Exposure to high levels of many pesticides has both acute and long-term neurologic consequences, but little is known about the neurotoxicity of chronic exposure to moderate levels of pesticides. We analyzed cross-sectional data from 18,782 white male licensed private pesticide applicators enrolled in the Agricultural Health Study in 1993–1997. Applicators provided information on lifetime pesticide use and 23 neurologic symptoms typically associated with pesticide intoxication. An indicator of more symptoms (≥10 vs. < 10) during the year before enrollment was associated with cumulative lifetime days of insecticide use: odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 1.64 (1.36–1.97) for 1–50 days, 1.89 (1.58–2.25) for 51–500 days, and 2.50 (2.00–3.13) for > 500 days, compared with never users. A modest association for fumigants [> 50 days, 1.50 (1.24–1.81)] and weaker relationships for herbicides [> 500 days, 1.32 (0.99–1.75)] and fungicides [> 50 days, 1.23 (1.00–1.50)] were observed. Pesticide use within the year before enrollment was not associated with symptom count. Only associations with insecticides and fumigants persisted when all four pesticide groups were examined simultaneously. Among chemical classes of insecticides, associations were strongest for organophosphates and organochlorines. Associations with cumulative exposure persisted after excluding individuals who had a history of pesticide poisoning or had experienced an event involving high personal pesticide exposure. These results suggest that self-reported neurologic symptoms are associated with cumulative exposure to moderate levels of fumigants and organophosphate and organochlorine insecticides, regardless of recent exposure or history of poisoning.


Germinal activating mutations of FGFR3 are responsible for several forms of dwarfism due to the inhibitory effect of FGFR3 on bone growth. Surprisingly, identical somatic activating mutations have been found at the somatic level in tumours: at high frequency in benign epithelial tumours (seborrheic keratosis, urothelial papilloma) and in low-grade, low-stage urothelial carcinomas, and at a lower frequency in other types of urothelial carcinoma, in cervix carcinoma, and in haematological cancer, multiple myeloma. FGFR3 exists as two isoforms, FGFR3b and FGFR3c, differs in ligand specificity and tissue expression. FGFR3b is the main form in epithelial cells and derived tumours, whereas FGFR3c is the main form in mesenchyme-derived cells and multiple myeloma. Several lines of evidence suggest that mutated FGFR3c has transforming properties. Although mutated FGFR3b is mostly found in benign epithelial tumours or carcinomas of low malignant potential, we present evidence here that mutated FGFR3b is oncogenic. All bladder tumours presenting FGFR3 mutations expressed this receptor more strongly than normal urothelium or non-mutated tumours. NIH-3T3 cells transfected with a mutated form of FGFR3b--FGFR3b-S249C, the most common mutation in bladder tumours--presented a spindle-cell morphology, grew in soft agar and gave rise to tumours when xenografted into nude mice. We identified one line of 17 bladder cell lines tested (MGH-U3) that expressed a mutated form of FGFR3b, FGFR3b-Y375C. We showed using siRNA and SU5402, an FGFR inhibitor, that the tumour properties of MGH-U3 depended on mutated receptor activity. Thus, in two different models, mutated FGFR3b presents oncogenic properties.


Abstract Introduction Determination of sperm concentration and morphology in ejaculate is essential in evaluating fertility. Sperm shape and dimensions may depend on their concentration in ejaculate. The aim of the study was to evaluate the dependence of Hypor boar morphological and morphometric sperm characteristics on concentration in ejaculate. Material and Methods The study was conducted on 120 ejaculates from 12 Hypor boars. Depending on sperm concentration, they were put into three groups: low, medium, and high. Ejaculate sperm concentration was determined with the photometric method. Slides were prepared from semen samples which were evaluated for the morphology of spermatozoa. The preparations for morphological analyses were by the eosin-gentian staining method. Results As the sperm concentration in the ejaculate increased, the length, perimeter, and area of the sperm heads also did. In the ejaculates with higher sperm concentration the sperm heads were rounder. The ratios of head dimensions to tail length or total length were the highest in the sperm from ejaculates with the highest concentrations. The highest percentage of morphologically abnormal sperm was noted in ejaculates with low concentrations. Conclusion The dimensions and shape of sperm depend on the sperm concentration in the ejaculate. In ejaculates with the highest concentrations, the sperm have larger dimensions. Sperm concentration affects the frequency of morphological anomalies in the spermatozoa.


The Navy GAPFILLER satellite system, which consists of the UHF portion of the MARISAT satellite sys tem, represents the first instance of a military Service leasing a space communication capability. This approach involves a marked departure from the traditional acquisition approach employed for mili tary satellites. The Navy LEASAT leased communica tion satellite system, which will provide the follow-on to the DoD-owned FLTSATCOM satellite sys tem for a significant number of military useres of space communications, will be substantially more capable than the GAPFILLER system. The LEASAT program is briefly described. Key fea tures of the system, spacecraft, TT&C system and contract are presented. Some essential character istics of a military communication satellite system are identified and the constraints -on achieving them in leased systems of the future are discussed.


Micro reactors, i.e. chemical reactors with characteristic dimensions in the sub-millimeter range, hold great promise for novel chemical process routes (Lerou 1996, Wengeng 1996). Among their potential advantages for chemical processes are: the very small thermal inertia, allowing for a very direct control of temperature as a very critical reaction parameter; their inherent safety due to both the small reactant volume being present at any time in the reactor and the well controllable reactor and reaction conditions; and their small dimensions, making them easy to integrate into existing processes or to use them where space requirements are critical. Furthermore, for heterogeneously catalysed gas phase reactions, micro reactors offer the additional advantage of allowing for a very large surface to volume ratio. This should at least theoretically allow for an effective suppression of homogeneous gas phase reactions, since free surfaces typically are strong sinks for radical species which are required to keep the homogeneous reaction alive. Therefore, it should be possible to conduct a heterogeneously catalysed reaction involving a mixture of potentially flammable (if not explosive) gases in a micro reactor without any danger of open flames and explosion. This has the two-fold advantage, that not only the reaction becomes intrinsically safe, but it should also be possible to study heterogeneously catalysed high-temperature reactions without influences by parallel homogeneous reaction Pathways, making it a very valuable tool for research into this class of reactions.


In a wavefront correction process, both the mechanical effect and the irradiation of a high-power continuous-wave laser distort the deformable mirror (DM) surface, which inevitably speeds up the fatigue damage of the DM. By utilizing the stress analysis model for the fatigue damage of the DM, the fatigue damage effects are analyzed quantitatively on the consideration of thermal-mechanical coupling effects, and the fatigue life prediction model has further been proposed based on the S-N curve and Miner cumulative damage theory. On this basis, thermal-mechanical conditions have been analyzed, and the influence of laser parameters on the fatigue life of the DM has also been discussed in detail. The results indicate that the increasing of maximum temperature rise of the DM leads to the increasing of stress, and further brings about the decreasing of the fatigue life. Meanwhile, the position at the rear surface of the DM subjected to the maximum stress always presents the minimum fatigue life. Furthermore, the laser irradiation makes the DM more easily damaged when the DM is correcting a distorted wavefront, and the fatigue life decreases with the increasing of irradiation time and power density for a given peak and valley (PV) value of the corrected wavefront. Additionally, the fatigue life also decreases with the increasing of power density and the decreasing of spot radius for a certain total irradiation. On the other hand, for the given laser parameters, the influence of the mechanical effect on fatigue life is gradually apparent with increasing PV value of the corrected wavefront, and when the PV value is more than 2λ, the mechanical effect instead of the thermal effect becomes the key factor for fatigue damage of the DM.


Background and Objective: Epileptic children and adolescents have a greater risk for behavioral and psychological disorders. This study aimed to illustrate symptoms of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents with epilepsy, identify the quality of life among families of epileptic children, and assess the awareness and knowledge of caregivers about epilepsy. Methods: This is a hospital-based, cross-sectional study that included all children and adolescents (< 18 years of age) with confirmed epilepsy registered in a neurology clinic at governmental hospitals in Taif city, Saudi Arabia. Responses were collected from the caregivers after contacting them via phone numbers and getting consent. We used a Shortened Revised Child Anxiety and Depression scale -parent version and a validated short form 12 questionnaire for data collection. Results: The median total depression score was 20.0 (14.0-24.0), while the median total anxiety score was 10.0 (7.0-14.0). There was a significant positive moderate association between depression and anxiety scores. The median depression and anxiety scores were significantly higher in adolescents than in children ( p < 0.001). There was an impairment in all aspects of the quality of life of caregivers of epileptic children and adolescents to different degrees. Conclusions: Children and adolescents with epilepsy showed different grades of anxiety and depressive symptoms that were significantly more frequent among adolescents. The caregivers showed variable degrees of impaired quality of life.


ABSTRACT The proper function of artificial neural networks (ANNs) depends on several factors including the suitability of input variables and the amount of information they can add to the model in order to produce the required target output(s). Wavelet transforms and to lesser extent singular spectrum analysis (SSA) are well known and widely applied pre-processing methods to enhance ANN models. An important step in the SSA algorithm and wavelet transform method is choosing the window length (L) and determining the suitable number of decomposition stages, respectively. In most past research, these parameters have been used as granted. Moreover, a research to show the impact of using a combination of wavelet and SSA is absent. This study addresses an approach to optimize window length for SSA and number of decomposition stages for wavelet transform applied in a rainfall-runoff model. Moreover, a hybrid neural network is developed to take the advantage of wavelet and SSA-based ANN models. The results show a significant improvement in model outputs both for optimizing the decomposition parameters and for using the proposed hybrid model.


A 40-year-old woman presented with postoperative fever. Echocardiography revealed a large pedunculated cauliflower right atrial mass of heterogeneous echogenicity attached to the eustachian valve measuring about 2×3 cm. She underwent surgical excision, gross and microscopical examination were consistent with eustachian valve infective endocarditis.


A computational approach for creating realistically structured carbon nanotubes is presented to enable more accurate and impactful multi-scale modeling and simulation techniques for nanotube research. Much of the published literature to date involving computational modeling of carbon nanotubes simplifies their structure as being long and straight, and often existing as isolated individual nanotubes. However, imagery of nanotubes has shown over several decades that nanotubes agglomerate together and exhibit looping and curvature due both to inter- and intra-nanotube attraction. The research presented in this paper leverages multi-scale simulations consisting of a simple bead-spring model for initial nanotube relaxation followed by a differential geometry approach to create an atomic representation of carbon nanotubes, and then finalized with molecular dynamics simulations using the Tersoff potential model for carbon that allows dynamic bonding and cleavage. The result is atomically accurate representations of carbon nanotubes that exist as single nanotubes, or as clusters of multiple nanotubes. The presented approach is demonstrated using (5,5) single-walled carbon nanotubes. The synthesized nanotubes are shown to relax into the curving and looping structures observed in transmission or scanning electron microscopy, but also exhibit nano-scale defects due to buckling, crimping, and twisting that are resolved during the molecular dynamics simulations. These features locally compromise the desired strength characteristics of nanotubes and therefore the presented procedure will enable more accurate modeling and simulation of nanotubes in subsequent research by representing them less as the theoretically straight and independent entities, but as realistically imperfect.


To record weak light scattering spectra with a Fabry-Perot interferometer, long measuring times are often necessary. For long term stability of the parallel alignment of the mirrors, a microcomputer controlled interferometer system has been developed for both single and multipass operation. The three piezo stacks, which are responsible for the alignment of the mirrors, are supplied from three digital-to-analog converters controlled by a personal computer. The test and correction steps of the mirror alignment are performed around two independent axes perpendicular to each other. A special function generator provides a nonlinear scanning ramp for the piezostacks, thereby allowing a temporally linear scanning of the Fabry-Perot.


For determination of the maximum permissible concentrations of antibiotics it is necessary to develop some specific approaches conditioned by the peculiarities of the biological effect of antibiotics in addition to the use of the general principles of the hygienic rationing of the factors of the production environment. It is advised to determine the thresholds of the specific antibacterial and allergen effect of antibiotics in the acute experiment in addition to the threshold of the general toxic effect.


Current manufacturing methods limit the increase in both core count and the area for optical fiber bundles. Here a method for increasing the core count and hence the available image area of high density optical fiber bundles, through fusing multiple smaller sized sub-bundles is proposed and experimentally investigated. The key issue being investigated is whether it is possible to eliminate or reduce the dead-space between cylindrical sub-bundles, where no cores are present to spatially sample an image. Small sample lengths of fused optical fiber bundles are fabricated and characterized using an optical and scanning electron microscope to assess the reduction in dead-space and the optical losses near the interfaces. We demonstrate a 30% decrease in the dead-space area through fusing three equally sized sub-bundles in a triangular arrangement, while still retaining the light-guiding ability of more than 70% of the cores which transported into this region. We also assessed the optical losses for cores near the fused interfaces, at different wavelengths in the visible spectrum. A model of the propagation modes supported by the cores is explored which attributes these losses to the increasing eccentricity of cores near the fused interfaces.


Research is being conducted at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) to develop advanced aerodynamic devices to improve the performance, economics, stability, handling and safety of operation of Heavy Vehicles by using previously-developed and flight-tested pneumatic (blown) aircraft technology. Recent wind-tunnel investigations of a generic Heavy Vehicle model with blowing slots on both the leading and trailing edges of the trailer have been conducted under contract to the DOE Office of Heavy Vehicle Technologies. These experimental results show overall aerodynamic drag reductions on the Pneumatic Heavy Vehicle of 50% using only 1 psig blowing pressure in the plenums, and over 80% drag reductions if additional blowing air were available. Additionally, an increase in drag force for braking was confirmed by blowing different slots. Lift coefficient was increased for rolling resistance reduction by blowing only the top slot, while downforce was produced for traction increase by blowing only the bottom. Also, side force and yawing moment were generated on either side of the vehicle, and directional stability was restored by blowing the appropriate side slot. These experimental results and the predicted full-scale payoffs are presented in this paper, as is a discussion of additional applications to conventional commercial autos, buses, motor homes, and Sport Utility Vehicles.


The locking load of a conventional manhole depends on the weight of its cover. Locking-type manhole structures with a special locking mechanism were recently developed to prevent accidents such as stolen cover, away cover from a frame. The weight of the manhole structure can be reduced under structural safety because the locking force of a locking-type manhole is greater than the weight of the cover. A light-weight manhole cover is developed in this study by using a finite element stress analysis and the design of experiments. Static stress analysis and fracture experiments are also conducted to analyze the states of the initial product. The optimum light-weight manhole cover considering manufacturing molds is developed and tested. Consequently, the weight was found to reduce by 16%. In addition, the fracture load increased by 38%.


Foreign materials used in ocular surface surgery may lead to local complications such as discomfort, scarring, or infection. Plasma-derived products such as fibrin glue may produce possible hypersensitivity reactions whereas the risk of viral transmission remains. We describe a simple method of achieving conjunctival autograft adherence during pterygium surgery avoiding potential complications associated with the use of fibrin glue or sutures.  Pterygium excision with limbal conjunctival autografting without using glue or sutures was performed in all the patients followed by bandaging for 24 hours. The patients were followed up post operatively on 2nd day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 month and 6 months. They were examined for haemorrhage, wound gape, graft shrinkage, chemosis, graft dehiscence, recurrence or any other complications.  Total 100 cases were included in this case series. Patient age in ranged from 23 to 78 years (mean 50. 08 ± 12.76 years). Surgical Time was (in Minutes) from 20-28; mean & SD 23.76 ± 1.89. Total graft dehiscence occurred in 1 eye (1%), graft retraction in 12 eyes (12%) and recurrence was seen in 1 eye (1%). At 3 month postoperatively, the gain in uncorrected visual acuity ranged from 2-3 line in Snellen chart in 13 eyes. No other complication was noted.  This simple technique for pterygium surgery may prevent potential adverse reactions encountered with the use of foreign materials and in this case series provided safe and comparable results to current methods.
TAJ 2019; 32(2): 56-61


Osteoarthritis is a progressive degenerative disease process that affects a significant proportion of the canine population, impacting these animals' quality of life. Currently, there is no cure and treatment consists of managing the clinical signs of pain and reduced mobility. There are many treatments for canine osteoarthritis and in this review we discuss the evidence base behind non-pharmaceutical, non-surgical treatments of this disease. These treatments include weight management, nutraceuticals, acupuncture, physiotherapies such as therapeutic exercise, hydrotherapy as well as other therapeutic modalities including photobiomodulation therapy, electromagnetic field therapy and others.