The establishment of neural connectivity implicates tight regulation of the intracellular signaling pathways mediated by axon guidance molecules. The Rho family of small GTPases, in particular Rho, Rac, and Cdc42, are important regulators of the cytoskeleton in neuronal cells acting, downstream of most, if not all, guidance cue receptors. Furthermore, recent studies using in vivo knockout mouse models provide new evidence of the primary role played by Rho GTPase signaling during the development of the nervous system. Here, we review our recent understanding of Rho GTPase signaling in response to classical axon guidance cues in mammalian cells. We also describe how in vivo knockout mouse models have been useful to implicate Rho GTPase signaling during the formation of the nervous system. Finally, we present several lines of evidence showing the involvement of Rho GTPase signaling in the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases.


High rates of sexually transmitted infection and reinfection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) have recently been reported in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐infected men who have sex with men and reinfection has also been described in monoinfected injecting drug users. The diagnosis of reinfection has traditionally been based on direct Sanger sequencing of samples pre‐ and posttreatment, but not on more sensitive deep sequencing techniques. We studied viral quasispecies dynamics in patients who failed standard of care therapy in a high‐risk HIV‐infected cohort of patients with early HCV infection to determine whether treatment failure was associated with reinfection or recrudescence of preexisting infection. Paired sequences (pre‐ and posttreatment) were analyzed. The HCV E2 hypervariable region‐1 was amplified using nested reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) with indexed genotype‐specific primers and the same products were sequenced using both Sanger and 454 pyrosequencing approaches. Of 99 HIV‐infected patients with acute HCV treated with 24‐48 weeks of pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin, 15 failed to achieve a sustained virological response (six relapsed, six had a null response, and three had a partial response). Using direct sequencing, 10/15 patients (66%) had evidence of a previously undetected strain posttreatment; in many studies, this is interpreted as reinfection. However, pyrosequencing revealed that 15/15 (100%) of patients had evidence of persisting infection; 6/15 (40%) patients had evidence of a previously undetected variant present in the posttreatment sample in addition to a variant that was detected at baseline. This could represent superinfection or a limitation of the sensitivity of pyrosequencing. Conclusion: In this high‐risk group, the emergence of new viral strains following treatment failure is most commonly associated with emerging dominance of preexisting minority variants rather than reinfection. Superinfection may occur in this cohort but reinfection is overestimated by Sanger sequencing. (Hepatology 2015;61:88–97)


Background and Objectives: This report describes a curricular experience designed to improve EKG arrhythmia recognition skills in third-year medical students in a required family medicine clerkship. Intervention: An innovative 1-hour seminar that teaches a systematic approach to EKG arrhythmia recognition was added to the family medicine clerkship. Students were tested on ability to identify arrhythmias at the end of the clerkship. Scores were compared between the intervention group and a control group consisting of students in the year before the seminar was added. Results: Students who received the didactic session recognized more arrhythmias correctly. Conclusions: This systematic approach to arrhythmia recognition improves the ability of third-year medical students to interpret EKGs.


Over the past 70 years, many smaller jurisdictions have evolved intro international financial centres (IFCs). Although different in their historic origins and in the financial products and services they offer, IFCs share a common development path. Understanding that evolution can shed light on what the next decade is likely to bring.


Controversy over the impact of multiple testing procedures in linkage analysis is reexamined in this report. Despite some recent claims to the contrary, it is shown that testing multiple markers decreases the posterior false-positive rate among significant tests, rather than increasing it; this is true whether the trait of interest is simply monogenic or complex, or even if the genetic model is misspecified. However, if the true mode of inheritance is complex, or if the genetic model is misspecified, the power to obtain a significant result when linkage is present may be reduced, while the significance level is not, leading to an inflation of the posterior false-positive rate. Furthermore, the posterior false-positive rate increases with decreasing sample size and may be unacceptably high for very small samples. By contrast, testing multiple genetic models, by varying either mode-of-inheritance parameters or diagnostic categories, does lead to an inflation of the posterior false-positive rate. A conservative correction for this case is to subtract log10t from the obtained maximum lod score, where t different genetic and/or diagnostic models have been tested.


This book contains papers presented at a conference which describe studies of a World War II hepatitis epidemic, a genetic analysis of substance use in veteran twins, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, the psychological effects of military captivity, and dioxin in adipose tissue. Other papers discuss radiation risk studies in military populations and resources for epidemiologic research in Vietnam-era veterans. This volume should be of interest to epidemiologists, medical researchers, and others interested in public health.


We conducted on-farm participatory experiments and activities for 3 years at three sites in the Fakara district of western Niger to demonstrate, verify, and evaluate crop productivity due to fertilizer application, economic benefits, and the dissemination of crop technology. We tested combinations of manure and mineral fertilizer on 13 exotic vegetables: bell pepper, cabbage, carrot, chili, eggplant, lettuce, melon, onion, potato, pumpkin, sweet potato, tomato, and zucchini. Farmers' selectivity was evaluated as the number of plots that farmers selected to carry out their own trials. The application of 110 kg·N/ha manure plus 13.7 kg·N/ha mineral fertilizer increased overall vegetable yields by 161% (P < 0.01). The improvement of soil fertility increased the yield of subsequent rainfed millet by 124% (P < 0.05). Less-experienced female farmers could afford to grow cabbage, onion, lettuce, potato, and pumpkin, which yielded 4.8 - 11.4 t/ha fresh weight. Daily management by women in the vegetable gardens gave regular opportunities to chat and thus disseminate the technology.


"Third Wish Wasted" is a book concerned with our wishes and desires. Belonging to a world between real and imagined folklore, the poems are by turns celebratory, humorous and beguiling, and there are bittersweet contemplations of youth, beauty and fame. Roddy Lumsden is one of the liveliest and most inventive poets writing in Britain today. His fifth collection sees him extending the range of his poetry, straying into denser and more musical territory, as well as sticking with the form and wit which typifies his earlier work. In "Third Wish Wasted" he invents and tries out various unusual and inventive forms such as charismatics, overlays and relegated narratives. There are poems composed on a top fashion shoot, inspired by travels in the USA and, as ever, he picks apart the problems between men and women.


SIR—We thank Dr Cox for his interest in our research about acupuncture and postoperative vomiting in children undergoing tonsillectomy (1) and for his relevant and valuable comments (2). In our method section, we had defined both dexamethasone and acupuncture groups; a Cun, "the unit of traditional Chinese medicine measurement"; acupuncture needles; and then the acupuncture needling technique of both groups (All needles were kept in place for 20 min and manually stimulated for 5 s [by needle rotation through 180°] every 5 min and just before needle removal) (1). Indeed, acupuncture technique was started immediately after induction of anesthesia and maintained for about 7–8 min before start of surgery and then for 12–13 min after start of surgery (period during which positioning and sterilization of children occur), so we think that it did not disturbed the surgery. However, we fully agree with Dr Cox that access to acupuncture points in both wrists and the abdomen of child will require an acupuncturist and understanding of the surgical team, and that access to various acupuncture points may cause harm to internal structures in nonskilled hands. We reported that subjects receiving dexamethasone have statistically significant but clinically insignificant less pain than those receiving acupuncture at 12 and 18 h postoperatively (1), as the clinically significant pain difference between both groups was defined as >2/15 for PPMP (3). We would like to add that both dexamethasone and acupuncture are inexpensive in our country. By referring to the Cochrane Review (4), updated in 2015, which examined the effectiveness of P6 acupuncture for the prevention of PONV, Dr Cox supported our results that acupuncture was as effective as antiemetic drugs, although this Cochrane Review did not examine the effect of CV13 acupoint. Finally, we completely agree with Dr Cox that for a high-risk procedure such as tonsillectomy, at least two antiemetics are currently recommended (2), and further study comparing the effect of dexamethasone combined with a 5-HT3 vs acupuncture will be of interest.


HTTP request and response messages include an HTTP protocol version number. Some confusion exists concerning the proper use and interpretation of HTTP version numbers, and concerning interoperability of HTTP implementations of different protocol versions. This document is an attempt to clarify the situation. It is not a modification of the intended meaning of the existing HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1 documents, but it does describe the intention of the authors of those documents, and can be considered definitive when there is any ambiguity in those documents concerning HTTP version numbers, for all versions of HTTP.


This research was conducted at SMP Negeri 3 Kisaran academic year 2014/2015. It intended to know the difference of students` mathematical communication ability taught by cooperative learning Think-Pair-Share and Numbered-Heads-Together types.The population of this research was all students at SMP Negeri 3 Kisaran. The sample was taken from grade VII by simple random sampling technique, classes selected were VII-1 as an experimental class I taught by cooperative learning Think-Pair-Share type and VII-3 as an experimental class II taught by cooperative learning Numbered-Heads-Together type. Each class consists of 32 students as sample of research. Research design of this study was posttest-only comparison group design with the technique of data analysis used is independent sample t-test. Result of this study with I± = 0.05 showed that tstatistic > ttable, namely 2.174 > 1.6698. It means that the students` mathematical communication ability taught by cooperative learning Think-Pair-Share type was better than that the students` mathematical communication ability taught by cooperative learning Numbered-Heads-Together type.


Yellowtail ascites virus (YAV) is a member of the family Birnaviridae and causes viral ascites among juvenile yellowtail (Seriola quinqueradiata). We have reported the cloning and expression of two viral cDNAs, the first being segment A encoding a polyprotein of viral capsid proteins (VP2 and VP3) and a protease (NS), and the second being VP2-epitope encoding serotype-specific epitope region on VP2, using a baculovirus expression system. Another viral cDNA encoding a polyprotein of NS and VP3 was cloned and expressed in this study. For the expression of NS/VP3 (YAV nt 1626 to 3066) in insect cells a 31-kDa protein, corresponding to VP3 was detected, indicating an appropriate posttranslational processing of NS/VP3 polypeptide by NS protease itself. The analysis of the N-terminal amino acid sequence of this protein showed that NS protease may cleave an Ala-Ser bond. A study of the potential for vaccination of yellowtail fry by injection of insect cell lysates infected with baculovirus, containing either cDNA of segment A, VP2-epitope, or NS/VP3 was undertaken. Only a vaccination with cell lysates infected with a recombinant virus carrying the full length of YAV segment A gene demonstrated approximately the same effect as that of inactivated YAV. This result suggested that all proteins VP2, VP3, and NS are required for an effective vaccination.


A central aim and ever-lasting dream of computer science is to put the development of hardware and software systems on a mathematical basis which is both firm and practical. Such a scientific foundation is needed especially for the construction of reactive programs, like communication protocols or control systems.

For the construction and analysis of reactive systems an elegant and powerful theory has been developed based on automata theory, logical systems for the specification of nonterminating behavior, and infinite two-person games.

The 19 chapters presented in this multi-author monograph give a consolidated overview of the research results achieved in the theory of automata, logics, and infinite games during the past 10 years. Special emphasis is placed on coherent style, complete coverage of all relevant topics, motivation, examples, justification of constructions, and exercises.


This paper investigates the dynamic relationship between financial development, international financial integration and institutional quality in emerging countries. We employ panel cointegration tests for a panel of 18 emerging economies over the period of 1985-2014 by controlling for cross sectional dependency and structural breaks. The results of this study show that there is a long run cointegration relationship between financial development, international financial integration and institutional quality. We also use the panel causality approach for determining the causal links between variables that are interested. Our results confirm the bidirectional causal relationship between financial development and international financial integration.


A simple method for the immobilization of Aspergillus niger mycelium producing polygalacturonase (PG) and pectinesterase (PE) is described. Fungal conidia were immobilized on wheat, rye, barley, peas, buckwheat and mustards seeds. Spongy mycelia overgrowing the seed surfaces on mineral medium with pectin produced extracellular PG and PE; the highest production was reached on the wheat carrier. Some of the variables influencing the enzymatic activity have been optimized. After every 24 h, a culture liquid with 6.8-7.8 U of PG ml-1 and 7.0-10.1 U of PE ml-1 was obtained. This procedure also made possible repeated batch enzyme production and, as many as eight subsequent 24-h batches could be fermented by using the same carrier without any loss of PG activity. The addition of sodium orthovanadate (1 mmol) into the medium with pectin caused a significant increase in PG and PE activity produced by free cells of A. niger (by 1.59-fold and 1.67-fold respectively), and only 0.47-fold of PG activity in case of the immobilized mycelium.


Conclusion The chemical pathology laboratory using an immunodiffusion method to detect raised serum oc-fetoprotein can diagnose the late stages of hepatoma. By the more precise radioimmunoassay technique earlier diagnosis should be possible but specificity will be reduced. The success of therapy and prognosis could almost certainly be measured by serial determinations of the oc-fetoprotein level.


This article discusses the interpretation of fiqh verses in Sundanese Interpretation Raudhatul Irfan Fi Ma'rifat Al-Qur'an by KH. Ahmad Sanusi. By studying the law of fiqh we can know which rules to follow and know the limits. The law of fiqh can also be the basis of behaving and referral in making decisions. Interpretation of the Qur'an by local scholars who developed in Indonesia many who use the language of the region, one of which is Sundanese. Therefore, it would be interesting if this study discussed of the fiqh pattern in Sundanese interpretation. This research is a type of library research. Through a descriptive method approach, the author describes how the interpretation of some fiqh verses written in Sundanese in Tafsir Raudhatul Irfan Fi Ma'rifat Al-Qur'an. The primary source of this research is Tafsir Raudhatul Irfan Fi Ma'rifat Al-Qur'an by KH. Ahmad Sanusi written in Sundanese pegon scripts. The aim that the writer wants to achieve in this study is to find out how the characteristics of the fiqh pattern in Tafsir Raudhatul Irfan Fi Ma'rifat Al-Qur'an by KH. Ahmad Sanusi.


Color artifacts of demosaicked images are often found at contours due to interpolation across edges and cross-channel aliasing. To tackle this problem, we propose a novel demosaicking method to reliably reconstruct color channels of a Bayer image based on two different optimized mean-curvature (MC) models. The missing pixel values in green (G) channel are first estimated by minimizing a variational MC model. The curvatures of restored G-image surface are approximated as a linear MC model which guides the initial reconstruction of red (R) and blue (B) channels. Then a refinement process is performed to interpolate accurate full-resolution R and B images. Experiments on benchmark images have testified to the superiority of the proposed method in terms of both the objective and subjective quality.


Purpose: Many health care facilities are navigating their way through the new antimicrobial stewardship standards and guidelines. The purpose of this article is to provide information for health care facilities to improve patient care. Summary: New regulations and guidelines surrounding antimicrobial stewardship have prompted facilities to review their process related to antimicrobial stewardship. In setting up a program, there are many factors to consider including involving key personnel, obtaining leadership support, identifying an infectious disease physician to chair or cochair the committee, and meeting agenda, metrics, and educational needs. Conclusion: Antimicrobial stewardship plays a vital role in both our hospital and community setting. Pharmacists are uniquely positioned to improve optimal patient care through rounding, review of patients' chart, and contribute to the improvement of antimicrobial stewardship by working with a multidisciplinary team. These efforts may improve the utilization of antimicrobial agents.


Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death characterized by iron overload, overwhelming lipid peroxidation, and disruption of antioxidant systems. Emerging evidence suggests that ferroptosis is associated with pregnancy related diseases, such as spontaneous abortion, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes mellitus, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, and spontaneous preterm birth. According to these findings, inhibiting ferroptosis might be a potential option to treat pregnancy related diseases. This review summarizes the mechanisms and advances of ferroptosis, the pathogenic role of ferroptosis in pregnancy related diseases and the potential medicines for its treatment.


The PANDA experiment at the future Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at GSI, Darmstadt, aims at studying the strong interacting matter by precision spectroscopy. A detector system with excellent particle identification over a large range of solid angle and momentum is therefore mandatory. Charged hadron identification in the barrel region will be performed by a compact ring imaging Cherenkov detector based on the DIRC principle (Detection of Internally Reflected Cherenkov light), designed to separate pions from kaons with at least 3 standard deviations in the momentum range from 0.5 GeV/c to 3.5 GeV/c. We present details of the simulation of the PANDA Barrel DIRC and a study of the detector performance using a fast reconstruction algorithm to determine the single photon Cherenkov angle resolution and photon yield for several design options.


After the financial crisis of the late 1997, the Korean government took a series of structural reform measures to improve the standards of financial system and to enhance the securities market. One major change was to enact the Securities related Class Actions Act that efficiently seeks a relief for collective injuries caused in the course of trading securities and ultimately to enhance the operational transparency of companies in Korea. Even thought this Act was in effective in 2005, the Act appled to some size of companies' claim for compensation of loss incurred from the first activity after Jan. 2007. Historically said that securities class action system was made and developed under the American economic circumstance which is the representative model of the formal capitalism. So Korea is the unique country which introduced the securities class action system to its own financial market among the OECD member countries excluding the U.S. and Canada. In that the Korean government should be very serious and studied many aspects of securities class action in order to make the system of the securities class action just fit to the Korean financial market. This Article is basically to examine the securities class action in the U.S. focused on the Federal Civil Procedure Rule, Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act, Securities Litigation Uniform Standard Act, Sabanes-Oxley Act, and Class Action Fairness Act. Also the Article studies the current trend of securities class action in the U.S. in order to compare it to that in the Korean financial Market. The Article finally tries to suggest the betterment of the Securities Related Class Action Act in Korea.


The adrenomedullin level increases in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH, and correlates with a high mortality rate. Its active form, bioactive adrenomedullin (bio-ADM), has been recently developed and has significant prognostic applications in acute clinical settings. Aside from idiopathic/hereditary PAH (I/H-PAH), atrial septal defects-associated pulmonary artery hypertension (ASD-PAH) is still prevalent in developing countries and associated with increased mortality. This study aimed to investigate the mortality-wise prognostic value of the plasma bio-ADM level by comparing subjects with ASD-PAH and I/H-PAH with ASD patients without pulmonary hypertension (PH) as a control group. This was a retrospective, observational cohort study. The subjects were Indonesian adult patients who were recruited from the Congenital Heart Disease and Pulmonary Hypertension (COHARD-PH) registry and divided into three groups: (1) ASD without PH (control group), (2) ASD-PAH and (3) I/H-PAH. During right-heart catheterization at the time of diagnosis, a plasma sample was taken and assayed for bio-ADM using a chemiluminescence immunoassay. Follow-up was performed as a part of the COHARD-PH registry protocol in order to evaluate the mortality rate. Among the 120 subjects enrolled: 20 turned out to have ASD without PH, 85 had ASD-PAH and 15 had I/H-PAH. Compared to the control group (5.15 (3.0–7.95 pg/mL)) and ASD-PAH group (7.30 (4.10–13.50 pg/mL)), bio-ADM levels were significantly higher in the I/H-PAH group (median (interquartile range (IQR)): 15.50 (7.50–24.10 pg/mL)). Moreover, plasma bio-ADM levels were significantly higher in subjects who died (n = 21, 17.5%) compared to those who survived (median (IQR): 11.70 (7.20–16.40 pg/mL) vs. 6.90 (4.10–10.20 pg/mL), p = 0.031). There was a tendency toward higher bio-ADM levels in those who died among the PAH subjects, in both ASD-PAH and I/H-PAH groups. In conclusion, the plasma bio-ADM level is elevated in subjects with PAH from both ASD-PAH and I/H-PAH origins, reaching the highest levels in subjects with the I/H-PAH form. A high bio-ADM level tended to be associated with a high mortality rate in all subjects with PAH, indicating a relevant prognostic value for this biomarker. In patients with I/H-PAH, monitoring bio-ADM could represent a valid tool for predicting outcomes, allowing more appropriate therapeutical choices.


formation of the ego ideal, and thus illuminates many hitherto dark corners in psychopathology. The conception of narcissism has also a direct bearing upon the problem of war neuroses, and its understanding should serve as a corrective to those who hold that the war has disproved Freud's deductions. By the term 'metapsychology' Freud denotes a psychology which will regard every mental process from three points of view, viz., the dynamic, the topographical, and the economic. Dr. Ernest Jones gives a most valuable review of the salient points from the five essays wherein Freud has approached this interesting development of his researches. Other sections of the paper deal with technique and characterology.


This is a study of Islamic stelae in British Collections, The first part of the study is an examination of these stelae so that it was possible to give a full description of their shape, material, lettering and place of origin. This has been followed by comparisons between them and representative stelae from other parts of the Islamic world. On reading the formulae and Qur'anic verses found on them, it became clear that they all followed a common pattern. Thus the Qur'anic verses are found on most of the stones, they are concerned with death, the hope of everlasting life in Paradise for the deceased and the Oneness and the eternity of God. On examining the stelae, especially concentrating on the name of the deceased, it was discovered that most of them were the descendants of Arab tribesmen who had come from Hijaz and Yaman and settled in Egypt, This is an historical point of great indication. The second part of the study is a publication of the stelae them-selves, where a translation of each is given together with a detailed commentary, Besides, some specific notes or their kufic script are made and it wag possible thereby to make a comparison between these stelae and other known examples of kufic lettering. Following this is a Chapter on epigraphic analysis and theories that have been held about it by Western scholars and Arab traditionalists. Stalae were divided from the epigraphic point of view and showed the whole range of development from the early primitive to mature writing. The masho and its complicated rules have been fully discussed. The last part comprises tables of the various alphabetical groups selected from our specimens and other stelae from North Africa and Sudan. After drawing these tables, it was possible for me to make my conclusions regarding the development of the kufic script in Africa during the period covered by those specimens.


Epidemiological studies have linked residual oil fly ash fine particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <2.5 μm (ROFA PM(2.5)) to morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses. Bioavailable transition metals within PM have been cited as one of the components that induce such illnesses. By combining synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy with leaching experiment, we studied the effect of residual oil compositions and combustion conditions on the speciation of Fe and Ni in ROFA PM(2.5) and the implication of these species for human health and environment. PM(2.5) samples were obtained from two types of combustors, a fire tube boiler (FTB) and a refractory line combustor (RLC). The study reveals that only Fe(2)(SO(4))(3)·nH(2)O is present in RLC PM(2.5) while Fe(2)(SO(4))(3)·nH(2)O predominates in FTB PM(2.5) with inclusion of varying amounts of nickel ferrite. The finding that RLC PM(2.5) is more bioavailable and hence more toxic than FTB PM(2.5) is significant. The reduction of toxicity of FTB PM(2.5) is due to the immobilization of a portion of Fe and Ni in the formation of an insoluble NiFe(2)O(4). This may explain the variation of toxicity from exposure to different ROFA PM(2.5). Additionally, the speciation data are sought for developing emission inventories for source apportionment study and understanding the mechanism of PM formation.


Spectral CT is an emerging technology capable of providing high chemical specificity, which is crucial for many applications such as detecting threats in luggage. Such applications often require both fast and high-quality image reconstruction based on sparse-view (few) projections. The conventional FBP method is fast but it produces low-quality images dominated by noise and artifacts when few projections are available. Iterative methods with, e.g., TV regularizers can circumvent that but they are computationally expensive, with the computational load proportionally increasing with the number of spectral channels. Instead, we propose an approach for fast reconstruction of sparse-view spectral CT data using U-Net with multi-channel input and output. The network is trained to output high-quality images from input images reconstructed by FBP. The network is fast at run-time and because the internal convolutions are shared between the channels, the computation load increases only at the first and last layers, making it an efficient approach to process spectral data with a large number of channels. We validated our approach using real CT scans. The results show qualitatively and quantitatively that our approach is able to outperform the state-of-the-art iterative methods. Furthermore, the results indicate that the network is able to exploit the coupling of the channels to enhance the overall quality and robustness.


A new recognition method of vehicle license plates based on neural network is presented in this paper. For the Back Propagation (BP) neural network often trap into the local minimum in the training process, a Genetic Neural Network (GNN), GABP was constructed by combining the Genetic Algorithm(GA)with BP neural network. The training of the GABP neural network was finished in two steps. The GA was firstly used to make a thorough searching in the global space for the weights and thresholds of the neural network, which can ensure they fall into the neighborhood of global optimal solution. Then, in order to improve the convergence precision, the gradient method was used to finely train the network and find the global optimum or second-best solution with good performance. On the other side, feature extraction is also important for improving the recognition rate of the network. So both the structure features and the statistic features are used in this paper, which include mesh feature, direction line element feature and Zernike moments feature. Experimental results show that the proposed method can save the time of training network and achieve a highly recognition rate.


Cellulose is a polysaccharide that has been employed in pharmaceutical applications over the years. However, the quest for waste management and an alternative to imported raw materials for locally manufactured drug products necessitated this study. This study was undertaken to explore the application of cellulose extracted from waste, rice husk as a disintegrant in the formulation of metronidazole tablets for immediate release. Cellulose was extracted from rice husk and characterized. Thereafter, a comparative characterization of the attributes of the tablets formulated was undertaken using Corn Starch, microcrystalline cellulose and rice husk as disintegrants. The granules were characterized for flow properties and tablets were evaluated for crushing strength, friability, disintegration and in vitro drug release. The tablets formulated with rice husk cellulose were found to be bioequivalent to those of corn starch which is a standard in comparative studies of disintegrants. Hence, rice husk cellulose is an alternative excipient to explore as a pharmaceutical excipient for limited resource economies. .


Abstract. Snow depth on sea ice
remains one of the largest uncertainties in sea ice thickness retrievals from
satellite altimetry. Here we outline an approach for deriving snow depth that
can be applied to any coincident freeboard measurements after calibration
with independent observations of snow and ice freeboard. Freeboard estimates
from CryoSat-2 (Ku band) and AltiKa (Ka band) are calibrated against data
from NASA's Operation IceBridge (OIB) to align AltiKa with the snow surface
and CryoSat-2 with the ice–snow interface. Snow depth is found as the
difference between the two calibrated freeboards, with a correction added for
the slower speed of light propagation through snow. We perform an initial
evaluation of our derived snow depth product against OIB snow depth data by
excluding successive years of OIB data from the analysis. We find a
root-mean-square deviation of 7.7, 5.3, 5.9, and 6.7 cm between our
snow thickness product and OIB data from the springs of 2013, 2014, 2015, and
2016 respectively. We further demonstrate the applicability of the method to
ICESat and Envisat, offering promising potential for the application to
CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2, which launched in September 2018.


The direct growth of III-V nanostructures on silicon has shown great promise in the integration of optoelectronics with silicon-based technologies. Our previous work showed that scaling up nanostructures to microsize while maintaining high quality heterogeneous integration opens a pathway toward a complete photonic integrated circuit and high-efficiency cost-effective solar cells. In this paper, we present a thorough material study of novel metastable InP micropillars monolithically grown on silicon, focusing on two enabling aspects of this technology-the stress relaxation mechanism at the heterogeneous interface and the microstructure surface quality. Aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy studies show that InP grows directly on silicon without any amorphous layer in between. A set of periodic dislocations was found at the heterointerface, relaxing the 8% lattice mismatch between InP and Si. Single crystalline InP therefore can grow on top of the fully relaxed template, yielding high-quality micropillars with diameters expanding beyond 1 μm. An interesting power-dependence trend of carrier recombination lifetimes was captured for these InP micropillars at room temperature, for the first time for micro/nanostructures. By simply combining internal quantum efficiency with carrier lifetime, we revealed the recombination dynamics of nonradiative and radiative portions separately. A very low surface recombination velocity of 1.1 × 10(3) cm/sec was obtained. In addition, we experimentally estimated the radiative recombination B coefficient of 2.0 × 10(-10) cm(3)/sec for pure wurtzite-phased InP. These values are comparable with those obtained from InP bulk. Exceeding the limits of conventional nanowires, our InP micropillars combine the strengths of both nanostructures and bulk materials and will provide an avenue in heterogeneous integration of III-V semiconductor materials onto silicon platforms.


Despite technical progress in liver radioisotope scintigraphy, the overall accuracy in detecting metastases has not improved. It has been suggested that a fixed scintigram interpretation in reply to changing clinical problems is partly responsible. An evaluation of the possibilities of improving the clinical value of the test by using six cutoff levels in the scintigraphic interpretation is presented. The test population is a prospectively planned consecutive series of 185 patients strongly suspected of having gastric or colo-rectal malignancies. The incidence of liver metastases was 15%. The relationship between the predictive value of a positive test and the false negative ratio at different incidences of metastases is demonstrated graphically. To improve the clinical value of liver scintigraphy, a close cooperation between clinicians and physicians in nuclear medicine to define the clinical problem and the appropriate scintigraphic cutoff level is necessary.


Composite thin films consisting of nanosized InAs particles embedded in amorphous Si matrices were prepared by radio frequency co-sputtering of InAs and Si. X-ray diffraction spectra show that the particle size of InAs increases with the increasing annealing temperature, while the particle sizes of In and As reach their maximum values at the temperature of 200°C, and decrease with the further increase of the annealing temperature. In and As can not exist in the 500°C sample due to the sublimation of In and As and the reaction In + As → InAs. The composition of the film in different levels was analyzed. We found that only in the deep level, the mole contents of As and In conform to the stoichiometric ratio and the oxidation occurs only a few nanometers from the surface. We believe that the scarcity of In and As near the surface is due to the sublimation of In and the oxide of As.


In response to (and in sympathy with) many of the critical points that have been lodged against participatory approaches to development and governance within international development, this article seeks to relocate participation within a radical politics of development. We argue that participation needs to be theoretically and strategically informed by a notion of 'citizenship', and be located within the 'critical modernist' approach to development. Using empirical evidence drawn from a wide range of contemporary approaches to participation, the paper shows that participatory approaches are most likely to succeed where (i) they are pursued as part of a wider radical political project; (ii) where they are aimed specifically at securing citizenship rights and participation for marginal and subordinate groups; and (iii) when they seek to engage with development as an underlying process of social change rather than in the form of discrete technocratic interventions. However, we do not use these findings to argue against using participatory methods where these conditions are not met. Finally, the paper considers the implications of this relocation for participation in both theoretical and strategic terms.


1. The pathway of ethanol metabolism in cotyledons of 3-day-old pea seedlings has been examined by incubating tissue slices with [1-(14)C]ethanol and [2-(14)C]ethanol for periods up to 1hr. 2. Ethanol was rapidly incorporated into citrate and glutamate but relatively small amounts of (14)C were present in the evolved carbon dioxide even after 1hr. of ethanol metabolism. 3. Similar data were obtained from experiments in which [1,2-(14)C(2)]acetaldehyde and [(14)C]acetate were supplied. 4. The results are interpreted as indicating that ethanol is metabolized essentially via the reactions of the tricarboxylic acid cycle with a substantial drain of alpha-oxoglutarate to support the biosynthesis of glutamate. 5. It is concluded that oxaloacetate, required for the incorporation of ethanol into citrate, arises mainly from the transamination of aspartate and the fixation of carbon dioxide.


Purpose
The edge of diesel engine crankshaft main bearing is more likely to fail in its real working condition. This paper aims to study the bearing failure mechanism by finding the relationship between bearing lubrication characteristics and its working condition.

Design/methodology/approach
This work builds the mixed lubrication model of crankshaft bearing to analyze the cause of bearing abnormal wear, and the finite difference method was used to solving the average Reynolds equation. During the analysis, journal misaligned angle, external load and roughness are considered.

Findings
The result shows that the wear of the diesel engine crankshaft bearing happens in engine startup phase and the bottom of the bearing are more prone to be excessively worn. Under the influence of journal misalignment, bearing asperity contact load and speed range of mixed lubrication will increase markedly. The edge of the bearing will be excessively worn. The effect of misalignment on bearing lubrication performance varies under different shaft rotation speed.

Originality/value
The former research studies on crankshaft bearing either just focused on its lubrication characteristics or interested in its failure types (wear, adhere, cavitation). This paper studies the relationship between bearing failure mechanism and lubrication performance.


Abstract:The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) championed the democratisation struggle in Zimbabwe after the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme that not only saw deepening poverty by working people but increased repression by the state. Going beyond the 'core responsibility' of bargaining for better working conditions at the workplace to broader issues of social justice, human rights and democracy by ZCTU was neither new nor unique to Zimbabwe. In South Africa COSATU fought against apartheid and in Zambia the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions ushered in a multiparty dispensation respectively. However, the prolonged, if not aborted, transition in Zimbabwe coupled with a 'war of attrition' by the ruling elite have seriously weakened the labour movement into near oblivion. Massive unemployment and worsening poverty depleted the ranks of organised labour. Ironically the ZCTU backed opposition MDC party advocated for neoliberal economic policies and supported targeted economic sanctions that proved detrimental to the working classes' interests. Since the ZCTU has been consigned to the fringes within the social movement pushing for transformation, this contribution, therefore explores options for trade union revitalization under conditions of an uncertain future in a fast-changing environment of neo-liberal globalisation.


In this work, we introduced a new method toward the design of hybrid control with sliding-mode (SMC) plus fuzzy logic control (FLC) for induction motors. As the variations of both control system parameters and operating conditions occur, the conventional control methods may not be satisfied further. Sliding mode control is robust with respect to both induction motor parameter variations and external disturbances. By combination of a fuzzy logic control and the sliding mode control, the chattering (torque-ripple) problem with varying parameters, which are the main disadvantage in sliding-mode control, can be suppressed, Simulation results of the proposed control theme present good dynamic and steady-state performances as compared to the classical SMC from aspects for torque-ripple minimization, the quick dynamic torque response and robustness to disturbance and variation of parameters.


The interaction of quinacrine and 9-amino acridine with right-handed B-form, left-handed Z-form, and left-handed protonated (H(L))-form structures of polydG-me(5)dC was investigated by circular dichroism and absorption spectral analysis. Both the compounds bind strongly to the B-form structure and convert the Z-form and H(L)-form back to the bound right-handed form. Circular dichroic data revealed that the conformation at the binding site is right-handed even though adjacent regions of the polynucleotide may have left-handed conformation. The rate and extent of B-form-to-Z-form transition were decreased in the presence of these compounds. Scatchard analysis revealed that both quinacrine and 9-amino acridine bind strongly to the polynucleotide in the B-form in a noncooperative manner, in sharp contrast to the highly cooperative binding to the Z-form and H(L)-form. Results indicated that the cooperative binding of these drugs with the Z-form and the H(L)-forms was associated with a sequential conversion of the polynucleotide from a left-handed to a bound right-handed conformation. Experimental data enabled the calculation of the number of base pairs of Z-form (7-8 with quinacrine and 9-amino acridine) and H(L)-form (4 and 25, respectively, with quinacrine and 9-amino acridine) that adopt a right-handed conformation for each bound ligand. As these compounds are known to bind preferentially to alternating guanine--cytosine sequences, which are capable of easily undergoing the B-to-Z or B-to-H(L) transition, these effects may be important in understanding their biological activities.


In the current study we focus on dielectric properties (as a function of frequency and temperature) of a polymeric composite system composed of polyvinyl alcohol and barium titanate nano powder. In the investigations, the temperature range is between 50-295 K, and the frequency range is between 20 Hz-1 MHz. Polarization and conduction processes are investigated in the linear regime. Dielectric breakdown strengths of samples are also reported. The materials presented have potential to be implemented in cryogenic capacitor or field grading applications.


This paper describes a CMOS serial link allowing fully duplexed 500 Mbaud serial data communication. The CMOS serial link is a robust and low-cost solution to high data rate requirements. A central charge pump PLL for generating multiphase clocks for oversampling is shared by several serial link channels. Fully duplexed serial data communication is realized in the bidirectional bridge by separating incoming data from the mixed signal on the cable end. The digital PLL accomplishes process-independent data recovery by using a low-ratio oversampling, a majority voting, and a parallel data recovery scheme. Mostly, digital approach could extend its bandwidth further with scaled CMOS technology. A single channel serial link and a charge pump PLL are integrated in a test chip using 1.2 /spl mu/m CMOS process technology. The test chip confirms upto 500 Mbaud unidirectional mode operation and 320 Mbaud fully duplexed mode operation with pseudo random data patterns. >


The drive to continuously downscale Cu interconnects in ultra-large-scale integrated (ULSI) devices requires strategic improvements in materials and their design processes. For example, development of thinner single-layer barrier/liner materials is desired, because Cu line widths approaching the mean free path greatly increase RC signal delays. We designed Co films with the addition of W [Co(W)] for use as a single-layer barrier/liner material using principles from surface engineering and metallurgy. Dupre's equation was used to evaluate the adhesion of metals to Cu, which suggested Co as the main component of our proposed single-layer barrier/liner material. Metallurgical analysis suggested that the addition of W would lead to nanostructural improvements and increased barrier performance in Co films. The Co–W phase diagram suggested that W would segregate at grain boundaries, thereby improving barrier performance due to grain-boundary stuffing. Amidinato, metallocene, and carbonyl Co and W precursors were evaluated in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes for the formation of Co(W) films. Oxygen and halogen inclusions were undesirable, because they were predicted to increase the resistivity and cause deviation from the Co–W binary system. To reduce the prevalence of grain boundaries through formation of an amorphous structure, sequential feeding of Co and W precursors in an ALD process was developed for each set of precursors. Oxygen-free Co(W) CVD and ALD processes were achieved using amidinato and metallocene precursors, both of which led to stuffed grain-boundary structures. ALD-Co(W) films exhibited amorphous structures with sufficient barrier performance and low resistivity, which was consistent with our material and process design.


Claims related to bankruptcy are considered as non-arbitrable since bankruptcy concerns public order. However, various opinions have been put forward in the doctrine and Supreme Court decisions regarding the removal of objection and bankruptcy case filed upon the objection to the ordinary bankruptcy proceeding, in the context of arbitrability. It has been stated that the removal of the objection and bankruptcy case consist of two stages. It has been claimed that the determination of the existence and the amount of claim require a separate trial and this trial should be proceeded before the arbitrator due to the arbitration clause. However, The General Assembly of Civil Chambers of the Turkish Supreme Court decided to the contrary of this opinion. It was determined that the removal of the objection and bankruptcy case are inseparable procedures from each other. Therefore, the bankruptcy case is unsuitable for arbitration because of the public order. The dispute should be resolved in general courts. The points to be considered are the removal of objection and bankruptcy case regarding divisibility and examining whether it is possible to apply for ordinary bankruptcy proceeding to render the arbitration clause ineffective, contrary to the good faith principle.


Quality control is always an important issue in industrial production. According to economics, it is more convenient to check the structural integrity and the quality of a
product before it gets damaged in site. Kenaf/Polyurethane (PU) composites have potential application as "insulators" in buildings since the current insulators, such as the
asbestos are dangerous for human health and can cause lung cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine the capabilities of infrared thermography in detecting and
characterizing the defects in kenaf/PU composites.
Kenaf/PU composites having three different weight contents (40/60, 50/50 and 60/40 Kenaf / PU weight %) were manufactured, then cut into three different thicknesses (9mm,6mm and 4mm) to study the effect of thickness on the infrared images. Active thermography method was applied and the thermal images were captured for investigating the defects. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to provide a micrograph as an evidence for the thermography results.
The results show that the 6mm thickness in all cases has more defects in terms of area as compared to the 4mm and 9mm thickness. Moreover, the SEM micrographs have
confirmed that the defective areas have defects such as voids, fiber pulled out, fiber break out that are the results of weak interfacial adhesion between kenaf and PU. In addition,the results also determine that voids and PU-rich zone are the defects that can be easily captured while the delamination and crack are the defects that are hard to be captured. Also, thermal images indicate that the amount of fiber plays an important role in the thermal images, since the thermal image of a 60% kenaf board is different from a thermal image of a 50% or 40% kenaf boards. Therefore, SEM morphology as evidence has proven that thermography is able to detect the surface and subsurface defects like voids and PU-rich zones.


To determine the role of intraoperative frozen sections (FSs) in the management of patients with central nervous system (CNS) lesions, 60 consecutive intraoperative clinical diagnoses of CNS lesions were presented and compared with concomitantly obtained FS diagnoses. Clinical diagnoses were established byhistory, physical examination, imaging techniques, and gross appearance of the abnormal tissue in situ. Tissue samples were obtained intraoperatively and processed for FS diagnoses. The findings of the FS diagnoses were reported to the operating room and compared with the clinical diagnoses. The remainingbiopsy samples were used to prepare paraffin-embedded tissue sections from which the definitive diagnoses were made. Comparison of the clinical and FS diagnoses, using paraffin-embedded tissue as the true diagnosis, shows that FS diagnosis has a limited contribution to intraoperative patient management by the neurosurgeon. The rate of diagnostic failures between the two techniques was very similar; clinical diagnoses and FSs were misinterpreted in 12 and 11 of the 60 cases, respectively. Compared to a clinical diagnosis, the intraoperative FS technique provided no significant improvement in diagnosis and management; it altered the intraoperative management of the patients in 2 of 60 cases.


Enrichment (increasing K) destabilizes simple consumer-resource interactions, but increasing food web complexity in various ways can remove this paradox of enrichment. We varied resources and number of omnivorous predators (mosquitoes) and tested for effects on the stability (persistence and temporal variability) of microfaunal populations living in pitcher plants. Top-down (omnivorous) effects were destabilizing, decreasing the persistence time of a rotifer, Habrotrocha rosa, and perhaps a microflagellate, Bodo sp. Enrichment effects were more complex, in part due to effects of shredding midges on resource availability, and in part due to interactions with predation. The persistence of Bodo increased with resource availability (more bacteria due to shredding by midges; no paradox of enrichment). Increasing resources by adding ants decreased persistence of H. rosa when mosquitoes were rare (paradox of enrichment), but the effect was reversed in leaves with significant colonization by mosquitoes. Thus, in the microfaunal community of pitcher plants, omnivorous predation tends to be destabilizing, and also tends to remove the paradox of enrichment.


Different CSMA variants (Carrier Sense Multiple Access), such as the widely spread WLAN-standards IEEE 802.11, are often suggested as MAC-protocols in ad hoc networks. Many of the problems that a CSMA-system suffers in a one-hop network are aggravated in a multi-hop network. This makes CSMAschemes less attractive to use in ad hoc networks. Several methods of scheduling transmissions in TDMA and in its more evolved form STDMA (Spatial reuse TDMA) have proved to give a higher maximum throughput than CSMA. TSST (Traffic Sensitive Scheduled TDMA) is proposed in this work, it is a novel algorithm for scheduling transmissions.TSST makes schedules based on the estimated queue length in every node.It is assumed that reports of queue lengths cannot instantaneously propagate from node to node. The updates will be received with a fixed delay (lag). Using this lagged information with support of traffic estimates and the knowledge of previous send schedules, TSST is capable of estimate the current queue lengths.The results show that TSST can achieve higher throughput than CSMA. The results also show that TSST can achieve lower end to end delay than idealised forms of prior TDMA-schemes, even if it has to estimate the queue lengths with quite old information and inaccurate traffic estimates.It is concluded that TSST is an efficient way of scheduling for TDMA and that the accuracy of the traffic estimator is of great importance.


Aim and Background: Meta-cognitive therapy is based on the principle that meta-cognitive is very important for understanding the way of cognition function and the way of producing our conscious experience about ourselves and the world around us. In This research it has been tried to study the effectiveness of this kind of treatment in improving depression patients. Methods and Materials: This clinical-experimental study was carried out on 3 patients referring to Tabriz University Consulting Centers in the framework of single case by using multiple-baselines in 8 sessions with follow-up at 1 and 3 months. Instruments were included BDI, MCQ, PBRS and NBRS. Findings: Treatment created considerable changes in depression symptoms and meta-cognitive beliefs of depressed patients and improved the symptoms of all three patients and the results of Treatment continued up to follow-up period. Conclusions: Result of this research showed, meta-cognitive therapy that focuses on controlling of cognitive process instead of cognitive content of cognitive processes can be effective in treatment of patient with major depression (Reduction in Rumination and Worry). Keywords: Depression, Meta-cognitive beliefs, Negative beliefs about rumination, Positive beliefs about rumination and met-cognitive therapy.


Background: Inferior pole patellar sleeve fractures (PSFs) are rare injuries that occur in skeletally immature patients that may be missed or falsely diagnosed as an inferior pole fracture (IPF) or Sinding-Larsen-Johansson syndrome (SLJS). Purpose: The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare clinical and radiographic features of patients with PSF, IPF, and SLJS. Study Design: Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: Retrospective review of skeletally immature patients diagnosed with PSF, IPF, and SLJS between 2011 and 2019 at a single urban academic center was performed. Chart and radiographic review was completed. Between-group differences were assessed using analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Fisher exact test, as appropriate to variable distributions. Results: In total, 125 patients (82% male) were included, with a mean (SD) age of 10.7 (2) years (16 PSF, 51 IPF, 58 SLJS). There were no significant differences in patient characteristics between the 3 groups. One hundred percent of the patients with PSF (P < .001) and IPF (P < .001) had acute trauma, compared with 24% of patients with SLJS. Fewer patients with PSF had an intact straight leg raise (38%) compared with those with IPF (94%; P < .001) and SLJS (98%; P < .001). Fewer patients with SLJS had knee swelling (41%) compared with those with PSF (93%; P < .001) and IPF (94%; P < .001). More patients with PSF had knee effusion (81%) compared with those with IPF (37%; P = 0.011) and SLJS (3%; P < .001). More patients with SLJS were able to bear weight (88%) compared with those with IPF (12%; P < .001) and PSF (0; P < .001). Radiographically, compared with those with IPF and SLJS, patients with PSFs had increased mean prepatellar swelling (6.1 [P < .001] and 6.5 [P < .001] vs 12.9 mm), intra-articular effusion (6.1 [P = .014] and 4.9 [P = .001] vs 9.2 mm), maximum fragment size (26 [P = .004] and 17.7 [P < .001] vs 45.3 mm), and maximum fragment displacement (1.24 [P = .002] and 1.45 [P = .003] vs 13.30 mm), respectively. Compared with those with SLJS (1.10), patients with PSF (1.92; P < .001) and IPF (1.22; P < .001) had patella alta with higher mean Insall-Salvati ratios >1.2. Conclusion: Differences in clinical features such as ability to straight leg raise, knee swelling, knee effusion, ability to bear weight, and radiographic features, such as prepatellar swelling, intra-articular effusion, fragment displacement/size/shape/location, and patellar height, can all be helpful in recognizing rare pediatric inferior patellar pathology, thus increasing efficiency in indicating for higher-level imaging to reach a prompt diagnosis and provide appropriate treatment.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of hyaluronic acid on functional recovery and pain control in patients following knee arthroscopy.

DESIGN
A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to explore the efficacy of hyaluronic acid following knee arthroscopy.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the effect of hyaluronic acid in knee arthroscopy were included. A meta-analysis was performed using the random-effect model.

RESULTS
Six RCTs involving 310 patients were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, compared with control intervention following knee arthroscopy, hyaluronic acid treatment was found to significantly increase Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) scores (mean difference 11.43; 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) 1.39-21.47; p = 0.03), but had no impact on pain scores at 2 weeks (mean difference -0.16; 95% CI -0.81-0.49; p = 0.63), pain scores at 6 weeks (mean difference 0.01; 95% CI -0.86-0.89; p = 0.98), pain scores at 12 weeks (mean difference -0.51; 95% CI -1.56-0.53; p = 0.34). In addition, pain on motion was significantly reduced after knee arthroscopy (risk ratio (RR) 0.22; 95% CI 0.06-0.79; p = 0.02).

CONCLUSION
Compared with control intervention after knee arthroscopy, hyaluronic acid treatment was found to significantly improve WOMAC score and decrease pain on motion, but had no substantial influence on pain scores at 2, 6 and 12 weeks after knee arthroscopy.


Laryngeal papillomatosis is a difficult disease to manage, and patients with this disease are at risk of cancer and death. These infections are caused by human papillomaviruses of which there are more than 30. Human papillomavirus type 11 causes both genital warts (condyloma accuminata) and laryngeal papillomas. Available data indicate that neonates acquire this virus as they pass through a birth canal infected with human papillomavirus type 11.
 Laryngeal papillomas occur in children younger than 10 years of age, and the incidence peaks between the ages of 2 and 5 years. Signs of the disease are voice change, abnormal cry, and airway obstruction; it spontaneously regresses or becomes malignant.


[125I]Tyr13-Suc-[Glu9,Ala11,15]-Endothelin-1 (8-21) ([125I]IRL-1620) displayed specific, saturable and high affinity binding to membranes prepared from rat and dog cerebellum, rat and human lung and cloned human endothelin-B (ETB) receptors. The apparent dissociation constant (Kd) for rat cerebellum, dog cerebellum, rat lung, human lung and human ETB clone were 69.1, 34.8, 128, 71.9, and 115 pM, respectively. The maximum binding (Bmax) to these membranes were 3.2, 0.71, 1.67, 1.85 and 62.3 pmol/mg of protein for rat cerebellum, dog cerebellum, rat lung, human lung and human ETB clone, respectively. Unlabeled endothelin-1 (ET-1), ET-3 and sarafotoxin 6c (S6c) displaced [125I]IRL-1620 binding to these membranes with similar affinity (IC50 = 0.1-2.5 nM), whereas cyclo(D-Trp,D-Asp,L-Pro,D-Val,L-Leu), a selective antagonist for ETA receptors, had no effect on [125I]IRL-1620 binding up to 1 microM. Time course experiments of association and dissociation indicated that [125]IRL-1620 binding to dog and human tissues and human ETB clone was rapid and reversible, whereas in rat tissues, the binding was rapid but irreversible, suggesting that this might be due to species difference. [125I]ET-1 binding was irreversible in all the tissues tested. No binding of [125I]IRL-1620 was detectable in rat vascular smooth muscle cells or cloned human ETA receptors. These data indicate that [125I]IRL-1620 is highly selective for ETB receptors and the reversible binding characteristics of this ligand appears to be species-dependent.


ing the newborn population in Northem Ireland (birth rate 33,000 per year) for hyperphenylalaninaemia with the 'Guthrie' technique over a two-year period are presented and compared with our previous results of ferric chloride testing of urine. It is now recognized that not all patients with hyperphenylalaninaemia are instances of classical PKU. The importance in distinguishing between the two groups of patients lies in the fact that a phenylalanine restricted diet given unnecessarily will in itself cause failure to thrive and perhaps even brain damage. Distinction has been attempted between classical PKU and its hyperphenylalaninaemia variants; the incidence of the two forms and our experience oftheir management are recorded.


Fibroblast growth factors 19 and 21 (FGF19 and FGF21) have been implicated, independently, in type 2 diabetes (T2D) but it is not known if their circulating levels correlate with each other or whether the associated hepatic signaling mechanisms that play a role in glucose metabolism are dysregulated in diabetes. We used a cross-sectional, case/control, experimental design involving Class III obese patients undergoing Roux-en-Y bariatric surgery (RYGB), and measured FGF19 and FGF21 serum levels and hepatic gene expression (mRNA) in perioperative liver wedge biopsies. We found that T2D patients had lower FGF19 and higher FGF21 serum levels. The latter was corroborated transcriptionally, whereby, FGF21, as well as CYP7A1, β-Klotho, FGFR4, HNF4α, and glycogen synthase, but not of SHP or FXR mRNA levels in liver biopsies were higher in T2D patients that did not remit diabetes after RYGB surgery, compared to T2D patients that remitted diabetes after RYGB surgery or did not have diabetes. In a Phenome-wide association analysis using 205 clinical variables, higher FGF21 serum levels were associated with higher glucose levels and various cardiometabolic disease phenotypes. When serum levels of FGF19 were < 200 mg/mL and FGF21 > 500 mg/mL, 91% of patients had diabetes. These data suggest that FGF19/FGF21 circulating levels and hepatic gene expression of the associated signaling pathway are significantly dysregulated in type 2 diabetes.


The results of a discriminant analysis for the objective diagnosis of cirrhosis of the liver are reported. Eight quantitative parameters seen on CT which, by themselves, are not diagnostic, were studied, and three relationships found to be of discriminatory significance; they are the diameter of the superior mesenteric vein, the ratio of the diameter of the caudate lobe and the right lobe of the liver and a quotient derived from the splenic and hepatic index. Cirrhosis of the liver with portal hypertension could be distinguished with a specificity of 100%, an accuracy of 96% and a sensitivity of 94%.


Article history: Received: 19 Dec 2011 Accepted: 5 Jan 2012 Available online: 18 May 2013 ZJRMS 2014; 16(5): 89-91 Background: The present study aim is to predict the psychological inclination to drug use in youths by studying their attachment styles. Materials and Methods: The research sample includes male and female students of Zahedan Medical Science University with the average age of 19-24. The proportional cluster random sampling was used for selection of participant. The hypotheses were analyzed, using Pearson correlation method, regression analysis, one way variance analysis and t-test for two independent groups. Results: The results indicated positive relationships among addiction aptitude and insecure-avoidant attachment style and negative relationship between addiction aptitude and secure attachment style. Conclusion: It is necessary to focus training intervention and prevention on all students. Copyright © 2014 Zahedan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.


With more than 160-fold variation, Orchidaceae are currently the most diverse angiosperm family with respect to the amount of nuclear DNA. This study provides first genome size estimates for approximately 50% of species currently recognized in subfamily Apostasioideae, which is sister to the other four orchid subfamilies. The estimated 1C-values range from 0.38pg in Apostasia nuda to 5.96pg in Neuwiedia zollingeri var. javanica, a nearly 16-fold range. The two genera show non-overlapping genome sizes, with those in Apostasia being distinctly smaller than those in Neuwiedia. In fact, most Apostasia spp. are at the lower end of the range of orchid C-values. Observed discontinuities in DNA amounts in genera most probably reflect interspecific variation in ploidy. In addition to ploidy heterogeneity in N.zollingeri var. javanica, intraspecific variation in genome size (up to 17.7%) was also detected in some species; this can be plausibly related to the incidence of different geographical variants or unrecognized taxonomic heterogeneity. The AT content varied from 62.6 to 66.0%, which is in the upper range recorded for angiosperms. The genome size data obtained in this study fill a major phylogenetic gap in Orchidaceae and show that (very) small genomes prevail in subfamily Apostasioideae.


Schwannomas are benign tumors mostly arising from the head and neck. Retroperitoneal schwannomas are rare. Here we report the case of a 68-year-old woman with multiple retroperitoneal schwannomas. An abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan showed 1 non-enhancing mass with a low-density area, 4.6 cm in diameter, in the left adrenal region and another non-enhancing mass with a low-density area, 2.9 cm in diameter, in the para-aortic region. The patient had regularly undergone CT scans for malignant tumor screening in maintenance dialysis patients. Retrospectively, the 2 tumors had existed in the same regions in previous CT scans and had gradually increased in size. The tumors were completely resected. Pathological diagnosis of both tumors was schwannoma. When a CT scan shows a slowly growing retroperitoneal tumor with a low-density area, schwannoma should be considered. If the tumor increases in size, complete resection should be performed for pathological diagnosis.


Prosthetic joint replacement is the most widely used surgical approach to repair large bone defects, although it is often associated with prosthetic joint infection (PJI), caused by biofilm formation. To solve the PJI problem, various approaches have been proposed, including the coating of implantable devices with nanomaterials that exhibit antibacterial activity. Among these, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are the most used for biomedical applications, even though their use has been limited by their cytotoxicity. Therefore, several studies have been performed to evaluate the most appropriate AgNPs concentration, size, and shape to avoid cytotoxic effects. Great attention has been focused on Ag nanodendrites, due to their interesting chemical, optical, and biological properties. In this study, we evaluated the biological response of human fetal osteoblastic cells (hFOB) and P. aeruginosa and S. aureus bacteria on fractal silver dendrite substrates produced by silicon-based technology (Si_Ag). In vitro results indicated that hFOB cells cultured for 72 h on the Si_Ag surface display a good cytocompatibility. Investigations using both Gram-positive (S. aureus) and Gram-negative (P. aeruginosa) bacterial strains incubated on Si_Ag for 24 h show a significant decrease in pathogen viability, more evident for P. aeruginosa than for S. aureus. These findings taken together suggest that fractal silver dendrite could represent an eligible nanomaterial for the coating of implantable medical devices.


A series of platinum(II) terpyridyl complexes with phenolic ethynyl ligands have been synthesized and characterized. Their photophysical and sensing properties towards anions such as fluoride, acetate and dihydrogenphosphate have been investigated. These complexes show a colorimetric response and fluorescence quenching in the presence of anions including fluoride, acetate and dihydrogenphosphate, and selective sensing towards fluoride in some cases. The sensing mechanism has been investigated by spectrophotometric and 1H NMR titration.


Abstract Distribution semantics is one of the most prominent approaches for the combination of logic programming and probability theory. Many languages follow this semantics, such as Independent Choice Logic, PRISM, pD, Logic Programs with Annotated Disjunctions (LPADs), and ProbLog. When a program contains functions symbols, the distribution semantics is well–defined only if the set of explanations for a query is finite and so is each explanation. Well–definedness is usually either explicitly imposed or is achieved by severely limiting the class of allowed programs. In this paper, we identify a larger class of programs for which the semantics is well–defined together with an efficient procedure for computing the probability of queries. Since Logic Programs with Annotated Disjunctions offer the most general syntax, we present our results for them, but our results are applicable to all languages under the distribution semantics. We present the algorithm "Probabilistic Inference with Tabling and Answer subsumption" (PITA) that computes the probability of queries by transforming a probabilistic program into a normal program and then applying SLG resolution with answer subsumption. PITA has been implemented in XSB and tested on six domains: two with function symbols and four without. The execution times are compared with those of ProbLog, cplint, and CVE. PITA was almost always able to solve larger problems in a shorter time, on domains with and without function symbols.


OBJECTIVE
to investigate the efficacy of quinupristin/dalfopristin in the prevention of prosthetic graft infection in a rat subcutaneous pouch model.

METHODS
graft infections were established in the subcutaneous tissue of 140 male Wistar rats by implantation of Dacron prostheses followed by topical inoculation with Staphylococcus epidermidis with intermediate resistance to glycopeptides. The study included one group without contamination, one contaminated group without prophylaxis, one contaminated group that received 50mg/l quinupristin/dalfopristin-soaked graft, one contaminated group that received 10mg/kg intraperitoneal levofloxacin, one contaminated group that received 3mg/kg intraperitoneal doxycycline, and two contaminated groups that received 50mg/l quinupristin/dalfopristin-soaked plus 10mg/kg intraperitoneal levofloxacin or 3mg/kg intraperitoneal doxycycline. Each group included 20 animals. The grafts were removed after 7 days and evaluated by quantitative culture.

RESULTS
quinupristin/dalfopristin showed a significantly higher efficacy than levofloxacin and doxycycline, even though quantitative graft cultures for rats that received only quinupristin/dalfopristin-soaked graft showed bacterial growth. Otherwise, the efficacy of levofloxacin was similar to that of doxycycline. Only the group treated with quinupristin/dalfopristin combined with levofloxacin or doxycycline showed no evidence of staphylococcal infection.

CONCLUSIONS
quinupristin/dalfopristin as adjunctive topical antibiotic prophylaxis can be useful for the prevention of vascular graft infections caused by staphylococcal strains with high levels of resistance.


1 Address all correspondence to this author. ABSTRACT Prior work has demonstrated the integration of detailed life-cycle assessment into a traditional design modeling process. While a full life-cycle assessment provides insight into a product's potential impact on the environment, it is often too time consuming for analysis during conceptual product design, where ideas are numerous and information is scarce. The work presented in this paper explores an approximate method for preliminary life-cycle assessments without detailed modeling requirements. Learning algorithms trained on the known characteristics of existing products allow the environmental impacts of new products to be approximated quickly during conceptual design. Artificial neural networks train on product attributes and environmental impact data from pre-existing lifecycle assessment studies. The product design team queries the trained artificial model with new high-level product attribute data to quickly obtain an approximate impact assessment for a new product concept. Tests based on simplified inventory data have shown it is possible to predict impacts on life-cycle energy consumption, and that there is a basis for the method to be used in also predicting solid material, greenhouse effect, ozone layer depletion, acidification, eutrophication, winter smog, and summer smog.


Abstract The species pool concept has been used as a theoretical framework for understanding local community richness. A significant problem in putting the concept into practice is the lack of methods for determining the size of the species pool. We tested the hypothesis that species composition of recent forests is primarily determined by the species composition of neighbouring older forests against the null‐hypothesis that species are a random sample of the species occurring in the study area. Forest plant species composition of recently established fragments was significantly correlated with species composition in neighbouring older forests (i.e. the local species pool). When older forest within a neighbourhood of 1000m radius is considered, seed dispersal sources can be found for 91% of the flora in the recent forests. For an individual fragment, dispersal is a much more important determinant of species presence than the environment, with an average of 46% of the total pool excluded from local pools by dispersal limitation and only 8% excluded by environmental limitations. The species richness of recent forests is on average 23% of the local species pool. Several hypotheses are proposed for this low percentage, such as asymmetric competition due to the early successional state or the limited colonization period. Nomenclature:Lambinon et al. (1998). Abbreviations: TSP = All species occurring in the 241 inventoried forest fragments, which is the full forest resource in the study area; ESPSP = The subset of the TSP potentially occurring within the limits of the habitat hypervolume model of a specific forest fragment; DUPSP = The subset of the TSP occurring within a neighbourhood of 100, 500 and 1000 m around a specific forest fragment; LSP = Those species that belong to both, the ESPSP and the DUPSP (i.e. all species that can potentially reach and establish in a specific forest fragment); OCR = Those species which actually occur in the recent forest fragment; Relative richness = (OCR/LSP) × 100.


Sitting posture can have a significant effect on an individual's health. Machine learning can be used to assess the "healthiness" of a given sitting posture. A target equation was conceived and applied with input data into a neural network learning algorithm. The resulting trained neural network was successful in assessing the healthiness of the sitting postures of four hypothetical cases. The neural network design brings us one step closer to an artificially intelligent chair that can alert users if their sitting postures are unhealthy.


We present a new technique for the evaluation/selection procedures of genetic algorithms, to be used in the context of parameter estimation problems. The proposed algorithm uses a priori information about the structure of the surface of which an extremum is being searched. For parameter estimation problems, the availability, at each iteration of a genetic algorithm, of a collection of samples of the ambiguity surface of the problem, enables the determination of the correlation between the observed ambiguity surface (at the sampled points) and the predicted ambiguity surface. The consideration of this information allows early detection of secondary extrema (which yield an ambiguity surface which does not correlate well with the observed one) and thus contributes to speed the convergence of the algorithm to the global optimal values. The paper applies the proposed technique to a source localization problem.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of servant leadership in organizations in Karachi and to investigate the level of knowledge sharing (KS) behavior among employees.  This study will explore the key qualities of servant leadership to be extracted from the literature and relate each trait with KS tendency. The study would base on quantitative design & followed post positivism research paradigm. The primary data has been collected from respondents of specific industry through survey questionnaire. Multiple regression has been used for model testing. The findings of the study enlightened benefits of knowledge sharing behavior that can be prevailed through servant leadership model and encourage employees' participation. Four traits of servant leadership which are altruistic calling, emotional healing persuasive mapping and organizational stewardship has impact on knowledge sharing behavior of employees at workplace. The findings of the study will be beneficial for the managers and employees of the organization to understand the importance of servant leadership & its application in enterprises.


OBJECTIVE
To explore themechanism of tauroursodeoxycholic acid- (TUDCA) mediated neuronal protection after acute spinal cord injury (ASCI) in rats. Methods: ASCI rat model was established following modified Allen's weight-drop method and these rats were assigned to sham group (received sham operation), model group (ASCI rats), TUDCA group (ASCI rats received TUDCA treatment), MK2206 group (ASCI rats received AKT inhibitor MK2206 orally) and TUDCA + MK2206 group. Motor function of rats was evaluated using Basso Beattie Bresnahan (BBB) method. Hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining was used to detect histopathologic changes in the spinal cord and TUNEL fluorescence staining was used to check apoptosis. Real time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blot were employed to detect the production of AKT pathway related factors, apoptosis related factors (Bax, Bcl-2, caspase-3), autophagy related factor Beclin-1 and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress related factors (IRE1, Chop, ATF6) in spinal cord of rats.

RESULTS
Compared to the rats in the sham group, rats in ASCI group had decreased BBB scores (P<0.05), more significant tissue edema, structural cavity and apoptosis. Compared to rats in sham group, AKT pathway was inactivated in ASCI rats and was activated by TUDCA treatment (P<0.05). Compared to sham group, expressions of ER stress-related factors were increased, apoptosis was largely induced in other four groups, and expression of Beclin-1 was increased in the model group (P<0.05). TUDCA increased the expression of Beclin-1 and Bcl-2, and inhibited the expression of Bax, Caspase-3, and ER stress-related factors, thus suppressing apoptosis (P<0.05). Treatment by MK2206 had contrary effects and protective effects of TUDCA on ASCI rats could be counteracted by MK2206.

CONCLUSION
TUDCA can significantly improve the neural damage, enhance neuron autophagy, alleviate ER stress, and inhibit apoptosis in ASCI rats, by activating the AKT signaling pathway.


I belong to what I would call "the English-speaking" generation of those Romanians, whose low interest in the French culture is a matter of concern and a sign of decadence in the eyes of the older generations. Even so, I have always felt the French melancholia that is haunting the Romanian society and the Romanian – French links that are still strong. In Romania, the political, administrative, juridical and cultural systems follow French patterns and in turn, the Romanians have brought a notable contribution to the development of Francophony.


ABSTRACT: CP‐101,606 is a postsynaptic antagonist of N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptors bearing the NR2B subunit. When administered intravenously (i.v.), it decreases the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and focal ischemia in animal models. Therapeutic plasma concentrations (200 ng/ml) in animals, have been well tolerated in healthy human volunteers. The purpose of the present dose escalation study was to assess the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of CP‐101,606 in subjects who had suffered either an acute severe TBI (Glasgow Coma Scale 3–8) or spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage. Thirty patients, 20 with a TBI and 10 with a stroke, were enrolled in the trial and began receiving an i.v. infusion of CP‐101,606 for 2 hours, 24 hours, or 72 hours within 12 hours of brain injury. For the first two hours, the drug was given a rate of 0.75 mg/kg/hr and then stopped ( n= 17 ) or continued for 22 ( n= 2 ) or 70 hours ( n= 11 ) at 0.37 mg/kg/hr. Plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were collected at serial times during and after treatment. There were no consistent changes in blood pressure or pulse nor any clinically significant hematological or electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities attributable to CP‐101,606. No adverse events or behavioral changes were considered to be related to the drug. Plasma concentrations of CP‐101,606 over 200 ng/ml were rapidly achieved in the blood and CSF within two hours and were sustained there as long as the drug was infused. CSF concentrations were slightly higher than that in plasma by the end of infusion suggesting good penetration of CP‐101,606 into the CSF. Outcome in the severe TBI patients, as measured by the Glasgow Outcome Score at six months, suggested that a two‐hour infusion yielded a range of scores similar to contemporary patients with a severe TBI treated at our hospital while the outcomes of the patients treated with either a 24‐ or 72‐hour infusion were better on average. Thus, these results indicate that CP‐101,606 infused for up to 72 hours is well tolerated, penetrates the CSF and brain, and may improve outcome in the brain‐injured patient.


The evolution of complex software systems is promoted by software engineering principles and techniques like separation of concerns, encapsulation, stepwise refinement, and reusability of design solutions. Design patterns capture the expertise for reusable design solutions. Aspect-oriented programming is a methodology that enables the modularization of cross-cutting concerns. Traceability links designate dependencies between requirements, design, and source code. In order to support maintenance, documentation has to enable understandability by describing these issues. Descriptions have to facilitate tool support for automating documentation activities. In this paper, we use the notion of patterns, aspects and traces for a homogeneous documentation approach. We integrate various types of documentation, keep track of traces from requirements to the source code, keep design information in the source code, and generate additional design views on software systems. We have implemented these ideas as an extension to javadoc, the documentation approach used by Java. This extension can be used to automatically generate views on the design and on aspects as well as on traceability links as part of the standard javadoc system documentation.


A novel bacterial strain, designated LP91T, was isolated from an agricultural field contaminated with hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) isomers at Ummari Village, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Cells of the strain were aerobic, short rod or coccoid, Gram-stain-negative and non-motile. Colonies of the strain were initially transparent but with time changed to a creamy white colour. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA marker gene showed that it was closely associated with Paracoccus aestuariivivens GHD-30T (99.1 %) and Paracoccus limosus NB88T (98.0 %), followed by Paracoccus laeviglucosivorans 43PT (97.9 %) and Paracoccus marinus KKL-A5T (97.0 %). The DNA-DNA hybridization values of strain LP91T with the closely related type strains mentioned above were below 51.2±0.64 %, confirming it as a distinct species from other known species of the genus Paracoccus. The major cellular fatty acids of strain LP91T were C18 : 0 ω7c/C18 : 0 ω6c and C16 : 0. The major polar lipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine and aminophospholipid, along with other lipids including glycolipids, aminolipids and other unknown phosphoglycolipids. Spermine was the major polyamine, along with putrescine in a minor amount. Ubiquinone (Q-10) was the sole isoprenoid quinone. Based on the results of phylogenetic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic analysis, it is proposed that the isolate represents a new species of the genus Paracoccus, for which the name Paracoccus sordidisoli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LP91T (=KCTC 42938T=CCM 8696T=MCC 3128T).


The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation of maternal pain catastrophizing score with children who underwent circumcision postoperative pain. This prospective cohort study was performed between March 2022 and March 2023 at Samsun University, Turkey. Demographic characteristics of mothers and children, mothers' education level, presence of chronic pain, and Beck Depression Inventory scores were recorded preoperatively. Pain catastrophizing was assessed by applying the pain catastrophizing scale (PCS) to the mothers of children who experienced postoperative circumcision pain. The mothers were divided into low-pain catastrophizing (Group 1) and high-pain catastrophizing (Group 2) group. A total of 197 mothers and sons participated in the study, with 86 (43.6%) in Group 1 and 111 (56.4%) in Group 2. Significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of the mothers' PCS scores (p < 0.001), education levels (p = 0.004), chronic pain scores (p = 0.022), and Beck Depression Inventory scores (p < 0.001). Our findings showed that children with high pain catastrophizing mothers experience greater postoperative pain than those with low pain catastrophizing mothers. This may be attributable to a mother's specific cognitive style for coping with pain, which is associated with the child's responses to painful experiences.


Altered cytokine metabolism has been implicated in the pathogenesis of alcoholic liver disease. Recently, autoantibodies to cytokines have been proposed to act as modifiers of cytokine functions. In this study plasma levels of anti‐interleukin‐1α (IL‐1α autoantibodies and anti‐IL‐6 autoantibodies were determined by RIAs in 96 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis and in 16 healthy individuals. After 19 months (median) the prognostic significance of the cytokine autoantibodies was investigated using univariate analysis (Log‐rank test) and multivariate regression analysis (Cox model). The seroprevalences of anti‐IL‐1α autoantibodies and anti‐IL‐6 autoantibodies (42 and 18%, respectively) in the patients were not different from healthy individuals and did not relate to severity of liver disease. The presence of anti‐IL‐1α autoantibodies was of no prognostic significance. Independent of severity of liver disease, patients with anti‐IL‐6 autoantibodies in plasma had a higher risk of acquiring infections and higher risk of death (P < 0.02) compared to patients without anti‐IL‐6 autoantibodies. The authors concluded that anti‐IL‐6 autoantibodies are associated with increased mortality when present in the plasma of patients with alcoholic cirrhosis, which is probably secondary to recurrent infections, but not to underlying severity of liver disease.


This paper deals with the rectangle packing problem, of filling a big rectangle with smaller rectangles, while the rectangle dimensions are real numbers. A new nonlinear programming formulation is presented and the validity of the formulation is proved. In addition, two cases of the problem are presented, with and without rotation of smaller rectangles by 90 ◦ . The mixed integer piecewise linear formulation derived from the model is given, but with a simple form of the objective function.


Functional properties of living tissues appear in PET, whereas structural information at significantly higher resolution and better image quality is provided by other modalities, such as CT or MRI. We illustrate how structural information of matched anatomic images can be used as priors in the total variation denoising and blind deconvolution of functional PET images. Experiments on phantom images and clinical data validate the proposed method.


Using the 'diffusion-convection' approximation, the available data on the measured cosmic-ray electron spectra have been demodulated to obtain a local interstellar electron spectrum near the Solar System. From the accumulated data, anomalous modulation of interstellar electrons has been observed in the years 1972-5. Excluding the data in the anomalous modulation period, the local interstellar electron spectrum obtained is as follows: j0(E(GeV))=(32.7-1.6+1.7)E-1.41+or-0.09 (m-2 s-1 sr-1 GeV-1) for 0.3 GeV<or=E<2.6 GeV and j0(E(GeV))=(86-25+35)E-2.41+or-0.21 (m-2 s-1 sr-1 GeV-1) for 2.6 GeV<or=E<12 GeV. The spectrum is in line with the high-energy electron spectra obtained by Prince (1979) and others. However, below 2.6 GeV, the spectral index is obviously smaller than those derived from the radio data. The implication of the discrepancy is discussed.


This article aims to analyze the Qur'an's response in responding to hoax news. hoax information dissemination on social media is a phenomenon that threatens ukhuwah Islamiyah in the nation and state. The existence of hoax content in the universe of social media has a significant negative impact that has succeeded in making the community divided, such as making proactive content, propaganda, turning facts around. The author uses the maudhu'i method as the blade of his analysis. The results of this study conclude that God condemns the perpetrators of hoaxes spreaders. The Koran also recommends always telling the truth. He is the act of those who obey God. By maintaining the correct words, the spread of hoaxes will be increasingly minimal. Furthermore, besides saying the truth, the Koran and the hadith also instructed Muslims to always do tabayyun or clarification of the arrival of the news. Even this clarification is also very directed at religious leaders to always oversee the arrival of the news and clarified the truth.


Large real estate portfolios generate such high data volumes that computer systems have become essential tools for successful portfolio management. Among other things, they should be able to provide portfolio analyses, reports, and scenarios to support portfolio managers in their daily work. Furthermore, portfolio management systems should support the decision-making of portfolio managers and their superiors. This is a requirement we deduce from the fact that important decisions are required in the portfolio management processes, such as the property sales and purchases. It is not known whether the systems used in practice meet the latter requirement because there are no relevant studies available. There is also a lack of research into the details of decision-making in portfolio management and into measuring the effectiveness of decision support systems (DSS) in general.Our paper aims to help close these three knowledge gaps. First we deal with decision support systems in general and derive from the literature and our preliminary studies specific criteria to assess the quality of a DSS. Then we present an ideal portfolio management process, which we also derive from the literature and other studies. Unlike previous investigations, we elaborate on the decisions made during the process. Finally, in the empirical part of the paper, we use our assessment scheme to examine five portfolio management systems applied by major European real estate companies. The results indicate that while the systems offer good support for day-to-day management, they are hardly suitable to support decision-making. More research is needed to validate the assessment instrument and to obtain a complete picture of decision-making in real estate portfolio management.


Molecular dynamics simulation has been used to investigate the behaviour of a water nanodroplet on a hydrophobic surface under an applied electric field. The model system mimics a typical electrowetting-on-dielectric experiment of an open-plate coplanar electrodes system. Given the various strengths of the electrode-induced field, variations in contact angle of the droplet, hydrogen bonding and diffusion coefficient of the water molecules are disclosed. Their main findings are: (i) nanodroplet displays asymmetric electrowetting in contact angle measurement; (ii) water molecules and the entire droplet are slightly positively biased; (iii) more water hydrogen bonds are maintained in the positive side, in both the first and the second hydration layer to the surface; and (iv) water diffusion is higher in parallel to the surface than the normal direction.


This article highlights the opportunities and consequences of the Fourth Industrial Revolution for business management daily. The primary objective of the research is to comprehend how the economy has evolved over the last two centuries and the implications for business and market competition. Contemporary events have contributed to the continued evolution of the opportunities and adaptability that the Industrial Revolution offered the business community. These two concepts have enabled a much more appropriate risk management approach. Many businesses have begun to utilize their resources in novel and innovative ways, allowing them to remain afloat even during the current global pandemic. The authors have found that with the help of the tools provided by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, businesses and business owners can better navigate these trying times and have been permitted to reinvent themselves easier. Thus, this article presents a theoretical framework for analyzing how the Industrial Revolutions have been perceived throughout history, emphasizing the most recent one. A formulation of the most pervasive features and the aspects associated with them would be derived as an outcome of the existing literature review, allowing space for further analysis in future studies in which one can elaborate on each aspect presented in this current paper. The findings indicate that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a vast subject that can be approached in various ways. The business perspective allows the reader to dive into the current economic situation and helps provide a broad picture of all the sectors affected by this global crisis, be it political, geographical, or cultural. The results of the research can be used to gain a better understanding of the position where the business world finds itself, and the importance of adaptability and innovation in this scenario.


When the era of Constructivismis laced with a broad range of Web2.0 tools, a new form of learning has evolved. Knowledge construction and deconstruction has become easier as the means to write and rewrite information has continued to evolve. Wikipedia is one of the most powerful instruments through which this digital revolution of knowledge creation, co-creation and access has been redefined. This paper is a treatise, exploring the ease with which Wikipedia can be assimilated within the curriculum and how even a secondary school student can add to the immense world of knowledge. Wikipedia is a free access, free content platform that offers every person the capability and easy-to-use tools to become a contributor of knowledge. Since its inception in 2001, the online encyclopaedia hasgrown with a burgeoning number of articles being added, modified and reviewed by contributors worldwide by the second. The very nature of the website is collaborative, thus enabling collective learning and cooperative exchange of information. Placing a student in this infinite space as a collaborative contributor of information, which is governed by the website's stringent governance policies and is open to review and critique across the world, makes him or her a conscientious creator of verified knowledge which consolidates the learning at the highest taxonomic level of education. This curricular integration * Research Scholar, School of Education, Christ University, Bengaluru, India; email@example.com Artha J Soc Sci ISSN 0975-329X 38 of Wikipedia could thus be the very essence of constructivism, making it a highly desirable and viable method of digitising any pedagogy.