Pomalidomide is an immunomodulatory drug and the dosage of 4 mg per day taken orally on days 1‐21 of repeated 28‐day cycles has been approved in the European Union and United States to treat patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Because pomalidomide is extensively metabolized prior to excretion, a total of 32 subjects (8 healthy subjects in group 1; 8 subjects with severe hepatic impairment in group 2; 8 subjects with moderate hepatic impairment in group 3; and 8 subjects with mild hepatic impairment in group 4) were enrolled in a multicenter, open‐label, single‐dose study to assess the impact of hepatic impairment on pomalidomide exposure. Following administration of a single oral dose of 4‐mg pomalidomide, the geometric mean ratios of pomalidomide total plasma exposures (AUC) were 171.5%, 157.5%, and 151.2% and the geometric mean ratios of pomalidomide plasma peak exposures (Cmax) were 75.8%, 94.8%, and 94.2% for subjects with severe, moderate, or mild hepatic impairment, respectively, versus healthy subjects. Pomalidomide administered as a single oral 4‐mg dose was safe and well tolerated by healthy subjects and subjects with severe, moderate, or mild hepatic impairment. Based on the pharmacokinetic results from this study, the pomalidomide prescribing information approved by the US Food and Drug Administration recommends for patients with mild or moderate hepatic impairment (Child‐Pugh classes A or B), a 3‐mg starting daily dose (25% dose reduction) and for patients with severe hepatic impairment (Child‐Pugh class C), a 2‐mg starting daily dose (50% dose reduction).


Purpose. We investigated retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death and activation of caspase 9 in rats with experimental glaucoma. Methods. Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) was induced in rats using the Morrison model. Surviving backlabeled RGC were counted and TUNEL staining detected apoptosis. Procaspase 9 expression and activated caspase 9 were studied by immunoblot and immunohistochemistry. Results. IOP correlated with surviving RGC. TUNELpositive RGC were observed in animals with elevated IOP. Procaspase 9 levels increased with IOP intensity. Cleaved caspase 9 was detected by immunoblot only in rats with peak IOP above 35mmHg for =6 days. Cleaved caspase 9 staining was seen only in the ganglion cell layer of retinas from rats with peak IOP =32mmHg. Conclusions. RGC loss is correlated with IOP in experimental glaucoma. These results support activation of caspase 9, the intrinsic caspase cascade, in RGC death in experimental glaucoma.


Soybean is the most important protein source in animal nutrition and is widely used in poultry diets. Several factors influence the concentration of amino acids present in soybean grains cultivated in Brazil, such as climatic changes, genetics, topography, and soil fertility. Many technologies of soybean processing are used in order to eliminate or inactivate both heat-labile and heat-stable anti-nutritional factors. During processing, soybean by-products with different nutritional values are also produced. Processing conditions may as well affect the coefficients of digestibility of nutrients that are present in soybean protein sources. Furthermore, positive and negative effects of the environment may be masked by changes in processing conditions. This study aimed to compare the levels of crude protein and essential and non-essential amino acids in soybean samples collected in the states of Goias, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Parana, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina during the harvest of 2003/2004 in Brazil. Measurements were made using NIRS (Near Infrared System of Reflectance Spectroscopy), and expressed on an "as-fed" basis. Soybeans sampled in different states evidenced nutritional differences. It is worth noting that samples collected in Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul and Mato Grosso do Sul presented high levels of essential amino acids. The analyzed levels of essential amino acids were not always directly related to the protein concentrations of the samples. Because of the diversity of growing conditions in Brazil and worldwide, soybean produced in different environmental conditions is expected to show variable protein composition and quality, as demonstrated in the present study.


English Language Learners (ELLs) is the fastest growing segment of the public school population. Today's schools face unprecedented challenges in preparing ELLs as they lack instructional supports and fair and valid assessments to support academic learning in classroom settings. This study invokes the principles of design-based research, where both qualitative and quantitative data were triangulated and analyzed to further advance the theory of multimodality and assessment within a sociocultural perspective for linguistically diverse students in two sixth grade classrooms during a unit in photosynthesis. The main research question guiding this study: How do multimodal tasks support science learning in linguistically diverse classrooms? This question leads to three main perspectives, first I examine the two teachers' perspectives on the use of multimodal tasks, next the students' perspectives on the use of multimodal tasks and finally using a science and language learning rubric, which I created, I examine student learning in the classrooms based on students' English learner status and proficiencies in English language arts, science, and vocabulary acquisition and usage. The teachers used some multimodal tasks to communicate ideas and the students created visual diagrams and comic strips to represent their understanding of photosynthesis. Results show the specific scaffolding strategies used by the teachers during the tasks, like analogies, contextualization of vocabulary use, re-representation of ideas through different modes and re-representation of modes in every task were also appropriated by the students. Rubric scoring indicated ELLs had the highest gains in the scores in the visual diagrams, redesignated students had the highest scores in the comic strip and those designated as above proficient in language arts and science had the highest scores in final visual diagram, indicating how ELL status, proficiencies in language arts and science influence the integration of science and language learning. With the advent of Next Generation Science Standards and related assessments, the findings illustrate the importance of aligning the multimodal tasks to learning goals, weaving links amongst the multimodal tasks, modeling the use of representational tasks for ELLs to integrate the understanding of science content and language and assessing students' learning over time using visual representational tasks.


This clinical case report describes and demonstrates successful use of recombinant human platelet-derived growth factor (rhPDGF-BB) in conjunction with autogenous bone, anorganic bone mineral, and barrier membranes to reconstruct severe alveolar bone defects. A combined sinus augmentation and vertical alveolar ridge augmentation was successfully performed. In addition, a significant amount of periodontal bone gain was achieved in close apposition to a previously denuded root surface, which is significant from a periodontal standpoint, given the possibility of vertical periodontal regeneration.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to offer insights into the hiring process for candidates seeking entry-level and mid-range librarian positions at ARL public university libraries. Whether a recent librarian graduate, a seasoned librarian seeking a different academic institution or a librarian transitioning into academia from a different library environment, an understanding of how search committees function and the importance they contribute to identifying the best candidate can be beneficial to any job seeker.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper offers universal best practices, techniques and "keys" to unlocking the secrets of the recruitment process from the candidate's perspective to help librarians seeking employment in an Association of Research Libraries (ARLs) public university environment. The scope of this paper is for entry level and mid-range librarians, but some ARL's do use executive search firms for upper level administrative positions.

Findings

This paper describes the search process, offers insiders' perspectives and provides techniques along with best practices on how to be a successful applicant and candidate.

Practical implications

As experienced professionals who have served on search committees, this paper explains the "keys" to best practices and how to enhance one's resume and curriculum vita.

Originality/value

This paper walks potential job candidates through the process of how to apply and what to expect during an ARL Library Search Committee application review.


Purpose of research. The aim of the study is to evaluate changes in density, Agatston score, Volume and Mass scores of coronary calcium at different scanning parameters using phantom measurement.Materials and methods. 8 1-ml insulin syringes filled with potassium hydroorthophosphate solution of different densities were used in the study. The syringes were placed at regular intervals into two phantoms: type 1 phantom – container filled with water; type 2 phantom – Chest Phantom N1 "LUNGMAN". The phantoms were scanned with a Philips Ingenuity Elite CT 128 scanner using protocols with different voltages (80, 100, 120, 140 kV), amperage (27–45, 166, 330–400 mA), and slice thickness (0.625, 1, 2.5, 3 mm).Results. Density and Agatston indexes were obtained at different scanning parameters (voltage, amperage, slice thickness) for different factors of calcification density in both phantoms. The results are presented as a table with mean density values, standard deviation (SD), Agatston score of coronary calcium, and scanning parameters.Conclusion. The study demonstrates the influence of various scanning parameters on coronary artery calcium scoring results. The obtained information can be used in practice for more accurate quantification of coronary artery calcium, regardless of the scanning parameters.


Summary
Five temperate Agrobacterium phages, two of which are defective, and one presumed temperate, phage PS8, isolated from crown gall tissue, were prepared, purified and compared.
The four phages, omega, PS8, PB2A and LV-1, were indistinguishable. They possess a hexagonal head of about 70 nm. with a flexible tail about 200 nm. long. Their DNA had a T
m
of 92.7° ± 0.1°, a % GC of 56.7 ± 0.2, a mol. wt of 34.1 × 106 and comprised the four normal bases A, T, G and C. No evidence was found for repetitive units in PB2A. These four genome DNA types gave 100% hybridization (limit of error 6%). The electrophoretic protein profiles on SDS polyacrylamide gels are essentially identical: four major bands with similar mol. wt. About half of the phage protein has a mol. wt of 48,000 (perhaps a major head protein), about one-third has a mol. wt of 30,000, one sixth has a mol. wt of 15,500 and 4% has a mol. wt of 69,000. No omega-type prophage DNA was detectable in the cured bacteria v-ic by DNA:DNA hybridization. The latter bacteria were as pathogenic as the prophage-containing parent strain v-i, which throws some doubt on the role of the omega phage group in crown gall induction.
The phage-like particle P0362, isolated from the pathogenic Agrobacterium tumefaciens 0362 had a 60 to 70 nm. head and a straight 130 nm. tail. Its DNA was double-stranded with a slightly lower T
m
of 92.4°, a mol. wt of 25 × 106. The electrophoretic profiles of coat proteins differed from those of the other phages. Its DNA is less than 17% homologous with the omega group. The eventual role of this phage in crown gall induction remains to be established.
The phage-like particle P8149, isolated from the non-pathogenic Agrobacterium radiobacter
ncib 8149, was quite different. The bipyramidal head was much smaller (40 nm. diameter) and had a very short bud-like tail. The DNA was double-stranded, with a T
m
of 93.9°, a mol. wt of 10 × 106. The electrophoretic profile of the coat proteins differed from those of the other phages. The DNA does not hybridize with the omega group. As this phage was isolated from a non-pathogenic A. radiobacter, it probably has no function in crown gall. A. radiobacter 8149 is bilysogenic.


Background There is compelling evidence that voluntary medical male circumcision reduces the chances of heterosexual transmission of HIV infection. Health care workers are among the key influencers in terms of scale up of VMMC as they are often involved in mobilization for uptake. Adequate knowledge and competence are essential to ensuring that the delivery of VMMC services is line with the recommended comprehensive package of HIV prevention services. Aim The aim of this study was to analyse health care service providers' conceptions, experiences and understanding of VMMC in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Methods The study employed a qualitative approach using a phenomenographic design. Ethical clearance to conduct the study was obtained from the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (BE627/18).Data were collected from a purposive sample of 15 health care worker who were doctors, nurses and clinical associates working in six different rural clinics in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Individual in-depth interviews were used collect data guided by a semi-structured interview schedule. An audiotape was used to record the interviews, which were then transcribed verbatim, and analysed thematically. Results Categories of description in healthcare providers' experiences, conceptions and understanding of voluntary medical male circumcision emerged. The findings of this study revealed that health care workers conceptions, experiences and understanding of VMMC were influenced by stereotypical cultural, religious and traditional beliefs. The challenges of implementing VMMC were shortage of staff and poor training of health care workers on VMMC. Conclusion Tailored messaging targeting health care workers misconceptions and poor understanding of VMMC in necessary. In addition, resource allocation for training and infrastructure could significantly improve the quality of VMMC services and uptake thereof.


The 2020 Decennial Census will be released with a new disclosure avoidance system in place, putting differential privacy in the spotlight for a wide range of data users. We consider several key applications of Census data in redistricting, developing tools and demonstrations for practitioners who are concerned about the impacts of this new noising algorithm called TopDown. Based on a close look at reconstructed Texas data, we find reassuring evidence that TopDown will not threaten the ability to produce districts with tolerable population balance or to detect signals of racial polarization for Voting Rights Act enforcement.


Polyphenols are phytochemicals present in plants that contribute to their antioxidant and different pharmacological activities. Flavonoids comprise of one class of polyphenols which play a beneficial role in preventing free radical damage and owe its antioxidant property. Lipid peroxidation and lipid-derived oxidized products have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of human diseases. To clarify the role of oxidative stress in prevention of atherosclerosis and hypercholesterolemia, the antioxidant status of plant extracts of Oroxylum indicum, Vitis vinifera and Policosanol isolated from, Saccharum officinarum were selected for the study.The extracts were evaluated by in vitro methods by monitoring the production of malondialdehyde as Thiobarbituric acid Reacting Substances (TBARs). The antihypperlipidemic activity was examined in cholesterol induced hyperlipidemic model using Albino Wistar rats.The result of the study exhibited significant reduction in total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL-C, VLDL-C levels and remarkable increase in the level of HDL-C when compared to standard lovastatin drug. The artherogenic index and LDL-C: HDL-C risk ratio was also reduced to significant extent in the group treated with extracts. The levels of SGOT and SGPT were estimated and found to be significantly less than that of hyperlipidemic control group.The highest antihyperlipidemic activity was exhibited by total extract of the bark of Oroxylum indicum followed by extracts of fruits of Vitis vinifera and Policosanol isolated from sugarcane wax. Keywords: - Polyphenols, Antihyperlipidemic, Antioxidant, Oroxylum indicum, Vitis vinifera, Policosanol


Abstract The design of an auxiliary signal processor for a multiparameter radar is described with emphasis on low cost, quick development, and minimum disruption of radar operations. The processor is based around a low-cost digital signal processor card and personal computer controller. With the use of such a concept, an auxiliary processor was implemented for the NCAR CP-2 radar during a 1991 summer field campaign and allowed measurement of additional polarimetric parameters, namely, the differential phase and the copolar cross correlation. Sample data are presented from both the auxiliary and existing radar signal processors.


Pseudomonal ecthyma gangrenosum is a well-known condition in immunosuppressed patients. However, ecthyma gangrenosum associated with Klebsiella pneumoniae is a rare entity that requires early recognition and optimal antibiotic and surgical management. We herein report the first case of colistin & carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae ecthyma gangrenosum in an acute myeloid leukemia patient. A 30-year-old female with acute myeloid leukemia received induction chemotherapy at the National Institute of Blood Diseases and Bone Marrow Transplantation hospital. Post-chemotherapy, she developed fever and a necrotic erythematous papule on right forearm. Colistin-susceptible carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae was isolated in cultures. Susceptibility testing was performed by microbroth dilution method. Worsening necrotic lesion prompted surgical debridement. Histopathology of debrided tissue revealed necrotic inflammation, and tissue cultures grew colistin-resistant carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (colistin minimum inhibitory concentration >4 µg/mL). We speculate that colistin resistance was acquired due to impaired antibiotic penetration in necrotic nidus. A higher incidence of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae-associated ecthyma gangrenosum is anticipated in hem-oncology patients, and timely diagnosis, appropriate antibiotics, and surgical debridement remain the only potential cure.


The results of experiments on the 510 → 578-nm conversion of high-power radiation from a copper vapour laser (CVL) in a dye cell are presented. The use of the efficient laser dye Pyrromethane 597 (PM-597) made it possible to convert the 120-W CVL radiation (72 W at 510 nm + 48 W at 578 nm) into 102-W radiation at 578 nm, which is equivalent to a conversion efficiency of 85%. Photostability of the dye in various solvents is studied. The photostability (more than 45 GJ mole-1) of PM-597 in n-heptane is found to be higher than that of Rh 6G in ethanol.


Understanding the leakage and rotordynamic performance of a hole-pattern annular seal is critical to the design of a centrifugal pump regarding vibration characteristics and stability. The growing interest in 2-phase pumping, handling gas components in the oil stream directly, brings more challenges to pump design. This paper studies the leakage and rotordynamic performance of a hole-patten annular seal under bubbly (oil/air) flow conditions. The test seal's length-to-diameter ratio is 0.75. The rotor surface is smooth, and the seal inner surface is textured (65% of the area is occupied by round holes with a depth of 2.5 mm). The test fluid is comprised of silicone oil and air, and the gas volume fraction GVF at the seal inlet is from zero to 9.3%. Tests also cover two pressure drops (44.8 and 55.1 bars) and three rotor speeds (5, 10, and 15 krpm). Test results showed that adding air to the oil (inlet GVF up to 9.3%) has a small impact on mass flow leakage. Mass flow leakage increases slightly (by ∼4%) as inlet GVF increases from zero to 3.4% and then decreases slightly (by < 5%) as inlet GVF is further increased to 9.3%. As inlet GVF increases, measured values of direct stiffness K, direct damping C, cross-coupled damping c, and direct virtual-mass M decrease. Adding air to the oil (inlet GVF up to 9.3%) shows no obvious impact on measured cross-coupled stiffness k and measured effective damping Ceff. Measurements are also used to examine San Andres's bulk-flow model (2011, "Rotordynamic Force Coefficients of Bubbly Mixture Annular Pressure Seals," ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power, 134(2), p. 022503). The model shows limited capability in predicting the performance of the hole-pattern seal under mainly-oil conditions. The discrepancy between the experimental results and theoretical predictions calls for more improvements in the predictive model to handle hole-pattern seals with mainly-oil mixtures.


The understanding of transition in shear flows has recently progressed along new paradigms based on the central role of coherent flow structures and their nonlinear interactions. We follow such paradigms to identify, by means of a nonlinear optimization of the energy growth at short time, the initial perturbation which most easily induces transition in a boundary layer. Moreover, a bisection procedure has been used to identify localized flow structures living on the edge of chaos, found to be populated by hairpin vortices and streaks. Such an edge structure appears to act as a relative attractor for the trajectory of the laminar base state perturbed by the initial finite-amplitude disturbances, mediating the route to turbulence of the flow, via the triggering of a regeneration cycle of Λ and hairpin structures at different space and time scales. These findings introduce a new, purely nonlinear scenario of transition in a boundary-layer flow.


Stable chitosan-protected noble metal nanocages of relatively small size (∼50 nm) were successfully synthesized by the galvanic replacement reaction between the corresponding silver nanoparticles and HAuCl4 in aqueous suspension. A broad surface plasmon band peaked around 700 nm and extended to the near-infrared was observed by properly changing the experimental conditions. To test the performance, the nanocages were functionalized with 10,12-pentacosadiynoic acid (PCDA) chains and then irradiated with UV light to induce monomer polymerization. A very high polymer conversion was observed. The time evolution of the electronic absorption and Raman spectra showed a variety of polydiacetylenic forms, including the unusual highly delocalized bluish-green phase. The nanocages act as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) active substrates with all our available excitation lines and show improved Raman activity in comparison with data from both silver and gold colloids. The shift of the plasmonic band to the N...


Objectives: Pancreatic serous cystadenomas (SCAs) are benign tumors. Technological advances in imaging have led to increased recognition of asymptomatic pancreatic cysts, consequently increasing the demand for cytomorphologic evaluations of cyst fluid. Study Design: A retrospective search through the pathology archives over an 11-year period was performed to identify SCAs from pancreatectomy specimens with a presurgical pancreatic EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA). Results: Fifty-one FNAs were identified. The average patient age was 59.9 years and 34 (67%) were female. Thirty-five (69%) of the SCAs were located in the body or tail of the pancreas. SCAs ranged in size from 1.3 to 8.0 cm (mean 4.9). On imaging, features suggestive of SCA were seen in 7 (14%) cases. The cytologic diagnoses were as follows: SCA in 5 (10%) cases, suspicious for mucin-producing neoplastic cyst in 4 (8%), pseudocyst in 4 (8%), and benign ductal and/or acinar epithelium, not otherwise specified in 24 (47%). Additionally, 14 (27%) cases were deemed nondiagnostic. Conclusions: A cytopathologic diagnosis of SCA on FNA is extremely difficult. The salient cytomorphologic features for identifying SCAs included scant cellularity, a mostly clear background, absence of extracellular mucin, hemosiderin-laden macrophages, and loose fragments of cuboidal cells with a notable absence of necrosis, atypia, and mitoses.


A solver for the two-dimensional (2-D) Schrodinger equation based on the k-space representation of the solution has been developed and applied to the simulation of 2-D electrostatic quantum effects in nano-scale MOS transistors. This paper presents the mathematical framework of the simulator, addresses the related accuracy and efficiency problems, and discusses the simulations performed to validate it. Furthermore, the 2-D quantum effects observed in the simulation of charge densities in tens-hundreds nanometer scale MOS structures are described.


Investigation of the correlation between factors associated with crash development has enabled the implementation of methods aiming to avert and control crash causation at various points within the crash sequence (Evans, 2006). Partitioning the crash sequence is important because intricated crash causation sequences can be deconstructed and effective prevention strategies can be suggested (Wu & Thor, 2015). Towards this purpose, Tingvall et al. (2009) documented the so-called integrated safety chain which described the change of crash risk on the basis of a developing sequence of events that led to a collision. This thesis examines the crash sequence development and thus, the transition from normal driving to safety critical scenarios. [Continues.]


Abstract The new mineral feynmanite, Na(UO2)(SO4)(OH)·3.5H2O, was found in both the Blue Lizard and Markey mines, San Juan County, Utah, USA, where it occurs as a secondary phase on pyrite-rich asphaltum in association with chinleite-(Y), gypsum, goethite, natrojarosite, natrozippeite, plášilite, shumwayite (Blue Lizard) and wetherillite (Markey). The mineral is pale greenish yellow with a white streak and fluoresces bright greenish white under a 405 nm laser. Crystals are transparent with a vitreous lustre. It is brittle, with a Mohs hardness of ~2, irregular fracture and one perfect cleavage on {010}. The calculated density is 3.324 g cm–3. Crystals are thin needles or blades, flattened on {010} and elongate on [100], exhibiting the forms {010}, {001}, {101} and {10$\bar{1}$}, and are up to ~0.1 mm in length. Feynmanite is optically biaxial (–), with α = 1.534(2), β = 1.561(2) and γ = 1.571(2) (white light); 2Vmeas. = 62(2)°; no dispersion; and optical orientation: X = b, Y ≈ a, Z ≈ c. It is weakly pleochroic: X = colourless, Y = very pale green yellow and Z = pale green yellow (X < Y < Z). Electron microprobe analyses (WDS mode) provided (Na0.84Fe0.01)(U1.01O2)(S1.01O4)(OH)·3.5H2O. The five strongest powder X-ray diffraction lines are [dobs Å(I)(hkl)]: 8.37(100)(010), 6.37(33)($\bar{1}$01,101), 5.07(27)($\bar{1}$11,111), 4.053(46)(004,021) and 3.578(34)(120). Feynmanite is monoclinic, has space group P2/n, a = 6.927(3), b = 8.355(4), c = 16.210(7) Å, β = 90.543(4)°, V = 938.1(7) Å3 and Z = 4. The structure of feynmanite (R1 = 0.0371 for 1879 Io > 2σI) contains edge-sharing pairs of pentagonal bipyramids that are linked by sharing corners with SO4 groups, yielding a [(UO2)2(SO4)2(OH)2]2– sheet based on the phosphuranylite anion topology. The sheet is topologically identical to those in deliensite, johannite and plášilite. The dehydration of feynmanite to plášilite results in interlayer collapse involving geometric reconfiguration of the sheets and the ordering of Na.


The mechanical adaptability of elastomers has enormous potential in fields such as energy harvesting, micro electro mechanical system (MEMS), sensor, and actuator. A significant issue is to improve the mechanical features of the elastomeric base material by incorporating an appropriate filler. The elastomer Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is reinforced with carbon black (CB) particles that affect mechanical characteristics (Tensile strength, compressive strength, tear strength, etc) and that have a critical impact on the efficiency of the device. The current research examines the mechanical characteristics of plain PDMS with a concentration of CB filler between 5% and 25%. A solution casting method is used to prepare the composite substrate and investigate the impacts of CB loading performance on tensile, compression, tear, and hardness testing. The outcome shows an improvement in mechanical characteristics due to CB material for Young's module as 1.64–3.84 MPa, ultimate tensile strength as 1.86–4.8 MPa, 3.67–4.81 MPa compressive module with the same compressive strength up to 40 percent strain. The tear strength of the PDMS/CB composites is improved by ∼111 percent at 25 percent volume fraction of the CB. The composite hardness of PDMS/CB increases by about 30 percent of the plain PDMS material. Continuing with this, Additional mechanical characteristics of PDMS/CB composites on shear and bulk modules are reported.


The geostationary satellite COMS is going to be launched in 2010, and, in the series of test, there are some high-pressure tests concerning the vessel tank filled with helium gas of hundreds atmospheric pressure. In this paper, authors evaluates risk associated with accidental rupture of the test system. Two possible scenarios are considered: 1) the 310-bar helium tank ruptures at the center of the acoustic chamber, and 2) the 116-bar reduced-pressure helium tank ruptures in the test room shielded by bullet-proof glasses. Using the theory of blast wave propagation and computational simulation, the dynamics of wave reflected in a confined space is investigated for highly complex unsteady flow physics.


Indian estuaries have special features that are derived from occurrence of the wet Indian Summer Monsoon (JuneSeptember) and hence have been called monsoonal estuaries. High runoff during the wet season and a 8-month long dry season with tittle runoff lead to striking temporal changes in salinity and velocity fields in these estuaries. A Number of habitats that have adapted to such changes are found in the estuaries. The Climate Change will have an adverse impact on the habitats. So will local anthropogenic impacts, which in some cases are severe, because many large cities have grown on banks of the estuaries. The country needs a major programme involving research, education", legislation, and public awareness to keep them healthy.


A professional help is needed before a person can be declared as mentally ill. It is quite alarming that there are unreported cases of mental illness that needed help but people are afraid to seek consultation for fear of social stigma. This study aimed to assess the level of awareness and utilization of mental health services by caregivers of patients with maladaptive behaviour in Batangas Province. Descriptive type of research was used in this study. Data were collected through the use of a structured questionnaire and interview. The data were analysed using weighted mean. Results indicate that most of the patients with maladaptive behaviour were aged 35-44 years. Majority of them were male coming from the lower socioeconomic level. It was also found out that caregivers were aware of the different health services offered by the Department of Health; however, not all of them were available in the medical institution where they seek consultation. The only government hospital with mental health services in Batangas Province is the Regional Hospital situated in Batangas City. The study concluded that health services which should be available to patients were not fully implemented. Keywords - mental health, maladaptive behaviour, awareness, caregiver, health services


A one-pot synthesis of benzoyl-substituted fused pyrroles or indoles in moderate to high yields has been achieved by the photocyclization/photohydrolysis reactions of N-(ω-phenylalkynyl)-2-chloropyrrole-3-carbaldehydes or 3-acyl-N-(ω-phenylbutynyl)-2-haloindoles in wet acetone. The formation of all these products could be inferred by a two-step reactions, namely, photoinduced chlorine atom-transfer cyclization and subsequent photohydrolysis.


This paper propounds the philosophy behind the design of a sensing and data collection system for the handling of low-potential physiological signals used in the determination of astronaut well-being. The experience gained from Project Mercury manned flights and numerous studies performed by the NASA, industry, and university groups has contributed to the establishment of the design criteria. The actual hardware for support of the Gemini manned missions has been designed, built, and flight qualified.


The pwpose of this study was to assess employment opportunities of rVET trainees after graduation in Addis A baba and 10 identify factors that hinder the graduates to find wage employment and start selJemployment. To this end, an attempt was made to look in to the major [aclors that contribute 10 improve employment opportunities alld hinder self-employment and wage employments of graduates. In order to address 'he objective of the study, a comparative method was employed to see the current conditions of government, nOI/government and private rVET institutions, which had given training ill industrial and construction technology, with the assumption tliat it could help to know the curren! status of creating employment opporfltnities and their problems. These training institutions were selected based on pwposive sampling because to examine the out put of well experienced and newly established instiltltes and to evaluate job opportunities. The subjects of the study were two experts from Addis Ababa MSE Agency and AEB TVET Department, fOllr principals, JOllr vocational counselors, 40 trainers, 150 graduates, and 50 employers that participated in offering apprenticeship training or hiring TVET graduates. These subjects were selected based all available sampling technique. Principals, vocational counse/ors, and trainers were selected based on random sampling technique. Illformatioll was obtained using questionnaire, interview, observation and document analysis. The data were analyzed using percentage,freqllency and one way ANOVA. Th e findings oJthe study revealed that the managerial experience of principals, partnership with employer organization, labor market information system, training facility, and creating job opportunities of /lOll-government TVET institutiolls was beller than government and private institutions. Factors such as weak partnership, absence of incentives 10 encourage organizations to cooperate the trainees, during apprentices/III), and lack of labor market ill/ormation system have a negative influence 0 11 creating employment opportunities to TVET graduates. Regarding self-employment opportunities, social and economic factors were serious obstacles to create convenient cOl/tiitions. These also prevented them to exploit the benefits ofselJemploYlllent, access 10 credit, raw materials and market management. Above all, the support of Micro and Small scale Enterprise Agency and other supporters, to be self-employed, were low, too. Finally, the degree of employment opportunities of rVET trainees demollstrates that lIoll -government TVET institutions were higher than government and private rVET institutions. Therefore, the TVET institutes recommended that widen employment opportunities to their graduates, using good labor markel illformation, establishing unit of labor markel and allocating budget in the institutions. Th e institutions, also expected to peliorm activities like Occupational analysis, Vacancy Study, Tracer Study, training !leed assessment, establishing strong relationship with elltelprise, vocational guidance, job-searching advice, form clubs and cooperatives organized by the trainees .. Regarding self-employment opportunities, the City Micro and Small Scale Enterprise Agency, alld Sub-Citylkebele Admillistratiolls suggested that to work all facilitaling and forming of cooperatives, access to credit, supplying of raw materials alld other supports.


OBJECTIVES--To characterise the cellular interactions and the mechanisms involved in the recruitment of inflammatory macrophages and T cells to the bone implant interface in 30 patients with aseptically loosened orthopaedic prostheses. METHODS--Cell adhesion molecules E-selectin, VCAM-1, ICAM-1 and the receptors LFA-1 and CR3 were immunolocalised on cryostat sections of the bone-implant interface obtained during revision arthroplasty. The percentage of expression on vascular endothelium was determined on serial sections. RESULTS--E-selectin was upregulated on different vessels in 21 patients. Its expression correlated strongly with the presence of metal wear debris. VCAM-1 was detected on vessels in six patients only, and was coexpressed with E-selectin in three patients with metal debris. VCAM-1 was more frequently observed in the lining cells on the implant side. ICAM-1 was upregulated on vessels on the bone side only in 13 patients, and was more strongly expressed on aggregates of macrophages and multinucleated giant cells on the implant side. These macrophage aggregates coexpressed both ICAM-1 and CR3. CONCLUSION--Our findings implicate the contribution of three different pathways in the recruitment of inflammatory cells to the joint in response to orthopaedic implant wear particles. The association of E-selectin expression and metal debris may suggest hypersensitivity reactions. Finally, the simultaneous expression of ICAM-1 and CR3 on the same macrophages on the implant side may predict an additional function of these molecules in homotypic adhesion/cell aggregation that precede differentiation of phagocytes to multinucleated giant cells.


Power flow analysis(PFA) is introduced for solving the noise and vibration analysis of system structures in medium-to-high frequency ranges. The vibration analysis software, $PFADS_{C++}$ R4 based on power flow finite element method(PFFEM) and the noise prediction software, $NASPFA_{C++}$ R1 based on power flow boundary element method(PFBEM) are developed. In this paper, the coupled PFFE/PFBE method is used to investigate the vibration and radiated noise of the rotary compressor. PFFEM is employed to analyze the vibrational responses of the rotary compressor, and PFBEM is applied to analyze the radiation noise around rotary compressor. The vibrational energy of the structure is used as an acoustic intensity boundary condition of PFBEM. Numerical simulations are presented for the rotary compressor, and reliable results have been obtained.


Semantically complex units cover a high percentage of the lexicon of a language, ranging from collocations or routine formula to proverbs. The difficulty for learners of a foreign language lies in the fact that in many cases the meaning of those elements of the lexicon does not result just from addition of the meaning of individual constituents. Although (active and passive) knowledge about such lexical elements can be considered essential for successful communication in a foreign language, there still exists a lack (we focus on German as a foreign language, but we assume that the situation is comparable for other languages) of up-to-date and authentic didactic material that takes into account the characteristics of semantically complex units and the learners' cognitive strategies to analyze their meaning. In this paper we develop a didactic model that describes the use of magazine advertisements in teaching German as a foreign language. Due to their multimodality (e.g. the combination of verbal and visual elements) the texts allow the learners to better understand and actively use semantically complex units, even with a low competence level. In order to illustrate our didactic approach we present 5 advertisements that we have used with learners of German in their first and second year at a French university. It turns out that not only can phraseology be conveyed in an efficient way but that other educational objectives, such as a general increase of the learners' motivation, can be achieved.


Cerebral blood flow was measured in eight patients who were being treated with dopamine in order to maintain cerebral perfusion after the onset of delayed postoperative ischaemia following intracranial aneurysm surgery. Measurements were made whilst on treatment and repeated either during a reduction in the dosage or withdrawal of dopamine. There was a significant fall in cerebral blood flow in both hemispheres in all eight patients. Clinical deterioration was observed in seven of nine instances in which cerebral blood flow fell by 25% or more of the value while on dopamine treatment. There were no episodes of deterioration in six tests where the fall in cerebral blood flow was less than 25% of the starting value. It is suggested that cerebral blood flow measurement can be useful in predicting when it is safe to withdraw dopamine treatment in these patients. Hypertensive treatment should be maintained if a withdrawal test is associated with a fall in cerebral blood flow of 25% or more.


Current methods of measuring myocardial blood flow using 133xenon have failed to separate normals from patients with ischemic heart disease at rest. In the present study such a separation was attempted by utilizing pacing-induced tachycardia (PIT) to stress the myocardium. 133Xenon was injected into the left coronary artery to measure blood flow in 27 patients at rest and during pacing-induced tachycardia. Oxygen content was simultaneously measured in the aorta and coronary sinus of 13 of these patients. Pacing rates of 150 beats/min or greater were obtained in 21 patients. In 10 patients (group I), who developed ischemia, manifested either by typical angina or ischemic electrocardiographic changes during PIT, myocardial blood flow increased 32 ml/min/100 g of tissue (P < 0.001). In 17 patients (group II), who did not develop ischemia, myocardial blood flow increased 12 ml/min/ 100 g of tissue (P <0.02). The increase in group I patients was significantly greater than in group II (P < 0.02). Myocardial oxygen consumption increased 4.63 ml/min/100 g of tissue (P < 0.01) in ischemic responders (group I) and 2.62 ml/min/100 g of tissue in nonischemic responders (group II). It is concluded that patients with an ischemic response to pacing-induced tachycardia had a greater increase in myocardial blood flow and myocardial oxygen consumption than patients who did not develop an ischemic response. This unexpected finding is best explained by an increased myocardial blood flow in the nonischemic areas of the myocardium which may result from a vasodilator response to ischemia.


Brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens Stål, BPH) is one of the most destructive pests of rice. Non-coding RNA plays an important regulatory role in various biological processes. However, comprehensive identification and characterization of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs) in BPH-infested rice have not been performed. Here, we performed a genome-wide analysis of lncRNAs and circRNAs in BPH6-transgenic (resistant, BPH6G) and Nipponbare (susceptible, NIP) rice plants before and after BPH feeding (early and late stage) via deep RNA-sequencing. A total of 310 lncRNAs and 129 circRNAs were found to be differentially expressed. To reveal the different responses of resistant and susceptible rice to BPH herbivory, the potential functions of these lncRNAs and circRNAs as competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) were predicted and investigated using Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses. Dual-luciferase reporter assays revealed that miR1846c and miR530 were targeted by the lncRNAs XLOC_042442 and XLOC_028297, respectively. In responsive to BPH infestation, 39 lncRNAs and 21 circRNAs were predicted to combine with 133 common miRNAs and compete for miRNA binding sites with 834 mRNAs. These mRNAs predictably participated in cell wall organization or biogenesis, developmental growth, single-organism cellular process, and the response to stress. This study comprehensively identified and characterized lncRNAs and circRNAs, and integrated their potential ceRNA functions, to reveal the rice BPH-resistance network. These results lay a foundation for further study on the functions of lncRNAs and circRNAs in the rice-BPH interaction, and enriched our understanding of the BPH-resistance response in rice.


The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Survey of Dental School Faculty is conducted annually to provide an overview of the hiring and retention activity of U.S. dental school faculty. The survey collects data on the dental faculty workforce, including vacant budgeted positions by appointment and discipline, number of new and lost positions, sources of new hires, and reasons for faculty separations. This report highlights the results of three years of survey data, from the 2011-12 academic year through the 2013-14 academic year. After declining in previous years, the number of vacant faculty positions in U.S. dental schools has begun to increase, rising to 242 full-time and 55 part-time positions in 2013-14. Additionally, the number of schools having more than ten vacancies increased from five to 12. Although the number of vacancies has increased, the length of faculty searches that took more than one year declined from 25% to 16% in the same period. Retirements as a share of full-time faculty separations increased from 14% in 2008-09 to 31% in 2013-14. The current average retirement age of dental school faculty members is 69.7 years. The percentage of full-time faculty members leaving for the private sector remained constant over the last three years at approximately 16%. Full-time faculty members were more likely to be recruited from other dental schools, while part-time faculty members were more likely to come from the private sector.


Databases are critical in managing business knowledge assets. SQL is the de facto way of accessing data because of its simplicity, which allows end users to get what they want effectively. However, as businesses become more globally and electronically interconnected, the need for automated data access increases accordingly and the simplicity of SQL quickly disappears. This is primarily due to the large number of competing technologies that facilitate automated data access, with factors including different programming languages, different database application programming interfaces, different database management systems, and different operating systems. In global businesses or extended networks of businesses, it is common to have many different competing and sometimes incompatible technologies working together at the same time. This research provides a new solution, a unified way to access data regardless of the underlying technologies. Therefore, businesses can save time and cost by focusing on getting the data they want, instead of focusing on how to get the data.


Since the stone age the human race seeks for strategies to extend its viewing range. With the rise of technology in the twentieth century, cameras are found to be a very useful tool to survey a large area with limited resources. With an increasing numbers of cameras, it becomes more difficult to watch every monitor and prevent incidents in the surveillance area. For the last decades, research seeks for possibilities to automatize the process of video surveillance. For this thesis, we approach the surveillance task from the human perspective: we try to emulate what human operators do when they watch the monitors. To perform this task, state-of-the-art techniques from Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence are applied. An object tracking technique called P-N Learning is used that enables the tracker to learn from its mistakes. The Java Agent Development Framework (JADE) is used to enable communication between agents in the FIPA Agent Communication Language standard. A surveillance system model is designed that detects suspicious behavior in a non-public area. Its task is to alert the operators about suspicious events to give them the chance to investigate and take action. Two prototype applications are implemented and experiments are conducted to show the performance. We showed the proof-of-concept of a system which is able to emulate operators and can potentially outperform a human being. Once the system knows what is considered suspicious behavior it can be automatically detected.


To the Editor:— It was with pleasurable anticipation that I accepted an invitation to view the screening of the film "Cancer of the Skin" put out under the well known name of Dr. Bloodgood. About one hundred and fifty medical men, dermatologists, surgeons and pathologists, as well as professors of physics and other physicists, attended the screening. Alas for my anticipations! Almost from the beginning it was obvious that the hand which guided the production of the film was not that of one who knew cancers of the skin or the best ways of treating them. The presentation of the second patient, screened as an example of syphilitic chancre, was preceded by information something to this effect: "Note the multiplicity of lesions common in syphilis [presumably chancres] but rare in cancer of the skin." Then, to my amazement, there was displayed as pretty a picture as I have ever seen


Composites and hybrids of BN and Zn3P2 nanowires were made by consolidating respectively BN micropowder-Zn3P2 nanowire mixtures and non-conformally BN decorated Zn3P2 nanowires. The intent here is to study whether mere solid-state mixing of a thermal conductor and a thermal insulator leads to the engineering of the thermal conductivities of the resulting composites and hybrids. The results demonstrated that contrary to intuition, mere mixing of two materials, a thermal conductor (BN) and a thermal insulator (Zn3P2 nanowires), does not result in composites and hybrids that have thermal conductivities higher than those of the thermal insulator and lower than those of the thermal conductor. This contrary result is especially true in instances where microparticles or nanoparticles of a high thermal conductivity material are introduced into a matrix of the thermal insulator for achieving spatially uniform composites/hybrids and engineering the resulting materials' thermal conductivities. Here, both the size of the filler material and the type of interfaces formed between the matrix and the filler material play a major role in determining the ultimate thermal conductivities of the composites/hybrids. Imperfect interface formed between materials that have high lattice mismatches lead to lowering of the thermal conductivities of the composites/hybrids.


Salmonella meningitis is a disease with high mortality in infants though incidence is rare. This article reports a case of Salmonella meningitis in a two months male infant, who presented with high fever, convulsion and difficulty in breathing. Salmonella typhi was isolated from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), that showed resistance to Cephalosporins, Fluroquinoles, Macrolides and Aminoglycosides but susceptiblity to Chloramphenicol and Cotrimaxozole. This case was admitted on fourth day of onset of illness and treated with parenteral Vancomycin and Ceftriaxone to cover both gram positive and negative bacterial agents of bacterial meningitis in a young infant, but succumbed to death on ninth day of illness. This indicated importance of S. typhi as a possible bacterial etiology and a great concern on resistance to the normally chosen antibiotics. An early suspicion can be suggested to reduce the risk of mortality. Environmental hygiene and household cleanliness practices also warrants attention, which were identified as possible risks for enteric infection in spite the baby was absolutely breast fed. KeywordsSalmonella, Cotrimaxozole, Fluroquinoles, Aminoglycosides, Chloramphenicol, S. typhi.


This study discusses the spatiotemporal characteristics of the geomorphological changes in Gwangyang Bay. In this study, we analyzed four aerial photos and nautical charts. The geomorphological changes that have occurred over time were identified using an MGIS (Marine geographic information system) overlay analysis. As a result, we were able to identify the geomorphological changes that have resulted from the coastal development and fairway dredging of Gwangyang Bay. This paper demonstrates that the marine geographic information system can be effective in monitoring the geomorphological changes in castal zones.


This article focuses on two confessions of faith, which were composed in the late eleventh century by the philosopher John Italos and by the monk Nicetas Stethatos. In-depth analysis of selected passages shows that the two men subscribed to a Trinitarian theology that could be considered heretical. They denied the existence of a common divine substance that could safeguard the oneness of God and instead emphasised the closeness of the hypostases to each other, which made it impossible for them to accord to the hypostases the distinguishing function that the Cappadocians had given them. Thus it can be argued that it was their Tritheism that pushed them towards a 'Sabellian'


STUDY OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the possible role of low socioeconomic status (SES) as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) among obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) patients requiring treatment.

DESIGN
Polysomnographic and demographic characteristics and associated morbidity were measured in 686 prospectively recruited adult OSAS patients from two regions in Israel.

SETTING
Two university-affiliated sleep laboratories.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS
The multiple logistic regression (after adjusting for gender, body mass index [BMI], and smoking) revealed that the following are independent determinants for CVD in OSAS patients requiring treatment: each decrease in income level category (odds ratio [OR], 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1 to 1.7), age > or = 1 year (OR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.1), hypertension (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.3 to 3.1), and hyperlipidemia (OR, 3.7; 95% CI, 2.4 to 5.8); area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) = 81.9%. The multivariate determinants describing the low-SES OSAS patients included: minorities and immigrants combined (OR, 6.0; 95% CI, 2.9 to 12), female gender (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.6 to 3.9), increased BMI (OR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.3 to 2.9), unmarried status (OR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.2 to 3.1), and years of education (> or = 1 year) [OR, 0.8; 95% CI, 0.7 to 0.8]; area under the ROC = 78.1%.

CONCLUSION
In addition to the already known traditional risk factors, low SES was found to be a novel independent risk factor for CVD among adult OSAS patients requiring treatment.


For characterising the elimination and metabolisation performance of the liver in chronic renal insufficiency the galactose load test was carried out. 9 children with healthy liver and kidneys, 35 children with chronic renal insufficiency (15 were conservatively treated = group 1, 20 were in the chronic haemodialysis programme = group 2) as well as 5 children after kidney transplantation were examined. In group 1 a normal blood galactose concentration was present. Patients of the 2nd group showed increased concentrations of galactose in the blood which might refer to a decreased redox potential in the liver caused by the uraemic intoxication. In the group of patients who underwent a kidney transplantation in the patients with azathioprine therapy a disturbed use of galactose was present. Children with cyclosporin-A had a normal galactose concentration.


Few would disagree with the premise that graduate education in the pharmaceutical sciences has made substantial progress in modern times. The contrast between the current reputation of this enterprise and that extant when I first became a participant (some 40 years ago) is truly remarkable. Then, it was a rare college of pharmacy that actively embraced the mission of graduate education and nationally recognized centers of excellence for such training were very scarce. Today, a majority of our institutions offer graduate training programs and a significant number view such effort as a critical part of their overall mission. Those schools which have a major commitment to such activities have seen a modernization of research facilities and equipment and an increase in faculty strength, student/trainee populations, scholarly outcomes and research funding. Recent growth in the latter has been quite extraordinary. For example, during the period from 1986-90, the twenty pharmacy schools which consistently enroll the most PhD students collectively generated some $216 million in NIH support. During 1991-95, these same schools secured some $302 million from this source; an increase of 40 percent. Moreover, academic pharmaceutical scientists have become increasingly visible in the larger arena of biomedical science, individual noteworthy accomplishments are achieving broad public recognition, disciplinary programs are gaining peer designation as national centers of excellence for graduate training and pharmacy deans are quick to exploit such opportunities to better position their school among competing academic units. Thus, at a glance, it would seem that the current status of graduate education in the enterprise of academic pharmacy is healthy and secure. A closer observation reveals a darker and more foreboding picture. Graduate education in the pharmaceutical sciences represents a small part of a national effort which evolved as a mechanism to train future generations of biomedical academicians and researchers. As such, it is susceptible to the real and perceived ills which have befallen that larger undertaking. As anyone who is currently involved can attest, all is not well in the research trenches of academe and cries of alarm are clearly being raised (1-3). Common concerns include: the production of PhD-level researchers seems to be outstripping academic demand; new PhD's are spending ever longer periods as postdoctoral fellows while seeking permanent employment; individuals have become frustrated and disillusioned with the inability to move ahead with their careers; and, once having landed an academic post, the stress to establish and sustain an independent research program makes the postdoctoral years seem like a cakewalk. It is easy to conclude that there is an extraordinary high level of discontent among young trainee/scientists who, upon their recruitment into graduate programs, were relatively confident and enthusiastic about the prospects for a success-


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore: the actual usage of generalized audit software (GAS) features among Egyptian external auditors, through the technology acceptance model (TAM); how the conceptual complexity of GAS features impact its actual usage; and what factors influencing the GAS use by Egyptian external auditors. Design/methodology/approach - External audit professionals at 12 international audit firms, including the Big 4 and eight medium-sized firms, in Egypt were surveyed. Findings - The results show that the basic features including database queries, ratio analysis, and audit sampling were higher in GAS use, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use among Egyptian external auditors than the advanced features: digital analysis, regression/ANOVA, and data mining classification. The structural equation modelling analysis by GAS features suggests that perceived ease of use has a stronger effect on GAS use when the conceptual complexity of GAS features is high. The analysis also support that the use of GAS by Egyptian external auditors is more affected by co-worker, supervisor, or organization through perceived usefulness, but not by job relevance, output quality, and result demonstration. Research limitations/implications - Although Egyptian external auditors participated in this study may limit the extent to which the findings may be generalized, the responses provide an insight into the actual usage of GAS features by external auditors and the impact of conceptual complexity of GAS features, which is consistent with the literature concerning the relatively low level of utilizing the advanced features of GAS by internal auditors, suggesting that the issues revealed should be of concern. Practical implications - The results reported in this paper are useful to audit software developers and audit firms in their understanding of factors influencing GAS usage in a different audit context. Originality/value - The study adds value to prior research by providing context-contingent insight into the application of TAM in an unexplored audit context.


Agile maneuvers such as sprinting and high-speed turning in the wild are challenging for legged robots. We present an end-to-end learned controller that achieves record agility for the MIT Mini Cheetah, sustaining speeds up to 3.9 m/s. This system runs and turns fast on natural terrains like grass, ice, and gravel and responds robustly to disturbances. Our controller is a neural network trained in simulation via reinforcement learning and transferred to the real world. The two key components are (i) an adaptive curriculum on velocity commands and (ii) an online system identification strategy for sim-to-real transfer leveraged from prior work. Videos of the robot's behaviors are available at: https://agility.csail.mit.edu/


Sir .—It is a distinct pleasure to discover that Li et al 1 have been able to confirm our earlier findings on black-white differences in skeletal mass and volume even in the preschool years. Despite differences in technology (direct photon absorptiometry vs radio-grammetry), in anatomical site (forearm vs hand), and in the samples considered, we are in agreement that black children (like black adolescents and adults) have larger skeletal dimensions once birth differences are erased, and they have larger bone masses as well. 2-4 Since our sample of 1163 white children and 675 black children is considerable, it is possible to show how the relative magnitude of the differences increases from the first through the sixth year. Arranging our single-year data to agree with the 2-year age groupings used by Li et al, black-white differences in total bone width increased from 1% to more than 7% (Table). Differences in cortical


A growing part of the literature on crises, disasters, and policy failures focuses on the design, conduct, and impact of postincident reviews or inquiries, particularly whether the right lessons are identified and subsequently learned. However, such accounts underappreciate the specific challenge posed by epistemic puzzles, under what conditions their difficulty may vary, and which strategies could help to solve them. Drawing on insights from a wide range of cases, the article identifies hindsight bias, counterfactual reasoning, and root‐cause analysis as core components creating an epistemic triangle of inquiry puzzling. It advances four propositions about the conditions that help or hinder investigators' capacity to produce sound knowledge and concludes by setting out potential strategies that investigators can use to fully address or at least mitigate these epistemic challenges.


: This article focuses on three Zen meditation groups operating in Italy from the perspective of glocalization. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and practitioners' narratives, it explores the dynamics underlying the making of glocal Zen with reference to the internal structure of individual religious worlds and its reshaping through the creative incorporation of zazen or zazen -like meditation. My analysis also indicates that there are at least three main factors constraining these processes of glocalization: Availability, or the way in which Zen meditational techniques become accessible (or not) to individual practitioners through global religious exchanges; global consciousness, which relates to the way in which changes in collective consciousness encourage individuals to see themselves as global actors and their Zen practice as globally relevant; and resonance, which speaks of the way in which Zen meditation is selected by individual practitioners for their glocal practices based both on its perceived congruence with their preexisting religious worlds and its usefulness for the solution of specific problems.


Nitric oxide (NO) molecules initially traveling at 795  m/s in pulsed supersonic beams have been photoexcited to long-lived hydrogenic Rydberg-Stark states, decelerated and electrostatically trapped in a cryogenically cooled, chip-based transmission-line Rydberg-Stark decelerator. The decelerated and trapped molecules were detected in situ by pulsed electric field ionization. The operation of the decelerator was validated by comparison of the experimental data with the results of numerical calculations of particle trajectories. Studies of the decay of the trapped molecules on timescales up to 1 ms provide new insights into the lifetimes of, and effects of blackbody radiation on, Rydberg states of NO.


Nowadays, when environmental concerns are becoming increasingly important are there great interest in natural materials and recyclability. The possibility of reusing materials with maintained mechanical properties are essential for sustainability. Today produced approximately 90,000 tons of natural fiber reinforced composites in Europe of those are 40,000 tons compression molded of which the automotive industry uses 95%. Natural fiber reinforced composites is recyclable and therefore interesting in many applications. Also, natural fiber reinforced composites is inexpensive, light in weight and shows decent mechanical properties which makes them attractive to manufactures. However, the problem with natural fiber reinforced composites is the poor adhesion between fiber and matrix, the sensitivity of humidity and their low thermal stability. Those problems could be overcome by addition of compatibilizer and reactive filler. This study will examine the technical requirement in order to develop a sustainable and recyclable biocomposite. It investigates the composition of matrix (polypropylene), fiber (flax), compatibilizer (maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene) and reactive filler (CaO) in order to obtain various combinations of stiffness, strength and processability. The two main methods used for preparing samples were compounding and injection molding. Results shows that 20 wt% flax was the optimal fiber content and that maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene is a very good compatibilizer by enhancing the strength significant. Surprisingly was the strength impaired due to the addition of CaO. The composition of 20 wt% flax, 1 wt% maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene and 79 wt% polypropylene is the technically most favorable composition.


This paper evaluates the QoS performance of multimedia applications over wireless and wired IPv6 environment in comparison with IPv4 using the same underlying hardware. Concerning the multimedia applications, this paper discusses video streaming and Internet telephony (VoIP) because both services will be common and widely used applications by the next generation of Internet users. Our measurement results show that throughput, latency and packet loss. All performance evaluation criteria specified previously will be calculated and compared to each other.


: Background: Dipper hypertension referred to a drop of more than 10% in nocturnal blood pressure during the circadian rhythm while a decrease less than 10 % is referred to non-dipper. Coronary slow flow is associated with severe cardiovascular complications myocardial ischemia, malignant arrhythmias, and cardiovascular mortality. Aim of the work: We aimed to examine the relationship between circadian blood pressure pattern and thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) frame count, which is an indicator for coronary slow flow. Methods: This is a comparative cross-sectional study that included patients with symptoms of typical chest pain or angina equivalent with or without stress test who underwent elective coronary angiography, and their blood pressures were followed up with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). The patients were divided as dipper and non-dipper hypertensives. The data of ABPM and the thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) frame count were compared between the compared groups. Results: A total of 60 patients (26 males and 24 females) were included. Twenty-three patients were in the dipper group and 37 patients in the non-dipper group. Regarding ABPM over 24 hours, the non-dipper group had higher levels in terms of mean BP, mean systolic BP and pulse pressure (PP) than the dipper group. Regarding daytime ABPM, the non-dipper group had higher levels in terms of mean BP, mean systolic BP, and PP than the dipper group. Regarding nighttime ABPM, the non-dipper group had higher levels in terms of mean BP, mean systolic BP, mean diastolic BP, and PP than the dipper group. Conclusion: Coronary slow flow diagnosis with higher TIMI frame count was observed to be higher in non-dipper hypertensive patients in comparison to in dipper hypertensives.


Korean Communication Standards Commission is one of the few administrative bodies around the world empowered to block or delete contents on Internet like ACMA of Australia, ICTA of Turkey, etc. This paper evaluates KCSC"s structure and actions and follows judicial discourse over the agency"s validity. It discovers the surprising features such as the fact that its standard of review are not the lawful/unlawfulness of the contents but rather the soundness/unsoundness, whose lack of clarity borders on upon unconstitutionality. Also, KCSC"s decisions are not notified to the posters whose contents are taken down by KCSC, insulating its actions from any appeal or judicial review. However, both of these features are triggered by the agency"s desire to take actions free from constitutional constraints through the form of corrective requests, a desire identified long ago by free speech scholars as the reason for frowning upon administrative censorship even if it takes effect post-publication. In the wake of French Constitutional Court"s HADOPI decision and Philippine Supreme Court"s recent decision on administrative censorship, this paper proposes a discussion toward an international consensus on broadening the concept of censorship to include post-publication administrative censorship.


In Ukraine the first medical nanotechnology drugs were synthesized and patented in 1998. These are such drugs as intracorporeal biocorrector (ICBB), magnet-controlled sorbent (MCS-B) and Micromage-B. Basis of the drugs is magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4) with the size ranging from 6 till 12 nm. Presence of adsorption layer provides high sorption activity for the magnetite nanoparticles. The total sorption surface of the magnetite nanoparticles ranges from 800 to 1200 m/g, and intensity of the magnetic field induced by each magnetite nanoparticle is 300-400 kA/m. The main purpose of the work is to reduce hemolysis of erythrocytes by means of nanoparticles of magnetcontrolled sorbent ( S-B). To fulfill the aim the following tasks are to be solved: to determine the dependence between time of appearing hemolysis and amount of processing of blood with MCS-B; to investigate activity of transport adenosinetriphosphatese of erythrocytes: Na, K PHese and Ca, Mg PHese; to find optimum amount processing of blood with nanoparticles of magnet-controlled sorbent (MCS-B). This work for the first time describes (in comparison with control) the indices characterizing dependence of time of appearing hemolysis on frequency rate of processing the blood by nanoparticles of MCS-B. It was established, that extracorporally processing the blood by nanoparticles of MCS-B reliably reduces activity of Ca, Mg PHese of erythrocytes. The researches has proved that now nanoparticles of MCS-B are able not only to considerably reduce hemolysis, and thereby prolong storage time of the blood, influence activity of adenosinetriphosphateses of erythrocytes, regulate transmembrane exchange, but also to extracorporally influence cellular apoptosis. Thus: 1. The optimum frequency rate (1-2 times) of processing the blood by nanoparticles of MCS-B inhibiting hemolysis was found. 2. It was established, that activity of Ca, Mg PHese of erythrocytes decreases with increasing frequency rate of processing the blood by nanoparticles of MCS-B. 3. Activity of Na, K PHese of erythrocytes in extracorporally processing the blood by nanoparticles of MCSB does not change (p> 0.05). 4. The minimum indicator of activity of Ca, Mg PHese mmol/mg in mines which time of appearing hemolysis practically does not differ from the control was found.


A compilation of accurate energies at the numerical Hartree-Fock (NHF) level is reported for the anions from H- to I-. New values are presented for the transition metal and heavier anions. Excellent agreement is obtained for the rest of the anions with previous NHF results.


[Purpose] The purpose was to clarify how community-based classes affected students, community staff, and elderly people. [Methods] Students collaborated in exercise classes for community-dwelling elderly people (participants) with teachers and community staff. After classes, questionnaires were completed by 60 participants, 9 community staff, and 24 students. Questionnaires consisted of a five-grade evaluation, a visual analogue scale (VAS), and impressions described in freely written sentences. All sentences written by participants and students were analyzed by text-mining method and cluster analysis. [Results] The results showed that the participants and community staff rated the classes as either 5 (very good) or 4 (good) in the five-grade evaluation. The results of VAS evaluation showed that the students rated the program and the elderly people as 86.5 ± 13.3 and 91.6 ± 9.9, respectively. Extracted words from participants' impressions were categorized into five clusters: "youth / young people," "exercise," "fun," and "good" formed each independent cluster. Extracted words from students' impressions were categorized into four clusters that implied positive feelings. [Conclusion] Interchange between elderly people and students achieved positive effects for both.


Examines the impact of housing and labour market factors, demographics and service availability on rates of homelessness across Australia over the past decade. Executive summary This is the first of two reports focusing on the structural factors underlying homelessness in Australia. This first stage details the analysis undertaken with large secondary data sources to examine the spatial dynamics of homelessness from 2001 to 2011. The second stage of the project, to be presented in a Final Report, will model the role of housing and labour markets, household income, and household characteristics in shaping the spatial distribution of homelessness across Australia. Australia has a rich bank of qualitative research that describes the circumstances, personal characteristics, and practices of people who experience homelessness. More recently research has investigated the pathways into and out of homelessness. However, to date there has been little investigation of the structural drivers of homelessness and minimal use of quantitative evidence to inform an understanding of the role that housing and labour market conditions play in shaping whether people are more or less vulnerable to homelessness. This project aims to fill this knowledge gap. In this report we address the following research questions: Where is homelessness high and where is it low? Where is homelessness rising or falling? Is homelessness becoming more or less spatially concentrated? Are there changes in the composition of the homeless population? Are homelessness services well located to intervene in areas with high and rising rates of homelessness? And finally, are changes in the geography of homelessness associated with changes in housing and labour market conditions, household income or other household characteristics? Following an increased national focus on homelessness, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has, for the first time, developed a statistical definition of homelessness that could be applied to multiple ABS census collections (2001, 2006, 2011), and for geographical units at different levels of aggregation. This recent development has enabled the current project to be undertaken.


The Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Framework for Exploration describes NASA's EVA System Goals in the broader context of ongoing human spaceflight efforts. The purpose of this document is to drive integration, coordination and communication of the EVA community's exploration development plans as crafted to meet long-term EVA needs. Inclusive in the EVA community are NASA partners in academia and industry. The 2019 EVA Framework outlines the office's current method to answer the following questions: What product does NASA use to compare, contrast and integrate across the elements of the EVA community's perceived gaps, risks, and unfunded work, particularly for future systems intended for use beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO)? What product does NASA use to proactively coordinate support across the EVA community's wide spectrum of exploration development work? Where can one go to obtain awareness of ongoing efforts, particularly during consideration of new-start activities and proposals? These questions lead to the need for a product that speaks to the distributed nature of the EVA System across human spaceflight programs, concept studies and flight vehicle architectural elements. This framework can be used and evaluated by the EVA community to assess the full spectrum of needs and answer the question of "what are we missing" or "are we doing things that just do not make sense". In the end is the EVA community effectively pursuing the future needs of EVA? If answers to those questions reveal the need for change or re-prioritization then actions can be taken through existing project control processes as well as revision to this document and supporting project plans.


A new technique for measurement of intracranial pressure was presented. By using this method a) absolute value of pressure, b) easy, simple and inexpensive long-term measurement and c) decrease in danger of infection are obtained. The apparatus consists of an external device which converts displacement of its membrane into quantitative change of beam and an internal chamber with two membranes that is implanted in a burr hole between scalp and dura mater. These devices have the same diameter and no direct connection each other. When a pressure in the external device is varied, a pressure-displacement curve of its membrane is resulted. The pressure of the external device at the point of inflexion of the curve is representative of the pressure in the internal chamber. In the animal experiment, satisfactory results were obtained.


Automation of neural architecture design has been a coveted alternative to human experts. Various search methods have been proposed aiming to find the optimal architecture in the search space. One would expect the search results to improve when the search space grows larger since it would potentially contain more performant candidates. Surprisingly, we observe that enlarging search space is unbeneficial or even detrimental to existing NAS methods such as DARTS, ProxylessNAS, and SPOS. This counterintuitive phenomenon suggests that enabling existing methods to large search space regimes is non-trivial. However, this problem is less discussed in the literature.We present a Neural Search-space Evolution (NSE) scheme, the first neural architecture search scheme designed especially for large space neural architecture search problems. The necessity of a well-designed search space with constrained size is a tacit consent in existing methods, and our NSE aims at minimizing such necessity. Specifically, the NSE starts with a search space subset, then evolves the search space by repeating two steps: 1) search an optimized space from the search space subset, 2) refill this subset from a large pool of operations that are not traversed. We further extend the flexibility of obtainable architectures by introducing a learnable multi-branch setting. With the proposed method, we achieve 77.3% top-1 retrain accuracy on ImageNet with 333M FLOPs, which yielded a state-of-the-art performance among previous auto-generated architectures that do not involve knowledge distillation or weight pruning. When the latency constraint is adopted, our result also performs better than the previous best-performing mobile models with a 77.9% Top-1 retrain accuracy. Code is available at https://github.com/orashi/NSENAS.


In the week before the 2008 United States presidential election, 1,057 registered voters reported their choice between the principal contenders (John McCain and Barack Obama) and completed several measures that might predict their candidate preference, including two implicit and two self-report measures of racial preference for European Americans (Whites) relative to African Americans (Blacks) and measures of symbolic racism and political conservatism. Greater White preference on each of the four race attitude measures predicted intention to vote for McCain, the White candidate. The implicit race attitude measures (Implicit Association Test and Affect Misattribution Procedure) predicted vote choice independently of the self-report race attitude measures, and also independently of political conservatism and symbolic racism. These findings support construct validity of the implicit measures.


Mitosis is a fundamental and highly regulated process that acts to faithfully segregate chromosomes into two identical daughter cells. Transcript localization of genes involved in mitosis to the mitotic spindle may be an evolutionarily conserved mechanism to ensure that mitosis occurs in a timely manner. We identified many RNA transcripts that encode proteins involved in mitosis localized at the mitotic spindles in dividing sea urchin embryos and mammalian cells. Disruption of microtubule polymerization, kinesin-1, or dynein results in lack of spindle localization of these transcripts in the sea urchin embryo. Further, results indicate that the cytoplasmic polyadenylation element (CPE) within the 3'UTR of Aurora B, a recognition sequence of CPEB, is essential for RNA localization to the mitotic spindle. Blocking this sequence results in arrested development during early cleavage stages, suggesting that RNA localization to the mitotic spindle may be a regulatory mechanism of cell division that is important for early development.


ABSTRACT The 4E10 antibody recognizes the membrane-proximal external region (MPER) of the HIV-1 Env glycoprotein gp41 transmembrane subunit, exhibiting one of the broadest neutralizing activities known to date. The neutralizing activity of 4E10 requires solvent-exposed hydrophobic residues at the apex of the complementarity-determining region (CDR) H3 loop, but the molecular basis for this requirement has not been clarified. Here, we report the cocrystal structures and the energetic parameters of binding of a peptide bearing the 4E10-epitope sequence (4E10ep) to nonneutralizing versions of the 4E10 Fab. Nonneutralizing Fabs were obtained by shortening and decreasing the hydrophobicity of the CDR-H3 loop (termed ΔLoop) or by substituting the two tryptophan residues of the CDR-H3 apex with Asp residues (termed WDWD), which also decreases hydrophobicity but preserves the length of the loop. The analysis was complemented by the first crystal structure of the 4E10 Fab in its ligand-free state. Collectively, the data ruled out major conformational changes of CDR-H3 at any stage during the binding process (equilibrium or transition state). Although these mutations did not impact the affinity of wild-type Fab for the 4E10ep in solution, the two nonneutralizing versions of 4E10 were deficient in binding to MPER inserted in the plasma membrane (mimicking the environment faced by the antibody in vivo). The conclusions of our structure-function analysis strengthen the idea that to exert effective neutralization, the hydrophobic apex of the solvent-exposed CDR-H3 loop must recognize an antigenic structure more complex than just the linear α-helical epitope and likely constrained by the viral membrane lipids. IMPORTANCE The broadly neutralizing anti-HIV-1 4E10 antibody blocks infection caused by nearly all viral strains and isolates examined thus far. However, 4E10 (or 4E10-like) antibodies are rarely found in HIV-1-infected individuals or elicited through vaccination. Impediments to the design of successful 4E10 immunogens are partly attributed to an incomplete understanding of the structural and binding characteristics of this class of antibodies. Since the broadly neutralizing activity of 4E10 is abrogated by mutations of the tip of the CDR-H3, we investigated their impact on binding of the MPER-epitope at the atomic and energetic levels. We conclude that the difference between neutralizing and nonneutralizing antibodies of 4E10 is neither structural nor energetic but is related to the capacity to recognize the HIV-1 gp41 epitope inserted in biological membranes. Our findings strengthen the idea that to elicit similar neutralizing antibodies, the suitable MPER vaccine must be "delivered" in a membrane environment.


This paper presents a numerical and experimental analysis of a wire bow-tie antenna situated horizontally near a lossy ground. The antenna is basically an array of identical wire dipoles having a common feed point and equal angular separation between two neighboring wires. This antenna is particularly suitable for ultrawide-band applications as it possesses a wideband property and allows a simple realization of resistive loading. It also provides a possibility to easily vary the antenna flare angle for the purpose of antenna matching or to adjust its footprint. In this work a theoretical model of the antenna is developed and verified experimentally. The wires are modeled as a tape-like structure by triangular patches and the antenna is analyzed using a mixed-potential integral equation formulation. Moreover, time-domain solutions are computed using the Fourier transformation, and a time-window technique is employed to calculate the antenna characteristic impedance. Using the model a comprehensive analysis of the antenna performance is carried out.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are commonly employed for environmental and wildlife monitoring. In these scenarios, mobile robots with specialized sensing, processing and actuation abilities may be employed to investigate relevant events in place. However, driving the robot to the event place is not a trivial task in the typical case where sensor nodes do not have positioning sensors such as GPS. In this work we propose a novel navigation algorithm for the mobile robot based solely on the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) of communication packets. The proposed algorithm builds on a probabilistic signal propagation model recovered from real signal decay data, unlike alternative solutions found in literature. Simulations show a superior performance in comparison to similar related work.


OBJECTIVE
To ascertain whether parotidectomy could be safely performed in smaller centers. The results of parotid surgery in a smaller center were reviewed and the major outcome measures compared with the results in the English literature from the best-known centers.

DESIGN
Retrospective analysis of case series comprising 168 consecutive parotid surgical procedures in a district general hospital for a 15-year period (1985-1999). The follow-up ranged from 1 to 15 years with a mean of 8 years. Sixty-three patients had a follow-up of over 10 years. Revision procedures and surgery for malignant tumors were excluded from the study.

SETTING
Warwick Hospital, a district general hospital in the United Kingdom, catering to a population of 300,000, with a case mix that is typical for a primary care hospital.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Permanent facial palsy, temporary facial palsy, and recurrence rate. Other variables included age, sex, name of the surgeon, histopathologic features of the specimen, duration of follow-up, and other complications.

RESULTS
There were 154 consecutive operations within the study period, performed by 2 ear, nose, and throat surgeons and 1 general surgeon. Eight cases were excluded because of cancer or revision, yielding a final figure of 146 for analysis. There were 25 cases of temporary facial palsy and no incidence of permanent facial palsy during the study period. However, recurrence of the tumor was noted in 4 patients, all of whom opted for revision surgery with successful outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS
Parotid surgery for benign disease can be as safely performed in smaller centers as in larger centers. However, our study did not support the view that only a specified single surgeon should do parotid surgery, since there is no significant difference in the major outcome measures between different surgeons.


INTRODUCTION: Over past two decades neonatal morbidity associated with sepsis   has increased due to changing microbial spectrum. To establish early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis is a challenge because of varied clinical presentations. For definite diagnosis of sepsis culture results are gold standard which are time consuming.The other recent available markers are sensitive but expensive. Hence they have  limited use in financially constrained setup. Therefore there is always a need for an infallible cost-effective test to detect  bacteremia that could be  easily performed .In this study we have  evaluated the effectiveness of the hematological scoring system (HSS) of Rodwell et al suggested in 1988 which is based on CBC report
MATERIAL AND METHODS:A prospective study was  conducted in NICU of Liaquat National Hospital from  October 2015 to march 2016. All Neonates with predisposing perinatal risk factors for sepsis or  clinical indexof suspicion were enrolled in the study .A baseline CBC and blood C/S were sent. The hematological findings were analyzed according to the hematologic scoring system (HSS) of Rodwell et al . A score of 2 or above out of 7 was consider to be indicative of sepsis
RESULTS: 109 neonates were enrolled in the study, 63 were male and 46 were female. Of total 62(56.8) % were culture positive, in which 45 (41.2%) had positive blood culture, 13 (11.9%) had positive urine culture only 4 (3.6%) with positive tracheal culture isolated . The sensitivity of HSS detecting neonatal sepsis is 90.3%, specificity is 85.1%, positive predictive value (PPV) is 88.89% and negative predictive value (NPV) is 86.96%.
CONCLUSION: Rodwells' hematological scoring system is a feasible and cost effective method in detecting early neonatal sepsis for the resource limited countries. However the emphasis for a well equipped laboratory and a trained hematologist is  of much value


ABSTRACT A gene homologous to the rpoS gene of Escherichia coli was cloned from a Pseudomonas putida KT2440 gene bank by complementation of the rpoS-deficient strainE. coli ZK918. The rpoS gene of P. putida complemented the acid sensitivity and catalase deficiency of the rpoS mutant of E. coli and stimulated expression of the RpoS-controlled promoter,bolAp1. The gene was sequenced and found to be highly similar to the rpoS genes of other gram-negative bacteria. Like in other gram-negative bacteria, a homolog of thenlpD gene was found upstream to the rpoS gene. A transcriptional fusion of the promoter of the P. putida rpoS gene to the luxAB genes from Vibrio harveyi was constructed and used as an inactivated allele ofrpoS for gene replacement of the wild-type copy in the chromosome of P. putida. The resultantrpoS mutant of P. putida, C1R1, showed reduced survival of carbon starvation and reduced cross-protection against other types of stress in cells starved for carbon, in particular after a challenge with ethanol. Survival in soil amended with m-methylbenzoate was also reduced in the mutant strain P. putida C1R1. The RpoS protein ofP. putida controls the expression of more than 50 peptides, which are normally expressed in cells after a short period of carbon starvation.


PURPOSE
Nocturnal enuresis is a serious health problem affecting a significant portion of the population. In this study, we investigated the frequency of punishment methods in nocturnal enuresis (NE) in Turkey and its relationship with other parameters.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 501 children (301 boys and 200 girls) who were admitted to our outpatient clinic due to nocturnal enuresis were included in the study. Mean age was 9.39 years (range 5-18). Prepared questionnaire form inquiring educational status of the family, frequency and implementation and duration of punishment methods was applied to patients and families.

RESULTS
At least one punishment method was applied to 291 (58.1%) of children with NE. Punishment methods of parents were detected as condemnation (257 patients, 51.3%), depriving desires of the child (120 patients, 23.9%), humiliating the child in the presence of other children (113 patients, 22.6%), reprimanding- threatening with punishment (203 patients, 40.5%). This application was found to continue for longer than 1 year in 52% of punished children. Families graduated of high school and above were found to use punishment methods significantly more than others.

CONCLUSION
According to the results of our study, a quite high proportion of enuretic children were detected to be exposed to punishment methods. Even, some parents consider that these methods are a part of nocturnal enuresis treatment. We, the doctors, should endeavor more for raising awareness of the community in order to diminish this worrisome behavior.


I am already volunteering/working, can I use that as an internship? Quite often you can use your relevant volunteer work or unpaid work as long you have an appropriate work project and that it has been approved by the internship coordinator and all the paperwork is complete. We cannot approve work placements that you have already completed without prior approval and insurance. Please remember that you cannot use the internship as part of your Research Project.


We study Mittag-Leffler conditions on modules providing relative versions of classical results by Raynaud and Gruson. We then apply our investigations to several contexts. First of all, we give a new argument for solving the Baer splitting problem. Moreover, we show that modules arising in cotorsion pairs satisfy certain Mittag-Leffler conditions. In particular, this implies that tilting modules satisfy a useful finiteness condition over their endomorphism ring. In the final section, we focus on a special tilting cotorsion pair related to the puresemisimplicity conjecture.


Background: Tagraxofusp, a CD123 based targeted immunotherapy, was recently approved to treat blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) with excellent response. Also, a subset of BPDCN showed resistance to tagraxofusp. These resistant cases continue to express CD123, which forms the basis of the continued utility of tagraxofusp in newer combination chemotherapies to overcome resistance in BPDCN. Case presentation: Herein we report a case of an elderly male with BPDCN that initially achieved complete remission on primary treatment with tagraxofusp. However, BPDCN relapsed after 1.5 years while on treatment with loss of CD123 expression. Conclusions: This case highlights a potential limitation of current and upcoming tagraxofusp based therapies, at least in a subset of refractory BPDCN. We believe our report will serve as a sentinel to incite future investigations involving alternate resistance mechanisms in BDPCN.


We present a methodology for real-time control of thin-film carbon content in a plasma-enhanced metal-organic chemical vapor deposition process using combination of online gas phase measurements obtained through optical emission spectroscopy and off-line (ex situ) measurements of film composition obtained via X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Initially, an estimation model of carbon content of ZrO/sub 2/ thin films based on real-time optical emission spectroscopy data is presented. Then, a feedback control scheme, which employs the proposed estimation model and a proportional-integral controller, is developed to achieve carbon content control. Using this approach, a real-time control system is developed and implemented on an experimental electron cyclotron resonance high-density plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system to demonstrate the effectiveness of real-time feedback control of carbon content. Experimental results of depositions and XPS analysis of deposited thin films under both open-loop and closed-loop operations are shown and compared. The advantages of operating the process under real-time feedback control in terms of robust operation and lower carbon content are demonstrated.


ABSTRACT Objective: We conducted an evidence-based practice review of the literature to determine whether residents of long-term care facilities who received dog-assisted therapy achieved outcomes that can positively influence quality of life, as compared to individuals who did not receive dog-assisted therapy. Methods: A comprehensive computer-aided search of the literature was conducted. A total of 61 studies were retrieved; 19 studies met the inclusion criteria. These studies were reviewed using the McMaster's Critical Review Form—Quantitative Studies. In addition, each study was assigned a numerical score based on the number of criteria met (0–100%). Results: Outcomes examined included emotional regulation, activities of daily living, communication/social, cognitive, sensory-perceptual, and motor/praxis skills. Levels of evidence found included three randomized control trials, 11 cohort studies, four before and after studies, and one single case design. Twelve of the 19 studies reported statistically significant findings of improved outcomes for residents who participated in dog-assisted therapy. Percentage of McMaster's criteria met in each study ranged from 31 to 92%. Conclusions: Though a majority of the studies found statistical significance to support the impact of dog-assisted therapy on outcomes related to quality of life, there remains a significant lack of published research within the occupational therapy literature. Occupational therapy professionals can contribute to the evolving knowledge base of this promising intervention via the use of more rigorous designs, such as randomized control trials with large sample sizes.