D'Amico, V., Damiani, P., & Gomez, F. (2015).The emotional benefits of the motor activity in developmental age. J. Hum. Sport Exerc., 9(Proc1), pp.S455-S461. Introduction: Scanlan and Simons (1992), define the "enjoyment" in the sport as a positive affective answer toward the sporting experience. It is important to conceive the reasons of the pleasure in the motor activities, because this would help the researchers to elaborate strategies of intervention more and more effective that keeps in mind of the individuals. The objective of the search is to understand if the motor activity is appreciate by children and if it offers benefits. The intervention on the field is developed with the CSI (Centro Sportivo Italiano) of Cava de' Tirreni (SA), that it has organized a project of motor activity, having involved children since 7 to 11 years old, among which also of the disabled persons. The search has been divided in three phases: Theoretical-practice phase, where a circle time has been organized to forming the children to the emotions, to differentiate and recognize them. Then, with a questionnaire, information are picked up respect the emotional state of departure: the children have individualized the image of the emotion that more it represented them. Practice phase, where the boys have developed motor activity (games, crossed motor). Conclusive phase, where they have been picked the impressions just tried by children respect the motor activity turn. The search is concluded administering the PACES test (Phisycal Activity Enjoyment Scale, Kendzierski & De Carlo, 1991), tool used for the evaluation of the motor activity. The result has been that following the motor activity the positive emotions are increased tried by children, while the negative emotions result redoubts and/or repressed. Examining the obtained data, the majority of the children appreciate the motor activity, has lived himself pleasantly and offers them positive benefits. From the search an objective for the future could be characterized: to induce the children to regularly practice motor activity because in degree to arouse positive emotions and to guarantee psycho-physical comfort.


Soybean (Glycine max L. Merr) is a very important crop in Indonesia. The creation of new elite varieties is one approach to increase the national production of soybean. We have developed several potential lines of soybean to be released as a new varieties. Before releasing as new varieties, the productivity of these lines has to be evaluated in several locations. Therefore the objective of this research was to evaluate the productivity of six lines of soybean resulted from the cross between Slamet and Nokonsawon varieties, i.e. KH8, KH9, KH31, KH38, KH55, and KH71 in Majalengka, West Java, Indonesia. Four national elite varieties i.e. Anjasmoro, Slamet, Tanggamus and Wilis were used as standard. The experiment was conducted in two seasons by using randomized block design, with three blocks as replication. The result showed that based on the seed production per plant in two seasons, all six lines have higher productivity than Anjasmoro variety. The seeds of these six lines are bigger than that of standard varieties. Analysis of production stability in two seasons showed that KH71 is the most stable genotype in Majalengka. By comparing to Anjasmoro variety in two seasons, all six lines have a potential to be released as new varieties with high productivity and big seed.


Background: The combination of Amlodipine Besylaye, Hydrochlorthiazide and Telmisartan is prescribed for the treatment of hypertension. An Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) method has been reported for simultaneous estimation of this combination. Objective: To develop and validate HPTLC Method for simultaneous estimation of Amlodipine Besylate, Hydrochlorothiazide and Telmisartan in their combined tablet dosage form. Materials and Method: The chromatographic separation was performed using aluminum plates pre-coated with silica gel 60F254 as stationary phase and chloroform: butan-1-ol: ammonia (6: 4: 0.1, v/v/v) as mobile phase. Spectro-densitometric scanning was performed at 254 nm. The developed method was validated according to ICH Q2R1 guideline. Results and Discussion: The linearity was established over a concentration range of 200-1000 ng/band, 500-2500 ng/band and 1600-8000 ng/band with correlation coefficient r 2 = 0.9952, 0.9992 and 0.9979 for Amlodipine besylate, Hydrochlorothiazide and Telmisartan, respectively. The R f values of Amlodipine besylate, Hydrochlorothiazide and Telmisartan were found to be 0.27 ± 0.02, 0.43 ± 0.02 and 0.14 ± 0.02 respectively. Recovery of drug was achieved in the range of 99.43–101.57%, 100.22–101.54% and 100.12–100.44% for Amlodipine besylate, Hydrochlorothiazide and Telmisartan, respectively by developed method. Limit of detection and limit of quantitation was found to be 8.6, 58.0 and 186.9 ng/band and 26.1, 175.8 and 566.4 ng/band for Amlodipine besylate, Hydrochlorothiazide and Telmisartan, respectively. Application: The developed HPTLC method was applied for simultaneous estimation of three drugs in their combined tablet dosage forms and results were found to be in good agreement with the labeled claim. Conclusion: The developed HPTLC method was found to be accurate, precise, specific and sensitive. It can be applied for routine analysis (assay) of tablets containing combination of Amlodipine besylate, Hydrochlorothiazide and Telmisartan. Key words: Amlodipine besylate (AML), Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), Telmisartan (TLM), High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC), Simultaneous estimation.


HYPERTENSION-ASSOCIATED ABNORMALITIES THAT PROMOTE CORONARY DISEASE: Although antihypertensive treatment has been effective in reducing premature cardiovascular mortality, the effect on various organ-specific morbid events has been unequal; the effect is much more impressive on stroke reduction than on reduction of coronary events. A student of pathophysiology would have anticipated such an outcome since blood pressure elevation is only one of multiple abnormalities in hypertension. Even in its mildest form hypertension is associated with the metabolic syndrome of dyslipidemia/insulin resistance which is conducive to early atherosclerosis. A large proportion of patients also have increased sympathetic and decreased parasympathetic tone, a constellation conducive to arrhythmias and, ultimately, to sudden death. An elevated hematocrit is also found in a substantial proportion of male patients and excessive platelet aggregability has also been described in hypertension. These hematologic abnormalities are conducive to coronary thrombosis. Angiotensin II and norepinephrine, two of the most potent trophic hormones, are frequently elevated in hypertension. The effect of these hormones on the cardiac and vascular structure further increases the predilection for negative outcomes. Left ventricular hypertrophy is a potent risk factor of coronary mortality, congestive heart failure and sudden death. Vascular hypertrophy reduces the coronary reserve and at the level of skeletal muscles contributes to the evolution of the metabolic syndrome. ORGAN-SPECIFIC HYPERTENSION TREATMENT: Because of these abnormalities we are entering a new era of treatment in hypertension. Whereas an effective fall in blood pressure remains the main goal of treatment, differential effects of various antihypertensive agents on organ-specific morbidity are being actively explored. If this research proves that certain drugs have a specific advantage in defined subgroups of patients, clinical practice will change. It is reasonable to expect that in the next century we will witness a further improvement in the impact of antihypertensive treatment on public health.


ABSTRACT Canine influenza is a respiratory disease of dogs caused by canine influenza virus (CIV). CIV subtypes responsible for influenza in dogs include H3N8, which originated from the transfer of H3N8 equine influenza virus to dogs; and the H3N2 CIV, which is an avian-origin virus that adapted to infect dogs. Influenza infections are most effectively prevented through vaccination to reduce transmission and future infection. Currently, only inactivated influenza vaccines (IIVs) are available for the prevention of CIV in dogs. However, the efficacy of IIVs is suboptimal, and novel approaches are necessary for the prevention of disease caused by this canine respiratory pathogen. Using reverse genetics techniques, we have developed a live-attenuated CIV vaccine (LACIV) for the prevention of H3N8 CIV. The H3N8 LACIV replicates efficiently in canine cells at 33°C but is impaired at temperatures of 37 to 39°C and was attenuated compared to wild-type H3N8 CIV in vivo and ex vivo. The LACIV was able to induce protection against H3N8 CIV challenge with a single intranasal inoculation in mice. Immunogenicity and protection efficacy were better than that observed with a commercial CIV H3N8 IIV but provided limited cross-reactive immunity and heterologous protection against H3N2 CIV. These results demonstrate the feasibility of implementing a LAIV approach for the prevention and control of H3N8 CIV in dogs and suggest the need for a new LAIV for the control of H3N2 CIV. IMPORTANCE Two influenza A virus subtypes has been reported in dogs in the last 16 years: the canine influenza viruses (CIV) H3N8 and H3N2 of equine and avian origins, respectively. To date, only inactivated influenza vaccines (IIVs) are available to prevent CIV infections. Here, we report the generation of a recombinant, temperature-sensitive H3N8 CIV as a live-attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV), which was attenuated in mice and dog tracheal, explants compared to CIV H3N8 wild type. A single dose of H3N8 LACIV showed immunogenicity and protection against a homologous challenge that was better than that conferred with an H3N8 IIV, demonstrating the feasibility of implementing a LAIV approach for the improved control of H3N8 CIV infections in dogs.


In this study we analyzed 51 grapevine cultivars registered in the Czech Republic using six highly informative SSR loci, and determined SSR profiles typical for each cultivar. All cultivars were easily distinguished on the basis of SSR allele length, except for berry color mutants (Pinot and Chasselas group). The average number of detected alleles per locus was 13.2, while observed heterozygosity is between 0.745 (VrZAG 79) and 0.922 (VVMD 7). The lengths of the alleles were compared with results from other laboratories; lengths were either the same or different by 1-3 bp. We also tested a new approach to microsatellite data comparison using a coding system based on reference alleles as a size standard (THIS et al., 2004). The obtained profiles were mostly in accordance with profiles of reference cultivars (THIS et al., 2004); we discuss the possible reasons for observed discrepancies. A third allele in the microsatellite spectrum was observed in five samples where template DNA originated from leaves. Additional analyses with DNA isolated from phloem-enriched samples (L2 meristem layer) were performed and typical diallelic profiles obtained. The reason for the detected triallelism is assumed to be a periclinal chimerism.


Protein structure is highly diverse when considering a wide range of protein types, helping to give rise to the multitude of functions that proteins perform. In particular, certain proteins are known to adopt a knotted or slipknotted fold. How such proteins undergo mechanical unfolding was investigated utilizing a combination of single molecule atomic force microscopy (AFM), protein engineering, and steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations to show the mechanical unfolding mechanism of the slipknotted protein AFV3-109. Our results reveal that the mechanical unfolding of AFV3-109 can proceed via multiple parallel unfolding pathways that all cause the protein slipknot to untie and the polypeptide chain to completely extend. These distinct unfolding pathways proceed via either a two- or three-state unfolding process involving the formation of a well-defined, stable intermediate state. SMD simulations predict the same contour length increments for different unfolding pathways as single molecule AFM results, thus providing a plausible molecular mechanism for the mechanical unfolding of AFV3-109. These SMD simulations also reveal that two-state unfolding is initiated from both the N- and C-termini, while three-state unfolding is initiated only from the C-terminus. In both pathways, the protein slipknot was untied during unfolding, and no tightened slipknot conformation was observed. Detailed analysis revealed that interactions between key structural elements lock the knotting loop in place, preventing it from shrinking and the formation of a tightened slipknot conformation. Our results demonstrate the bifurcation of the mechanical unfolding pathway of AFV3-109 and point to the generality of a kinetic partitioning mechanism for protein folding/unfolding.


The spectra of osmium and iridium were photographed in the 200-400 A region on a 3 m normal incidence and 10.7 m grazing incidence spectrographs. The light sources used were triggered and sliding sparks. The 5d2-5d5f transitions in Os VII and Ir VIII were analysed. Eighteen of 20 levels of the 5d5f configuration in each spectrum have been established. Seventy-two lines of Os VII and 58 lines of Ir VIII have been classified. Least-squares fitted (LSF) and Hartree-Fock (HF) calculations were carried out to interpret the observed spectra.


ABSTRACT The Kilmaluag Formation on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, provides one of the richest Mesozoic vertebrate fossil assemblages in the UK, and is among the richest globally for Middle Jurassic tetrapods. Since its discovery in 1971, this assemblage has predominantly yielded small-bodied tetrapods, including salamanders, choristoderes, lepidosaurs, turtles, crocodylomorphs, pterosaurs, dinosaurs, non-mammalian cynodonts and mammals, alongside abundant fish and invertebrates. It is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and by Nature Conservancy Order. Unlike contemporaneous localities from England, this assemblage yields associated partial skeletons, providing unprecedented new data. We present a comprehensive updated overview of the Kilmaluag Formation, including its geology and the fossil collections made to date, with evidence of several species occurrences presented here for the first time. We place the vertebrate faunal assemblage in an international context through comparisons with relevant contemporaneous localities from the UK, Europe, Africa, Asia and the US. This wealth of material reveals the Kilmaluag Formation as a vertebrate fossil assemblage of global significance, both in terms of understanding Middle Jurassic faunal composition and the completeness of specimens, with implications for the early evolutionary histories of mammals, squamates and amphibians.


Twenty-five asthmatics were tested with salmefamol aerosol (200 mug q.d.s.) for a period of 3 months. The ventilatory capacity before and after adrenaline was measured weekly and symptoms were assessed daily using a scoring system over a period of 9 months. The results during the 3 months' treatment with salmefamol were compared with the preceding and succeeding 3-month-periods when patients were receiving either salbutamol aerosol or orciprenaline aerosol. Statistically significant improvements were seen in ventilatory capacity before adrenaline inhalation and in symptom scores while on salmefamol. Ventilatory capacity after adrenaline inhalation remained unchanged throughout the study: thus there was no evidence of tachyphylaxis. A significantly greater number of patients preferred the new drug. Four patients developed slight muscle tremor in the first few days of salmefamol therapy, but there were no changes in haematological or biochemical values after 3 months' therapy. Thus, salmefamol seems to have marked efficacy with low toxicity and is generally well tolerated.


Despite the increased frequency and scale of wildfire-related catastrophes, there has been little or no effective and coordinated international policy to address their highly negative impact. Possibly a generalized approach to respond to such major events could be modeled on existing international safety investigation policies and agreements that already have proved successful. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) outlines safety investigations after international fatal aviation accidents. Although this well-established safety investigation protocol cannot be directly applied in acute wildfire-related accidents, it can offer a useful framework for establishing international guidelines to reduce risk of future wildfire catastrophes. The co-operation between safety investigation authorities has been shown to be fruitful especially for those less developed countries that have limited resources and experience related to accident investigations. While primarily an adaptive measure that can set practices to reduce vulnerability and fragility of ecosystems and human societies, the same policies could be seen as a climate change mitigation measure, as wildfires can contribute significantly to global CO2 emissions. Finally, the concept of independent and qualified safety investigations represents the principle of serendipity: disclosing by accident something that has not been foreseen. Feedback from reality compensates assumptions and limitations of feedforward analysis of complex systems that can only reveal their dynamics and performance in reality and over time.


Background and Objectives:
 Although lidocaine patch 5% has been widely used for postherpetic neuralgia, its analgesic effect on the intense pain associated with acute herpes zoster has not been investigated because of its potential hazard to damaged skin.
Methods:
 Forty-six patients suffering from moderate to severe pain caused by acute herpes zoster infection (within 4 weeks of onset) were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, vehicle-controlled, parallel study. Lidocaine patch 5% or vehicle patch were applied to the intact portion of the painful skin area without blisters at 12-hour intervals twice a day for 2 consecutive days. Analgesic efficacy and side effect profiles were assessed before and 48 hours after patch application.
Results:
 We found that both groups of patients experienced significant pain relief during rest and movement. Differences of mean reduction of pain intensity between the two groups were 14.7 (4.7-24.8, P = 0.005) during rest and 10.4 (1.6-19.3, P = 0.007) during movement, favoring the lidocaine patch. The lidocaine patch produced a greater percentage change in a patient's global impression than the vehicle patch. The incidence and severity of adverse events were low with both treatments.
Conclusions:
 This study demonstrates that lidocaine patch 5%, applied twice a day, could serve as a well tolerated and effective modality to relieve moderate to severe pain associated with acute herpes zoster presumably through its pharmacological action and physical barrier effect on sensitized skin.


Deteriorating air quality is a problem that impact to many developed countries and those who are in the process of development and industrialization; which in turn has become an environmental and public health problem because the concentration of contaminants exceed national standards of air quality reference. Is is related to pollution, among others, attributed to different sources; such as industry, mining, burning and vehicle emissions, this being the one that generates the most impact, as shown by studies commissioned by the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development, "mobile sources (vehicles) generate 86% of air pollution. "Hence the present investigation was to develop on the ground of potable water Tibitoc; aimed to compare data obtained from the monitoring station quality air CAR with existing environmental regulations and establishing recommendations for processes that generate increased emissions to the environment.


This chapter is a short review about the modified concretes with photocatalytic activity. In the beginning, the photocatalysis process is explained; the authors are focused on the mechanism of organic contamination and nitrogen oxide decomposition. Next the three main methods for concretes modification are presented: the first group is when the concrete is covered by thin layer of TiO 2 materials, e.g., paints or TiO 2 suspensions. The second group is the concretes with thick layer of photoactive concrete on the top. The third group constitutes concretes modified in mass with TiO 2 . The two main methods for photocatalytic activity of the modified concrete determination were shown: an air purification by a nitrogen oxide decomposition and the self-cleaning properties by dyes decomposition. Also in this chapter the mechanical properties of the modified concrete are presented. In the end, the examples of the buildings made of photocatalytic concretes are shown.


The germline DNA sequence of the human CD79 alpha (Ig-alpha/mb-1) gene was determined by polymerase chain reaction sequencing of a cosmid clone derived from an arrayed human chromosome 19 library. The CD79 alpha gene was localized to chromosome 19q13.2; this localization places the gene within the CEA-like gene cluster with the following gene order: -CEA-CGM1-CD79 alpha-RPS11-ATP1A3-BGP-CGM9-. The genomic organization of the human CD79 alpha gene resembles the mouse counterpart with five exons interrupted by four introns. Computer analyses suggest the presence of transcription regulatory elements known to be important in the regulation of mouse CD79 alpha (AP-1, EBF, AP-2, MUF2, and SP-1 sites), as well as elements not found in the mouse gene (an NK-kappa B binding site and a series of E-box motifs). Similar to the mouse gene, the 5' flanking region of human CD79 alpha lacks a TATA box; however, unlike mouse CD79 alpha, a classical octamer motif could not be identified in the human gene. Finally, a new Rsa I restriction fragment length polymorphism was defined in the non-coding regions of the human gene.


We propose a real-time signal control framework based on a nonlinear decision rule (NDR), which defines a nonlinear mapping between network states and signal control parameters to actual signal controls based on prevailing traffic conditions, and such a mapping is optimized via off-line simulation. The NDR is instantiated with two neural networks: feedforward neural network (FFNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN), which have different ways of processing traffic information in the near past, and are compared in terms of their performances. The NDR is implemented within a microscopic traffic simulation (S-Paramics) for a real-world network in West Glasgow, where the off-line training of the NDR amounts to a simulation-based optimization aiming to reduce delay, CO2 and black carbon emissions. The emission calculations are based on the high-fidelity vehicle dynamics generated by the simulation, and the AIRE instantaneous emission model. Extensive tests are performed to assess the NDR framework, not only in terms of its effectiveness in reducing the aforementioned objectives, but also in relation to local vs. global benefits, trade-off between delay and emissions, impact of sensor locations, and different levels of network saturation. The results suggest that the NDR is an effective, flexible and robust way of alleviating congestion and reducing traffic emissions.


Electric Agents is a transmedia game that presents new ways for children to actively engage with television content. A typical-looking educational television show transforms into an interactive game in which children collaborate through a mobile augmented reality experience to find and collect vocabulary words that are missing from the show. The players return the words to the show by throwing them back into the television using their mobile devices. This blend of a linear video narrative and an interactive game strives to make educational television content more engaging and participatory while fostering collaborative play with vocabulary words. We describe the technical implementation to support this collaborative mobile augmented reality experience and report findings from a pilot user study. Results demonstrate patterns of collaborative activity, scaffolded learning, and parasocial relationships that have been linked in previous literature to educational benefits.


Education is a process transformation the attitudes and behavior a person or group to mature, form and training a person or group for the better. Education also is the process of learning and hereditary of cultural values owned a community groups. Formal education is basically a school that created the state to teaching and learning students and planting values to form each student. Most schools have different procedures in order to set of every student to the learning process so that education can work well organized. Behavior or human actions basically cannot be released from the thought process. Because of the process of think that determines the actions performed by human beings. The thought process is a excess owned by human being than the other creatures. By thinking, man assess, to analyse and consider the actions he should be obeyed. A description of conduct of students SMA Negeri 9 Manado often happens in the act of playing truant; such as schools, come late, smoking, and fighting among fellow friend. In a preventive manner can do is increase the formation of; moral, character education, and maximize the process teaching quality and it is fun for the students, good advice and exemplary through every teacher. Keywords: school, behavior, character


IN 2006, A TOTAL OF 13,767 TUBERCUlosis (TB) cases (4.6 per 100,000 population) were reported in the United States, representing a 3.2% decline from the 2005 rate. This report summarizes provisional 2006 TB incidence data from the National TB Surveillance System and describes trends since 1993. The TB rate in 2006 was the lowest recorded since national reporting began in 1953, but the rate of decline has slowed since 2000. The average annual percentage decline in the TB incidence rate decreased from 7.3% per year during 1993-2000 (95% confidence interval [CI]=6.9%-7.8%) to 3.8% during 2000-2006 (CI=3.1%4.5%). Foreign-born persons and racial/ ethnic minority populations continue to be affected disproportionately by TB in the United States. In 2006, the TB rate among foreign-born persons in the United States was 9.5 times that of U.S.born persons.* The TB rates among blacks, Asians, and Hispanics† were 8.4, 21.2, and 7.6 times higher than rates among whites, respectively. The slowing of the decline in the overall national TB rate and the inability to effectively address persistent disparities in TB rates between U.S.-born and foreignborn persons and between whites and racial/ethnic minority populations threaten progress toward the goal of eliminating TB in the United States. In 1989, CDC and the Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Tuberculosis issued a strategic plan for the elimination of TB, setting an interim target case rate of 3.5 per 100,000 population by 2000 and ultimately the elimination of TB (i.e., 1 case per 1 million population) in the United States by 2010. TB is a nationally notifiable disease. Health departments in the 50 states and District of Columbia (DC) electronically report to CDC any TB cases that meet the CDC and Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists case definition.‡ Reports include the patient's race, ethnicity (i.e.,Hispanicornon-Hispanic), treatment information, and drugsusceptibility test results if available. For this analysis, CDC calculated national and state TB rates and rates for foreignborn and U.S.-born persons and racial/ ethnic populations by using current U.S. census population estimates for the years 1993 through 2006. In 2006, TB incidence rates in the 51 reporting areas ranged from 0.8 (Wyoming) to 12.6 (DC) cases per 100,000 population (median: 3.4 cases). Thirty states had lower rates in 2006 than 2005; 20 states and DC had higher rates. In 2006, for the second consecutive year and the second time since national reporting began, approximately half of states (26 of 50) had TB rates of 3.5 per 100,000; however, 11 of those 26 states had higher rates of TB in 2006 than in 2005. Seven states (California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Texas) reported more than 500 cases each for 2006; combined, these seven states accounted for 60% (8,259) of all TB cases. Among U.S.-born persons, the number and rate of TB cases continued to decline in 2006. The U.S.-born TB rate was 2.3 per 100,000 population (5,924 or 43.3% of all cases with known origin of birth), representing a 7.0% decline in rate since 2005 and a 68.6% decline since 1993. Among foreign-born persons, the number of TB cases increased in 2006, but the rate decreased. The foreignborn TB rate in 2006 was 21.9 per 100,000 population, representing a 0.5% decline in rate since 2006 and a 35.8% decline since 1993. As the rate of decline in TB cases among foreign-born persons lagged behind the decline in TB cases among U.S.-born persons, the foreign-born to U.S.-born rate ratio increased 7.0%, from 8.9 in 2005 to 9.5 in 2006. In 2006, approximately half (55.6%) of TB cases among foreignborn persons were reported in persons from five countries: Mexico (1,912), the Philippines (856), Vietnam (630), India (540), and China (376). In 2006, for the third consecutive year, more TB cases were reported among Hispanics than any other racial/ethnic population. Among persons with TB whose country of birth was known, 95.6% (3,126 of 3,269) of Asians, 74.7% (3,024 of 4,050) of Hispanics, 29.9% (1,110 of 3,712) of blacks, and 17.8% (427 of 2,404) of whites were foreign born. From 2005 to 2006, TB rates declined for all racial/ethnic minorities except American Indians/Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders.§ Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) contributes to the TB pandemic because immune suppression increases the likelihood of rapid progression from TB infection to TB disease. From 2005 to 2006, among TB cases with HIV status reported, the percentage of TB cases with HIV infection decreased 4.4% (from 13.0% to 12.4%), but the percentage of TB cases with unknown HIV status increased 10.3% (from 28.7% to 31.7%).¶ The decline in the percentage of TB cases with HIV infection might reflect incomplete reporting of HIV test results attributed to a lack of HIV testing or HIV reporting. A total of 124 cases of multidrugresistant TB (MDR TB)# were reported in 2005, the most recent year for which complete drug-susceptibility data are available.** The proportion of MDR-TB cases remained constant at 1.2% from 2004 (129 of 10,846 TB cases) to 2005 (124 of 10,662). In 2005, MDR TB continued to disproportionately affect foreign-born persons, who accounted for 101 (81.5%) of 124 MDR-TB cases. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report FROM THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION


The physical and chemical characterization of the oil and almond from sacha inchi seed (Plukenetia volubilis), grown in the Guamuez Valley, Department of Putumayo, Colombia was conducted. The whole almond and free fats free from sacha inchi has a high content of oil, protein and essential amino acids, except lysine and tryptophan. The oil extracted from sacha inchi possesses a high degree of unsaturation, rich in essential fatty acids α-linolenic and linoleic, also contains -carotene and vitamin E. Additionally, the physical properties of density, refractive index, viscosity, iodine index and saponification of sacha inchi oil were measured.


A simple static headspace capillary gas chromatography (GC) method using a flame ionization detector has been developed for determination of 0.04–10 ppm of vinyl chloride (VC) in PVC. The method makes it possible to determine VC by dispersing a PVC sample in dimethylacetamide and analyzing the vapor by headspace GC. A standard addition method was used to calibrate the response. Due to the limit of quantification (LOQ = 0.042 ppm), the presented static headspace capillary GC-FID analysis is a reliable method for the determination of 1 ppm of VC in PVC.


Bone marrow was collected from 7 dogs and submitted to 3 different MSC isolation techniques (direct plating, red blood cell lysis and gradient density). The number of cells, expression of MSC markers and in vitro the osteogenic differentiation obtained from each technique were examined. In order to study in vivo the osteogenic capability of derived MSCs, non-union ulna lesions (n=3) were firstly induced by transplantation of a composite of polycarprolactone/ hydroxyapatite (PCL/HAp) scaffold experimentally on to a critical-size ulna bone defect. The MSCs were injected into the lesions. The non-union sites were examined by radiography, angiography and histology at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks after MSC injection. Gradient density and RBC lysis techniques yielded higher numbers of putative MSCs on day 7 of culture compared with the direct plating technique. A large proportion of isolated MSCs, irrespective of the isolation techniques, expressed all MSC markers (CD 44 and CD 90). For all MSC transplanted dogs, neither radiological changes at scaffold-ulna interface nor callus formation was observed, although all donors used demonstrated in vitro osteogenesis. At 16 weeks after MSC injection, the angiogram indicated increased neovascularization. This was confirmed by the histological finding that there was an improvement of vascularization within the thick-fibrous tissue surrounding the scaffold. Gradient density and RBC lysis treatment are suitable MSC isolation techniques, in terms of the numbers of cells obtained and also their MSC properties. However, potential use of these MSCs following injection to a non-union bone site was compromised possibly because of a lack of osteogenic stimulation.


We report on recent pulsar timing observations undertaken by the Urumqi Observatory. Observations for 74 radio pulsars have been made regularly at an observing frequency of 1540 MHz as part of the Urumqi Observatory timing program, which commenced in 1999 November at the 25-m Urumqi Nanshan telescope. Currently 284 pulsars are monitored with an average interval between observations of ~9 days. The dedispersion is provided by a 2×128×2.5 MHz filterbank/digitiser system. Accurate and updated periods, period derivatives and positions have been obtained for the majority of the 74 pulsars with timing observations spanning more than one year. For datasets spanning more than one year we have obtained improved positions, proper motions and velocities. Comparing our measurements of period and period derivative with earlier observations, we conclude that, long-term period and period-derivative fluctuations may be dominated by unseen glitches. We also present the observed results for ten glitches of four young pulsars detected in the last five years.


By 1982, 10 μm walled targets will require thickness and diameter tolerances of better than ±100 A over spot dimensions of 10–100 μm. Such targets will be multishell and/or opaque which eliminates optical phase microscopy and severely limits x‐ray analysis. In principal, an acoustic phase microscope can provide the necessary resolution, provided the acoustic beam can be coupled to, and focused within, the confines of the wall. In this paper, a shear wave acoustic microscope with an electronically variable focal length is described. A computer code has been used to study the ray optics and diffraction of this design and a spot size with the required dimensions has been obtained.


Oliver Wolf Sacks, MD, FRCP, CBE (1933–2015), was a brilliant and unconventional neurologist, scientist, university educator, and acclaimed author. With unquieted scientific curiosity, openness to new ideas, and a profound sense of humanism, Sacks worked to increase understanding of the brain and neurological conditions, while advocating for persons affected to be listened to, considered, and included, in treatment. A person-centered practitioner, Sacks is best known for his literary collections of case histories and empathic narratives, which document his scientific explorations in neurology and illustrate the personal aspects of neurological diseases.


Social interaction is inherently bidirectional, but research on autistic peer interactions often frames communication as unidirectional and in isolation from the peer context. This study investigated natural peer interactions among six autistic and six non-autistic adolescents in an inclusive school club over 5 months (14 45-min sessions in total) to examine the students' peer preferences in real-world social interactions and how the preferences changed over time. We further examined whether social behavior characteristics differ between student and peer neurotype combinations. Findings showed that autistic students were more likely to interact with autistic peers then non-autistic peers. In both autistic and non-autistic students, the likelihood of interacting with a same-neurotype peer increased over time. Autistic and non-autistic students' within-neurotype social interactions were more likely to reflect relational than functional purposes, be characterized as sharing thoughts and experiences rather than requesting help or objects, and be highly reciprocal, as compared with cross-neurotype interactions. These peer preferences and patterns of social interactions were not found among student-peer dyads with the same genders. These findings suggest that peer interaction is determined by more than just a student's autism diagnosis, but by a combination of student and peer neurotypes. Lay abstract Autistic students often experience challenges in peer interactions, especially for young adolescents who are navigating the increased social expectations in secondary education. Previous research on the peer interactions of autistic adolescents mainly compared the social behaviors of autistic and non-autistic students and overlooked the peers in the social context. However, recent research has shown that the social challenges faced by autistic may not be solely contributed by their social differences, but a mismatch in the social communication styles between autistic and non-autistic people. As such, this study aimed to investigate the student-and-peer match in real-world peer interactions between six autistic and six non-autistic adolescents in an inclusive school club. We examined the odds of autistic and non-autistic students interacting with either an autistic peer, a non-autistic peer, or multiple peers, and the results showed that autistic students were more likely to interact with autistic peers then non-autistic peers. This preference for same-group peer interactions strengthened over the 5-month school club in both autistic and non-autistic students. We further found that same-group peer interactions, in both autistic and non-autistic students, were more likely to convey a social interest rather than a functional purpose or need, be sharing thoughts, experiences, or items rather than requesting help or objects, and be highly reciprocal than cross-group social behaviors. Collectively, our findings support that peer interaction outcomes may be determined by the match between the group memberships of the student and their peers, either autistic or non-autistic, rather than the student's autism diagnosis.


A rapid and accurate diagnostic method is needed to detect asymptomatic carrier trees to assist in exterminating pine wilt disease caused by the pathogenic pine wood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. We extracted DNA by the CTAB method from pine trees located in two natural stands, a Japanese black pine stand and a Japanese red pine stand, known to be infected with PWN, and detected the PWN by the nested-PCR method. Many trees of both pine species harboured PWN, although some of them had no external and/or internal symptoms such as yellowing of needles and disrupted resin exudation. Some Japanese black pine trees remained asymptomatic during the study and survived for 1 or more years after PWN infection without displaying any wilting symptoms. The diagnostic method adopted in the present study is useful and sensitive enough for practical use to detect the asymptomatic carrier trees and may prove to be an effective method to assist in control of the pest in the field.


As the Providence Health System is phasing in its Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) system at the Providence Portland Medical Center, we conducted a study to demonstrate the effects of CPOE on medication turn-around time. Retrospectively, we tracked and compared medication orders that were placed via the existing paper-based system and the CPOE system. The results of this study coincide with, and confirm, previous research that has been performed at large academic medical centers.


Power consumption has become one of the most critical concerns for processor design. Parallelism offers a pathway to increased performance under power constraints — many slow processors can complete a parallel implementation of a task using less time and less energy than a fast uniprocessor. This relies on the energy-time trade-offs present in CMOS circuits, including voltage scaling. Understanding these trade-offs and their connection with algorithms will be a key for extracting performance in future multicore processor designs. I propose simple models for analysing algorithms and deriving lower bounds that reflect the energy-time trade-offs and parallelism of CMOS circuits. For example, the models constrain computational elements to lie in a two-dimensional topology. These elements, calledprocessing elements (PEs), compute arbitrary functions of a constant number of input bits and store a constant-bounded memory. PEs are used to implement wires; thus subsuming and accounting for communication costs. Each operation of a PE takes time t and consumes energy e, whereetα remains invariant for some fixed α > 0. Not only may different PEs independently trade time for energy in this way, but the same PE may vary the trade-off on an operation by operation basis. Using these models, I derive lower bounds for the ETα costs of sorting, addition and multiplication, whereE andT are the total energy and time, and present algorithms that meet these bounds asymptotically. Clearly there exist many algorithms to solve each of these problems, and furthermore there are many choices of how to implement them with processing elements. Fortunately, the tight asymptotic bounds collapse the hierarchy of algorithms, implementations and schedules. This demonstrates that choosing other algorithms or layout schemes may only improve the energy-time "cost" by constant factors. In addition to analysing energy-time optimal algorithms for these problems, I also determine the complexity of many other well-established algorithms. This sheds light on the relative energy-time efficiency of these algorithms, revealing that some "fast" algorithms exploit free communication of traditional computation models. I show that energytime minimal algorithms are not the same as those that minimize operation count or the computation depth.


【Nelder-Mead downhill simplex method (DSM), a kind of deterministic optimization algorithms, has been used extensively for magnetoencephalography(MEG) dipolar source localization problems because it dose not require any functional differentiation. Like many other deterministic algorithms, however, it is very sensitive to the choice of initial positions and it can be easily trapped in local optima when being applied to complex inverse problems with multiple simultaneous sources. In this paper, some modifications have been made to make up for DSM's limitations and improve the accuracy of DSM. First of all, initial point determination method for DSM using magnetic fields on the sensor surface was proposed. Secondly, Univariant-DSM combined DSM with univariant method was proposed. To verify the performance of the proposed method, it was applied to simulated MEG data and practical MEG measurements.】


In this paper, we propose a low-rank pilot-symbol-aided (PSA) channel estimator for multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems. Group-wise pilot patterns are also proposed for the low-rank channel estimator. We evaluate the performance of the proposed low-rank channel estimator for various mobile channel environments by computer simulation. It is shown than the proposed channel estimator has better performance than the conventional 2D PSA channel estimator without increase of computational complexity and pilot overhead.


APPLICATION of tympanoplastic techniques in the treatment of congenital atresia of the external auditory canal has been most rewarding. The purpose of this report is threefold: To discuss the indications, to present the techniques, and to discuss the results and problems encountered. Problem of Congenital Atresia The development of a logical approach to the management of congenital atresia is a multifaceted problem usually involving several physicians, the parents, and the patient. The pediatrician or obstetrician who first notes this condition is faced with the problem of giving advice as to the outlook and management. He is often in a quandary as to whether he should refer the child to an otologist or a plastic surgeon. The parents, because of their own anxiety and guilt feelings, have an almost frantic desire to have something done immediately. They are often more concerned with the cosmetic appearance of the child than the more


Fatigue cracks are a common occurrence in engineering structures subjected to dynamic loading and need to identify at its earliest stage before it leads to catastrophic failure. The presence of fatigue-breathing crack or closing cracks is usually characterised by the presence of sub, super-harmonics, and inter-modulation in the response of the structure subjected to harmonic excitation. It should be mentioned here that the amplitude of nonlinear harmonics are of very less order in magnitude when compared to linear or excitation component. Further, these nonlinear components often get buried in noise as both are having matched (low) energy levels. The present work attempts to decompose the acceleration time history response using singular spectrum analysis and propose a strategy to extract the nonlinear components from the residual noisy time history component. A new damage index based on these extracted nonlinear features is also proposed for closing crack localization. The effectiveness of the proposed closing crack localization approach is illustrated using detailed numerical studies and validated with lab level experimentation on the simple beam-like structure. It can be concluded from the investigations that the proposed signal decomposition based damage localization technique can detect and locate more than one crack present in the structure.


To the Editor. —Hyperthyroidism with poor or no radioactive iodine 123 uptake on thyroid scanning may be found with subacute thyroiditis, silent thyroiditis, or factitious thyrotoxicosis.1-5Factitious thyrotoxicosis can usually be confirmed by the administration of thyrotrophin (thyroid-stimulating hormone) showing thyroid gland incorporation of radioactive iodine 123. We recently encountered a patient who had factitious thyrotoxicosis in whom a technetium Tc 99m pertechnetate thyroid scan helped to establish the diagnosis. Report of a Case. —An 18-year-old woman was referred to the Ohio State University Hospitals, Columbus, because she suffered from self-induced vomiting, amenorrhea, and anorexia nervosa of three months' duration. On physical examination, she weighed 39.6 kg, and her pulse rate was 60 beats per minute. There was no goiter, and she was clinically euthyroid despite a serum total thyroxine level of 22 μg/dL and an elevated free thyroxine index that was repeated on several occasions. The thyroid-stimulating


Bakground: Exercise training reduces exercise induce dynamic hyperinflation (DH) at submaximal exercise (80% of peak work rate) in patients with COPD. Oxygen has dose-dependent effect (maximal at FiO2:0.3) on operating lung volumes in COPD.

Methods: 10 COPD patients with moderate obstruction (FEV1: 53±12%pred, age: 63±10 yrs, BMI: 26±4 kg/m2) performed an incremental exercise test to maximal exercise tolerance, and two constant work rate test (CWR, 80% of peak work rate) with inspiratory capacity (IC maneuver for DH) in every 2 minutes before and after training. Patients performed interval training (1 minute 40% and 1 minute 80% of peak work rate) 3 times a week for 8 weeks breathing oxygen (5 patients 3L/min., group O) or compressed air (5 patients 3 L/min., group C) during training.

Results: The initial peak work rate did not differ significantly between the groups (O: 94±18 vs. C: 86±19 W). Endurance improved in both group (O: 425±110 vs. 630±122, C:370±120 vs. 555±126 sec, p<0.05), oxygen uptake increased in group O (VO2 O:1.20±0.12 vs. 1.36±0.10 L/min., p<0.05) after training. In group O, there was a tendency to reduction in DH after training (IC 1: 2,33±0,62 vs. 2,44±0,90; 2: 2,25±0,73 vs. 2,37±0,94; 3: 2,36±0,96 vs. 2,55±0,97; 4: 2,24±1,00 vs. 2,36±1,01; 5: 2,24±1,00 vs. 2,36±1,01; 6: 2,23±0,97 vs. 2,33±1,00; 7: 2,36±0,73 vs. 2,00±1,02 L). IC did not change in group C.

Conclusion: The pilot study revealed less hyperinflation tendency and improved oxygen uptake in group O, which might refer to better physiologic training effect.


Millions of cigarette smokers undergo elective surgery each year. Efforts to help them quit smoking could improve immediate perioperative outcomes, such as those related to the cardiac and respiratory systems, and the healing of surgical wounds. Perhaps more importantly, the scheduling of elective surgery represents an excellent opportunity for smokers to permanently quit, with great benefit to their long-term health. Although it is difficult for smokers to quit, there are now several interventions of proven benefit that can more than double the chances of success. These include simple physician advice to quit, brief behavioral interventions that can be provided by physicians or other clinicians, and pharmacotherapy with drugs such as nicotine. Although specific strategies tailored for the surgical patient remain to be developed, there are steps that anesthesiologists can implement into their practices now that can help their patients quit smoking.


Methods of evolving Neural Networks using Matrix Grammars are described. Because these methods generate network architectures structurally, reusing symbols to describe sub-sections of the architecture, they tend to produce well-structured networks and are suitable for similarly well-structured problems. Methods which generate the architecture only, and methods which also generate weights, are described. Evolution is combined with backpropagation training. The techniques are compared with previously published work, and show several distinct advantages. The main advantage of all the methods is the ability to overcome the Genetic Algorithm scaling problem. The inclusion of weights gives better convergence. The Matrix Grammars presented here further separate the evolution of weights and architecture than previous methods, widening the search-space. The suitability of the techniques for more substantial problems is discussed. We also show how large improvements can be achieved by progressive evolution: the pretraining of the population on related, simpler problems.


Vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) viability and homeostasis is regulated by cell-matrix and cell-cell contact: disruption of these interactions are responsible of a switch from a mature to a high proliferative phenotype. VSMCs migration, rate of growth and apoptosis, and the extent of their extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition can be also modulated by proatherogenic peptides. Among them, ATII induces the transactivation of IGF I R, which, together with the binding protein IGFBP3, represents a determinant of cell survival, growth and proliferation. Aim of our in vitro study was to verify the role of elective cell-cell bond in moulating the response to ATII. Thus, we evaluated viability, proliferation, IGFIR, IGFBP3 expression and the long term survival and production of ECM in a provisional tissue. A7r5 cell-line was used in adherent cultures or incubated in agarose-coated culture plates to inhibit cell-matrix interactions. Cells, treated or not with ATII 100 nM, were evaluated for apoptosis rate, cell cycle, IGFIR and IGFBP3 protei expression. Fibrin provisional tissue was developed polymerizing a fibrin solution. cantaining A7r5 cells with thrombin. Histological stainings for ECM components were performed on sections of prvisional tissue. An exclusive cell-cell contact resulted to monolayer cell cultures. ATII did not affect the cell survival in both culture conditions, but promoted a 10% decrease in "S" phase and an increases IGFIR expression only in adherent cells. while suspended cell aggregates were resistant to ATII administration; IGFBP3 was reduced both in ATII treated adherent cells and in floating clustered cells, irrespective of the treatmentn. VSMC conditioning in agarose-coated plates before seeding in fibrin provisional matrix reduced, but not abolished, the cell ability to colonize the clot and to produce ECM. This study demonstrates that the elective cell-cell contact induces a quiescent status in cells lacking of cell-matrix interactions and reduces the responsiveness to ATII. Therefore, preserved cell-cell contac may couteract vascular remodeling induced by proatherogenic stimuli.


Mutations can influence patient responses to treatment in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Monitoring such mutations can be critical to guiding treatment decisions, however, accessing sufficient biopsy material for mutation analysis can be challenging. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the plasma offers a robust and highly sensitive approach to identifying mutations. Further, variant allele frequencies (VAFs) in individual mutations represent the number of cancer clones harboring a mutation, thus providing an indicator of tumor burden. Here we evaluated baseline mutation spectrum in genes implicated in cancer for association with clinical outcomes to durvalumab, an anti-PDL1 molecule, and examined changes in VAFs, as a surrogate for tumor burden, after treatment with durvalumab in NSCLC patients. CP1108/NCT01693562 was a nonrandomized phase 1/2 trial evaluating durvalumab in patients with advanced NSCLC or other solid tumors. By 29APR2016, 304 NSCLC pts received 10 mg/kg Q2W of D ≤12 months with median 18.8 months follow up. A panel of 70 genes was assayed for nonsynonymous mutations and copy number (CN) variants using the Guardant360 cancer panel in plasma ctDNA from 115 NSCLC patients pre-treatment and 28 patients pre and 8 weeks post-treatment with durvalumab (Q2W). The mean VAF of all mutations harbored by a patient was correlated with clinical outcomes. Objective response rate (ORR) was calculated according to RECIST v1.1 and a Cox proportional hazards model was calculated adjusting for baseline ECOG, gender, age, smoking status, therapy lines, histology, and number of metastases. Partial responders (PRs) showed a significant decrease (Δ= -2.7%, p=0.005) in ctDNA mean VAF post-treatment with durvalumab (i.e. reduction in tumor burden) compared to an increase in mean VAF (i.e. increase in tumor burden) in progressive disease (PD) patients (Δ=+1.7%, p=0.17). This correlation was also observed in total mutation count in PR (Δ=-5.3, p=0.037) compared to PD patients (Δ=+2.7, p=0.003). In a PD patient, the VAF of T790M EGFR mutation doubled after 6 weeks of durvalumab treatment. Patients with VAFs below the median VAF or no CN gains had longer median overall survival (15.7 months, 95% CI=[11.2,not reached] ) compared to those with VAFs above the median or CN gains (5.1 months 95% CI=[3.8,9.4]; HR=0.29; p=0.0005), even after adjustment for clinical covariates. CtDNA VAFs were consistently reduced in responders but not non-responders after eight weeks of durvalumab. Below median pre-treatment VAFs or no CN gains in ctDNA correlated with longer overall survival in patients treated with durvalumab. Because we examined oncogenes and tumor suppressors, increased VAF in ctDNA of these genes may help to identify aggressive, and difficult to control tumors Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Michael A. Kuziora, Brandon W. Higgs, Philip Brohawn, Rajiv Raja, Koustubh Ranade. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) variant allele frequencies are reduced in responders to durvalumab and low baseline variant allele frequencies are associated with improved overall survival in NSCLC patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 582. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-582


If in the internal area of the States the complexity that wraps the rational use of the waters is enormous, in the actions of international nature the formulation of rules becomes necessary to make possible the harmonious conciliation of particular interests of the involved States. This study aims to analyze the management of transboundary waters of Brazil and Colombia, countries that stand out for their significant water availability and because they share the waters of the Amazon Basin. For this proposal, we intend to analyze the legal framework and institutional arrangements of water resource management specific to these countries, trying to recognize the consistencies and divergences, as well as the challenges and possible improvements in the sustainable management of transboundary waters of Brazil and Colombia, even taking into account the path followed by the two countries regarding the issue, especially around the Amazon Cooperation Treaty.


This article aims to review the implementation of the hafazan in the Ulul Albab program based on gender and the group. The implementation of the hafazan is reviewed from the aspect of time allocation and preparation of the student before performing the Quran recitation. This study involved 120 Form One students at MRS Gemencheh. In conducting this study, several Islamic Education teachers were involved as instructors and mentors for the Tahdhir, Murajaah and Tasmik sessions. A pilot study found that the whole item was at a high level of reliability above 0.8. The findings show that there is no significant difference and interaction effect of time allocation for students in performing the hafazan. Furthermore, the findings show that there is a significant difference in the time allocation of students in performing hafazan based on gender. For students preparation before performing the hafazan, there is no difference and significant interaction effects based on gender and group. Student preparation before performing the hafazan and time allocation is one of the factors that support student achievement.


verapamil treatment on ventricular function and growth in chick embryos. Am. J. Physiol. 261 (Heart Circ. Physiol. 30): Hl66- H171,1991.-Adjustment of myocardial mass to work load is a fundamental characteristic of the heart. We studied the effect of verapamil, a calcium channel blocker, on growth and func- tion of chick embryonic ventricle. We treated stage 18 chick embryos with verapamil delivered to the extraembryonic vas- cular bed by a miniosmotic pump and compared them with saline-treated control and untreated embryos. At stages 24, 27, and 29, we measured ventricular pressure and dP/dt by a servo- null system, dorsal aortic stroke volume and dV/dt by pulsed- Doppler, and ventricular and embryo wet weights. Mean my- ocyte profile area was measured by digital planimetry tech- nique, and cell growth response by DNA and protein assay. Verapamil treatment decreased ventricular pressure in experi- mental (P < 0.05) compared with saline control and normal embryos; at stage 27, 1.59 t 0.21 vs. 2.17 t 0.05 and 2.35 t 0.08 (SE) mmHg, respectively. Mean dorsal aortic blood flow decreased in experimental (P < 0.05) vs. control and normal embryos; at stage 27, 0.98 t 0.07 vs. 1.54 t 0.10 and 1.56 t 0.07 mm"/s, respectively. Stroke volume remained the same in all experimental, normal, and control embryos except at stage 29. Ventricular weight decreased in experimental (P < 0.05) vs. control and normal embryos; at stage 27, 1.09 t 0.07 vs. 1.51 t 0.08 and 1.54 t 0.11 mg, respectively. Embryo weights, myocyte size, and cytoplasmic fractional volume were similar in all groups. Morphology of ventricles was normal. DNA was lower in experimental (P < 0.05) compared with control and normal embryos. Ratio of DNA to total protein was similar in each group at each stage. Thus the smaller experimental heart contained fewer cells of normal size. The capacity to decelerate ventricular growth is present even at early stages of cardiovas- cular development. ventricular pressure; cardiac development; myocardial growth; myocardial hypoplasia HEMODYNAMIC FORCE is one determinant


The current state of EU law reveals an unclear and incoherent approach to the question of its applicability to the Continental Shelf of Member States. The ambiguity in rules of public international law have led to divergences in Commission practice and EU secondary legislation. However, the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union has tentatively led the way towards a functional approach to the territorial scope of the EU Treaties, attached to the sovereignty or jurisdiction of Member States. This position, hinted at in the recent Grand Chamber judgment in Case C-347/10 Salemink but not firmly clarified, is both theoretically and practically justifiable and should be unequivocally embraced by relevant actors in this area. Such an approach would be an important step towards tracing the precise contours of the geographic areas to which EU law applies.


Nowadays many tourism students can not meet the requirement of tourism enterprise.Apart from the gap between colleges and enterprises,the lack of professionalism is the main reason.This thesis is analysis of vocational cultivation of higher,vocational students from four aspect:the denotation,importance,construction,the cultivated means.


The present study focuses on trade‐offs between the development rates and their life‐history traits of feeding larvae. Indeed, quick growth is considered to be vital for necrophagous insects such as larvae because they are part of a rapidly changing ecosystem and at the mercy of many predators. However, excessively quick growth can have a negative effect on other life‐history traits (e.g. survivorship and body size). The blowfly Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae) is used in the present study because this species is frequently found on carcasses in Central Europe and is a well‐known experimental model in insect physiology and ecology. Individuals are reared from first instars to adults at two different constant temperatures (i.e. 15 and 28 °C) and under three different conditions: 100 Lucilia sericata (i.e. small monospecific condition), 250 L. sericata (i.e. large monospecific) or 125 L. sericata + 125 Calliphora vicina (i.e. heterospecific). The development time, pupal and larval survival rate and pupal size are determined individually under each condition. Regarding size and development time, substantial variation is observed between the different growth conditions and within a larval group under the same conditions. However, no trade‐offs between development rate and size or survival are detected. These results demonstrate that, under the range of developmental conditions tested in the present study, the quick development of L. sericata larvae does not affect their size or mortality. This developmental plasticity may explain the evolutionary success of this species, which is present in several ecosystems worldwide and dominates the fresh‐carrion ecosystem.


Developing a reliable and robust underwater acoustic communication system is a difficult task, due to the complicated nature of the underwater channel, non-stationary noise, and a number of other factors. Indeed, channel estimation or equalization presents numerous challenges in this non-stationary, highly Doppler, multipath environment; as a result, traditional equalizers and PLL-based methods have limited performance. Generally, communication over such time-varying channels is accomplished via packets that contain a prefix/preamble signal for training, a payload containing the actual data, and a silent period for proper alignment. The prefix signal must be designed properly because it is used to estimate the channel and also to determine the start of packet. This paper proposes a novel prefix signal based on the hyperbolic chirp signal, where its Doppler invariance properties enable the extraction of the entire packet even when Doppler and severe multipath are present. Additionally, this proposed prefix enables an efficient and accurate method for fully characterising an underwater channel. The proposed prefix signal is used to estimate the multipath delay and amplitude, and different Doppler scales. Extensive simulations using various channel models are used to determine the proposed method robustness and efficacy under a wide range of conditions. Additionally, the proposed algorithm has been validated on a real-world channel.


Digital elevation models were proposed and used as a data source to estimate soil properties. This study evaluated variability of texture and water retention of soils for a gently sloping 3.7-ha field located in the long-term precision farming research site at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, MD. The specific objectives of this research were (i) to characterize variability of water retention across the hillslope, and (ii) determine and describe any correlations of soil water retention with soil texture and surface topography. Soil was sampled along four 30-m transects and in 39 points within the study area. Textural fraction contents, bulk density, and water retention at 0, 2.5, 5.0, 10, 33, 100, 500, and 1500 kPa were measured in samples taken from 4- to 10-cm depth. A 30-m digital elevation model (DEM) was constructed from aerial photography data. Slopes, profile curvatures, and tangential curvatures were computed in grid nodes and interpolated to the sampling locations. Regressions with spatially correlated errors were used to relate water retention and texture to computed topographic variables. Sand, silt, and clay contents depended on slope and curvatures. Soil water retention at 10 and 33 kPa correlated with sand and silt contents. The regression model relating water retention to the topographic variables explained more than 60% of variation in soil water content at 10 and 33 kPa, and only 20% of variation at 100 kPa. Increases in slope values and decreases in tangential curvature values, i.e., less concavity or more convexity across the slope, led to the decreases in water retention at 10 and 33 kPa. Results of this work show a potential for topographic variables to be used in interpretation of field-scale variability of soil properties and, possibly, yield maps in precision agriculture.


Three-dimensional (3D) die-stacking has become a promising way to continue improving the integrated circuits performance. However, the risk of electrostatic discharge (ESD) during the stacking process is not yet fully understood. In this paper, we focus on understanding the electrostatics before the contact moment for the 3D stacking process. Our findings indicate that the stacking process presents a relatively low risk of ESD.


Abstract Exploring the intersection of state, religion, and ethnicity, this article considers the opportunities for individual and collective advancement available to Muslim Gujjars in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. Following the lives of three prominent members of the community—a teacher, a political activist, and a maulvi—it considers their respective orientations to the state and their relationships with their fellow Gujjars, to illustrate the different ways in which Gujjars have sought to transcend their marginal and subordinated position as an ethnic and religious minority. With state-promoted schemes of affirmative action and reservation offering only limited opportunities for social and economic advancement, we see how Gujjars have responded to their continued marginalization, first through political mobilization as an ethnic group and, more recently, through the establishment of Islamic educational institutions and association with Tablighi Jama'at. This leads to an evaluation of the emancipatory potentials and contradictions of insurgent citizenship when mobilized around specific aspects of ethnic and religious identity. Against a backdrop of economic liberalization and accompanying shifts in civil society, I show how the distribution of rewards that derive from strategies of assimilation, engagement, and withdrawal are structured in particular ways, including by class and gender.


Due to the fact that they are used consciously to achieve positive effects on diseases in man, drugs occupy a special position among the large number of substances that affect the cellular structure and function. In view of the basic similarity and/or parallelism of the structural composition and of the metabolic processes of healthy and diseased cells, one can expect effects on the diseased cell and side-effects on healthy cells to form a unity. The aim of any therapy should be to keep the distance between the positive effect and the side-effect as great as possible, which should be examined and carefully weighed in each case. An attempt is made in the present review to examine by giving some examples the problems involved in the cellular effects of drugs and to explain their action. New therapeutic effects can be found and put to use by knowing the cellular site of action.


Results of systematic investigation of the stability of moving solitons and soliton–soliton collisions are reported within the framework of the recently proposed model which is a generalization of the standard model of fiber Bragg gratings (BGs). The new model takes into account dispersion of the Bragg reflectivity, which is relevant for the description of novel optical media, such as BGs on photonic wires, Bragg superstructures, periodic composite waveguides, etc. The stability analysis for moving solitons is necessary because experimental methods create only sufficiently fast solitons in fiber BGs. We demonstrate that the dispersive reflectivity expands the stability region for the solitons, while unstable solitons are transformed into persistent breathers. The parameter region which admits the merger of colliding solitons into a single one also gets much broader under the action of the dispersive reflectivity, and new outcomes of the collision become possible, which are absent in the standard BG model: elastic bounce of the solitons and an inelastic reaction generating three solitons out of two.


Wake control by boundary layer suction has been applied to a high-lift low-pressure turbine blade with the intention of reducing the wake velocity defect, hence attenuating wake-blade interaction, and consequently the generation of tonal noise. The experimental investigation has been performed in a large scale linear turbine cascade at midspan. Two Reynolds number conditions (Re = 300000 and Re = 100000), representative of the typical operating conditions of the low pressure aeroengine turbines, have been analyzed. Boundary layer suction has been implemented through a slot placed in the rear part of the profile suction side. The suction rate has been varied in order to investigate its influence on the wake reduction. Mean velocity and Reynolds stress components in the blade to blade plane have been measured by means of a two-component crossed miniature hot-wire. The wake shed from the central blade has been investigated in several traverses in the direction normal to the camber line at the cascade exit. The traverses are located at distances ranging between 5 and 80% of the blade chord from the blade trailing edge. To get an overall estimate of the wake velocity defect reductions obtained by the application of boundary layer suction, the integral parameters of the wake have been also estimated. Moreover, spectra of the velocity fluctuations have been evaluated to get information on the unsteady behaviour of the wake flow when boundary layer suction is applied. The results obtained in the wake controlled by boundary layer suction have been compared with the results in the baseline profile wake at both Reynolds number conditions for the purpose of evaluating the control technique effectiveness. The removal of boundary layer through the slot in the rear part of the profile suction side has been proved to be very effective in reducing the wake shed from the profile. The results show that a reduction greater than 65% of the wake displacement and momentum thicknesses at Re = 300000, and a reduction greater than 75% at Re = 100000 can be achieved by removal of 1.5% and 1.8% of the single passage through flow, respectively.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


Reproducible way to grow high quality complex oxide thin films by means of pulsed laser deposition is addressed. Laser ablation conditions are the most essential ones to be controlled precisely because it directly relates to cation ratio of deposited thin films. In some specific case, substrate temperature and gas pressure also become important to control the film composition. Film quality is tightly correlated to the thin film stoichiometry.


Federated learning (FL) enables multiple clients to train a machine learning model collaboratively without exchanging their local data. Federated unlearning is an inverse FL process that aims to remove a specified target client's contribution in FL to satisfy the user's right to be forgotten. Most existing federated unlearning algorithms require the server to store the history of the parameter updates, which is not applicable in scenarios where the server storage resource is constrained. In this paper, we propose a simple-yet-effective subspace based federated unlearning method, dubbed SFU, that lets the global model perform gradient ascent in the orthogonal space of input gradient spaces formed by other clients to eliminate the target client's contribution without requiring additional storage. Specifically, the server first collects the gradients generated from the target client after performing gradient ascent, and the input representation matrix is computed locally by the remaining clients. We also design a differential privacy method to protect the privacy of the representation matrix. Then the server merges those representation matrices to get the input gradient subspace and updates the global model in the orthogonal subspace of the input gradient subspace to complete the forgetting task with minimal model performance degradation. Experiments on MNIST, CIFAR10, and CIFAR100 show that SFU outperforms several state-of-the-art (SOTA) federated unlearning algorithms by a large margin in various settings.


The extreme characteristics of long wave run-up are studied in this paper. First we give a brief overview of the existing theory which is mainly based on the hodograph transformation (Carrier & Greenspan, 1958). Then, using numerical simulations, we build on the work of Stefanakis et al. (2011) for an infinite sloping beach and we find that resonant run-up amplification of monochromatic waves is robust to spectral perturbations of the incoming wave and resonant regimes do exist for certain values of the frequency. In the setting of a finite beach attached to a constant depth region, resonance can only be observed when the incoming wavelength is larger than the distance from the undisturbed shoreline to the seaward boundary. Wavefront steepness is also found to play a role in wave run-up, with steeper waves reaching higher run-up values.


This study examined how migration decisions are made in the context of development during emerging adulthood. Thirty-two Chinese migrant women workers aged 18–29 years were individually interviewed on their decision-making process when they migrated for the first time. Their main reasons for "going out" were family poverty, dislike of the hard work on the farm, disinterest in continuing school, and the appeal of city life. Going out was typically part of a family strategy that would benefit other family members, and all the young women sent money home, but they also wanted a better life and a broader range of opportunities for themselves. The young women's accounts revealed a balance between their enhanced sense of autonomy as a consequence of migration and their traditional beliefs in family obligation. These results will help bring attention to Chinese migrant women workers, who are migrating in vast numbers but are greatly underrepresented in psychological studies.


The authors argue in this article that the main dimensions to be considered regarding the implementation of the Responsibility to Protect in Latin America and the Caribbean are the preventive dimension and, eventually the rebuilding dimension. The preventive dimension of the Responsibility to Protect cannot be dissociated from a general strategy of armed or violent conflict prevention, and should not be focused only in the prevention of mass atrocities. In the framework of the juridical and cultural legacy of the region, special attention should be directed to avoid considering the reactive dimension of RtoP, as well-embedded principles of national sovereignty, non-intervention and regional peaceful resolution of disputes obstruct any attempt of external intervention, even if they are related to international community initiatives. In this regard, the authors argue that the traditional role of regional organisations and mechanisms in peaceful resolution of inter-state conflicts, should be deepened, combined and coordinated with civil society initiatives, in the implementation of RtoP. The role of civil society organisations and networks should be strengthened through an increasing capacity building process, which includes developing skills and capacities to address both prevention and early warning, and which ought to be based on research, education and networking.


To examine if the use of heat at home can result in better quality and safer mobility in the elderly with gait and balance impairments.
Setting: Randomized longitudinal cross over study design in a clinical setting.
Methods: 20 people with impaired mobility (assessed as a score of more than 4 on the Stepping On questionnaire) were tested with a multi-camera gait analysis system, a treadmill with pressure sensors, a balance platform and the timed up and go and walking speed tests before and after using ThermaCare continuous heat wraps on their legs and knees for 6 days at 4 hours per day. The loss in mobility could not be due to pain killers or other drugs that reduced mobility.
Results: Muscle tremor was reduced, mobility of the joints was improved, balance was significantly improved, and gait was improved after 6 sessions of heat application on the legs. As per the literature, this should reduce the chance of falls in this population.
Conclusion: Using continuous heat wraps may be an important adjunct for improving gait in the elderly with gait impairments.


Solid-state qubits from paramagnetic point defects in solids are promising platforms to realize quantum networks and novel nanoscale sensors. Recent advances in materials engineering make it possible to create proximate qubits in solids that might interact with each other, leading to electron spin or charge fluctuation. Here we develop a method to calculate the tunneling-mediated charge diffusion between point defects from first principles and apply it to nitrogen-vacancy (NV) qubits in diamond. The calculated tunneling rates are in quantitative agreement with previous experimental data. Our results suggest that proximate neutral and negatively charged NV defect pairs can form a NV-NV molecule. A tunneling-mediated model for the source of decoherence of the near-surface NV qubits is developed based on our findings on the interacting qubits in diamond.


The continued prevalence of poverty throughout the world keeps its alleviation as a central objective of economic development. Strategies for reducing poverty have begun to pay more attention to the relationship between environmental degradation and poverty. This two-way relationship is a significant one. Environmental degradation contributes to poverty through worsened health and by constraining the productivity of those resources upon which the poor rely, and poverty restricts the poor to act in ways that are damaging to the environment. In addition, demographic factors can be involved in complex ways; high growth rates are associated with poverty, and directly exacerbate problems of environmental degradation. This paper will address several of the links among poverty, population, and the environment. It first addresses the impact of environmental degradation on the poor's health and productivity. Next, it analyzes the proposition that the poor have short horizons, the circumstances that contribute to this, and the consequences for the environment. The impact of population dynamics on the environment is considered in terms of three dimensions: scale, rate of growth, and migration. The final section turns to the broad policy implications of the preceding discussion.


Objective: Achieving tumor free margins in a single surgery is the primary goal for breast conserving therapy (BCT). It is not uncommon for these patients to undergo more than one operation for positive margins. Within our patient population, lumpectomies requiring re-excision had gross pathological findings that could have warranted further margin excision at the index surgery. Materials and methods: 579 patients who underwent lumpectomy were reviewed retrospectively from 2010 to 2017. 478 cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) were included. 91 patients underwent re-excision. Gross specimen findings that came within 2mm margins for DCIS and ink-on-tumor for IDC were considered potentially avoidable re-excisions based on the Society of Surgical Oncology-American Society for Radiation Oncology Consensus Guideline on margins. 35 cases of 91 re-excisions were found to have positive margins on gross pathologic evaluation. Results and conclusion: The re-excision rate from 2010 to 2017 was calculated to be 19% with an average of 11 women each year. 38% of these patients had grossly positive margins. The re-excision rate according to types of histopathology was 28% for DCIS, 55% for IDC, and 53% for combined DCIS-IDC. The re-excision rate for BCT is 25% in the US. Re-excision surgery has the potential for added discomfort, surgical complications, increased health care cost, and additional emotional stress for patients. Our re-excision rate could have been reduced from 19% to 12%, by over one-third, if intra-operative pathology consultation had been utilized, with the highest impact in patients with IDC and combined DCIS-IDC.


In some applications of ray tracing, it is useful to know the behavior of certain ray-related quantities under a transformation of the variable of path parameterization. One such quantity is the Jacobian of the mapping between small regions surrounding two points on a ray path. A narrow bundle of rays emanating from a point source in an inhomogeneous, anisotropic propagation environment is considered. The mapping between a small region surrounding a reference point on an interior ray of the bundle, and the corresponding region surrounding an observation point on the same ray, is investigated. The Jacobian of the mapping is studied as a function of an arbitrary path parameter, and a new relation expressing the behavior of the Jacobian under a transformation of the parameter is derived.


It is well known that the tendency of the smart grid constructing is more reliable, secure and efficient. Advancement in power electronics technology provides an important approach for such purpose. Therefore, this paper studied on the application of advanced power electronics in smart grid. The demand of a smart grid for advanced power electronics technology and the research and development trend of advanced power electronic technology was introduced firstly. Then the principle of power electronics technology and its applications in smart grid was presented, with emphasis on the application of FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems) technology, HVDC (high voltage DC Direct Current) transmission system technology and power quality technology in smart grid. The security, efficiency and reliability of that smart grid, which had applied advanced power electronics were evaluated. The result shows that application of the advanced power electronic technology can strengthen and optimize the grid, ensure the safety of power grid stability and promote the utilization of renewable energy.


Koa (Acacia koa) trees are native to the islands of Hawaii but occur nowhere else in the world. It is the most important timber species for the manufacture of wood products in Hawaii and one of the most valuable species worldwide. Most koa trees harvested today are standing dead or are already on the ground (relic logs). Lumber recovery in milling koa is very low  about 20% of the koa log is recovered as lumber. Wounds, broken out limbs, and branch crotches provide visual indication of the likely existence of decay inside the koa tree, but the extent of this decay is highly variable and difficult to predict. The challenge for timber sellers and buyers is to form a reasonable estimation of the degree of decay and the volume of the log that is affected. One tool that has had some success in predicting wood quality, measures the time-offlight (TOF) of stress waves and may offer insights into the trees" decay. The objective of this preliminary study was to evaluate the relationship between TOF stress-wave data and corresponding decay observations to determine the feasibility of using this technology on koa. TOF data was collected at three heights and in two directions per height on eight standing koa trees at a single harvest site on the Island of Hawaii. TOF data also was collected from the butt logs of these trees after felling. The variability in the TOF results was large among trees, ranging from 246 to 2092 meters per second. The correlation between tree TOF and butt log TOF and lumber recovery was high. The correlation between tree TOF and the visible decay area on the large end of the butt log also was significant. Tree TOF and small-end decay area for the butt log were not significantly correlated. The feasibility of using TOF to predict the value potential of the lumber sawn from the butt log of a koa tree is uncertain – while lumber volume recovery was correlated with TOF, the decay proportions of the lumber products recovered were not found to be correlated. The lack of correlation between TOF and lumber soundness may be the result of the technique used in mapping the quality characteristics of the lumber where only one side of each piece was diagrammed due to time constraints. To produce quality lumber from these logs, the sawing pattern may have excluded any decay areas, thus resulting in lower volume recovery, which was correlated with TOF.


Learning Object technology is being considered as the natural form of content re-use that will considerably decrease the cost of developing electronic learning (educational) material. The focus of my research is evaluating and tracking the actual use made of learning objects, metadata and their associated toolsets in Learning Object Repositories. This will enable users and tools to learn from the way users use learning objects and technology in general, and hereby, improve the use of learning objects and their associated toolsets.


This paper examines the possibility of using derivative-based optimization algorithms for automatic calibration of conceptual rainfall-runoff models with threshold structures. A method is discussed for explicit computation of the derivatives based on an analysis of the modality of behavior present in such models. In the method the threshold structures are not replaced by smoothing functions, thereby preserving the conceptual integrity of these models. The discussion includes a theoretical analysis of a single linear reservoir (with threshold) model which provides some insights into the issue of threshold parameter identifiability. Simulation study comparisons of the Newton (derivative based) and the Simplex (direct search) optimization algorithms indicate that the former is more efficient, especially when the number of parameters to be optimized is large. However, the results indicate that careful study of the issues related to model identifiability is required if any significant progress is to be achieved in the area of automatic calibration of conceptual rainfall-runoff models.


ABSTRACT Based on Robert Merton's typology of social deviance and his distinction between manifest and latent functions, this article explores the nature and consequences of deliberately-engineered innovation in the modern world. The substitution of spontaneous scientific and technological innovations by engineered ones through institutions created for that purpose represents itself a major innovation of the XX century. However, celebratory accounts of this innovation neglect the process of reverse causality created by it, impacting deeper levels of the culture and social structure of affected societies throughout the world. This process can have both positive and negative consequences, including the substitution of real innovations for apparent ones and the mass displacement of communities and workers linked to earlier technologies and practices. These often unintended consequences of deliberately-engineered innovation are discussed and their implications for individuals and for the social order identified.


Though leisure researchers have, in recent years, show a growing interest in the Hispanic1 community, most of the research conducted has focused almost exclusively on the leisure experiences among Mexican Americans or Hispanics from Central America. The purpose of the investigation was to explore the impact of immigration on the leisure experiences of a selected group of South American immigrants living in the United States. This investigation was based on a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews of 9 females and 8 males. Analysis of the interview data revealed changes in the immigrants' lifestyles after migrating to the United States. Some of these behavioral changes were observed in the participants' socialization patterns, in their views about work, and in their perception of time. These changes had an impact on the individuals' leisure experiences, and recreation participation. The findings strongly suggest that during the informants' adjustment process, social class was a more important indicator for behavioral changes than ethnicity. These results reinforce past findings in that social class plays an important role in individuals leisure behavior (Floyd & Gramman, 1993; Floyd, McGuire, Noe, & Shinew, 1994).


Abstract MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in growth, development, stress resilience, and epigenetic modifications of plants. However, the effect of calcium (Ca2+) deficiency on miRNA expression in the orphan crop tef ( Eragrostis tef) remains unknown. In this study, we analyzed expression of miRNAs in roots and shoots of tef in response to Ca2+ treatment. miRNA‐seq followed by bioinformatic analysis allowed us to identify a large number of small RNAs (sRNAs) ranging from 17 to 35 nt in length. A total of 1380 miRNAs were identified in tef experiencing long‐term Ca2+ deficiency while 1495 miRNAs were detected in control plants. Among the miRNAs identified in this study, 161 miRNAs were similar with those previously characterized in other plant species and 348 miRNAs were novel, while the remaining miRNAs were uncharacterized. Putative target genes and their functions were predicted for all the known and novel miRNAs that we identified. Based on gene ontology (GO) analysis, the predicted target genes are known to have various biological and molecular functions including calcium uptake and transport. Pairwise comparison of differentially expressed miRNAs revealed that some miRNAs were specifically enriched in roots or shoots of low Ca2+‐treated plants. Further characterization of the miRNAs and their targets identified in this study may help in understanding Ca2+ deficiency responses in tef and related orphan crops.


Background: to evaluate the effect of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF) on fertility outcomes in women with unexplained infertility after intra uterine insemination (IUI).Methods: The patients with unexplained infertility were divided into two groups: one group was received GCSF in their IUI cycle and the other group had the routine IUI. Both groups were stimulated by letrozole, metformin and monotropin during the cycle. When at least one follicle was greater than 18mm, 5000 IU hCG intramuscularly was administered for ovulation induction and IUI was performed 34-36 hours later. In intervention group, 300 ug GCSF subcutaneously administrated in two days after IUI. The main outcome measures were biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, abortion rate and live birth rate.Results: There was no significant difference in demographic and clinical characteristics between the control group and the G-CSF group. Also, no statistically significant difference was identified in the biochemical pregnancy rates (16.3% vs 12.2%), clinical pregnancy rates(16.3% vs 8.2%), abortion rates (0 vs 2.04%) and live birth rates (8.2% vs 14.2%) between the control group and the G-CSF group (P=0.56, P=0.21, p=0.55 and p=0.32 respectively). Conclusion: Systemic administration of a single dose of 300 μg GCSF subcutaneously two days after IUI may slightly improve clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate in patients with unexplained infertility. Nevertheless, our findings do not support routine use of G-CSF in unexplained infertility women with normal endometrial thickness. IRCT registration number: IRCT20160524028038N4.


A new approach for the linear conversion of temperature to time period using standard thermistors is described. The major advantages of the proposed converters are high sensitivity, simplicity and very good linearity. Analytical expressions for system performance are given and verified experimentally. A nonlinearity error of less than +or-0.002 K over a range of 10 K is obtained.


A low-latency, high-throughput tree architecture is proposed. This architecture implements both the full-search block-matching algorithm and the three-step hierarchical search algorithm in motion estimation. Owing to the simple and modular properties, the proposed architecture is suitable for VLSI implementation. Furthermore, it can be decomposed into subtrees to reduce hardware cost and pin count. The memory interleaving and the pipeline interleaving are also employed to enhance memory bandwidth and to use the pipeline 100%. Theoretical calculations and simulation results are presented to show the attractive performance. >


Abstract : A comparison of the spectra of nuclear shots detonated below and above the water table (WT) is made by analysis of mostly the regional phase Pn recorded at two common stations. Parameters derived from each record include estimates of corner frequency F sub c and the low-frequency spectral level A sub 0, after the spectra have been corrected for the effects of spatial attenuation. The time-domain measurements of A/T, a measure of m sub b, are also made on each observed record. Results from 22 Nevada Test Site (NTS) shots recorded at the DWWSSN digital station, JAS, indicate that plots of f sub c versus A sub 0 show some separation between the below and above WT populations whereas plots of f sub c versus A/T show no significant separation. For a fixed yield, f sub c for shots below and above WT are nearly indistinguishable whereas both A sub 0 and A/T are considerably larger for shots below WT than for those above WT, presumably due to improved source coupling of shots in water saturated environment. A comparison of yields estimated from A sub 0, A/T, A sub 0 combined with f sub c, and A/T combined with f sub c demonstrates that substantially more precise yield determinations can be made if it is known whether the shot was detonated above or below WT. Results from the analysis of 17 NTS shots recorded at the RSTN station, RSSD are generally not as well defined but appear similar to those from the JAS recordings. The largest difference between the below and above WT shots of a given yield lies in their low-frequency spectral level and, to a slightly smaller extent, in their M sub b values.