Ghrelin, a novel 28 amino-acid peptide hormone, was originally discovered as a centrally-acting orexigenic hormone. Our laboratory has recently demonstrated that ghrelin receptors are present in the kidney in collecting duct cells where they increase ENaC-dependent Na+ reabsorption in normal rats. However, nothing is known about the function of intrarenal ghrelin receptors in SHR. To evaluate this system, uninephrectomized 10-week-old female SHR (N=16) received three cumulative 1 h renal interstitial (RI) infusions of the specific ghrelin receptor antagonist D-LYS-GHRP-6 (4, 6, 8 μg/min; Tocris) following a 1 h control infusion of vehicle 5% dextrose in water (D5W). Rats that received 4 cumulative 1 h RI infusions of D5W served as time controls. Mean arterial pressure values, urine Na+ excretion rates (UNaV), and urine flow rates were determined for each period. Following the RI infusion of D-LYS-GHRP-6, UNaV increased from a baseline value of 0.035 ± 0.004 μmol/min to 0.062 ± 0.011 μmol/min in period 1 (P<0.05), 0.093 ± 0.018 μmol/min in period 2 (P<0.05), and 0.13 ± 0.019 μmol/min in period 3 (P<0.01). Furthermore, RI D-LYS-GHRP-6 infusion increased urine flow rate from a baseline value of 0.002 ± 0.0003 ml/min to 0.005 ± 0.001 ml/min during period 1, 0.006 ± 0.002 ml/min during period 2, and 0.01 ± 0.003 ml/min during period 3 (P<0.05 for all 3 periods). There were no significant changes in either UNaV or urine flow rate in the time controls. Mean arterial pressure responses remained unchanged following the RI infusions, suggesting that all agents were confined to the kidney. These data introduce a potential new therapeutic target for the treatment of sodium and water retention in SHR.


Abstract : The U.S. military exists not just to fight and win wars but also to deter them, that is, to persuade others not to start them (or even prepare for them). Deterrence is possible only when others know or at least have good indications of what the U.S. military can do. Such acknowledgment is at the heart of U.S. nuclear deterrence strategy and, to a lesser extent, the U.S. maintaining strong mobile conventional forces that can intervene almost anywhere on the globe. Cyberattack capabilities resist such demonstration. No one knows exactly or even approximately what would happen if a country suffered a full-fledged cyberattack, despite the plethora of hostile activity in cyberspace. For one thing, there has never been a cyberwar attacks with destruction and casualties comparable to physical war. Theory also works against demonstration. Flaws in target systems enable cyberattacks. To reveal which flaws enable attack is to inform others how to fix the flaws and hence neutralize them. It is no wonder that national cyberwar capabilities are a closely guarded secret. That cyberattack capabilities cannot easily be used to shape the behavior of others does not mean they cannot be used at all. This report explores ways that cyberattack capabilities can be brandished and the circumstances under which some deterrence effect can be achieved.1 It then goes on to examine the obstacles to realizing such achievement and sketches out some realistic limits on the expectations. As a matter of policy, the United States has never said that it would use cyberattacks, but neither has it said that it would not. It has also not vigorously disputed the notion that it had some hand in the Stuxnet attacks on the Iranian nuclear facility. The


In our Institute lumpy skin disease virus is grown on primary lamb testis cells for isolation, identification and vaccine production. However, the availability of lambs in Kenya has been seriously reduced over the past few years. This has led to an increase in the cost of using primary lamb testis cells. This study was undertaken to investigate other primary cell lines, which are easily available and provide an equivalent or better yield of lumpy skin disease virus. Foetal bovine muscle (FBM) cells were found to be an adequate alternative for lamb testis cells.


Introduction: Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) is a well-known treatment modality for patients with acute renal failure and has been increasingly used for the treatment of metabolic disorders such as Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD) in recent years. Herein, we aimed to discuss our experience in 16 newborn patients with MSUD who were treated with urgent renal replacement therapy (RRT).Materials and Method: The data of patients who presented with an acute metabolic crisis due to Maple syrup urine disease and who were treated with RRT at Neonatal intensive care unit(NICU) between November 2016 and March 2020 were retrospectively evaluated. The patients underwent continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF) or peritoneal dialysis (PD) as renal replacement therapy.Results: The study enrolled a total of 16 patients, of which 8 were male and 8 were female. Eleven (68.75%) patients underwent CVVHDF and five (31.25%) underwent peritoneal dialysis. The median post-treatment leucine level was 198(20-721) μmol/L in the CVVHDF group and 1050(303-1653) μmol/L in the PD group; the median leucine reduction rate per hour was 2.56% (1.75-7.6) in the CVVHDF group and 0.78% (0.54-1.83) in the PD group. There was a significant difference between both groups regarding both parameters (p= 0.08, p=0.001, respectively). Complications such as hypotension, electrolyte imbalance, and filter obstruction occurred in the CVVHDF group while catheter revision was needed due to catheter obstruction in one patient in the PD group.Conclusion: This study showed that CVVHDF is more effective than PD for rapidly eliminating elevated Leucine levels caused by MSUD in the newborn and it is not associated with increased complication rates.


We propose a new method of processing general Boolean queries utilizing previous query results stored in a result cache in a mediator architecture. A simple but noble normalization form is developed to describe keyword-based Boolean queries and the content of the result cache. We propose Boolean query processing algorithms based on this form of presentation that utilizes the result cache. We show that the proposed method theoretically guarantees improved performance over the conventional query processing method without using a cache.


Background The launch on the market of a new drug is always an important event for a specialty, particularly when the mechanism of action is completely new. It is the case with sugammadex, a cyclodextrin, the first selective relaxant binding agent. It binds and holds within its lipophilic core only the non-depolarizing steroidal muscle relaxants rocuronium and vecuronium. This novel agent acts ten times more rapidly than neostigmine without the need to administer atropine concomitantly. Purpose To determinate how the arrival of sugammadex has changed the management of neuromuscular blockade in everyday practise and to evaluate the additional cost caused by the use of this drug in all the hospital departments and especially in the department of anaesthesia. Materials and Methods We conducted a retrospective study over two years' use of sugammadex from January 2010 to December 2011. All the consumption data were extracted from the PHARMA software. Results During the period of the study, the use of rocuronium increased by 110%, with an additional cost of about 47%, explained by the increase in surgery over 2011 (3%), and the increased use of sugammadex (+127%). An additional cost (€70,092.84) due to the change in practise (neuromuscular block + recovery) was observed. It represents an average increase of 37.4% over all hospital departments. In the department of anaesthesia, the use of rocuronium increased by 31% (+€2,055), but did not generate an increase in cost, because the use of other neuromuscular blocking agents (benzylisoquinolines and suxamethonium) decreased between 2010 and 2011. The number of vials of neostigmine requested from the pharmacy decreased by 37%, while the number of vials of sugammadex increased by 102%. The additional cost in this department was estimated at 25%; expenditure increased from €68,291.57 in 2010 to €85,334.63 in 2011, caused specifically by the change in neuromuscular block recovery practises. These results agree with those of Raft et al, 2010, who proved that the increased expenditure was mainly due to the new neuromuscular block recovery practises (€658 to €28,225 between 2009 and 2010). Conclusions The introduction of sugammadex into clinical practise joins a quality assurance programme, something new to improve patient safety. However, there are currently pharmaco-economic barriers to the widespread introduction of sugammadex and further clinical trials will inform the debate concerning cost-effectiveness. No conflict of interest.


Background Nurses are one of the most diverse and largest workforces in the health-care system. Their work usually affects different concerns of their life. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of quality of working life (QoWL) on the psychological well-being (PWB) and marital adjustment among female nurses. Research design A descriptive-analytical study design was used to carry out this study. Setting This study was conducted at all maternal and child health centers in Zagazig City. Patients and methods A purposive sample composed of 208 female nurses who were working in the previously mentioned settings were recruited. Tools of data collection: four tools were used for data collection. They were the sociodemographic data sheet, the QoWL scale, Ryff's PWB scales, and ENRICH marital satisfaction scale. Results The study results revealed that more than two-thirds of female nurses had a low QoWL and all of them had stress at their work. Majority of the studied nurses showed low level of PWB and marital adjustment. Also, there was positive correlation between QoWL, psychosocial well-being, and marital adjustment among female nurses with high statistical significance. Conclusion It was concluded that most of the studied samples had a low level of QoWL, PWB, and marital adjustment and there was statistically significant positive correlation between these variables. Recommendations This study recommended that further researches are needed to identify the predicted factors of low QoWL and factors that affect PWB and marital adjustment.


How should complex and dynamic software teams manage stability and instability? Contemporary information systems development (ISD) methods such as agile have been commonly cited as the answer to this question. However, there is evidence to suggest that these methods possess certain limitations which constrain their ability to effectively manage the impacts of turbulent environments. This research-in-progress paper introduces a new approach to understanding stability and instability in ISD teams, drawing on the concept of momentum. The concept of momentum, drawn from sports literature, is based on the view that team performances transition between states of stable peak performance (positive momentum) and states of unstable supressed performance (negative momentum). Successful sporting teams possess an innate ability to not only sustain states of constant peak performance but also possess a cogent ability to counteract the impacts of critical game instances or momentum breakers which destabilise their performance. This research presents a projected performance model and draws on sporting exemplars to explain the momentum existence. Implications of this model for understanding momentum in ISD teams are briefly considered.


ABSTRACT The origin of the Bahama platform and its continued subsidence to permit the accumulation of a thick carbonate cap has been a problem of middle American geology. The relation of this feature to previously published reconstructions of the late Paleozoic-early Mesozoic "fit" of North America, Africa and South America has also posed a problem. A new model incorporating the volcano-tectonic rift and ignimbrite sheet association is proposed to explain the origin of the Bahama platform as an integral part of Caribbean plate tectonics. A new North America-South America join is utilized to account for the major geologic and tectonic continuities of Paleozoic age throughout Mexico and Central America. The clockwise rotation of North America as it separated from South America and Africa caused the counterclockwise bending of the entire peninsula of Mexico and Central America, with the newly accreted Caribbean plate into a subduction zone that was to evolve into the are-trench system of the Greater Antilles. The rotation and beginning of subduction of this Caribbean plate into the Cuban trench, in Jurassic time, triggered volcanic eruptions that provided the foundations for the Cuban volcanic arc and the usual thick and widespread ignimbrite sheet behind the arc in the area now occupied by peninsular Florida and the Bahama Banks. Not only is evidence for this feature found in wells drilled in Florida but it also provides the foundation upon which was deposited the thick sequence of carbonate strata that forms the Bahama Banks. This interpretation eliminates the overlap of the Bahama salient onto Africa, explains the origin of the Old Bahama Channel, serves the same purpose as the sedimentary prism proposed by Dietz and others (1970) and has the volcanic character to meet the geophysical requirements indicated by Uchupi and others (1971).


ABSTRACT Nearly all academic libraries keep circulation statistics which are often shared with their parent university, library consortia, and national organizations. This study attempted to discover what goes into circulation statistics by surveying Southeastern research libraries. Libraries were asked what they count in their circulation statistics and what their circulation policies are to identify differences across libraries. The results of the survey indicate that there is no set formula for counting circulation statistics.


CONTEXT
The biochemical diagnosis of pheochromocytoma depends on the demonstration of elevated levels of catecholamines (i.e. epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine) and their metabolites.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to determine the preanalytical influence of a catecholamine-rich diet on urinary free and deconjugated catecholamines in healthy volunteers with a highly specific and sensitive analytical technique.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
We conducted a crossover study involving 27 healthy adults in a specialist medical center.

INTERVENTIONS
Subjects consumed catecholamine-rich nuts and fruits at fixed times on one day (about 35 micromol dopamine and 1 micromol norepinephrine) and catecholamine-poor products on another day. Urine samples were collected at timed intervals before, during, and after experimental and control interventions.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
We performed automated online sample preparation coupled to isotope-dilution mass spectrometry measurements of urinary concentrations of free and deconjugated catecholamines.

RESULTS
The catecholamine-rich diet had substantial effects on urinary excretions of deconjugated dopamine (up to 20-fold increases) and norepinephrine (up to 10-fold). Dietary catecholamines had less but significant effects on urinary excretion of free dopamine and norepinephrine (up to 1.5-fold increases). Outputs of urinary free and deconjugated epinephrine remained unaffected.

CONCLUSIONS
Urinary excretion of deconjugated norepinephrine and dopamine is strongly affected by consumption of catecholamine-rich food products, thereby increasing the likelihood of a false-positive test result during hormonal evaluation for pheochromocytoma. Measurement of deconjugated catecholamines should therefore preferably be avoided, in favor of measurement of urinary free catecholamines. In case of demonstrating increased urinary excretion of deconjugated norepinephrine and dopamine, repeated measurements are warranted with dietary restrictions prior to sample collection.


A cobalt–diphosphine catalyst has been found to promote a formal [3 + 2] cycloaddition reaction between a cyclopropanol and an allene via cyclopropanol ring opening, which affords a 3-alkylidenecyclopentanol derivative with high regio- and diastereoselectivities. The reaction tolerates monosubstituted, 1,1-disubstituted, and 1,3-disubstituted allenes and various functional groups. The reaction is proposed to proceed through carbometalation of the allene with a cobalt homoenolate followed by intramolecular carbonyl allylation of the resulting allylcobalt species.


Although smoking rates have declined in most of the countries in the world, there are population groups within these countries whose smoking rates remain significantly higher than the general population. These "forgotten groups" who have not been receiving the needed attention in tobacco control policies and tobacco cessation efforts include people with serious mental illness, substance use disorders, tuberculosis, people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer people, and pregnant women. A number of steps are needed at the national level in countries where these disparities exist, including modifications to national smoking cessation treatment guidelines that address the special needs of these populations, as well as targeted smoking cessation research, since these populations are often not included in clinical trials. Because of the higher smoking prevalence in these populations, as well as their lower smoking cessation treatment success rates than the general population, more resources are needed if we are to reduce health disparities in these vulnerable populations. Additionally, we believe that more effort should be focused on integrating smoking cessation treatment in the specialized care settings frequented by these subpopulations.


Quality assurance is the hot issue in nepbrology. In the 1980s attention was drawn to the importance ofensuring an adequate delivered dose of haemodialysis by data from the National Cooperative Dialysis Study in the United States, showing an inverse link between mortality and the amount of solute removed at each dialysis session. A growing awareness of quality, along with innovations such as erythropoietin therapy, has led to maintenance dialysis becoming a technique for enhancing rather than merely prolonging life. In the United Kingdom, the standards document of the Renal Association has defined a set of quality guidelines, rated according to best evidence, and the Renal Registry will enable units to monitor their performance in comparison to their peers. The nephrology group of the Cochrane Collaboration will help to define evidence for quality recommendations, although controlled trials in dialysis medicine remain rare. This whole area has assumed even more importance with the introduction of clinical governance. This edition is an update of a title first published in 1994. The viewpoint is that of a commercial dialysis concern in the US and the editors and many chapter authors are associated with Baxter Healthcare Corporation. Nevertheless most of the topics are pertinent to the clinical practice ofdialysis medicine in Europe. At first glance it is not easy to discern the overall structure of the book. The preface does not make things much clearer. There are 26 individual chapters, not organised into sections. Broadly, the first ten chapters are mainly concerned with the methodology of defining and monitoring quality standards, including discussions of evidence based medicine, statistical methods, and outcome measures. The remaining chapters are directed more towards clinical practice. There are loose sections on predialysis patients, maintenance haemodialysis (including chapters on quality of life, selection of adequacy measures, dialysis water treatment and dialyzer reuse) and peritoneal dialysis, as well as two brief chapters on acute renal failure and renal transplantation. It is a pity that, given the central theme of quality assurance, more attention has not been paid to the quality of language. The standard of the subediting is poor. There are many typographical errors, misspellings (tendancy for tendency) and malapropisms (tenant for tenet). Sentences are lengthy and unwieldy and full of jargon phrases. Frank errors of grammar and syntax are disappointingly common with verbs of incorrect number especially frequent. Some chapter titles are almost impossible to understand and some are ambiguous (despite …


The current literature on khat and mental disorders focuses on khat-induced disorders neglecting at large the adverse consequences of co-morbid use on pre-existing disorders. The case of a 32 year old Somali with a delusional disorder and co-morbid khat abuse is presented who killed a man in the
state of paranoid delusions. The psychotic exacerbation prior to this incident was accompanied by an increase of khat intake. Co-morbid khat abuse can lead to the deterioration of psychotic disorders, can facilitate aggressive acts and complicates treatment. The medical and legal system of the countries
where khat use reaches highest levels are not fully prepared to deal with such cases. Further research and the development of adequate prevention and treatment measures is urgently needed.

KEY WORDS: khat, psychosis, co-morbidity, aggression, Somalia


Abstract : This presentation describes two methods for imaging an absorber used as a new sensor in determining the location of the focal spot for a solar concentrator. The absorber is used as a sensor in both methods, but in slightly different ways. The first method developed is an optimization method inspired by Shack-Hartmann wave front sensing. This optimization utilizes masking and a correlation calculation to determine the error from the current image of the focal spot and the ideal or designed position of the focal spot. The second method still uses the absorber as a sensor but calculates area moments of the reflected sunlight on the tubing to calculate the current location of the focal spot.


Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Early identification of the coronary risk factors (CRF) among youths assists in determining the high-risk group to develop CAD in later life. In view of the modernised lifestyle, both urban and rural residing youths are thought to be equally exposed to various CRF. This study aimed to describe the common CRF including obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, smoking and family history of premature CAD in Malaysian youths residing in urban and rural areas. Methods: We recruited 942 Malaysian subjects aged 15–24 years old [(males=257, and urban=555 vs rural=387, (mean age + SD = 20.5 + 2.1 years)] from the community health screening programmes organised in both rural and urban regions throughout Malaysia. Medical history and standardised anthropometric measurements were recorded. Laboratory investigations were obtained for fasting serum lipid profiles and plasma glucose levels. Results: Youths in the rural were more overweight and obese (49.4% vs 42.7%, p<0.044) and have higher family history of hyperlipidaemia (16.3% vs 11.3%, p<0.036) than youths in the urban areas. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL-c) (2.8 vs 2.7 mmol/L) and total cholesterol (TC) (4.7 vs 4.5 mmol/L) were significantly higher in urban compared to rural youths (p<0.019 and p<0.012). Overall, more youth in this study has CRF rather than not (Has CRF = 67.0% vs No CRF = 33.0%). Significantly more rural youths have at least one CRF compared to urban youths (rural = 71.6% vs urban = 63.8%, p=0.012). Conclusion: In conclusion, rural youths have significantly higher BMI with higher family history of hyperlipidaemia compared to urban youths. However, urban youths have higher LDL-c and TC levels. Other coronary risk factors are not significantly different between urban and rural youths. CRF were significantly more prevalent among rural compared to urban youths.


unstratified generally applicable reference interval will be a good guide to disease, since an unusual value for a subject will likely lie outside the reference limits and so be picked up by the clinician and simple computer flagging systems. We do not consider that Gunn's analogy provides objective information to refute our suggestion. In comparing serum creatinine and creatinine clearance, we are investigating two alternatives for diagnosis of one condition, that is, renal impairment. Comparing calcium and PTH for the diagnosis of hyperparathyroidism is an interesting example. Gunn suggests that the study of Nussbaum et al. shows large overlap of PTH results between patients with and without hyperparathyroidism. In fact, it is easy to calculate that the sensitivity is 95% when the specificity is 1001., and the specificity is 86% when the sensitivity is 100%; thus there is only small overlap between healthy subjects and patients with hyperparathyroidism. Would that all tests in our repertoire possessed these nosological performance characteristics. In addition, to quote from the publication, 'assay results for 37 individuals with surgically proven hyperparathyroidism were completely resolved from those for 24 patients with hypercalcaemia of malignancy'. Moreover, PTH was not compared with calcium as a criterion for diagnosis: all of the patients studied had hypercalcaemia. Furthermore, it should be noted that the data on intraand inter-individual variation of PTH were obtained by Gunn and co-workers/ on only two specimens taken one week apart. In addition, unstratified serum creatinine and creatinine clearance corrected for surface area have very different indices of individuality (0'29 and 1,10, repsectively). In contrast, the indices for PTH and calcium are very similar, as far as can be deduced from the data quoted by Gunn." ELIZABETH M S GOWANS C G FRASER Department of Biochemical Medicine, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee DDl 9SY, UK


A growing number of babies are born with perinatal risk factors that may impair later development. These children are often assessed at 2 years to help predict outcome and direct support services. Executive function is an important predictor of academic achievement and behavior, but there are limited assessments of executive function in 2-year-olds and few have been tested in at-risk populations. Therefore, we developed a battery of four age-appropriate tasks to assess executive function in 2-year-olds. At 24 months' corrected age 368 children completed tasks assessing attention, inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility. Scores on different tasks were weakly correlated, suggesting that they measured separate aspects of executive function, with combined scores for this cohort approximating a normal distribution. Significantly more boys (67%) than girls (57%) were unable to inhibit their behavior on the Snack Delay Task and girls (M = 3.24, SD = 2.4) had higher mean scores than boys (M = 2.7, SD = 2.7) on the Ducks and Buckets Reverse Categorization Task of working memory. Performance was significantly affected by family socioeconomic status. Mean scores were lower on all four individual tasks and on the global score of overall performance in children from a low household income (<$40,000) compared to those from medium ($40,001-$70,000) and high income households (>$70,001). Maternal education was only associated with scores on the working memory task and the global score; and a measure of neighborhood deprivation was only associated with scores on the two inhibitory tasks and the global score. Our findings confirm the feasibility of assessing executive function in 2-year-olds, and its ability to discriminate effects of socioeconomic status, a common confounder in child development research. Further development and standardization of this test battery comparing at-risk children with a normative population would provide a much-needed measure of executive function in early childhood.


Irisin is a myokine secreted during exercise. It has drawn the attention of researchers as it regulates several effects of exercise that are considered beneficial. It has also been proposed as a therapeutic tool to treat metabolic disorders. In recent years, the effect of different types of training on circulating irisin has been studied in large populations. An overall beneficial result has been shown, however, the outcome of the investigations has raised some controversy. Herein we evaluated the existing literature on the effects of different types of training on the circulating irisin levels in healthy subjects and in those displaying different metabolic condition. We conducted queries in the PubMed and Web of Science databases for literature published between January 2010 and January 2021. Thirty-seven original articles were retrieved and they were included in this review. Any letter to the editor, meta-analyses, reviews, and systematic review articles were excluded. From these 37 articles, 19 of them reported increased levels of circulating irisin. The interventions encompassed aerobic, resistance, combined, circuit, and interval training types. Such increase of circulating irisin was reported for healthy subjects and for those displaying different metabolic condition. A training that is steadily kept with a moderate to high intensity, including that characterized by brief highly intense intervals, were distinguishable from the rest. Nevertheless, the training effectiveness as evaluated by the increased circulating irisin levels depends on the subject's metabolic condition and age.


Now a day the technology has dramatic growth although in some rural area. These some lack for signal service providers to overcome. In this paper proposed join beam forming using SA (Sampling Annealing) functions at layer providers. A server and Client are in same location at different providers. The server has signal means will given signal to client. Belongs to delay at traffic consumed should power allocation. That provider accessed service Layers. The model has been validated with experimental results, performed by using Primary and Secondary side loaded by real-world traffic traces. The achieved results demonstrate how the proposed model can effectively represent energyand network-aware performance indexes. On this basis, we propose a constrained optimization policy, which seeks the best tradeoff between power consumption and packet latency times. The proper spectrum management, mobile networks are able to provide their subscribers a variety of services with different QoS levels of the BSs of mobile networks are usually sparsely deployed. If the power consumption of the PBS is reduced


MapReduce is a distributed computing model for cloud computing to process massive data. It simplifies the writing of distributed parallel programs. For the fault-tolerant technology in the MapReduce programming model, tasks may be allocated to nodes with low reliability. It causes the task to be reexecuted, wasting time and resources. This paper proposes a reliability task scheduling strategy with a failure recovery mechanism, evaluates the trustworthiness of resource nodes in the cloud environment and builds a trustworthiness model. By using the simulation platform CloudSim, the stability of the task scheduling algorithm and scheduling model are verified in this paper.


The majority of maternal deaths are preventable: About three quarters of all maternal deaths are caused by postpartum hemorrhage, hypertensive disorders such as pre-eclampsia/eclampsia, infections, unsafe abortion and other delivery-related complications. In theory, all of the major causes of maternal death can be treated with effective and timely clinical interventions. In practice, however, even if a woman manages to access prenatal care and deliver in a health facility with a skilled birth attendant, poor quality of care can be life-threatening. A study to assess the pregnancy outcome was conducted in the rural field practice area, PHC Kudutini of VIMS Ballari, Karnataka, India. This study period was of one and half year, wherein interpersonal interview was conducted with the help of predesigned and pre tested questionnaire. All those pregnant women who registered themselves in the PHC during the first trimester were interviewed during the first visit. It includes various variables like socio demographic, obstetric, various health service utilization. Educational status among the Antenatal Mothers it is found that 22.3% of pregnant mothers and 4.8% of their husbands are illiterate. Total literates among the antenatal mothers and their husbands are 77.5% and 94.9% respectively. Among those who are literate, maximum attended till secondary schooling i.e, 41.9% among antenatal mothers and 41.2% among their husbands followed by primary schooling which was 23.4% and 25.1% among the antenatal mothers and their husbands respectively. Socio economic status of the Antenatal Mothers it was found out that maximum i.e, 40.5% belonged to class III, followed by 34.1% in class II, and then 16.4%, 8.1% and 0.1% belonged to class I, class IV and class V


Code smells are more likely to stay inter-connected in software rather than remaining as a single instance. These code smell clusters create maintainability issues in evolving software. This paper aims to understand the evolution of the code smells in software, by analyzing the behavior of these clusters such as size, number and connectivity. For this, the clusters are first identified and then these characteristics are observed. The identification of code smell clusters is performed in three steps detection of code smells (God Class, Long Method, Feature Envy, Type Checking) using smell detection tools, extraction of their relationships by analyzing the source code architecture, and generation of graphs from the identified smells and their relationships, that finally reveals the smelly clusters. This analysis was executed on JUnit as a case study, and four important cluster behaviors were reported.


Maintenance of body orientation (postural control) is a vital motor function of the brain. The general goal of this project was to understand the organization and operation of neuronal networks responsible for postural control. The lamprey (a lower vertebrate) was used as a model animal. The postural control system in the lamprey, driven by vestibular input, maintains a definite orientation of the longitudinal body axis in relation to horizon (pitch angle) and the dorsal-side-up body orientation (roll angle is 0°). Important elements of the postural network are reticulospinal (RS) neurons, which are driven by vestibular input and transmit commands for postural corrections from the brain to the spinal cord. In in vivo studies, the activity of RS neurons was recorded from their axons in the spinal cord by chronically implanted electrodes. The animals were rotated through 360 in the roll or pitch plane in order to stimulate vestibular organs. The activity of individual neurons was separated from the mass activity by a spike-sorting program. Rotation in the pitch plane revealed two groups of neurons (UP and DOWN), responding to nose-up and nose-down rotation, respectively. These groups presumably mediate opposing vestibular reflexes and cause downward and upward turns of the animal. 22% of the RS neurons responding to pitch tilts also responded to roll tilts. This overlap suggests that the RS pathways are partly shared by the pitch and roll control systems. A unilateral labyrinthectomy (UL) caused continuous rolling of the lamprey. Testing in the roll plane has shown that UL slightly affected responses on the UL side, whereas those on the opposite side disappeared. This asymmetry is the likely cause for the loss of equilibrium. Eye illumination led to a restoration of responses on the side contraleteral to UL, and to a reduction of responses on the opposite side. The restoration of symmetry of RS responses allows one to explain the behavioral effect of eye illumination – restoration of equilibrium. When animals were tested in the pitch plane before and after UL, in the group UP responses on the UL side changed only slightly, and on the opposite side they disappeared. In the group DOWN, the UL caused only minor changes in vestibular responses. Thus left and right UP subgroups receive their main input from the contralateral labyrinth. By contrast, neurons of group DOWN receive input from both labyrinths. The UL-induced changes in vestibular responses to pitch tilt will disturb the normal activity of the pitch control system. Normally, a few weeks after UL lampreys restore postural equilibrium ("vestibular compensation"). When behaviorally compensated animals were tested in the roll plane, it was found that vestibular responses on the side contralateral to UL reappeared, partly restoring symmetry in RS responses. These findings support the hypothesis that the recovery of postural control after UL is due to a restoration of symmetry in the RS motor commands. In vitro experiments were performed on the brainstem-spinal cord preparation, with intracellular stimulation of individual RS and vestibulospinal (VS) neurons, and recording the responses to these stimuli from spinal motoneurons. Most of the neurons produced effects on motor output, enhancing or suppressing it. The effects of VS neurons on different groups of motoneurons were weaker and less diverse than those of RS neurons. The RS and VS patterns of responses and the extent of neuronal projections suggest that VS neurons are responsible for flexion of the rostral part of the body and turns of the head in different planes, whereas RS neurons are responsible for formation of gross motor synergies.


In this paper a design method of the optimum digital audio equalizers with small ringing impulse responses, by using symmetric B-spline functions is presented. It is important to have a flat frequency response for the audio equalizer. The solution is to approximate the response of each frequency band by using spline functions, that insures continuous superior order derivatives. These small ringings give a natural audition. B-splines can be combined to improve the interband independence and, at the same time, to have small ringings of the impulse response and desired frequency response.


This study investigates the motives for producers that inform decisions to convert or not convert to organic wine production as well as the motives for retailers to offer or not offer organic wine and promotion of organic wine from producers' and retailers' perspectives. In total, 100 semi-structured in-depth interviews with 25 different types of retailers, 50 organic wineries and 25 non-organic wineries were conducted and analysed using content analysis and grounded theory. Additionally, the wine offers of 25 stores were analysed to develop an understanding of the distribution and promotion of organic wines. Producers choose to switch or not to switch to organic farming for primarily altruistic reasons. Because organic wine producers do not specifically focus on the organic nature of their wines in their communications, this attribute is typically disregarded by retailers and consumers during their wine-buying decisions, which undermines the growing demand for organic wine. There are significant differences between wine-growing regions in Germany and their vine cultivation conditions due to weather, the steepness of slopes and the attitudes towards converting conventional wine production to organic wine production. Missing knowledge and a low demand for organic wines are barriers for retailers to focus on organic wine. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate organic wines from numerous producers in every wine-growing region in Germany and various retailers in Germany. The focus on communication shows a lack in the knowledge transfer along the value chain of organic wine. Therefore, this study fills a research gap and provides valuable practical insight into the organic market for the wine industry and the scientific community.


CLN3 disease is a lysosomal storage disorder associated with fatal neurodegeneration that is caused by mutations in CLN3. Most individuals with CLN3 disease carry at least one allele with a 966 bp deletion in CLN3 which results in the deletion of exons 7 and 8. There is a need for more physiologically relevant human cell-based CLN3 disease models to better understand the cellular changes during the disease process. Using CRISPR/Cas9, we corrected the 966 bp deletion mutation in human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) of a compound heterozygous patient (CLN3 Δ 966 bp and E295K). The isogenic deletion-corrected and unedited CLN3 patient iPSCs were used for disease modeling. iPSC-derived neurons carrying this particular CLN3 mutation (CLN3 neurons) had lower functional activity as recorded using microelectrode arrays for most of the culture period. Proteomics analysis showed downregulation of proteins related to axon guidance and endocytosis at day in vitro (DIV) 14 and 42 in CLN3 neurons. This was accompanied by an increase in lysosomal-related proteins in CLN3 neurons. Western blot analysis revealed hyperglycosylation of the lysosomal marker, Lysosome Associated Membrane Protein 1 (LAMP1) in CLN3 neurons at DIV 14, 28 and 42, which was not apparent in control neurons. Ultrastructural analysis of CLN3 neurons showed numerous membrane-bound vacuoles containing diverse types of storage material, ranging from curvilinear deposits, multilamellar structures to osmiophilic deposits. Our findings suggest alterations in lysosomal function and neurodevelopment involving axon guidance and synaptic transmission in CLN3-deficient neuronal derivatives, which could be potential targets for therapy.


In this study, the effects of five wild tomato species (Solanum chilense, Solanum corneliomulleri, Solanum neorickii, Solanum huaylesense and Solanum pennellii) on the life table parameters of Tuta absoluta were determined for the first time, and the larval development time, lifespan, pupal period, fecundity, and female/male longevity were also estimated. According to the data obtained from the study, S. chilense was determined as the most suitable species for the development of T. absoluta. Among the wild tomato species, S. corneliomulleri and S. neorickii were determined as the most effective hosts against T. absoluta in terms of the intrinsic rate of increase, net reproductive rate, mean generation time, gross reproduction rate, population doubling time, and finite rate of increase than the other species. These two species were also effective against the pest on the egg, larval development, total longevity, and fecundity. According to these results, S. corneliomulleri and S. neorickii are viable candidates for the development of new resistant tomato genotypes to T. absoluta.


Seeds of twenty two leguminous species were sown without any pretreatment in order to investigate the effect of sowing time on their germination in the forest nursery of E irdir, Turkey. The experimental design was completely randomized blocks with four replications. The sowing times were from 1st February to 15th May 2008 with 15 days intervals. According to the analysis results, it was found out that there were significant differences among the sowing times for all the species apart from Spartium junceum (p<0.001). Three Bauhinia spp., two Colutea spp., two Cytisus spp., Gleditsia triacanthus, two Robinia spp., Sophora japonica, Spartium junceum, Ulex europaeus and Wisteria sinensis seeds germinated successfully on all the studied sowing times. Besides, it was detected the sowing times that Amorpha fruticosa, Calicotome villosa, Coronilla emerus and Genista lydia seeds had no germination. It could also be concluded that seed sowings in the early spring were more effective on germination percentages of all the species. As a result, provided that there are no sufficient time and proper conditions for applying any pretreatment it would be suggested the seed sowing in the early spring.


Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive cancer with limited targeted therapies. RNA aptamers, suitably chemically modified, work for therapeutic purposes in the same way as antibodies. We recently generated 2′Fluoro-pyrimidines RNA-aptamers that act as effective recognition elements for functional surface signatures of TNBC cells. Here, we optimized three of them by shortening and proved the truncated aptamers as optimal candidates to enable active targeting to TNBC. By using prediction of secondary structure to guide truncation, we identified structural regions that account for the binding motifs of the full-length aptamers. Their chemical synthesis led to short aptamers with superb nuclease resistance, which specifically bind to TNBC target cells and rapidly internalize into acidic compartments. They interfere with the growth of TNBC cells as mammospheres, thus confirming their potential as anti-tumor agents. We propose sTN145, sTN58 and sTN29 aptamers as valuable tools for selective TNBC targeting and promising candidates for effective treatments, including therapeutic agents and targeted delivery nanovectors.


Urbanization is a well-known topic in sustainable development debates as it is known to have great impacts on landscape and environment. Low density, apparently random, scattered or fragmented and leap frogging forms of urban land use, not classified as core urban fabric (town, city, . . . ) nor classified as real 'countryside' are studied in this paper. With a thorough literature study of more than 200 publications, a number of interesting conclusions about this important environmental and socio-economical phenomenon can be made. At first, it is generally described as either a type of land use or land use dynamic functioning as 'divide' between city and countryside (the urban fringe theory), or it is very often described as the dynamic and fast transformation of rural land into urban land (the sprawl approach). In some cases it forms its own 'landscape' and it is called the peri-urban or more correctly semi-urban area. Generally, there seems to be a lack of good definitions and frameworks, although it is studied often and in various scientific disciplines. Prominently, there is an always present dichotomy between rural and urban in all concepts, theories and definitions proposed.


Abstract. A sensitive catalytic assay for placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP) was used to quantify enzyme levels in sera from women with malignant gynecological tumors, i.e. cervical carcinoma, ovarian carcinoma and carcinoma of the breast. Values were compared with those of a reference group of 155 healthy individuals. In this group, basic mean levels of the enzyme amounted to 0.06±0.08μmoles × min−1 × 1−1 (mean±SD), which corresponds to 0.3±0.4 ng/ml (mean±SD) purified placental alkaline phosphatase. Enzyme levels were not significantly affected by age, whereas sex gave slightly higher values for women in all age groups. This difference was statistically significant (p< 0.001). The discriminating capacity of PLAP as a tumor marker was analysed with this assay and compared in sensitivity with a radio‐immunoassay. A cut‐off level of 0.2 μmoles × min−1 × 1−1, corresponding to 1 ng/ml enzyme protein as measured by the radio‐immunoassay, detected 23‐68% of the tumor patients, giving false‐positive results from the control group in the order of 5%. Corresponding values at a cut‐off level of 0.3 μmolesxmin−1 × 1−1 (1.5 ng/ml) gave values 20‐44% and 2%, respectively. The present investigation emphasizes that sensitivity in assays of placental alkaline phosphatase, whether catalytic or immu‐nological, must not exceed ng‐level.


The recently isolated root-hairless mutant of barley (Hordeum vulgare L), bald root barley, brb offers a unique possibility to quantify the importance of root hairs in phosphorus (P) uptake from soil. In the present study the ability of brb and the wild-type, barley genotype Pallas producing normal root hairs to deplete P in the rhizosphere soil was investigated and the theory of diffusion and mass flow applied to compare the predicted and measured depletion profiles of diffusible P. Pallas depleted twice as much P from the rhizosphere soil as brb. The P depletion profile of Pallas uniformly extended to 0.8 mm from the root surface, which was equal to the root hair length (RHL). The model based on the theory of diffusion and mass flow explained the observed P-depletion profile of brb, and the P depletion outside the root-hair zone of Pallas, suggesting that the model is valid only for P movement in rhizosphere soil outside the root-hair zone. In low-P soil (P in soil solution 3 micromolar) brb did not survive after 30 d, whereas Pallas continued to grow, confirming the importance of root hairs in plant growth in a P-limiting environment. In high-P soil (P in soil solution 10 micromolar) both brb and Pallas maintained their growth, and they were able to produce seeds. At the high-P concentration, RHL of the Pallas was reduced from 0.80 ± 0.2 to 0.68 ± 0.14 mm. In low-P soil, P-uptake rate into the roots of Pallas was 4.0 x 10(-7) g mm-1 d-1 and that of brb was 1.9 x 10(-7) g mm-1 d-1, which agreed well with the double amount of P depleted from the rhizosphere soil of Pallas in comparison with that of brb. In high-P soil, the P uptake rates into the roots of brb and Pallas were 3.3 and 5.5 x 10(-7) g mm-1 d-1, respectively. The results unequivocally confirmed that in a low-P environment, root hairs are of immense importance in P acquisition and plants survival, but under high-P conditions they may be dispensable. The characterization of phenotypes brb and Pallas and the ability to reproduce seeds offers a unique possibility of molecular mapping of QTLs and candidate genes conferring root-hair formation and growth of barley.


This paper analyzes the admission policies in teaching careers within public education systems in Chile and Brazil. The article deals with the comparative data forms and criteria for the regulation of the teaching profession, specifically the statutes and career plans in effect. In Brazil, the work takes the data from 12 states and their capitals towns as a reference for analysis, since Brazil does not have a single national career. In Chile, which has nationally standardized elements, the research took the national references about the teaching career. The study concludes that both countries have somewhat chaotic forms of teaching entry, and the criteria for nomination to the positions are different; although national laws exist, the teaching career involves great diversity in form and entry. Finally, this study also shows that the teaching profession exams could be potential instruments to ensure improvements in educational quality; however, these occur in unfavorable contexts to the teaching practice.


During the past two decades, social and economic restructuring in rural and small
town places across Canada has been accompanied by changes in the availability of
local services. From retail to social, health, and government services, changes in
local availability are occurring at the same time as such services are increasingly
needed to support local economic revitalization in response to economic change.
Drawing upon a seven year study of service availability in 19 rural and small town
places, this paper explores two key questions. The first concerns trends in service
availability over time. The second concerns patterns with respect to the location of
those services. The findings highlight general trends towards service reductions
and regionalization. The implications from these findings may be significant as
both outcomes have the potential to erode crucial local supports necessary for
economic renewal and transition in rural and small town Canada.


When impulse responses in dynamic multivariate models such as identified VARs are given economic interpretations, it is important that reliable statistical inferences be provided. Before probability assessments are provided, however, the model must be normalized. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this paper argues that normalization, a rule of reversing signs of coefficients in equations in a particular way, could considerably affect the shape of the likelihood and thus probability bands for impulse responses. A new concept called ML distance normalization is introduced to avoid distorting the shape of the likelihood. Moreover, this paper develops a Monte Carlo simulation technique for implementing ML distance normalization.


The purpose of this study is to provide the configuration alternatives for the special classroom of the elementary school reflecting current trends of the health promotion education. Initiated by WHO(World Health Organization), the concept of health-promoting school has been widely advocated as an approach to enhance public health through school based health promotion. Korean Ministry of Education has also adopted the concept and many elementary schools has been participating in developing the curricula and educating students as the health promoting model schools. This study analyzes methodologies and education programs of current health promoting curriculum of the schools since 2009, explores the spacial features of other public facilities offering similar education program and surveys relating teachers. Based on the analysis, the study seeks the basic elements for health promoting classroom and deduces several classroom space configurations to optimize students` learning effects. This study can be a case method for other classroom typology studies especially with the current diversification tendency of elementary school education services.


Ionic liquids (ILs) are widely used in elastomer composites, primarily as vulcanization activators or accelerators, crosslinkers, conductive additives, or dispersing agents of fillers. The aim of this work was to study the efficiency of ionic liquid immobilization on filler surfaces using different techniques of thermal analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Ionic liquid, such as 1-decyl 3-methylimidazolium bromide (DmiBr) was grafted on the surface of silica, calcium oxide, and carbon black to improve the dispersion degree of their particles in the elastomeric matrix. Thermal analysis and SEM microscopy revealed a key role in determining the efficiency of the filler modification with ILs dissolved in acetone. Identifying the weight loss associated with thermal decomposition of DmiBr in modified fillers, allowed the calculation of the efficiency of their modification and compare the surface reactivity of studied fillers with DmiBr. Silica and carbon black exhibited high and comparable ability for interaction with ionic liquid. SEM images showed that particles of DmiBr-modified fillers were quite homogeneously dispersed in the elastomer matrix and exhibited good adhesion to the elastomer.


We conduct a social dilemma experiment in which real-world leaders can punish group members as a third party. Despite facing an identical environment, leaders are found to take remarkably different punishment approaches. The different leader types revealed experimentally explain the relative success of groups in managing their forest commons. Leaders who emphasize equality and efficiency see positive forest outcomes. Antisocial leaders, who punish indiscriminately, see relatively negative forest outcomes. Our results highlight the importance of leaders in collective action, and more generally the idiosyncratic but powerful roles that leaders may play, leading to substantial variation in group cooperation outcomes. (JEL C93, D03, O13, Q23)


This thesis studies some philosophical and ethical issues that economic design raises. Chapter 1 gives an overview of economic design and argues that a crossfertilisation between philosophy and economic design is possible and insightful for both sides. Chapter 2 examines the implications of mechanism design for theories of rationality. I show that non-classical theories, such as constrained maximization and team reasoning, are at odds with the constraint of incentive compatibility. This poses a problem for non-classical theories, which proponents of these theories have not addressed to date. Chapter 3 proposes a general epistemology of economic engineering, which is motivated by a novel case study, viz. the reform of a matching market for medical practitioners. My account makes use of causal graphs to explain how models allow encoding counterfactual information about how market outcomes change if the design of the market changes. The second part of the thesis examines ethical issues. In Chapter 4, I apply tools from matching theory to gain insights into the distribution of refugees, such as among countries of the European Union. There is an ethical trade-off between the fairness of matchings and their efficiency, and I argue that in this context, fairness is the morally weightier criterion. Chapter 5 deals with the ethics of kidney exchange. Against critics, I give two arguments for the implementation of kidney exchange programmes. The first argument is that they are instrumental in meeting a moral obligation, namely to donate effectively. The second is that kidney exchange may increase the motivation for altruistic donations, because the donation of one kidney may trigger > 1 life savings. The final chapter identifies questions for future research and it closes with some thoughts about the future trajectory of economic design.


In this letter, a novel wideband 180° phase shifter with excellent phase and amplitude balance is presented and a new wideband millimeter-wave planar balun is proposed for the first time. The proposed balun consists of a wideband Wilkinson divider for power splitting followed by two microstrip-coplanar stripline (CPS)-microstrip transitions for broadband 180° phase shift. Good broadband phase and amplitude balance performances are achieved according to the inherent wideband characteristics of the Wilkinson divider and microstrip-CPS-microstrip transition and symmetry of the structure. A new ka-band planar balun has been fabricated and measured. Measured results show that the return loss, isolation, amplitude imbalance, and phase imbalance are better than 10 dB, 14.4 dB, 0.8 dB, and 3.1° , respectively, over the specified frequency range from 26.5 to 40 GHz.


Location Based Services (LBSs) have recently attracted much attention due to the advancementof GPS facilitates. In LBS, the private and confidential information of user may disclose to others since LBS need a user's location. To protect the privacy of users, many cloaking algorithms have been proposed to hide user's actual location. Here to improve the cloaking algorithm performance and location privacy.A fundamental approach to perform the class of k- Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) queries, the core class of queries used in many of the location-based services, without revealing the origin of the query in order to preserve the privacy of this information. The idea behind our approach is to utilize oneway transformations to map the space of all static and dynamic objects to another space and resolve the query blindly in the transformed space. However, in order to become a viable approach, the transformation used should be able to resolve k-NN queries in the transformed space accurately and more importantly prevent malicious use of transformed data by untrusted entities. Traditional encryption based techniques incur expensive O(n) computation cost (where n is the total number of points in space) and possibly logarithmic communication cost for resolving a K-NN[1] query. This is because such approaches treat points as vectors in space and do not exploit their spatial properties. In contrast, we use Hilbert curves as efficient one-way transformations and design algorithms to evaluate a K-NN query in the Hilbert transformed space. Consequently, we reduce the complexity of computing a K-NN query to and transferring the results to the client in O(K), respectively, where N, the Hilbert curve degree, is a small constant. Our results show that we very closely approximate the result set generated from performing KNN queries in the original space while enforcing our new location privacy metrics termed u-anonymity and a-anonymity, which are stronger and more generalized privacy measures than the commonly used K-anonymity and cloaked region size measures. AS a result, the security level of the proposed protocol is close to perfect secrecy without the aid of a trusted third party and simulation results show that the k- NN query accuracy rate of the proposed protocol is higher than 92% even when is large.


We show that diffusion currents for a membrane containing a single conical nanopore with a fixed surface charge and small enough opening diameter depend on the concentration gradient direction. We interpret the results based on the effect of salt concentration on the thickness of the electrical double layer within the nanopore associated with the nanopore's surface charge and the distribution of electric fields inside the pore. The experimental observations are described by a diffusional model based on the Smoluchowski-Nernst-Planck equation.


In brain cancer surgery, it is critical to achieve extensive resection without compromising adjacent healthy, noncancerous regions. Various technological advances have made major contributions in imaging, including intraoperative magnetic imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT). However, these technologies have pros and cons in providing quantitative, real-time and three-dimensional (3D) continuous guidance in brain cancer detection. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive, label-free, cost-effective technique capable of imaging tissue in three dimensions and real time. The purpose of this study is to reliably and efficiently discriminate between non-cancer and cancerinfiltrated brain regions using OCT images. To this end, a mathematical model for quantitative evaluation known as the Blind End-Member and Abundances Extraction method (BEAE). This BEAE method is a constrained optimization technique which extracts spatial information from volumetric OCT images. Using this novel method, we are able to discriminate between cancerous and non-cancerous tissues and using logistic regression as a classifier for automatic brain tumor margin detection. Using this technique, we are able to achieve excellent performance using an extensive cross-validation of the training dataset (sensitivity 92.91% and specificity 98.15%) and again using an independent, blinded validation dataset (sensitivity 92.91% and specificity 86.36%). In summary, BEAE is well-suited to differentiate brain tissue which could support the guiding surgery process for tissue resection.


Hough transform is a popular low-level computer vision algorithm. Its computationally effective modification, Fast Hough transform (FHT), makes use of special subsets of image matrix to approximate geometric lines on it. Because of their special structure, these subset are called dyadic patterns.
In this paper various properties of dyadic patterns are investigated. Exact upper bounds on approximation error are derived. In a simplest case, this error proves to be equal to $\frac{1}{6} log(n)$ for $n \times n$ sized images, as was conjectured previously by Goetz et al.


This paper proposes an algorithm, called sequence prediction via enhanced episode discovery (SPEED), to predict inhabitant activity in smart homes. SPEED is a variant of the sequence prediction algorithm. It works with the episodes of smart home events that have been extracted based on the on -off states of home appliances. An episode is a set of sequential user activities that periodically occur in smart homes. The extracted episodes are processed and arranged in a finite-order Markov model. A method based on prediction by partial matching (PPM) algorithm is applied to predict the next activity from the previous history. The result shows that SPEED achieves an 88.3% prediction accuracy, which is better than LeZi Update, Active LeZi, IPAM, and C4.5.


Note.— This article and the articles in the previous issues ofThe Journalare part of a series published under the auspices of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry. Other articles will appear in succeeding issues. When completed, the series will be published in book form.—Ed. One dictionary defines therapeutics as "the practical branch of medicine dealing with the treatment of disease." In this article "therapeutics" is interpreted to include both treatment of diseases of the thyroid and treatment of any diseases by means of the gland. The treatment of hypothyroidism, for example, is substitution therapy with thyroid, but there are also certain nonthyroid disorders in which thyroid may be used as a drug for the sake of its pharmacodynamic action, just as epinephrine is used in asthma. The latter is symptomatic, not specific substitution therapy. It is treatment with agland secretion, not treatment of a gland


Anthropogenic activities such as illegal harvesting and trampling is generally considered to be responsible for a decline in the biological diversity of rocky intertidal habitats along the southern California coast (Littler, 1980; Littler et al. 1991; Murray and Bray 1994; Lindberg et al. 1998; Murray et al. 1999; Roy et al. 2003). Yet relatively little information exists about the nature and extent of such declines, largely due to the lack of baseline data against which one can compare the exploited or disturbed populations. This is a difficult problem because at present very few rocky intertidal assemblages in southern California are undisturbed enough to serve as an ecological baseline(s) against which other sites can be compared. Similarly, reliable ecological census data from the past are very rare and we will never be able to quantify temporal changes in abundances of species except at a few localities (such as that by Barry et al. 1995). However, data on past species occurrences (i.e. presence/absence data) can be compiled much more easily and across much larger spatial and temporal scales. Museum collections and the literature are a rich source of such data and once compiled they have the potential to provide us with a picture of how species occurrence patterns have changed over the last century or so. The primary goal of this project was to use historical data collected over the last century to construct a long-term perspective that can be used to quantify the ecological consequences of anthropogenic impacts on rocky intertidal molluscan species and populations. In particular, we refined and expanded a database of historical occurrences and body sizes of rocky intertidal molluscan species at multiple localities in southern California. These data, for the first time, provide a comprehensive picture of our knowledge of past occurrences of rocky intertidal molluscan species in southern California. We then used analyses of site occupancy patterns over time to identify sites with the best historical data on species occurrences and undertook ecological surveys at a selected subset of these localities. We are using comparative analyses of the historical information and the survey data to quantify how patterns of site occupancy as well as body sizes of individual species have changed over time.


Four groups of one-day-old SPF chicks were inoculated with the four variants IBV (previously isolated) isolates at 1 day old to study the virulence of these isolates. The results at 2 weeks pi revealed that all isolates were able to induce serological resposne postinfection, respiratory distress and depression commenced at 24 hours postinfection. 20% and 100% mortality was recorded with isolates 4 and 23; respectively. Assessment of pathogenicity index and pathotyping (at the end of observation period "2wk-pi"), categorized the 4 tested isoaltes (4, 16,18, 23) into three isoaltes of high virulence (4, 18 and 23), and one isolate of intermediate virulence (16). About 50% reduction in body weight was recorded with the four IBV isolates 2 wk postinfection. Kidney lesions were nephritis-nephrosis with urate deposition in ureters, while microscopic lesions were associated with increase in the amount of rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER). Tracheal lesions recorded as increase the amount of mucin, while microscopic lesions were edema of mucosa and inflammatory cells in the lamina propria. The regime of administering the infectious bronchitis (IB) live commercial H 120 vaccine (Massachusetts serotype) at 1 day old SPF chicks, and the heterologous challenge with four variants (serotypes) at 4 weeks of age, was found to be poorly effective in protecting the respiratory tract of SPF chickens with protection percentages of 8.1%, 55%, 10.5% and 12.6% corresponding to field isolates of IBV 4, 16, 18 and 23; respectively. Protection was measured by assessing ciliary activity of the tracheal epithelium following challenge. It is suggested that the use of the live IB-H 120 vaccine will not always broaden the protection against challenge with IB multiple serotypes isolated from Egypt. Therefore it is necessary to develop a new IB vaccines, either locally prepared or imported to overcome any new IB serotype that were emerged, through modifying vaccination strategies to make them appropriate to the field situation. (Journal of American Science 2010;6(9):94-108). (ISSN: 1545-1003).


Objectives: Non-adherence to medical and non-medical treatment is the main reason for uncontrolled hypertension (HT) worldwide. It was aimed to evaluate the medication adherence levels of patients with HT in this study. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, patients with HT who applied to an educational family health center from August 2018 to November 2018 and received HT treatment for at least 6 months were included in the study. The form consisted of questions about sociodemographic characteristics, medical information, and life-style habits. Morisky, Green, and Levine's Adherence Scale (MGL) was used to determine patients' adherence to pharmacotherapy. Results: A total of 186 patients were included in the study. According to the MGL scale, 26 (14.0%) of the participants were found to be non-adherent to their medication. According to blood pressure measurement results, 89 (47.8%) patients had uncontrolled HT. When sociodemographic characteristics and medication compliance were evaluated, 14 (8.8%) of university and above, 30 (18.8%) were in high school, 21 (13.0%) in secondary school, 64 (40.0%) were in primary school, 14 (8.8%) of literate, and 17 (10.6%) of illiterate patients were found to be adherent to drug therapy (p=0.035). While 87 (54.4%) of the patients whose blood pressure was normotensive were adherent to drug therapy, 73 (45.6%) of the patients who had uncontrolled HT were adherent to drug therapy (p=0.132). Conclusion: It was observed that high education level was effective in increasing adherence to drug therapy. Interestingly, there was no significant difference between medication adherence and providing blood pressure control in patients.


Mob lynching has been prevalent in recent years in many parts of states throughout India where false rumors are spread using social media instigating a mob into killing or severely injuring an individual. They believe that the victim has done something wrong and anger drives them blind to think irrationally and therefore they take upon their own hands to bring justice. It is the act of targeted violence by a mob acting as vigilantes to punish an alleged accused by beating the individual fiercely to the extent of killing or inflicting serious bodily injuries. Often these attacks are against innocent people as the source is mostly based on assumptions of some rumor, misinformation, or suspicion. It is essential to bring this to the utmost attention as a guiltless person doesn't deserve to be beaten so violently for a crime the person didn't commit. It is indignified and injustice towards the victim. Even the presence of police cannot do anything in these types of situations against a horde of people. The paper will solely focus on mob lynchings due to mistaken identities of claiming them as child abductors, thieves, etc taking current cases committed in India and also in the USA against black people, and a critical analysis of the provisions to hold these people responsible for committing such vigilant acts. A mob of people excites individuals and thus they go along with the crowd into thinking that whatever they are doing is just and fair. This makes them fearless of not being caught as they believe in escaping with the help of the group because during the commission of crime it becomes difficult to catch hold of every offender by the police. The current laws lack in holding these criminals liable so amendment of present laws or new laws is required for acting as a deterrent effect.


Abstract. Roesma DI, Tjong DH, Janra MN, Aidil DR. 2021. Freshwater vertebrates monitoring in Maninjau Lake, West Sumatra, Indonesia using environmental DNA. Biodiversitas 22: 2794-2802. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is one of the DNA sources without directly disturbing the organisms. The eDNA potentially an effective method with next-generation sequencing (NGS) that can read all DNA in parallel at one sequential run. Maninjau Lake in West Sumatra has experienced a decline the species richness, thus monitor biodiversity with the non-invasive method is needed. This study aimed to apply eDNA for monitoring freshwater vertebrates in Maninjau Lake. The eDNA was collected from water samples using the filter membrane to DNA isolation and sequencing with the NGS technique from Illumina. The eDNA method detected 150 vertebrate individuals and consists of 92 Actinopterygii fishes, three chondrichthyes fishes, 11 amphibians, seven reptiles, ten aves, and 27 mammals. Among all individuals were detected, only 11% known present in Maninjau Lake, while the others (89%) are native species to other countries. The fishes were detected living in Maninjau Lake by the eDNA method, i.e., Cyprinidae (Carassius auratus and Cyprinus carpio), Cichlidae (Oreochromis niloticus), and Poeciliidae (Gambusia affinis and Xiphophorus maculatus). Bias results in this study to be influenced by various factors i.e., possibility of contamination, poor DNA quality, the bias results during molecular processes, and not available the complete sequences databases to assigned into the correct taxa, especially fish species in Maninjau Lake. The eDNA method for monitoring biodiversity should consider the increase of sampling sites, replication samples, and the availability of sequences database in Genbank, NCBI


The subject of this contribution is the present state of affairs regarding religious education and the teaching of worldviews (Dutch: 'levensbeschouwing') on the one hand and the quality of the textbooks used on the other. The approach is that of a teacher in secondary education. The author starts by giving a brief outline of the general situation of religious education in the Netherlands. Then he deals with the significance of religious learning for the personal development of young people and asks how the subject should be taught. If it is to contribute to social cohesion and civic education it will have to aim at the development of a personal identity. These aims imply that both teachers and textbooks should meet certain standards with regard to didactics and professionalism. The author argues that due to recent developments, such as the so-called 'new learning', religious education and world view education can potentially fulfil a pivotal role for all ongoing learning processes in the schools.


Two experimental flocks of Romney sheep selected for increased hogget fleece weight show high selection responses (3040% of their controls) and evidence for altered seasonal patterns of annual wool growth, in line with published evidence from other flocks. While a preliminary experiment was unable to detect consistently significant line differences in plasma prolactin concentration at set time periods, there were indications of altered seasonal patterns in prolactin concentration and line differences in its, association with wool growth. Both selection and control lines showed low prolactin concentrations in June and July (16 &ml). Concentrations rose in August, September and October, approximately doubling each month to an average level of 111 @ml in early November. Early results from this longitudinal study, still in progress, suggest that animals from the selected lines tended to maintain their low prolactin concentrations longer into the winter and early spring, and that this tendency is associated with a higher hogget fleece weight. By contrast, in the unselected control lines, high hogget fleece weight tended to be positively associated with increasing prolactin levels over the winter/early spring period.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Evaluating the fertility and pregnancy outcomes in systemic sclerosis (SSc) women is challenging. Studies are still limited or subject to potential methodological biases. Areas covered: This work is a comprehensive review of the literature. We discuss the potential impact of SSc on women's pregnancy outcomes and the effects of pregnancy on SSc. We summarize the physiological changes during pregnancy and describe our experience. Expert commentary: Although the miscarriage rate does not appear increased in SSc, women are exposed to a higher risk of premature birth and intrauterine growth restriction compared with the general population. Early diffuse cutaneous SSc and use of corticosteroids are risk factors, whereas folic acid use prevents against premature birth. All SSc women wishing to conceive should be counselled during a preconception visit. Physiological changes arising during pregnancy may be the source of clinical problems in SSc women with organs with limited capacities.


Despite an increasing focus on the impact of class in higher education, less has been said about the experiences of those working-class people who navigate from student to scholar. In the largest interview study to date, conducted in the United Kingdom, this paper draws upon extensive qualitative interview data with ninety working-class academics. This article highlights the hostile encounters faced by these academics but also illuminates the forms of capital and the assets they bring to academia. The article suggests how we can move forward before providing a reminder that the working class should not be viewed by their supposed deficits (real or imaginary).


Lithium-ion capacitors (LICs) have emerged as promising energy storage devices with both high energy density and high power density. However, due to the mismatch of charge-storage capacity and electrode kinetics between battery-type anodes and capacitor-type cathodes, the application of lithium-ion capacitors has been limited. In this work, interconnected aerogel-like MXene wrapped Fe2O3 nanospheres have been prepared and investigated as battery-type anode materials for lithium-ion capacitors. In this rationally designed hybrid electrode, the Ti3C2Tx MXene matrix is capable of providing fast transport of electrons and suppressing the volume change of Fe2O3. Simultaneously, Fe2O3 hollow nanospheres offer large specific capacity and prevent restacking of the MXene layers, synergizing to boost the electrochemical performances of such hybrid electrodes. Meanwhile, the three-dimensional (3-D) nitrogen and sulphur dual-doped porous carbon (NS-DPC) derived from biomass has also been fabricated as a capacitor-type cathode material for lithium-ion capacitors. Consequently, the lithium-ion capacitors can demonstrate a high energy density of 216 W h kg−1 at a power density of 400 W kg−1 and a high power density of 20 kW kg−1 at an energy density of 96.5 W h kg−1. This work elucidates that both high energy density and power density can be achieved in hybrid lithium-ion capacitors.


Abstract We compared the accuracy, precision, and efficiency of 2 timesaving techniques to a standard laboratory procedure for processing benthic samples used to estimate secondary production. In the coarse-sieve technique, production was quantified from invertebrate biomass collected in a 2-mm sieve and corrected for retention probabilities of individual organisms. In the sieve-fractionated technique, production per sieve was quantified from the total biomass and average body mass of organisms collected in a geometric series of 9 sieves. Production estimates for the entire assemblage (coarse-sieve: r2 = 0.96, sieve-fractionated: r2 = 0.99, n = 57) and for individual taxa (coarse-sieve: r2 = 0.84, n = 308; sieve-fractionated: r2 = 0.99, n = 544) were strongly related to production estimates derived from standard processing techniques. The analytical error introduced by coarse-sieve (entire assemblage: residual mean square [RMS] = 0.014, individual taxa: RMS = 0.001) and sieve-fractionated (entire assemblage: RMS = 0.070, individual taxa: RMS = 0.0004) techniques was insignificant relative to the variance of production estimates among replicates (entire assemblage = 0.150, individual taxa = 0.329). Coarse-sieve and sieve-fractionated techniques required, on average, only 18% and 63% of the time required for standard processing, respectively, but coefficients of variation for production means of the entire assemblage differed by <1% between standard and timesaving techniques. These timesaving techniques for processing benthic samples increase the feasibility of studies of secondary production that require multiple sampling sites and dates, and thus, should further our understanding of the mechanisms that control stream productivity.


Fisheries in reservoirs, play a significant role in the livelihood of rural communities. In this context, a study was undertaken in Stanley reservoir in Salem district of Tamil Nadu to understand management of fisheries in the largest reservoir in South India. An attempt was made to comprehend the problems encountered by the fishers. The Department of Fisheries takes lead role in the management of the reservoir. Rules and regulations are framed by the Department of Fisheries including annual stocking of fish seeds. Fishing in the Stanley reservoir is carried out by licensed fishers whose numbers are regulated by the Department of Fisheries. It was observed that mesh size regulations and closed seasons are not enforced strictly. Fishers need to sell the catch to the Fishermen Co-operative Marketing Society which gives them reasonable price. The major constraints perceived by the fishers were 'fluctuating income' and 'poaching'.


Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) is one of the most common perennial warm-season forage crops grown in the South. While prominent in the region bermudagrass management requires large amounts of fertility and forage quality is moderate at best. Incorporating a legume into bermudagrass pastures could serve as an alternative to the necessary applications of synthetic N, while also improving the nutritive value of the forage base. A two-year grazing evaluation was conducted from May-Sept. 2018 (Y1) and May-Aug. 2019 (Y2) at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus in Tifton, Georgia, to compare concurring production of alfalfa/bermudagrass mixed pastures (BGA) with bermudagrass monoculture pastures with (BGN) or without (BGZ) the application of synthetic nitrogen. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with three treatments and two replications. All paddocks were evaluated pre and post grazing event for herbage availability, botanical composition, forage species competitiveness, and nutritive value. Paddocks (0.8-ha) were rotationally grazed using put and take management with stocker steers (Y1 BW=195.9±22.9 kg; Y2 BW=228.5±30.0 kg), two testers per treatment. Steers were weighed at initiation, conclusion, and on a 28–30 day interval for calculation of ADG and gain/ha. Statistical analysis was conducted using the PROC MIXED procedure of SAS. Despite significant drought in Y2, year did not affect total gain/ha; however, treatment did (P = 0.04), such that BGA was highest (383.6±35.1 kg/ha), and BGN and BGZ were not different (261.2±35.1 kg/ha and 239.0±35.1 kg/ha, respectively). This is likely due to the lower stocking density and inclusion of high-quality volunteer annual grasses in BGZ treatments which allowed for selective grazing. These data suggest that rotationally grazing alfalfa/bermudagrass mixtures can result in a higher gain/ha, than bermudagrass pastures that are supplemented with or without synthetic N in the South.


(1) Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a diagnostic label in which stability is typically low. The aim of this study was to examine temporal changes in the diagnosis of MCI subtypes by using an overlapping-time strategy; (2) Methods: The study included 435 participants aged over 50 years with subjective cognitive complaints and who completed at least one follow-up evaluation. The probability of transition was estimated using Bayesian odds ratios; (3) Results: Within the different time intervals, the controls with subjective cognitive complaints represented the largest proportion of participants, followed by sda-MCI at baseline and in the first five intervals of the follow-up, but not in the last eight intervals. The odds ratios indicated higher odds of conversion to dementia in sda-MCI and mda-MCI groups relative to na-MCI (e.g., interval 9–15 months—sda-MCI OR = 9 and mda-MCI OR = 3.36; interval 27–33—sda-MCI OR = 16 and mda-MCI = 5.06; interval 42–48—sda-MCI OR = 8.16 and mda-MCI = 3.45; interval 45–51—sda-MCI OR = 3.31 and mda-MCI = 1); (4) Conclusions: Notable patterns of instability consistent with the current literature were observed. The limitations of a prospective approach in the study of MCI transitions are discussed.


To have a nationality is a human right. But between the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, virtually every country in the world adopted laws that stripped citizenship from women who married foreign men. Despite the resulting hardships and even statelessness experienced by married women, it took until 1957 for the international community to condemn the practice, with the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Nationality of Married Women. Citizenship, Alienage, and the Modern Constitutional State tells the important yet neglected story of marital denaturalization from a comparative perspective. Examining denaturalization laws and their impact on women around the world, with a focus on Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States, it advances a concept of citizenship as profoundly personal and existential. In doing so, it sheds light on both a specific chapter of legal history and the theory of citizenship in general.


Unexpected water accumulation (called perched water) can be present inside hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs. In case of limited or poor geophysical data, the prediction of this accumulation may be difficult.
 In this paper, a real case is used to show how the presence of perched water was initially supposed and then verified through production data analysis.
 During the development campaign of a deep water reservoir in West Africa, a water injector well found an unexpected shallower water table. To understand the nature of this water, the gas while drilling data of two oil producer drilled in the same area of the water injector were analysed. Based on this analysis the last meters of the open hole section of both oil producers were in water. The integration of gas while drilling data, stratigraphy, sedimentology and structural settings knowledge of the area suggested that this water was locally trapped during oil migration, most likely due to the presence of a structural barrier.
 The two oil producer wells, located in the supposed perched water area, were successfully started-up. The behavior of both wells was daily monitored to understand and confirm the nature of perched water phenomenon. From day one, the two wells showed water production. After few weeks, the water cut of one well clearly started to reduce. For the other well, the water cut behavior was constant and only after one year of production the declining trend was appreciated. The observed declining trend of water production was the final confirmation that aquifer in this sector of the field is isolated and with limited extension. The water cut trend was also captured in the 3D dynamic reservoir model. In addition, tracers were implemented in the model to identify different water production sources (injected or perched) and to forecast their evolution during the field life.
 The literature on perched water is quite limited and usually this kind of phenomenon is detected and described only on the geological side, but the production behavior of this water is rarely observed. This case study is integrating the geological and geophysical knowledge of the field with production data analysis to understand perched water behavior and can be considered a reference for other similar situation.


The paper presents several remarks on opportunity and usefulness of the centre for outpatient follow up of glaucoma within the "Colţea" Ophthalmology Clinic and of the Bucharest Municipal Hospital. The unconfirmed, suspected patients were not considered glaucomatous. The exam of the eye has to be complete, to include the systematic investigation of the ocular tension, and of the visual field, by evidencing scotoma in Bjerrum's area photometric disharmonies and chromatic alterations. A special attention must be paid to the low pressure glaucoma, as a peculiar evolution form of glaucoma with open angle.


Considerable fractions of (Bi, Pb)-2223 were recovered after the complete peritectic melting of that phase. The minimization of Pb-losses was a key-feature, so that only about 1.57 wt % of total Pb content was lost over the whole process. Therefore the system remained within the 2223 single-phase region. The new route employed here, including the participation of a stable liquid, should overcome some microstructural problems nowadays present in sintered 2223/Ag tapes, such as voids, cracks and bad grain connectivity. Further optimization of the complete melting-reformation process may reduce the fraction of secondary superconducting phases, which can act as weak-links.


Considerable effort has been devoted to building commonsense knowledge bases. However, they are not available in many languages because the construction of KBs is expensive. To bridge the gap between languages, this paper addresses the problem of projecting the knowledge in English, a resource-rich language, into other languages, where the main challenge lies in projection ambiguity. This ambiguity is partially solved by machine translation and target-side knowledge base completion, but neither of them is adequately reliable by itself. We show their combination can project English commonsense knowledge into Japanese and Chinese with high precision. Our method also achieves a top-10 accuracy of 90% on the crowdsourced English–Japanese benchmark. Furthermore, we use our method to obtain 18,747 facts of accurate Japanese commonsense within a very short period.


New features of social network platforms afford users the ability to navigate potentially sensitive situations in ways they could not before. This study surveyed 260 Facebook users to uncover how people are using this social media platform's new "reaction" buttons to respond to others' posts about negative topics such as traumatic life situations, catastrophic current or past events, and interpersonal crises. Results suggest that users do not perceive the reaction buttons as adequate tools to help them interact with those that are close to them. Instead, these new paralinguistic digital affordances seem to help users engage in social grooming.


We study the overlap in the overall impact of family background on two widely studied labour market outcomes by considering whether brother similarities in occupational status are rooted in the same underlying family characteristics that affect brother similarities in income. We extend previous research using sibling correlations as an omnibus measure of total family background impact on a given outcome by directly quantifying how brother correlations in occupational status and income overlap. We apply a novel variance components model to data from Denmark and the United States, two countries known to follow a contradictory pattern: While income mobility is much lower in the United States, occupational mobility is virtually similar. Apart from confirming this pattern, we find a substantial overlap, around 70 per cent, in brother similarities in income and occupational status in both countries. Conventional family background variables account for less than one-fifth of this overlap in each country, suggesting that shared family origins of attainment in these two domains are constituted by largely unknown family characteristics. We speculate what these characteristics might be.


The ability to isolate specific cells from a heterogeneous population using label-free methods, and subsequently extract these cells at high throughput, is a key step in the advancement of autologous cell-based therapies in the field of regenerative medicine. Surface acoustic wave-based dielectrophoresis (SAW-DEP) utilises a standing shear horizontal SAW to provide a non-uniform electric field in which cells can be separated by dielectrophoresis. Due to the absence of electrodes in contact with the solution, this method overcomes many disadvantages of current dielectrophoretic technologies, allowing cell separation at high continuous throughput (<500 cells/second) and in high conductivity solutions (<0.4 S/m).

This thesis describes the design and application of several iterations of SAW-DEP devices. After demonstrating the alignment of latex beads (1 - 10 μm) by negative DEP, the force exerted on latex beads is studied by particle tracking, and is shown to closely match a theoretical model for dielectrophoretic trapping.

Following this, the separation of viable from non-viable yeast cells and mammalian cells is demonstrated. To ascertain whether SAW-DEP has any adverse effect on cells, primary human mesenchymal stromal cells (dental pulp stromal cells) are tested for viability and differentiation capability following exposure to the SAW-DEP electric field, with the results showing that the electric field had no effect, compared to controls where the cells were not exposed to the electric field.

Finally, the ability to tune the liquid conductivity is investigated as a means to separate live from dead mammalian cells to high fidelity (live and dead cells were enriched into lines of 97% and 99% purity, respectively), as well as separating live mammalian cells of different lineages.


Equinovarus foot is one of the most commonly spasticity related conditions in stroke survivors, leading to an impaired gait and poor functional performances. Notably, spastic muscles undergo a dynamic evolution following typical pathophysiological patterns. Botulinum Neurotoxin Type A (BoNT-A) is the gold standard for focal spasticity treatment, and ultrasound (US) imaging is widely recommended to guide injections and monitor muscle evolution. The role of BoNT-A in influencing muscle fibroadipose degeneration is still unclear. In this study, we analyzed medial gastrocnemius (MG) and soleus (SOL) US characteristics (cross-sectional area, muscle thickness, pennation angle, and mean echo intensity) in 53 patients. MG and SOL alterations, compared to the unaffected side, depend on the spasticity only and not on the BoNT-A treatment. In functionally preserved patients (functional ambulation classification, FAC > 3; modified Ashworth scale, MAS ≤ 2), the ultrasonographic changes of MG compared to ipsilateral SOL observed in the paretic limb alone seems to be due to histological, anatomical, pathophysiological, and biomechanical differences between the two muscles. In subjects with poor walking capability and more severe spasticity, such ipsilateral difference was found in both calves. In conclusion, BoNT-A does not seem to influence muscle degeneration. Similar muscles undergo different evolution depending on the grade of walking deficit and spasticity.