In conscious piglets provided chronically with electrodes in the wall of the antrum pylori, duodenum, jejunum and ileum, the effect of intravenous infusion of 5-HT, 4 micrograms/kg/min for 2 h, with and without pre-treatment with atropine, 0.5 mg/kg, on gastrointestinal myoelectrical activity was studied. In the antrum, fast oscillations were partially inhibited by 5-HT and nearly completely blocked by the atropine/5-HT combination and by atropine alone. In the small intestine 5-HT induced a decrease in MMC interval, an increase in phase III activity in duodenum and jejunum and an acceleration of propagation velocity as measured for the jejunum. These effects were not influenced by atropine. Following atropine, phase II activity in the jejunum was significantly inhibited by 5-HT. The ileum was rather insensitive to 5-HT. It is concluded that the inhibitory effect of 5-HT on antral electrical activity is enhanced by atropine, and that 5-HT has a stimulatory effect on small intestinal activity which is not dependent on a muscarinic action.


In this paper, we present CHOMP (covariant Hamiltonian optimization for motion planning), a method for trajectory optimization invariant to reparametrization. CHOMP uses functional gradient techniques to iteratively improve the quality of an initial trajectory, optimizing a functional that trades off between a smoothness and an obstacle avoidance component. CHOMP can be used to locally optimize feasible trajectories, as well as to solve motion planning queries, converging to low-cost trajectories even when initialized with infeasible ones. It uses Hamiltonian Monte Carlo to alleviate the problem of convergence to high-cost local minima (and for probabilistic completeness), and is capable of respecting hard constraints along the trajectory. We present extensive experiments with CHOMP on manipulation and locomotion tasks, using seven-degree-of-freedom manipulators and a rough-terrain quadruped robot.


The present investigation was undertaken during 2012-2014 to generate information through evaluation of the set of materials (breeding material, germplasm lines and other varieties at the farmers' field along with the farmers' variety as a check through stability using Eberhart and Russel Model. Trials were laid at various locations of three districts summing to a three mother trials with one grand mother trial at the research station. The yield and yield attributing traits of all genotypes were taken on ten competitive plants of both grand mother and mother trial. The genotypes WB-83 and WB-258 were selected and preferred by the farmers across locations. The genotypes were evaluated for stability analysis and showed divergence across locations. The mean squares of all the traits were significant reflecting that the material was genetically divergent. The pooled deviation was significant and the variance due to variety × environment was significant for various traits indicating that the variation in the performance of the genotypes is both unpredictable and predictable. Most of the genotypes were having higher mean than the average, bi less than unity indicating that the varieties were more specifically adapted to the unfavorable environments than favourable ones. Some of the genotypes having higher mean yield, bi > 1 and S2di tending to zero were specifically adapted to favourable environments. On the basis of stability parameters genotypes WB-83 and WB-258 were identified as the most stable genotypes for seed yield per plot across all locations on the basis of high mean performance and non-significant estimates of bi and S2di from unit and zero respectively, however latter genotype showed sensitivity to better environments for biological yield on the basis of significant bi estimates. Similarly these genotypes were identified as consistent for early flowering for all the locations.


This study aims to find out and obtain evidence about Company Size, Public Ownership and Application of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to Lag Audit Reports. This type of research is quantitative research with descriptive research. The population in this study was LQ-45 companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2010-2018 which were bought by 95 companies. The sampling technique used a purposive sampling method. With a total of 81 research data. Hypothesis testing in this study uses linear multiple regression. Firm size and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) do not affect the audit lag report, while public ownership is related to the audit lag report


Taiwan adopted a national health insurance system in 1995. It is a government administered insurancebased national healthcare system. Although, like the UK, Taiwan has a single payer system for healthcare, there are several differences between the two systems. The characteristics of the Taiwanese system include good accessibility, comprehensive population coverage, short waiting times, relatively low costs and a national health insurance databank for planning, monitoring and evaluating health services. The weaknesses include variable quality of care, a weak gatekeeper role and increasing financial pressures.


Introduction St Gemma's Hospice and Leeds teaching hospitals trust are involved in a national end of life care programme's pilot. This is an education initiative called 'Quality End of Life Care for All' [QELCA] developed by St Christopher's hospice. Aims Share expertise of Hospice care with nurses working in a variety of settings where End Of Life Care [EOLC] was being provided. Empowerment of generalist nurses to make a difference in practice, providing EOLC. Address with nurses issues of anxiety, fear, and lack of insight/self-awareness when providing EOLC. Equip nurses to remain in meaningful emotional contact with patients/relatives whilst preserving professional integrity. Prevention of emotional exhaustion and risk of 'burn out'. Methods 5 days placement at St Gemma's Hospice. Combination of facilitated classroom learning and practical experience. [IPU, Community, Day services.] Reflect on learning and formulate action plan for priorities for change. Action plan is supported by facilitated action learning [AL] over six sessions. Results Positive relationships/ networks between acute and hospice staff. Constructive comments made regarding EOLC provision in different clinical areas. Each QELCA candidate focusses on something to change/ implement within clinical practice based on Hospice experience. During AL sessions, progress discussed/ action plans made. Changes occurred, with management support. Discussion Attendance and feedback from the course is so far very positive, candidates enjoyed being in the different environment. AL sets not well attended therefore criteria could be changed for future courses. Results from AL are positive showing that changes had been implemented and worked in practice. Conclusion/ Future recommendations Since the introduction of the DoH's End of life care strategy 2008, there has been a focus on patients' wishes at end of life especially on Preferred Place of Care, [PPC]. Courses such as QELCA, enable healthcare professionals to expand their knowledge in such a specialist area and provide such care through a process of innovation and change.


With the idea of underwater windmills in mind, Peter Fraenkel, a mechanical engineer, assembled investors in 1999 to launch the Seaflow project and formed the company Marine Current Turbines Ltd. (MCT, Basingstoke, England). The mission of Seaflow was to build a commercial tidal energy plant based on the windmill concept. Backing came from the British government, the European Commission, and eight private British and German companies. MCT and its partners have built a working tidal mill in the English Channel off the coast of Devon, in southwest England. The 130-metric-ton unit is cemented to the seabed about 1.1 km from the coast, rising a few meters above sea level. Tidal currents turn the 11-meter-long rotor, but as they reverse direction, the rotor's blades can be pitched to accept flow from the opposite direction. Though the rotor turns slowly in water, which is 800 times as dense as air, at 17 rpm the speed is sufficient, with appropriate gearing, to harness the tide's immense energy and drive a turbine. Rotor speed varies, as with variable-speed wind turbines on land or sea, and a power-conditioning system-involving AC-DC-AC conversion-is used to obtain a current output at the grid frequency of 50 Hz. The result is an average of 100 kW and a peak of 300 kW of power, enough for 200 average British homes when hooked into the grid, according to MCT.


Abstract. This paper describes a minimally invasive method for detection and growth inhibition of tumors that utilizes the unique properties of super paramagnetic nanoparticles. To demonstrate the feasibility of this method, dimercaptosuccinic acid-coated magnetite nanoparticles were successfully fabricated and used. Those nanoparticles were simultaneously used for magnetoacoustic detection of tumors and for specific hyperthermia treatment in C57BL/J mice injected with Lewis lung carcinoma cells. The in vivo acoustic signal attributed to the nanoparticles was 4.4 dB, while the single session hyperthermia treatment caused a reduction of 50% in tumor growing rate. In addition, a thermography-based method was applied to monitor the efficacy of the hyperthermia treatment. The presented method has the potential to revolutionize current cancer treatment by enabling diagnosis and treatment under real-time feedback in one session.


Biological nutrient removal (BNR) sludge was added to a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) in the addition ratios of 0%, 20%, 40%, 50% while observing the variation of nutrient removal characteristics and microorganism groups. When the BNR sludge was added in a ratio over 40%, the characteristics of EBPR (enhanced biological phosphorus removal) was shown at the 27 days. However, a distinct BNR was not shown when the addition ratio of BNR sludge was lower than 40%. The organic removal efficiency were shown as 90% in all SBRs irrespective of the addition ratio of BNR sludge. At the 27 days, the phosphorus removal efficiencies were shown as 40%, 55%, 77% and 69%, respectively, according to the addition ratio of BNR sludge. Overall, efficient nitrification and phosphorus removal was shown when the added BNR sludge ratio was over 40%.


Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has shown their advantages in salient object detection. CNN can generate great saliency maps because it can obtain high-level semantic information. And the semantic information is usually achieved by stacking multiple convolutional layers and pooling layers. However, multiple pooling operations will reduce the size of the feature map and easily blur the boundary of the salient object. Therefore, such operations are not beneficial to generate great saliency results. To alleviate this issue, we propose a novel edge information-guided hierarchical feature fusion network (HFFNet). Our network fuses features hierarchically and retains accurate semantic information and clear edge information effectively. Specifically, we extract image features from different levels of VGG. Then, we fuse the features hierarchically to generate high-level semantic information and low-level edge information. In order to retain better information at different levels, we adopt a one-to-one hierarchical supervision strategy to supervise the generation of low-level information and high-level information respectively. Finally, we use low-level edge information to guide the saliency map generation, and the edge guidance fusion is able to identify saliency regions effectively. The proposed HFFNet has been extensively evaluated on five traditional benchmark datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model is fairly effective in salient object detection compared with 10 state-of-the-art models under different evaluation indicators, and it is superior to most of the comparison models.


Abstract The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has stronger norms of consensus and preferences for unanimous decisions than its American counterpart. Given this powerful preference for collegial and unanimous decisions, what causes it to break down? Previous literature has left this question largely unexamined, and no empirical research examines how gender affects decisions to dissent on the Supreme Court of Canada. This article thus fills this lacuna by analyzing the role of gender in dissenting behavior on the Supreme Court of Canada from 1984 to 2015. We analyze dissenting behavior in criminal and civil liberties cases, as well as sexual assault and equality cases, which may drive previously identified gender voting differences. We find that women dissent more frequently than their male peers, especially when their policy preferences diverge. Furthermore, we examine three competing theories of social dynamic panel effects to determine how the increased presence of women impact women's decision to dissent. We find evidence of some self-silencing by women, where women become emboldened to dissent more as more women join the panel. Gender diversification explains dissenting behavior at the Canadian Supreme Court more accurately and across a broader array of case categories than institutional or case-specific legal factors.


ABSTRACT The thermoacidophile Acidianus is widely distributed in Yellowstone National Park hot springs that span large gradients in pH (1.60 to 4.84), temperature (42 to 90°C), and mineralogical composition. To characterize the potential role of flexibility in mineral-dependent energy metabolism in contributing to the widespread ecological distribution of this organism, we characterized the spectrum of minerals capable of supporting metabolism and the mechanisms that it uses to access these minerals. The energy metabolism of Acidianus strain DS80 was supported by elemental sulfur (S0), a variety of iron (hydr)oxides, and arsenic sulfide. Strain DS80 reduced, oxidized, and disproportionated S0. Cells growing via S0 reduction and disproportionation did not require direct access to the mineral to reduce it, whereas cells growing via S0 oxidation did require direct access, observations that are attributable to the role of H2S produced by S0 reduction/disproportionation in solubilizing and increasing the bioavailability of S0. Cells growing via iron (hydr)oxide reduction did not require access to the mineral, suggesting that the cells reduce Fe(III) that is being leached by the acidic growth medium. Cells growing via oxidation of arsenic sulfide with Fe(III) did not require access to the mineral to grow. The stoichiometry of reactants to products indicates that cells oxidize soluble As(III) released from oxidation of arsenic sulfide by aqueous Fe(III). Taken together, these observations underscore the importance of feedbacks between abiotic and biotic reactions in influencing the bioavailability of mineral substrates and defining ecological niches capable of supporting microbial metabolism. IMPORTANCE Mineral sources of electron donor and acceptor that support microbial metabolism are abundant in the natural environment. However, the spectrum of minerals capable of supporting a given microbial strain and the mechanisms that are used to access these minerals in support of microbial energy metabolism are often unknown, in particular among thermoacidophiles. Here, we show that the thermoacidophile Acidianus strain DS80 is adapted to use a variety of iron (hydro)oxide minerals, elemental sulfur, and arsenic sulfide to support growth. Cells rely on a complex interplay of abiologically and biologically catalyzed reactions that increase the solubility or bioavailability of minerals, thereby enabling their use in microbial metabolism.


Extracellular proteolysis mediates tissue homeostasis. In cancer, altered proteolysis leads to abnormal tumor growth, inflammation, tissue invasion, and metastasis. Chronic infections and inflammation are major risk for various types of cancer. The matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) represent the most prominent family of proteinases associated with inflammation and tumorigenesis. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) is involved in a wide range of normal and pathologic conditions, including inflammation, tissue repair, tumor invasion, and metastasis. sLZIP is a member of the zinc-finger transcription factor family. However, role of sLZIP in MMPs expression is previously unknown. Our results showed that sLZIP increased the mRNA level and the proteolytic activity of MMP-9 in HeLa cells. sLZIP also increased the transcription activity of MMP-9 by binding to the CRE of the MMP-9 promoter region. The requirement for sLZIP in MMP-9 expression was further supported by the fact that HeLa cells expressing sLZIP siRNA was refractory to MMP-9 expression. Results from wound healing and invasion assays showed that sLZIP enhanced migration and invasion of cervical cancer cells. Increased migration and invasion of HeLa cells induced by sLZIP was restored by inhibition of the proteolytic activity of MMP-9. Our results indicate that sLZIP induces expression of MMP-9 and is probably involved in invasion and metastasis of cervical cancer cells. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-116. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-LB-116


The idea of harmonizing economic growth with the laws of society development and the environment is ex-pressed in the concept of sustainable development. The environmental approach of sustainable development gives most attention to stability of natural systems, links between economic activity and environment health. The present governments and international organizations facing the risk of environmental destruction, have real-ized that environment protection issues are among the main problems to be solved in the 21st century. In the field of economics, these environmental problems have also been recognized as major economic problems. A number of studies have analyzed environment protection instrumentality and possible effects of environmental regulation on economic and social welfare. Both direct regulation and market-based instruments ignoring their defects have positive impacts on environment state. How-ever, the need to achieve environmentally friendly eco-nomic performance requires broadening the range of environment management instruments.


Authors analyze the Optimum Index Factor method for the optimal bands selection,and point out its disadvantages.In real practice,author use the Optimum Index Factor method,and consider both the usage of different bands of multi-spectral remote sensing data and the spectrum of surface features of studied area to select the optimal bands.The result is satisfactory.


The gain of the 1q region, which is a recurrent chromosomal aberration in B lymphoproliferative disorder, has been reported one of the most common anomalies in Korean myelodysplastic patients. Recently, risk based application of hypomethylating agents or tailored therapy in MDS rely on the prognostic variables of International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS). To investigate the possibility of 1q gain as a new prognostic marker, we evaluated the prognostic impact of 1q gain, along with comparison with IPSS variables. A total of 117 patients with newly diagnosed MDS between 1997 and 2007 at the Seoul National University Hospital were investigated. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) studies with 5 specific probe(EGR1 for 5q31 deletion, D7S522 for 7q31 deletion, CEP8, D20S108 for 20q12 deletion, LSI 1p36/1q25 for 1q gain) and conventional G-banding karyotyping were performed on bone marrow aspirates. Other laboratory findings, such as hemoglobin(Hb), absolute neutrophil count(ANC), platelet count, bone marrow blast percent and IPSS score, and clinical data were collected through the individual medical records. The median age was 54 years and the male-to-female ratio was 1.4. Using WHO classification, refractory anemia(RA) was 27.4% and the other subgroups as follows: RA with ringed sideroblast(RARS), 3.4%; refractory cytopenia with multilineage dysplasia(RCMD), 8.5%; RCMD with ringed sideroblasts(RCMD-RS), 0.9%; RA with excess blasts-1(RAEB-1), 26.5%; RAEB-2, 31.6%; and 5q- syndrome, 1.7%. Cytogenetic abnormalities by FISH and G-banding were detected in 58 patients (49.6%). Most frequent anomaly was trisomy 8 occuring in 28 patients(23.9% of the 117 patients, 48.3% of the 58 patients with clonal cytogenetic abnormalities). Gain of 1q was the second common anomalies seen in 18 patients (15.4%) and other anomalies were −7/del7q (13.7%), −5/del5q (13.7%), and del20q (2.6%). G-banding showed gain of 1q in 7 cases, additional 11 patients with gain of 1q were revealed by FISH only. Patients with 1q gain showed a poor survival (median survival 23 months; n=18) compared to patients without 1q gain (median survival 60 months; p=0.02). EGR1 and D7S522 deletion by FISH also had a shorter median survival (8 months vs. 60 months p=0.0001, 16 months vs. 60 months p=0.005). The initial platelet count and blast count were found to affect overall survival, whereas CEP8 FISH, D20S108 FISH, Hb and ANC did not. Our results show that gain of 1q is associated with an adverse clinical outcome and can be considered as a poor cytogenetic risk factor of IPSS. In the Western study, the prevalence of 1q gain was low because most studies report G-banding result only. But it may be increased up to 2.5 fold higher by using FISH analysis in combination with G-banding. A gain of 1q could be a candidate as an adverse prognostic marker in clinical practice, which could help for risk-adapted therapies.

![Figure 1. ][1]

Figure 1.
Kaplan-Meier survival curve for chromosomal anomalies and IPSS. (A) gain of 1q. (B) −1/del(7q). (C) del(20q).

 [1]: pending:yes


Domestic violence is becoming recognized as a serious public health issue. Country studies have shown that between 16 and 4O per cent of women in the Asia and Pacific region had suffered violence by their intimate family members. The medical profession must be sensitised to provide special support services to the victims of this violence who are predominantly women and children. One initiative in this regard was a collaboration between the Mumbai Municipal Corporation and the Centre for Enquiry Into Health and Allied Themes to set up Dilaasa a crisis centre for women in the municipality-run Bhahha Hospital Bandra. Also a recently published study has documented the various approaches of mental health professionals and support groups providing refuge to the victims of domestic violence in India. (excerpt)


Objectives: In 2010, the American Heart Association (AHA) published a new concept "ideal cardiovascular health" (iCVH), which consisted of 4 behaviors (smoking, body mass index, physical activity, and diet) and 3 health factors (total cholesterol, blood pressure, and fasting plasma glucose). We aimed to explore socioeconomic inequalities in iCVH among Chinese enterprise employees. Methods: 27,607 employees aged 18 to 60 years were selected from 45 enterprises in 12 provinces of China, using a multi-stage cluster sampling method. All the 7 iCVH metrics and socioeconomic status (SES) indicators - education and occupational class. The multilevel mixed-effects logistic model accounting for the clustering of the data was used to identify the SES differences in iCVH. Results: Only 0.6% of participants met all 7 iCVH metrics. The women had a higher proportion of meeting ≥5 ideal health metrics compared with men (48.0% vs.12.4%, P < 0.001). The subjects with higher education and occupational class had a higher proportion of meeting ≥5 iCVH metrics than their counterparts (P < 0.001). After adjustment for age, sex, drinking, prior CVD, workplace type and affiliated medical institutions, compared with the employees at low educational level, the odds ratio (OR) of iCVH metrics for subjects with medium and high educational level were 1.17 (95%CI:1.07–1.28) and 1.50 (95%CI:1.35–1.68), respectively. Compared with blue-collar workers, the OR of iCVH metrics for white-collar workers were 1.18 (95%CI:1.07–1.29). The OR of iCVH behaviors for subjects with medium/high educational level were 1.15 (95%CI:1.05–1.26), 1.48 (95%CI:1.32–1.66), respectively, compared with low educational level ones. Conclusion: Higher SES was associated with an increasing prevalence of iCVH metrics, behaviors and factors.


Introduction: Cigarette preference increases as a function of nicotine content, but preference can be shifted by manipulating cigarette cost. The aim of the present study is to model whether the behavioral-economic metric of unit price (cigarette cost/nicotine content) accounts for cigarette preference shifts and whether preference changes to very low nicotine content cigarettes (VLNCs) are associated with corresponding changes in smoking rate. Methods: 169 daily smokers from populations vulnerable to smoking completed sessions in which choices between smoking normal nicotine content (NNC) (15.8mg/g) and VLNC (0.4mg/g) cigarettes were concurrently available. In Condition 1, choices for both products were available ad-lib at an equal cost of 10 responses/choice. In Condition 2, VLNCs were again available ad-lib at 10 responses/choice, but NNCs were available on a progressive-ratio (PR) schedule wherein response cost (and unit price) increased following each NNC choice (10,160,320...8400 responses/choice). Results were analyzed using ANOVAs and a binomial test (p<.05). Results: Participants preferred NNCs over VLNCs in Condition 1, but shifted preference to VLNCs in Condition 2 (p<.001) immediately before the point in the PR progression where unit price for NNCs exceeded unit price for VLNCs (p<.001). Additionally, this preference shift corresponded with reduced total cigarette consumption compared to Condition 1 levels (p<.001). Conclusions: These results suggest that unit price of nicotine underpins cigarette preference and may provide a metric by which regulators can predict product preference and potentially impact it through policy. These results also demonstrate that VLNCs sustain lower smoking rates than NNCs even under acute laboratory conditions.


In conventional Linear Quadratic Gaussian with Loop Transfer Recovery (LQG/LTR) controller design, the designer should experiment with four different weighting matrices by trial-and-error method in order to get the flying quality requirement and the robustness. This method is a time consuming, inefficient and non-optimal method. To solve this problem, a LQG/LTR flight controller optimal design method based on differential evolution algorithm is proposed in this paper. In the optimal design, a Kalman filter is optimal designed by optimizing two weighting matrices based on a reference model and differential evolution algorithm firstly. So the optimal target feedback loop which satisfies the performance requirement is obtained. Secondly, the principle of the aircraft equivalent system analog match is used for reference to design an optimal state feedback gain matrix by optimizing another two weighting matrices. To validate the effect of this optimal design method, a longitudinal LQG/LTR flight controller is optimal designed based on differential evolution algorithm. The simulation results show the high effectiveness of this optimal design method.


Use your smartphone to scan this QR code and download this article ABSTRACT This study presents a research related to a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Motorcycle (HEM) which renovated from a Honda Lead 110cc with rear wheel is driven by original internal combustion engine and continuously variable transmission, while front wheel is directly-driven by a 48V – 1,000WBLDC Hub-Motor. The research focuses on optimal calculating, designing, prototyping and testing an electric power supply using Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery pack to replace the lead–acid battery. The simulation and experimental results are able to evaluate the dynamic characteristics and operating cost of HEM. The study has been designed and prototyed a 48V – 33Ah Li-ion battery pack with a Battery Management System (BMS) circuit embeded on the vehicle. The battery pack is 10.84 (kg) weight and 8.11 (l) volume, reduced 30 (kg) and 12.89 liters compared to the lead-acid battery where battery life is greater than 2,000 cycles. In only electricmotormode, the longest distance of the HEM is 78.77 (km) for a half load, only driver, and 65.83 (km) for full load, one driver, and one passenger. Maximum speed is 52.67 (km/h) for a half load and 48.42 (km/h) for full load. In hybrid mode until SOC reduce to 50%, HEM can travel 64.366 (km) for a half load and 54.477 (km) for full load. The fuel consumption in the each case is 2.162 and 2.425 (l/100km), 0.5 liter lower than the original one and 0.3 liter lower than lead-acid battery. The cost of investment in HEM is 56 million VND and the operating cost is 1,106 VND/km, while the original vehicles are 40 million VND and 1,352 (VND/km). For every 1km using hybrid vehicles, 246.88 VNDwill be saved, after about 3.1 years, it will recoup the spending on investment. At the end of the motorcycle life cycle is about 200,000 km, and 43 million VND will be saved.


The study aimed to examine the effects of the multidimensional intervention program on the anxiety levels of primary and middle school children. Designed according to a 2x2 pattern on two different experimental and control groups, this research attempted to determine the effectiveness of the children's anxiety scores of different age groups participating in the Multidimensional Intervention Program. The independent variable of the research is the 10-week Multi-Dimensional Intervention Program applied only to the experimental groups between the pre-test and post-test measurements. The dependent variables of the study are the anxiety levels of the children attending primary and middle school. The experimental and control group of Study 1 consists of 10 boys and 10 girls in total, 20 children attending primary school. The age range of the children is between 9-10 years old. The experimental and control group of Study 2 consists of 9 boys and 11 girls, totally 20 children attending middle school. The age range of the children is between the ages of 10-11. According to the results of the research, it was seen that the multidimensional intervention program applied to anxiety was effective on the anxiety levels experienced by children.


The purpose of this study was to (1) produce a learning instrument for ecosystem developed based on guided inquiry method with contextual multimedia-assisted for worthy life of teachers and students; (2) determine the level of effectiveness of the tools on the scientific work skills and learning outcomes of students of Grade 7 of SMP Negeri 26 Malang. The instrument consists of a syllabus, lesson plans, worksheets, media, and assessment. The composing of learning tools followed the model of the 4D development by Thiagarajan (1974). 4D model has four stages, i.e. define, design, develop, and disseminate, while the research was limited to the stage develop. Ecosystem learning instrument was validated in two stages, namely through an expert validation and implementation of test development. Test development was done in a simulation class (class VIII) and in the actual class (class VII). Test development was done in class VII with activities of lesson study (LS). Result of reflection (see) of the LS stage was used for the improvement of learning. Based on the validation and test results, the development of category learning has a very decent and effective to improve scientific work skills and student learning outcomes Keywords:  Learning Instrument, Guided Inquiry, Contextual Multimedia, Scientific Work Skills, Learning Outcomes.


Quantifying the confidence (or conversely the uncertainty) of a prediction is a highly desirable trait of an automatic system, as it improves the robustness and usefulness in downstream tasks. In this paper we investigate confidence estimation for end-to-end automatic speech recognition (ASR). Previous work has addressed confidence measures for lattice-based ASR, while current machine learning research mostly focuses on confidence measures for unstructured deep learning. However, as the ASR systems are increasingly being built upon deep end-to-end methods, there is little work that tries to develop confidence measures in this context. We fill this gap by providing an extensive benchmark of popular confidence methods on four well-known speech datasets. There are two challenges we overcome in adapting existing methods: working on structured data (sequences) and obtaining confidences at a coarser level than the predictions (words instead of tokens). Our results suggest that a strong baseline can be obtained by scaling the logits by a learnt temperature, followed by estimating the confidence as the negative entropy of the predictive distribution and, finally, sum pooling to aggregate at word level.


Chronic mesenteric ischemia (CMI) is a disease causing death either by starvation or enteromesenteric infarction. Diagnosis is often delayed before the patient is referred to a vascular surgery unit. Atherosclerosis is the main cause of CMI. Arteriography is essential in diagnosing CMI and delineating the atherosclerotic lesions. The revascularization procedure consists in an aortomesenteric bypass reconstructing 1-3 visceral arteries. This paper presents two consecutive CMI cases treated at the Vascular Surgery Unit of the Iaşi "Sf Spiridon" Hospital during 2010. Both patients had symptoms suggestive of mesenteric and aortoiliac diseases. CT angiography revealed specific lesions both for aortoiliac disease and stenotic or occlusive lesions in the celiac trunk and mesenteric arteries. Both cases benefited from aortobifemural bypass surgery using a synthetic graft associated with aortic-superior mesenteric artery bypass with reversed vein graft (in the first case both mesenteric arteries were revascularized). Immediate and remote results were favorable, with remission of intestinal symptoms and weight gain. Bypass patency was followed-up by CT angiography and Doppler ultrasound. CMI is a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Open surgery provides symptom remission in 90% of cases. Permeability at 5 years is 80-90% for open surgery, higher than by endovascular therapy. Average permeability of the two types of intervention is 70% at 5 years, similar to the infraaortic bypasses.


Purpose:
Previous research has demonstrated that following radiation therapy for prostate cancer, there is a relative increase in positive biopsies in the apex versus the rest of the prostate. The increase could be due to: 1) Inter-fraction apex motion or deformation, 2) Intra-fraction apex motion or deformation, 3) Suboptimal dose coverage in the apex, 4) Tissue composition in the apex and/or 5) Prostate size. In this initial study, the potential for suboptimal dose coverage in the apex was assessed by splitting the prostate planning target volume into the apex (inferior third) and remainder.
Methods:
69 patients were selected from 303 patients treated on a clinical radiotherapy trial for prostate cancer. These patients were selected as they had both a localized (sextant template) 2-year post-treatment biopsy and 3D dose information. Of these patients, 10 had positive biopsies in the apex, 8 in the remainder and 11 in both locations. For all patients, the following dosimetric data was acquired from the apex dose volume histogram: Dmean, Dmax, Dmin, D95% and V100%. Unpaired, one-tailed t-tests were used to test for statistical significance (p < 0.05) between all dosimetric parameters for patients with positive versus negative apical biopsies. Additionally, D95% for the apex was plotted against D95% of the remainder.
Results:
There was no statistical difference for the selected apical dosimetric parameters for patients with positive versus negative biopsies (p-values > 0.05). No correlation was found between D95% (normalized to the prescription dose) for the apex and remainder (R2 = 0.0116).
Conclusion:
No correlation was found between positive apical biopsy and suboptimal dosimetric coverage. Current research is looking into inter-fraction apex motion and deformation as a potential source of the increased apical failure using daily CBCT
images.


Ageing as a refugee in an unsettled life situation increases the need for identity management due to dramatic life changes. This qualitative study, influenced by phenomenology, focuses on the stories of older adults in protracted intra-African refugee situations and the continuity and discontinuity of their identities. In line with identity process theory, we portray identities as situationally accomplished through the interplay of how one defines oneself internally and how others define one from the outside. The data, analysed by using abductive thematic analysis, consist of five semi-structured interviews with refugees in protracted refugee situations in Nairobi. We argue that older age combined with protracted migratory experiences resulted in the study participants possessing a wide array of experiences, including many losses. These, including their pre-migratory experiences, formed a large repertoire of intra-psychic, interpersonal and intergroup coping strategies to rely on when reworking their identities.


This study aimed to determine the effects of the binaural beat (BB) on brainwave induction using an inaudible baseline frequency outside the audible frequency range. Experiments were conducted on 18 subjects (11 males [mean age: 25.7 ± 1.6 years] and 7 females [mean age: 24.0 ± 0.6 years]). A BB stimulation of 10 Hz was exerted by presenting frequencies of 18,000 Hz and 18,010 Hz to the left and right ears, respectively. A power spectrum analysis was performed to estimate the mean of the absolute power of the alpha frequency range (8–13 Hz). The variation in the mean alpha power during the rest and stimulation phases in each brain area was compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Compared to the rest phase, the stimulation phase with BB showed an increasing trend in the mean alpha power across all 5 brain areas. Notably, a significant increase was found in the frontal, central, and temporal areas. This is a significant study in that it determines the effects of only BB without the influence of auditory perception, which has been overlooked in previous studies.


Matching inviscid and boundary layer methods are developed for hypersonic flow with thick
boundray layer. The new equations match all the boundary layer properties with a variation in the
inviscid solution near the edge, except for the normal velocity. Computational comparison are
performed for incompressible and compressible flows over a flat plate. Results from the present
method are compared with Navier-Stokes solutions. The present results are in good agreement with
Navier-Stokes solutions. They show that the new technique can provide improved heating rates and skin
friction predictions for preliminary design of vehicles where shear layers and entropy layer swallowing
are important.


Using OpenFlow, a network can be controlled from one or more servers called controllers. In the demonstration, we show automatic configuration of OpenFlow in a wireless ad hoc network, deployed on a portable testbed, using MININET-WiFi (an emulator for software defined wireless networks). Automatic configuration is shown using a GUI (Graphical User Interface) which shows wireless nodes discovered by the controller. In addition, a video clip is streamed from one node to another and displayed in real time. The demonstration includes automatic configuration in the scenarios in which nodes move from one location to another.


Two of the three ash flow tuffs of the Yellowstone Group are stably magnetized throughout their extent: the Lava Creek tuff (0.60 m.y.) in a normal direction and the Mesa Falls tuff (1.22 m.y.) in a reversed direction. In contrast, much of the Huckleberry Ridge tuff, which was erupted during a polarity transition or field excursion 1.92 m.y. ago and initially magnetized in an intermediate direction (D = 214.5°, I = −2.2°, and α95 = 4.1°), has been partially remagnetized in a normal field. Much of the overprint of the Huckleberry Ridge tuff is carried in low-temperature oxidation products with low coercivities and low blocking temperatures, so that it is commonly removed in peak alternating fields less than 200 Oe or at temperatures less than 400°C. Hematite, having higher coercivities and blocking temperatures, is partly responsible for remagnetization in some specimens, but neither alternating field nor thermal demagnetization enables recovery of the original thermal remanent magnetization in these samples. The chemical overprinting is most pronounced in the devitrified tuff of the flow interior. Stable magnetization is observed in the Huckleberry Ridge tuff in the less porous densely welded portions at the base and boundaries of partial cooling units and in the tuff of the distal margins, where groundwater influences were minimal. Paleomagnetic directions of chilled margins within compound cooling units of the Lava Creek and Huckleberry Ridge tuffs support geological evidence that eruption of each ash flow sheet was rapid and that the source calderas were formed during a short period of time.


An approach that uses linear quadratic output feedback techniques is given for designing digital control systems of specified structure for shaping the closed-loop step response. This approach results in digital controllers that take advantage of the wealth of experience in aircraft controls design. The correct initial conditions for determining the output-feedback gains are not uniformly distributed as is traditionally assumed, but are shown to be explicitly given in terms of the step command magnitude. Arbitrary systems are treated, not only those with integrators in the forward paths, by adding a term to the performance index that weights the steady-state error. Necessary conditions are derived that may be used in a gradient-based routine to determine the optimal digital control gains. The approach does not rely on redesign of a continuous control system using techniques like the bilinear transformation, but uses direct discrete-time design.<<ETX>>


The advent of induced pluripotency has opened alternate avenues to produce ES-like cells from somatic cells, that provide a unique tool to elucidate both pluripotency and lineage assignment. To investigate whether this technology could be applied to endangered species, where the limited availability of gametes makes production of and research on embryonic stem cells difficult, we first investigated the appropriate species transcription factors to use for induction of pluripotency in wild cats. Octamer binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4), also known as POU5F1, is a protein critically involved in stem cell renewal and pluripotency and a key factor involved in reprograming. To identify the suitability of using either mouse or human Oct4 constructs, which pre-existed in the laboratory to derive induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) from endangered cats, the coding sequence of domestic cat Oct4 was compared with that from other known species. Cat Oct4 protein has 94.44% and 83.33% sequences similarity compared with human and mouse Oct4, respectively. (Publication 1- paper submitted). In addition, the coding sequence for Oct4 were successfully amplified and cloned from fibroblasts of the three wild cats and compared in silico. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that although the sequences of coding regions vary slightly between snow leopard, Bengal tiger and jaguar, the predicted theoretical protein consist of 360 amino acids and is identical between these species. By contrast to the exons, introns and 5' region close to the exon1 are less conserved in the three species. A phylogenetic tree was constructed using the neighbour-joining method based on the alignment of the coding sequences of Oct4 gene. As Oct4 is usually expressed in oocytes/early embryos, which are difficult to obtain from endangered species, the verification of the mRNA sequence of the gene posed obvious challenges. In conclusion, this study is the first to describe the molecular cloning and bioinformatics analysis of snow leopard, Bengal tiger and jaguar Oct4 gene (Publication 1- submitted). Information on the specific sequences of Oct4 in these endangered big cats will be useful to understand and manipulate pluripotency in these species. This has an exciting potential to contribute to real-life species preservation, particularly for endangered felids. Therefore we determined to use human sequences for induction of pluripotency in snow leopard (Panthera uncia) fibroblasts by retroviral transfection with Moloney-based retroviral vectors (pMXs) encoding four human factors (OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and cMYC). This resulted in the formation of small colonies of cells, which could not be maintained beyond four passages (P4). We hypothesized the addition of NANOG, another transcription factor critically linked to Oct4 mediated pluripotency, to the transfection cocktail would enhance generation and maintenance of stable iPSC colonies, which formed as early as Day3 (D3). Colonies of cells were selected at D5 and expanded in vitro. The resulting cell line was positive for alkaline phosphatase (AP), OCT4, NANOG, and Stage-Specific Embryonic Antigen-4 (SSEA-4) at P14. Reverse Transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) also confirmed that endogenous OCT4 and NANOG were expressed by snow leopard iPSC from P4. All five human transgenes were transcribed at P4, but OCT4, SOX2 and NANOG transgenes were silenced as early as P14; signifying reprogramming of the endogenous pluripotent genes had occurred. When injected into severe combined immuno-deficient (SCID) mice, snow leopard iPSC formed teratomas containing tissues representative of the three germ layers. In conclusion, this was the first report on derivation of iPSC from an endangered felid and the first report on induced pluripotency in felid species and it demonstrated the addition of NANOG to the reprogramming cocktail was essential for derivation of stable iPSC lines in this felid (Publication 2- published). Next, to examine whether the importance of Nanog for generation of iPSC was restricted to snow leopard or more generally applicable to wild felids globally, we studied 3 geographically diverse and evolutionarily divergent felids from Asia (Bengal tiger, Panthera tigris), Africa (serval, Leptailurus serval), and the Americas (jaguar, Panthera onca). Dermal fibroblasts were transduced with genes encoding the human transcription factors OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, and cMYC with or without NANOG. Both four- and five-factor induction resulted in colony formation at day 3 in all three species tested; however, we were not able to maintain colonies that were generated without NANOG beyond passage (P) 7. Five-factor induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) colonies from wild cats were expanded in vitro on feeder layers and were positive for alkaline phosphatase and protein expression of OCT-4, NANOG, and stage-specific embryonic antigen-4 at P4 and P14. Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction confirmed that all five human transgenes were transcribed at P4; however, OCT4, SOX2, and NANOG transgenes were silenced by P14. Endogenous OCT4 and NANOG transcripts were detected at P4 and P14 in all cell lines confirming successful reprogramming. At P14, the iPSC from all three species remained euploid and differentiated in vivo and in vitro into derivatives of the three germ layers. Our study demonstrated unequivocally that iPSC from the three felids examined all required the addition of Nanog to the reprogramming cocktail to ensure derivation of stable iPSC lines. Interestingly iPSC from all three species silenced the reprogramming transgenes (OCT4, SOX2 and NANOG), but not the transgenes implicated in proliferation (KLF4 and cMYC) (Publication 3- published). This thesis investigated induced pluripotency in endangered felids and reports successes in effectively inducing pluripotency in four endangered wild cats from across the globe and importantly identifies Nanog as an essential factor in the reprogramming cocktail. Efficient production of iPSC from endangered felids creates a unique opportunity to preserve these species using these iPSC in future gamete production, nuclear transfer and embryo complementation.


Abstract
Prior studies have shown that terminology support can improve health information retrieval but have not taken into account the characteristics of the user performing the search. In this chapter, the impact of translating queries' terms between lay and medico-scientific terminology, in users with different levels of health literacy and topic familiarity, is evaluated. Findings demonstrate that medico-scientific queries demand more from the users and are mostly aimed at health professionals. In addition, these queries retrieve documents that are less readable and less well understood by users. Despite this, medico-scientific queries are associated with higher precision in the top-10 retrieved documents results and tend slightly to generate knowledge with less incorrect contents, the researchers concluded that search engines should provide query suggestions with medico-scientific terminology, whenever the user is able to digest it, that is, in users above the lowest levels of health literacy and topic familiarity. On the other hand, retrieval systems should provide lay alternative queries in users with inadequate health literacy or in those unfamiliar with a topic. In fact, the quantity of incorrect contents in the knowledge that emerges from a medico-scientific session tends to decrease with topic familiarity and health literacy. In terms of topic familiarity, the opposite happens with Graded Average Precision. Moreover, users most familiar with a topic tend to have higher motivational relevance with medico-scientific queries than with lay queries. This work is the first to consider user context features while studying the impact of a query processing technique in several aspects of the retrieval process, including the medical accuracy of the acquired knowledge.


In this paper, we propose an elliptic curve cryptographic (ECC) architecture for a lower hardware resource. In our work, the different paths of encryption and decryption could be chosen, and the elliptic curve (EC) is based on GF (2163). The EC scalar multiplication is a main operation module that includes add, Montgomery multiplier and inverse in ECC architecture. All modules are organized in a hierarchical structure according to their complexity. In the hardware implementations using a 0.18µ m TSMC cell library, a 69 K gate count is possessed, and the maximum speed is 181 MHz. The EC multiplication time is from 1.26 ms to 2.52 ms. The private key k is a 163-bit random number. If the private key k is chosen to be a small one, the EC multiplication time would be faster.


Generative image synthesis with diffusion models has recently achieved excellent visual quality in several tasks such as text-based or class-conditional image synthesis. Much of this success is due to a dramatic increase in the computational capacity invested in training these models. This work presents an alternative approach: inspired by its successful application in natural language processing, we propose to complement the diffusion model with a retrieval-based approach and to introduce an explicit memory in the form of an external database. During training, our diffusion model is trained with similar visual features retrieved via CLIP and from the neighborhood of each training instance. By leveraging CLIP's joint image-text embedding space, our model achieves highly competitive performance on tasks for which it has not been explicitly trained, such as class-conditional or text-image synthesis, and can be conditioned on both text and image embeddings. Moreover, we can apply our approach to unconditional generation, where it achieves state-of-the-art performance. Our approach incurs low computational and memory overheads and is easy to implement. We discuss its relationship to concurrent work and will publish code and pretrained models soon.


Food supplements contain a variety of combinations of vitamins, minerals, plant extracts, and other substances. Any physical effort requires energy from balanced and healthy nutrition. This research aimed to identify the categories of dietary supplements used by active and very active participants who attend the sports and leisure centers from Targu Mures city. The survey was developed in paper and online forms using the Internet and supported multimedia and self-administration. The sample consists of 517 subjects chosen randomly from the research population and divided into the active and highly active PAI subgroups based on age, education, and gender. IBM SPSS Statistics Version 20.0 was used to process the collected data. All data were analysed descriptively. Differences between independent groups were assessed using an Independent sample t-test and a Chi-square test. Statistical significance was accepted when p < 0.05. Additionally, a Pearson correlation was done. The most representative age category was between 18 and 22 years old (42.7%), the ones using dietary supplements most frequently. There were significant differences by group of age regarding the consumption of food supplements (p < 0.05) and also by gender (p < 0.05).


ABSTRACT Loss of consciousness (LOC) associated with concussion is no longer considered an indicator of severity of injury in concussion management protocols. Studies investigating the association between LOC and recovery time or neurophysiological performance have reported ambiguous findings and resulted in a limited understanding of the severity of LOC-inducing head impacts. Concussive injuries with and without LOC from helmet-to-helmet and shoulder collisions and falls in elite American football were reconstructed in laboratory using a hybrid III headform and finite element model to obtain peak linear and rotational acceleration and brain tissue deformation metrics in the cerebral cortex, the cerebral white matter, the corpus callosum, the thalamus and the brainstem. Impact velocity, peak linear and rotational acceleration were significantly greater in the LOC group than the no LOC group. The brain tissue deformation metrics were greater in the LOC group than the no LOC group. The best overall predictor for LOC was impact velocity. Concussions with LOC are characterised by greater magnitudes of brain tissue deformation. This was mainly the result of higher impact velocities in the LOC group providing league decision-makers with an understanding of the importance of managing impact velocity through athlete education and rule enforcement or change.


A modified implementation of the MMSE receiver to be used in a UTRA TDD environment is presented. Simulations are carried out in a multipath fading environment and BER values are obtained, demonstrating that this structure reduces the MAI that appears due to the loss of orthogonality between orthogonal codes in multipath channels. The performance of the proposed structure is compared with that of a traditional receiver, an equaliser and a RAKE receiver.


Background and aim: society is the living context of adolescents' health and includes social constitutions. Adolescents as an important social group experience many disturbances because of the characteristics of current society and special features of adolescence. The life style and habits of adolescence sometime lasts until death; so the resulted problems would affect all the life. Material & Method: A qualitative content analysis has been used. Open semi structured Interviews were conducted until data saturation Result: These three categories have been emerged: the semiology of an unhealthy society, adolescents' expectations from the society, social health prerequisites. Discussion: Both the adolescents and their health are affected by the essential role of social predisposing factors. To develop the social aspect of adolescents' health is necessary. The social aspect of health which is related to the family, employment, welfare and communications could be useful in a healthy foundation of the future. Conclusion: Understanding adolescents' perspectives is not only important but is useful for maintaining a healthy society. Therefore, families, teachers, health workers and policy makers should develop prevention and intervention programs based on adolescence developmental processes especially tending to social factors.


We discuss the symbolic computation of inverse kinematics for serial 6R manipulators with arbitrary geometries (general 6R manipulators) based on Raghavan and Roth's solution. The elements of the matrices required in the solution were symbolically calculated. In the symbolic computation, an algorithm for simplifying polynomials upon considering the symbolic constraints (constraints of the trigonometric functions and those of the rotation matrix), a method for symbolic elimination of the joint variables, and an efficient computation of the rational polynomials are presented. The elements of the matrix whose determinant produces a 16th-order single variable polynomial (characteristic polynomial) were symbolically calculated by using structural parameters (parameters that define the geometry of the manipulator) and hand configuration parameters (parameters that define the hand configuration). The symbolic determinant of the matrix consists of huge number of terms even when each element is replaced by a single symbol. Instead of expressing the coefficients in a characteristic polynomial by structural parameters and hand configuration parameters, we substituted appropriate rational numbers that strictly satisfy the constraints of the symbols for the elements of the matrix and calculated the determinant (numerical error free calculation). By numerically calculating the real roots of the rational characteristic polynomial and the joint angles for each root, we verified the formulation for the symbolic computation.


Distinguished German historians and journalists examine Germany's new position in Europe after unification in relation to its neighbouring states since 1871 and its role in furthering European integration since 1949. The authors ask: - Does Germany need a new foreign policy? Have her priorities changed in the light of the end of the Cold War? - Does Germany need to define her own national interests rather than identifying herself with the European Union?Contributors: G. Gillessen, G. Schollgen, J. Fest, J. Thies, J. Joffe, C. Bertram, H.-P. Schwarz


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
Whole-body infrared-A irradiation (WBIAI) according to Ardenne is a newly developed version of hyperthermia. In clinical use benefits for patients with chronic infections have been reported. In order to find out more about the immunological background of the method we studied the question whether hyperthermia leads to priming effects in human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We therefore investigated the production of reactive oxygen radical species (ROS) measured by lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence after stimulation with N-formylpeptide (FMLP, 10(-6) and 10(-7) M), C5a complement (10(-7) and 10(-8) M) or phorbolester (PMA, 10(-7) and 10(-8) M) in isolated PMN of 8 volunteers undergoding a 60-min hyperthermia treatment with the WBIAI. Blood was drawn 0/60/240/510 min after the start of hyperthermia treatment. In addition, we measured blood pressure, pulse, and temperature.

RESULTS
In 5 cases a significant increase in ROS (p < 0.05) could be measured beginning 240 min after start of hyperthermia and further increasing until the 510-min time point. These results suggest a priming effect in PMN lasting far beyond the actual treatment period. The increase of ROS production following stimulation with FMLP, C5a or PMA was 60.4 +/- 21.6, 86.0 +/- 23.3, and 63.3 +/- 15.9% (SEM), respectively. Moreover, in all probands the maximal ROS production in PMN was observed 510 min after the beginning of WBIAI treatment. In 3 cases no difference in ROS could be observed. There was no difference in temperature, blood pressure, and pulse between responders and nonresponders.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results show a hyperthermia-dependent priming effect of ROS production in PMN, suggesting an increase in immune reaction within the observation period of 510 min. Further investigations are necessary in order to specify responders and nonresponders and to characterize the results in specific diseases and the constitutions of the patients.


Abstract Elymus alashanicus (Keng) S. L. Chen, a herbaceous plant endemic to China, plays a crucial role in the local ecosystems. In this study, we sequenced and characterized the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of E. alashanicus, which is 135,072 bp in length and arranged in a circular form. The cp genome includes a pair of inverted repeats (IRa and IRb) of 20,813 bp each, separated by a large single-copy (LSC) region of 80,678 bp and a small single-copy (SSC) region of 12,768 bp. The cp genome contains 130 genes, including 83 protein-coding genes, 39 tRNA genes, and eight rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that E. alashanicus is closely related to Elymus breviaristatus and Campeiostachys dahurica var. tangutorum in current sampling. Our findings provide valuable insights into the cp genome of E. alashanicus, which could contribute to further studies on the evolution and conservation of this species.


The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has caused widespread panic and global initiatives are geared towards treat-ment and limiting its spread. With technological advancements, several mechanisms and mobile applications have been developed that attempt to trace the physical contact made by a person with someone who has been tested COVID-19 positive. While designing these apps, user's privacy has been an afterthought and has resulted in mass violations of privacy of the public and the patients. A total of 32 countries have designed apps and rely on them as a strategy to flatten the pandemic curve. Along with lack of privacy, these methodologies are centralized, where they are fully controlled by the government and the healthcare providers. Owing to these and many other concerns, people are hesitant in the adoption of these technologies. This paper presents a detailed analysis of user tracking apps belonging to 32 countries, thus demonstrating that they collect personal data and are a gross violation of user privacy. This paper presents a novel architecture for the efficient, effective and privacy-preserving contact tracing of COVID-19 patients using blockchain. The proposed architecture preserves the privacy of individuals and their contact history by encrypting all the data specific to an individual using a privacy-preserving Homomorphic encryption scheme and storing it on a permissioned blockchain network. The contacts made with a COVID-19 positive patient are identified by performing search queries directly over the Homomorphic encrypted data stored in the blocks. Therefore, only those contacts that are suspected to be COVID-19 positive may be decrypted by the healthcare professional or government for further contact tracing/ diagnosis and COVID-19 testing;thereby leading to enhanced privacy.


Background: Allergic fungal sinusitis (AFS) is thought to represent an immunologic response to exposure to dematiaceous fungi. These fungi are known to cause disease more frequently in hot and humid climates and seasons. Methods: Three patients presented with unusual manifestations of fungal disease after exposure to environments recently affected by hurricanes. Results: Two patients had AFS, 1 with gradual painless visual loss from an AFS mass extending into the suprasellar region and 1 with orbital apex syndrome. Another patient had invasive fungal disease and developed orbital apex syndrome. Conclusions: These cases underscore the importance of clinical recognition of fungal disease in patients with sinus, orbital, or skull base involvement as well as its potential for causing permanent visual loss. This report suggests a potential association between fungal disease and tropical storm exposure.


Manuscript History: History of cosmetics spans atleast 6000 years of human history and every society on earth. The use of cosmetics in our country can be dated back to the Vedic times that are as early as 1000 B.C. The present study focuses on toxic metals in cosmetics product Lipstick and does not deal with the beneficial or detrimental effects of any other ingredients in such products. Furthermore, the choice of samples for study has been based on the most readily available cosmetics brand in the market. The main objective of the study is quantitative analysis of various toxic metals in cosmetic product Lipstick with a view to emphasize the need for pharmacovigilance of cosmetic products. The samples were analyzed according to standardized international protocols by wet digestion method, by a Flame Emission Spectrophotometer. In addition, the present studies are restricted to lipsticks sold in the Delhi region. Random sampling methodology adopted in this study, fairly indicative results have been obtained which are suggestive of which particular brands need to be more rigorously tested. The safety and toxicity assessment of cosmetic products such as lipsticks is a critical issue that is not only affected by scientific questions, but also by the responsible regulatory agencies as well as consumers, health ministry and governmental organizers. There is an urgent need to stop importing unsafe cosmetics. .


Most cities of developing countries in Asia and Africa still employ on-site sanitation systems such as septic tanks or cesspools to treat toilet wastewaters. The septic tank sludge or faecal sludge (FS) which is highly polluted needs to be periodically removed for further treatment and disposal/reuse. However, due to lack of capital, appropriate technologies and management policies, faecal sludge management (FSM) in several cities has been found to be unsatisfactory, causing environmental pollution and health problems. This study aimed to evaluate existing FSM practices, their strengths and weaknesses, and develop FSM indicators responsible for FSM practices which were: collection efficiency, treatment efficiency, benefit/cost ratio and social satisfaction. Based on data collected from 50 cities in Thailand, factors influencing the efficiency of the FSM indicators were identified and simulated using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). An FSM effectiveness diagram was developed and tested with actual data of four cities in Asia having different FSM efficiencies. The findings identified the influencing factors affecting the FSM efficiencies of these tested cities and proposed effective measures for improving FSM practices. The effective FSM measures, as proposed, are recommended for implementation by various cities to minimize environmental pollution and protect public health.


Childhood obesity is an increasing problem in the UK and co-morbidities of obesity are increasingly evident. Previous research has suggested altered musculoskeletal function including; lower limb and foot biomechanics, muscular strength and plantar pressures in obese children compared to healthy weight peers. However, there has been limited research to quantify the associations between weight status and excessive body fat mass with musculoskeletal function.

The primary aim of this research was to explore lower limb and foot biomechanics, plantar pressures and lower limb strength in 7-to-11 year old children. Sixty-nine children were recruited to participate in protocols for; body composition, three-dimensional gait analysis of the lower limb and foot, plantar pressures and strength assessment of the hip, knee and ankle. Principal component analysis was
undertaken to determine regression scores representing elements of the gait cycle to be further analysed. Strength variables and regression scores were entered into MANCOVAs to assess the difference between Z score derived overweight/obese and healthy groups. Multiple regression was undertaken to assess the relationships between lower limb and foot variables, plantar pressures, and strength with body fat.

There was no difference in lower limb kinematics or foot segment angles between groups. Overweight/obese group had increased sagittal knee moment and frontal power. The overweight/obese group were stronger and more powerful in absolute terms in ankle dorsiflexion and knee extension and flexion. When strength was normalised to body mass, fat mass and fat free mass, overweight/obese were weaker and less powerful.

Body fat had no effect on lower limb kinematics but significantly effected metatarsals, midfoot and calcaneus angular motion. Body fat significantly increased ankle, knee
and hip moment and powers. Midfoot and forefoot plantar pressure was significantly predicted by body fat. As body fat increased absolute strength in the knee extensors,
flexors and ankle dorsiflexors increased. Strength normalised to body mass decreased with increasing body fat. Body fat significantly predicted (as body fat increased strength decreased) strength normalised to fat free mass in all muscle groups except isokinetic ankle dorsiflexors.

This work demonstrates the need to use appropriate parameters for investigations into the effects of obesity. BMI-derived weight categorisation makes the findings easily
relatable back to a clinical population, but it produces less significant findings compared to a direct measure body fat. The overall findings are that overweight/obese
children are relatively weaker and have increased loading of lower limb and foot joints during gait. This work demonstrates the need to understand the effects of obesity on musculoskeletal function to aid clinical rehabilitation and reduce the health burden in later life.


A 4 × 1 mechanical optical switch has been constructed, which can be used to switch the laser source in regenerators of the SL Undersea Lightwave System. We describe the design philosophy used to meet the high reliability required of < 2 FIT's as a passive component, and< 10^{-3}probability of not performing the switch-over function when called upon in 25 years. We describe the grooved silicon chips which were especially designed for this application for the precise alignment of the optical fibers. We also describe a novel fiber end seal. Included are recent loss results for both a 4 × 1 and a 2 × 1 mechanical optical switch.


For subjects of all ages, one cubic centimeter of serum contains more than 1 Washington unit of streptococcal antitoxin in 64.6 per cent of 254 Canadian and in 93.5 per cent of 107 tropical sera. The mean potency of the tropical serum is significantly greater than that of the temperate zone. (A significant difference was judged to be one which could be detected 95 times out of 100.)
 For subjects under 17 years of age, 44 per cent of 50 Canadian, and 93 per cent of 45 tropical sera contain more than 1 unit of antitoxin per cubic centimeter. The mean potencies differ significantly.
 For adults, 69.6 per cent of 204 Canadian, and 93.5 per cent of 62 tropical sera contain more than 1 unit of antitoxin per cubic centimeter. The mean potencies are not significantly different.
 Calculated on the basis of single tests, in each of which 6 rabbits were used, 25 cord samples contain more, and one less, antitoxin than the corresponding maternal serum, the remaining 66 pairs not differing significantly.
 The cord serum can be shown to contain significantly more antitoxin than maternal serum if the mean difference for the 92 pairs of sera is considered as the basis of calculation.


The new Susan Mubarak Science Exploration Centre in Cairo is the first of its kind in the region and was designed to bring the country's children into the heart of scientific and technological progress. M. Sameh Said was its guiding spirit and he describes the formidable challenges that developing countries face if they are to join the scientific debate that characterizes our epoch. The author is a technology adviser at the Egyptian Ministry of Education and directed the national project of education technology in Egypt, including introducing technology in Egypt's schools and setting up a nationwide video conference network, as well as video and multimedia production centres. He is a professor of electronics in the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, and has taught at universities in the United States.


The study investigated how various creatively heterogeneous actors interact in media habitats and determined management approaches for optimizing content creation. While many scholars have focused on problem solving and innovation, few have studied the effects of artistic or problem finding creativity in an organizational setting. This interdisciplinary research was guided by a framework, consisting of fourteen hypotheses, that mapped relationships among primary variables including: Profile Diversity (balance between two distinct personality-based creativity profiles, problem finding and solving), Values Diversity, Voice, "Coflict" (four ratios of conflict and cooperation), self-reported outcomes (Publication, Senior Management, and Social Mission), and independent expert-judged outcomes (Creativity, Technical Goodness, and Aesthetics).The empirical study, based on a hybrid cross-sectional and longitudinal survey series strategy, primarily used three instruments to collect data. In three waves with 45 key measures, responses were gathered from a number of senior management team members (for small mission-driven North American publications), from confirmed artists and scientists, and from independent expert judges who rated products from each publication. To explore and test hypotheses, a variety of statistical methods were used, including hierarchical linear and logistic regression modeling.Surprisingly, the results confirmed a consistently perfect polarity of mean personality factor scores between finders and solvers. Along five personality dimensions, both groups significantly differed in terms of Factor 1 Socialized, Factor 4 Unexploring, and Factor 5 Eager. The study's findings argue that small, mission-driven media enterprises may optimize products (i.e., creativity premium) and enhance organizational outcomes by leveraging diversity, situation, communication, and process variables. This assertion is supported by four secondary arguments that media teams can benefit from: 1) engaging in higher levels of Conflict 2, the ratio of Content Conflict to the sum of Process and Relationship Conflict; 2) constructing habitat environments characterized as high in Voiceand low in Network Congruence; 3) maximizing Profile Diversity while minimizing Values Diversity; and 4) better understanding the unique personalities and creative capabilities that both finders and solvers bring to the content creation process. The study concludes by discussing the top five most interesting opportunities for future research. For practice, senior management teams are encouraged to assess their situation and then engage in a dialog regarding how these study findings might be most usefully applied. This might then result in a strategic plan for change.


The delivery of accurate, salient, and actionable prevention information is critical for controlling chronic diseases such as cancer. Disparities in access to health information disadvantage many ethnic minority groups already burdened by disparities in health outcomes. The US Latino population is one example, particularly in view of potential language barriers. Low rates of health insurance among Latinos have also contributed to a 'prevention gap' in relation to uptake of available preventive services. The news media are a pervasive source of health information, and prior research has demonstrated that even minimal news coverage can result in meaningful health behavior change. Understanding how media disseminate health information is therefore critical. The current literature on health news as a communication channel routinely ignores ethnic and foreign language media that are created to serve populations who are underserved or excluded by mainstream media. Most existing research has also focused on 'hard news' sources rather than alternative forms of news delivery that may reach a wider audience and also present information in more accessible ways. While Spanish-language news media play a potentially significant role as purveyors of relevant health information, Latinos have reported that the media they use is does not adequately cover stories on "steps families can take to prevent illnesses". In this study, we analyze Spanish-language and soft news formats both separately and in combination. We use Petty and Cacioppo9s (1986) Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as a theoretical foundation for our examination of the potential for culturally tailored, "soft" news format to enhance information consumption and potential behavior change. Under ELM9s dual-route processing model, motivated message recipients more actively and thoughtfully process the communicated information. Relevancy is one way that motivation is produced; thus we documented relevancy in stories pertaining to chronic disease on the most widely viewed Spanish language morning news program, Univision9s Despierta America. Our data consist of 30 program broadcasts over 6 months (April-Sept. 2009); one week per month was sampled and each morning9s show was recorded in its entirety (7am-10am). We used Ethnographic Content Analysis to guide analysis of content dealing with primary prevention of chronic diseases. We identified 32 stories pertaining to chronic disease, 12 of which dealt primarily with cancer. Dietary change and physical activity were among the most commonly recommended actions, with some stories some providing meaningful visual and/or aural examples. We argue that the 'soft' news format of the morning program allowed for beneficial in-depth discussions of complex health issues. Explicit indications of relevancy were found in only a few stories, but implicit relevancy was abundant. The use of "I" and "we" and personal experiences created a sense of connection and "collectivism". Experts appearing on the show were all Spanish-speaking Latinos, potentially increasing their salience and relevance based on similarity. We conclude that coverage of chronic disease in Despierta America provided appropriate and relevant content for a Latino audience, but not always explicitly. The "soft" news format provides a structure amenable to enhancing relevancy, thus prompting motivation both to process messages at a deeper level and possibly take action. A future step in determining the role for ethnic news sources in reducing information disparities would be a viewer assessment of health information presented and perceived relevancy. This is critical to understand how health information delivered in this manner can affect key health behaviors. Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2011;20(10 Suppl):A12.


ABSTRACT. Cooperation is not applicable in a constant-sum differential game because there is no possibility of mutual gain from cooperation. However, in other types of games cooperation is possible. The fate of a game being noncooperative or cooperative is generally determined by the 'scope' of the game, which means how many people will be included in the game, and the status of the players. In reality it is possible to have both cooperative and noncooperative games, or just one of them, in different situations/phases of the same game. In this paper we will set up a cooperative differential game model for competition in marketing. There are many ways to define the solution of a cooperative differential game. Different definitions of 'solution' will precipitate totally different models. After defining the solution for our cooperative differential game model, we develop an algorithm based on the idea of evolutionary computation, and then draw conclusions about general cooperative differential games.


Kidneys play an especial role in copper redistribution in the organism. The epithelial cells of proximal tubules perform the functions of both copper uptake from the primary urine and release to the blood. These cells are equipped on their apical and basal membrane with copper transporters CTR1 and ATP7A. Mosaic mutant mice displaying a functional dysfunction of ATP7A are an established model of Menkes disease. These mice exhibit systemic copper deficiency despite renal copper overload, enhanced by copper therapy, which is indispensable for their life span extension. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of Slc31a1 and Slc31a2 genes (encoding CTR1/CTR2 proteins) and the cellular localization of the CTR1 protein in suckling, young and adult mosaic mutants. Our results indicate that in the kidney of both intact and copper-injected 14-day-old mutants showing high renal copper content, CTR1 mRNA level is not up-regulated compared to wild-type mice given a copper injection. The expression of the Slc31a1 gene in 45-day-old mice is even reduced compared with intact wild-type animals. In suckling and young copper-injected mutants, the CTR1 protein is relocalized from the apical membrane to the cytoplasm of epithelial cells of proximal tubules, the process which prevents copper transport from the primary urine and, thus, protects cells against copper toxicity.


Data values in a dataset can be missing or anomalous due to mishandling or human error. Analysing data with missing values can create bias and affect the inferences. Several analysis methods, such as principle components analysis or singular value decomposition, require complete data. Many approaches impute numeric data and some do not consider dependency of attributes on other attributes, while some require human intervention and domain knowledge. We present a new algorithm for data imputation based on different data type values and their association constraints in data, which are not handled currently by any system. We show experimental results using different metrics comparing our algorithm with state of the art imputation techniques. Our algorithm not only imputes the missing values but also generates explanations describing the significance of attributes used for every imputation.


A self-assembled quantum-wire laser structure was grown by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy in an InAlGaAs-InAlAs matrix oil InP(001) substrate. Ridge-waveguide lasers were fabricated and demonstrated to operate at a heatsink temperature tip to 330 K in continuous-wave (CW) mode. The emission wavelength of the lasers with 5 mm-long cavity was 1.713 mu m at room temperature in CW mode. The temperature stability of the devices was analysed and the characteristic temperature was found to be 47 K in the mnge of 220-320 K.


Modern technology is constantly being employed in new fields, by new industries and people. The cost of advanced technological equipment decreases continously, and equipment that was reserved for people and corporations with a lot of money has now become household products. This enables many interesting ideas and projects, Kitron Development's radiocollar project being one of them. Kitron Development is involved in a project to track the position of animals by substituting the traditional bell collar with a collar that contains a GPS receiver. The collar transmits its position to a base station using VHF radio, and the base station forwards the received data to a central using cellular technology. In this thesis we have surveyed, designed and implemented the central, called Animal Tracking System, that receives and processes data from the base stations. The Animal Tracking System consists of four different components that work together. A server that communicates with the base station, and stores data in a database, an alarm monitor that survey the data in the database and a web application that allow the farmers to view data about their animals, as well as configure the system.


Abstract : We have recently begun a project to document the numbers of mine blasts that will be detected teleseismically, and at regional distances, by seismograph networks used to monitor compliance with a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. We plan to study blasting in the United States, in countries of the former Soviet Union, and in Australia, Canada, China, and Korea. Knowledge of mine blast statistics is needed in order to plan efforts in discrimination, recognizing that in general it is more difficult to tell the difference, from seismic data, between underground nuclear and chemical explosions, than between underground nuclear explosions and earthquakes. If the number of large mine blast signals is large, the effort to analyse such signals could swamp discrimination programs. So far we have acquired and analysed mine blast data from eight different areas of the former Soviet Union. We have established as a total for all these regions that only on the order of 30 blasting events per year have K (energy class) value of 9 or greater - corresponding to mb around 3.35 or greater. Also, the slope of the frequency-magnitude relation is much steeper for mine blasting signals, than for earthquakes (the b-value is greater than 2 for blasting, and around unity for earthquakes). This latter result is good from the perspective of concern over very large blasts - because it implies there are very few such events. It also indicates that the number of blast signals rises very rapidly as one considers events with magnitude below about mb 3.25.


Regularization methods for the solution of nonlinear complementarity problems are standard methods for the solution of monotone complementarity problems and possess strong convergence properties. In this paper, we replace the monotonicity assumption by a P0-function condition. We show that many properties of regularization methods still hold for this larger class of problems. However, we also provide some counterexamples which indicate that not all results carry over from monotone to P0-function complementarity problems.


While much attention has been given in Session Initiation Protocol
(SIP) to the process of securing caller identity end-to-end, SIP
routing headers (e.g. via, route etc) have not garnered the same
attention and have gone largly unchanged since RFC 3261. Since SIP
promotes the routing directives to the application layer it is
imperative that these decisions not be tampered with by a malicious
party. Specifically, Route and Via headers are passed "in the clear"
without any security mechanism to insure the integrity of the
information. This draft summarizes the problems with the existing


INTRODUCTION: To determine if adverse perinatal outcomes are impacted by variations in delivery volumes. METHODS: From a 3-year observational cohort, including 101,120 pregnancies in 24 hospitals, we evaluated the number of deliveries each day for each hospital. Each day was assigned a percentile [%ile] rank according to the total range of daily deliveries for that hospital. Days with higher (76–90th %ile, above [GT] the 90th %ile) and lower (less than [LT] the 10th %ile, 10–24th %ile) volumes were compared with days having intermediate volumes (25–75th %ile) for associations with adverse perinatal outcomes: Postpartum hemorrhage [PPH], 5-minute Apgar below 4 [LoAp5], hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy [HIE], shoulder dystocia [SD], fetal trauma [FT], and cord pH below 7.0 [LopH]. Multivariable regression models adjusted for maternal age, obstetric history, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, anticoagulants, BMI, multiple gestation, pPROM, presentation, weekday, and delivery gestation. Scheduled cesareans, those delivering outside L&D, non-presenting newborns in multiple gestations, and neonatal deaths without resuscitation were excluded. RESULTS: We found a wide range in daily delivery volumes (range 0–56). After controlling for other factors, no consistent pattern of more or less frequent morbidities was seen on higher or lower delivery volume days, presented as OR (95% CI) for LT10th %ile, 10–24th %ile, 76–90th %ile, GT90th %ile: PPH: 0.89 (0.70–1.1), 1.1 (0.90–1.2), 1.0 (0.89–1.1), 0.86 (0.74–0.99); LoAp5: 1.2 (0.69–2.1), 1.4 (0.95–1.9), 0.85 (0.62–1.2), 0.91 (0.64–1.3); HIE: 1.1 (0.79–1.6), 1.1 (0.86–1.4), 1.0 (0.84–1.2), 0.91 (0.73–1.1); SD: 0.88 (0.68–1.1), 1.1 (0.92–1.3), 1.2 (1.0–1.3), 1.1 (0.92–1.2); FT: 1.3 (0.84–2.1), 1.1 (0.77–1.5), 0.95 (0.72–1.3), 1.1 (0.84–1.5); LopH: 1.3 (0.79–2.0), 0.94 (0.65–1.3), 0.92 (0.70–1.2), 0.87 (0.64–1.2). CONCLUSION: We found no consistent association between and higher or lower delivery volume days and adverse perinatal outcomes. These encouraging results suggest that these Units were able to accommodate surges in patient delivery volume.


This paper summarizes preliminary remote handling and robotic concepts being developed as part of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Yucca Mountain Project. The DOE is currently evaluating the Yucca Mountain Nevada site for suitability as a possible underground geologic repository for the disposal of high level nuclear waste. The current advanced conceptual design calls for the disposal of more than 12,000 high level nuclear waste packages within a 225 km underground network of tunnels and emplacement drifts. Many of the waste packages may weigh as much as 66 tonnes and measure 1.8 m in diameter and 5.6 m long. The waste packages will emit significant levels of radiation and heat. Therefore, remote handling is a cornerstone of the repository design and operating concepts. This paper discusses potential applications areas for robotics and remote handling technologies within the subsurface repository. It also summarizes the findings of a preliminary technology survey which reviewed available robotic and remote handling technologies developed within the nuclear, mining, rail and industrial robotics and automation industries, and at national laboratories, universities, and related research institutions and government agencies.


: This study examines which configurations explain the outcomes of local government reform and its variable conditions through comparative qualitative analysis (QCA). The research is represented for the analysis of sub-system conditions through a case of Vietnam in public administration reform. Generally the results show the minimum configurations of key variable conditions to achieve the outcomes of local government reform.Public governance conditions affect public administration reform, and the outcomes of local government reform are based on a number of variables including participation at local levels, transparency, vertical accountability, control of corruption in the public sector, public administrative procedures, public service delivery.


We investigate the detection of person in the omnidirectional images, adopting a linear SVM. We have implemented HOG-based descriptors, for omnidirectional and spherical images. In this paper we studied the influence of each parameter in our algorithm on the performances of person detections in catadioptric images. However, few studies have elaborated the problem of human detection using this type of cameras; therefore we have set up our own test base. Our results show that our detector can robustly detect people in omnidirectional images, as soon as the algorithm is adapted to the distortions introduced by the use of the omnidirectional camera.


Published as part of the highly successful Engineering Research Series , A Knowledge–Based System for Powder Metallurgy Technology not only looks at the latest advances in powder metallurgy, but also presents a methodology that offers a means to preserve critical process–related know–how. The author makes this practical information easily accessible to design engineers so that they can take advantage of the opportunities that powder metallurgy offers. The knowledge–based system aims to simulate the capability of human experts in solving design, materials, and process optimization problems in powder metallurgy. This is achieved through use of process modelling and artificial intelligence techniques such as neural networks. The rapid developments in expert systems in recent years have enabled accumulated experience and knowledge to be applied in the powder metallurgy field. This calls for careful modelling of the processes together with sound appreciation of both powder metallurgy and knowledge–based systems. A Knowledge–based System for Powder Metallurgy Technology introduces the reader to both fields in the early chapters and then illustrates the advantages of the use of expert systems in this significant manufacturing process. A Knowledge–based System for Powder Metallurgy Technology is based upon the author's extensive experience of computing, expert systems, modelling and powder metallurgy on both sides of the Atlantic and represents a valuable addition to the Engineering Research Series.


The design of Micromegas is offering, for several applications, substantial advantage in energy, spatial and time resolution, granularity on large surface and simplicity of construction. However the maximum achievable gain is limited, at high hadron rates, because of sparks induced by heavy ionizing particles produced by nuclear interactions. An issue to decrease drastically the sparking rate is to use the conversion space of the detector as a preamplification stage. In this paper, we will describe the design and laboratory results of new amplifying structures, based on the Micromegas concept that can be either used as a preamplification element or stand-alone detector for some specific applications.


Purpose: Aortoenteric fistula is an extremely rare source of upper gastrointestinal tract haemorrhage (UGIH).
Case report: We present the case of a 58-year-old man who was admitted to our ward with UGIH. During diagnosis, urgent upper and lower GI endoscopy, abdominal US, CT angiography and ileojejunography were performed. Unfortunately, the bleeding source was not found and the patient was discharged. He returned 2 weeks later with profound anemia. Urgent upper GI endoscopy did not elucidate the bleeding source. The patient died suddenly a few days after receiving symptomatic treatment. At autopsy, a secondary aortoduodenal fistula due to prosthetic aortic reconstruction was found, which had led to fatal haemorrhage.
Conclusion: Some sources of UGIH are very rare. In the diagnostic work up of these patients we should be aware of the limitations of different imaging procedures.


We propose a simple, fast, and accurate one-stage approach to visual grounding, inspired by the following insight. The performances of existing propose-and-rank two-stage methods are capped by the quality of the region candidates they propose in the first stage --- if none of the candidates could cover the ground truth region, there is no hope in the second stage to rank the right region to the top. To avoid this caveat, we propose a one-stage model that enables end-to-end joint optimization. The main idea is as straightforward as fusing a text query's embedding into the YOLOv3 object detector, augmented by spatial features so as to account for spatial mentions in the query. Despite being simple, this one-stage approach shows great potential in terms of both accuracy and speed for both phrase localization and referring expression comprehension, according to our experiments. Given these results along with careful investigations into some popular region proposals, we advocate for visual grounding a paradigm shift from the conventional two-stage methods to the one-stage framework.


The purpose of this study was to explore participants' academic experiences and confidence about their academic achievement. Participants (N = 27) consisted of high-achieving African American male student—athletes from four academically rigorous American universities in the Pac-Ten conference. Most of the participants competed in revenue-generating sports and were interviewed to obtain a deeper understanding of their successful academic experiences. Utilizing a phenomenological approach four major themes emerged: "I Had to Prove I'm Worthy," "I'm a Perceived Threat to Society," "It's About Time Management," and "It's About Pride and Hard Work." Stereotype threat and stereotype reactance are investigated in relation to findings. Recommendations for scholars and practitioners that work with student-athletes are also articulated.


The authors proposed a methodology for estimating flow duration curves (FDC) for perennial and ephemeral catch‐ ments in islands using a disaggregated approach. The pro‐ posed method is approached statistically and uses no complex parameters in order to reduce uncertainty and retain simplicity. Firstly, the FDC was disaggregated into three parts (high, middle and low) and, for the purpose of this study, it focusses on the low flow section. Initially, the mean monthly flow was used for estimating runoff in both types of catchments. The results show the mean monthly flow provided proper estimates in the perennial catchments, but for the ephemeral catchments the estimates were sub‐ standard. Therefore, a different approach using climate indices such as aridity and a precipitation index was used in a generalized regression equation. The results show the majority of the ephemeral catchments responded properly to the climate indices indicating climate as a major control‐ ling factor at the lower end of the FDC.


We present equivalent conditions and asymptotic models for a diffraction problem of acoustic and elastic waves. The mathematical problem is set with a Robin boundary condition. Elastic and acoustic waves propagate in a solid medium surrounded by a thin layer of fluid medium. Due to the thinness of the layer with respect to the wavelength, this problem is well suited for the notion of equivalent conditions and the effect of the fluid medium on the solid is as a first approximation local. This approach leads to solve only elastic equations. We derive and validate equivalent conditions up to the third order for the elastic displacement. The construction of equivalent conditions is based on a multiscale expansion in power series of the thickness of the layer for the solution of the transmission problem.


Electronic-grade GaN (0001) epilayers have been grown directly on Al2O3 (0001) substrates by reactive DC-magnetron sputter epitaxy (MSE) from a liquid Ga sputtering target in an Ar/N2 atmosphere. T ...