have become common treatments in cystic tumors and IPNM of peripheral branches without suspected malignancy. But preservation of the pancreatic parenchyma can be difficult for lesions located in the head of the pancreas or in the uncinate process, for which pancreaticoduodenectomy continues to be the traditional approach. For this reason, enucleation can be useful in these difficult locations. Little has been published in the international literature with regards to the enucleation of benign peripheral branch


ABSTRACT PtlH is an essential component of the Ptl system, the type IV transporter responsible for secretion of pertussis toxin (PT) across the outer membrane of Bordetella pertussis. The nine Ptl proteins are believed to interact to form a membrane-spanning apparatus through which the toxin is secreted. In this study, we monitored the subcellular localization of PtlH in strains of B. pertussis lacking PT, lacking other Ptl proteins, or from which ATP has been depleted in order to gain insight into the requirements for assembly of PtlH with the remainder of the Ptl transporter complex that is thought to be tightly embedded in the membrane. We found that PtlH is exclusively localized to the inner membrane fraction of the cell in a wild-type strain of B. pertussis. In contrast, PtlH localized to both the cytoplasmic and inner membrane fractions of a mutant strain of B. pertussis that does not produce PT. In comparison to how it localized in wild-type strains of B. pertussis, PtlH exhibited aberrant localization in strains lacking PtlD, PtlE, PtlF, and PtlG. We also found that localization of PtlH was perturbed in B. pertussis strains that were treated with carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone and sodium arsenate, which are capable of depleting cellular ATP levels, and in strains of B. pertussis that produce an altered form of PtlH that lacks ATPase activity. When taken together, these results indicate that tight association of PtlH with the membrane, likely through interactions with components of the transporter-PT complex, requires the toxin substrate, a specific subset of the Ptl proteins, and ATP. Based on these data, a model for the assembly of the Ptl transporter-PT complex is presented.


Studying the functional hemodynamic roles of individual cerebral cortical arterioles in maintaining both the structure and function of cortical regions during and after brain stroke in small animals is an important issue. Recently, functional photoacoustic microscopy (fPAM) has been proved as a reliable imaging technique to probe the total hemoglobin concentration (HbT), cerebral blood volume (CBV) and hemoglobin oxygen saturation (SO2) in single cerebral blood vessels of rats. Here, we report the application of fPAM associated with electrophysiology recordings to investigating functional hemodynamic changes in single cortical arterioles of rats with electrical forepaw stimulation after photo-induced ischemic stroke. Because of the weak optical focusing nature of our fPAM system, photo-induced ischemic stroke targeting single cortical arterioles can be easily conducted with simple adaptation. Functional HbT, CBV and SO2 changes associated with the induced stroke in selected arterioles from the anterior cerebral artery system were imaged with 36 x 65-μm spatial resolution. Experimental results showed that after photo-occlusion of a single arteriole, the functional changes of nearby arterioles in cerebral cortex only can be observed immediately after the stroke. After a few minutes of stroke onset, there are no significant functional changes under the forepaw stimulation, suggesting that alternate blood flow routes are not actively recruited. The fPAM with electrophysiology recordings complements existing imaging techniques and has the potential to offer a favorable tool for explicitly studying cerebral hemodynamics in small animal models of photo-indcued ischemic stroke.


Novel p-terphenoquinone analogues incorporating a central dihydrofurandiylidene skeleton have been synthesized. These quinones gave a stable radical cation and a stable radical anion on one-electron redox reactions showing an amphoteric property even though they do not contain any sulfur atom as an integral component. The radical cation and the radical anion of the tetra-t-butyl derivative have been characterized by EPR spectroscopy.


An extremely sensitive single photon counter was developed that could quantitatively detect very weak, spontaneous light emission from human blood samples. Ultra-weak chemiluminescence intensities of cigarette smokers' blood plasma reached significantly higher levels than those of nonsmokers. Elevated levels of the chemiluminescence of the smokers' plasma returned to the nonsmokers' range within 12 hr after cessation of cigarette smoking. We propose that this higher chemiluminescent property of the smokers' plasma might be somehow related to cigarette smoking-associated health disorders, e.g., carcinogenesis.


With the detail in many sections substantially revised, this second edition provides a history of football in over 150 countries. It includes results in the World Cup, the European Championship, European club competitions, the African Nations Cup, the Copa Libertadores and the Copa America.


Oscillations arise in many real-world systems and are associated with both functional and dysfunctional states. Therefore, it is important to determine the causes of oscillations in a network. Whether a network can oscillate can be estimated if we know the strength of interaction between nodes. But in real-world networks (in particular in biological networks) it is usually not possible to know the exact connection weights. Therefore, it is important to determine the structural properties of a network necessary to generate oscillations. Here, we provide a proof that uses dynamical system theory to prove that an odd number of inhibitory nodes and strong enough connections are necessary to generate oscillations in a single cycle threshold-linear network. We illustrate these analytical results in a biologically plausible network with either firing-rate based or spiking neurons. Our work provides structural properties necessary to generate oscillations in a network. We use this knowledge to reconcile recent experimental findings about oscillations in basal ganglia with classical findings.


Background: Adjacent segment disease (ASD) is a well-known complication after interbody fusion. Pedicle screw-rod revision possessed sufficient strength and rigidity. However, is a surgical segment with rigid fixation necessary for ASD reoperation? This study aimed to investigate the biomechanical effect on LLIF with different instrumentation for ASD treatment.Methods: A validated L2~5 finite element (FE) model was modified to simulate. ASD was considered the level cranial to the upper-instrumented segment(L3/4). Bonegraft fusion in LLIF with bilateral pedicle screw fixation (BPS) has occurred at the L4/5. The ASD segment for each group was underwent a) LLIF + posterior extension of BPS, b) PLIF + posterior extension of BPS, c) LLIF + lateral screw, d) Stand-alone LLIF. L3/4 Range of motion (ROM), interbody cage stress and strain, screw-boneinterface stress, cage-endplate interface stress, and L2/3 nucleus pulposus of intradiscal pressure (NP-IDP) analysis were calculated for the comparisons among fourmodels.Results: All reconstructive models displayed decreased motion at L3/4. In each loading condition, difference was not significant between model a and b, which providedthe maximum ROM reduction (73.8% to 97.7%, 68.3% to 98.4%, respectively). Model c also provided a significant ROM reduction (64.9% to 77.5%). Model d provided a minimal restriction of ROM (18.3% to 90.1%), which exceeded that of model a by 13.1 times in flexion-extension, 10.3 times in lateral bending and 4.8 times in rotation. Model b generated greater cage stress than other models, particularly in flexion. The maximum displacement of the cage and the peak stress of cage-endplate interface were found to be the highest in the model d in all loading conditions. For the screw bone interface, the stress was significantly greater in lateral instrumentation than that of posterior instrumentation.Conclusions: Stand-alone LLIF is likely to have limited stability, particularly in lateral bending and axial rotation. Posterior extension of BPS can provide the reliablystability and excellently protective effect on instrumentation and endplate. However, LLIF with in situ screw may be an alternative for ASD reoperation.


Experiments on radiosensitivity of lymphocyte stimulation in vitro and in vivo are described. Mainly the effects on DNA-synthesis and mitotic activity were measured. The effects of delay and inhibition are not specific for stimulated lymphocyte populations, they are common radiobiological characteristics of stimulated proliferation in contrast to spontaneous proliferation. Cells under stimulated proliferation are more radioresistant than the same cells without stimulation or other cells under spontaneous proliferation. In these basic and additional experiments lymphocyte stimulation proved to be a good radiobiological model system.


Distributed model training suffers from communication bottlenecks due to frequent model updates transmitted across compute nodes. To alleviate these bottlenecks, practitioners use gradient compression techniques like sparsification, quantization, or low-rank updates. The techniques usually require choosing a static compression ratio, often requiring users to balance the trade-off between model accuracy and per-iteration speedup. In this work, we show that such performance degradation due to choosing a high compression ratio is not fundamental. An adaptive compression strategy can reduce communication while maintaining final test accuracy. Inspired by recent findings on critical learning regimes, in which small gradient errors can have irrecoverable impact on model performance, we propose Accordion a simple yet effective adaptive compression algorithm. While Accordion maintains a high enough compression rate on average, it avoids over-compressing gradients whenever in critical learning regimes, detected by a simple gradient-norm based criterion. Our extensive experimental study over a number of machine learning tasks in distributed environments indicates that Accordion, maintains similar model accuracy to uncompressed training, yet achieves up to 5.5x better compression and up to 4.1x end-to-end speedup over static approaches. We show that Accordion also works for adjusting the batch size, another popular strategy for alleviating communication bottlenecks.


Summary Fruit neck length (FNL) is an important quality trait in cucumber because it directly affects its market value. However, its genetic basis remains largely unknown. We identified a candidate gene for FNL in cucumber using a next‐generation sequencing‐based bulked segregant analysis in F2 populations, derived from a cross between Jin5‐508 (long necked) and YN (short necked). A quantitative trait locus (QTL) on chromosome 7, Fnl7.1, was identified through a genome‐wide comparison of single nucleotide polymorphisms between long and short FNL F2 pools, and it was confirmed by traditional QTL mapping in multiple environments. Fine genetic mapping, sequences alignment and gene expression analysis revealed that CsFnl7.1 was the most likely candidate Fnl7.1 locus, which encodes a late embryogenesis abundant protein. The increased expression of CsFnl7.1 in long‐necked Jin5‐508 may be attributed to mutations in the promoter region upstream of the gene body. The function of CsFnl7.1 in FNL control was confirmed by its overexpression in transgenic cucumbers. CsFnl7.1 regulates fruit neck development by modulating cell expansion. Probably, this is achieved through the direct protein–protein interactions between CsFnl7.1 and a dynamin‐related protein CsDRP6 and a germin‐like protein CsGLP1. Geographical distribution differences of the FNL phenotype were found among the different cucumber types. The East Asian and Eurasian cucumber accessions were highly enriched with the long‐necked and short‐necked phenotypes, respectively. A further phylogenetic analysis revealed that the Fnl7.1 locus might have originated from India. Thus, these data support that the CsFnl7.1 has an important role in increasing cucumber FNL.


ABSTRACT Srb11p-Srb10p is the budding yeast C-type cyclin-cyclin-dependent kinase that is required for the repression of several stress response genes. To relieve this repression, Srb11p is destroyed in cells exposed to stressors, including heat shock and oxidative stress. In the present study, we identified Ask10p (for activator of Skn7) by two-hybrid analysis as an interactor with Srb11p. Coimmunoprecipitation studies confirmed this association, and we found that, similar to Srb11p-Srb10p, Ask10p is a component of the RNA polymerase II holoenzyme. Ask10p is required for Srb11p destruction in response to oxidative stress but not heat shock. Moreover, this destruction is important since the hypersensitivity of an ask10 mutant strain to oxidative stress is rescued by deleting SRB11. We further show that Ask10p is phosphorylated in response to oxidative stress but not heat shock. This modification requires the redundant mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase kinase Mkk1/2 but not their normal MAP kinase target Slt2p. Moreover, the other vegetative MAP kinases—Hog1p, Fus3p, or Kss1p—are not required for Ask10p phosphorylation, suggesting the existence of an alternative pathway for transducing the Pkc1p→Bck1→Mkk1/2 oxidative stress signal. In conclusion, Ask10p is a new component of the RNA polymerase II holoenzyme and an important regulator of the oxidative stress response. In addition, these results define a new role for the Pkc1p MAP kinase cascade (except the MAP kinase itself) in transducing the oxidative damage signal directly to the RNA polymerase II holoenzyme, thereby bypassing the stress-activated transcription factors.


INTRODUCTION
Primary cardiac tumors are rarely seen in the general population and only a subset are classified as cardiac papillary fibroelastoma.

CASE PRESENTATION
A 59-year-old female that presented for unresponsiveness and cardiac arrest required 4 rounds of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and intubation. Laboratory investigations showed uncompensated respiratory acidosis, hyperkalemia, and elevated troponins. A chest computed tomography angiogram illustrated an acute right pulmonary embolism and a right atrial filling defect. Furthermore, an echocardiogram demonstrated a normal ejection fraction and a large, pedunculated, mobile, and non-valvular echodensity that was attached to the right atrium endocardium. Therefore, the patient was started on a heparin infusion and catheter-directed thrombolysis; however, the mass persisted. A surgical excision was performed, and a 40 mm was removed. The patient was diagnosed with a papillary fibroelastoma based on the clinical symptoms, imaging, and histological findings.

CONCLUSION
This patient's papillary fibroelastoma had multiple rare features including right atrial origin, large size, non-valvular location, and developed symptoms. Although this disease can be initially fatal, the patients typically have a favorable prognosis after a successful excision.


The principles of early intervention and evidence-based care have been applied to the task of improving outcome for first-episode schizophrenia. Significant progress has been achieved through clinical innovation, research, advocacy, and policy changes. Canada has seen the implementation of such services in a number of jurisdictions, and there is a need to develop tools and strategies for quality assurance and quality improvement. The use of tools such as clinical practice guidelines, program fidelity scales, and performance measures, standards, and benchmarks is well established for quality assurance and quality improvement. These tools are available for other areas of mental health care and are being developed for application to treatment services for early psychosis. This column illustrates some of the tools available for quality improvement and the challenges in their application. Development and application of such tools are required to move first-episode psychosis treatment from innovation to best practice and standard care.


Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond allow for coherent spin-state manipulation at room temperature, which could bring dramatic advances to nanoscale sensing and quantum information technology. We introduce a method for the optical measurement of the spin contrast in dense nitrogen-vacancy (NV) ensembles. This method brings insight into the interplay between the spin contrast and fluorescence lifetime. We show that for improving the spin readout sensitivity in NV ensembles, one should aim at modifying the far-field radiation pattern rather than enhancing the emission rate.


The acid-catalyzed formation of methylene-bridged glycoluril dimers yields the C(2)(v)()-diastereomer selectively. Product resubmission experiments establish that the selectivity is the result of thermodynamic control. A modified synthetic route is presented that allows for the preparation of unsymmetrically substituted dimers. We present the X-ray crystal structures of both diastereomers. This class of compounds is useful for studies of self-assembly in aqueous solution.


Advances in medical technology have altered the need for certain types of surgery to be performed in traditional inpatient hospital settings. Less invasive surgical procedures allow a growing number of medical treatments to take place on an outpatient basis. Hospitals face growing competition from ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) that utilize innovative technology. The competitive threats posed by ASCs are important, given that inpatient surgery has been the cornerstone of hospital services for over a century. Disruptive innovation is heralded as a way to lower health care costs, while improving the quality of and accessibility to care. Yet, regulations that aim to control the effects of disruptive innovation in the hospital industry can limit access and keep costs high. Understanding better how surgical volume shifts between hospitals and ASCs is important to informing health policy debates. The study examines disruptive innovation theory in health care and the effects of policy reforms on the utilization of appendectomy, cholecystectomy, and bariatric surgery.


Air quality evaluation is important for assessing the nature, concentration thresholds and environmental impacts of atmospheric pollution. Airborne pollutants are related to weather elements which affect their transport and diffusion patterns. Particulate matter concentrations (PM) often exceed the threshold values at which human health is severely affected, especially in urban areas. This paper presents the first assessment of PM 10 concentrations in the urban environment of North – Eastern Romania, at mid elevations, in relation to particular meteorological conditions. We hereby determine the influence of temperature, rainfall, humidity, atmospheric pressure and wind direction and speed on the concentrations of PM 10 in the urban area of Suceava City, during the recent period (2008 – 2010). The results of our study have shown that the PM 10 concentrations were highest in the cold season, during cloudy days and in cases of temperature inversions. We also found that for our study area the overall PM 10 concentrations appear influenced to a great extent by wind at both maximum and average speed, and by precipitation. Our results were similar to other findings in the urban areas of South-Western Germany, South – Eastern  Spanish Mediterranean Basin and Turkey


Many poverty alleviation programs aiming to enhance nutrition include behavior change communication (BCC). This study uses a field experiment in Bangladesh to assess the impacts of BCC, focusing on nutrition training (providing information) and cooking contests (providing experience). First, in 900 households, we tested the nutrition knowledge of two household members and invited one of them to participate in a nutrition training. Comparing differences in pre-training and post-training knowledge among trained and nontrained household members, we find that training has a positive effect on nutrition knowledge, but the improved knowledge does not translate into healthier diets. Second, in randomly selected neighborhoods, the nutrition training was followed by a cooking contest designed to reinforce nutrition training messages and encourage participants to learn by doing. We find no additional effects of these contests on either knowledge or diets. We conclude that low-cost BCC strategies help improve knowledge, but alternative interventions are needed to strengthen links between knowledge and behavior.


The napEDABC gene cluster that encodes the periplasmic nitrate reductase from Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA110 has been isolated and characterized. napA encodes the catalytic subunit, and the napB and napC gene products are predicted to be a soluble dihaem c and a membrane-anchored tetrahaem c-type cytochrome, respectively. napE encodes a transmembrane protein of unknown function, and the napD gene product is a soluble protein which is assumed to play a role in the maturation of NapA. Western blots of the periplasmic fraction from wild-type cells grown anaerobically with nitrate revealed the presence of a protein band with a molecular size of about 90 kDa corresponding to NapA. A B. japonicum mutant carrying an insertion in the napA gene was unable to grow under nitrate-respiring conditions, lacked nitrate reductase activity, and did not show the 90 kDa protein band. Complementation of the mutant with a plasmid bearing the napEDABC genes restored both nitrate-dependent anaerobic growth of the cells and nitrate reductase activity. A membrane-bound and a periplasmic c-type cytochrome, with molecular masses of 25 kDa and 15 kDa, respectively, were not detected in the napA mutant strain incubated anaerobically with nitrate, which identifies those proteins as the NapC and the NapB components of the B. japonicum periplasmic nitrate reductase enzyme. These results suggest that the periplasmic nitrate reductase is the enzyme responsible for anaerobic growth of B. japonicum under nitrate-respiring conditions. The promoter region of the napEDABC genes has been characterized by primer extension. A major transcript initiates 66.5 bp downstream of the centre of a putative FNR-like binding site.


OBJECTIVE
To reconstruct the digestive tract using the jejunum with vascular pedicle after esophagectomy or gastrectomy, and observe the therapeutic effects and the patients' quality of life after the operation.

METHODS
This study included a total of 25 patients, 10 of whom received proximal subtotal gastrectomy followed by reconstruction of the digestive tract with P-shaped jejunum for anastomosis of the esophagus and the residual stomach, 15 had total gastrectomy and anastomosis of the P-shaped jejunum with the esophagus inferior to the arch of aorta, with another 2 having total gastrectomy and the anastomosis superior to the arch of aorta. The pH value of the esophagus was tested, barium meal and gastroscopy were carried out 3 months after the operations, and the patients' quality of life assessed.

RESULTS
Anastomotic leakage or infections in the thoracic or abdominal cavity occurred in none of the patients. All the patients had no postoperative difficulty in eating cooked rice, and were free of reflux esophagitis and burning sensation in the chest. The pH value of the esophagus was 5.5-6.6. Eight patients survived for more than 5 years.

CONCLUSIONS
The effects of digestive tract reconstruction using the jejunum with vascular pedicle after esophagectomy or gastrectomy are satisfactory, especially in patients with esophageal cancer in the lower section or cardia cancer. This operation gives rise to low rate of operative complications, and insures good quality of life of the patients.


Background Article 115 of the Swiss Penal Code (StGB) permits physician-assisted dying (PAD), provided it is not performed for "selfish reasons," and thus, occupies a special role in international comparison. However, the Swiss federal law does not regulate who exactly is entitled to access PAD, and there is no universal agreement in the concerned professional societies. Additional uncertainty arises when assessing the wish for PAD of a mentally ill person compared to a somatically ill person. Objectives This study aims to contribute to the discussion of PAD among the mentally ill and to provide insight into the current situation in Switzerland. Methods This is a monocentric prospective observational survey-based study. We will conduct an exploratory online/telephone survey about PAD in somatic vs. mental illness in Switzerland. The survey sample will comprise 10,000 Swiss residents of the general population from all three language regions (German, Italian, and French) as well as 10,000 medical professionals working in the seven states ("cantons") of Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Aargau, Lucerne, Graubünden, Ticino, and Vaud. Opinions on PAD in mentally and somatically ill patients will be assessed using 48 different case vignettes. Each participant will be randomly assigned a somatic terminal, a somatic non-terminal, and a mental non-terminal case vignette. Furthermore, the attitude toward the ethical guidelines of the Swiss Medical Association of 2004, 2018, and 2022, as well as the stigmatization of mentally ill people will be assessed. Discussion Physician-assisted dying in mentally ill persons is a highly relevant yet controversial topic. On the one hand, mentally ill persons must not be discriminated against in their desire for PAD compared to somatically ill persons while at the same time, their vulnerability must be considered. On the other hand, treating physicians must be protected in their ethical integrity and need security when judging PAD requests. Despite its relevance, data on PAD in the mentally ill is sparse. To regulate PAD for the mentally ill, it is therefore important for Switzerland—but also internationally—to gain more insight into the ongoing debate. Clinical trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT 05492461.


Variable immunobiological changes occur with alcohol consumption. Previous studies have shown that acetaldehyde forms stable adducts with serum proteins, including albumin. These adducts are elevated in persons and animals consuming ethanol. We examined the effect of serum protein-acetaldehyde adducts formed with fetal bovine serum (FBS) on concanavalin A-stimulated murine splenocytes. Interleukin-2 (IL-2) secretion and IL-2 receptor (IL-2R) expression were determined as a function of the effect of the acetaldehyde-protein adduct(s). FBS was incubated with acetaldehyde (500, 100, 50, 25, 10, and 0 microM) for 1 hr at 37 degrees C. Excess acetaldehyde was removed by ultrafiltration using a 500 molecular weight cut-off membrane in 3 volumes. Free as well as bound acetaldehyde was quantified using fluorigenic HPLC before and after incubation. Recovered acetaldehyde correlated with the amount added (r2 = 0.996). Splenocytes were cultured for 48 hr in complete medium containing 5% acetaldehyde-treated and 5% untreated FBS with 4 micrograms/ml concanavalin A. Although cell viability was unchanged, acetaldehyde-treated FBS mixed with native FBS decreased IL-2 secretion in a dose-dependent manner. The percentage of cells expressing IL-2R was reduced only at the highest acetaldehyde-FBS dose. Therefore, immunological effects ascribed to ethanol may result in part from the toxic properties of acetaldehyde-protein adducts on IL-2 secretion.


Inflationary cosmology is developed in the second Randall–Sundrum braneworld scenario, where the accelerated expansion arises through potentials that are too steep to drive inflation in conventional cosmology. A relationship between the scalar and tensor perturbation spectra is derived that is independent of both the inflaton potential and the brane tension. It is found that a single field with an inverse power law potential can act as both the inflaton and the quintessence field for suitable values of the brane tension. PACS NUMBERS: 98.80.Cq Electronic mail: G.Huey @ maths.qmw.ac.uk Electronic mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


This qualitative research examines the influence of animosity on physicians during clinical encounters and its ethical implications. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten Israeli-Jewish physicians: four treated Syrians and six treated Palestinian terrorists/Hezbollah militants or Palestinian civilians. An interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to uncover main themes in these interviews. Whereas the majority of physicians stated they are obligated to treat any patient, physicians who treated Syrians exhibited stronger emotional expression and implicit empathy, while less referring to the presence of the Israeli-Arab conflict. In contrast, physicians who treated enemy combatants or Palestinian civilians showed the exact opposite. Linking these results to the "Implicit Bias" theory, the role of empathy and the beneficence principle in medical ethics, we argue that: (a) the unconscious decreased emotional involvement among the latter group of physicians is a deficiency that needs to be recognized; and (b) this deficiency undermines the principle of beneficence, thereby possibly influencing the fulfillment of the commitment to treat patients. Acknowledging and addressing the potential emotional and ethical deficiencies entailed in encounters with the so-called enemy-patients are of importance to the global medical community, since such encounters are increasingly an integral part of the current political realities faced by both the developed and developing worlds.


This paper deals with description and application of the Wigner-Ville transformation for vibration analysis. This transformation belongs to the group of non-linear time-frequency processes. Thanks to its properties, it may be successfully used in the area of non-stationary and transitional signals describing various natural processes. The use in the field of the railway constructions testing represents a quite an interesting application area of the transformation. This paper contains mathematical analysis of the transformation, a case study and practical experience obtained and recommendations for its practical use.


We have used a simple self-aligned process to fabricate magnetic tunnel junctions down to submicron sizes. Optical and electron-beam lithographies were used to cover a range of areas spanning five orders of magnitude. The bottom magnetic electrodes ~Co or permalloy! in our junctions were exchange biased by an antiferromagnetic layer ~MnFe!. The top electrodes were made of soft magnetic materials ~Co or permalloy!. We have consistently obtained large magnetoresistance ratios ~15%–22%! at room temperature and in fields of a few tens of Oe. The shape of the field response of the magnetoresistance was varied from smooth to highly hysteretic by adjusting the shape anisotropy of one junction electrode. © 1997 American Institute of Physics. @S0021-8979 ~97!56608-4#


Glutaric acidemia type I is caused by mutations of the glutaryl‐CoA dehydrogenase (GCDH) gene resulting in loss of GCDH enzyme activity. Patients present with progressive dystonia and lesions in basal ganglia. Dietary treatment, when instituted from the early neonatal period, markedly reduces dystonia and morbidity. Early diagnosis and prenatal diagnosis will be facilitated by knowledge of locally prevalent GCDH mutations. Several common GCDH mutations have been found in different ethnic groups. GCDH mutations were studied in 5 Chinese glutaric acidemia type I families. We detected two novel recurrent mutations (A219T and IVS10‐2A>C) which were found in two unrelated families. An asymptomatic carrier of IVS10‐2A>C was also found on screening of 120 individuals. Other mutations were identified, including two other novel (R386G & IVS3+1G>A) and two known mutations (G178R & R355H). Fibroblasts from patients carrying the novel mutations were confirmed to be deficient for GCDH activity. This is the first report of GCDH mutations describing recurrent mutations in Chinese patients. The carrier rate of IVS10‐2A>C may be particularly high in Chinese. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This study scrutinizes the basic data on various eco-friendly factors through the cases of environment-friendly certified broadcasting station buildings. These data are expected to be helpful for the green building certification of broadcasting station buildings which are to be newly built. Three steps for the analysis were used. Firstly, they were examined the layout plans by the sun shadow and wind direction for an external environment control field, planting with environmentally purified water and land biotope, and ecological forestation by the water space plan. Secondly, they were tested the items for the building form plans with environmental loads, the building envelope plans by solar radiation analysis, louver and fittings plans, environment-friendly atrium plans, rooftop greening plans and bicycle racks and so on. Finally, it was evaluated the items of the plans to use new and renewable energy, water resources, the electrical and lighting systems such as geothermal heat, photovoltaic power generation, solar duct, rain water and wastewater reuse system, etc. The result shows that Korea's environment-friendly certification system evaluates these broadcasting station buildings the same as office facilities without basic understandings. Therefore the new items and scoring criteria are especially needed for air, thermal and sound environments for the large energy consumption buildings such as broadcasting station buildings.


Reviewed is the work which led to the development of a unique vaccine that prevents pregnancy in sexually active women without impairment of ovulation and block of their making normally their sex steroid hormones. Being given that hCG is not expressed by non-pregnant females, immunization with the vaccine is devoid of any crossreaction with any tissue of the body. It is totally reversible and women regained fertility on decline of antibodies. A recombinant vaccine has been developed which is highly immunogenic in mice. It is undergoing extensive toxicology under GLP conditions in rodents and a primate species, the marmosets, before resumption of clinical trials. Ectopic expression of hCG or its subunits takes place in a variety of cancers, particularly at advanced stage with adverse survival and poor prognosis. Anti-hCG antibodies exercise therapeutic action against such cancers as indicated by in vitro culture and in vivo studies in nude mice. Transgenic hCG β mice put on weight and manifest insulin resistance. Immunization of these mice with the recombinant hCG β-LTB vaccine prevents obesity and insulin resistance.


This research uses finite element analysis to investigate the impact of different solder joint sizes on the mechanical aspects. Specifically, a three-dimensional model of a leadless solder joint for surface mount components was created in simulation software. The study analyses lead-free solder joint thermo-mechanical properties, such as maximum stress and strain. The simulation results indicate that the solder joints parameters significantly influence the thermo-mechanical behaviour during temperature cycling tests. The highest stress is observed at the interface between the solder and pad on the large-size solder joint, while the lowest stress (118MPa) is recorded when employing a small-size solder joint. This research contributes to a better understanding the thermo-mechanical characteristics of different solder joint parameters under temperature cycling conditions.


We first consider the Klein-Gordon equation in the 6-dimensional space M2,4 with signature +−−−−+ and show how it reduces to the Stueckelberg equation in the 4-dimensional spacetime M1,3. A field that satisfies the Stueckelberg equation depends not only on the four spacetime coordinates xμ, but also on an extra parameter τ , the so called evolution time. In our setup, τ comes from the extra two dimensions. We point out that the space M2,4 can be identified with a subspace of the 16-dimensional Clifford space, a manifold whose tangent space at any point is Clifford algebra Cl(1,3). Clifford space is the space of oriented r-volumes, r = 0, 1, 2, 3 associated with the extended objects living in M1,3. We consider the Einstein equation that describe a generic curved space M2,4. The metric tensor depends on six coordinates. In the presence of an isometry given by a suitable Killing vector field, the metric tensor depends on five coordinates only, which include τ . Following the formalism of the canonical classical and quantum gravity, we perform the 4 + 1 decomposition of the 5-dimensional general relativity and arrive, after the quantization, at a generalized Wheeler-DeWitt equation for a wave functional that depends on the 4-metric of spacetime, the matter coordinates, and τ . Such generalized theory resolves some well known problems of quantum gravity, including "the problem of time".


Introduction. When analysing the labour resources of the Lipetsk Region, we noticed that there have been no significant changes. However, a large number of researches stress that rural areas face a significant population outflow. The analysis of the statistics demonstrated that there is a two-way migration to and from rural areas: while some of the population migrates from rural areas to cities, there are also people who move from cities to rural areas. Therefore, we suggest that the migration processes occurring in rural areas are more complicated. Purpose. The purpose of our study was to determine the scale and direction of migration flows in rural areas, the causes of migration, and the effect of migration on the labour resources in rural areas. Methodology. The study was based on statistical data from Lipetskstat and information on labour resources from the Department of Labour and Employment of the Lipetsk Region. The study employed statistical methods, economic analysis, correlation-regression analysis, interpretation, and logical methods. Results. The study demonstrated that a large portion of the region's population (up to 20%, including both those leaving and those arriving) is involved in the migration process. In 2012-2018, the migration gain in the rural areas of the Lipetsk Region was 5,867 people, with the overall migration rate being quite high. However, the migration rate varies greatly depending on the municipal body: half of them saw a loss, while others saw a gain. Over half of the migrants move within the region, and a third moved to or from other regions. The factors making a particular rural area attractive for migration are the following: proximity to the regional capital city, industrial areas, good ecology, and good infrastructure. Conclusions. The study demonstrated that migration has little influence on the number of workers in rural areas. The main cause of migration from rural areas is the lack of qualified jobs with competitive salaries.


This paper explores legal need and legal advice in England and Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic. It uses the lens of vulnerability theory to examine the ways in which this crisis exposed pre-existing fragilities between the state and its relationship with the advice sector, and the individuals who experience social welfare problems. The paper commences by exploring Fineman's vulnerability thesis and its application to those experiencing social welfare-related issues, as well as the vulnerability of the systems operating to give advice. The paper then considers the specific context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on needs, and the ability of the sector to meet these needs. Drawing on policy documents, reports and three case studies from law centres in England and Wales, it discusses the concept of legal need and the realities being experienced. These case studies assist us in being able to critically consider the topics of vulnerability, changing needs and the role that technology is, and can play during the pandemic and beyond. Lastly, the paper points to the need for a critical consideration of the sustainability and format of legal advice in addressing legal need in the post-COVID-19 landscape.


ABSTRACT Belonging to multiple identities that are incompatible has been linked to poor psychological wellbeing outcomes, including feelings of guilt and shame. Individuals who experience such conflict can use a range of strategies to reconcile seemingly incompatible identities. The current study aimed to explore the strategy of identity integration as a protective factor against guilt and shame for individuals who identify as both religious and gay. A sample of 183 religious gay men (M age = 29.31 years, SD = 10.42) completed an online survey comprising measures of religious identification, gay identification, guilt, shame, and identity integration. We found that religious identification predicted higher levels of religious-based guilt, and both gay identity-based guilt and shame. Conversely, gay identification was not associated with any feelings of guilt or shame. Identity integration predicted lower levels of all guilt and shame outcomes, and also moderated the relationship between religious identification and guilt and shame – that is, religious-gay identity integration attenuated the negative effects independently associated with religious identification. These findings suggest that identity integration may enable gay people to access the protective benefits of religious engagement and multiple group memberships while remaining connected to the gay community.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the effect of controlling the heart rate on the heart failure index and on heart function in patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation.

METHODS
82 patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation were divided into a control group (n=41) and a study group (n=41). The patients in the control group underwent conventional treatment. In addition to the conventional treatment, the patients in the study group were administered metoprolol to actively control their heart rates and to decrease their resting heart rates down to 55-60 beats/min as the target heart rate. After three months of treatment, the heart function, the levels of N terminal pro B type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and the inflammatory factors were compared between the two groups. At the same time, the readmission rates and prognoses were calculated.

RESULTS
After the treatment, the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and the cardiac output (CO) levels in the two groups were increased, and the levels in the study group were higher than the levels in the control group; there were opposite trends in the left ventricular end-systolic diameter (LVESD) levels, the left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (LVEDD) levels, and the NT-proBNP, serum CRP, TNF-α and IL-6 levels (all P<0.05). After a six month follow up, the readmission and heart failure rates, and the incidence of adverse events in the study group were lower than they were in the control group (all P<0.05).

CONCLUSION
The effective control of the ventricular rate can more significantly benefit the heart failure symptoms and atrial fibrillation, alleviate the inflammatory response, and thus improve the heart function and prognoses of heart failure patients with atrial fibrillation.


The genre of crime fiction is tremendously popular, with crime fiction novels accounting for about a quarter of all fictional sales in the United Kingdom and the United States (Reiner 1997: 206). As such, Reading the police: examining fictional representations of the police analyses selected portrayals of police detectives in popular culture, specifically in crime fiction, in relation to police culture and investigates police perceptions of popular cultural representations of police. It also identifies possible consequences of crime fiction portrayals of police for stakeholders, the police themselves, and media consumers. These aims were achieved with an investigation of existing research concerning police culture leading to the provision of a 'working police culture personality', based on an amalgamation of four core police culture characteristics as identified by two seminal studies. This workable definition was then used as a framework for a case study analysis of selected crime fiction texts in relation to similarities and disparities with police culture. Police perceptions were then explored using the mixed methods of the email questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The research findings were then compiled and examined so as to hypothesise regarding the potential consequences of media representations of the police. It was found that the case studies showed broad similarity with police culture, although some disparity did exist, and that police officers found media representations of the police to be on the whole inaccurate, and that whilst they did not believe fictional media makers to have a responsibility in regard to the manner in which they portray the police, it was perceived that the news media should have a much greater accountability where their coverage of the police is concerned. It was hypothesised that police and public relations could suffer as a result of media representations of the police.


This paper investigates the contrasting business cycle characteristics of China and the US, speci cally in terms of economic activity and total factor productivity. To help explain the differing pro les for these two variables for both countries, we build and estimate a DSGE model with extended financial markets and endogenous technology creation to identify key structural parameters, comparing the decomposition of the shock processes in our analysis. We reveal stark differences in the contributing factors of business cycle fluctuations for both countries, and demonstrate the importance of the stock market for economic recovery after a sizable and persistent financial shock. Macroeconomic intervention in China works well but is unable to smooth total factor productivity (TFP) due to the presence of multiple shocks transmitted through the endogenous technology creation channel. Whilst the US achieves a similar profile for economic activity with less volatility in TFP, it also contends with additional risks, fed in by the existence of the stock market. The stock market allows firms to hedge finance during periods of financial instability, though this is not cost free.


This article examines two examples of environmental governance led by non-governmental organizations (NGOs): forestry certification by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and fishery certification by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). We use interviews with a range of actors in each certification network in the UK and the USA to examine how FSC and MSC use both space and science in similar (but not identical) ways. Drawing on diverse literature from geography, science and technology studies and political science, we show how certifications are spatialized differently on land (forests) and on water (ocean fisheries) and how certification units can be defined as socionatural hybrids, rather than tied to traditional territorial concerns and political boundaries, thus emphasizing the complexity and variation within putatively global governance. We also show how, without the benefit of governmental backing, NGOs seek credibility and legitimation particularly through diverse alliances with scientific authority. However, such attempts are not straightforward and NGO-led governance often continues to reflect the traditional geographies and uncertainties of environmental government.


Purpose: Linear Boltzmann transport equation (LBTE) is as accurate as the Monte Carlo method (MC) for dose calculation in photon/particle therapy (LBTE is a deterministic and Eulerian formulation and MC is a statistical and Lagrangian description). An advantage of LBTE is that numerous acceleration techniques can be utilized for acceleration. This work is to explore the acceleration of LBTE via diffusion synthetic acceleration (DSA). Methods: For simplicity, two-dimensional, steady-state, and within-group LBTE is considered with two angular dimensions and two spatial dimensions. The discrete ordinate method is developed for solving this integro-differential equation. The angular variables are discretized using a level-symmetric quadrature set on the unit sphere. The spatial variables are discretized on the structured grid based on the diamond scheme. The source-iteration method (SI) is used to solve the discretized system.Since SI is slow in optically thick and highly scattering regime. DSA is developed to accelerate SI. The motivation for DSA is that diffusion equation (DE) is a good approximation of LBTE in the above regime. However, DE is much cheaper than LBTE computationally since DE only involves spatial variables. Thus, in each DSA iteration, DSA adds to the SI step a computationally-negligible DE step, i.e., to first solve DE with the SI residual as source term, and then compensate the SI solution with DE solution. Results: DSA was benchmarked and compared with SI. The difference between two methods was within 0.12% which verifies the accuracy of DSA, while DSA demonstrated the great advantage in speed, e.g., the reduction of iteration number to 6% and 4% respectively for cases with 100 and 1,000 scattering-absorption ratio that commonly occur in clinical dose calculation. Conclusion: DSA has been developed as one of many possible means for accelerating the numerical solver of LBTE for dose calculation. The authors were partially supported by the NSFC (#11405105), the 973 Program (#2015CB856000) and the Shanghai Pujiang Talent Program (#14PJ1404500).


OBJECTIVE
Analyzed associations among the incidence of coal workers' pneumoconiosis from 2003 to 2008, jobs, exposure years and cumulative total dust exposure levels (CTE) and found the current characteristics of the mine incidence of pneumoconiosis disease.

METHODS
collected the health care information of the new diagnosed pneumoconiosis of underground mine workers from 2003 to 2008 and the dust monitoring data of underground mine from 1949 and estimated the personnel cumulative total dust exposure levels (CTE); analyzed the incidence features of the new diagnosed pneumoconiosis.

RESULTS
The rates of health surveillance of workers were gradually improved from 2003 to 2008 and 296 new coal workers pneumoconiosis were diagnosed. The total incidence was 0.57%, and the average annual rate was 0.32%. Among the new diagnosed cases, phase I accounted for 90.5% and the 87.2% from coal mine drillers. The shortest exposure period was 3 years and the longest was 38 years, and the cumulative total dose of dust was varied between 86.1 and 4926 mg/m(3) per year. The total dust accumulated limited dose was calculated by the percentile method to prevent 99% of miners from pneumoconiosis, which was 120.6 mg/m(3) per year, so we suggested that the exposure years should be shorter than 13 years under the current working conditions.

CONCLUSIONS
Preventive coal workers' pneumoconiosis should be focused on mine drillers and their limited exposure years should be within 13 years.


Abstract Stability detection in machining processes is an essential component for the design of efficient machining processes. Automatic methods are able to determine when instability is happening and prevent possible machine failures. In this work a variety of methods are proposed for detecting stability anomalies based on the measured forces in the radial turning process of superalloys. Two different methods are proposed to determine instabilities. Each one is tested on real data obtained in the machining of Waspalloy, Haynes 282 and Inconel 718. Experimental data, in both Conventional and High Pressure Coolant (HPC) environments, are set in four different states depending on materials grain size and Hardness (LGA, LGS, SGA and SGS). Results reveal that PCA method is useful for visualization of the process and detection of anomalies in online processes.


Some personal reflections on the subject of population policies are presented based on the author's experiences both in the United Nations and in the Colombian government. The process from policy formulation through execution to evaluation is described. The need to train technicians in population policy matters is suggested. (SUMMARY IN ENG)


Recently Liang et al. propose an interesting privacy-preserving ciphertext multi-sharing control for big data storage mechanism, which is based on the cryptographic primitive of anonymous multi-hop identity based conditional proxy re-encryption scheme AMH-IBCPRE. They propose a concrete AMH-IBCPRE scheme and conclude their scheme can achieve IND-sCon-sID-CCA secure (indistinguishable secure under selectively conditional selectively identity chosen ciphertext attack). However, our research show their scheme can not be IND-sConsID- CCA secure for single-hop and multi-hop data sharing. Also in 2014, Liang et al. propose an interesting deterministic finite automata-based functional proxy reencryption scheme DFA-based FPRE for secure public cloud data sharing, they also conclude their scheme can achieve IND-CCA secure (indistinguishable secure under chosen ciphertext attack), we also show their scheme can not be IND-CCA secure either. For these two proposals, the main reason of insecurity is that part of the re-encryption key has the same structure as the valid ciphertext, thus the adversary can query on the decryption oracle with this part of the re-encryption key to get secret keys, which will break the CCA-security of their scheme.We give an improved AMH-IBCPRE scheme and an improved DFA-based FPRE scheme for cloud data sharing and show the new schemes can resist our attack and be CCA-secure.We also demonstrate our improved AMH-IBCPRE scheme's efficiency compared with other related identity based proxy re-encryption schemes, the results show our scheme is almost the most efficient one.


Sparse coding in learned dictionaries has been established as a successful approach for signal denoising, source separation and solving inverse problems in general. A dictionary learning method adapts an initial dictionary to a particular signal class by iteratively computing an approximate factorization of a training data matrix into a dictionary and a sparse coding matrix. The learned dictionary is characterized by two properties: the coherence of the dictionary to observations of the signal class, and the self-coherence of the dictionary atoms. A high coherence to the signal class enables the sparse coding of signal observations with a small approximation error, while a low self-coherence of the atoms guarantees atom recovery and a more rapid residual error decay rate for the sparse coding algorithm. The two goals of high signal coherence and low self-coherence are typically in conflict, therefore one seeks a trade-off between them, depending on the application. We present a dictionary learning method with an effective control over the self-coherence of the trained dictionary, enabling a trade-off between maximizing the sparsity of codings and approximating an equi-angular tight frame.