Though more than a decade has passed since the first report of the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of graphene on metal substrates, the CVD reactor resembles something of a black-box. The process flow conditions, and, temperature and reactant distribution profiles are poorly understood which causes significant repeatability and reproducibility issues. This also affects studies on the growth mechanism of graphene and the synthesis of completely defect free products. To address these challenges, the open source computational fluid dynamics toolbox OpenFOAM is used for the first systematic exploration of reactor conditions for the synthesis of single crystal and single layer graphene (SLG) in a tube reactor that is typically used in the laboratory. It is found that the reactor flow conditions are in the turbulent regime, and, the temperatures of the 50-100 μm thick copper foils on which graphene is grown are not uniform but have large temperature gradients with a sensitivity to the system pressure, the total mass flow rate and the process gas composition that increases with decreasing foil thickness. Furthermore, both the foil and gas temperatures can be manipulated by modifying the mass flow rates of Ar and H 2 in the process gas mix. Finally, by combining simulation and experimental data, a process window was identified where the amount of Ar gas in the reactor was optimized to mimic cold-wall like conditions inside the hot-wall reactor and that favored the synthesis of pristine SLG films (while hotter reactor conditions produced films with numerous unwanted adlayers).


ABSTRACT Dysregulation of miR-203 by promoter methylation is associated with the development of various cancers. We aimed to explore the underlying link between promoter methylation and miR-203 expression in Kazakh esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). MassARRAY® System spectrometry was used to quantitatively analyze the DNA methylation of 32 CpG sites within miR-203 in 99 Kazakh ESCC and 46 normal esophageal tissues (NETs) with similar population characteristics. We conducted real-time PCR to detect miR-203 expression levels and evaluated their association with methylation. Eleven CpG units within miR-203 promoter were frequently hypermethylated in ESCC compared with NETs (P < 0.05). The hypermethylation of several CpG units positively correlated with age, lower esophagus, constrictive type of ESCC, and moderately differentiated ESCC. Given the involvement of human papillomavirus (HPV) in etiology of ESCC was confirmed from our previous reports, herein we found that CpG units within miR-203 in HPV16-positive ESCC are more heavily methylated. Furthermore, miR-203 expression showed a nearly 4.5-fold decrease in ESCC than NETs (0.206 ± 0.336 vs. 0.908 ± 1.424, P < 0.001) and was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.012). The expression of miR-203 with 11 completely hypermethylated CpG units was approximately 6.5-fold lower than that with at least 1 unmethylated CpG unit (P < 0.001) and especially the CpG_15.16 and CpG_31.32 with higher methylation levels in ESCC tissues exhibited lower expression levels of miR-203, which indicated a reverse association between miR-203 methylation and expression. Hypermethylated miR-203 is a potential biomarker and targeted delivery of miR-203 could therefore serve as a preventive or therapeutic strategy for Kazakh ESCC.


Epilepsy is defined as a brain disorder characterized by an enduring predisposition to generate epileptic seizures by its neurobiological, cognitive, psychological, and social consequences. Many factors affect the quality of life of people with epilepsy, including Seizures Severity, Memory, Medications effects. World Health Organization (WHO), estimated that there are 50 million people with epilepsy worldwide. Stable People with epilepsy are those who were suffered from disease for more than three year as diagnosed by clinical neurologist. The study was conducted in neurology OPD DMC Ludhiana. Findings reveals that 68% of people with epilepsy had average quality of life. The mean percentage score was found highest for the social function domain i.e.43.77±10.6301 and was found lowest for seizure worry domain i.e.11.82±7.40. Age of onset seizures (p=0.367), frequency of seizures (p=0.552) were associated with epilepsy among people with epilepsy.


EVERYONE has inborn fears of the unknown, and, to many, one of these unknowns is ionizing radiation. Thus, radiation issues continue to be a matter of great public concern. In this context we, as physicians, have responsibilities in radiation matters to protect, insofar as possible, the physical and emotional health of our patients by preventing and/or minimizing the illnesses and injury that might be caused by radiation. To accomplish this goal, certain basic concepts need to be understood (Table 1). These concepts serve as the basis of this presentation. They have been considered in detail in various publications 1-13 and can only be highlighted here. Sources of Radiation Exposure Ionizing radiations used in the practice of medicine come from radioactive materials and from x-ray machines. Radiation to which we are exposed also comes from natural sources, such as cosmic radiation and radioactivity in building materials and soil. On the average,


Channel estimation and synchronization are considered the most challenging issues in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system. OFDM is highly affected by synchronization errors that cause reduction in subcarriers orthogonality, leading to significant performance degradation. The synchronization errors cause two issues: Symbol Time Offset (STO), which produces inter symbol interference (ISI) and Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO), which results in inter carrier interference (ICI). The aim of the research is to simulate Comb type pilot based channel estimation for OFDM system showing the effect of pilot numbers on the channel estimation performance and propose a modified estimation method for STO with less number of pilot to mitigate ISI effect. Channel estimation is simulated for different pilot number with 16QAM modulation in Ped-A Rayleigh channel. The STO effect assumed less than the cyclic prefix length to minimize ISI and maintain the orthogonality between subcarriers. The simulation results show that the high number of pilots are needed to achieve good channel estimation in case no synchronization used while similar results are achieved with smaller number of pilots if the propose modification on the synchronization method are used aligned with the channel estimation. The proposed system is evaluated in terms of BER and SNR.


Abstract Ensuring that work practice is compliant to regulations and industrial standards is an increasingly important issue in business systems. Whereas as an understanding of control objectives that stem from various legislative, standard and contractual sources may be found at strategic or tactical levels, an assessment of their effective adoption in operational practices is extremely hard. In this paper, we propose a method for assessing the level of compliance in business work practice. The method builds upon business process management platforms, and provides the ability to objectively measure the compliance distance of existing processes within the organization. This in turn empowers process designers and business analysts to quantify the effort required to achieve a compliant process.


At the time of the coevolution of humans and microorganisms, the human digestive tract was colonized by thousands of species of bacteria. Mostly, intestine-borne microbes amount to the overall number of cells in the body tissue. The latest metagenomics study of the human intestinal microbiota confirmed the existence of some 3.3 million genes relative to only 23,000 genes found in tissue cells in the human body. There is increasing evidence for multiple beneficial functions of the gut microbiota in human health and illness. The best-described plant prebiotics is fructans and inulin. The best-known prebiotic carbohydrates comprise many plants, roots and tubers, and fruit crops, whereas prebiotic-richer grain crops contain maize, chickpea, lentil, lupin, and wheat. Some prebiotic enriched crop germplasm were documented in maize, chickpea, lentil, wheat, and yacon. Intestinal microbiota perturbation may contribute to persistent diseases such as autoimmune diseases, bowel cancers, stomach ulcers, colon disorders, and malnutrition. This can be impossible to recover the intestinal microbiome, but the usage of probiotics has contributed to a positive effect in a significant number of very well-designed (clinical) trials. Microbiomics has prompted a significant growth of interest in probiotics and prebiotics as potential mediators for the administration and regulation of gut microbiota in medicine, industry, and the general public. Developing prebiotic-rich healthy plants can mitigate the prevalent malnutrition challenge and facilitate worldwide global health. Bioinformatics and genomics tools may help to create mechanistic associations between gut microflora, a person's health status, and the outcomes of plant prebiotic drug treatments.


The next generation low-background detectors operating deep underground aim for unprecedented low levels of radioactive backgrounds. The surface deposition and subsequent implantation of radon progeny in detector materials will be a source of energetic background events. We investigate Monte Carlo and model-based simulations to understand the surface implantation profile of radon progeny. Depending on the material and region of interest of a rare event search, these partial energy depositions can be problematic. Motivated by the use of Ge crystals for the detection of neutrinoless double-beta decay, we wish to understand the detector response of surface backgrounds from radon progeny. We look at the simulation of surface decays using a validated implantation distribution based on nuclear recoils and a realistic surface texture. Results of the simulations and measured α spectra are presented.


A considerable portion of the former dry and dry-transition-to-moist forests of Puerto Rico dominated by Bucida buceras L. was transformed by land clearing and periodic fires to tall grasslands dominated by Urochloa maximum Jacq. and savannas with scattered small trees and shrubs. These commu- nities, maintained by fires, are relatively stable and difficult to reforest. A study was carried out to test whether natural recolonization of forest species might be accelerated by excluding grazing livestock or by planting trees to facilitate natural succession. Experimental treatments included grazing exclusion and plant- ing of Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit (giant variety) at 2 x 2 m and 4 x 4 m, as well as an unprotected control. Tree growth, herbaceous aboveground biomass, and floristic diversity were monitored in experi- mental plots for 6 years. Floristic diversity (principally weedy species) increased during the first 3 years in grazed plots but decreased thereafter; biodiversity in grazing-protected plots decreased steadily over time. Herbaceous biomass remained fairly constant in grazed plots, increased gradually in protected plots, and decreased precipitously in planted plots after tree basal area surpassed 8m 2 /ha. The results of this study suggest that while the suppression of dominant grasses, either by controlled grazing or shading by planted trees can facilitate regeneration of native dry forest plant species, this process is both slow and uncertain on highly degraded sites, and likely to require decades before natural succession processes result in vegetation structure and species composition resembling that of native dry forest stands.


This 2-part series is designed to assist faculty in teaching students about the impact of the environment on health. Part 1 (Gerber & McGuire, 1999/this issue) provides historical background, the role of nursing, a basic curriculum, and student learning activities. Part 2 presents national environmental health objectives, pertinent legislation, organization of environmental health services, global environmental health, and student learning activities. We designed the material to be practical, so that this critical area becomes a routine part of assessment data for nurses as they care for clients.


Objectives To identify the psychological impact of working during the COVID-19 pandemic on medical and nursing students' psychological well-being. To inform recommendations for the provision of future student well-being support. Design An interpretative qualitative, semistructured interview study employing maximum variation sampling, snowball sampling and a thematic analysis. Setting A large West Midlands (UK) university with medical and nursing undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Study undertaken between January and May 2020. Participants A purposive sample of eight medical (six women and two men) and seven nursing (all women) students who worked >2 weeks in a healthcare setting during the COVID-19 pandemic (from 1 March 2020 onwards). Results Four core themes with corresponding subthemes were identified: (1) COVID-19 sources of distress—working conditions, exposure to suffering, death and dying, relationships and teams, individual inexperience and student identity, (2) negative impact on mental health and well-being—psychological and emotional distress, delayed distress, exhaustion, mental ill health, (3) protective factors from distress—access to support, environment, preparation and induction, recognition and reward, time for breaks and rest and (4) positive experiences and meaningful outcomes. Conclusions Student pandemic deployment has had a significant negative impact on students' psychological well-being, as a result of demanding working conditions, unprecedented exposure to death and suffering and lack of preparation for new job roles. Universities and healthcare organisations must formally acknowledge this impact and provide well-being support for distressed students working in such challenging contexts. They must also establish more supportive and inclusive healthcare environments for medical and nursing students in future pandemic and postpandemic circumstances, through the implementation of support systems and adequate preparation.


The work responded to the objective of establishing the influence of technological innovation in quality management of human resources in a National Institute of Health. The research approach is quantitative, because it uses data collection and analysis to answer questions. research. The type of study is basic, it is a set of systematic and empirical processes that are applied to the study of a phenomenon; the non-experimental, cross-sectional and causal correlational design, the hypothetical-deductive method. The sample was census. The reliability coefficient for the variable Technological innovation in the health professional was 0.925 and the coefficient with the quality management variable was 0.955, interpreted as high reliability of the variables. The investigation concluded that: Technological innovation significantly influences quality management of human resources in a National Institute of Health, Lima 2021, because a Nagelkerke of.884 was found; so it is established that technological innovation significantly influences 88.4%.


The categorized literature review of retrofitting and strengthening methods of reinforced concrete (RC) beam-column joints clarified that non-disruptiveness; practical implementation, ductility and perseverance of lateral resistance as well as economical issues still remain the most challenging aspects of seismically retrofitting the vulnerable existing RC beam-column joints. Current research attempted to observe the seismic design principals of RC frame structures in seismic retrofitting of the vulnerable frames as a strategy of retrofitting based on the capacity design concept. Accordingly, the beam sidesway mechanism was redefined for seismic retrofitting by relocating the beam plastic hinges far enough away from the joints. Consequently, with introducing innovative energy dissipation devices such as Multi Functional Corbels (HMFC) and Harmonica Damper Plates (HHDP), the innovative Retrofitting Techniques 1 and 2 (RT1 and RT2) were proposed. The introduced devices of HMFC and HHDP as a passive energy dissipation system absorb energy through inelastic deformations. The proposed RT1 and RT2 were experimentally evaluated through a series of 3/4-scale beam-column joint specimens under an extremely severe loading history. The excellent performance of retrofitted specimens through the experimental study confirmed that the proposed retrofitting techniques (RT1 and RT2) are able to retain structural integrity with the minimum strength and stiffness degradation. As intended, the energy dissipation capacity was dramatically increased and beam sidesway mechanism was actually formed. Furthermore, a series of non-linear finite element analysis using ATENA was carried out on all reference and retrofitted specimens. The FEM models were validated with experimental outcomes. Subsequently, the validated models were utilized to develop a new simplified method for upgrading based on the advantages of RT1 and RT2. In the new proposed innovative Retrofitting Technique 3 (RT3), HHDP was replaced by Frictional-Bending Damper Plate (HFBDP) which dissipates energy based on friction and bending. The effectiveness and reliability of the proposed RT3 was investigated through a numerical analysis. As confirmed through experimental and numerical investigation, all acceptance criteria of ACI Committee 374 [ACI 374.1-05] were effectively satisfied by the proposed retrofitting techniques.


Purpose There is a high prevalence of stress, depression, and burn-out in medical students. Medical students differ widely in personality traits, self-perceptions, and values that may have an impact on their well-being. This study aimed to investigate variability in their personality profiles in relation to their potential for well-being and resilience. Method Participants were 808 medical students from The University of Queensland. An online questionnaire collected socio-demographics and the Temperament and Character Inventory to assess personality traits. Latent profile analyses identified students' trait profiles. Results Two distinct personality profiles were identified. Profile 1 ("Resilient") characterized 60% of the sample and was distinguished by low Harm Avoidance combined with very high Persistence, Self-Directedness and Cooperativeness compared to Profile 2 ("Conscientious"). Both Profiles had average levels of Reward Dependence and Novelty Seeking and low levels of Self-Transcendence. Profiles did not differ by age, gender, or country of birth, but rural background students were more likely to have Profile 1. While both Profiles indicate mature and healthy personalities, the combination of traits in Profile 1 is more strongly indicative of well-being and resilience. Conclusions Finding two distinct profiles of personality highlights the importance of considering combinations of traits and how they may interact with medical students' potential for well-being. Although both profiles of students show healthy personalities, many may lack the resilience to maintain well-being over years of medical training. Programs that develop character and personality self-awareness would enhance their well-being and prepare them to promote the health of their patients.


Hamartomas are the most common type of benign tumours of the lung, constituting a small portion of all lung neoplasms. Hamartomas are rare benign tumours composed of multiple mesenchymal cell lines. Two clinical types have been defined according to the location: intraparenchymal and endobronchial, more frequently the former. We present a case of endobronchial hamartoma causing significant blockage of the right middle lobe. The finding was incidental on a CT scan of the chest done for staging purposes for a large mixed lytic and sclerotic lesion that was found within the proximal-mid portion of the tibial diaphysis. The endobronchial lesion was removed by hot electrocautery snare during bronchoscopy and identified as a hamartoma. Argon plasma coagulation was applied to the lesion's base afterwards and the patient was to follow-up in 3 months for a repeat CT scan.


This paper deals with the development and validation of a new solver in Open FOAM, bubble Condense Foam for modeling a condensing vapor bubble in subcooled boiling flows. This solver is used to predict the behavior of a vapor bubble in the flow in terms of bubble diameter and void fraction with respect to parameters such as subcooling temperatures, initial bubble diameter etc. VOF model is used to predict the interface of the bubble. Three conservation equations each for liquid and the gas phase are solved. Standard k-ε turbulence model consisting of two transport equations for turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent dissipation are used. The code developed is found to be capable of calculating condensation. However previous studies for modeling bubble condensation doesn't consider the lift-drag models, this study incorporates the lift-drag models with governing equations, which improves significantly the bubble diameter prediction.


This paper reports that low-temperature heat capacities of N-methylnorephedrine C11H17NO(s) have been measured by a precision automated adiabatic calorimeter over the temperature range from T = 78 K to T = 400K. A solid to liquid phase transition of the compound was found in the heat capacity curve in the temperature range of T = 342–364 K. The peak temperature, molar enthalpy and entropy of fusion of the substance were determined. The experimental values of the molar heat capacities in the temperature regions of T = 78–342 K and T = 364–400 K were fitted to two polynomial equations of heat capacities with the reduced temperatures by least squares method. The smoothed molar heat capacities and thermodynamic functions of N-methylnorephedrine C11H17NO(s) relative to the standard reference temperature 298.15 K were calculated based on the fitted polynomials and tabulated with an interval of 5 K. The constant-volume energy of combustion of the compound at T = 298.15K was measured by means of an isoperibol precision oxygen-bomb combustion calorimeter. The standard molar enthalpy of combustion of the sample was calculated. The standard molar enthalpy of formation of the compound was determined from the combustion enthalpy and other auxiliary thermodynamic data through a Hess thermochemical cycle.


Solubility is an important physicochemical property affecting drug bioavailability. One approach to improve drug solubility is using amorphous formulations, which can improve solubility by up to a 1000-fold. Herein, amorphous curcumin (CUR) and amorphous solid dispersions (SDs) consisting of CUR, hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) and/or sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) were developed using vibrational ball milling. The resulting ground mixtures (GMs) were characterized using powder X-ray diffractometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and a dissolution test. The 60-min GM containing 90% HPC significantly increased the drug solubility. Presence of SDS in the GMs containing 90% HPC reduced the grinding duration from 60 min to 30 min in forming a ground SD that significantly increased the CUR dissolution rate. This amorphous state was stable for 30 days when stored at 40 °C/RH 75%.


In the current generation, drone are having lack of extended hovering and flight time capabilities. Applying a drone with an up thrust inflatable structure such an aerostat can increase energy efficiency. The aerostat can enhance the flight time by cutting the battery usage which reduce the energy use by the rotor. However, adding the aerostat to the drone will affect the stability of the drone itself and lead to less control performance. In this project, the effect of aerostat on the drone system will be investigated. The mathematical model of aerostat drone will be validated by comparing the experimental flight data which involve the drone alone and the drone with aerostat. An experiment was conducted to test the results in term of pitch, yaw and roll rate. Equipped with six sensors, Parrot AR.Drone was used to collect the flight data. Using AutoFlight AR Drone 0.2, the drone is controlled. Then, the designed and fabricated aerostat will be attached to the drone. Then, the Aerostat-Drone will be tested in hovering mode and move forward mode to test the stability of the drone. The result of the experiment shows the differences between the drone without the aerostat and aerostat drone. The addition of the aerostat to the drone can reduces the power consumption of the drone by reducing motor rotational speed. However, the buoyant force of the aerostat will decrease by time that can affect the experiment result


Characters do not convey meaning, but sequences of characters do. We propose an unsupervised distributional method to learn the abstract meaning-bearing units in a sequence of characters. Rather than segmenting the sequence, this model discovers continuous representations of the"objects"in the sequence, using a recently proposed architecture for object discovery in images called Slot Attention. We train our model on different languages and evaluate the quality of the obtained representations with probing classifiers. Our experiments show promising results in the ability of our units to capture meaning at a higher level of abstraction.


: The state of the muscle cells of the heart was studied experimentally in 36 albino rats the next day after a single administration of adrenaline hydrochloride (3mg/kg), intramuscularly into the hip. Areas of overcontraction and overextension of myofibrills, numerous myelin-like figures not infrequently containing mitochondria and glycogen, drops of lipids were observed by electron microscopy. It is suggested that the affecting action of adrenaline is expressed through the activation of lipolysis which results in dissociation of the protein-lipid components of the mitochondrial membranes, accumulation of fatty acids in the cytoplasm and resynthesis of the new unusual membranous formations.


This paper proposes novel active healthcare chair algorithm for posture correction. A lot of people these days spend plenty of time while sitting in office. It has been known as one of causes to lumbar disc and cardiovascular diseases such as high-blood pressure and bad cholesterol. Most existing devices for postural correction purposes are passive systems in the sense that they do not have no measurements for postures. To overcome this shortfall, we propose the method for active healthcare chair system using various types of sensors in this paper. The proposed system monitors user postures continually by using sensors. The chair system report to the user if detected through mobile phone App. The simulation and experimental studies show that the proposed method may successfully work for posture correction.


We present a model of political selection in which voters elect a president from a set of candidates. We assume that some of the candidates are benevolent and that all voters prefer a benevolent president, i.e. a president who serves the public interest. Yet, political selection may fail in our model because voters cannot easily tell benevolent from egoistic candidates by observing their pre-election behavior. Egoistic types may strategically imitate benevolent types in the pre-election stage to extract rents once in office. We show that strategic imitation is less likely if the political system is likely to produce good governance. That is, if benevolent candidates are common, if the president has little discretionary power, and if the public sector is effective. We analyze the role of institutions like investigative media and re-election and show that they can improve or further hamper political selection, depending on the parameters of the political game.


Multidisciplinary conferences (MDC) are an important component of head and neck oncologic care including diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. Virtual MDC allows for improved collaboration between providers at distant sites and proper allocation of health care resources in a time of crisis. When approached systematically, a virtual MDC is feasible to design and implement in a large academic medical center with multiple satellite hospitals.


This article describes the surgical technique of circumferential cerclage wire used in the treatment of comminuted navicular body fractures. We propose that the use of this percutaneous technique can serve as an alternative means of achieving acceptable reduction and stable fixation while potentially decreasing the complications associated with more invasive open reduction and internal fixation techniques. Level of Evidence: Diagnostic Level 4. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.


The Green River in Kentucky has high fish and macroinvertebrate diversity. As both fish and macroinvertebrates have evolved together in this system, relationships have developed between species. One type of relationship that has been observed is between madtom catfishes (Noturus spp.) and mussels in the Green River, where madtoms use dead mussel shells as cover when not actively foraging. In the fall of 2016 and 2017, surveys were conducted to determine if madtom catfishes use dead mussel shells more than rocks of similar size. We predicted that madtoms would select mussel shells as cover more frequently than rocks due to the natural concavity of mussel shells, which would not require excavation prior to use; rocks typically require removal of underlying substrates to create a cavity prior to use as cover. Three 12-meter by 12-meter plots were sampled at four sites along the Green River, once per year, by snorkeling in an upstream direction and searching for madtoms in dead mussel shells and under the rock substrate. Equal effort was used searching for madtoms under rocks and in mussel shells. Significantly more madtoms were found under mussel shells than under rocks of similar size. These results support our prediction and demonstrate the importance of mussel shells as cover for madtom catfishes. The decline of mussel populations, and resulting decline in available mussel shells in rivers and streams, may have negative effects on madtom populations in the future.


ABSTRACT Upon WNT/β-catenin pathway activation, stabilized β-catenin travels to the nucleus where it associates with the TCF/LEF transcription factors, constitutively bound to genomic Wnt-responsive elements (WREs), to activate target gene transcription. Discovering the binding profile of β-catenin is therefore required to unambiguously assign direct targets of WNT signaling. Cleavage under targets and release using nuclease (CUT&RUN) has emerged as prime technique for mapping the binding profile of DNA-interacting proteins. Here, we present a modified version of CUT&RUN, named LoV-U (low volume and urea), that enables the robust and reproducible generation of β-catenin binding profiles, uncovering direct WNT/β-catenin target genes in human cells, as well as in cells isolated from developing mouse tissues. CUT&RUN-LoV-U outperforms original CUT&RUN when targeting co-factors that do not bind the DNA, can profile all classes of chromatin regulators and is well suited for simultaneous processing of several samples. We believe that the application of our protocol will allow the detection of the complex system of tissue-specific WNT/β-catenin target genes, together with other non-DNA-binding transcriptional regulators that act downstream of ontogenetically fundamental signaling cascades.


Facial expressions convey non-verbal information between humans in face-to-face interactions. Automatic facial expression recognition, which plays a vital role in human-machine interfaces, has attracted increasing attention from researchers since the early nineties. Classical machine learning approaches often require a complex feature extraction process and produce poor results. In this paper, we apply recent advances in deep learning to propose effective deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) that can accurately interpret semantic information available in faces in an automated manner without hand-designing of features descriptors. We also apply different loss functions and training tricks in order to learn CNNs with a strong classification power. The experimental results show that our proposed networks outperform state-of-the-art methods on the well-known FERC-2013 dataset provided on the Kaggle facial expression recognition competition. In comparison to the winning model of this competition, the number of parameters in our proposed networks intensively decreases, that accelerates the overall performance speed and makes the proposed networks well suitable for real-time systems.


In this paper, we focus on the semantic image synthesis task that aims at transferring semantic label maps to photo-realistic images. Existing methods lack effective semantic constraints to preserve the semantic information and ignore the structural correlations in both spatial and channel dimensions, leading to unsatisfactory blurry and artifact-prone results. To address these limitations, we propose a novel Dual Attention GAN (DAGAN) to synthesize photo-realistic and semantically-consistent images with fine details from the input layouts without imposing extra training overhead or modifying the network architectures of existing methods. We also propose two novel modules, i.e., position-wise Spatial Attention Module (SAM) and scale-wise Channel Attention Module (CAM), to capture semantic structure attention in spatial and channel dimensions, respectively. Specifically, SAM selectively correlates the pixels at each position by a spatial attention map, leading to pixels with the same semantic label being related to each other regardless of their spatial distances. Meanwhile, CAM selectively emphasizes the scale-wise features at each channel by a channel attention map, which integrates associated features among all channel maps regardless of their scales. We finally sum the outputs of SAM and CAM to further improve feature representation. Extensive experiments on four challenging datasets show that DAGAN achieves remarkably better results than state-of-the-art methods, while using fewer model parameters.


Abstract: The main goal of an ad hoc network routing protocol is to establish correct and efficient route between a pair of mobile nodes so that messages delivered within the active route timeout interval. Route should be discovered and maintained with a minimum of overhead and bandwidth consumption. Routing is a key factor for transfer of packets from source to destination. That is Routing is a process of determining a path between source and destination upon request of data transmission. Reactive Routing Protocols are well performing in MANET. We are going to discuss the related issues and advantages and disadvantages of Reactive routing protocols and Measurement based performance of reactive protocols in wireless networks


Vaccination is a process that induces specific immune resistance to a bacterial or viral infection. Edward Jenner developed and established the principle of vaccination using the cross protection conferred by cowpox virus, which is non pathogenicin humans. With the rapid growth of microbial genome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis tools we have the potential to examine all the genes and proteins from any human pathogen. This technique has the capability to provide us with new targets for anti-microbial drugs and vaccines. However, to realize this potential new bioinformatics and experimental approaches to select these targets from the myriad of available candidates are required.


Disability inflicts about 16% of the population in the world. Disability limits their ability to make use of all their senses or limits locomotion. The constitution provides for all to have access to equal opportunities for education and there after employment. However statistics show that the participation of people with disability at the work place still remains at a low level. The objectives of this review paper were; to establish reasons why employers shun Persons with Disabilities (PWD), analyse the benefits of mainstreaming disability in organisations and to explore strategies for incorporating PWD in organisations. The paper specifically aims to exemplify the rare advantages that having PWD brings to an organization including; incorporation of reliable employees, better corporate image, increased motivation levels, improved accommodation among others.


There are two theories on hegelian philosophy to justify the punishment: the way of atonement and the way of healing. The route of the atonement of the agent of punishment and states that the responsibility for the crime is the criminal. This pathway is concerned essentially with the duty and the rules. Hegel differs from kantian retributivista position because, according to Kant, the penalty is an ethical necessity (categorical imperative) and Hegel, the penalty is a logical necessity (denial of crime and affirmation of the sentence). Kant remains attached to the subjectivity; Hegel overcomes it through an objective explanation of criminal law. Have the path of healing part of the punishment and patient advocates that the punishment is a right of the criminal. Thus, the duty is secondary and the punishment is seen as suffering from the generator


Background: This cross-sectional study was designed to investigate the relationship between the sense of smell and the nutritional status in geriatric patients who visited the geriatric diagnostic day clinic or outpatient clinic of the Slotervaart Hospital, a teaching hospital located in Amsterdam. The study was carried out between March and May 2012. Materials and methods: Nutritional assessment was performed by 88 participants (61 females, mean age 82.3 ± 6.5 years) using the Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF). The Sniffin' Sticks Screening 12 Test was used to investigate the olfactory function of 75 participants (54 females, mean age 81.7 ± 6.6 years). Results: Forty-nine percent of the participants were at risk of malnutrition, 16% were malnourished and 35% had a normal nutritional status. More than half of the participants (57.3%, n= 75) appeared to be hyposmic, 28.0% appeared to be anosmic and 14.7% had a normal sense of smell. Linear regression analysis demonstrated a strongly significant relationship (p= 0.004) between the sense of smell and nutritional status. Corrected for possible cofounders the relationship remains significant at a p-value of 0.005. Conclusions: This study showed that the sense of smell is related to nutritional status in this study population. Our results confirm that the loss of smell and malnutrition are common problems among geriatric patients.


Abstract. We use Magnetosphere Multiscale (MMS) mission data to investigate a small
number of magnetosheath jets, which are localized and transient increases in
dynamic pressure, typically due to a combined increase in plasma velocity and
density. For two approximately hour-long intervals in November, 2015 we found
six jets, which are of two distinct types. (a) Two of the jets are associated
with the magnetic field discontinuities at the boundary between the
quasi-parallel and quasi-perpendicular magnetosheath. Straddling the
boundary, the leading part of these jets contains an ion population similar
to the quasi-parallel magnetosheath, while the trailing part contains ion
populations similar to the quasi-perpendicular magnetosheath. Both
populations are, however, cooler than the surrounding ion populations. These
two jets also have clear increases in plasma density and magnetic field
strength, correlated with a velocity increase. (b) Three of the jets are
found embedded within the quasi-parallel magnetosheath. They contain ion
populations similar to the surrounding quasi-parallel magnetosheath, but with
a lower temperature. Out of these three jets, two have a simple structure. For these two jets, the increases in density and magnetic field strength are correlated with the dynamic pressure increases. The other jet has a more complicated structure, and no clear correlations between density, magnetic field strength and dynamic pressure. This jet has likely interacted with the
magnetosphere, and contains ions similar to the jets inside the
quasi-parallel magnetosheath, but shows signs of adiabatic heating. All jets
are associated with emissions of whistler, lower hybrid, and broadband
electrostatic waves, as well as approximately 10 s period electromagnetic
waves with a compressional component. The latter have a Poynting flux of up
to 40  µ W m −2 and may be energetically important for the
evolution of the jets, depending on the wave excitation mechanism. Only one
of the jets is likely to have modified the surrounding magnetic field into a
stretched configuration, as has recently been reported in other studies. None
of the jets are associated with clear signatures of either magnetic or
thermal pressure gradient forces acting on them. The different properties of
the two types also point to different generation mechanisms, which are
discussed here. Their different properties and origins suggest that the two
types of jets need to be separated in future statistical and simulation
studies. Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (magnetosheath; plasma waves and instabilities; solar wind–magnetosphere interactions)


genealogy of cellular logic computers reveals an interesting diversity of architectures, but it took the IC technology of the seventies to significantly expand their practical applications. Cellular logic computers, under development since the 1950's, are now in use for image processing in hundreds of laboratories worldwide. This survey of cellular logic computer architectures for pattern processing in image analysis concentrates on recent efforts and examines some newer architectures that combine logical and numerical computations. A logical (or "binary") image is one in which the value of each picture element is a single bit. Such images are black and white, and they are processed or modified by use of logical rather than numerical transforms. Boolean algebra provides the mathematics for such transforms. This does not mean that so-called "gray-level" images cannot be processed by the cellular logic computer, or CLC. Any gray-level image can be consverted into a registered stack of binary images through multithresh-olding. After each member of the stack is processed logically, the stack can be returned to gray-level format by arithmetically summing the results. Whether the final output is generated faster or more economically by a CLC or by a computer system carrying out numerical computations depends upon (1) the number of binary images required in the stack, (2) the speed of thresholding, (3) the speed of the CLC itself, and (4) the speed of arithmetic recombination. Logical processing often has advantages over more traditional numerical methods in that multilevel, recur-sive logical transforms followed by arithmetic recom-bination have certain unique properties with respect to their use in image processing. Logical transforms can be considered as filters; many are constant phase, pass absolutely no signal beyond cutoff, and have a cutoff frequency that decreases inversely with the number of recur-sions. I Furthermore, logical transforms, when executed as convolution functions using small (say, 3 x 3) kernels, can be executed at ultra high speed (less than one nanose-cond per convolution step) by doing all computations by table lookup and paralleling lookup tables as well as pipelining the computational steps. Neighborhood functions Cellular logic computers are used for the digital computation of two-dimensional and, more recently, three-dimensional logical neighborhood functions in image processing. In general, a logical neighborhood function is one in which the output v alue of each picture element is a function of the original value of the element and the values of the directly adjacent neighbors of the …


Introduction: Acute respiratory distress syndrome often requires invasive mechanical ventilation, with both mortality and mechanical ventilation duration as outcomes of interest. The concept of ventilator-free days has been proposed as an outcome combining these two outcomes. Here we analyzed the construction of the ventilator-free day outcome and provided a hypothetical scenario to alert physicians that such an outcome can lead to misleading interpretations. Methods: We proposed the isoventilator-free day curve concept and, using an analytical development, illustrated how a median ventilator-free day value can actually result from very different combinations of death rates and mechanical ventilation durations. We also used a hypothetical example to compare the Student t test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and Gray test (which accounts for death as a competing event with extubation) in comparing exposition to mechanical ventilation. Results: A median ventilator-free day value of 10 days may mean that 10% of the patients died while survivors were ventilated during a median of 14 days or that 40% died while survivors were ventilated during a median of 5 days. Changing the time horizon affected the Student t test but not the Wilcoxon rank-sum result. The Gray test was more relevant than both the Student t test and Wilcoxon rank-sum test in identifying differences in groups showing highly different mechanical ventilation duration, despite equal median ventilator-free days. This approach was also illustrated using real data. Conclusions: Use of ventilator-free days as an outcome appears to have many drawbacks. Suitable methods of analyzing time to extubation should be preferred.


Marketing orders and agreements are one means of increasing net returns to growers. Many programs have been tried with California agricultural products since 1933. The present federal marketing program controlling interstate shipments of California plums, Elberta peaches, and Bartlett pears was set up in 1939, and is still in effect, with a few relatively minor changes. Plum controls were also applied, on a limited basis, earlier under the California Deciduous Tree Fruit agreements in effect from October 1933 to March 1938. As it applies to plums, the regulation provides for minimum grades and sizes of fresh shipments to out-of-state markets. Certain minor provisions are included: 1, use of federal-state inspection as proof of compliance; 2, specification of maturity requirements in conjunction with grade regulations; and 3, issuance of exemption certificates to cover individual hardship cases. In 1949 the program was changed with respect to plums. They were classified as early plums and other plums so late-plum producers would not be denied the benefits of marketing control because prices received for early plums exceeded the parity standard.


Innovation and quality are both important aspects of business excellence. ISO 9000 is a well-known quality management standard but its relationship with innovation is not completely understood. Previous quantitative studies have shown that ISO 9000 is positively correlated with technological innovation (product and process) in the manufacturing sector, while the effect of ISO 9000 on service innovation is positive only when considering non-technological innovation (organisational and marketing). Adopting a qualitative methodology, the current study investigates simultaneously the adoption and the impact of ISO 9000 on innovation in high-tech manufacturing firms and in low-knowledge-intensive services. The units of analysis are selected by adopting a simple coarsened exact matching model to increase the external reliability of the study. Innovation is investigated before and after the adoption of ISO 9000. The results suggest that the client focus and the formalisation of appropriate business practices (ISO 9000 requirements) impact on the innovation propensity. In the opinion of most of the interviewees, ISO 9000 certification, especially in the versions after the year 2000, does not limit technical and non-technical innovation. As some companies refused to participate in the study, potential selection bias suggests that further research could be required.


Nowadays, aircraft fuel tanks are protected by measures such as inerting, fire and explosion suppression, which significantly improve their ability to mitigate mechanical damage and prevent fire in the case of an accidental attack. In this study, an equivalent inert fuel tank with fire and explosion suppression was designed according to the vulnerabilities of a typical fighter. Then, a ballistic gun, a 37 mm gun and a two-stage light-gas gun were used to propel different fragments in tank damage experiments at different speeds (1400 m/s–2600 m/s). Experimental results show that the disassembly of a fuel tank is a prerequisite for igniting fuel. When the fragments hit the gas phase of the tank, the fuel tank was not disassembled and the fuel was not ignited. The calculation results show that the internal oxygen concentration was always lower than the limiting oxygen concentration (12%) before the fuel tank was disassembled. In addition, the minimum ignition speeds of inerted fragments with different masses as predicted by the ignition criterion when hitting the liquid fuel are consistent with the test results. This shows that increasing the mass of inert fragments will increase the minimum ignition speed and reduce the probability of ignition of the fuel. However, the implosion effect of the energetic fragments released about 3 times the chemical energy of its own kinetic energy, and the high-temperature and high-pressure products were very beneficial to the disintegration and ignition of the fuel tank compared to inert fragments.


The aim of this book is to provide a concise historical survey of linguistic investigation relating to the notion of morphophonemics. The study is essentially historical and thus does not offer its own theory of morphophonemics. Since attention is focused on the development of morphophonemic theory, contemporary work in this area is not of central concern. But the study was undertaken in the hope that a better understanding of earlier work would help to clarify present-day issues.


Adequate radiation therapy of lesions of the ear, nose, and penis precludes the disfigurement of surgical resections because it selectively spares the uninvolved tissues in the treatment area while destroying the tumor. Radium molds can constitute such therapy because they furnish hard gamma radiation of an average wave length in the optimal zone for bone and tissue sparing. In addition, a superior therapeutic effect, exclusive of tissue-sparing effect, has been shown clinically for radium gamma radiation in several benign conditions. To duplicate the advantages of radium molds but eliminate the undesirable features of handling radium a so-called surface-moulage telecobalt technic has been used in appropriate lesions. The Prosthodontics Section fabricates a surface moulage of the structure to be irradiated, with, in the case of the ear, the pinna being maintained at right angles to the temple. The pinna is so maintained because in all cases the treatment beam, although aimed directly at the structure to b...


Recently, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed into U.S. Law. This comprehensive energy legislation includes, for the first time in U.S. history, a national renewable fuels standard (RFS). The RFS legislates, with immediate effect, a significant increase in renewable fuel usage over a six-year period starting at 4 billion gallons in 2006 and increasing to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. In practice, these legal requirements are most likely to be met by the increased use Biodiesel fuels and, most significantly, of ethanol as an additive to conventional gasoline. It is well known that the addition of ethanol (C₂H₅OH) to gasoline, which is itself a multi-component hydrocarbon blend, can significantly change the distillation characteristics of the fuel. In a fully warm, port-fuel-injected (PFI) engine, the change in fuel properties may not be significant. However, it is to be expected that the next generation of gasoline engines will use direct-injection fuelling strategies. The potential advantages of direct-injection spark-ignition (DISI) engine systems are substantial. However, the limited time available for fuel preparation in DlSl systems suggests that the technology may be more sensitive to fuel properties than previous generation injection technologies. This study investigates the changes in DISI fuel spray structure induced by the addition of ethanol, in varying amounts, to a base fuel of fixed composition, a process typically known as 'splash blending'. Five fuels of different ethanol content were injected into atmosphere at an injection pressure of 10.0 MPa through two prototype DISI fuel injectors (one single hole and one multi-hole design). The fuels were: a 5-component model fuel, comprised of isopentane, iso-octane, n-octane, n-decane and dodecane, simulated E5 (5% ethanol 95% model fuel), simulated E10 (10% ethanol 90% model fuel), simulated E22 (22% ethanol, 78% model fuel), E80 (80% ethanol, 20% model fuel) and finally pure ethanol. The effect of each fuel on the global characteristics of the spray was examined at four different temperatures (20, 40, 60 and 80 degrees Celsius) using Mie-Scattering, Schlieren and Shadowgraphy imaging techniques. Different stages of the spray development were identified. In accordance with the literature, increasing the fuel temperature was seen to increase the spray penetration while narrowing the spray structure for all fuels. At low fuel temperatures, the impact of fuel composition was negligible. The results showed the effect of fuel composition on the spray structure to be most evident in intermediate temperatures. Further increasing the fuel temperature caused spray collapse for all fuel compositions. Evidence of flash boiling was observed at high fuel temperatures. The ethanol content of fuel blends was not found to be proportional to the changes in spray structure. Finally, observations showed the sprays exhibited the highest level of shot-to-shot variability in the case of intermediate fuel temperatures. Sprays from the swirl-type injector were found to be more consistent than those of multi-hole injectors.


These researches of a condition of intellectual development of schoolboys of one of the worst are given in work on a condition of ecology of the districts of Moscow. In article results of development of volume of an acoustical and visual memory, and also types of leading memory are presented. Factors disontogenesis the school students having a deviation in psychophysical and cognitive development are given.


BACKGROUND
The inhibition of the proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) is one cholesterol-independent effect of statins that could lower the rate of in-stent restenosis (ISR), even if the exact mechanism remains unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the exact inhibitory mechanisms of simvastatin on ISR in vivo.

METHODS
Forty-five rabbits were randomized into 3 feeding groups of equal size (n=15): normal rabbit chow (normal group), a high-cholesterol diet (control group), and a simvastatin-enriched high-cholesterol diet (simvastatin group). Balloon de-endothelialization was first performed in the control and simvastatin groups after 3 days, followed by stent deployment at week 14. All rabbits were killed at week 18, and the histological changes of the ISR segments were observed. The expressions of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27 (p27kip1), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), and α-smooth muscle (α-SM) actin were measured.

RESULTS
In the simvastatin group compared to the control group, the neointimal thickness, neointimal area, and degree of stenosis decreased, while the residual lumen area increased significantly (P<0.05). Moreover, the expression of α-SM actin in the control group decreased by 55.4% compared to the normal group, while it increased by 29.7% with respect to the simvastatin group (P<0.05). Finally, the expression of p27kip1 increased, while that of PCNA decreased significantly in the simvastatin group compared to the control group (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Simvastatin may inhibit VSMC phenotype modulation and proliferation by downregulating the expression of PCNA and upregulating that of p27kip1.


Routing protocols for mobile ad-hoc networks have been evaluated extensively through simulation because various network conditions can be easily configured, tested, and replicated across different schemes in simulation than in a real system. Recently, some of these schemes have been implemented in academic, industry and defense testbeds. This gives researchers an opportunity to validate their simulation results with actual implementations. In this paper we report the lessons learned from the implementation of LANMAR (Pei et al. (2000)), a scalable routing protocol that was developed at UCLA as part of large-scale ad hoc network architecture for autonomous unattended agents under ONR support. LANMAR is designed to provide efficient, scalable routing in large ad-hoc wireless networks that exhibit group mobility. In this paper we describe the implementation of this protocol in Linux environments and report on experimental results based on this implementation. The results and lessons from these experiments have enriched our understanding of the LANMAR protocol and its interaction with the other layers and the environment, paving the way to protocol refinements and more efficient implementations.


The invention discloses wear-resistant, antiknock and radiation-resistant concrete and a preparation method thereof. Each cubic meter of the concrete comprises 600-1600kg of cement, 400-1400kg of fine aggregate, 30-560kg of a high-strength admixture, 250-1800kg of functional aggregate, 3-500kg of high tensile strength fibers, 0.4-45kg of organic fibers, 0.6-43.2kg of a water reducer (based on solid content), 0.06-43kg of an antifoaming agent, 6-129kg of an expanding agent and 100-430kg of water. The wear-resistant, antiknock and radiation-resistant concrete has high wear resistance, instant high temperature explosion resistance, high knock resistance, high toughness and radiation resistance.


Thermal properties of the one-dimensional classical XY-model in a symmetry-breaking field are studied by using the transfer-kernel method. The results complete earlier data from Monte-Carlo simulations.


We report seven examples of a hitherto undescribed pseudoneoplastic glandular lesion of the uterine cervix that we have designated "diffuse faminar endocervical glandular hyperplasia." The patients ranged in age from 22 to 48 (mean 37) years. Only one of them had a history of hormone intake. All the lesions were incidental findings in hysterectomy specimens performed for dysfunctional uterine bleeding (five cases) or symptomatic leiomyomas (two cases). Microscopic examination revealed a proliferation of moderate-sized, evenly spaced, differentiated endocervical glands within the inner one-third of the cervical wall, sharply demarcated from the underlying cervical stroma. Reactive atypia was seen in some cases but significant cytologic atypia was absent. A marked inflammatory response was present in five of the seven cases. The main consideration in differential diagnosis was adenoma malignum (minimal deviation adenocarcinoma). Major features that helped in this distinction were a lack of irregular stromal infiltration and a desmoplastic stromal response, and an absence of focal malignant cytologic features. Follow-up for an average of 6.5 years in five of the seven cases was uneventful.


Schiff bases and their metal complexes are very important in medicinal and pharmaceutical fields because of their wide spectrum of biological activities. Transition metal complexes derived from the Schiff base ligands with biological activity have been widely studied. A series of Ni (II) complexes were prepared by the reaction of salicyldimine with Nickel Oxide at room temperature. The chemical structures of metal complexes were confirmed by spectroscopic analysis and all of the compounds were evaluated for their antimicrobial properties. All the Ni (II) complexes have been found to exhibit moderate or good activity against most bacteria and fungi species.


The rapid changes in our society have amplified the need for adult learning opportunities. However, adults often make decisions not to persist in formal learning experiences in a smooth, linear fashion. The decision to pause or terminate formal learning is a complex behavioral decision that includes knowledge, the cognitive process, personal belief, and environmental context. Because the construct of numeracy also necessitates the use of content, cognitive processes, dispositions, and context, this study examined the link between adults' numeracy abilities and learning readiness and commitment. This study analyzed the program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) Survey Adult Skills which was collected via a representative national random sample. The findings suggest numeracy abilities have a small, positive relationship to readiness to learn and learning persistence.


The appearance of a second primary lung cancer more than four months after the initial cancer is called a metachronous cancer (as opposed to a synchronous cancer). We provide a case report of an epidermoid carcinoma coming more than three years after the initial diagnosis of an anaplastic small cell cancer of the lung. This second cancer developed in a different territory from the initial lesion. Amongst the hypotheses proposed chemotherapy may through an oncogenic action favour the appearance of a new type of cancer.


Objective: To investigate the effects of atranorin, a lichen secondary metabolite, on SPC212 malignant mesothelioma cells in vitro. Methods: SPC212 malignant mesothelioma cell line was used. 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)- 2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay was used to evaluate cytotoxic effects of atranorin and cisplatin at 24, 48 and 72 h. Hematoxylin-eosin staining and 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole, dihydrochloride staining were used for determining cell and nucleus morphology, respectively. Wound healing assay was used for investigating cell migration. The xCELLigence real-time cell analysis system was used for determining cell proliferation. Results: Atranorin at 5-450 μΜ decreased cell viability at 24, 48 and 72 h. IC50 values of atranorin were 300.94, 292.6 and 278.02 μM at 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively; meanwhile, the IC50 values of cisplatin were 128.00, 34.37 and 17.05 μM at 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively. Furthermore, atranorin disrupted cell and nuclear morphology with increasing concentrations. Atranorin significantly reduced cell migration by 38%, 37% and 35% at 300, 250 and 200 μM, respectively (P<0.000). Atranorin at 160-450 μM decreased cell proliferation at 72 h (P<0.000). Conclusions: Atranorin has cytotoxic, antiproliferative, apoptotic and cell migration inhibitory effects on SPC212 malignant mesothelioma cancer cells.


Copy-number and point mutations form the basis for most evolutionary novelty through the process of gene duplication and divergence. While a plethora of genomic sequence data reveals the long-term fate of diverging coding sequences and their cis-regulatory elements, little is known about the early dynamics around the duplication event itself. In microorganisms, selection for increased gene expression often drives the expansion of gene copy-number mutations, which serves as a crude adaptation, prior to divergence through refining point mutations. Using a simple synthetic genetic system that allows us to distinguish copy-number and point mutations, we study their early and transient adaptive dynamics in real-time in Escherichia coli. We find two qualitatively different routes of adaptation depending on the level of functional improvement selected for: In conditions of high gene expression demand, the two types of mutations occur as a combination. Under low gene expression demand, negative epistasis between the two types of mutations renders them mutually exclusive. Thus, owing to their higher frequency, adaptation is dominated by copy-number mutations. Ultimately, due to high rates of reversal and pleiotropic cost, copy-number mutations may not only serve as a crude and transient adaptation, but also constrain sequence divergence over evolutionary time scales.


4331 We have shown for the first time that low intensity, intermediate frequency, alternating electric fields, delivered by means of insulated electrodes, have a profound effect on all living cells and tissues tested. The fields had a strong inhibitory effect on the growth rate and viability of a variety of human and rodent tumor cell lines (Patricia C, U-118, U-87, H-1299, MDA231, PC3, B16F1, F-98, C-6, RG2, and CT-26). These potentially tumor treating fields (TTFields) were applied to cells in culture via electrically insulated wires placed within the culture dishes. The effect of TTFields on cultures was assessed periodically during treatment using direct cell count, colorimetric cell number assessment or time-lapse microphotography. The same fields also had a profound effect on malignant tumors in animals. TTFields were applied to tumor bearing rodents either through intradermally implanted insulated electrodes, or through surface electrodes insulated with a specialized, high dielectric constant, insulation. The inhibitory effect of the TTFields on cancerous cell replication was found to be non-thermal and to selectively affect cell division in two modes: destruction of cells while undergoing division, and arrest of cell proliferation. The first mode of action is manifested by rapid disintegration of the dividing cells, while the second is associated with interference with the proper formation of the mitotic spindle. The last effect was demonstrated by post treatment staining of cultures with fluorescent antibodies against various intracellular constituents. Both effects, which are frequency dependent, are consistent with the computed directional forces exerted, by these specific fields, on charges and dipoles within the dividing cells. In view of the fact that in-vivo treatment of tumors in mice and rats, resulted in significant slowing of tumor growth and extensive destruction of tumor cells within 3 to 6 days, the described technology can potentially serve as a novel therapeutic modality for malignant tumors.


Background: Routine prophylactic abdominal drains after laparoscopic appendectomy for perforated appendicitis in children are still controversial. Throughout the history of surgery, potential benefits of the abdominal drains have been described. However, in recent studies, no benefits were observed and serious complications have been reported. Methods: From January 2000 to December 2013, all charts of the pediatric patients who underwent laparoscopic appendectomy in our tertiary center were revised. The data from 1736 appendectomies were analyzed. We only included those patients with perforated appendicitis treated with early appendectomy (n = 192). Prophylactic drains were established according to the surgeon's preference. The sample was divided into two groups, those with drain (n = 117) and those without drain (n = 75). Demographics, operative findings, and postoperative outcomes were analyzed in both groups. Results: Of all patients, 121 were male and 71 were female with a mean age of 7.77 ± 3.4 years. There were not statistically significant differences between the groups in gender (p = 0.82) and mean age (p = 0.31). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in the rate of intra-abdominal abscess, wound infection, and bowel obstruction. However, the drainage group has been statistically associated with an increased requirement of antibiotic and analgesic medication, fasting time, operative time, and length of hospital stay. Conclusion: The prophylactic use of abdominal drainage after laparoscopic appendectomy for perforated appendicitis in children does not prevent postoperative complications and may be associated with negative outcomes. Prospective randomized studies will be necessary to verify this question.


BACKGROUND
For stage-II scapholunate advanced collapse (SLAC) and scaphoid nonunion advanced collapse (SNAC) patterns of wrist arthritis, the optimal method of surgical treatment remains unclear. Previous literature has demonstrated similar clinical outcomes between proximal row carpectomy (PRC) and 4-corner arthrodesis (FCA), making the risk of reoperation a focus of particular interest. In the present study, the primary null hypothesis was that there would be no difference in the rate of conversion to total wrist arthrodesis between PRC and FCA. Additionally, we hypothesized that the rate of secondary surgical procedures would be similar between the 2 procedures.

METHODS
The national Veterans Health Administration Corporate Data Warehouse was utilized to identify 2,449 patients who underwent either PRC or FCA between 1992 and 2016. With use of operative reports to identify the arthritis pattern, only cases of stage-II SLAC/SNAC were included. All complications and subsequent surgical procedures were confirmed by manual chart review. Propensity score analyses with matching weights were utilized to balance the PRC and FCA cohorts. The rates of conversion to wrist arthrodesis and secondary surgical procedures were calculated.

RESULTS
Of the 1,168 patients with stage-II SLAC/SNAC arthritis, 933 wrists underwent PRC and 257 wrists underwent FCA. Ten-year survival free of total wrist arthrodesis in the matching PRC (251 procedures) and FCA (251 procedures) cohorts was 94.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 92.3% to 96.3%) and 94.1% (95% CI, 90.8% to 97.4%), respectively. Survival free of a secondary surgical procedure other than wrist arthrodesis was 99.7% (95% CI, 99.3% to 100.0%) for PRC and 83.5% (95% CI, 78.2% to 88.8%) for FCA.

CONCLUSIONS
PRC and FCA demonstrated similarly low rates of conversion to total wrist arthrodesis. In contrast, the rate of secondary surgical procedures following FCA was significantly higher compared with PRC. Given the historically similar clinical outcomes between PRC and FCA, the results of the present study show that PRC may be a preferable treatment for stage-II SLAC/SNAC wrist arthritis.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.


In this paper, we propose a new method for domain adaptation in Statistical Machine Translation for low-resource domains in English-Vietnamese language. Specifically, our method only uses monolingual data to adapt the translation phrase-table, our system brings improvements over the SMT baseline system. We propose two steps to improve the quality of SMT system: (i) classify phrases on the target side of the translation phrase-table use the probability classifier model, and (ii) adapt to the phrase-table translation by recomputing the direct translation probability of phrases.

Our experiments are conducted with translation direction from English to Vietnamese on two very different domains that are legal domain (out-of-domain) and general domain (in-of-domain). The English-Vietnamese parallel corpus is provided by the IWSLT 2015 organizers and the experimental results showed that our method significantly outperformed the baseline system. Our system improved on the quality of machine translation in the legal domain up to 0.9 BLEU scores over the baseline system,…
Keywords:
Machine Translation, Statistical Machine Translation, Domain Adaptation
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Groundwater exploitation (borehole drilling) was carried out around Awka and environs in Anambra State, Southeastern Nigeria, to understand the underlying rock units encountered while drilling, differentiate boreholes with confined aquifers from those with unconfined aquifers, delineate the probable aquiferous zones from the borehole data, evaluate the challenges encountered while drilling (both geologic and technical), and identify mitigation measures employed to address these challenges. Detailed geologic log information of the boreholes was produced to illustrate the rock units encountered while drilling. Four rock units were identified, namely: shale, sandstone, clay, and gravel. These rock units were exposed within the Imo Formation and the Nanka Formation that underlie the study area. Results from the geologic log information of the boreholes indicate that the water table within the study area ranges from 11.2 m to 56.5 m from the soil surface, and the probable aquiferous zones vary from 6.8 m to 23.3 m in thickness. A detailed look at the lithologic logs of the boreholes show that 50% of the drilled boreholes possess confined aquifers while the remaining 50% have unconfined aquifers. A careful appraisal of the challenges encountered, which are mainly geologic, is strictly attributed to the geologic formation of the study area. Other technical challenges have been derived from mechanical faults developed during drilling.


BACKGROUND
Basophils are implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU). Autoantibodies to the IgE receptor (FcepsilonRI) and serum histamine releasing activity have been detected in some subjects with CIU, although their role in vivo is unclear. Basophils of patients with CIU have altered FcepsilonRI-mediated histamine release (HR); however, the mechanism is unknown. In the basophil FcepsilonRI signaling pathway, protein levels of Src-homology 2-containing-5'-inositol phosphatase (SHIP)-1 are inversely correlated with the release of mediators or releasability. A related phosphatase, SHIP-2, is a negative regulator of monocyte IgG receptor (FcgammaR) signaling . We hypothesized that SHIP levels are altered in CIU basophils.

METHODS
Blood basophils were isolated from cold urticaria, CIU, or normal donors, and FcepsilonRI-dependent and independent HR were quantified. Protein levels of SHIP-1, SHIP-2, spleen tyrosine kinase, and phosphorylated Akt were determined by Western blotting. Subjects' serum was tested for serum histamine releasing activity and anti-FcepsilonRIalpha antibodies.

RESULTS
CIU basophils displayed a bimodal response to anti-IgE activation. One half of CIU subjects' basophils had reductions in anti-IgE-induced HR and were designated nonresponders (CIU NR). CIU NR basophil HR remained diminished at 10-fold to 30-fold higher doses of anti-IgE. CIU anti-IgE responder basophils had HR similar to normal subjects. SHIP-1 and SHIP-2 proteins were increased in CIU NR basophils and were linked to reduced phosphoAkt after anti-IgE stimulation. CIU basophil anti-IgE response was not related to the presence of serologic factors.

CONCLUSION
In CIU basophils, the observed changes in FcepsilonRI signaling pathway molecule expression may underlie changes in releasability.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
Patients with CIU can be segregated on the basis of basophil functional phenotype.


Up to the present time, most of the substances administered by inunction to human beings and animals for therapeutic or experimental purposes have been drugs. These have varied from such simple elements as mercury, lead and arsenic to more complex substances, such as alkaloids, histamine and the essential oils. Recently endocrine substances, vitamins, toxins, antitoxins and bacterial vaccines have also been administered percutaneously by inunction, with variable results. The procedures employed by different observers to determine percutaneous absorption have at times been complicated. Some investigators have relied on prolonged clinical observations of the pharmacologic, toxic or therapeutic effects of the applied agent to establish its absorption. Others have performed extensive chemical examinations of blood, urine or tissues to detect the presence of the absorbed substance. Immunologic methods have also been employed to show the absorption of antigens through the skin. These have included the formation of specific antibodies, the anaphylactic


Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the sixth most prevalent cancer type in the world, with a 5-year survival rate of only 40% to 50%. Finding effective anti-tumor drug candidates is quite necessary for the progression of OSCC therapy. In this study, the role of Thymoquinone (TQ) in OSCC cells was studied. It was confirmed that TQ can inhibit the proliferation, migration and invasion of KB cells, and can also achieve apoptosis by inhibiting the activation of PI3K/Akt pathway. Therefore, TQ is an effective candidate for the treatment of OSCC.


Objective: This research was done by means of descriptive and cross-sectional research types for the purpose of determining the psychological symptoms, probability of suicide and coping ways of a group of convict and detainee. Sixty-eight detainees and convicts who were in a penal institution allied to Ministry of Justice in March 2014 constituted sample of the research. Methods: To collect data, Questionnaire Form, Symptom Checklist 90 Revised, Suicide Probability Scale, Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations-Short Form were used. Data were evaluated with descriptive statistics, t test, variance analysis and Spearman correlation analysis. Results: Average age of the participants being 33.4±8.7, they were all males. General Symptom Index point of the participants being 1.26±0.76 and point of Suicide Probability Scale being 74.22±2.9, %57.35 of them were determined to be in the high-risk group, with regard to suicide. Again, the participant's point of task-oriented coping was 21.57±0.77, emotion-oriented coping point was 21.44±0.87 and avoidance-oriented coping point was determined to be 19.19±0.96. There was a negative relationship between General Symptom Index and the age at the first crime and positive relationship between General Symptom Index and the the frequency of being sent to prison; while a negative relationship was found between the age at the first crime and suicidal ideation. Discussion and Conclusion: In conclusion, psychiatric symptom level and probability of suicide of the detainees and convicts who participated in the study were high and they were using task-oriented and emotion-oriented coping methods more frequently. Hence the detainees and convicts should be examined in terms of psycological problems. Necessary protective measures should be taken and coping methods should be strengthened.


OBJECTIVE
Community Partners in Care (CPIC) was a group-randomized study of two approaches to implementing expanded collaborative depression care: Community Engagement and Planning (CEP), a coalition approach, and Resources for Services (RS), a technical assistance approach. Collaborative care networks in both arms involved health care and other agencies in five service sectors. This study examined six- and 12-month outcomes for CPIC participants with serious mental illness.

METHODS
This secondary analysis focused on low-income CPIC participants from racial-ethnic minority groups with serious mental illness in underresourced Los Angeles communities (N=504). Serious mental illness was defined as self-reported severe depression (≥20 on the Patient Health Questionnaire-8) at baseline or a lifetime history of bipolar disorder or psychosis. Logistic and Poisson regression with multiple imputation and response weights, controlling for covariates, was used to model intervention effects.

RESULTS
Among CPIC participants, 50% had serious mental illness. Among those with serious mental illness, CEP relative to RS reduced the likelihood of poor mental health-related quality of life (OR=.62, 95% CI=.41-.95) but not depression (primary outcomes); reduced the likelihood of having homelessness risk factors and behavioral health hospitalizations; increased the likelihood of mental wellness; reduced specialty mental health medication and counseling visits; and increased faith-based depression visits (each p<.05) at six months. There were no statistically significant 12-month effects.

CONCLUSIONS
Findings suggest that a coalition approach to implementing expanded collaborative depression care, compared with technical assistance to individual programs, may reduce short-term behavioral health hospitalizations and improve mental health-related quality of life and some social outcomes for adults with serious mental illness, although no evidence was found for long-term effects in this subsample.


Severe hypophosphatemia may develop in postoperative patients for several reasons including alcohol withdrawal, diabetic ketoacidosis, nutritional recovery (refeeding) syndrome, and severe respiratory alkalosis. Severe hypophosphatemia may result in central nervous system abnormalities, muscle weakness, and renal, hepatic, cardiac, and respiratory dysfunction. Hypophosphatemia may be prevented by close monitoring of phosphorus concentrations in serum, especially in patients predisposed to developing this problem. Proper techniques for the maintenance and repletion of phosphate for both enteral and parenteral use are described.


The problem of iatrogenesis in the medical practice is still urgent: according to published data, in healthcare institutions of the Ministry of Public Health of the Russian Federation, about 50.0% of errors in medical care are made by surgeons; among these errors, diagnostic errors prevail (80.0 %) due to improper examination of patients and lack of follow up. Together with surgeons, anesthesiologists and intensivists are in the top five of physicians who demonstrated the greatest number of defects in medical care (about 30.0%). The purpose of our study is prevention of iatrogenesis in the intensive care unit (ICU). Materials and methods. We analyzed findings of the forensic examination and evaluation of medical care of a patient with knife wounds. Results. We determined the immediate cause of death, and describe the causal link between the outcome and identified defects in the medical care. Conclusion. Preventing the iatrogenesis in ICU is right strategy to improvemethe medical care quality.


This report prepared at the request of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) examines how remittances flow from employing countries to migrants countries of origin and how they are used. The migrants examined largely come from Morocco Turkey Tunisia Yugoslavia Algeria Portugal Spain and Italy and work in France Germany Belgium Austria Sweden and The Netherlands. Part 1 of the paper collects basic data on the finance flows formed by migrants remittances as measured by the balances of payment of the countries exporting and receiving manpower. These flows are related to such concepts as savings for real tranfers. The article also analyzes their composition evolution over the past decade and economic significance. Part 2 examines the use to which funds transverred and brought home from abroad are put by the income-producing migrants. Reports field surveys and expert communications supply data to examine whether such capital is invested to aid economic development. Part 3 explains how financial and economic flows from employing countries can play a positive role in the the development of the countries of origin and how international cooperation can assist. Recent changes in the migration policies of the main countries of employment which now offer incentives to foreign manpower to encourage their return to emigrating nations make the topic of this report especially timely.


The need for a continuing evolution in methods of detection, assessment, and diagnosis of alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence disorders is emphasized as a necessary step toward altering the stagnating effects of several static and outdated constructs and practices which, despite their humanitarian benefits, may actually be impediments to progress in prevention and treatment. Distinctions are drawn among the purposes and techniques of detection, assessment, and diagnosis; although all three activities are vital, it is the last that must provide a logical basis for understanding causes, courses, and treatment for health problems. Thus far, there has been little genuine progress beyond simply naming the problems we attempt to treat. To illustrate the promising directions that progress might take and to recommend research advances, recent developments in detection, assessment, and diagnosis over the past 5 years are reviewed and critiqued. Special attention is paid to the NCA Diagnostic Criteria and its newest modifications, the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test and its derivatives, the MacAndrew Scale, the Mortimer-Filkins test, the Essential-Reactive Alcoholism Interview Schedule, and the Alcohol Use Inventory. All of these approaches have demonstrated their utility, but none has yet fulfilled its potential. Their relative advantages are discussed, their flaws are identified, and suggestions are given as to how researchers and clinicians might better use the available tools.


The purposes of this study were to determine by questionnaire current attitudes about AIDS, herpes, and Toxic Shock Syndrome and to what extent concern about these diseases affected behavior of 232 volunteers from classes in a midwestern university. The majority of the respondents expressed relatively little concern about any of these diseases. Except for a few respondents who expressed extreme concern, there were also no changes in current self-reported rates of sexual activity compared to a year ago. Male homosexuals expressed more concern about AIDS than other sexual preference groups. However, this did not appear to affect their level of sexual activity. Female respondents expressed relatively more concern about Toxic Shock Syndrome than either AIDS or herpes but the majority of them were still users of tampons. Previous media reports had indicated there was significant curtailment in sexual activity as a result of herpes and AIDS. It is hypothesized that the media reports were based on surveys of areas that had higher actual incidence rates of these diseases than was observed in this sample. Concern about these diseases and any psychological impact may be a function of the incidence of disease.


A simple scheme for achieving continuous-time low-voltage operation of op amps is discussed. The scheme involves placing a floating battery in series with one of the op amp input terminals. Simulations and experimental results are presented that verify the proposed scheme with the example of a CMOS op amp that operates from a single 1 V supply and with 0.8 V signal swing.


Treatment of UO2(OTf)2 with pure Me3SiI led to the quantitative formation of UO2I2 (1). This compound dissolved in pyridine and thf to give the red adducts [UO2I2L3][L = py (2) or thf (3)], which were also obtained from the metathetical reaction of UO2(OTf)2 and KI. The crystal structure of has been determined. The uranyl diiodide complexes - are thermally quite stable, providing that strictly anhydrous conditions are employed.


Background. Policies mandating the use of lower cost biosimilars in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have created concerns for patients who prefer their original biologic. Purpose. To inform the cost-effectiveness of biosimilar infliximab treatment in IBD by systematically reviewing the effect of infliximab price variation on cost-effectiveness for jurisdictional decision making. Data Sources. MEDLINE, Embase, Healthstar, Allied and Complementary Medicine, Joanna Briggs Institute EBP Database, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Health and Psychosocial Instruments, Mental Measurements Yearbook citation databases, PEDE, CEA registry, HTA agencies. Study Selection. Economic evaluations of infliximab for adult or pediatric Crohn's disease and/or ulcerative colitis published from 1998 through 2019 in which drug price was varied in sensitivity analysis were included. Data Extraction. Study characteristics, main findings, and results of drug price sensitivity analyses were extracted. Studies were critically appraised. The cost-effective price of infliximab was determined based on the stated willingness-to-pay (WTP) thresholds for each jurisdiction. Data Synthesis. Infliximab price was examined in sensitivity analysis in 31 studies. Infliximab showed favorable cost-effectiveness at a price ranging from CAD $66 to $1,260 per vial, depending on jurisdiction. A total of 18 analyses (43%) demonstrated cost-effectiveness ratios above the jurisdictional WTP threshold. Limitations. Drug prices were not always reported separately, WTP thresholds varied, and funding sources were not consistently reported. Conclusion. Despite the high cost of infliximab, few economic evaluations examined price variation, limiting the ability to infer the effects of biosimilar introduction. Alternative pricing strategies and access to treatment could be considered to enable IBD patients to maintain access to their current medications. Highlights In an effort to reduce public drug expenditures, Canadian and other jurisdictional drug plans have mandated the use of lower cost, but similarly effective, biosimilars in patients with newly diagnosed inflammatory bowel disease or require a nonmedical switch for established patients. This switch has created concerns for patients and clinicians who want to maintain the ability to make treatment decisions and remain with the original biologic. It is customary for economic evaluations to assess the robustness of results to variations in high-cost items such as medications. In the absence of economic evaluations of biosimilars, examining biologic drug price in sensitivity analysis provides insight into the cost-effectiveness of biosimilar alternatives. A total of 31 economic evaluations of infliximab for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease varied the infliximab price in sensitivity analysis. The infliximab price deemed to be cost-effective within each study ranged from CAD $66 to CAD $1,260 per 100-mg vial. A total of 18 analyses (43%) demonstrated an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio above the jurisdictional willingness-to-pay threshold. If policy decisions are based on price, then originator manufacturers could consider reducing the price or negotiating alternative pricing models to enable patients with inflammatory bowel disease to remain on their current medications.


A76 OBJECTIVES: Angiogenesis is the base for solid tumor growth and dissemination, recently anti-angiogenic drugs have begun to show promise in clinical trials. In addition to angiogenesis, it has become increasingly clear that inflammation is a key component in tumor insurgence.
 >We propose to identify molecules and pathways involved in cancer progression in order to prevent neoplastic development and metastatic dissemination, targeting the tumor stroma and inflammatory infiltrate component associated to angiogenesis. The potential beneficial effects of the synthetic triterpenoid methyl 2-cyano-3,12-dioxoolean-1,9-dien-28-oate (CDDO-Me) was evaluated on in vitro and invivo angiogenic assays.
 >MATERIALS: Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) and human Kaposi's Sarcoma Immortalized cells (KS-Imm) were grown in complete M199 and DMEM medium, respectively.
 >6 weeks male C57BL/6N mice were purchased from Charles River Laboratories (Italy).
 >CDDO-Me was kindly provided by Michael Sporn, Department of Pharmacology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover (USA).
 >RESULTS: We assessed the activity of this novel compound that has shown a potent antiangiogenic activity at really low dosages. In vivo it inhibited angiogenesis in the Matrigel sponge assay and KS-Imm tumor growth. In vitro it was able to prevent endothelial cells tubulogenesis when cultured on Matrigel.
 >In HUVE cells this compound doesn't seem to interfere with Akt pathway but it can inhibit the activation of erk1/2 pathway after stimulation with VEGF. These data can partially explain its potent anti-angiogenic activity but further studies are necessary to full understand their promising property.
 >CONCLUSIONS: Inflammation, angiogenesis and the microenvironment are increasingly recognized as an angiogenic stimulus in cancer. The repression of the NF-kB pathway suggests anti-inflammatory effects for the anti-oxidant compounds that may also have an indirect role in angiogenesis inhibition. Many of the molecules studies inhibit inflammation-associated angiogenesis by targeting cells in the tumor microenvironment