There is an increasing consensus that the treatment of Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) significantly varies with the degree of inflammation and that treatment according to guidelines is not always successful. Here, we report the case of a 31-year-old male with widespread, highly inflammatory Hurley Stage II HS in multiple locations who failed to respond to any kind of established medical treatment, including biologics. As an alternative approach, Ustekinumab was maintained, and additionally the patient was treated with LAight therapy, a combination of intense pulsed light and radiofrequency. After 10 sessions, deroofing of multiple lesions was performed in a two-step process. After a few weeks of healing time accompanied by specialized wound experts, the patient continued with LAight therapy to control and prevent recurrence. This case shows that the combination of LAight therapy and deroofing is a promising treatment plan for the long-term symptom control of mild and moderate HS.


BACKGROUND Zika has emerged as a new public health threat after the explosive epidemic in Brazil in 2015. It is an arbovirus transmitted mainly by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The knowledge of physiological, behavioural and biological features in virus-infected vectors may help the understanding of arbovirus transmission dynamics and elucidate their influence in vector capacity. OBJECTIVES We aimed to investigate the effects of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection in the behaviour of Ae. aegypti females by analysing the locomotor activity, egg production and viability. METHODOLOGY Ae. aegypti females were orally infected with ZIKV through an artificial feeder to access egg production, egg viability and locomotor activity. For egg production and viability assays, females were kept in cages containing an artificial site for oviposition and eggs were counted. Locomotor activity assays were performed in activity monitors and an average of 5th, 6th and 7th days after infective feeding was calculated. FINDINGS No significant difference in the number of eggs laid per females neither in their viability were found between ZIKV infected and non-infected females, regardless the tested pair of mosquito population and virus strain and the gonotrophic cycles. Locomotor activity assays were performed regardless of the locomotor activity in ZIKV infected females was observed, in both LD and DD conditions. MAIN CONCLUSIONS The lower locomotor activity may reduce the mobility of the mosquitoes and may explain case clustering within households reported during Zika outbreaks such as in Rio de Janeiro 2015. Nevertheless, the mosquitoes infected with ZIKV are still able to disseminate and to transmit the disease, especially in places where there are many oviposition sites.


The number of legal disputes in the field of medical liability has increased exponentially in the last decades. The aim of this study is to investigate the outcomes of criminal cases against healthcare professionals in Italian criminal courts. The hypothesis is that the majority of cases are dismissed and/or most professionals in these cases are acquitted. This retrospective analysis considers criminal proceedings related to medical professional liability registered with the general register of crime reports of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rome in the time interval between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2015. A total of 4793 criminal proceedings were ultimately identified. Proceedings related to the field of orthopedic trauma were then examined and identified. A complete analysis of 132 of the identified files (76.7%) was carried out. The field with the highest risk of disputes was determined to be the field of trauma. The most frequent complaint was found to arise from unsatisfactory surgical outcomes following elective surgery. The most affected anatomical district is the lower limb in both elective and trauma cases, followed by the upper limb in traumatology and spine cases. The surgeon is the most frequently quoted role of the professional involved. The number of physicians actually convicted (3.93%) and for whom liability was thus recognized, i.e., the existence of a causal link between their conduct and the event that took place was established, appears to be extremely small when compared with the far more significant values related to dismissals (53%) and acquittals (14.2%). Adequate legal reform aiming to reduce this disproportion is necessary to ensure physicians experience a more relaxed daily profession and to restore the original connotations of the doctor–patient relationship with the abolition of defensive medicine.


The chromatographic separation of racemic mixtures of volatile compounds by 2,3,6-trimethyl-α-, β- and γ-cyclodextrins is discussed. Columns were prepared by mixing the derivatized cyclodextrin with OV-1701 or hydroxy-terminated OV-1701 (OV-1701-OH) following Schurig's method [1]. About 130 racemates with widely differing structures were used to test the performances of 2,3,6-permethylated-α, β- and, γ-cyclodextrins mixed with the polysiloxane polymers in different ratios. The influence of the different types of cyclodextrin on racemate separation is shown, and some phenomena which might be helpful in the elucidation of the chromatographic behavior involved are also described. The influence both of the percentage of cyclodextrin in the polysiloxane, and of the operating conditions (carrier gas, flow rate, and temperature) in the separation of flavor and fragrance racemates is also evaluated.


We have studied the vibrational properties of one-dimensional nanocrystalline materials. After creating the model, we studied the effects of the average size and the size distribution of nanocrystallites on the vibrational properties, and the effects of the proportion of the interfacial atoms to total atoms in each nanocrystallities are also discussed.


In orthopaedic research, the analysis of the gait pattern is an often-used evaluation method. It allows an assessment of changes in motion sequence and pain level during postoperative follow up periods. Visual assessments are highly subjective and dependent on the circumstances. Particular challenge in rabbits is their hopping gait pattern. The aim of the present study was to establish a more objective and sensitive lameness evaluation using a pressure sensing mat. Twelve NZW rabbits were implemented in the study. They got an artificial anterior cruciate ligament transection of the right knee in connection with an experimental study, which investigated PTOA treatment. Rabbits were examined by a visual lameness score. Additionally, load of the hindlimbs was measured by the use of a pressure sensing mat and a video was recorded. Peak pressure and time force integral, defined as cumulated integral of all sensors associated to a hind paw, were evaluated. Preoperative data were collected on three independent days. As postoperative measurement time points, week 1 and week 12 after surgery were chosen. The subjective visual scoring was compared to the objective data of the pressure sensing mat. Following the visual score, lameness in week one was mild to moderate. In week twelve, rabbits were evaluated as lame free bar one. Contrary, following the values of the sensor mat, lameness in week one appeared to be more pronounced and almost all rabbits still showed low-grade lameness in week twelve. Consequently, the pressure sensing mat is more sensitive than the visual score and captures the grade of lameness much more accurately. For specific orthopaedic issues, where subtle differences in lameness are important to detect, the used system is a good supplementary evaluation method.


ABSTRACT Novitates Gabonenses 78. Two new species from Gabon in the Bridelieae (Phyllanthaceae, formerly Euphorbiaceae) with keys for Gabonese species within genera Bridelia and Cleistanthus. In the framework of the taxonomic treatment of the Phyllanthaceae for the Flore du Gabon, two new species of Bridelieae are described, one in the genus Bridelia, the other in the genus Cleistanthus. The new species are illustrated, their distribution maps are provided, and their taxonomic position within their respective genera is discussed. An assessment of their conservation status is provided. Identification keys for the Gabonese species of Bridelia and Cleistanthus are added.


What information from an act of sentence understanding is robustly represented in the human brain? We investigate this question by comparing sentence encoding models on a brain decoding task, where the sentence that an experimental participant has seen must be predicted from the fMRI signal evoked by the sentence. We take a pre-trained BERT architecture as a baseline sentence encoding model and fine-tune it on a variety of natural language understanding (NLU) tasks, asking which lead to improvements in brain-decoding performance. We find that none of the sentence encoding tasks tested yield significant increases in brain decoding performance. Through further task ablations and representational analyses, we find that tasks which produce syntax-light representations yield significant improvements in brain decoding performance. Our results constrain the space of NLU models that could best account for human neural representations of language, but also suggest limits on the possibility of decoding fine-grained syntactic information from fMRI human neuroimaging.


The gross and microscopical features of a glomus tumour in the digit of a 9-year-old dog are described. The tumour consisted of a red nodule near the nail of the third digit of the right forelimb and appeared painful. The tumour cells, which had round to oval hyperchromatic nuclei and scant cytoplasm, were arranged in sheets around blood vessels, or in nests or duct-like structures. This pattern has not been described previously in canine glomus tumours. Mitotic figures were seen only occasionally. Tumour cells were strongly immunolabelled for vimentin and some expressed smooth-muscle actin and desmin. They were negative for cytokeratins, neuron-specific enolase and CD34. Silver impregnation (reticulin method) stained the reticulum around blood vessels, nests of tumour cells and duct-like structures, and a delicate reticulum was seen around each tumour cell. The morphological, immunohistochemical and histochemical patterns helped in the diagnosis of this glomus tumour.


The Dermatology Teachers Exchange Group (DTEG) convenes biannually in late winter (February or March), concurrent with the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology, and in the fall, concurrent with the meeting of the Association of Professors of Dermatology. At the DTEG meeting that was held March 12, 2000, in San Francisco, Calif, 9 abstracts were presented on residency selection, residency training, medical student education, primary physician education, and utility of dermatologic care. The DTEG meeting that was held September 8, 2000, featured a workshop on competency-based training of residents.


We present a theoretical analysis for calculating the transient device junction temperature as a function of position and time upon a stepwise increase of power dissipation. The derivation applies in particular to multifinger heterojunction bipolar transistors designed for microwave power application. It is determined that for a typical substrate thickness of 100 µm, the rise time of the junction temperature is roughly 3×10-7 s.


The cause of diaphragm cracking on an interstate highway bridge is investigated. The investigation consists of load-testing the bridge, performing a finite element analysis of the diaphragm, and conducting fatigue tests on simulated diaphragms. It is determined that a high degree of restraint at the diaphragm-to-girder connection causes individual diaphragms at each transverse location to act as continuous members reaching from one side of the bridge to the other. Differential deflections of longitudinal members induce moments in the diaphragms, resulting in tensile stresses along the bottom of the diaphragms. These tensile stresses are amplified by the presence of a bottom-flange cope at the diaphragm-to-girder connections. High tensile stresses lead to initiation of fatigue cracks in diaphragms at copes. Repair techniques tested include smoothing the cope, reducing restraint in the connection by removing bolts from the connection, and replacing coped diaphragms with uncoped diaphragms. The technique of removing bolts from the connection is recommended for implementation.


Work by Cedefop has shown that participation in training has a positive effect on the probability of finding a job. This study adds to such results by showing that learning can support labour market transitions of adult workers by increasing their adaptability to a changing environment. The study offers a colourful mosaic of life and career patterns, and intends to increase awareness of the importance of the various policies – guidance, counselling, and participation in education and training – that can effectively support adults in making better career decisions.


Bibliometric analysis is an effective method for determining the publication policies of academic studies in a country. In this study, computer assisted instruction made in Turkey until 2019 aimed to investigate the environmental themed thesis. In this context, the theses found in the Thesis Center database of the Board of Higher Education in April 2019 were scanned as Computer Assisted Instruction. As a result of the research, 727 theses were reached. 6 theses which are called environmental have been determined. During the examination of the theses, the type of the thesis work, the year of publication, the university and institute, the working group, the consultant titles and the results of the research were chosen as the criteria for review. According to the analysis results of the arguments made on environmental themes in computer-aided education in Turkey is at the graduate level, work is published by a maximum of Gazi University, was done by the Institute for a maximum of Educational Sciences of the research, most Faculty of Education studying science at the department's Science teachers work It was determined that the consultant titles of the researches were at the level of Professor Doctor. In the thesis studies, it has been determined that computer assisted environmental teaching has a positive effect on students' academic success. As a result of computer-aided teaching environmental related thesis in Turkey said to be numerically insufficient. In order to increase the number of academic studies in this field, it may be suggested to direct the graduate students in the relevant departments of the universities.


Male Wistar rats were presented with an everyday free choice between water and a morphine-sucrose solution. Following a 5-day baseline period animals were injected with either zimelidine (10 or 20 mg/kg, i.p.), a neuronal serotonin uptake inhibitor, or Ringer's solution (2 ml/kg, i.p.) for 5 consecutive days. Treatment with zimelidine was shown to significantly attenuate morphine drinking suggesting that an increased availability of serotonin may interfere with the positive reinforcing properties of morphine. The results are also discussed in terms of a possible interaction with brain norepinephrine. The possibility that the reinforcing effects of both morphine and ethanol are subserved by common mechanisms is suggested.


BACKGROUND
Australia declared freedom from bovine tuberculosis (TB) in accordance with international guidelines in 1997 and has since maintained ongoing surveillance for this disease, primarily through abattoir surveillance of cattle carcases (meat inspection) for TB-like granulomas. The objectives of this study were to estimate the sensitivity of Australia's surveillance system and quantify the probability that Australia is free from bovine TB at the specified design prevalence.

METHODS
The analysis included approximately 80 million records of individual cattle slaughtered and meat inspected at Australian abattoirs between 2005 and 2015 calendar years. Animals were identified and aggregated by property of birth within year. Herd- and population-level sensitivities and probability of freedom were estimated on an annual basis using a simulation model to account for uncertainty about the unit sensitivity of the meat inspection process.

RESULTS
The estimated median population sensitivity of Australia's TB surveillance system varied from a high of 80%, in years when traditional meat inspection was used, to as low as 50% after the introduction of visual-only meat inspection, for a design prevalence of 0.01% (19 herds) of Australian breeding cattle herds and 0.5% of animals within infected herds. The level of confidence in Australia's freedom from bovine TB was >95% after the first year of the analysis and >99.5% from 2007 through to the end of the analysis period in 2015. Reducing the animal-level or herd-level design prevalence, or the estimated sensitivity of meat inspection, reduced system sensitivity but confidence of disease freedom remained high.

CONCLUSION
The results demonstrated a very high level of confidence that Australia's cattle herd is truly free from bovine TB. Meat inspection for granulomas in the head and thorax of slaughtered cattle underpins this result by providing surveillance data on an extremely large number of animals each year.


The work is aimed at developing a model of an information system for the analysis and monitoring of remote sensing data by the example of processing hyper- and multispectral satellite images, which are widely used to analyze the state of static and dynamic objects in the Arctic region of the Russian Federation. For automatic analysis and decryption of Arctic data in the development of the model, methods of high-performance computing, radiometric calibration, filtering and clustering of images, as well as intelligent data processing methods using deep learning convolutional neural networks were used. Object-oriented design and united modeling language notation were used to develop the model. A data-level model, a conceptual model of the structure of system modules, including a resource storage center, a resource and results management center, and a presentation-level interface have been developed. To develop a diagram of the use cases of the information system, the structure of actors, use cases and their interrelations were identified. The logical model of the information system was created based on a class diagram consisting of the Resource and Results Manager Center, Intellectual Information System, Functional Neural Modules packages. The practical significance of the study is due to the fact that the results obtained will allow the development of a prototype of an information system that can be used for effective monitoring of "useful data" of the Arctic region of the Russian Federation, as well as to automate the processes of analysis, updating, storage and processing of data from objects in various areas of the Arctic infrastructure.


PURPOSE
We have created a cloud-based machine learning system (CLOBNET) that is an open-source, lean infrastructure for electronic health record (EHR) data integration and is capable of extract, transform, and load (ETL) processing. CLOBNET enables comprehensive analysis and visualization of structured EHR data. We demonstrate the utility of CLOBNET by predicting primary therapy outcomes of patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) on the basis of EHR data.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
CLOBNET is built using open-source software to make data preprocessing, analysis, and model training user friendly. The source code of CLOBNET is available in GitHub. The HGSOC data set was based on a prospective cohort of 208 patients with HGSOC who were treated at Turku University Hospital, Finland, from 2009 to 2019 for whom comprehensive clinical and EHR data were available.

RESULTS
We trained machine learning (ML) models using clinical data, including a herein developed dissemination score that quantifies the disease burden at the time of diagnosis, to identify patients with progressive disease (PD) or a complete response (CR) on the basis of RECIST (version 1.1). The best performance was achieved with a logistic regression model, which resulted in an area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.86, with a specificity of 73% and a sensitivity of 89%, when it classified between patients who experienced PD and CR.

CONCLUSION
We have developed an open-source computational infrastructure, CLOBNET, that enables effective and rapid analysis of EHR and other clinical data. Our results demonstrate that CLOBNET allows predictions to be made on the basis of EHR data to address clinically relevant questions.


The Chinese government has made a national priority of developing a sustainable, resource- and energy-efficient society. Because the transportation sector is a major energy consumer with significant opportunities for efficiency improvements, it can play a critical role in achieving this national priority. Here, we summarize current energy consumption patterns and describe one study to improve our understanding of the interactions and dependencies among available resources. We analyzed petroleum, coal, and electricity-based energy consumption data in China's transportation sector from 1990 to 2004.


Loza draws on her extensive technology practice experience to spot some key intellectual property and other potential pitfalls for general business practitioners and for start-ups. Published in the Idaho State Bar journal, The Advocate.


Airsacculitis in turkey poults associated with a Mycoplasma other than M. gallisepticuzm was first described by Adler et al. (1). Later reports by Bigland (2) and Kumar et al. (4) indicated the high incidence of this condition in turkey flocks. Adler (1) designated his isolate the N strain, and Kleckner (3) later classified it as the H serotype. Yamamoto et al. (7) suggested the designation Mycoplasma meleagridis, which is used in this text. Adler et al. (1) reported that this Mycoplasma is egg-transmitted, and Yamamoto and Bigland (6) pointed to the possibility of venereal transmission. At the time this investigation was started, little information was available on possible routes of transmission of M. meleagridis, although Yamamoto et al. (8) recently gave a detailed study of egg and semen transmission of this infection. This study was designed to investigate the means of transmission of M. meleagridis, with special emphasis on semen and egg transmission. Some observations were made on an apparent route of transmission other than via semen and egg.


The multigrid V-cycle algorithm using the Richardson relaxation scheme as the smoother is studied in this paper. For second-order elliptic boundary value problems, the contraction number of the V-cycle algorithm is shown to improve uniformly with the increase of the number of smoothing steps, without assuming full elliptic regularity. As a consequence, the V-cycle convergence result of Braess and Hackbusch is generalized to problems without full elliptic regularity.


Laboratory-produced and -reared sub-adults of silver pomfret (zobaidy) Pampus argenteus affected by severe scuticociliatosis during April and May 2005 were investigated and the causative was a scuticociliate, presumptively identified as Uronema sp. The parasite was capable of producing highly necrotic skin lesions. Mortalities started with a rise in the seawater temperature from 20 to 21.5 degrees C, coinciding with an increase in the total bacterial load of the rearing tank water from 10(3) to 10(5) CFU ml(-1). The parasite was successfully cultured in vitro (85 passages), using 10% brain heart infusion broth inoculated simultaneously with an aquatic Vibrio sp. The parasite reached peak cell density (1.82 x 10(5) cells ml(-1)) on the third day of inoculation. The parasite cell count was found to be inversely related (r = -0.45) to the bacterial count in the incubation medium. The ciliate body dimensions measured, on average, 34.05 +/- 0.99 microm in length and 16.70 +/- 0.74 microm in width (n = 300). Silver staining revealed morphological characteristics of Uronema sp., including a truncated anterior end, a buccal apparatus, caudal cilium and 3 oral polykinetids, with the first one appearing as a single row. Average number of kineties was 12 +/- 3. There was an inverse relationship (R2 = 0.84) between the proteolytic activity and the number of in vitro passages of the scuticociliate. However, the parasite from a freshly infected fish (using inoculum from the tenth passage) showed higher proteolytic activity (31.2%) compared with that produced by the inoculum from in vitro cultures (9.75%). The ciliate also showed a distinct histophagous capability when tested in vitro using host muscle tissue.


LED bulbs change the lighting equation. The paper presents the LED light bulb that produce as much as incandescent bulbs for less than a fifth the electricity and heat, they last up to 20 years, and they fit in standard sockets, and discussed its advantage, economical analysis and benefits over the other light bulb. So even as you try to figure out which of your current fixtures might be suitable for LED bulbs, expect them to be far more commonly seen at new stores, restaurants, and offices.


ABSTRACT While research has provided a significant picture of the lived experiences of transgender and sex/gender diverse (TSGD) Australians, it remains incomplete because population samples rarely include TSGD people from Australia's Northern Territory. The Northern Territory is twice the size of France but is populated by only 210,000 people. The territory's environmental and demographic features make it very distinct from Australia's other six states and mainland territory. Most notably, it possesses a "frontier" mentality and is considered to be one of Australia's most homophobic states and territories. This paper publishes the results of an online survey conducted as part of an ongoing research project into the health needs of TSGD individuals, such as availability of medical and support services that specialize in, and are "friendly" to, TSGD people, especially in remote areas of the territory, colloquially referred to as out bush.


Todays computer interfaces are one-size-fits-all. Users with little programming experience have very limited opportunities to customize an interface to their task and work habits. Furthermore, the overhead induced by generic interfaces will be proportionately greater on small form-factor PDAs, embedded applications and wearable devices. Automatic personalization may greatly enhance user productivity, but it requires advances in customization (explicit, user-initiated change) and adaptation (interface-initiated change in response to routine user behavior). In order to improve customization, we must make it easier for users to direct these changes. In order to improve adaptation, we must better predict user behavior and navigate the inherent tension between the dynamism of automatic adaptation and the stability required in order for the user to predict the computers behavior and maintain control. This paper surveys a decade's work on customization and adaptation at the University of Washington, distilling the lessons we have learned.


Birth order has been valuable in revealing the role of environmental influences on the risk of developing certain diseases such as allergy and atopy. In addition, pregnancy has profound effects on the immune system such as short‐term effects that permit fetal survival as well as longer‐term effects that could influence late‐onset diseases. In order to better evaluate these influences, we studied the association of birth order and gravidity/parity as risk factors for systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma).


The optical line shape features of dye molecules are used for probing some low temperature properties of amorphous solids. The experimental technique is photochemical hole burning (PHB); the dye molecule is 1,4‐dihydroxyanthraquinone. The results obtained for ethanol glasses and boric acid glasses are as follows: The optical linewidth obeys a T2 law. It has two contributions: one reversible contribution due to fast dephasing processes, and one irreversible contribution due to ground state redistribution processes. The latter contribution will be interpreted in terms of the TLS model (two‐level system) which has been commonly used to describe the amorphous state. One main conclusion is that the energy asymmetry distribution of the TLS systems is rather narrow (several cm−1). A second conclusion follows from the absence of a sizeable isotope effect upon deuteration of the samples. We must assume that proton tunneling is not the main mechanism involved in the TLS dynamics.


-2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 2 4 6 8 10 12 Rain Impact Model V2.0 for Sea Surface Salinity: A Flag for Salinity Stratification Andrea Santos-Garcia1, Maria M. Jacob2, Linwood Jones1, and William Asher3 1 Central Florida Remote Sensing Lab., University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 2 Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, Argentina, 3Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA ABSTRACT This research addresses the effects of rainfall on Aquarius (AQ) and Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite sea surface salinity (SSS) retrievals using a macro-scale Rain Impact Model (RIM) that predicts transient SSS stratification based upon the rain accumulation and ocean surface wind speed over the previous 24 hours. The RIM V2.0 is an extension of V1.0, which only includes the rain accumulation effect but ignores the effect of wind speed on the vertical mixing. This new version introduces a term in the model that takes into account the effect of wind speed in the mechanical mixing, which translates into a dynamic vertical diffusivity. Thus, RIM can provide a valuable quality flag for the interpretation of AQ & SMOS SSS retrievals, and comparisons among 2-D rain patterns between SMOS, AQ and RIM will be presented as validation of the RIM performance. A common reference for satellite SSS measurements is the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM), but there is a significant mismatch between the remote sensing sampling depth of approximately 0.01 m and the typical range of 5-10 m of in situ instruments. Under normal ocean conditions the upper layer of the ocean is well mixed and there is approximately uniform salinity; therefore satellite SSS retrievals are good estimates of the bulk salinity. Conversely, under rainy conditions, there is a dilution of the near-surface salinity that mixes downward by diffusion and mechanical mixing of gravity waves/wind speed forcing. This transient salinity stratification, significantly modifies the salinity gradient in the upper 1-2 m of the ocean; and therefore invalidates the usual assumption of well-mixed salinity. Typically, these salinity stratifications dissipate in a few hours and the upper layer becomes well mixed at a slightly fresher salinity.


We present a speech synthesis architecture, IPOX, which allows the integration of various aspects of prosodic structure at different structural levels. This is achieved by using a hierarchical, metrical representation of the input string in analysis as well as phonetic interpretation. The output of the latter step consists of parameters for the Klatt synthesizer. The architecture is based primarily on YorkTalk (Coleman 1992, 1994; Local 1992), but differs in that it uses a rule compiler (Dirksen 1993), which allows a clean separation of linguistic statements and computational execution, as well as a more concise statement of various kinds of generalizations.


In many countries, goat (Aja) rearing is well organized and is an essential part of living in terms of contributing to the economic structure as well as nutrition. Goat milk (Aja Dugdha) is rich source of protein, vitamins, enzymes and mineral content and most of them are present in higher percentage than that of other commonly consumed milk. For instance, it contains 13% more calcium, 47% more vitamin A and 25% more vitamin B6 than cow's milk. It has better digestibility, alkalinity and buffer capacity than milk of other animals and also possesses numerous therapeutic properties viz. Anticancer, hepato-protective, cardio-protective and antihypertensive etc. Classical texts of Ayurveda also embrace its nutritive and therapeutic potential and indicated it in management of different diseases like Atisara (diarrhoea), Jwara (fever), Rajyakshma (tuberculosis), Kshaya, Shosha (atrophy/emaciation) etc. Methodology: Different scientific databases like Web of Science, Scopus etc. along with Ayurveda texts viz., Charak Samhita, Kashyap Samhita etc were searched in order to extract data pertaining to goat milk. Results: The present study revealed that in Ayurveda, goat milk has been indicated in the management of more than 20 disease conditions and conventional studies also reported more than 15 pharmacological properties of goat milk. Discussion & Conclusion: It has been found that the therapeutic and nutritive value of goat milk has been extensively studied in Ayurveda and conventional science as well. It's easy to digest and have a better composition of vitamins, fatty acids, protein and minerals than other available milks. Therefore, it can be a used a most appropriate alternative to human and cow milk but should with caution as it lacks sufficient quantity of iron, folate and vitamins C etc.


Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the fact that physicians and other health professionals are subjected to different states of emotional and physical fatigue associated with their work has been known (1). Recent studies have found a significant incidence of depression in this population compared to  others, but this reality has been insufficiently addressed by state agencies (2). In the context of a pandemic, a greater emotional impact on health workers is predictable due to the stress of this unprecedented situation. Once this thesis is verified, the need to address the underlying risks that health personnel have regarding the development of various mental health problems associated with anxiety, depression or suicide is raised by means of efficient preventive measures that stipulate protocols aimed at improving the work environment (2).


Mutations in the Leucine Reach Repeat Kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene are the most frequent cause of familial Parkinson's disease (PD). Previously, we have sequenced the coding region of the LRRK2 gene in 85 PD patients and showed the prevalence of G2019S-associated PD (G2019S-PD) among all cases of LRRK2-associated PD in Russia. Screening of the most frequent LRRK2 mutations (G2019S, R1441C, R1441G) in the extended sample of PD patients (100 familial cases, 14 relatives and 230 sporadic cases) revealed two novel families with G2019S-PD in the addition to LRRK2-associated PD cases identified earlier. In summary, the frequency of LRRK2-associated PD among familial PD cases was estimated as 8%. The G2019S mutation was the most frequent (7% - in familial and 0.5% - in sporadic PD). Comparative analyses of the age-at-onset and main neurological symptoms in 13 patients with LRRK2-associated PD (8 with G2019S, 2 - V1613A and 1 - R1441C) and 80 PD patients without mutations in the LRRK2 gene did not reveal any differences. However, the G2019S LRRK2 mutation carriers had the increased rate of drug induced side-effects in comparison with genetically undefined patients (OR=6.4, p<0.02). The data obtained could improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of LRRK2-associated PD and be useful in clinical practice during disease therapy.


MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective cohort study composed of chart review of all reduction mammaplasty performed at a single institution due to breast hypertrophy was considered. Patients not in working life were excluded. Demographic and comorbidity data were secondary predictor variables. Patients were divided into two groups on the basis of the sick leave duration: normal versus prolonged. Prolonged sick leave time was defined as times greater than the 75th percentile for the respective sample data. The primary outcome measure was the occurrence of prolonged sick leave. Secondary endpoints were specific wound healing complications and late complications.


Background Passive, case-based surveillance underestimates the true extent of active infections in the population due to undiagnosed and untested cases, the exclusion of probable cases diagnosed point-of-care rapid antigen tests, and the exclusive use of at-home rapid tests which are not reported as part of case-based surveillance. The extent in which COVID-19 surveillance may be underestimating the burden of infection is likely due to time-varying factors such as decreased test-seeking behaviors and increased access to and availability of at-home testing. Objective The objective of this study is to estimate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 based on different definitions of a case to ascertain the extent to which cases of SARS-CoV-2 may be underestimated by case-based surveillance. Methods A survey on COVID-19 exposure, infection, and testing was administered to calculate point prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among a diverse sample of cohort adults from February 8, 2022, to February 22, 2022. Three-point prevalence estimates were calculated among the cohort, as follows: (1) proportion positives based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and rapid antigen tests; (2) proportion positives based on testing exclusively with rapid at-home tests; and (3) proportion of probable undiagnosed cases. Test positivity and prevalence differences across booster status were also examined. Results Among a cohort of 4328, there were a total of 644 (14.9%) cases. The point prevalence estimate based on PCR or rapid antigen tests was 5.5% (95% CI 4.8%-6.2%), 3.7% (95% CI 3.1%-4.2%) based on at-home rapid tests, and 5.7% (95% CI 5.0%-6.4%) based on the case definition of a probable case. The total point prevalence across all definitions was 14.9% (95% CI 13.8%-16.0%). The percent positivity among PCR or rapid tests was 50.2%. No statistically significant differences were observed in prevalence between participants with a COVID-19 booster compared to fully vaccinated and nonboosted participants except among exclusive at-home rapid testers. Conclusions Our findings suggest a substantial number of cases were missed by case-based surveillance systems during the Omicron B.1.1.529 surge, when at-home testing was common. Point prevalence surveys may be a rapid tool to be used to understand SARS-CoV-2 prevalence and would be especially important during case surges to measure the scope and spread of active infections in the population.


This paper gives an overall introduction on big data and has tried to introduce Big Data in Tamil. It discusses the potential opportunities, benefits and likely challenges from a very Tamil and Tamil Nadu perspective. The paper has also made original contribution by proposing the 'big data's' terminology in Tamil. The paper further suggests a few areas to explore using big data Tamil on the lines of the Tamil Nadu Government 'vision 2023'. Whilst, big data has something to offer everyone, it is argued that Tamil language proficiency and favourable policy decision is key to the success of Big data in Tamil and more specifically in Tamil Nadu.


We present telescoping recursive representations for both continuous and discrete indexed noncausal Gauss-Markov random fields. Our recursions start at the boundary (a hypersurface in ) and telescope inwards. For example, for images, the telescoping representation reduce recursions from to , i.e., to recursions on a single dimension. Under appropriate conditions, the recursions for the random field are linear stochastic differential/difference equations driven by white noise, for which we derive recursive estimation algorithms, that extend standard algorithms, like the Kalman-Bucy filter and the Rauch-Tung-Striebel smoother, to noncausal Markov random fields.


In this article, we study the problem of distributed cooperative learning, where a group of agents seeks to agree on a set of hypotheses that best describes a sequence of private observations. In the scenario where the set of hypotheses is large, we propose a belief update rule where agents share compressed (either sparse or quantized) beliefs with an arbitrary positive compression rate. Our algorithm leverages a unified communication rule that enables agents to access wide-ranging compression operators as black-box modules. We prove the almost sure asymptotic convergence of beliefs on the set of optimal hypotheses. Additionally, we show a nonasymptotic, explicit, and linear concentration rate in probability of the beliefs on the optimal hypothesis set. We provide numerical experiments to illustrate the communication benefits of our method. The simulation results show that the number of transmitted bits can be reduced to 5%–10% of the noncompressed method in the studied scenarios.


ABSTRACT Hepatitis C virus (HCV) reinfections after successful treatment with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) pose a significant challenge to HCV elimination, especially among high-risk people living with HIV (PLWH). In this study, PLWH who had achieved HCV viral clearance with DAAs were included between January 2018 and June 2021. PLWH having acquired HCV infections after 2017 were classified as "recent-infection group," and those before 2017 as "remote-infection group," and the incidences of HCV reinfection were compared between two groups. Clinical and behavioural characteristics were evaluated to identify associated factors with HCV reinfection. A total of 284 PLWH were included: 179 in the recent-infection group and 105 in the remote-infection group. After a median follow-up of 2.32 years (interquartile range [IQR], 0.13–3.94), the overall incidence of HCV reinfection was 5.8 per 100 person-years of follow-up (PYFU). The incidence in the recent-infection group was significantly higher than that in the remote-infection group (9.8 vs. 0.4 per 100 PYFU, p < 0.001). The leading HCV genotypes before DAA treatment were genotypes 2 (31.0%), 1b (26.8%), and 6 (21.8%); however, genotype 6 (58.8%) became predominant upon reinfection. Younger age (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] per 1-year increase, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.90–0.99), condomless receptive anal sex (aOR, 14.5; 95% CI, 2.37–88.8), rimming (aOR, 3.87; 95% CI, 1.14–13.1), and recent syphilis (aOR, 2.73; 95% CI, 1.26–5.91) were linked to HCV reinfections. In conclusion, PLWH acquiring HCV after 2017 had a significantly higher risk for sexually-transmitted HCV reinfections. The predominance of HCV genotype 6 reinfections suggests possible on-going clustered HCV infections among at-risk PLWH.


As computer processors move forward quickly, their power management becomes more and more challenging. Nowadays, for the desktop and workstation applications, voltage regulator module (VRM) input voltage has moved to the 12 V output of the silver box. The state of the art 12 V VRM topology is buck. Because of the extreme duty-cycle, buck has a lot of limitations however. This paper presents a high efficiency, fast transient response topology for the 12 V VRM application-push-pull buck (PPB). The push-pull buck has significantly better performance over buck converter. A few integrated magnetics implementations are discussed and tested. Experimental results confirm the theoretical prediction.


Chain-of-thought prompting combined with pre-trained large language models has achieved encouraging results on complex reasoning tasks. In this paper, we propose a new decoding strategy, self-consistency, to replace the naive greedy decoding used in chain-of-thought prompting. It first samples a diverse set of reasoning paths instead of only taking the greedy one, and then selects the most consistent answer by marginalizing out the sampled reasoning paths. Self-consistency leverages the intuition that a complex reasoning problem typically admits multiple different ways of thinking leading to its unique correct answer. Our extensive empirical evaluation shows that self-consistency boosts the performance of chain-of-thought prompting with a striking margin on a range of popular arithmetic and commonsense reasoning benchmarks, including GSM8K (+17.9%), SVAMP (+11.0%), AQuA (+12.2%), StrategyQA (+6.4%) and ARC-challenge (+3.9%).


Closer to Heaven: The Typology of the Cemetery Tower by Amanda McRae Slaughter Within the past few decades the unsustainability of mainstream cemeteries has been variously addressed. The cemetery high-rise offers one of the most dramatic models for correcting widespread problems of land use, high burial costs, and issues of isolation from the city. The "cemetery tower" takes advantage of the existing high-rise for a new purpose but the twelve extant buildings have not recognized the potential of the cemetery program to alter and liberate the conventional high-rise typology. My project demonstrates how the high-rise can be reimagined when it houses a cemetery. Correcting what Rem Koolhaus dubbed the "lobotomy" of the modern high-rise in which the sub-divided interior diverges from the iconic exterior, my design induces a salutary effect by marrying the design of the exterior and interior.


This paper addresses an area coverage problem by deploying a network of autonomous mobile sensors. The region to be covered is a bounded and connected two-dimensional region. A decentralized control law is proposed for driving them into a sensor lattice that provides a complete coverage of the region. In particular, this sensor lattice is in the so-called triangular lattice pattern and this coverage pattern is optimal in terms of minimum number of sensors required for the complete coverage of the region. The algorithm is developed based on some simple consensus algorithms. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, a numerical simulation has been implemented.


Culture is an important variable that influences people's behavior. Culture involves several elements, such as language, myth, ritual, custom, artifact, law, and values. However, values are known as the most important elements in describing culture. In 2011, a survey was conducted in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, and Surabaya with 2,000 respondents to identify current Indonesian values. The results showed that Indonesian values could be operationalized with 35 items and seven dimensions of mutual assistance: democracy, religion, harmony, hospitality, religious fanaticism, and individualism. On the other hand, the extensive number of Indonesian values items (i.e., 35 items) may have several practical problems, such as longer questionnaires and sample requirements. Therefore, a short-form scale of Indonesian values is needed to enhance the understanding of Indonesian culture through its values. This research aimed to provide a short-form instrument for understanding Indonesian values. Specifically, this research explores psychometric assessments, including the dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the original and short-form scales of Indonesian values. In 2013, a survey with more than 1,000 questionnaires was distributed in Jakarta, Tangerang, Bandung, Semarang, and Surabaya. This research produced a short-form scale of Indonesian values that involves 13 items and the three dimensions of religion, democracy, and harmony. This paper provides an analysis of the data, a discussion of the findings, research limitations, and directions for future research. Keywords: culture , Indonesian values scale, psychometric assessment , short form, survey


SYNOPSIS The psychiatric status of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (N = 34) and muscle disease (N = 24) attending a general medical clinic was studied. Among fatigue patients 14 (41·2%) were cases and a further 9 (26·5%) were subcases of psychiatric disorder as defined by CATEGO. A variety of diagnoses was found. Significantly fewer of the muscle patients had a psychiatric disorder with 3 (12·5%) being cases and 1 (4%) a subcase. The relative risk of psychiatric disorder in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome compared to patients with muscle disease was 3·3:1.


Ordering by thermal fluctuations is studied for the classical XY antiferromagnet on a checkerboard lattice in zero and finite magnetic fields by means of analytical and Monte Carlo methods. The model exhibits a variety of novel broken symmetries including states with nematic ordering in zero field and with triatic order parameter at high fields.


In the Internet, mobile code is ubiquitous and includes such examples as browser plug-ins, Java applets, and document macros. In this paper, we address an important vulnerability in mobile code security that exists in remote execution systems such as Condor, Globus, and SETI@Home. These systems schedule user jobs for execution on remote idle machines. However, they send most of their important system calls back to the local machine for execution. Hence, an evil process on the remote machine can manipulate a user's job to send destructive system calls back to the local machine. We have developed techniques to remotely detect such manipulation. Before the job is submitted for remote execution, we construct a model of the user's binary program using static analysis. This binary analysis is applicable to commodity remote execution systems and applications. During remote job execution, the model checks all system calls arriving at the local machine. Execution is only allowed to continue while the model remains valid. We begin with a finite-state machine model that accepts sequences of system calls and then build optimizations into the model to improve its precision and efficiency. We also propose two program transformations, renaming and null call insertion, that have a significant impact on the precision and efficiency. As a desirable side-effect, these techniques also obfuscate the program, thus making it harder for the adversary to reverse engineer the code. We have implemented a simulated remote execution environment to demonstrate how optimizations and transformations of the binary program increase the precision and efficiency. In our test programs, unoptimized models increase run-time by 0.5% or less. At moderate levels of optimization, run-time increases by less than 13% with precision gains reaching 74%.


The system of milk production in Ireland is dependent on the efficient utilisation of grazed grass. Therefore the use of grass cultivars with different heading dates may have a large effect on dairy cow performance. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of grass cultivars differing in heading date and grass ploidy on milk production and grass dry matter intake (GDMI) of spring calving dairy cows. The study took place over two years. Seventy-two spring calving dairy cows in Year 1 and 80 in Year 2 were blocked into groups of four and were assigned randomly to one of four grass cultivar treatments. The grass cultivars differed in heading date (intermediate or late) and grass ploidy (diploid or tetraploid). The grazing season began in April 12 (Year 1) and April 25 (Year 2) and lasted until the end of September in both years. A total concentrate DM input of 248 kg and 45 kg·cow -1 was offered to the herds in Year 1 and in Year 2, respectively. All concentrate was of- fered during the first 3 grazing rotations. Rotation had a significant effect (P < 0.001) on all milk pro- duction parameters in both years. In Year 1, late heading cultivars significantly (P < 0.05) increased milk yield, solids corrected milk yield (SCM), fat, protein and lactose yield. There was a significant interaction (P < 0.05) between heading date and grass ploidy for lactose yield and fat concentration. In Year 2, late heading cultivars had also increased milk yield (P < 0.01), lactose yield (P < 0.05), SCM (P < 0.05), protein yield (P < 0.001) and protein concentration (P < 0.05). In Year 1, the GDMI was higher (P < 0.001) for cows grazing the late heading cultivars. It is concluded that later heading grass cultivars have a beneficial effect on the milk production performance of spring calving dairy cows.


Community detection is an important methodology for understanding the intrinsic structure and function of a real-world network. In this paper, we propose an effective and efficient algorithm, called Dominant Label Propagation Algorithm (Abbreviated as DLPA), to detect communities in complex networks. The algorithm simulates a special voting process to detect overlapping and non-overlapping community structure in complex networks simultaneously. Our algorithm is very efficient, since its computational complexity is almost linear to the number of edges in the network. Experimental results on both real-world and synthetic networks show that our algorithm also possesses high accuracies on detecting community structure in networks.


The chief outstanding problem in the theory of linear associative algebras over an infinite field F is the determination of all division algebras. This problem is equivalent to that of the determination of all normal division algebras, or algebras A in which the only elements of A commutative with every element of A are the quantities of its reference field F. The order of a normal division algebra is the square of an integer. All normal division algebras in l2t, 22%, and 32§ units have been determined. In this paper all normal division algebras in 42 units, the next case, are determined and shown to be the algebras of Cecioni.||


Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) plays an important role in the progression of several malignancies including breast cancer. However, its role in breast cancer metastasis is still ambiguous. In this study, we observed the effect of HO-1 on mouse mammary carcinoma metastasis using the in vivo tumor metastasis model. Our results revealed that overexpression of HO-1 strongly inhibits the lung metastasis of 4T1 cells. In in vitro analysis, associated indices for epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), migration, and proliferation of 4T1 cells were evaluated. The results show that HO-1 inhibits EMT, migration, and proliferation of 4T1 cells. In addition, the Notch1/Slug pathway is found to mediate an antimetastasis role of HO-1 in mouse mammary carcinoma. In conclusion, since HO-1/Notch1/Slug axis plays an important role in breast cancer metastasis, induction of HO-1 could be used as a potential therapeutic strategy for breast cancer treatment.


The price of commercial DNA extraction methods makes the routine use of polymerase chain reaction amplification (PCR) based methods rather costly for scientists in developing countries. A guanidium thiocayante-based DNA extraction method was investigated in this study for the isolation of Escherichia coli (E. coli ) DNA from goat, chicken, pig, cow and human stool samples. Two versions of the lysis buffer, with and without α-casein, were tested to alleviate PCR inhibition associated with DNA isolated from stool samples. Results obtained show that, this method using the lysis buffer containing α-casein, produces PCR ready DNA at a fraction of the cost of commercial DNA extraction kits. Key words: DNA extraction, Escherichia coli, polymerase chain reaction amplification (PCR), stool samples.


Optical chemical sensors are widely applied in many fields of modern analytical practice, due to their simplicity in preparation and signal acquisition, low costs, and fast response time. Moreover, the construction of most modern optical sensors requires neither wire connections with the detector nor sophisticated and energy-consuming hardware, enabling wireless sensor development for a fast, in-field and online analysis. In this review, the last five years of progress (from 2017 to 2021) in the field of optical chemical sensors development for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) is provided. The operating mechanisms, the transduction principles and the types of sensing materials employed in single selective optical sensors and in multisensory systems are reviewed. The selected examples of optical sensors applications are reported to demonstrate the benefits and drawbacks of optical chemical sensor use for POPs assessment.


126 patients recovered after critical conditions and resuscitation have been examined. Activation of lipid peroxidation and an increase in biogenic amine level, leading to marked hyperenzymemia, have been established. The activity of blood enzyme markers reflecting the severity of brain damage has been studied. It has been established that the more severe encephalopathy, the higher the activity of blood creatine phosphokinase. 2,3-cyclonucleotide-3-phosphohydrolase (CNPH), reflecting the damage of myelin membrane of nervous fibers, has been studied. The appearance of myelin-CNPH marker in the blood confirms demyelinization of the central nervous system (CNS). The more severe encephalopathy, the more marked the process of CNS demyelinization, the higher the activity of CNPH in the blood serum. The highest CNPH activity is observed in patients with eclampsia and in dead patients with postsystolic syndrome.


Heating systems and methods for inductive heating or a combination of resistive and inductive heating. A heater coil is inductively coupled to an article and a current signal is supplied to the heater coil. The heater coil generates a magnetic flux, based on the applied current signal, for inductively heating the article. Current pulses of a certain profile are used to enhance the rate, intensityand/or power of inductive heating delivered by the heating element or coil and/or to enhance the lifetime or reduce the cost of the inductive heating system.


We study possible exotic JPC =0+− states using tetraquark interpolating currents with the QCD sum rule approach. The extracted masses are around 4.85 GeV for the charmonium-like states and 11.25 GeV for the bottomonium-like states. There is no working region for the light tetraquark currents, which implies that the light 0+− state may not exist below 2 GeV.


. As for the decommissioned uranium deposits of acid in-situ leaching, both of the concentrations of U(VI) and Fe(II) are relatively high in groundwater. In the presence of O 2 , the oxidation of Fe(II) into Fe(III) that forms Fe-hydroxides could effectively remove U(VI) in the forms of sorption or co-precipitation. In this process, pH condition and Fe content will have a significant effect on the U(VI) removal rate by the synergistic effect of Fe(II) and O 2 . In the present work, a series of batch experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of pH values and Fe/U mass ratio on the U(VI) removal rate by the synergistic effect of Fe(II) and O 2 . Experiment results show that the removal rate of U(VI) is mainly controlled by pH and secondly by Fe/U mass ratio. In the neutral conditions with pH at 7 and 8, the removal rate of U(VI) reaches up to 90% for all solutions with different initial Fe(II) concentrations. The optimal pH for the removal rate of U(VI) is above 7. In the acidic conditions with pH below 6, the effect of Fe/U mass ratio on the removal rate of U(VI) becomes more obvious and the optimal Fe/U mass ratio for U(VI) removal is 1:2.


We previously reported the results of 29 relapsed and 31 non-relapsed cases of node-negative breast cancer studied for HER-2/neu oncogene amplification using FISH and the Vysis HER-2/neu and chromosome 17 control probes (Vysis, Downers Grove, IL). Previous research performed in this laboratory on HER-2/neu amplification in stages I to IV breast cancer indicated that the most aggressive disease stages were associated with the higher frequency of oncogene amplification and the highest level of amplification. These data support the hypothesis that HER-2/neu is a prognostic marker of poor outcome. Thus, a retrospective study of HER-2/neu amplification in relapsed and non-relapsed node-negative breast cancer was initiated to explore further the above question. Out of a total of 46 relapsed cases studied, 13 (28.3%) were found to be amplified. The corresponding frequency of amplification for the controls was 4 (8.7%) of 46 non-relapsed cases. The difference was statistically significant with a p value of <0.05. Although these results still need to be confirmed and extended in other centers, they are quite remarkable and suggest an association between HER-2/neu amplification and disease relapse in patients with node-negative breast cancer. Our results also demonstrate that FISH is a sensitive technique for studying oncogene amplification in archival pathological specimens. (This study was partially funded by Vysis, Inc., Downers Grove, IL).


Highly saturated fat and cholesterol intakes elevate serum cholesterol levels, which is a risk factor for suffering from cardiovascular disease, one of the most important death causes in developed countries. Milk and dairy products, because of their high saturated fat and cholesterol levels, are often included among the forbidden foodstuffs for people with high serum cholesterol levels. But our studies demonstrate that dairy products, including the whole cream ones, don't increase total cholesterol but increase HDL-cholesterol levels. The intake of skimmed dairy products seem to have a preventive effect on the developing of atherosclerosis, because they condition decreases in serum cholesterol levels, specially in people with hyperlipemia. Dairy products are also effective for the control of triglyceridemia, hypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors. When the dietitian introduces nutritional measurements to prevent or stop cardiovascular disease, it is important to know the nutritional status of the person, in order that the fight against cardiovascular disease does not lead to nutritional deficiencies with similar or worse sanitary repercussions than cardiovascular disease itself. Dairy products are excellent sources of proteins, vitamins and minerals. Their regular intake can prevent, whereas their restriction can lead to nutritional deficit and pathologies. The results of our study show that it is not advisable to limit the intake of dairy products, not even whole cream ones. Only if there is a pathology, as hypercholesterolemia, it can be beneficial to consume skimmed and semi-skimmed dairy products.


Various methods of venom extraction including application of manual pressure to the glands, electric stimulation, and vacuum method were used for the extraction of venom from snakes maintained in captivity and in an open farm. The venom was collected from cobra (Naja naja), Russell's viper (Vipera russelli) and common krait (Bungarus caeruleus) snakes. The yield of venom with different methods was compared. It was observed that snakes maintained in open farm yield more venom in comparison to those maintained in captivity. Extraction of venom by application of hand pressure to the venom glands and the use of vacuum method produced highest venom yield.


Next generation networks no doubt will include various types of multimedia data, ranging from real-time news updates to audiovisual multicast events. Multimedia terminals play an integral role in the overall information access fabric. While traditional desktop and settop terminals most likely will continue with the existing technology, portable and wireless multimedia terminals have lots of research and development issues to be solved. This paper starts with reviewing current technology through some existing consumer-grade portable multimedia devices and then investigates various research topics of next generation portable and wireless multimedia access.


In this paper, a new Buck soft-switching topology is proposed to overcome the shortcomings such as large switching losses and strong noise in traditional Buck circuits. The new Buck soft-switching circuit adds auxiliary switches and series resonant circuits. The auxiliary switch is used to control the working state of the series resonant circuit, and then the resonant current generated by the resonant circuit to promote the main switch of the parallel capacitor discharge, the main switch zero voltage conduction and shutdown. Soft-switching technology is a good solution to the traditional Buck circuit defects, improve the efficiency of the circuit. In this paper, the working principle of the new Buck soft-switching circuit is analyzed in detail, and simulation is carried out to ensure the circuit's accuracy.


In a tourism context, the image potential customers have of a destination is a very important issue. Images play an essential role in destination choice matters and in this regard, as tourism services are intangible, images are said to become even more important than reality. The concepts of destination image and destination marketing and branding are closely interrelated. The ultimate goal of any destination is to influence possible tourists' travel-related decision making and choice through marketing activities. Although it is not possible to influence all aspects of image formation, tourism marketers try to strategically establish, reinforce and, if necessary, change the image of their destination by communicating a strong destination brand. The purpose of this work is primarily to give an overview of destination image theory and its interrelationships to destination marketing and branding. In this respect, the work aims at finding out in how far a DMO can achieve to develop a marketing strategy that is consistent and somewhat standardised, and yet adapted to the individual market and culture in which it is operated.


Capitalizing on advances in CMOS and MEMS technologies, microrobots have the potential to dramatically change many aspects of medicine by navigating bodily fluids to perform targeted diagnosis and therapy. Onboard energy storage and actuation is very difficult at the microscale, but externally applied magnetic fields provide an unparalleled means of wireless power and control. Recent results have provided a model for accurate real-time control of soft-magnetic bodies with axially symmetric geometries. In this paper, we extend the model to consider the real-time control of assembled-MEMS devices that may have significantly more complex geometries. We validate the model through FEM and experiments. The model captures the characteristics of complex 3-D structures and allows us, for the first time, to consider full 6-DOF control of untethered devices, which can act as in vivo microrobots or as end-effectors of micromanipulation systems.


Abstract Advanced remote sensing technologies has recently become an effective tool for monitoring of forest ecosystems. However, there is a growing need for online dissemination of geospatial data from these activities. We developed and assessed a framework which integrates (1) an algorithm for estimation of forest stand variables based on remote sensing data and (2) a web-map application for 2D and 3D visualisation of geospatial data. The performance of proposed framework was assessed in a Forest Management Unit Vígľaš (Slovakia, Central Europe) covering a total area of 12,472 ha. The mean error of remote sensing-based estimations of forest resources reached values of 16.4%, 12.1%, –26.8%, and –35.4% for the mean height, mean diameter, volume per hectare, and trees per hectare, respectively. The web-map application is stable and allows real-time visualization of digital terrain model, aerial imagery, thematic maps used in forestry or geology, and 968,217 single trees at forest management unit level.


A radio "colour-colour" diagram is defined in order to determine the evolutionary state of synchrotron-emitting plasma bubbles that are ejected during outbursts in microquasars. We establish the colour-colour diagram for the plasmons of SS433 observed on 18 April 1998 using VLBI observations. We show that the radio plasmons are not consistent with a simple expanding sphere of plasmon. This may indicate that in-situ particle acceleration is taking place away from the central engine.


A fractional diffusion-wave equation is derived in the continuum limit of the lattice dynamical equations of motion of a chain of coupled fractional oscillators obtained from the integral equations of motion of a linear chain of simple harmonic oscillators by generalization of the ordinary integrals into ones involving fractional integrals. The set of integral equations of motion pertaining to the chain of coupled fractional oscillators in the continuum limit is solved by using Laplace transforms. The response of the system to impulse and sinusoidal forcing is studied. Numerical applications are discussed with particular reference to energy flow and dissipation.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


A progredient course of cerebral circulatory disorders in grave-condition somatic patients may present a clinical picture of toxic dyscirculatory encephalopathy with brain symptoms of mass lesions. Pseudotumorous run of a chronic vascular process requires a sound clinical analysis and adjuvant methods of examination to rule out primary tumor or brain metastases.


Abstract After almost two decades in power, R. T. Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) have established authoritarian and Islamist governance in Turkey, which has adversely affected gender equality and women's rights. So much so, that in 2009 the European Court of Human Rights acknowledged that there is a climate conducive to domestic violence in Turkey (Opuz v. Turkey). Despite Erdoğan withdrawing Turkey unconstitutionally from the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), the government cannot withdraw from the state's duty to protect its citizens from the criminal acts of private individuals. By using international and regional organisations' approaches to positive obligations and due diligence as a measure, the article addresses whether Turkey is fulfilling its duty of protecting women from the violent conduct of others. It is concluded that the government is failing in its positive obligations and instead, is reinforcing the climate through its discourse and practices that strengthen a national tolerance of violence against women and the national authorities' reluctance to address it, thus allowing for impunity of its perpetrators.


OBJECTIVE
The current study sought to investigate the prevalence and correlates of survival sex among a diverse sample of women residing in a domestic violence (DV) shelter.

METHOD
Two hundred seven women (44% Black, 37.7% White, 10.6% Multiracial, 4.3% Latina, 1% Arab, 1% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 1.4% Indigenous or Aboriginal) residing in a Summit County, Ohio, DV shelter completed a survey assessing their involvement in survival sex, the associated contextual factors (e.g., age at first incidence of survival sex, the reason for engaging in survival sex), and self-report measures assessing substance use, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and empowerment.

RESULTS
More than two-thirds of participants reported engaging in survival sex, and participants who did were more likely to have elevated rates of substance use, PTSD symptoms, ACEs, and IPV victimization, along with lower empowerment. Most commonly, women reported engaging in survival sex for fear that the other person would take away valuable support or things they needed. Participants also reported engaging in survival sex for securing shelter, for money, for food, and to obtain drugs or alcohol. Notably, a sizable minority of women first engaged in survival sex as minors, suggesting overlap with the phenomenon of domestic minor sex trafficking.

CONCLUSIONS
Engaging in survival sex may be commonly experienced by women residing in DV shelters and is associated with trauma history and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Despite the small, non-representative sample, results indicate education for providers is necessary to interact effectively with this population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).


Acute renal faDure with amphotericin B in lipid emulsion TO THE EDITOR: Data from recent case reports l •3 and small clinical trials4-' suggest that administering amphotericin B in lipid emulsion instead of dextrose dramatically reduces the incidence and severity of adverse reactions. We describe a patient with acute renal failure associated with the administration of amphotericin B in lipid emulsion 20%. Case Report. A 63-year-old white woman who was hospitalized for liver transplantation evaluation developed a Torulopsis glabrata urinary tract infection while receiving fluconazole 100 mg/d po. The patient's past medical history was significant for alphal-antitrypsin deficiency, endstage liver disease, and an episode of acute renal insufficiency 5 weeks earlier. Bao;eline findings included blood urea nitrogen (BUN) 19.6 mg/dL, serum creatinine (SCr) 0.9 mg/dL, white blood cell count 5.7 X loJ/mm3, and normal vital signs. On day I the patient received amphotericin B 105 mg (1.25 mglkg) in 250 mL of lipid emulsion 20% infused over 6 hours without premedication. The patient experienced no complications during the initial infusion of amphotericin B in lipid emulsion. Day 2 laboratory findings included BUN 28 mg/dL and SCr 1.4 mg/dL. On day 2 the patient received a second 105-mg dose of amphotericin B in lipid emulsion without experiencing infusionrelated reactions. Day 3 laboratory findings were BUN 42 mgldL and SCr 1.8 mg/dL. leading to discontinuation of therapy with amphotericin B in lipid emulsion. The patient wa, transferred to an intensive care unit for management of acute renal insufficiency on day 4. During the next week the patient's BUN and SCr continued to increase. from 62 to 92 mg/dL and 2 to 2.3 mg/dL, respectively. Hemodialysis wa' performed on days 5 and 6 after therapy with amphotericin B in lipid emulsion for azotemia. The patient received a liver transplant 6 weeks following therapy with amphotericin B in lipid emulsion and was discharged I month later with a BUN of 42 mg/dL and SCr of 1.6 mg/dL. Discussion. Previous clinical trials of amphotericin B in lipid emulsion used amphotericin B dosages of 0.7-1.55 mg/kg/d, infusion times of 1-8 hours, and a duration of therapy of 2-62 days.4-· The incidence of renal toxicity was reduced significantly (p < 0.05) in all but one of these trials.s Similarly, the incidence of infusion-related reactions was also significantly reduced in all but one of these trials.' Our patient experienced no infusion-related reactions during either infusion, but her SCr doubled within 2 days of initiating therapy with amphotericin B in lipid emulsion. Hemodialysis was initiated early in the treatment of this patient in an attempt to reduce complications at the time of transplantation. To our knowledge, no previously published reports have described such a dramatic decline in renal function or subsequent need for hemodialysis during therapy with amphotericin B in lipid emulsion. I .'


This thesis addresses our shared patterns of behaviors, interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding by exploring how we perceive, interpret, orient ourselves and navigate the world. What is regarded as mainstream culture is investigated and questioned by bringing together western and indigenous knowledge in order to examine the way we interpret the world and beyond. Through in-depth analyses of the controversial Samuel de Champlain monument located at Nepean Point in Ottawa, Ontario, this research and proposed projects cultivate a direction towards (re)conciliation not only for the monument of Champlain and its Anishinaabe scout, but for indigenous and mainstream societies collectively. By employing a holistic approach that recognizes the strengths of mainstream empirically based scientific knowledge and indigenous cosmological worldviews, architectural interventions, at both the personal and communal level, provide both a tool and platform for storytelling while engaging and experiencing celestial phenomena in the pursuit of cultural resonance and (re)conciliation.


mtDNA has been widely used as a molecular marker to investigate the phylogenesis of many species. D-Loop has important value for investigating intraspecific genetic differentiation because of its high mutation accumulation. Fish is the most primitive vertebrate, but by far is the most dominant in number. The distribution of fish is broad and its origin is very complicated, has always been a very interesting subject for investigation. D-Loop has many important implications for investigating the intraspecific genetic differentiation of fish. Recently, much insight has been gained by the increasing use of D-Loop as a molecular marker for investigating the intraspecific genetic differentiation of fish. Lake Qinghai is the biggest inland saline lake in China. The main fish in the lake is scaleless carp (Gymnocypris przewalskii). Initial analysis of its D-Loop showed no intraspecific genetic differentiation among the populations in the lake and the rivers around.


SYDNOR, T. DAVIS, 1987. Trees which have performed well in urban areas. Arbor Age 7(2): 12-16. Urban sites are abnormal for most all plants. No plants require concrete to survive, but some will tolerate the conditions better than others. Urban sites are characterized by compacted soils, high light, high temperatures, channelized winds, restricted root zones, drought stress and chemical contamination. The wonder is that some plants can tolerate such conditions and survive for 20 years or more. However, a look at the problems will enable the designer to make a more reasoned choice when selecting a plant for a specific location. The following plants include trees which have grown well in urban areas, based on Ohio's Shade Tree Evaluation Project and other professional experiences. The list is applicable in varying degrees to the rest of the country: red maple, river birch, hawthorns, green ash, sugar hackberry, ginkgo, skyline honeylocust, Kentucky coffeetree, American sugargum, and southern magnolia.


Background: This study examined the use of HIV postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) among sexually assaulted adolescent females. Methods: We analyzed data from the HIV PEP Project, an implementation and evaluation of a program of universal offering of PEP to sexual assault victims of all ages. Baseline and follow-up data were collected prospectively from consecutive clients seen at 18 hospital-based sexual assault treatment centers in Ontario, Canada from September 2003 to January 2005. Among 386 at-risk female adolescents, we examined the provision and uptake of and adherence to PEP, and factors related to antiretroviral acceptance and completion. Results: Most adolescents were single (94.5%), living with family (68.0%), and attending school (67.4%). Slightly over two-fifths (42.7%) accepted and one-third (33.6%) completed the 28-day course of PEP. Factors associated with PEP acceptance were health care provider encouragement, being a student, and being moderately-to-highly anxious. PEP completion was associated with being white and an assailant known less than 24 hours. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the importance of the health care provider's role in counseling sexually assaulted female adolescents about HIV PEP use. The results also suggest that at-risk adolescents not enrolled in school and those from culturally diverse backgrounds may require additional supports.


In the present study, mutL homolog 1 (MLH1) small interfering (si)RNA, KU‑55933, an ataxia‑telangiectasia mutated (ATM) inhibitor, and compound C, an adenosine monophosphate‑activated protein kinase (AMPK) inhibitor, were used to investigate the mechanisms underlying temozolomide (TMZ)‑induced autophagy and to determine the role of MLH1 and ATM in autophagy. MLH1 siRNA and KU‑55933 inhibited the phosphorylation of AMPK and ULK1 and reduced the levels of autophagy. MLH1 siRNA inhibited the phosphorylation of ATM and attenuated TMZ cytotoxicity, whereas the inhibition of ATM‑AMPK augmented TMZ cytotoxicity in inherently TMZ‑sensitive glioma cells. Therefore, TMZ induced autophagy via the ATM‑AMPK pathways and the activation of ATM‑AMPK was MLH1‑dependent. The inhibition of ATM‑AMPK enhanced TMZ cytotoxicity in inherently TMZ‑sensitive glioma cells.


Men are from Mars and women are from Venus - or so the genre of relationship literature would have us believe. But there is some truth in this idea, and researchers in fields as diverse as psychology, sociology, and linguistics have explored ways to better understand the differences between genders. In this paper, we take another look at the problem of gender discrimination and attempt to move beyond the typical surface-level text classification approach, by (1) identifying semantic and psycholinguistic word classes that reflect systematic differences between men and women and (2) finding differences between genders in the ways they use the same words. We describe several experiments and report results on a large collection of blogs authored by men and women.


Soil degradation by deforestation and introduction of exotic grasses is a grave consequence of land‐use change in tropical regions during the last decades. Soil restoration following natural succession (i.e., passive restoration) is slow because of low tree establishment. Introduction of tree plantings by human intervention (i.e., active restoration) results in a promising strategy to accelerate forest succession and soil recovery in tropical region. The present research was carried out to explore the restoration of soil properties after cattle exclusion and of grazing combined with native tree planting introduction (legumes and nonlegumes) in a tropical pasture in Veracruz, southeast Mexico. Results indicate that land‐use changes decreased soil C and N pools in both litter and mineral soil. In addition, soil heterogeneity increased by land‐use changes at both temporal and spatial scales. In the short term, passive succession (i.e., cattle exclusion) favors the recovery of C and N content in labile soil pools, indicated by the increase in litter C and N masses as well as C and N concentrations in soil microbial biomass. Soils under active restoration showed trends to recover the N cycling, such as a greater accumulation of N in litter, in soil total N concentrations, soil microbial biomass N concentrations, rates of net N transformations, and extractable water and microbial biomass C:N ratios mainly under legumes species. Active restoration including legume introduction is a key factor for rapid recovery of soil fertility. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper deals with the robust tracking control problem for a class of partial information MIMO LTV systems, which is a common case in practical engineering. Since only a finite number of discrete characteristic time points during the whole operating region of the system could be measured, multi-linear model approximation approach is employed. Based on H∞ theory, a sufficient criteria is proposed to construct the global robust controller, which could guarantee the global stability of the multi-linear system. An important contribution of this method is that it provides a simple and feasible approach for the design of multi-linear systems which could easily guarantee both the global stability and robustness of the closed-loop systems. This method is applied to the design of a BTT (bank-to-turn) missile autopilot and the simulation results show the effectiveness of this method.


Pre‐term infants have one of the highest transfusion requirements within the hospital‐setting. The vast majority of blood transfusions performed in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) are for medically stable pre‐term infants with anaemia of prematurity, with the aim of improving oxygen delivery to the vital organs during the crucial phase of growth and development. However, despite the frequency of transfusion in this population, the potential benefits and harms of 'top up' transfusion are not fully understood, leading to practice variation between clinicians, institutions and countries. Significant advances have been made in the prevention of anaemia of prematurity, with recent emphasis on optimising infants' circulatory volume at birth via placental transfusion and preserving infants' own blood volume through innovative minimal sampling techniques. More research is urgently needed to establish optimal transfusion thresholds for these high‐risk pre‐term infants, for whom benefits as well as adverse outcomes may have consequences that extend for decades throughout the recipients' life‐course. In this review, we will discuss some of the consensus and controversies regarding optimal management of anaemia in pre‐term infants and highlight potential areas for future research.


A method for the development of a test plan for BIST based exhaustive testing of a circuit implemented with an in-system reconfigurable FPGA is presented. A test plan for application-dependent testing of an FPGA is based on the concept of a logic cone. Logic cones that satisfy single-generator compatibility requirement can be combinationally-exhaustively tested concurrently and are merged into a test block. The number of test blocks corresponds to the number of test sessions. For the presented algorithm of computing logic cones, a tool was developed. The presented experimental results are used to develop heuristic rules that control the logic cone merging process.


Peak performance is trainable through biofeedback, autogenic relaxation or quieting the mind, and visualization while in a theta brain wave state. How to achieve this integration of body, mind, and spirit is described in the following article. Research substantiates that mental practice in a receptive mind activates specific parts of the brain and ultimately enhances performance when the physical movements are acted out. Because most athletes are kinesthetic learners, their "visualizations" need to be complete experiences, encompassing sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and muscular sensations. This article presents techniques that clinicians can learn and pass on to athletes in their care.


This paper evokes the memory of the British naturalist and scientist, Charles Darwin on his 200th birthday. The best way to do so is to invite our readers to reflect on some ideas of three books of his: The origin of species (1859), Descent of man (1871) and The expression of emotions in man and animals (1872). After presenting the importance and appropriateness of Darwin in the contemporaneous debate, the text rapidly explores the historical precedents of the so called "theory of evolution" and the reactions to it. It then situates Darwin's works in its historical context and presents a brief history of these three books and an analysis of their main ideas. As a conclusion, it summarizes how Darwin's ideas question contemporary science and, more particularly, the reflection in the field of education.


Proper operation of antenna arrays requires continuously monitoring their performances. When a fault occurs in an antenna array, the radiation pattern changes and can significantly deviate from the desired design performance specifications. In this paper, the problem of fault detection in linear antenna arrays is addressed within a statistical framework. Specifically, a statistical fault detection method based on the generalized likelihood ratio (GLR) principle is utilized for detecting potential faults in linear antenna arrays. The proposed method relies on detecting deviations in the radiation pattern of the monitored array with respect to a reference (fault-free) one. To assess the abilities of the GLR based fault detection method, three case studies involving different types of faults have been performed. The simulation results clearly illustrate the effectiveness of the GLR-based fault detection method in monitoring the performance of linear antenna arrays.


Distributed optimization has attracted lots of attention in the operation of power systems in recent years, where a large area is decomposed into smaller control regions each solving a local optimization problem with periodic information exchange with neighboring regions. However, most distributed optimization methods are iterative and require synchronization of all regions at each iteration, which is hard to achieve without a centralized coordinator and might lead to under-utilization of computation resources due to the heterogeneity of the regions. To address such limitations of synchronous schemes, this paper investigates the applicability of asynchronous distributed optimization methods to power system optimization. Particularly, we focus on solving the AC Optimal Power Flow problem and propose an algorithmic framework based on the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) method that allows the regions to perform local updates with information received from a subset of but not all neighbors. Through experimental studies, we demonstrate that the convergence performance of the proposed asynchronous scheme is dependent on the communication delay of passing messages among the regions. Under mild communication delays, the proposed scheme can achieve comparable or even faster convergence compared with its synchronous counterpart, which can be used as a good alternative to centralized or synchronous distributed optimization approaches.


OBJECTIVE: Thermocautery device is commonly used in circumcisions implemented under local an anaesthesia for a quick and safe circumcision. One of the complications that might evolve after circumcision implemented with thermocautery is pathological phimosis. Treatment of this complication is generally surgical revision. There are very few studies in the literature about it's medical treatment. In this study, we aimed to search the efficiency of topical corticosteroid application in the the treatment of pathological phimosis evolving after circumcision implemented with thermocautery. MATERIAL and METHODS: Datas of 54 patients aged 1–9 who evolved pathological phimosis complication after circumcision in our hospital between 2011–2021 were examined retrospectively. Efficiency of topical corticosteroid application in the treatment of pathological phimosis evolving after circumcision implemented with thermocautery was evaluated. RESULTS: In 38 cases which grade 5 phimosis evolved after surgery there was no response to steroid treatment. In 6 of the 8 patients who evolved grade 4 phimosis there was no response to steroid treatment. Although there was partial response and regression to grade 3 in two patients, full recovery was not achieved and grade 4 phimosis reevolved in 2–3 weeks. 0.05% clobetasol propionate a highly strong steroid (Dermovate 0.05% 50 gr, Turkey) for 6–8 weeks morning and evening was implemented to all of the patients and circumcision revision was made in all 46 patients with no response. In 8 cases patient's relatives did not accept topical corticosteroid and circumcision revision was made. CONCLUSION: As a result, topical steroid is not found to be effective in the treatment of phimosis evolving after circumcision implemented with thermocautery.


This paper estimates a household model where both the production and consumption sides are observed. The household activities produce both marketable and nonmarketable products. Family members consume market goods, domestically produced goods and leisure. This household equilibrium model is described within a collective framework. The data are from a nation-wide sample of Italian farm-households. The estimation is implemented using a generalized Heckman estimator to account for corner solutions generated by the fact that not all households are engaged in all enterpreneurial activities and do not consume some of all goods and leisure. The identification of the sharing rule stems from the assignability of clothing consumption and leisure.


The clinical, histopathological, and electron microscopical characteristics of "transient acantholytic dermatosis" (Grover, 1971) are described. Clinically, there are papules with smooth or keratotic surfaces and sometimes papulovesicles. The lesions are mainly distributed on the trunk predominantly of male patients past the age of 40. The disease usually disappears within weeks, but rarely may be protracted. Histologically, focal changes with the epidermis of Dariertype, Hailey-Hailey-type, pemphigus (vulgaris or foliaceus)-type, or spongiotic-acantholytic type, often in combination, are found. This disease seems to be common. Its distinctiveness should be confirmed by further observations.


Electron resonance acceleration by an intense laser pulse in an inhomogeneous external magnetic field is investigated. The acceleration mechanism makes use of electron cyclotron resonance to increase the electron energy. By appropriately tailoring the radial gradient of the magnetic field, an electron in the rising front part of laser pulse will be attracted toward the cyclotron-resonance radius and be trapped there, so that it can gain much energy. It is shown that the electron net energy gain can be up to the GeV level.


: This work presents, for the first time, an in-depth investigation of the structure–property– fatigue relationships of an Al-Mg-Si alloy (AA6061) processed via additive friction stir-deposition (AFS-D). As industry focus continues to shift for more e ffi cient and lightweight structures, quantitative studies on the cyclic performance of additively manufactured materials are needed. In this study, the AFS-D processed AA6061-T6 was machined into specimens in two orthogonal orientations and subjected to monotonic and strain-controlled fatigue testing. The microstructural features of as-deposited AA6061 exhibited evidence of dynamic recrystallization and grain refinement. In addition, significant reduction in the intermetallic particles was observed after AFS-D processing. The fatigue results demonstrate that the as-deposited material, particularly the longitudinal direction, exhibited similar fatigue performance to wrought AA6061-T6 in both low-cycle and high-cycle fatigue regimes, which is a promising result for additively manufactured material in the as-deposited condition. By contrast, the as-deposited build direction orientation possessed slightly lower fatigue resistance than the wrought feedstock material. The AFS-D material was observed to exhibit di ff erent damage mechanisms from porosity-based damage mechanisms observed in fusion-based additively manufactured materials. Lastly, a microstructure-sensitive fatigue model was employed to capture the fatigue e ff ects of the AFS-D processing on the AA6061.


Background: Activated fibroblasts (myoFBs) play critical role in cardiac fibrosis, however, their origin in diseased heart remains uncertain. Recent studies suggest the contribution of bone marrow fibroblasts progenitor cells (BM-FPC) in pressure overload (PO)-induced cardiac fibrosis. Previously we have shown that interleukin-10 suppress PO-induced cardiac fibrosis, however, its role on inhibition of BM-FPC-mediated fibrosis is not known. Thus, we hypothesized that IL-10 inhibits PO-induced homing and transition of BM-FPC to myoFBs and therefore, attenuates cardiac fibrosis. Methods and Results: Cardiac fibrosis was induced in Wild-type (WT) and IL-10-knockout (KO) mice by transverse aortic constriction (TAC). TAC-induced left ventricular (LV) dysfunction and fibrosis were further exaggerated in KO mice. Systemic recombinant IL-10 administration markedly improved LV function and inhibited PO-induced cardiac fibrosis. PO-enhanced FPC (Prominin1 + cells) mobilization and homing in IL-10 KO mice compared to WT mice. Furthermore, bone marrow transplantation (BMT) experiment was performed wherein WT marrow from GFP mice was repopulated in IL-10 KO mice. FPC mobilization was significantly reduced in BMT-IL10 KO mice compared to IL-10 KO mice after TAC. Furthermore, immunofluorescence result in BMT mice showed that subsets of myoFBs are derived from BM after TAC. To identify the molecular mechanism, wild type BM-FPC were treated with TGFβ 2 with or without IL10. IL10 treatment significantly inhibits TGFβ 2 -induced FPC to myoFBs transition. As miRNAs are key players in cardiac fibrosis, next we performed fibrosis-associated miRNA profiling using miRNA array kit. TGFβ 2 -induced miR-208, 155, 21 and 145 expression was markedly inhibited by IL-10. Conclusion: Taken together, our findings suggest that both reduced homing to heart and transition of FPC to myofibroblasts mediate anti-fibrotic effect of IL10 during PO-induced heart failure. Ongoing investigations using molecular approaches will provide a better understanding on the mechanistic and therapeutic aspects of IL10 on PO-induced cardiac fibrosis and heart failure.


Osteopenia, a preclinical state of osteoporosis, restricts the application of adult orthodontic implant anchorage and tooth implantation. Strontium (Sr) is able to promote bone formation and inhibit bone absorption. The aim of the present study was to evaluate a new method for improving the success rate of dental implantation. In this study, an electrochemical deposition (ECD) method was used to prepare a Sr coating on a titanium implant. The coating composition was investigated by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, and the surface morphology of the coating was studied using scanning electron microscopy. A total of 24 Sprague-Dawley rats received bilateral ovariectomy (OVX) and an additional 12 rats underwent a sham surgery. All rats were then implanted in the bilateral tibiae with titanium mini-implants with or without a Sr coating. The results of histological examination and a fluorescence double labeling assay showed strong new bone formation with a wider zone between the double labels, a higher rate of bone mineralization and better osseointegration in the OVX rats that received Sr-coated implants compared with the OVX rats that received uncoated implants. The study indicates that Sr coatings are easily applied by an ECD method, and that Sr coatings have a promoting effect on implant osseointegration in animals with osteopenia.


Deep Gaussian processes provide a flexible approach to probabilistic modelling of data using either supervised or unsupervised learning. For tractable inference approximations to the marginal likelihood of the model must be made. The original approach to approximate inference in these models used variational compression to allow for approximate variational marginalization of the hidden variables leading to a lower bound on the marginal likelihood of the model [Damianou and Lawrence, 2013]. In this paper we extend this idea with a nested variational compression. The resulting lower bound on the likelihood can be easily parallelized or adapted for stochastic variational inference.