Abstract Transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) are an emerging class of small RNAs, yet their regulatory roles have not been well understood. Here we studied the molecular mechanisms and consequences of tsRNA-mediated regulation in Drosophila. By analyzing 495 public small RNA libraries, we demonstrate that most tsRNAs are conserved, prevalent and abundant in Drosophila. By carrying out mRNA sequencing and ribosome profiling of S2 cells transfected with single-stranded tsRNA mimics and mocks, we show that tsRNAs recognize target mRNAs through conserved complementary sequence matching and suppress target genes by translational inhibition. The target prediction suggests that tsRNAs preferentially suppress translation of the key components of the general translation machinery, which explains how tsRNAs inhibit the global mRNA translation. Serum starvation experiments confirm tsRNAs participate in cellular starvation responses by preferential targeting the ribosomal proteins and translational initiation or elongation factors. Knock-down of AGO2 in S2 cells under normal and starved conditions reveals a dependence of the tsRNA-mediated regulation on AGO2. We also validated the repressive effects of representative tsRNAs on cellular global translation and specific targets with luciferase reporter assays. Our study suggests the tsRNA-mediated regulation might be crucial for the energy homeostasis and the metabolic adaptation in the cellular systems.


Background Bacteremia is a significant cause of mortality after liver transplantation. The spectrum of pathogens and patterns of antibiotics susceptibility can vary owing to the variable local epidemiologic data and antibiotics modality. The aim of this study was to investigate bacteremic incidence, pathogenic spectrum, and clinical outcomes according to period after liver transplantation. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 393 subjects (267 male, 126 female) who had undergone liver transplantation from 2008 to 2015. Early-onset bacteremia was defined as bacteremia occurring within 6 months after liver transplantation, whereas bacteremia occurring beyond this period was classified as late-onset bacteremia. Results A total of 92 bacteremic patients with 156 episodes were identified. A total of 101 episodes of bacteremia occurred within 6 months after transplantation, among them, enterococcus spp. was the most common etiologic pathgen(n=27, 26.7%), followed by coagulase stapylococcus spp. (n=25, 24.8%), Acinetobacter spp. (n=15, 14.9%) and K. pnuemoniae (n=12, 11.9%). Among 55 late-onset bacteremia, Enteroccous spp. (n=11, 20.0%) and E. coli (n=11, 20.0%) was the most common pathogen, followed by Klebsiella spp. (n=10, 18.2%), Acinetobacter spp. (n=6, 10.9%). Gram positive cocci were more frequent as a pathogen of early onset bacteremia than late-onset bacteremia (n=59, 58.4% vs. n=20, 36.4%, p=0.031). As a source, catheter-related infection was a more common source of early-onset bacteremia (n=29, 29.0% vs. n=2, 3.6%), however, pneumonia (n=2, 2.0%, vs. n=8, 14.5%) was a more common source of late-onset bacteremia. Patients with early-onset bacteremia showed highest mortality compared with patients with late-onset bacteremia or nonbacteremia (31.3% [21/67] vs. 8.0% [2/25]. Vs. 10.0% [30/301]), p=0.0001). Among mortality cases, Enterococcus spp. (n=14) and Acinetobacter spp. (n=9) were most common pathogens. Conclusion Mortality and sources of bacteremia were statistically significant different between early onset and late-onset bacteremia after transplantation. Our data showed different strategies are needed to reduce mortality after transplantation according to the post-transplant period.


Abstract:  A cross‐sectional study with repeated sample collection in multiple days was conducted to assess diazinon exposures. Saliva and limited blood samples were collected from 10 banana plantation workers involved with diazinon application and their children aged 2–12 years living in Chinandega, Nicaragua. Diazinon concentration‐time profiles in saliva varied between two plantations, which reflects the differences of work practices in each plantation. Salivary concentrations of diazinon measured in Plantation 1 applicators continued to increase 2 days after self‐reported diazinon application, suggesting an ongoing exposure among these workers. However, salivary diazinon concentrations measured in Plantation 2 applicators were peaked 12 h prior to the first application, and then decreased 36 h post the first application. Diazinon concentrations in saliva were significantly correlated with the time‐matched plasma samples collected from the same workers, which is in agreement with the previous published data from animal models. Children's exposure to diazinon through take‐home pathway does not exist, as evident by the majority of nondetected saliva samples, and this finding was confirmed by the results from the urine samples. Severe dehydration was observed in many plantation workers and their children, resulting in the loss of some saliva samples, which no doubt have impaired the overall quality of the study results. Regardless, this article has demonstrated that saliva can be used to assess exposures to diazinon in pesticide applicators and children.


With continuous advancement in technology, semiconductor industry is moving towards lower process nodes to improve transistor density, performance, and power optimization. For lower nodes, fabrication gets costlier and area reduction is of prime importance. To align with this goal, while doing physical implementation one of the key targets is to synthesize design with most optimal logic and less redundant functional logic. Even though synthesis tools are optimized to align with customers target, there are limitations. Identification of such redundant logic is possible both in synthesis and formal verification tools. This paper presents novel algorithm and process to identify redundant logic using Formal Verification tool and use this data to generate ECO such that synthesis tool can optimize logic better than current known methods. Using proposed solution, 1K to 38K reduction in sequential cell count and 4K to 85K overall cell count reduction has been observed for various design cases. This solution provides logic area and power saving without compromising on design testability and formal verification at the cost of runtime increase.


A large scale configurable system typically offers thousands of options or parameters to let the engineers customize it for specific needs. Among the resulting many billions possible configurations, relating option and parameter values to desired performance is then a daunting task relying on a deep know how of the internals of the configurable system. In this paper, we propose a staged configuration process to narrow the space of possible configurations to a good approximation of those satisfying the wanted high level customer requirements. Based on an oracle (e.g. a runtime test) that tells us whether a given configuration meets the requirements (e.g. speed or memory footprint), we leverage machine learning to retrofit the acquired knowledge into a variability model of the system that can be used to automatically specialize the configurable system. We validate our approach on a set of well-known configurable software systems. Our results show that, for many different kinds of objectives and performance qualities, the approach has interesting accuracy, precision and recall after a learning stage based on a relative small number of random samples.


The yam bean (Pachyrhizus spp.) contains three closely related cultivated species: P. tuberosus (Lam.) Sprengel, P. erosus (L.) Urban, and P. ahipa (Wedd.). Its storage root dry matter content (SRDM) is usually low, although genotypes with a high SRDM have been identified ('Chuin' accessions). Flowers are often removed through flower pruning (FP) to increase storage root fresh matter yield (SRFY). The main objectives of this study were to investigate the potential for use in Benin (West Africa), to estimate the effect of FP, and to test whether roots could be processed into gari. In total, 34 accessions were tested at one drought-stress and one irrigated location. Means and genetic variance components were estimated for 33 agronomic traits. Without FP, the SRFYs of P. tuberosus, P. erosus, and P. ahipa were 13.9, 23.4, and 12.4 t ha-1, respectively, and the seed yields were 2.2, 5.2, and 2.1 t ha-1, respectively. The FP caused SRFY to increase by 48, 91, and 61% in P. tuberosus, P. erosus, and P. ahipa, respectively. The storage root dry matter yield (SRDY) of P. erosus was only slightly higher (∼8.5 t ha-1) than that of the Chuin accessions (∼8.0 t ha-1). Under drought, the SRDY was least affected in P. erosus. Early-maturing P. ahipa accessions were identified. All species could be used to make gari, which contained, on average, 5.5% protein, 58.5% starch, and 23.8% total dietary fiber. The crop has the potential for use in West Africa and has a large genetic variation for genetic improvement.


The study of representations is of fundamental importance to any form of communication, and our ability to exploit them effectively is paramount. This article presents a novel theory -- Representational Systems Theory -- that is designed to abstractly encode a wide variety of representations from three core perspectives: syntax, entailment, and their properties. By introducing the concept of a construction space, we are able to encode each of these core components under a single, unifying paradigm. Using our Representational Systems Theory, it becomes possible to structurally transform representations in one system into representations in another. An intrinsic facet of our structural transformation technique is representation selection based on properties that representations possess, such as their relative cognitive effectiveness or structural complexity. A major theoretical barrier to providing general structural transformation techniques is a lack of terminating algorithms. Representational Systems Theory permits the derivation of partial transformations when no terminating algorithm can produce a full transformation. Since Representational Systems Theory provides a universal approach to encoding representational systems, a further key barrier is eliminated: the need to devise system-specific structural transformation algorithms, that are necessary when different systems adopt different formalisation approaches. Consequently, Representational Systems Theory is the first general framework that provides a unified approach to encoding representations, supports representation selection via structural transformations, and has the potential for widespread practical application.


Polynomial systems consist of n polynomial functions in n variables, with real or complex coefficients. Finding zeros of such systems is challenging because there may be a large number of solutions, and Newton-type methods can rarely be guaranteed to find the complete set of solutions. There are homotopy algorithms for polynomial systems of equations that are globally convergent from an arbitrary starting point with probability one, are guaranteed to find all the solutions, and are robust, accurate, and reasonably efficient. There is inherent parallelism at several levels in these algorithms. Several parallel homotopy algorithms with different granularities are studied on several different parallel machines, using actual industrial problems from chemical engineering and solid modeling.


The paper presents the design and evaluation of an efficient routing structure for implementation within a dedicated multiprocessor architecture whose target is 3D medical imaging applications, and computer graphics rastering. Computational similarities between these two techniques are also pointed out and discussed. Simulations are presented showing the various data flows and required performance.


In this paper, a generic visible watermarking with a capability of lossless image recovery is proposed. This method based on the use of deterministic one-to-one compound mapping of pixel values a variety of visible watermarks on the cover image. The image conversion for watermarks normal image into HDR image are used in various image segmentation applications. During image conversion from watermarked into HDR image. The embedded watermark will be erased due to the usage of tone mapping in HDR image conversion. In this paper we have proposed a new technique for embedding a watermark which will not be erased during image conversion from normal image to HDR image. Our proposed system that, the original HDR image is transformed to a reference image by applying logLUV transformation. Finally the reverse log transform is applied to obtain the watermarked version of the given original image when a generic TM (Tone mapping) is applied to the watermarked HDR image, the watermark is still presents long as the assumption of similarly between the log transform and TM. The compound mappings are proved to be reversible, which allows for lossless recovery of original image from watermark image.


In the present case study, I describe and evaluate the transformative learning potential of authentic research projects that students engage in a course on tissue engineering at Chalmers University of Technology. Through the use of weekly reflective diaries and interviews, I explore how students change their perspective on what learning means to them and the purpose of higher education. Based on the empirical data and scientific literature, I discuss complex challenges as one emerging and deciding factor that helps students to have transformative learning experiences. At the end, some general pointers will be provided on how educators can approach the integration of complex challenges into their own courses and settings.


ABSTRACT This study aims to identify the literacy skills of individuals whose highest level of education was in the field 'teacher training and educational sciences'. The study sample comprised 10,618 individuals in the field of teacher training and educational sciences, selected from 31 countries (participating in the International Adult Skills Assessment Programme during the 2014–2015 survey) using a multi-stage sampling method. The study employed multi-level latent class analysis and three-step analysis in order to determine both the number of multi-level latent classes of educators' literacy scores as well as the selected independent variables' success in predicting those latent classes. The analysis revealed that educators in Germany constituted the group with the highest literacy skills while educators from Singapore comprised the group with the lowest literacy skills.


Introduction: the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral disease which has been declared a pandemic by the WHO. Diagnostic tests are expensive and are not always available. Researches using machine learning (ML) approach for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infection have been proposed in the literature to reduce cost and allow better control of the pandemic. Objective: we aim to develop a machine learning model to predict if a patient has COVID-19 with epidemiological data and clinical features. Methods: we used six ML algorithms for COVID-19 screening through diagnostic prediction and did an interpretative analysis using SHAP models and feature importances. Results: our best model was XGBoost (XGB) which obtained an area under the ROC curve of 0.752, a sensitivity of 90%, a specificity of 40%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 42.16%, and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 91.0%. The best predictors were fever, cough, history of international travel less than 14 days ago, male gender, and nasal congestion, respectively. Conclusion: we conclude that ML is an important tool for screening with high sensitivity, compared to rapid tests, and can be used to empower clinical precision in COVID-19, a disease in which symptoms are very unspecific.


The surface temperature at the interface of bodies in a sliding contact is one of the most important factors influencing the behavior of machine components. So the calculation of the surface temperature at a sliding contact interface has long been an interesting and important subject for tribologist. In this study to verify estimation of temperature rising, calculated temperatures were compared with measured temperatures. It is possible to calculate bulk and flash temperature.


Isoliquiritigenin (ILG) of licorice is a potential cancer chemopreventive agent. In this paper, response surface methodology (RSM) integrating with Box-Behnken design (BBD) was firstly employed to optimize the ILG extraction, which based on the single-factor experiments. According to analysis, the effect of extraction time and ethanol concentration on yields was significantly. The optimum values were the ethanol concentration of 73.25%, extraction time of 27.82 min and liquid-solid ratio of 19.10: 1. Under these conditions, the highest yield of ILG from licorice was 0.26 mg/g.


A Nation's development depends on its ability to improve the lives of the citizenry. Basically, the development of every Nation is basically measured by the quality of its research output. The main importance of research is to proffer solutions to human problems through well-defined methods. Research brings about new insights deriving from knowledge, it is also acknowledged as a systematic and objective search for knowledge, to establish theories and methods. National development is measured by the ability of a country to improve the social welfare of the people, in terms of providing social amenities like quality education, potable water etc. Indeed, it embodies all attempts to improve the conditions of human existence in a sustainable way such that today's consumption does not imperil the future. The method deployed in the study was the key informant interview (KII) to ascertain the nexus between ivory tower research and national development. The systems and social exchange theories were used as explanatory tools to explain the phenomenon. The article posits that there exist many researches in different fields of study and development can be applied to political, social and technological progress which is critical and essential to the sustenance and growth of any nation. The development of a country depends on the method of research employed, which can either be Basic research or Applied research. The academic community should realise that in knowledge society there is a need to marry theory with practice to achieve a better society.


Addition reaction of a radical to the double bond of a monomer, which is important at early stage of photopolymerization, has been studied by time-resolved (TR-) and pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopic methods. Reactions of one phosphorus-centered and three carbon-centered radicals attacking to several monomers have been employed. Intermediate radicals were identified by analyzing the recorded TR-EPR spectra, and the reaction rate constants were determined by the electron spin-echo detection method proposed by Weber and Turro [J. Phys. Chem. A, 2003, 107 (18), 3326 - 3334]. The quantum chemical calculation shows that the rate constants for the addition reactions are well-explained by introducing two factors of "enthalpy effect" and "polar effect" to control the activation barrier height. It was observed that the rate constants of the phosphorus-centered radical were larger than those of carbon-centered radicals for some monomers. The difference in the rate constants was argued on the basis of frequency factor and activation barrier both of which are influenced by an atom of radical center.


As a result of theoretical and experimental research, our statistic models of milking duration determine a functional connection between statistic parameters of the duration of conveyor milking machines operation, statistic parameters of preparing and milking a cow, parameters and varieties of milking machines, and the number of animals in the herd.The suggested models are based on a new approach to the estimation of statistic parameters of preparation and milking time. The models permit a more precise estimation of milking machines productivity at the stages of their design and modernization. The findings facilitate working out methods for designing information and measurement systems of milking technology parameters and automatic farm management systems and underlie further development of a theoretical background for such systems.The increased adequacy of the devised models in comparison with the current ones is proved through determining a relative estimation of the divergence between the theoretical findings and experimental data.


Research has shown that elderly as compared with young adults show relative deficits both in processing visually as compared with auditorily presented stimuli and in tasks having attentional components. In this study, visual and auditory presentation was compared in young and elderly adults using the suffix paradigm in which the control condition involves immediate serial recall and the experimental condition, a suffix, a not-to-be-remembered final item. The standard finding in this paradigm is called the modality effect, superior auditory as compared with visual performance in the control condition which is localized at the end of the sequence. Generally, auditory suffixes following auditory sequences reduce the modality effect while visual suffixes following visual sequences do not. The results showed generally standard modality and suffix effects for both age groups. Relatively inferior performance was present in the elderly in the visual as compared with the auditory control conditions suggesting recoding deficits in this group. Auditory suffixes following auditory sequences had a relatively greater performance effect on the elderly than the young, while visual suffixes following visual sequences did not impair the performance of either group. This suggests a modality specific attentional deficit in the elderly. Rank order correlations suggest that individuals within both age groups showing large differences in performance between auditory and visual control conditions may have relative recoding difficulties for their age. Additionally, increased susceptibility to auditory interference for elderly as compared with young subjects may be a marker of aging, while relative within-group susceptibility to auditory interference may be a deficit on the part of young subjects.


The in vivo and in situ nasal absorption of tetraethylammonium in rats was studied. Following nasal administration of tetraethylammonium (150 mumol/kg) to rats, there was a rapid increase in plasma concentration of tetraethylammonium followed by a slow increase. The absolute bioavailability of nasal tetraethylammonium administration was 79%. In rats, tetraethylammonium was shown to be more efficiently absorbed from nasal mucosa than from intestine. In in situ nasal perfusion experiments, the nasal absorption rate of tetraethylammonium was reduced by an increase in perfusion volume. The plot of absorption rate constant against 1/volume did not result in a straight line. In addition, there was a concentration-dependent decline in the absorption rate of tetraethylammonium with an increase in its initial concentration in the perfusion solution. Choline and 2,4-dinitrophenol significantly inhibited the nasal absorption of tetraethylammonium. These data may suggest the existence of a carrier-mediated transport process of tetraethylammonium in nasal mucosa of rats.


Carboxylesterases (CE) are ubiquitous enzymes responsible for the detoxification of xenobiotics, including numerous clinically used drugs. Therefore, the selective inhibition of these proteins may prove useful in modulating drug half-life and bioavailability. Recently, we identified 1,2-diones as potent inhibitors of CEs, although little selectivity was observed in the inhibition of either human liver CE (hCE1) or human intestinal CE (hiCE). In this paper, we have further examined the inhibitory properties of ethane-1,2-diones toward these proteins and determined that, when the carbonyl oxygen atoms are cis-coplanar, the compounds demonstrate specificity for hCE1. Conversely, when the dione oxygen atoms are not planar (or are trans-coplanar), the compounds are more potent at hiCE inhibition. These properties have been validated in over 40 1,2-diones that demonstrate inhibitory activity toward at least one of these enzymes. Statistical analysis of the results confirms the correlation (P < 0.001) between the dione dihedral angle and the preferential inhibition of either hiCE or hCE1. Overall, the results presented here define the parameters necessary for small molecule inhibition of human CEs.


The major contribution of this paper concerns vehicle geo-localization in urban environment by integrating a new source of information that is a virtual 3D city model. The 3D model provides a realistic representation of the vehicle's navigation environment. To optimize the performance of vehicle geo-localization system, several sources of information are used for their complementarity and redundancy: a GPS receiver, proprioceptive sensors (odometers and gyrometer), exteroceptive sensors (video camera or laser scanner) and a virtual 3D city model as a priori information. The proprioceptive sensors allow to continuously estimate the dead-reckoning position and orientation of the vehicle. Moreover, two concepts based on 3D virtual model and exteroceptive sensors could be envisaged to compensate the drift of the dead-reckoning localization when GPS measurements are unavailable for a long time. The first proposed approach is based on the matching between the virtual image extracted from the 3D city model and the real image acquired by the camera. This observation construction is composed of two major parts. The first part consists in detecting and matching the feature points of the real and virtual images. Three features are compared: Harris corner, SIFT (Scale Invariant Feature Transform) and SURF (Speed Up Robust Features). The second part is the pose computation using POSIT algorithm and the previously matched features set. The second approach uses an on-board horizontal laser scanner which provides a set of distances. This set of distances (real laser scan data) is matched with depth information of virtual laser scan data obtained using the virtual 3D city model which is managed in real-time by a 3D Geographical Information System (3D-GIS). GPS measurements, proprioceptive sensors based pose estimation, and camera/3D model based pose estimation are integrated in IMM UKF data fusion formalism. The developed approaches have been tested on a real sequence and the obtained results proved the feasibility of the approach.


The transformed sorption isotherm (represented by the ratio of water activity and moisture content (d.b.) versus water activity) was approximated by polynomials of 2 nd _6 th order. It is shown that the relative derivative of the transformed equation expresses the deviation of the sorption isotherm from the linear relationship between the moisture content and water activity either to the sorption isotherm of the Lagmuir's type (the positive relative derivative) or to the sorption isotherm of the solution type (the negative relative derivative). The relative derivative plotted versus water activity then serves as a spectral indicator of the prevailing sorption mechanism. Spectral analysis is applied to sorption isotherms of potato and wheat starches and some fruits and vegetables. For starches, the differences in the spectral indicator between resorption and desorption as well as the effect of starch processing (gelatinisation and hydrolysis) on spectral analysis are discussed. The role of spectral analysis in the assessment of the prevailing sorption mechanism (surface vs solution sorption) is demonstrated for fruits and vegetables.


The war experience was decisive for the political and artistic development of Thomas Mann. One of his most ambiguous and much-discussed book dates back not accidentally at the time of the First World War: the Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen. The present paper tries to clarify the different meanings according to which the Betrachtungen can be read as a Kriegsbuch, a war book. In fact, in those pages Mann wages his personal war against the western modernity (westliche Zivilisation), against democracy and capitalism, against the artistic avant-guard trends and his Francophile brother Heinrich. But that war was also a war against himself. For this reason the Betrachtungen show a twofold meaning, that the paper aims to focus: they are one of the most representative books of the German conservative war culture. At the same time they account for a crucial stage on the way the apolitical (unpolitisch) writer Thomas Mann went in order to get a grown-up political conscience.


The UK population is living longer. By 2030 one in five people will be aged 65 or over, with the 85+ age group the fastest growing (Office for National Statistics, 2018). A larger older population means more people developing conditions in later life appropriate for palliative care. However, there is limited understanding of this older group's end-of-life care needs, which include psychosocial issues of loss of meaning, wellbeing and dignity (Stow, Spiers, Matthews, Hanratty et al., 2019). Oral history is a biographical approach that captures personal experience, it complements and enhances palliative care by offering opportunities to audio record memories and have them permanently archived. Oral history is an opportunity to reinforce identity, acknowledge achievement, reflect on challenges and enhance self-esteem. The first UK oral history project in palliative care began in 2007 in the Sheffield Macmillan Unit for Palliative Care, followed by six further projects in England and Northern Ireland. Team members are staff and volunteers who are trained and supported in oral history methods and ethical practice. This presentation will reflect on experience from these projects, discuss best practice in the context of adding value to care, consider the patient's expert role regarding their own interests and draw on research in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support. Key findings are that oral histories recorded with an empathetic, non-judgemental listener, with no time limit or medical agenda, enables expression of earlier life identities that can be cathartic, validating and dignified. Bereaved family and friends highlight that an important aspect of oral history is receiving a voice recording as a lasting memory. The oral history process can be as beneficial and important as the oral history outcome. Oral history projects can add an additional positive dimension to the care of older people in palliative care through in-depth and meaningful interaction between project teams, participants and family.


Literature on the supervision of practice-based research degrees in art and design is at present relatively underdeveloped, particularly in relation to empirical studies. This paper, which is based on qualitative interviews with 50 supervisors engaged in the supervision of practice-based doctorates in a range of UK universities and colleges, aims to begin to remedy this lacuna. It examines specific problems encountered by supervisors of practice-based research degrees, and portrays some of the strategies developed and employed by supervisors as they attempt to guide student endeavour towards the successful combining of creative and analytical work.


One of main research direction on the construction field is the reduction of the energy consumption, which supposes materials, technology and conception of buildings with lower specific energy need on one hand and equipment with high performances on the other hand. Proper thermal rehabilitation of a building will lead to a significant reduction of heating energy demand offering a higher degree of comfort, and better condition for hygiene. At the same time the environment is less poluted. The energy saving depends on the initial building characteristics and the thermal rehabilitation level on one hand, and on the proper adjustment and control of the heating system on the other hand. In this paper are analyzed the main effects of building thermal rehabilitation, with implications upon heating energy consumption and upon comfort of the occupants.


Precise characterization of subsurface fractures (their orientation, aperture, distribution, hydraulic conductivity, etc.) is critical to many geoscience sub-disciplines such as water resources exploration and management, contamination remediation, underground construction, as well as subsurface energy resource (hydrocarbon, geothermal, etc.) exploration and management. This paper presents the forward modeling results of borehole radar signature of fractures generated by the hydrogeological model of a fractured rock aquifer environment. A fracture system consists of interconnected, permeable fractures filled with either freshwater, air, or brine and the isolated, nonpermeable ones filled with only freshwater forms hydrogeological test model. The fracture groups were statistically generated with different and desired features in space density, length, orientation and aperture. Electromagnetic (EM) wave was generated with the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) forward modeling technique and propagated through the fractured rock aquifer models to form the synthetic radar data sets. The features in radar syntheses were then examined and corresponded to predefined fracture models. Based on the comparison, it shows that (1) the amplitude of radar waves was generally diminished when brine replacing freshwater in the permeable fractures; (2) replacing freshwater with air significantly increases the fracture fluid property contrast and results in significant changes in some time records at certain transmitter-receiver configurations, depending on their relative position to the permeable fractures; (3) in general, radar syntheses in reflection mode contains more information on fracture properties than its transmission counterpart; (4) it is easier to identify more fractures when air replacing water than brine replacing water. Combination of computer forward simulation and field data reduction bears the hope to successfully characterize fractures for various scientific and engineering purposes.


We present a novel setup in which real objects made of two different materials can be mixed optically in a linearly weighted manner. We conducted a psychophysical experiment in which observers rated optical mixtures of the three combinations of glossy, matte, and velvety green birds. The observers rated the materials on four scales: matte-glossy, hard-soft, cold-warm, and light-heavy. The judgments were found to be consistent and varied systematically with the weights of the contributions.


We present six new BVRcIc CCD light curves of a short-period RS CVn binary DV Psc obtained in 2010–2012. The light curve distortions change on both short and long timescales, which is explained by two starspots on the primary component. Moreover, five new flare events were detected and the flare ratio of DV Psc is about 0.082 flares per hour. There is a possible relation between the phases (longitude) of the flares and starspots for all of the available data of late-type binaries, which implies a correlation of the stellar activity of the spots and flares. The cyclic oscillation, with a period of 4.9 ± 0.4 yr, may result from the magnetic activity cycle, identified by the variability of Max. I–Max. II. Until now, there were no spectroscopic studies of chromospheric activity indicators of the Hβ and Hγ lines for DV Psc. Our observations of these indicators show that DV Psc is active, with excess emissions. The updated O − C diagram with an observing time span of about 15 yr shows an upward parabola, which indicates a secular increase in the orbital period of DV Psc. The orbital period secularly increases at a rate of dP/dt = 2.0×10−7 days yr−1, which might be explained by the angular momentum exchanges or mass transfer from the secondary to primary component.


OBJECTIVE
To observe the protective effects of total flavones of metasequosia (TFM) on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats.

METHOD
The bilateral vertebral arteries of rats were occluded under anesthesia, and 4-5 h later the carotid arteries of rats in the conscious condition were occluded for 30 min followed by reperfusion for 90 min. The effects of TFM on the contents of water, Na+, Ca2+ in cortex, malondialdehyde (MDA) content and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in brain hemispheres, as well as the EEG activities were observed.

RESULT
After 30 min ischemia and 90 min reperfusion, the contents of water, Na+ , Ca2+ and MDA were increased, and the SOD activity was reduced with abnormal EEG activity and ischemic injury in the brain tissues. TFM 25-100 mg x kg(-1) ip 30 min before the carotid arteries were occluded, decreased the elevated water, Na+, Ca2+ and MDA contents, increased the SOD activity, reduced the ischemic injury of brain tissue, and promoted the recovery of EEG activities.

CONCLUSION
TFM has a protective effect on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats.


Summary Dabigatran etexilate (DE) has recently been introduced for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation, but management of acute ischaemic stroke during therapy with DE is a challenge. Thrombolysis is contrain-dicated because of a presumed increased risk of intracerebral haemorrhagic complications. We studied in different ischaemia models whether DE increases secondary haemorrhage after thrombolysis. C57BL/6 mice were anticoagulated with high-dose DE or warfarin. After 2 hour (h) or 3 h transient filament MCAO, rt-PA was injected. At 24 h after MCAO, secondary haemorrhage was quantified using a macroscopic haemorrhage score and haemoglobin spectrophotometry. Post-ischaemic blood-brain-barrier (BBB) damage was assessed using Evans blue. To increase the validity of findings, the duration of anticoagulation was prolonged in mice (5 x DE over 2 days), and the effect of DE after thrombolysis was also examined in thromboembolic MCAO in rats. Pretreatment with warfarin resulted in significantly more secondary haemorrhage (mean haemorrhage score 2.6 ± 0.2) compared to non-anticoagulated animals (1.7 ± 0.3) and DE (9 mg/kg, 1.6 ± 0.3) in 2 h ischaemia. Also after a 3 h period of ischaemia, haemorrhage was more severe in animals anticoagulated with warfarin compared to 9 mg/kg DE and non-anticoagulated control. Prolonged or enteral dabigatran pretreatment led to identical results. Also, thrombolysis after thromboembolic MCAO in rats did not induce more severe bleeding in DE-treated animals. Mice pretreated with warfarin had higher BBB permeability and increased activation of matrix-metalloproteinase 9. In conclusion, DE does not increase the risk of secondary haemorrhage after thrombolysis in various rodent models of ischaemia and reperfusion. The implications of this finding for stroke patients have to be determined in the clinical setting.


In the course of the study of megakaryocytes of mice with grafted tumors (Sarcoma 180), sections of the lungs, liver, adrenals and lymphatic nodes were observed. This study resulted in the following: 1. A correlation was found between the occurrence of these cells in the lungs and the medullary megakaryocytopoiesis. 2. Under pathologic conditions (neoplasms) which stimulate megakaryocytopoiesis, the numbers of pulmonary megakaryocytes were increased. In the inoculated mice, the more common among the megakaryocytes were the largest forms with multilobulated nucleous mostly piknotic. 4. Megakaryocytes were observed frequently in the liver of mice with Sarcoma 180.


Walk through the majority of R&D departments and quality laboratories and you will see FTIR, near-infrared (NIR) and Raman spectrometers aplenty. These now ubiquitous instruments are used to support the manufacture and development of a vast range of products of all shapes and sizes and material types from pharmaceuticals to pasta, paint, petroleum and polymer films. A single spectrometer can be used to verify the identity of bulk materials, check for contamination, ensure intermediates are processing as expected, and confirm final product to be within specification. Developments in sampling accessories and advancements in software (simplified user interfaces, library searching capabilities as well as processing algorithms) have greatly increased ease of use; these instruments are now well suited to the non-specialist user. However, these systems, in the main, are still kept in the laboratory and samples are brought to the instrument for often quite simple analysis.


The accuracy of the existing metal-oxide-semiconductor-field-effect-transistor (MOSFET) models used in simulations of the integrated circuits can be enhanced by restoring some of the device physics which has previously been eliminated in the original models. The model modifications include an improved treatment of mobility degradation phenomena and an improved approximation for the saturation voltage. These modifications result in excellent agreement with the experimental data for both n- and p-channel transistors having effective channel lengths as small as 0.5 μm. In contrast to previous models the agreement with the measured data is achieved by using a physically acceptable value for the charge carrier saturation velocity and a smaller number of fitting parameters.


The current study examined the perception of sexual health education (SHE) being provided in middle and high schools in three Canadian provinces from a sample of young adults. Participants were 296 undergraduate students (91 men, 205 women) between the ages of 18 and 24 who had gone to both middle school and high school in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, or Ontario. There were few differences between provinces. Almost all participants reported receiving SHE in middle school but about a quarter had not received SHE in high school. On average, participants rated the SHE they had received in middle school as fair and in high school as good. Participants, on average, rated most of 21 specified sexual health topics as covered poorly and covered. The men tended to rate the SHE they had received in middle school more positively than did the women. Participants reported that teachers used a variety of methods in the classroom, 6.78 of 9 possible methods on average. Multiple regression analyses showed that higher perceived quality of SHE was associated with better topic coverage, the extent to which the topics covered matched their interests, and the number of different methods used. Participants reported that peers were a more important source of sexual health information than was SHE. The results point to a continued need to improve the quality of SHE provided in Canadian schools.


Our paper focuses on the classification of surface defects in flat rolled strips in steel industry. Since this work aims at the classification of samples organized in a hierarchical way it seems natural to use a hierarchical approach. We choose a hierarchical neural architecture, based on the multilayer perceptron, which, to some extent, combines classification trees with neural network approaches. We exhaustively tested the proposed architecture in the classification of surface defects in flat rolled strips on real plant data, obtaining a higher classification accuracy with respect to the state-of-the-art technologies. This approach can be generalized to many other industrial classification problems.


A total of 63 patients was examined by echosonography and allowed to determine the localization and size of the tumour particularly in progressed cases. The picture appearing on the video tube could be stored for about one hour and photographed for documentation. The method is considered reliable, but it is stressed that its result can be evaluated only together with those of tests applied in urology. The echo test is harmless and has no contraindications.


Abstract Croat, T. B. & Moonen, J.: Philodendron scottmorianum, a new species of P. sect. Philodendron (Araceae) from the Guianas. — Willdenowia 37: 535–539. — ISSN 0511-9618; © 2007 BGBM Berlin-Dahlem. doi:10.3372/wi.37.37211 (available via http://dx.doi.org/) Philodendron scottmorianum from French Guiana is described as a species new to science and illustrated. The species is a member of P. subg. Philodendron sect. Philodendron subsect. Philodendron ser. Philodendron characterized by its thick stems, large ovate-sagittate blades and long-pedunculate green inflorescences. The species is closely allied and compared with P. acutatum.


In the present study methanolic extract of the pulp of plant Brassica oleracea was investigated for the total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and antioxidant activity. Total phenolic content was evaluated by Folin-Ciocalteau method which revealed the presence of very good amount of phenolic content (14.56μg GAE mg-1) in methanol extract. Total flavonoid content was evaluated by aluminium chloride method which revealed the presence of high amount of flavonoid content (22.65μg QE mg-1) in methanol extract. The extract was also analyzed for antioxidant activity by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay and Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Potential (FRAP) assay. In vitro DPPH radical scavenging assay showed potent antioxidant power with IC50 values of 200μl and Ferric reducing antioxidant power for extract (54.16μM/ml) which are comparable to ascorbic acid. The bioactive compounds present in methanolic extracts were characterized by FTIR spectral analysis. The FTIR spectrum showed the presence of alcohols, phenols, alkanes, alkynes, alkyl halides, carboxylic acids and aromatics, aliphatic amines in methanolic extracts. The present study reveals that Brassica oleracea can be used as a potential source of natural antioxidant which may be used to treat various oxidative stress related diseases.


Excess weight is a well-established predictor of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). Clinical observations and population studies throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia have consistently shown a graded increase in the prevalence of SDB as body mass index, neck girth, or other measures of body habitus increases. Clinical studies of weight loss and longitudinal population studies provide strong support for a causal association. The role of excess body weight, a modifiable risk factor, with SDB raises many questions relevant to clinical practice and public health. The topic takes on added importance with the alarming rate of weight gain in children as well as adults in industrialized nations. Among adults ages 30-69 yr, averaging over the estimated United States 2003 age, sex, and BMI distributions, we estimate that approximately 17% of adults have mild or worse SDB (apnea-hypopnea index > or = 5) and that 41% of those adults have SDB "attributable" to having a body mass index of > or =25 kg/m(2). Similarly, we estimate that approximately 5.7% of adults have moderate or worse SDB (apnea-hypopnea index > or = 15) and that 58% of those adults have SDB attributable to excess weight. Clearly, if the expanding epidemic of obesity seen in the United States continues, the prevalence of SDB will almost certainly increase, along with the proportion of SDB attributable to obesity.


The majority of stars form in a clustered environment. This has an impact on the evolution of surrounding protoplanetary discs (PPDs) due to either photoevaporation or tidal truncation. Consequently, the development of planets depends on formation environment. Here we present the first thorough investigation of tidally induced angular momentum loss in PPDs in the distant regime, partly motivated by claims in the literature for the importance of distant encounters in disc evolution. We employ both theoretical predictions and dynamical/hydrodynamical simulations in 2D and 3D. Our theoretical analysis is based on that of Ostriker (1994) and leads us to conclude that in the limit that the closest approach distance $x_{min} \gg r$, the radius of a particle ring, the fractional change in angular momentum scales as $(x_{min}/r)^{-5}$. This asymptotic limit ensures that the cumulative effect of distant encounters is minor in terms of its influence on disc evolution. The angular momentum transfer is dominated by the $m=2$ Lindblad resonance for closer encounters and by the $m=1$, $\omega = 0$ Lindblad resonance at large $x_{min}/r$. We contextualise these results by comparing expected angular momentum loss for the outer edge of a PPD due to distant and close encounters. Contrary to the suggestions of previous works we do not find that distant encounters contribute significantly to angular momentum loss in PPDs. We define an upper limit for closest approach distance where interactions are significant as a function of arbitrary host to perturber mass ratio $M_2/M_1$.


A novel line non-unit protection principle based on HHT energy spectrum is proposed in the paper. Influnce of line trap and the bus-to-ground capacitance of the transmission line to high frequency component of fault traveling wave is analysised, energy of high frequency component of the traveling wave detected in internal area is more than that of external area due to the hindrance of line trap and bus-to-ground capacitance. The differences between internal and external faults are used in realizing the protection. HHT is used to get energy spectrum, and the energy spectrum is used to distingush the internal and external faults. ATP/EMTP simulation results show that the protection can act immediately, it can realize full line protection and can distinguish types of fault. It is an effective non-unit EHV transmission line Protection method.


The concept of sustainable development has begun to be developed, namely in line with current needs and without endangering future generations. In addition to focusing on environmental issues, this concept covers economic development, environmental protection and social development. However, this concept still tends to focus on short- term economic development. With the limitation of the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) and the resources we have, it is not surprising that policymakers prefer shortcuts. As a result, the quality of economic growth has deteriorated. One of the efforts to harmonize the needs of economic growth and conservation of natural resources is the concept of a Green Economy. This article discusses how to calculate economic development as seen from the amount of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from a Green Economy perspective. Batu City, as a tourism city that relies on natural conditions and its environment, needs to analyze its economic development from a Green Economy perspective in order to be sustainable. This article aimed to analyze the depletion of natural resources of the sub-sector "Provision of Accommodation and Food – Beverage" which supports tourism in Batu City. The results showed that in 2015-2019, natural resource depletion increased every year.
Keywords: Sustainable Development, Green Economy, Depletion, Natural Resources


Flash‐flood events in mountain basins often involve large volumes of sediment transported by the rivers, with significant changes in the bed morphology even within a single, short‐term event. By contrast, flood scenarios are most frequently devised under the assumption of a fixed‐bed condition, that is, neglecting the possible change of the river bed elevation during the reference flood. In this work, feasibility and positive outcome of incorporating sediment transport modelling into the evaluation of flood hazard are assessed with reference to the case of the Mallero River in northern Italy. A past flood event has been modelled by means of a fully coupled model of flow and sediment transport. Particular attention has been focused onto the town of Sondrio, located at the downstream end of the river. Results show that interpretation of the event dynamics and proper quantification of flood hazard for the town cannot be obtained without considering the morphologic evolution of the river bed due to sediment transport. In addition, reliability of the results of hydro‐morphologic modelling has been proved by extensive sensitivity analysis, showing a weak dependence of the findings on external forcing. Some arguments are thus provided towards the incorporation of morphologic processes into hazard assessment, landscape protection, scenario modelling and emergency management.


In recent years the modulation transfer function (MTF) has played an important role in the quantitation of imaging performance of gamma cameras. The most common method of MTF determination requires line spread function (LSF) measurement. This paper reviews methods used for LSF measurements with special consideration given to the practical aspects of LSF measurement and MTF calculation. An analysis of errors in LSF measurements is made and means to reduce or to avoid these errors are discussed. Recommendations regarding practical considerations for LSF measurement and MTF calculation are presented in tabular form for convenience.


The present research was carried out in the context of the multidisciplinary project I SEA, which is focused on cutting edge scientific content about deep sea ecosystems, aiming to establish a new, replicable non-obtrusive method for the evaluation of science communication in scenarios such as science centers and museums, using virtual reality and the transformative play framework. As we were trying to develop a coherent and consistent with the transformative play framework narrative plot for the virtual scenario, the goal of this communication is to reassemble the plethora of agencies at work in the project. Based on the actor-network theory, we actively collaborated with one of the three sub-teams of the project (composed by physical-natural and social sciences researchers) over more than six months, taking field notes, analyzing and producing documents, meeting and interviewing with researchers, practitioners and public. The team was a sort of oligopticon, offering a limited (considering that the project has contributions from engineering and design), but in-depth perspective over the unfolding of the project. In the process, we understood how the affordances of the technology and theory, the views, expertize and availability of researchers, practitioners, and public, and the time window of the project were impacting the work and uncovering unexpected perspectives. For example, because virtual reality is not familiar for most people and has technical limitations regarding displaying written messages, narrative options changed and the agency of the medium as well as the psychological identification with the character were reshuffled into the transformative play framework. The project unfolded not so much despite the limitations, but because of the limitations, we found.  This case study is significant because it reassembles the agencies at work in the project, offering a  in-depth view of their contribution for the implementation of a research and development, multidisciplinary project. https://youtu.be/BmnRq2sIbfk


In this paper, a ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filter with stopband characteristics is presented using a multi-mode resonator (MMR) technique. An MMR is formed by loading three dumbbell-shaped (Mickey and circular) shunt stubs placed in the center and two symmetrical locations from ports, respectively. Three circular and arrowhead defected ground structures on the ground plane are introduced to achieve UWB bandwidth with a better roll-off rate. The proposed filter exhibits stopband characteristics from 10.8 to 20 GHz with a 0.4 dB return loss. The group delay and roll-off rate of the designed filter are <0.30 ns in the passband and 16 dB/GHz at lower and higher cut-off frequencies, respectively. The dimension of the filter is 0.74λg × 0.67λgmm 2 and was fabricated on a cost-effective substrate. All simulated results are verified through the experimental results.


A case of a young woman in whom nodulocystic acne developed while being treated for endometriosis with danazol, an antigonadotropic drug, is described herein. Although this agent, a derivative of 17 alpha-ethinyl testosterone, has been noted to possess weak androgenic properties, it has not been widely appreciated that danazol's androgenic side effects, particularly acne and seborrhea, occur frequently and may require prompt treatment.


The differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells to mature cells is essential for the function of the hematopoietic system. Disturbance of this process can lead to the emergence of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). AML is characterized by an accumulation of immature, malignant blasts, which disturb the function of the "normal" hematopoietic cells. The differentiation to myeloid cells is regulated among others by transcription factors. Growth factor independence 1 (GFI1) is such a hematopoietic transcription factor regulating the differentiation of myeloid cells.

We sought to investigate whether different Gfi1 levels are causative for emergence of AML and how different levels of Gfi1 might influence the prognosis of patients. Using published expression array data, we observed that Gfi1 is expressed at a lower expression level in blast cells and in leukemic stem cells compared to the control non-malignant cells and stem cells.

We then correlated Gfi1 expression level in blast cells of patients from different centers in with the event free survival. In Essen and Dresden (Germany), low expression levels in blast cells were (n=39) associated with an inferior prognosis (EFS 9 months for low expression compared to 42 months; p=0.0095).

We confirmed our observation with an independent cohort from Rotterdam and Nijmegen. Patients with low Gfi1 expression (n=32) had an inferior event free survival (9 months) compared to patients with higher Gfi1 levels (n=144; 17 months; p=0.02). To further investigate how different levels of Gfi1 might influence initiation and progression of leukemia, we used mice expressing Gfi1 at different levels, i.e. Gfi1 deficient mice (Gfi1KO), mice heterozygous for Gfi1 (Gfi1 het) or mice expressing Gfi1 only at 20% of normal Gfi1 expression levels (Gfi1KD). We used different murine AML models to examine the role of Gfi1 in AML development. First we crossed these mice with Nup98HoxD13 mice that recapitulate MDS disease course. We observed that knockdown of Gfi1 (Gfi1KD n=15, P=0.05) and heterozygosity of Gfi1 (Gfi1 het) (n=12) accelerated AML development and were associated with higher blast cell number compared to Gfi1 wt mice (n=16). Interestingly, complete loss of Gfi1 (Gfi1KO, n=16) inhibited leukemia development.

To confirm our findings, we used an independent approach. It has been shown previously that enforced retroviral expression of certain onco-fusion proteins such as MLL-AF9 or AML1-ETO9a or proteins such as MN1 can cause AML in mice. To this end we transduced lineage negative (Lin-) cells from the different mouse strains with retroviruses overexpressing these different proteins and plated the Lin-cells in methycellulose media. Similar to above, transduced Gfi1 KD cells generated more colonies and proliferated at higher levels than wt or Gfi1 KO cells (ranging between 1,5 to 4 fold KD compared to wt, depending on oncofusionprotein or oncogene, p=0.05). We also transplanted these cells into lethally irradiated mice. Again, mice transplanted with MLL-AF9 transduced Gfi1 KD cells (n=6) developed leukemia faster than mice transplanted with transduced wt (n=8; p= 0.05). We hypothesized that if lower expression of Gfi1 promotes leukemia formation, then overexpression of Gfi1 should inhibit leukemia formation.

To this end we transduced Lin neg cells simultaneously with retroviruses overexpressing either MLL-AF9 or AMLETO9a and either Gfi1 or an empty vector. The cells were then plated in methycellulose and cells overexpressing Gfi1 generated fewer colonies (between 3-5 fold less, depending on oncogene, p=0.01) than cells transduced with an empty control vector.

Thus, up to now our data suggests that decreased levels of Gfi1 influence prognosis of AML development and are involved in the pathogenesis of AML. On a molecular level, we found that knock-down and complete loss of Gfi1 leads to deregulation of genes in AML development such as HoxA9. However, whereas Gfi1KD cells show a normal response to apoptotic events, complete loss of Gfi1 is associated with a very high level of spontaneous apoptosis, possibly explaining why knock-down but not complete loss of Gfi1 accelerates AML development. In summary we demonstrate that Gfi1 plays a crucial role in AML development depending on the expression level, which in turn might explain the role of Gfi1 in human AML.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


This paper represents the results of using phycoremediation technology in treating the wastewater produced from food stall activity by using microalgae of Scenedesmus sp . in removal of heavy metals. Phycoremediation has advantages over physic-chemical approaches as it is can completely degrade organic pollutants without destroy the surrounding flora and fauna. Aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of microalgae Scenedesmus sp to assimilate the pollutant load based on the optimum time and concentration. Characteristics of food stall wastewater need to be identified and analyse before phycoremediation process taken place. The wastewater sampling was collected at food stall during peak time i.e. at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Microalgae Scenedesmus sp . to be injected to the batch reactor based on five (5) different concentration cells. The results shows that the optimum removal of heavy metals are dominant by concentration no. 1 (C1) compare to other concentration in the treatment i.e. removal of Ferum by 88.22% and 69.63%, Copper by 60% and 53.85% at both sampling time while removal of zinc is dominant by concentration no.4 (C4) by 75.61% and 76.63% respectively.


Introduction: Nowadays, Research about Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients is so important because of Progress in Treatment Procedure in Health Science. Brest Cancer Influences Quality of Life Aspects and Disrupt Social Relationship. This Creates Recluse Lifestyle and Speedup Disease Trend. The Aim of this Study is Investigation of Social Capital Effect on Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients. Method: In Experimental Research, 29 Women with Breast Cancer )who Reffered to Kashani Hospital in Shahrekord in 2011-2013) Based on Inclusion Criteria and through Non -Probability Sampling Were Selected and Be Placed in Two Groups Based on Randomized Selection (15 in Case & 14 in Control Group). Case Group beside Routine Cures, Received Interventions to Enhance Social Capital and Control Group Take Routine Treatments. Questionnaire Was Used to Data Collection. Results: Before Intervention, Both Groups Were Isotope in Variables (p>./05). But after Intervention, Statistical Changes Were Be Seen (P≤./05) . Mean of Social Capital (Bonding & Briding Social Capital) and Quality of Life in Three Scales (Health and Functional, Socio Economical, Psychological & Spiritual) in Case Group Were Increased and in Control Group, these Variables Were Decreased. High Correlation Was Be Seen between Social Capital and Quality of Life. Discussion: Social Capital Enhancement Make Improvement in Quality of Life, so We Can Use Ways which Enhance Social Capital to Improve Quality of Life.


Given the increasing prevalence of twins and the higher rates of late-preterm and early-term fetal death, compared with singletons, the pragmatic question is: when should twins be delivered in the absence of standard maternal/fetal criteria? This is a challenging research question. Because rates of fetal and neonatal death near full term are low, investigators must randomise enormous numbers of women to iatrogenic birth at, say, 36–37 weeks of gestation, versus expectant management. Were such a trial performed, it might only estimate the risks/benefits of planned birth for that week. Even if resources were available, covariates such as chorionicity and maternal comorbidities might be troublesome, as subgroup analyses would have diminished power. Significant limitations in the existing epidemiological data include imprecise timing of fetal death, defaulting to birth. This overestimates the rates of later stillbirth, making planned birth appear more favourable. Another problem is missing chorionicity: risks are higher in monochorionic compared with dichorionic placentation. To overcome these deficiencies, Dr Wood and colleagues performed an analysis of a 15–year period from the Alberta Perinatal Health Project database to find 17 875 twins alive at 23 weeks of gestation, a cohort that included 202 fetal and 244 neonatal deaths (Tables S1, S2). With this sample they were able to construct a graph of the weekly risk of fetal death in undelivered gestations, observing a spike in the fetal death rate at 38 weeks of gestation (Figure S1). They also computed a weekly risk ratio of neonatal versus fetal death: a ratio of <1 favoured delivery. Although this point estimate fell below unity at 36 weeks of gestation, by 38 weeks of gestation the ratio became statistically significant (Figure S3). This effect was more pronounced earlier, in the monochorionic subgroup (Figure S2). They further observed that small for gestational age (birthweight <5th centile) and an inter-twin discordance of >20% were significant predictors of fetal death. Note that birthweights and not sonographic estimates, which were available to clinicians, were used. Other important limitations, as noted by the authors, include missing information on pregnancy (?mis)management: e.g. was ultrasound used to detect growth restriction and discordance so that fetal surveillance could avert fetal death and prolong gestation? Perhaps the biggest limitation is the missing neonatal morbidities that would accrue from late-preterm and near-term births. This imposes 'trade-off' decisions: delivering late preterm averts fetal death but incurs neonatal morbidity. Thus, although the investigators performed a thorough death-metric comparison, the imponderable question is: how many cases of neonatal morbidity balance one fetal death? These limitations notwithstanding, this is a timely analysis and makes a significant contribution to understanding the natural history and gestational age at birth of twins: they confirm that the rate of fetal death in twins is very low. The authors also correctly assert that with such low rates of fetal death, especially in dichorionic twins, clinicians and patients might not be persuaded that early delivery is necessary, in light of the known higher morbidities. Perhaps the best way to use these findings clinically is to recognise and not exceed their lower bounds (i.e. 36 weeks of gestation for monochorionic twins; 38 weeks of gestation for dichorionic twins) when considering planned twin birth without justifiable maternal/fetal indications.


Advances in technology and communication are expected to provide effective and efficient performance for educators in the current millennial era, especially in the conditions of a pandemic due to the COVID-19 outbreak that has infected the world, including Indonesia, especially in the city of Surabaya. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze changes in the quality of the education system, and the challenges for educators in operating e-learning applications to deliver learning materials, to attract student interest in learning and bold interactions. Motivation becomes the driving force in students. They will judge the perceived usefulness by achieving satisfaction or not. Because it affects their intention to continue using the bold system, by still choosing the high school they chose switching to homeschooling or choosing not to continue school. The research method used consists of research design, variables, operational definitions, and data sources, research instruments, the population is class X students at SMAK St. Louis 1 Surabaya, samples taken were 334 respondents from class X students who were asked questions. The procedure for distributing questionnaire data through Google Forms, as well as data analysis techniques using SEM using Lisrel software. The reliability test shows (6) the reliability variable. This study obtained the results of hypothesis testing that had a positive and significant effect on the system quality, educator, and motivation variables on satisfaction, then the satisfaction variable on the intention to continue. Satisfaction mediates the relationship between system quality and the intention to continue has a positive and significant effect, while the satisfaction hypothesis mediates the relationship between motivation and intention to continue and has a positive and insignificant effect


In-transit metastatic melanoma is classified as a regional intralymphatic metastasis of melanoma. Currently, there is no standardized regimen used to treat in-transit metastatic melanoma, and therapy is individualized based on the patient. While many patients undergo surgical procedures, those with surgical contraindications or declination face challenges when attempting to find adequate treatment options. This case report demonstrates the successful treatment of multiple in-transit metastatic melanoma lesions using the combination of shave excision, electrodesiccation and curettage, and topical imiquimod cream. Several months later, examination showed clinical resolution of the original metastatic lesions. This treatment regimen may provide an alternative option for a select group of patients with certain comorbidities and therapeutic contraindications. J Drugs Dermatol. 20(5):555-557. doi:10.36849/JDD.5675.


The possibility of modifying the reactive acrylic termocuring adhesive based on the solution of polyetherpolyurethane in glycidylmethacrylate with oxazolidone-containing oligourethanes to increase the heat resistance of the adhesive is shown.


This paper introduces MakeupBag, a novel method for automatic makeup style transfer. Our proposed technique can transfer a new makeup style from a reference face image to another previously unseen facial photograph. We solve makeup disentanglement and facial makeup application as separable objectives, in contrast to other current deep methods that entangle the two tasks. MakeupBag presents a significant advantage for our approach as it allows customization and pixel specific modification of the extracted makeup style, which is not possible using current methods. Extensive experiments, both qualitative and numerical, are conducted demonstrating the high quality and accuracy of the images produced by our method. Furthermore, in contrast to most other current methods, MakeupBag tackles both classical and extreme and costume makeup transfer. In a comparative analysis, MakeupBag is shown to outperform current state-of-the-art approaches.


This study examined the relationship between psychometric test scores, psychometric test profiles, and sexual and/or violent reconviction. A sample of 3,402 convicted sexual offenders who attended a probation service–run sexual offender treatment programme in the community completed a battery of psychometric tests pre- and posttreatment. Using Cox regression, posttreatment scores on measures of self-esteem, an ability to relate to fictional characters, and recognition of risk factors were, individually, predictive of recidivism. When psychometric tests were grouped into dynamic risk domains, only the pretreatment scores of the domain labelled socioaffective functioning (SAF) predicted recidivism and added predictive power to a static risk assessment. The number of risk domains that were dysfunctional pretreatment also predicted recidivism outcome; however, this did not add predictive power to a static risk assessment tool. Possible explanations for the superiority of pre- over posttreatment scores in predicting reconviction are discussed, and directions for further research considered.


A new blind carrier phase reconstruction method that can be applied to both square- and cross-suppressed-carrier L-ary quadrature amplitude modulations (QAMs) is proposed. This method is based on a special phase metric that performs an absolute minimum for the carrier phase offset. In particular, it does not require any modification of the modulation structure. As a result, the non-coherent detection process is easy even for modulations with large QAM constellations. Simulation results will demonstrate the good performance of the estimator described, which is superior to that of conventional blind phase estimation methods.


Abstract In this paper I compare Alexander of Aphrodisias' and Proclus' conceptions of dialectic by discussing a passage from Alexander's commentary on Aristotle's Topics and texts from Proclus' Platonic Theology and commentary on Plato's Parmenides. I show how Alexander takes up Aristotle's view of dialectic as an argumentative technique that has no specific object but can be put in the service of philosophy e. g. to establish first principles. In a key passage, Alexander quotes some lines from the Parmenides to emphasize that this was also Plato's view on dialectic. By contrast, Proclus uses the Parmenides as a crucial source for his conception of dialectic as the crowning glory of philosophy, and fiercely criticizes such interpretations of the Parmenides as that of Alexander, which reduce it to the illustration of a logical method. I argue that the difference in their conceptions of dialectic lies in Alexander's positive and Proclus' negative view on doxa and on its role in knowledge.


In this paper, we revisit traditional check pointing and rollback recovery strategies, with a focus on silent data corruption errors. Contrarily to fail-stop failures, such latent errors cannot be detected immediately, and a mechanism to detect them must be provided. We consider two models: (i) errors are detected after some delays following a probability distribution (typically, an Exponential distribution), (ii) errors are detected through some verification mechanism. In both cases, we compute the optimal period in order to minimize the waste, i.e., the fraction of time where nodes do not perform useful computations. In practice, only a fixed number of checkpoints can be kept in memory, and the first model may lead to an irrecoverable failure. In this case, we compute the minimum period required for an acceptable risk. For the second model, there is no risk of irrecoverable failure, owing to the verification mechanism, but the corresponding overhead is included in the waste. Finally, both models are instantiated using realistic scenarios and application/architecture parameters.


CASE REPORT
A 6-year-old speyed female Bull Arab-cross dog was found to have a small tonsillar nodule. Histological examination revealed a well-differentiated mast cell tumour (MCT). At initial staging, no evidence of concurrent cutaneous or visceral MCTs was found on a complete blood count, a single lateral thoracic radiograph, abdominal ultrasound or cytology of the spleen and regional lymph nodes. A diagnosis of primary tonsillar MCT was made. At 40 months postoperatively, the dog is alive with no evidence of gross tumour progression, in contrast to some previous reports of rapid disease progression and metastasis in dogs with primary oral MCTs.

CONCLUSION
To the authors' knowledge, no previous reports of a primary MCT of the tonsil in dogs exist in the veterinary literature.


Abstract: We report a case of pulmonary toxoplasmosis after heart transplant despite the prophylactic anti‐toxoplasmic treatment that was given but was not sufficient to prevent toxoplasmosis. However, the patient survived thanks to early diagnosis confirmed by polymerase chain reaction on blood and by serological techniques, and early treatment.


Uterine artery (UA) PI and RI were also measured. Customised birth weight centiles were calculated using the 'Grow' package, and SGA was defined as ≤ 10th centile. A mixed model statistical analysis was used which takes into account the longitudinal nature of the data (SAS). Results: 65 women were recruited. Nine women had SGA babies; only one had abnormal UA Dopplers at 23 weeks. Mixed model analysis demonstrated that the PI of the jets was significantly higher in 'SGA' pregnancies (P = 0.05) although the RI was not (P = 0.08). There was no significant difference in either the PI (P = 0.71) or RI (P = 0.84) of the UA between 'SGA' and '> 10th centile' pregnancies. Conclusions: The PI of SA blood flow into the IVS is significantly higher when the pregnancy resulted in a SGA baby. Increased pulsatility may reflect the histologically observed persistence of vessel muscularity in the SA of pregnancies with APO. That no significant difference was seen in the UA indices may indicate that they are influenced by more than just physical change in the SAs. The technique used may have detected the pathology underlying impaired placentation resulting in SGA babies.


STUDY DESIGN
A blinded, randomized, comparative prospective study.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to compare the use of intrathecal morphine to endovenous morphine on postoperative pain after posterior lumbar surgery.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA
Intrathecal morphine can provide significant safe analgesia for at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours in patients undergoing major surgery. Its dosages have been decreasing in the last 30 years, but currently, the optimal dose remains unknown. As of today, there are no studies comparing the efficacy and the side effects of this technique with intravenous morphine administration after minimally invasive lumbar fusion surgery.

METHODS
We randomized and compared two groups of 25 patients, who were given either 100 μg intrathecal (ITM group) or 5 ± 2 mg intravenous morphine delivered intravenously for 24 hours at 2 mL/h (IVM group) after minimally invasive posterior lumbar fusion. VAS score at 0, 6, 12, 24 hours, mobilization out of bed at 6 hours, hospitalization duration and complications as lower limbs paresthesia, urinary retention at 6 and 12 hours, nausea, vomit, itch, and constipation were evaluated.

RESULTS
Data showed a lower VAS score, a reduction of constipation, lower limbs paresthesia, or urinary retention at 12 hours in ITM rather than in the IVM group. None suffered of vomit, itch, or nausea in both groups. Urinary retention was observed more frequently in ITM group at 6 hours. Patients of ITM group were mobilized out bed earlier than those from IVM group.

CONCLUSION
A low dosage of intrathecal morphine is safe and effective after minimally invasive lumbar fusion surgery. The reduction of pain in the study group permitted a shorter hospitalization and earlier mobilization out of bed, augmenting patients' comfort.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
2.


Background Although physical activity has known positive impacts upon pain, disease activity and functional status in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), very little is known about physical activity in patients with RA on biologic therapy. Objectives To evaluate the effect of adalimumab treatment on physical activity and relationship with improvements in disease activity and physical function in patients with RA in routine clinical practice. Methods This was a 52-week multi-center, post-marketing observational study conducted in 7 countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Eligible RA patients were prescribed originator adalimumab according to the local practice; visits were performed approximately 3 months apart. Physical activity was assessed by validated Short QUestionnaire to ASsess Health-enhancing physical activity (SQUASH)[1,2], which measures habitual physical activity across four domains: commuting, leisure time and sport, household, work and school. RA disease activity was assessed by DAS28 and physical function by HAQ-DI; clinical remission (REM) and low disease activity (LDA) were defined as DAS28<2.6 and <3.2, respectively. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed, observed data are presented. Results 462 patients were enrolled and 255 patients completed the study. Mean age was 53.9 (±12.1) yrs; 82.2% of enrolled patients were female; average disease duration was 7.8 (±7.5) yrs. DAS28 decreased from 6.1 (±1.1) at baseline to 2.9 (±1.0) at study end, whereas the mean HAQ-DI from 1.6 (±0.6) to 0.7 (±0.5). The proportion of patients in LDA and REM at study end was 56.0% and 31.1%, respectively. Total SQUASH score increased from 4772 (±4132) to 6104 (±4921), representing 28% improvement in overall physical activity. The largest score improvements were seen in the SQUASH domains of leisure time and sport (by 43%), followed by household activities and activities at work and school (each by 19%). The correlations between the total SQUASH score and its subscores with DAS28 were weak both at baseline and study end. A significant correlation between the total SQUASH and HAQ-DI scores was seen at baseline (r -0.30), but not at the study end (r -0.22). Correlations between SQUASH subscores and HAQ-DI were not significant. The percentage of work disabled subjects decreased from 22% to 17%. According to linear regression analysis, sociodemographic factors did not substantially influence habitual physical activity. Conclusions Treatment with adalimumab in clinical practice in CEE resulted in clinically meaningful improvements in disease activity and physical function as well as improvements in physical activity. The correlation between the scores for disease activity, physical function and physical activity were however poor and there was no clear influence of the standard sociodemographic factors on physical activity. References Wendel-Vos WGC. et al. J Clin Epidemiol 2003; 56: 1163–9. Campbell N. et al. J Phys Act Health. 2016;13(2):154–8. Acknowledgements Funding: The design, study conduct, and financial support for the clinical trial were provided by AbbVie. AbbVie participated in the interpretation of data, drafting, review, and approval of the abstract. Disclosure of Interest D. Karateev Grant/research support from: Pfizer, Consultant for: Pfizer, Tirupharm, Biocad, Egis, R-Pharm, Novartis, Speakers bureau: Abbvie, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Roche, Tirupharm, Biocad, R-Pharm, Novartis, Egis, MSD, UCB, C. Codreanu Grant/research support from: AbbVie, Amgen, BMS, Egis, MSD, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, UCB, Consultant for: AbbVie, Amgen, Angellini, Astra Zeneca, BMS, Egis, MSD, Pfizer, Richter, Roche, Sanofi, Servier, Teva, UCB, Zentiva, Speakers bureau: AbbVie, Amgen, Angellini, Astra Zeneca, BMS, Egis, MSD, Pfizer, Richter, Roche, Sanofi, Servier, Teva, UCB, Zentiva, B. Rojkovich Grant/research support from: AbbVie, Amgen, Novartis, Sanofi, UCB, Consultant for: Abbvie, Pfizer, Roche, Speakers bureau: Abbvie, Pfizer, Roche, M. Hojnik Employee of: AbbVie, E. Smirnova Employee of: AbbVie


The synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon dots (N@CDs) was accomplished by a hydrothermal process using meta- phenylenediamine as a source of carbon and nitrogen. As prepared N@CDs exhibited bright blue color fluorescence emission (λex = 340 nm and λem = 420 nm) with a quantum yield of 12%. Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus were eradicated by N@CDs with a minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) of 1 and 0.75 mg/mL, respectively. The N@CDs were also proven as nanovesicles for drug molecules where the drug release displayed a sustained time-dependent profile at the physiological condition. The release of ciprofloxacin as a model drug was governed by the Korsmeyer-Peppas model, indicating ∼60% of its release from the N@CD conjugated drug system at the physiological pH. Selective analysis of trinitrophenol (TNP), a popular explosive, was achieved by fluorescence quenching of N@CDs, compared favorably with other nitrophenols. An estimated detection limit of TNP was 2.45 μM with a linear response spanning from 1 to 75 μM.


INTRODUCTION
The aim of this study was to establish patient and procedural factors associated with the development of an unhealed perineum in patients undergoing a proctectomy or excision of an ileoanal pouch.

METHODS
A review of 194 case notes for procedures performed between 1997 and 2009 was carried out. All patients had at least 12 months' follow-up. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed in 16 parameters. For those patients who developed an unhealed perineum, Cox regression analysis was performed to establish healing over a 12-month period.

RESULTS
Two hundred patients were included in the study, of which six had unknown wound status and were subsequently excluded. This left 194 study patients. Of these, 86 (44%) achieved primary wound healing with a fully healed perineum and 108 (56%) experienced primary wound failure. With reference to the latter, 63 (58%) healed by 12 months. Comparing patients with an initially intact perineum with those with initial wound failure showed pre-existing sepsis was highly relevant (odds ratio: 4.32, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.16-8.62, p<0.001). In patients who had an unhealed perineum initially, perineal sepsis and surgical treatment were both significantly associated with time to healing (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.54, 95% CI: 0.31-0.93, p=0.03; and HR: 0.42, 95% CI: 0.21-0.84, p=0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
The presence of pre-existing perineal sepsis is associated with an unhealed perineum following proctectomy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and non-IBD surgery. Further studies are indicated to establish perineal sepsis as a causative factor.


Ray-tracing has found important applications in the analysis of optical systems. in this work, a special modification of the ray-tracing method is applied to the analysis of several different microoptical structures, used as probes for refractive index measurements, with the aim of obtaining the structure that is practical and acceptable from the technological point of view. The structure which is studied here is a small size solid retroreflector of special shape and complex inner constitution. It serves to couple together a pair of optical fibers. One of these fibers is connected to the light source, the other one to the photometer. The operation of this structure as the refractometric sensor is based on the frustrated total internal reflection in the retroreflector, which is formed by the structure's surface. Therefore, the structure's internal reflectivity depends on the refractive index of the surrounding media. This media may be either a gas or a fluid. By use of this structure, the refractive index of the surrounding media can be determined, and the type of the particular fluid may de disclosed. However, for better performance, the sensor's shape has to be optimized taking into the consideration the particular parameters of the optical elements and materials used for the sensor, and the refractive index value of the particular fluid. Because of some singularities of the problem, the special ray-tracing algorithm has been developed for the analysis of this structure. This algorithm has proved to be effective for the theoretical optimization of the structure used as refractometric optical sensor.


Nowadays, posts expressing opinions in social networks are beneficial for businesses, sway public sentiments and emotions having higher social and political impact. In fact, opinions mining or sentiment classification is an important issue in social networks. Therefore, machine learning methods and natural language processing are very effective for opinion mining which are widely used in social media network. The main purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of machine learning and sentiment analysis for studying Tunisian users' statuses. We aim to extract terms related to sentiment and behavior, especially during the "Tunisian Election". While existing sentiment analysis methods focus only on the extraction of positive and negative opinions, in our work we aim to extract fuzzy opinions. That is why we propose to follow Fuzzy Support Vector Machine during our classification process. This later is compared with the basic Support Vector Machine referring to assessment measures such us accuracy, precision, recall, and F-measure.


This study aims to determine the effect of earnings quality to firm value with market reaction as intervening variable. This study conducted by using the secondary data. Analysis method was the multiple linear regression analysis by utilizing SPSS 22 program and path analysis. The population in this study is the manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange during the period 2010-2015. The determination of the sample used a purposive sampling method and obtained 104 companies as a sample. The result showed that (a) earnings quality significantly negative affect on firm value, (b) earnings quality doesn't effect significantly of firm value through market reaction,  (c) earnings quality doesn't effect significantly of market reaction and (d) debt equity ration and leverage as control variable, only debt quity ratio significantly effect of firm value .
Keywords: earning quality, firm value, market reaction, abnormal return


For effective human-robot interaction, it is important that a robotic assistant can forecast the next action a human will consider in a given task. Unfortunately, real-world tasks are often very long, complex, and repetitive; as a result forecasting is not trivial. In this paper, we propose a novel deep recurrent architecture that takes as input features from a two-stream Residual action recognition framework, and learns to estimate the progress of human activities from video sequences -- this surrogate progress estimation task implicitly learns a temporal task grammar with respect to which activities can be localized and forecasted. To learn the task grammar, we propose a stacked LSTM based multi-granularity progress estimation framework that uses a novel cumulative Euclidean loss as objective. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed architecture, we showcase experiments on two challenging robotic assistive tasks, namely (i) assembling an Ikea table from its constituents, and (ii) changing the tires of a car. Our results demonstrate that learning task grammars offers highly discriminative cues improving the forecasting accuracy by more than 9% over the baseline two-stream forecasting model, while also outperforming other competitive schemes.


C60Cl6 Reacts with allyltrimethylsilane in the presence of TiCl4 to form a Cs symmetrical, hexaallyl addended [60]fullerene derivative, C60(CH2CHCH2)6, in 58% yield; C60(CH2CHCH2)5Cl is separated as a minor reaction product in 14% yield.


ABSTRACT

This paper estimates the Kaldor-Verdoorn (KV) Law for the industrial sector in Brazil. This law defines a positive relationship between the industrial labor productivity growth rate and its production growth rate. Statistics from IBGE and Ipeadata in the period 2001 to 2012 serve as data sources for the estimation. We estimate the KV law through an error correction model (MCE). The results suggest the existence of static and dynamic economies of scale in the Brazilian industry. However, the results reveal a decrease in its sectoral dynamics and a lack of capability to incorporate productivity gains.

Key words:

Artigo recebido em 03 jan. 2013.


Background Acquisition of malaria immunity in low transmission areas usually occurs after relatively few exposures to the parasite. A recent Plasmodium vivax experimental challenge trial in malaria naïve and semi-immune volunteers from Colombia showed that all naïve individuals developed malaria symptoms, whereas semi-immune subjects were asymptomatic or displayed attenuated symptoms. Sera from these individuals were analyzed by protein microarray to identify antibodies associated with clinical protection. Methodology/Principal Findings Serum samples from naïve (n = 7) and semi-immune (n = 9) volunteers exposed to P. vivax sporozoite-infected mosquito bites were probed against a custom protein microarray displaying 515 P. vivax antigens. The array revealed higher serological responses in semi-immune individuals before the challenge, although malaria naïve individuals also had pre-existing antibodies, which were higher in Colombians than US adults (control group). In both experimental groups the response to the P. vivax challenge peaked at day 45 and returned to near baseline at day 145. Additional analysis indicated that semi-immune volunteers without fever displayed a lower response to the challenge, but recognized new antigens afterwards. Conclusion Clinical protection against experimental challenge in volunteers with previous P. vivax exposure was associated with elevated pre-existing antibodies, an attenuated serological response to the challenge and reactivity to new antigens.


【Objectives: We describe the development of a smoking and drinking prevention program for adolescents, using intervention mapping. Methods: The study sample consisted of 1,000 high school second-grade students from 6 high schools in Seoul. The PRECEDE model was applied for the needs assessment. We carried out a social diagnosis by assessing the factors such as the quality of life, happiness level, and satisfaction with school life; an epidemiological diagnosis on the perceived health status, stress levels, and priority of health issues; a behavioral diagnosis on the smoking and drinking rate and the intention to smoke and drink; and an educational diagnosis on knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, social norms and life skills. Results: The development process included a needs assessment, identifying factors that influence smoking and drinking among adolescents. Intention, knowledge, perceived norms, perceived benefit, perceived cost, perceived susceptibility, self-efficacy, and life skills were identified as determinants. Three performance objectives were formulated to describe what an individual needs to do in order to avoid smoking and drinking. Subsequently, we constructed an intervention matrix by crossing the performance objectives with the selected determinants. Each cell describes the learning objectives of the smoking and drinking prevention program. The program used methods from the transtheoretical model, such as consciousness raising, outcome expectations, self-reevaluation, self-liberation, counterconditioning, environmental reevaluation, and stimulus control. The program deals with the effects of smoking and drinking, self-improvement, decision making, understanding advertisements, communication skills, social relationships, and assertiveness. Conclusions: By using the process of intervention mapping, the program developer was able to ensure a systematical incorporation of empirical and new data and theories to guide the intervention design. Programs targeting other health-related behavior and other methods or strategies can also be developed using this intervention mapping process.】


To characterise the different types of pulmonary hypertension (PH) among idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM). A retrospective case series with assessment of PH by right heart catheterisation, extent of interstitial lung disease (ILD) and outcome of vasoactive therapy.The group of patients with IIM with PH (n=9) showed a median age at PH diagnosis of 62 years (IQR 48–71 years; eight women), seven diagnosed with polymyositis and two with dermatomyositis; median disease duration of 5.7 years and five patients with a positive anti-Jo1 antibody. We found one patient to be classified in PH WHO group 2 (left heart disease), five patients in WHO group 3 (lung disease) and three patients in WHO group 1 (pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)). During median observed follow-up of 24 months, mortality for the total group was 44%. Surprisingly, we found a relevant group (33%) of patients with IIM who suffered from non-ILD-PH, which reflects the presence of PAH phenotype. This result should lead to more awareness among treating physicians that complaints of dyspnoea among patient with IIM could be related to PAH and not only ILD. The role of vasoactive therapy remains to be defined in patients with IIM suffering from PAH or PH-ILD.


BACKGROUND
To date, many compounds extracting from natural products have anti-tumor activity, such as citronellol, ellagitannin-containing pomegranate extract, etc. Evidence from clinical context shows that multidrug resistance is an obstacle that impedes the effectiveness of natural products, such as chemotherapeutic agents paclitaxel and vincristine. Overexpression of ATP-Binding Cassette (ABC) transporters is the leading cause of MDR. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate whether these natural products are substrates of MDR-associated ABC transporters, which may benefit the development of their clinical usage.

OBJECTIVE
This review summarizes the latest insight on natural products possessing substrate profile and analyzed some possible regularity to provide direction for future drug discovery.

CONCLUSION
The anti-tumor effects of natural products are constantly being explored, but the drug resistance issues cannot be ignored, which limits their prospects as anti-tumor drugs to a certain extent. At the same time, some natural products are taken as a daily diet, and their possible role in increasing the drug resistance of the substrate should arouse the attention of clinical cancer patients.