In a consecutive series of 328 carotid endarterectomies there were two cases of postoperative intracerebral hemorrhage. The patients with transient ischemic attacks and subsequent major cerebral infarction had repair of their very tight carotid stenosis. Each developed intracerebral hemorrhage after a symptom free interval and hypertension was uncontrolled during the postoperative period. Hypertension is a significant complication of carotid endarterectomy and may be a prominent factor in the development of intracerebral hemorrhage after carotid endarterectomy. Also defective cerebrovascular autoregulation in chronic ischemic brain regions may predispose patients to intracerebral hemorrhage.


This paper presents a methodology for the automatic detection of sub-optimal performance in UMTS networks based on drive-test measurements. The proposed methodology can be seen as a first step towards the more ambitious objective of implementing Self-Organising Network (SON) concepts in future wireless networks. In fact, the lessons learnt from real UMTS case studies enable the identification of key issues related to self-optimisation whose relevance can be more difficult to attain theoretically. In particular, this paper presents algorithms targeting the identification of coverage holes, cell overlaps and cell overshooting. Relevant quality indicators are identified in each case. A case study with real data extracted from a medium-size European city is presented to illustrate the methodology.


Ultrasound findings in four newborn infants with neurological abnormalities and abnormal facies are described. The ultrasound images are compared with the images achieved by computerized tomography and with the findings at postmortem in 3 of the patients. Accurate neuroanatomical diagnosis confirmed by CT and/or autopsy findings is demonstrated in all 4 cases. It is concluded that ultrasound, particularly using an automated water path scanner, is a viable alternative in the investigation of brain malformation in the neonate.


The surrounding environment plays an important role in communities as living in a good environment can improve the health cycle, increase the quality of life and provide sustainable development for the country. The rapid growth of the human population has led to the increasing demand for infrastructure development and the construction sector in Malaysia. This overview of environmental management practice for construction in Malaysia has reviewed the overall structure of environmental management for the construction site in Malaysia. Construction management is covered in this review report, including construction waste generation, construction waste management, government bodies, government policy, the current status of the environment in Malaysia, challenges, future prospects, and other environmental considerations of environmental management practice for construction in Malaysia. Besides, the detailed guideline and orders for construction waste, effluence discharge, noise pollution, vibration, and emission release from construction in Malaysia have been reviewed and stated in this report. Lastly, a recommendation for strengthening the enforcement of law and regulation for environmental management practice to comply has been included in the conclusion of this report to overcome the challenges faced for sustainable construction development in Malaysia.


The set theory of fuzzy has been introduced to the network education evaluation in order to determine the grade standard and weights of performance evaluating indicator. And the implementation of network education evaluation is discussed.


A comprehensive structural analysis of amlodipine and certain related compounds was performed by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Triple quadrupole and quadrupole time-of-flight instruments were used to provide collision-induced dissociation and accurate mass measurement for selected product and second-generation product ions. A unique ion rearrangement was observed, which was found to be characteristic of certain dihydropyridines. This study provides a fundamental understanding of the fragmentation of these compounds. The structural elucidation of an unknown impurity is presented as an example.


The floral anatomical characters in 22 species of Crassulaceae (including nine genera) were investigated. We noticed the presence of vascular complexes in all the studied taxa. These complexes represent fused vascular traces of two entities either radially of the same whorl (as the fused ventral carpellary traces complex) or neighboring tangentially of two or more successive whorls (as the petal median-antepetalous stamen, petal median-dorsal carpellary-nectary scale vascular complex). Theses fused vascular complexes are considered as advanced case. Except in five taxa, the sepal is three-traced; one median and two marginal in the remaining taxa. The marginal bundles show a great diversification in their origin. The petal is one-traced, originates independently in few cases or conjoint with the antepetalous stamen bundles in many cases. The stamen is one-traced, two whorls of bundles; the antepetalous whorl (usually originates with the petal bundle) and the inner antesepalous whorl (the bundles of which originate either from the central stele or conjoint with the lateral carpellary and nectary scale traces in a complex). The carpel is five-traced in all the studied taxa; one dorsal, two ventral and two laterals. Such a case is referred to as a primitive case. The nectary scales supplied each by a number of traces. Such traces usually originate with the dorsal carpellary-petal median-antepetalus stamen traces in a complex. The nectary scales are referred to as of foliar nature. Based on both the source and number of whorls of vascular traces, the studied taxa could be grouped under four groups and nine subgroups. Such grouping proved to be more distinctive. A core position was suggested for the genus Kalanchoe, and the two studied Sedum are more advanced species.


Growth ring parameters obtained by X-ray densitometry, modulus of elasticity, bending strength, compressive strength, and shear strength of 138 Japanese larch trees belonging to 23 provenances were studied to examine the effects of growth ring parameters on mechanical properties. The considered growth ring parameters were ring width, average wood density within a ring, earlywood density, latewood density, and latewood percentage. The strength properties of the small clear specimens, particularly in the outerwood, were strongly affected by wood density. Among the growth ring parameters studied, earlywood density had a major effect on average wood density in the corewood, whereas the effect of latewood percentage on average wood density was greatest in the outerwood. Compared with the other growth ring parameters, average wood density was more stable from the juvenile to mature stage, and is considered to be a reliable index of wood quality in early selection.


The highly dynamic nature of the marine environment can have a substantial influence on the foraging behaviour and spatial distribution of marine predators, particularly in pelagic marine systems. However, knowledge of the susceptibility of benthic marine predators to environmental variability is limited. This study investigated the influence of local-scale environmental conditions and large-scale climate indices on the spatial distribution and habitat use in the benthic foraging Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus; AUFS). Female AUFS provisioning pups were instrumented with GPS or ARGOS platform terminal transmitter tags during the austral winters of 2001–2019 at Kanowna Island, south-eastern Australia. Individuals were most susceptible to changes in the Southern Oscillation Index that measures the strength of the El Niño Southern Oscillation, with larger foraging ranges, greater distances travelled and more dispersed movement associated with 1-yr lagged La Niña-like conditions. Additionally, the total distance travelled was negatively correlated with the current year sea surface temperature and 1-yr lagged Indian Ocean Dipole, and positively correlated with 1-yr lagged chlorophyll-a concentration. These results suggest that environmental variation may influence the spatial distribution and availability of prey, even within benthic marine systems.


A novel controlled drug release system based on pH sensitive polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanoflowers in different kinds of solvents was successfully prepared with azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as the initiator and without any emulsifier or stabilizer by a one step static polymerization method. The composition and structure of the PAN nanoflowers were analyzed by FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM, and laser particle size analysis. The polymer particles consisted of a number of lamellae, with a sheet thickness of about 10 nm, and were similar to the shape of flowers with a particle diameter of about 350 nm. The mechanism of the polymerization reaction and the formation were studied. Moreover, the effects of monomer ratio, initiator concentration, reaction time, dispersion medium and co-monomer on the morphology and particle size of the nanoflowers were also discussed. A relatively large specific surface area was formed during the formation of the nanoflowers, which favored drug adsorption. The results of the in vitro experiments revealed that PAN(TBP) nanoflowers, containing BSA in buffer solution of pH 7.4, demonstrated good sustained-release and the cumulative release rate was about 83% after 260 h. The results also showed that the sustained-release from the PAN(TBP) nanoflowers best fitted the Riger-Peppas model. This study indicated that PAN(TBP) nanoflowers provided a theoretical base for the development of carriers for sustainable drug-release.


Recent studies on pre-trained language models have demonstrated their ability to capture factual knowledge and applications in knowledge-aware downstream tasks. In this work, we present a language model pre-training framework guided by factual knowledge completion and verification, and use the generative and discriminative approaches cooperatively to learn the model. Particularly, we investigate two learning schemes, named two-tower scheme and pipeline scheme, in training the generator and discriminator with shared parameter. Experimental results on LAMA, a set of zero-shot cloze-style question answering tasks, show that our model contains richer factual knowledge than the conventional pre-trained language models. Furthermore, when fine-tuned and evaluated on the MRQA shared tasks which consists of several machine reading comprehension datasets, our model achieves the state-of-the-art performance, and gains large improvements on NewsQA (+1.26 F1) and TriviaQA (+1.56 F1) over RoBERTa.


Background Dengue disease is a leading cause of illness and death in the tropics and subtropics. Most severe cases occur among patients secondarily infected with a different dengue virus (DENV) serotype compared with that from the first infection, resulting in antibody-dependent enhancement activity (ADE). Our previous study generated the neutralizing human monoclonal antibody, D23-1B3B9 (B3B9), targeting the first domain II of E protein, which showed strong neutralizing activity (NT) against all four DENV serotypes. However, at sub-neutralizing concentrations, it showed ADE activity in vitro. Methods In this study, we constructed a new expression plasmid using the existing IgG heavy chain plasmid as a template for Fc modification at position N297Q by site-directed mutagenesis. The resulting plasmid was then co-transfected with a light chain plasmid to produce full recombinant IgG (rIgG) in mammalian cells (N297Q-B3B9). This rIgG was characterized for neutralizing and enhancing activity by using different FcγR bearing cells. To produce sufficient quantities of B3B9 rIgG for further characterization, CHO-K1 cells stably secreting N297Q-B3B9 rIgG were then established. Results The generated N297Q-B3B9 rIgG which targets the conserved N-terminal fusion loop of DENV envelope protein showed the same cross-neutralizing activity to all four DENV serotypes as those of wild type rIgG. In both FcγRI- and RII-bearing THP-1 cells and FcγRII-bearing K562 cells, N297Q-B3B9 rIgG lacked ADE activity against all DENV serotypes at sub-neutralizing concentrations. Fortunately, the N297Q-B3B9 rIgG secreted from stable cells showed the same patterns of NT and ADE activities as those of the N297Q-B3B9 rIgG obtained from transient expression against DENV2. Thus, the CHO-K1 stably expressing N297Q-B3B9 HuMAb can be developed as high producer stable cells and used to produce sufficient amounts of antibody for further characterization as a promising dengue therapeutic candidate. Discussion Human monoclonal antibody, targeted to fusion loop of envelope domainII (EDII), was generated and showed cross-neutralizing activity to 4 serotypes of DENV, but did not cause any viral enhancement activity in vitro. This HuMAb could be further developed as therapeutic candidates.


The solution of linear inverse problems when the unknown parameters outnumber data requires addressing the problem of a nontrivial null space. After restating the problem within the Bayesian framework, a priori information about the unknown can be utilized for determining the null space contribution to the solution. More specifically, if the solution of the associated linear system is computed by the Conjugate Gradient for Least Squares (CGLS) method, the additional information can be encoded in the form of a right preconditioner. In this paper we study how the right preconditioned changes the Krylov subspaces where the CGLS iterates live, and draw a tighter connection between Bayesian inference and Krylov subspace methods. The advantages of a Krylov-meet-Bayes approach to the solution of underdetermined linear inverse problems is illustrated with computed examples.


We numerically demonstrate for the first time that dispersion management and in-line nonlinear optical loop mirrors can achieve all-optical passive regeneration and distance-unlimited transmission of a soliton data stream at 40 Gbit/s over standard fibre.


Abstract The microbicidal effect of a monoclonal antiidiotypic antibody, mimicking the activity of a yeast killer toxin, characterized by a wide antimicrobial spectrum, has been evaluated in vitro against two relevant species of protozoan parasites, Leishmania major and Leishmania infantum. The antiidiotypic antibody exerted a significant and dose-dependent antileishmanial activity against parasite promastigotes in comparison to an irrelevant isotype-matched monoclonal antibody. This is the first demonstration that an antibody, which had been already shown to be fungicidal and bactericidal, may also exert a direct microbicidal activity against protozoa.


Preoperative adjuvant chemotherapy for skeletal and soft tissue sarcomas requires: (1) correct identification of the effective postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy, (2) eradication of any of the micrometastatic foci that may have already occurred in many of the patients with these sarcomas, (3) easier and safer limb-salvage procedure, being clearly defined, with shrinkage of the primary lesion. For this purpose, a preoperative adjuvant chemotherapy regimen making practical use of intra-arterial CDDP (cis-dichlorodiammineplatinum II) infusion is desired in multi-drug combined chemotherapeutic treatment, including HDMTX (high-dose methotrexate), ADR (adriamycin) and CDDP. In this paper, the clinical application of preoperative adjuvant chemotherapy to skeletal and soft tissue sarcomas with combination of HDMTX and CDDP is presented in the light of the observations of tumor response to these anticancer agents, and the possibility of to establishing a new preoperative adjuvant protocol is discussed.


Land abandonment is increasing as human influence on the globe intensifies and various ecological, social, and economic factors conspire to force the cessation of agriculture and other forms of land management. The "old fields" that result from abandonment have been the subject of much study, yet few attempts have been made to examine the larger questions raised by old field dynamics."Old Fields" brings together leading experts from around the world to synthesize past and current work on old fields, providing an up-to-date perspective on the ecological dynamics of abandoned land. The book gives readers a broad understanding of why agricultural land is abandoned, the factors that determine the ecological recovery of old fields, and how this understanding contributes to theoretical and applied ecology.Twelve case studies from diverse geographical and climatic areas - including Australian rainforest, Brazilian Amazonia, New Jersey piedmont, and South African renosterveld - offer a global perspective on the causes and results of land abandonment. Concluding chapters consider the similarities and differences among the case studies, examine them in the context of ecological concepts, and discuss their relevance to the growing field of restoration ecology."Old Fields" is the first book to draw together studies on old fields from both a theoretical and practical perspective. It represents an important contribution to the development of theory on old field dynamics and the practice of ecological restoration on abandoned farmland, and the broader implications of old field dynamics to ecology and restoration.


In order to achieve status identification of rolling bearing at early fault stage under variable speed conditions, a method called IEWT-based enhanced envelope order spectrum is proposed by improving empirical wavelet transform (IEWT) using cuckoo search algorithm (CSA) and combing IEWT with the compute order tracking (COT) approach and singular value ratio spectrum (SVRS) denoising technology. The inherent deficiencies of traditional EWT limit its application in fault signal processing significantly. In order to address this issue, the support interval of an empirical wavelet is adaptively determined by CSA to ensure the accuracy of signal decomposition, and an IEWT method is proposed. For a given bearing fault signal under fluctuating speed conditions, firstly COT is utilized as a preprocessing technology to convert the original time domain signal into the resampled angle domain signal without special hardware. Then, IEWT is used to separate the informative component effectively from the resampled signal. Due to the weak features and the heavy noises in the early fault signal, IEWT is unable to remove the whole interference contained in the separated component directly. Thus, SVRS denoising technology is applied on the envelope signal of the separated signal to further enhance the potential impulsive features and suppress the residual noises. Finally, the fault type of rolling bearing can be determined by analyzing the obtained enhanced envelope order spectrum. Both the simulated and the experimental signals are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, and the comparisons between the proposed method and the EEWT, the EMD, and the spectral kurtosis methods are carried out. The results indicate the proposed method possesses significant advantages in bearing weak fault diagnosis under variable speed condition.


We briefly summarize a perspective on high-temperature oxide superconductors (HTC) as systems of intrinsic, functional, and connected spatial scales, with an associated set of temporal scales. We emphasize the importance of local bonding constraints, leading to a framework of coexisting short- and long-range fields, as the source of multiscale systems in HTC and many other strongly correlated materials.


A survey was carried out of the birth dates of Red deer calves born in zoological gardens throughout the world in an attempt to assess the effects of latitude on the timing of conception. The results showed that Red deer in the Northern Hemisphere calve at a similar time of the year irrespective of latitude, and that there is no increase in the length of the calving season as the equator is approached; south of the equator, calving is shifted by six months. Populations living at similar latitudes can show small variations of up to two weeks between the median calving dates.


Abstract
To investigate the effective parameters and simulate the conditions under which sediments are transported in ephemeral rivers and compare it to perennial rivers a series of experiments were performed in a laboratory flume. The hydrodynamic equations were solved for initial and boundary conditions using numerical method. Triangle hydrographs with time duration of 40, 60 and 80 seconds and five different flow rates for each situation were considered. Three slopes of 0.006, 0.014 and 0.018 were selected. A fine and uniform sand with d50 of 1.5, 2.1 and 3 mm from river materials was used as the mobile bed. Clean water (with no sediment) was used. The results of 85 experiments showed that the bed slope was the most important parameter in sediment transportation and it could be used for predicting the sediment transport. The base time of hydrograph was also found to have an effective role in sediment transport, and the results showed that by increasing the base time the transported sediment was decreased. The bed form had a big role on the flow resistance and also affected the sediment transport. The sediment ratio of unsteady to steady flow found in this research was found to be similar with those of Tun Lee.

Key words: Ephemeral rivers, Perennial rivers, Bed load, Sediment


Diacylglycerol kinase ε (DGKε), an enzyme of the phosphatidylinositol (PI) cycle, bears a highly conserved hydrophobic N-terminal segment, which was proposed to anchor the enzyme into the membrane. However, the importance of this segment to the DGKε function remains to be determined. To address this question, it is here reported an in silico and in vitro combined research strategy. Capitalizing on the AlphaFold 2.0 predicted structure of human DGKε, it is shown that its hydrophobic N-terminal segment anchors it into the membrane via a transmembrane α-helix. Coarse-grained based elastic network model studies showed that a conformational change in the hydrophobic N-terminal segment determines the proximity between the active site of DGKε and the membrane-water interface, likely regulating its kinase activity. In vitro studies with a purified DGKε construct lacking the hydrophobic N-terminal segment (His-SUMO*-Δ50-DGKε) corroborated the role of the N-terminus in regulating DGKε enzymatic properties. The comparison between the enzymatic properties of DGKε and His-SUMO*-Δ50-DGKε showed that the conserved N-terminal segment markedly inhibits the enzyme activity and its sensitivity to membrane intrinsic negative curvature, while also playing a role in the modulation of the enzyme by phosphatidylserine. On the other hand, this segment did not strongly affect its diacylglycerol acyl chain specificity, the modulation of the enzyme by membrane morphological changes, or the activation by phosphatidic acid-rich lipid domains. Hence, these results suggest that the conservation of the hydrophobic N-terminal segment of DGKε throughout evolution guaranteed not only membrane anchorage but also an efficient and elegant manner to regulate the rate of the PI cycle.


This research topic is focused on recent advances in our understanding of effects of mechanical loading on the skeleton, and research methods used in addressing these. Though it is well established that mechanical loading provides an essential stimulus for skeletal growth and maintenance, there have been major advances recently in terms of our understanding of the molecular pathways involved, which are thought to provide novel drug targets for treating osteoporosis. The articles included in this topic encompass the full spectrum of laboratory and clinical research, and range from review articles, editorials, hypothesis papers and original research articles. Together, they demonstrate how mechanical loading underpins many aspects of bone biology, including the pathogenesis and treatment of osteoporosis and other clinical disorders associated with skeletal fragility.


Stand establishment and weed control are two major problems in dryland safflower production in the Northern Great Plains. Improving stand establishment would improve weed control through competition. Selecting seed that is large and has high density could improve seedling vigor thus improve stand establishment. However, selecting large, high density seed would be selecting lower oil type seed for reproduction. The purpose of these studies is to evaluate the use of seed size, length (shape), and density of a safflower bulk population in improving seedling vigor while maintaining or improving oil content of the population. To investigate this problem, safflower seed of the 1981 Sidney bulk population, its 1982 progeny grown at Havre, and the cultivars Hartman, S-208, and S-541 grown at several locations, were classified by size, length, density, and evaluated for oil content and seedling vigor. Seed size was based on seed diameter as determined by slotted screens. A laboratory indent cylinder was used to classify seed by length. Seed density classes were obtained using water-alcohol solutions, Caldwell forced air fan, and an Oregon continuous seed blower. Seed oil content was determined by wideline nuclear magnetic resonance. Emerged seedling weights were used to evaluate seed vigor in field and greenhouse studies. The large, high density or longer seed, within each seed lot, was found to have more seedling vigor and lower oil content than the small, low density or short seed. Sidney bulk seed in the short class appeared to be more oval in shape and to have less hull in the basal area than the unseparated seed. The relationship of oil content to seed size, length (shape) and density, when com pared across cultivars Hartman, S-208, and S-541, did not follow the same pattern as was found within seed lots. S-541 seed had the highest oil content but it also had the highest seed density and was intermediate to Hartman and S-208 seed in size and length.


The use of EPDM in NR/BR blends for imparting ozone resistance is well known, as are the challenges of retaining desired mechanical properties in the cured rubber due to uneven distributions of carbon black and cure system across the blended polymer phases, favoring the NR/BR phase. This work explores how different sequential mixing options and mixing intensity can affect polymer phase dispersion and filler distribution, showing that excellent cured physical properties can be obtained using a commercially viable sequential mixing process where a proportion of the filler, cure system, and other compounding ingredients is first mixed into an EPDM masterbatch compound, which is subsequently used in a second mixing stage when it is combined with NR/BR at a suitable level to achieve good ozone resistance. Because only a proportion of the EPDM masterbatch is added to the second mixing stage, further filler, cure system, and other compounding ingredients are also added to reach the desired levels of the final compound. Variations of the sequential mixing process are reported, including the addition of a small amount of BR to the EPDM masterbatch and the use of an extended milling process. This study confirms that sequential mixing allows the retention of carbon black within the dispersed EPDM phase and shows how the EPDM masterbatch composition and the intensity of mixing can influence the phase morphology of EPDM/NR/BR blends. For comparison, an NR/BR control compound, typical of that used in tire sidewalls, is included in the evaluation. By applying transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy imaging, phase domain sizes are evaluated quantitatively, and the Young's moduli of the rubber phases are determined. The phase morphology is rationalized by the Hansen solubility parameters and the volume fractions of the rubber phases.


Menière's disease (MD) and migraine associated dizziness (MAD) are two disorders that can have similar symptomatologies, but differ vastly in treatment. Vestibular testing is sometimes used to help differentiate between these disorders, but the inefficiency of a human interpreter analyzing a multitude of variables independently decreases its utility. Our hypothesis was that we could objectively discriminate between patients with MD and those with MAD using select variables from the vestibular test battery. Sinusoidal harmonic acceleration test variables were reduced to three vestibulo-ocular reflex physiologic parameters: gain, time constant, and asymmetry. A combination of these parameters plus a measurement of reduced vestibular response from caloric testing allowed us to achieve a joint classification rate of 91%, independent quadratic classification algorithm. Data from posturography were not useful for this type of differentiation. Overall, our classification function can be used as an unbiased assistant to discriminate between MD and MAD and gave us insight into the pathophysiologic differences between the two disorders.


This work extends the earlier results of authors on vision-based tracking of a ground vehicle moving with unknown time-varying velocity. The follower UAV is equipped with a single camera. The control objective is to regulate the 2D horizontal range between the UAV and the target to a constant. The extension in this paper has two distinct features. The earlier developed guidance law used the estimates of the target's velocity obtained from a fast estimation scheme. In this paper, we prove guaranteed performance bounds for the fast estimation scheme and explicitly derive the tracking performance bound as a function of the estimation error. The performance bounds imply that the signals of the closed-loop adaptive system remain close to the corresponding signals of a bounded closed-loop reference system both in transient and steady-state. The reference system is introduced solely for the purpose of analysis. This paper also analyzes the stability and the performance degradation of the closed-loop adaptive system in the presence of out-of-frame events, when continuous extraction of the target's information is not feasible due to failures in the image processing module. The feedback loop is then closed using the frozen estimates. The out-of-frame events are modelled as brief instabilities. A su‐cient condition for the switching signal is derived that guarantees graceful degradation of performance during target loss. The results build upon the earlier developed fast estimation scheme of the target's velocity, the inverse-kinematics-based guidance law and insights from switching systems theory.


A algorithm has been raise up in this paper Popular high-performance segment-based proxy caching algorithm. it is based on the existing algorithm, such as Prefix caching. It divides the video into several segments with the popularity of them and re-divides the object after a cycle. It also select the expelled segments by expelled formula and keeps the prefix as more as possible to reduce the start-up delay. This paper also shown the simulation of the visit process of VOD system, and compare the byte hit rate, the start-up delay and the cached segments ratio to measure the effectivity of the algorithm. The result of the simulations shown that popular high-performance segment-based algorithm is better in byte hit rate, meanwhile It also keeps a lower rate of the start-up rate, and has higher cached segments ratio.


Within the past decade, advances in the fundamental research of immunity and improved surgical techniques have resulted in bringing closer the long awaited era of organ transplantation. Indeed, within recent months homotransplantations of lung' and liver,2 as well as have been attempted in man. The whole field is so rapidly advancing that it is difficult to state fundamental principles, and one cannot help but feel that there are many factors involved in successful transplantations which are, as yet unrecognized. Since Dameshek5 first showed that the immune response could be altered in skin grafts by 6-mercaptopurine, further research has brought forth several promising agents which have proved efficacious in animals as well as in humans in suppressing the immune response. Despite these agents, the variability in our experimental experience in animal lung transplantation makes one feel that the genetic similarity of the donor and host are probably more important for a successful "take" than the means to suppress the immune response. Indeed, pathologists have difficulty in defining rejection, since it is so intimately involved with pathological changes which could be associated with poor surgical techniques, inadequate blood supply, and/ or infection. Probably the weakest link in prolongation of transplant survival today is the lack of a sensitive accurate method to determine imminent host rejection. Basic animal work is, of course, fundamental to the future of organ transplantation, but while this is in progress: efforts should be made in human application in an attempt to bridge the gap between the laboratory and the patient. However, each team must make its own decision as to when it is prepared to approach the clinical application. Our decision was dictated by having an otherwise healthy patient with advanced emphysema, a suitable 2 1-year-old healthy donor dying of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm, an enlightened host family, and a considerable experience in canine lung transplantation prior to clinical application.


Summary

Two types of spoilage in cooked hams were investigated. One was a result of the growth of Weissella viridescens, which produces cavities in the muscles of hams after cooking. The origin of W. viridescens was shown to be the brine used in the preparation of the ham. After its production, the brine is usually left at room temperature for several hours before being cooled and used, allowing the growth of the microorganism. The second types of spoilage is because of Lactobacillus sakei, Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Leuconostoc carnosum, which grew during the 4–6 °C storage period of cooked hams packaged under vacuum. The spoilage consisted of the production of various molecules such as hydrocarbons, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, alcohols, esters and sulphur compounds. Oxidative and auto-oxidative phenomena also occurred during spoilage.


In order to avoid the defects of mesh distortion when dealing with large deformation problems through using the finite element method, a mess-free simulation method—smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) has been introduced. The material constitutive model of KDP crystal has been established based on the elastic–plastic theory. Then the nano-indentation on the (001) face of KDP crystal has been carried out using SPH method. Simulation results show that the maximum equivalent stress and the maximum plastic strain concentrate on the area that located near the tip of the indenter during the loading process. The distribution shape of Von Mises stress is similar to concentric circles. During the unloading process, no obvious variation of plastic strain distribution exists. The maximum Von Mises stress is mainly located at the indentation and its edge at the end of the unloading process. The approximate direct proportion relationship between the maximum indentation depth and the depth of the maximum Von Mises stress distribution has been discovered when the maximum load is lower than 8 mN. In addition, the nano-indentation experiments on KDP crystal's (001) face have been carried out. Both the material parameters and the adjusted stress–strain curve have been verified. The hindering role of the affected layer has been found and analyzed.


CONTEXT This proposal is intended, on the one hand, to strengthen the interrelationship between universities and firms and society in general, and study in depth the complementarities between engineering and management, on the other. Thus it starts from the development, at the university level, of methodologies of teaching/learning based on problem resolution (problem-based learning), but extending the strategic management process beyond the analysis of opportunities, settlement of goals and strategy outline, in order to implement the proposed solutions and monitor and control their impacts on decision efficiency. This will support the definition of new intervention ways, turning firms into privileged laboratories to experiment learning contents and methodologies. This subject strictly relates to the chosen topic because it consists in a teaching/learning methodology with mutual implications, which results will cast on universities ́ and firms ́ environment.


ABSTRACT The current study examines the prevalence and characteristics of brand appearances in the top grossing films broadcast in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and Hong Kong (H.K.). An average of 13 brand appearances per film was recorded and similarities and differences in brand execution features were revealed in the two cultural markets. Most of the films registered on the U.K. and H.K. top grossing lists are US production, which demonstrates that product placements are increasingly exported to other cultures. It suggests the importance of examining product placement effectiveness across cultures and provides valuable insights for brand practitioners.


The design and implementation of network management systems is one of the first application areas in which the use of object-orientation was applied on a wide scale. A major reason is that resources that need to be managed in computer networks seem to map naturally into objects. However, network management systems which can deal with heterogeneous networks are very complex systems, and it is easy to end up with a large number of poorly designed objects instead of an integrated and effective system. This paper evaluates the weaknesses of some of the common object-oriented analysis techniques, and provide the outline of a methodology which will avoid some of these pitfalls in the design and implementation of an X.25 network management system based on an object-oriented database management system (OODBMS).


SUMMARY Bridges are built in a variety of locations, many of which are susceptible to multiple extreme hazards (earthquakes, vehicle collisions, tsunamis or storm surges, and blasts as a minimum for some locations). In addition, they must be built to achieve the objectives of both accelerated bridge construction (ABC) and rapid return to service following a disaster. Meeting some or all of these demands/objectives drives the development of innovative multi-hazard design concepts. This paper presents recent research on structural fuses and concrete-filled steel shapes strategies developed for this purpose. The structural fuse concept considered here for seismic resistance was developed and experimentally validated for implementation in a composite multi-column pier using double composite rectangular columns of BiSteel panels. Experimental results from another series of tests on the blast resistance of concrete-filledsteel-tubes support the blast resistance of the concept. In parallel, the development and design of a conceptual multi-hazard resistant steel plate shear wall box pier concept considered each of the four aforementioned hazards by use of simplified analyses for design, and of advanced nonlinear finite element analyses to confirm that the proposed steel plate shear wall box system provides adequate ductile performance and strength for each of the hazards.


Microaggressions describe subtle often offensive comments or actions made by one individual to another. Typically, such comments or actions are made subconsciously with the offender potentially unaware of the impacts on the recipient. Currently, machine learning methods for racial microaggression detection are sparse with no, one, comparable approach to the one we propose further on. Automated detection in this work describes the method of finding microaggressions through the use of machine-learning algorithms. Efforts have been made for the detection of hate speech and harassment; providing us with a rather humble place to begin, as we explore further, such methods are proven ineffective. We propose a step forward in solving this problem with the demonstration of an automated racial microaggression detection method. Whilst racial hatespeech detection method provides us with an idea as to where we can start, we find further on, that microaggressions and hatespeech use very different features to portray their sentiment. This work aims to provide a technical review which explores the understanding of the automated racial microaggression detection, outlining the definitions of microaggressions currently described in the literature, with the presentation and assessment (through precision, callback and F-measure) of a promising approach in regards to racial microaggression detection. We also intend to analyse a case study in which we detect the presence of racial microaggressions within new reports with the intention of laying a foundation for the potential security-related applications of this work. Our further works begin to discuss this notion in a higher level of detail.


The increasing demand for agricultural products that are free of pesticide residues prompted experts to study the possibility of substitution of synthetic pesticide with botanical ones. The use of synthetic pesticides has been known to leave a residue that is harmful to the health of humans and domestic animals, lead resistance and resurgence of pests, kill natural enemies such as parasites and predators, and contaminate water, soil and air, which in turn disrupts ecosystems. In connection with this situation, it is time to look for another alternative control agent which has equivalent control effectiveness of synthetic pesticides but relatively safer to living organisms and the environment. Utilization of botanical pesticides is believed to be able to answer these problems because the active ingredients of pesticides composed of plant secondary compounds that are readily biodegradable. Results of recent studies suggested that some plants grown in Indonesia such as clove, neem, citronella, sweet flag, tobacco, pyrethrum, turmeric, and jatropha are able to control a variety of pests and diseases of plants. To improve the effectiveness of control activity, the plant material needs to be formulated into ready-made pesticides. To get optimum benefit, the use of botanical pesticides should be addressed to prevent insect attacks instead for control measures.


A new cave was discovered on the eastern side of Gibraltar on August 15th, 1902. It is situated a short distance south of the eastern end of the tunnel which pierces the Rock, from the Dockyard on the western side to 'Monkey's Quarry' on the eastern. Blasting and quarrying operations are being carried on in the quarry, to procure material for the new dockyard. An explosion is said to have blown in the thce of the limestone-cliff, and a small hole was discovered; when this was entered, it was found that it led into a cave of considerable dimensions. I have not been able to determine whether the hole was made in the 'massif,' or whether the explosion merely blew away the rubble and breccia that forms the talus of the cliff, thereby uncovering an old entrance. Further quarrying operations have so enlarged the opening that none of the original cliff-face remains very near it. I am told by Mr. A. K. Peaty, Assistant Civil Engineer, that he saw the opening two hours after it had been made, and that, in his opinion, the hole had been pierced through the massif, and was not a reopening of the old entrance. In any case, it must have been very near an old entrance, as a glance at P1. VI, fig. 1 shows that the stalagmite-floor slopes up to within a few feet of the present opening, and the sides of the cave, so far as they can be seen through the


Trip planning is a practical task that has drawn extensive attention from the AI planning and scheduling community and the industrial/commercial sectors. In this paper, we consider the setting of the multi-modal trip planning, where users can exploit different transportation modes, such as walking, biking, public transit, and taxi. In such a context, it would be of benefit if the user was able to extend the cost base, including traveling time and fare, of the planner, and to personalize the planner according to her own constraints and preferences. To this end, we designed and developed a hipergraph-based multi-modal trip planner that allows users to upload auxiliary cost metrics (e.g., crime rates), to specify constraints as a theory in the linear temporal logic, and to express preferences as a preferential cost function.


Purpose: In a previous study the lesion detectability of a PEM system was evaluated using 2 and 4 cm thick phantoms (Shkumat N et al. J Nucl Med 51(Suppl 2):130P, 2010). In this work we extend that analysis to thicker (6 and 8 cm) phantoms that more accurately represent patient breast sizes. Methods: Gelatin breast phantoms with and without (blank) disk shaped (2mm thick) contrast objects (lesions) with varying diameters (3–14.5 mm) and activity concentrations ratios (ACR) to background (2.7–58) were constructed with two thicknesses (6 and 8 cm). All phantoms were imaged with the standard clinical protocol of 10 minutes. Each lesion was then segmented from the resulting images and inserted randomly into the corresponding blank phantom image. The resulting image sets (120 in total) were read by 7 physicians and scored (1 — correctly identified, 0 incorrect). From these results, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of lesion detectability were calculated and correlated with lesion size, ACR and phantom thickness and compared to the same metrics in the thinner (2 and 4 cm) phantoms. Results: The overall sensitivity across all ACR and lesion diameters decreased from 0.77(95% CI: [0.74, 0.80]) in the 2 and 4 cm phantoms to 0.55(95% CI: [0.49, 0.62]) in the 6 and 8 cm phantoms. More specifically sensitivity decreased from 0.52 to 0.10 and 0.93 to 0.67 for the 3 and 14.5mm diameter respectively, and 0.27 to 0.05 and 1 to 0.86 for ACR of 3 and 58 respectively. Conclusions: There was significant degradation of detactability performance with thicker phantom suggesting that women with larger breasts would benefit the least from PEM exams. We anticipate a sensitivity improvement when using spheroidal lesions rather than the disks used in this investigation.


Major characteristics of sensor networks, such as node mobility, collaboration among heterogeneous sensors, and environmental changes, require flexible and adaptive software systems. It is also essential to have a mechanism to describe configurations of distributed components and to coordinate the sensors in the network through the configuration information. In this paper, we show how an architectural model can be used to support adaptive software systems for sensor networks. This work is based on our previous work of using an architecture description language (ADL) to represent configurations of software components in sensor nodes and to reconfigure them in response to changing needs of users. We use XML as a means to exchange and manipulate ADL descriptions. To demonstrate how the architecture-based adaptation works for sensor networks, we simulated a scenario of reconfiguring a sensor network to handle node failures.


In this century the Cornish language has been revived so that today Cornish is spoken by many Cornish people as a second language. Moreover a few people currently living in Cornwall have been raised as bilingual from birth. Texts from the Middle Cornish (1200 to 1575 AD) and Modern Cornish (1575 to 1800 AD) periods form the basis upon which Cornish has been revived in the twentieth century. Dictionaries have made an important contribution to the pedagogical basis of this revival and several lexicographers have introduced standardised spelling systems for Cornish. The Williams' (1865) dictionary and Lewis' (1923) grammar form the basis of later twentieth century pedagogical dictionaries. Both Williams and Lewis are Welsh and have been led astray by analogy with the Welsh language on a number of issues. As a result, some subsequent dictionaries are not faithful to native Cornish practices. Analogy with Welsh and Breton has also led some revivalists to adopt Middle rather than Modern Cornish as the basis for standardising Cornish spelling and grammar. Furthermore Welsh and Breton have been used as sources for borrowing new words into twentieth century Cornish. Other writers, notably Jenner (1904) and Gendall (1997), have shown a preference for Modern Cornish as a pedagogical basis for the revival of Cornish. Jenner chose to take up the language where it had left off and disapproved of the inclusion of Welsh and Breton borrowings for which no authority exists in Cornish (Jenner 1904: xv). Jenner also adapted Modern Cornish orthography along loosely phonetic lines in order to create a consistent spelling system. Gendall (1997), on the other hand, has selected a single preferred spelling for each lexeme from those spellings that are attested in the historical literature. The result is that today there are three different standardised spelling systems in common usage amongst revivalists.


Propagation of a plane harmonic wave within space-periodic layered bianisotropic media is considered. Propagation and unpropagation conditions are studied analytically by translation matrix method. Analogous approach has been used for analysis of unpropagation region boundaries in isotropic media. For example, periodic two-layered medium is considered. The propagation diagrams are plotted for both a right-polarization and a left-polarization eigenwaves.


The need for geolocation is crucial for many applications for both human and software agents. More and more data is opened and interlinked using Linked Data principles, and it is worth modeling geographic data efficiently by reusing as much as possible from existing ontologies or vocabularies that describe both the geospatial features and their shapes. In this paper, we survey different modeling approaches used by the Geographic Information System (GIS) and the Linked Open Data (LOD) communities. Our aim is to contribute to the actual efforts in representing geographic objects with attributes such as location, points of interest (POI) and addresses in the web of data. We focus on the French territory and we provide examples of representative vocabularies that can be used for describing geographic objects. We propose some alignments between various vocabularies (DBpedia, Geonames, Schema.org, LinkedGeoData, Foursquare, etc.) in order to enable interoperability while interconnecting French geodata with other datasets. We tackle the complex geometry representation issues in the Web of Data, describing the state of implementations of geo-spatial functions in triple stores and comparing them to the new GeoSPARQL standard. We conclude with some challenges to be taken into account when dealing with the descriptions of complex geometries.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. OBJECTIVES: To establish the feasibility of empirically testing crisis standards of care guidelines. DESIGN: Retrospective single-center study. SETTING: ICUs at a large academic medical center in the United States. SUBJECTS: Adult, critically ill patients admitted to ICU, with 27 patients admitted for acute respiratory failure due to coronavirus disease 2019 and 37 patients admitted for diagnoses other than coronavirus disease 2019. INTERVENTIONS: Review of electronic health record. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Many U.S. states released crisis standards of care guidelines with algorithms to allocate scarce healthcare resources during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. We compared state guidelines that represent different approaches to incorporating disease severity and comorbidities: New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. Following each algorithm, we calculated priority scores at the time of ICU admission for a cohort of patients with primary diagnoses of coronavirus disease 2019 and diseases other than coronavirus disease 2019 (n = 64). We assessed discrimination of 28-day mortality by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. We simulated real-time decision-making by applying the triage algorithms to groups of two, five, or 10 patients. For prediction of 28-day mortality by priority scores, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.56, 0.49, 0.53, 0.66, and 0.69 for New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and raw Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score algorithms, respectively. For groups of five patients, the percentage of decisions made without deferring to a lottery were 1%, 57%, 80%, 88%, and 95% for New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and raw Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score algorithms, respectively. The percentage of decisions made without lottery was higher in the subcohort without coronavirus disease 2019, compared with the subcohort with coronavirus disease 2019. CONCLUSIONS: Inclusion of comorbidities does not consistently improve an algorithm's performance in predicting 28-day mortality. Crisis standards of care algorithms result in a substantial percentage of tied priority scores. Crisis standards of care algorithms operate differently in cohorts with and without coronavirus disease 2019. This proof-of-principle study demonstrates the feasibility and importance of empirical testing of crisis standards of care guidelines to understand whether they meet their goals.


The sensitivity of superconducting magnets to AC losses is well known. If superconducting magnets are this sensitive to AC fields, why not use AC fields for magnet protection, and in particular, for internal energy dump when a quench has been detected? The answer is the large reactive power needed to provide the rate of change of the fields required to quench of a large fraction of the magnet. In this paper we describe a novel approach where quench protection secondary windings external to the magnet are used to minimize the power to initiate the energy dump. The main requirement of these secondary windings is that the mutual inductance between the primary winding and the protection secondary windings has to be small, ideally zero. One means to provide for zero mutual inductance between the protection secondary winding and the primary winding is by designing a protection secondary winding that produces AC fields that everywhere in the volume are normal to the fields produced by the primary winding. Alternatively, appropriate windings can be made so that the coupling in one region is the opposite to that of another region, with zero total mutual inductance. The latter approach results in low voltages at the leads, but could result in high voltages within the coil. We describe several circuit topologies applicable to solenoidal and toroidal windings that satisfy these requirements. Calculations of the heating due to AC fields are presented, including eddy current heating in cable-in-copper-channel conductors. If the quench inducing coil is optimally designed and powered, the hysteresis of the superconductor dominates the heating. Thus, as a portion of the superconducting magnet quenches, the heating power shifts to those zones that are not yet in the current-sharing regime. This approach is an alternative to the use of resistive heating elements, which need to be placed on, or embedded in, the winding pack.


By sending out sounds and analyzing the returning echoes, both humans and animals use active acoustic sensing systems to probe and understand the environment. High-frequency sonar systems, or echosounders, are the workhorse for observing fish and zooplankton in the ocean. Toothed whales and bats navigate and forage via echolocation in the air and under water. In this talk, I will discuss our work with both engineered and biological sonar systems to enable effective extraction and interpretation of information embedded in the echoes. We are developing data-driven methodologies and open-source software tools to tackle challenges imposed by large volumes of echosounder data rapidly accumulating across the global ocean. Using echolocating toothed whales as a model, we are combining experimental and computational approaches to understand biological processing of echo information. Throughout the talk, I will highlight the pivotal role of collaboration in my professional and personal development, and discuss efforts by colleagues and myself to cultivate a sense of community in our field.


Some results of a study of the command security issues associated with the INTELSAT VI and VII satellites are reported. The configuration and protocols of the INTELSAT command system are briefly described. Three possible configurations for connecting the INTELSAT headquarters and the telemetry, tracking, and command (TTC) stations are distinguished, and a layered architecture is introduced to illustrate the command protocols corresponding to the ISO layers. The impact of introducing command security is then studied for the INTELSAT command network. In order to analyze the effect of errors on the operation and performance of the command network, a finite-state Markov chain is proposed for modeling the command and telemetry channels with their different error and delay characteristics. Possible risks that can threaten the INTELSAT secure command network operations, including single-event upsets, Vcc corruption, and manipulation of transmitted messages, are analyzed. The end-to-end performance of the INTELSAT command network is examined for three possible configurations-terrestrial link, single-hop satellite, and two-hop satellite. >


Solution‐processed conducting polymer thin films are key components in organic and flexible electronic and optoelectronic devices. An archetypal conducting polymer is poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene)‐poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), which can feature a high work function and thus helps achieving Ohmic contacts for holes with many semiconductors. However, it is known that residual water in PEDOT:PSS films lowers their work function and is detrimental for device lifetime. Our photoelectron spectroscopy experiments reveal that the work function of PEDOT:PSS films containing residual water shows the same trend as function of temperature as does the dielectric constant (ε) of water, in the range between 25 °C and ‐100 °C. Consistently, it is found from impedance spectroscopy measurements that ε of residual water containing PEDOT:PSS films increases with decreasing temperature. After removal of residual water from PEDOT:PSS films by annealing in ultrahigh vacuum, the work function of thin films is much higher than before (reaching 6.1 eV) and, notably, independent of temperature. In contrast, no indication is found that the presence of residual water has any impact on the electrical conductivity. For a nominally water‐free molecularly doped conjugated donor/acceptor copolymer films, a correlation between sample work function and temperature similar to those seen for PEDOT:PSS is found.


The main objective of this research was to determine the role of customer relationship management in enhancing the service delivery between support staff and students in a selected higher education institution. A qualitative research approach was followed with semi-structured interviews done with students and support staff from a selected South African higher education institution (N=8). The participants in the study felt that the current level of service delivery by the institution does not necessarily exceed their expectations. The findings further showed that higher education institutions should determine the needs of students and provide the best service possible to keep them satisfied. Recommendations are made.


Uniform hexagonal arrays of spherical micro-cavities are created in an elastomer film in a one-step process. The cavities are the imprints of water droplets condensed from saturated vapor in a heated closed container. The saturated vapor arises from evaporation of water from a reservoir within the container. Competition between droplet growth and curing of the elastomer film determines the structure of the resulting pattern.


p53 is tumor suppressor gene that regulates apoptosis such as caspase-dependent and p21-mediated signaling pathways. PI3K/Akt is known to be over-activated in cancer cells. Akt activates many survival-related signals such as mTOR and COX-2. Inactivation of Akt would result in non-inhibition of p53 as well as induced apoptosis. In this study, we showed that curcumin and EGCG activate p53 via inhibition of the Akt signaling pathway. Treatments using curcumin and EGCG in different concentrations for 24 hr and 48 hr inhibited proliferation of HCT116 colon cancer cells and increased apoptotic cell death. Also, our data showed that curcumin and EGCG increased the p53 expression and decreased the p-Akt. Treatment of LY294002 (Akt inhibitor) resulted in decreased cell proliferation of cancer cells, while LY294002 treated with curcumin or EGCG showed a greater decrease of cell proliferation. In addition, inhibition of Akt induced p53 activation in HCT116 colon cancer cells. These results suggest that curcumin and EGCG induce apoptosis by inhibiting Akt and increase p53 in HCT116 colon cancer cells.


Chitosan is a natural biopolymer derived from chitin polysaccharides which has amine functional groups that able to lyse bacteria so it can functioning  as an antibacterial. The aim of this study is to determine the difference between the inhibition of chitosan with a combination of antibiotics metronidazole-amoxicillin against Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans causes periodontitis aggressive. This research method used laboratory experimental in vitro by disc diffusion method. The research sample used pure cultures of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans. There were 6 groups of materials, chitosan solution with a concentration of 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, distilled water with a combination of antibiotics and six times repetition. The data analysis technique used in this study was the One-Way ANOVA test with a probability of p <0.05, then post hoc test was used to determine the  differences effectiveness among variables. The results showed an average inhibition zone formed on the chitosan solution of 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2% were of 10.53 mm, 15.47 mm, 17.50 mm and 19.35 mm . While the average inhibition zone of 11.03 mm antibiotic combination. In the post hoc test data note that only 0.5% chitosan group with a combination of antibiotics metronidazole-amoxicillin which has no significant difference with p value: 0.371 (p <0.5). The survey results revealed chitosan solution has the ability to inhibit the growth of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans causes periodontitis aggressive line with increasing concentration. The effectiveness of chitosan with the lowest concentration of 0.5% is almost the same as the effectiveness of a combination of antibiotics and chitosan solution with a concentration of 1%, 1.5% and 2% had a strong antibacterial effectiveness that chitosan can be used as an alternative antibacterial aggressive periodontitis.   Keywords: Chitosan, Combination Antibiotics, Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, aggressive periodontitis


Dimethoxycarbene (1a) and methoxy(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)-carbene (1b) were generated in benzene solution by thermolysis of the corresponding 2,2-dialkoxyoxadiazolines 7. The carbenes were trapped by intermolecular reaction with a variety of cyclic anhydrides 8. The products 9 are formally the result of carbene insertion into the bond between the carbonyl carbon and the ring oxygen atoms. The results of a competition between dimethylmaleic and dichloromaleic anhydrides for dimethoxycarbene suggests that this reaction proceeds by nucleophilic attack of dialkoxycarbene onto the carbonyl carbon atom of the anhydride.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the pharmacokinetics of amitriptyline and its active metabolite nortriptyline after intravenous (IV) and oral amitriptyline administration in healthy dogs.

STUDY DESIGN
Prospective randomized experiment.

ANIMALS
Five healthy Greyhound dogs (three males and two females) aged 2-4 years and weighing 32.5-39.7 kg.

METHODS
After jugular vein catheterization, dogs were administered a single oral or IV dose of amitriptyline (4 mg kg(-1)). Blood samples were collected at predetermined time points from baseline (0 hours) to 32 hours after administration and plasma concentrations of amitriptyline and nortriptyline were measured by liquid chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Non-compartmental pharmacokinetic analyses were performed.

RESULTS
Orally administered amitriptyline was well tolerated, but adverse effects were noted after IV administration. The mean maximum plasma concentration (CMAX) of amitriptyline was 27.4 ng mL(-1) at 1 hour and its mean terminal half-life was 4.33 hours following oral amitriptyline. Bioavailability of oral amitriptyline was 6%. The mean CMAX of nortriptyline was 14.4 ng mL(-1) at 2.05 hours and its mean terminal half-life was 6.20 hours following oral amitriptyline.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Amitriptyline at 4 mg kg(-1) administered orally produced low amitriptyline and nortriptyline plasma concentrations. This brings into question whether the currently recommended oral dose of amitriptyline (1-4 mg kg(-1)) is appropriate in dogs.


The objectives of this research is to analyze the effects of needs and compensations fulfillment on police department (Satreskrim) members job satisfaction. Satreskrim is demanded to always give proper and satisfying service to the society. In increasing service or productive and professional performance, members job satisfaction needs to be fulfilled. This research is a combination of explanatory research, which emphasize the connection between research variables and tests the formulated hypothesis and descriptive research as a next step after explanatory research, which discovers and portrays how big the effect of these variables. The population in this research is Satuan Reserse Kriminal Polres Kota X. Samples are chosen using proportional random sampling method, based on position level. Data collection is using questionnare, interview, observation and documentation. multiple regression analysis is used to process the data. The result of this research shows that needs fulfillment and compensations affects job satisfaction simultaneously. Partially, needs fulfillment doesn't affect job satisfaction. Whereas, compensations partially affects job satisfaction . Compensations has dominant effect on job satisfaction. Based on the result, researcher needs to suggest the Indonesian Police Department to increase members job satisfaction continuously , so that they will be able to encourage better and professional job performance. Keyword : needs fulfillment, ERG Alderfer, compensation, job satisfaction, police department.


The effects of antifungal agents on the human microbiome can be challenging to study due to confounding factors such as the underlying disease states and concomitant use of antibiotics and other therapies. We elucidated longitudinal modification of gut microbiome in response to a short course (5 days) of antifungal treatment in healthy male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats by sequencing 16S rRNA V1–V3 and ITS2 hypervariable regions. SD rats were randomized into a control group and three antifungal treated (AT) groups including Amphotericin B (AmB), voriconazole and, our novel antifungal drug candidate SM21 once per day for 5 consecutive days. Fecal samples were collected at three different time points (day 0, day 1 and day 5). Microbial communities of both bacteria and fungi were compared between conditions. In silico analysis of differential microbial abundance and the predictive functional domains of microbial communities was further done by inferring metabarcoding profiles from 16S data. AT animals exhibited significant change in bacteriome alphadiversity although no divergence in community structure (beta-diversity) was observed compared with respective control groups (day 0). Specific bacterial clades and taxa were longitudinally and significantly modified in the AT animals. The AT bacterium of AmB and SM21 was particularly enriched in probiotic Lactobacillus strains including L. reuteri. The key pathways overrepresented in the bacteriome under AT animals were linked to cellular processes, environment information processing and metabolism. Moreover, AT treated mycobiome diversity decreased longitudinally with insignificant variations along the time course; different fungal taxa dominating at different timepoints in a wave-like fashion. However, acute antifungal treatments could not alter healthy gut microbial community structure. Hence, the healthy gut microbiome is capable of resisting a major dysbiotic shift during a short course of antifungal treatment.


Radio‐resistance is a leading cause of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treatment failure and identification of sensitising therapeutic targets is an unmet need to enhance clinical management. Given that the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling confers resistance to cancer therapy, we investigated whether mTOR contributes to radio‐resistance in NPC and pharmacological inhibition of mTOR can overcome radio‐resistance. We found that mTOR mRNA and protein levels, and phosphorylation of its downstream effector were increased in radio‐resistant NPC compared with parental cells. mTOR inhibitor temsirolimus inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in a panel of NPC cell lines. Importantly, temsirolimus acts synergistically with radiation and is effective against radio‐resistant cells. Using radio‐resistant xenograft mouse model, we validated the efficacy of temsirolimus in preventing tumour formation and inhibiting tumour growth. Temsirolimus overcome radio‐resistance in NPC via inhibiting mTOR signalling. Our work provides the pre‐clinical evidence that the combination of radiation and mTOR inhibitor may be a therapeutic strategy in NPC. Our findings might accelerate the initiation of clinical trials on radio‐resistant NPC patients using temsirolimus.


Abstract Elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and deficient mitochondria are two weak points of cancer cells. Their simultaneous targeting is a valid therapeutic strategy to design highly potent anticancer drugs. The remaining challenge is to limit the drug effects to cancer cells without affecting normal ones. We have previously developed three aminoferrocene (AF)‐based derivatives, which are activated in the presence of elevated levels of ROS present in cancer cells with formation of electron‐rich compounds able to generate ROS and reduce mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). All of them exhibit important drawbacks including either low efficacy or high unspecific toxicity that prevents their application in vivo up to date. Herein we describe unusual AF‐derivatives lacking these drawbacks. These compounds act via an alternative mechanism: they are chemically stable in the presence of ROS, generate mitochondrial ROS in cancer cells, but not normal cells and exhibit anticancer effect in vivo.


The objective of this study was to discriminate between modern beach subenvironments based on textural characteristics obtained using the graphical (percentile) method, the moment method, and the log-hyperbolic distribution (LHD). A total of 126 surface sedimentation units were sampled at the nodes of a 21 x 6 rectangular grid (1000 m2) on a carbonate sand beach, Oahu, Hawaii. Sampling was conducted at low energy conditions from the lower foreshore to the backshore. Non-parametric discriminant analysis was used as an objective tool in defining distinct subenvironments. Confidence bands around the canonical variates derived from the graphic mean, sorting, skewness and kurtosis indicated four separate subenvironments (lower foreshore, mid-foreshore, upper foreshore and backshore). Three distinct subenvironments were identified using the mean, sorting (standard deviation) and skewness measures derived by the method of moments. A similar subenvironment distinction was obtained using five statistics of the LHD (gamma, γ; nu ν; delta, δ; tau, τ; and xi, ξ). No significant difference was noted in textural characteristics between the upper foreshore and backshore zones, and these zones were grouped into one subenvironment. These results indicate that different process scenarios would be needed to explain different subenvironment partitioning based simply on the approach adopted. Discriminant analysis indicated that fewer subenvironment samples were misclassified and separation distances between subenvironments in bivariate canonical plots were greater for the standard moment measures compared with the statistics derived from fitting the computationally intensive LHD model. Examination of the mass frequency grain size distributions indicated that the LHD was generally the most appropriate model. These observations were confirmed by the hyperbolic shape triangle which indicated that the LHD rather than the more commonly used log-normal distribution was generally optimal in describing sediments. These results support the use of the LHD statistical measures in subenvironment discrimination over the graphic-inclusive measures.


The present study was conducted in order to isolate, identify and characterize fowl aviadenovirus associated with inclusion body hepatitis (IBH) in three poultry farms (two of broiler chickens and one of breeder broiler chickens) in Morocco during 2015. Liver samples collected from affected three poultry farms were examined by histopathological examination. Tissue samples showing necrosis of hepatocytes associated with basophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies were homogenized and submitted to FAdV isolation in chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cell cultures and in SPF embryonated eggs. The cytopathic effect (CPE) was observed in the second passage with swelling and rounding of infected cells. The inoculated embryos were hemorrhagic and showed hepatitis with the presence of basophilic intra-nuclear inclusion bodies within hepatocytes. The presence of the virus was confirmed by conventional polymerase chain reaction based on hexon gene from all investigated samples. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis of the hexon gene revealed that FAdVs isolated from different affected poultry belonged to FAdV 11 serotype of the D genotype group. This work is the first isolation in cell culture and SPF embryonated eggs of FAdV from Moroccan broilers and breeder broiler chickens with IBH.


The species of Tornoceras, Parodiceras, Epitornoceras and Aulatornoceras in North America are described. The study provides an independent stratigraphical goniatite zonation, particularly for the New York State Devonian, and it also provides an analysis of allomorphis in Tornoceras. A discussion on the protoconch apparatus and the significance of the metamorphosis at the nepionic constriction in Tornoceras is given. For the Tornoceras stock descriptions are provided where possible of the ontogeny from protoconch to adult of species at eleven successive stratigraphical levels, and faunas at other levels are also described. Thus the successional ontogenies shed light on the phylogeny of the stock. Faunas at each level may be morphologically defined, but few consistently maintained evolutionary trends have been observed. Shell form seems particularly subject to independent, and probably phenotypic variation. Through the equivalents of the Middle Devonian to the lower Frasnian, protoconch width appears to increase progressively. Similarly the suture becomes more undulating, particularly with regard to the steepness of the ventrad face of the lateral lobe. Later species show reversion to early characters in these respects. The origin of Tornoceras from Parodiceras is argued, and it is considered that Tornoceras gave rise to all later members of the Tornoceratidae. A new subgenus, Linguatornoceras, is erected for Frasnian and lower Famennian tornoceratids with small lingulate lateral lobes. Seven new species and subspecies are described.


Scabies and pyodermas are two of the commonest skin infections in tropical settings. They affect large numbers of people, particularly children, and account for a large burden of disease for peripheral health care teams. Despite this there have been significant advances in our knowledge of these diseases, their impact and their management. However there is a need to evaluate these developments in this specific setting, tropical health and in the context of communities with limited resources. This section will describe these advances and the challenges that remain.


With the purpose of contributing to the energetic valuation of the solid wastes generated by the Colombian agricultural industry, a practical methodology for the design of a fluidized bed gasifier for rice husk on pilot scale was developed. The gasi- fier equipment, made up of a reaction chamber of 0.3 m of internal diameter and 3 m of overall height, was designed from theoretical and experimental in- formation available in the literature and from the past experiences of the research group. A design procedure was elaborated for each one of the seven parts or subsystems in which the gasifier equipment was divided, intending to produce an energetic gas with approximately 70 kW of useful energetic power. Experimental tests performed with a gasifier fabri- cated according to the designs showed that the de- veloped procedure was adequate, with a maximum deviation close to 50% for the operational perform- ance variables. Therefore, the basic model developed in this work shows that it is helpful for preliminary prediction of the equivalence ratio, low heating value, volumetric yield, gas power and cold effi- ciency obtained in experimental atmospheric bub- bling fluidized bed biomass gasification tests.


Author(s): Harris, Patricia Rae Eileen | Advisor(s): Drew, Barbara J | Abstract: Autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction has been associated with cardiac arrhythmias and death. The aim of this research was to determine whether electrocardiographic (ECG) measures of ANS function, heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate turbulence (HRT), have prognostic value in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). A secondary analysis was performed using 24-hour ECG recordings from patients enrolled in the IMMEDIATE AIM Trial, a prospective NIH-funded study conducted from 2002 - 2005. The ECG recordings were begun within minutes (median, 45 minutes) from patients' presentation to the UCSF Emergency Department with ACS symptoms. HRV and HRT were computed using research software (HRV Laboratory, St. Louis, MO). A total of 193 patients had recordings with sufficient data for analysis. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that 5 HRV measurements were significantly associated with all-cause 1-year rehospitalization (p-valuesl.05). HRT was associated with cardiac-related 30-day and 1-year ED readmission and/or death. Patients with disrupted HRT markers had greater risk of adverse 30-day outcomes compared to patients with healthy markers (hazard ratio=3.6, p=.01), and greater risk of adverse 1-year outcomes (hazard ratio=3.2, pl.001). Comparison of HRT and routinely-measured TIMI risk scores showed similar sensitivity and specificity for 30-day (areas under the curve: HRT=0.647; TIMI=0.687) and 1-year outcomes (HRT=0.657; TIMI=0.605). In conclusion, HRT provides a viable alternative to TIMI scores for risk assessment in patients with ACS. With appropriate software, HRT and HRV could be obtained from the ECG monitoring nurses routinely perform. Future studies are needed to determine whether ANS ECG markers identify patients who warrant closer follow-up.


The present investigation proposes a psychological strategy to stimulate the training of labor competitions in students of Psychology in semi presence conditions based upon an educative necessity diagnosis felt by students and their potentialities and the educative context. ANSE Model was the main technique for the diagnosis, using specifically the Central Group, Research of problems and Nominal Group, besides observation, were used no structural interviews, revision of documents, and content analysis. The psychological strategy was validated by means of the Expert Criteria Method. The system of actions created were the based for the training process of labor competitions in students of psychology in semi presence conditions with the professor labor.


The clinical management of women with epilepsy on antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) during pregnancy presents unique challenges. The goal of treatment is optimal seizure control with minimal in utero fetal exposure to AEDs in an effort to reduce the risk of structural and neurodevelopmental teratogenic effects. This paper reviews the following key issues pertaining to women with epilepsy during pregnancy: AED pharmacokinetics; clinical management of AEDs; seizure frequency; major congenital malformation; neurodevelopmental outcomes; perinatal complications; and breast feeding.


Summary. The agronomic effectiveness of directly applied North Carolina reactive phosphate rock was determined for 4 years from annual dry matter responses at 26 permanent pasture sites across Australia as part of the National Reactive Phosphate Rock Project. Fertiliser comparisons were based on the substitution value of North Carolina reactive phosphate rock for triple superphosphate (the SV50). The SV50 was calculated from fitted response curves for both fertilisers at the 50% of maximum yield response level of triple superphosphate. The reactive phosphate rock was judged to be as effective as triple superphosphate in the 1st year (and every year thereafter) at 4 sites (SV50 >0.9), and was as effective by the 4th year at 5 sites. At another 9 sites the reactive phosphate rock was only moderately effective with SV50 values between 0.5 and 0.8 in the 4th year, and at the final 8 sites it performed poorly with the 4th year SV50 being less than 0.5. Pasture environments where the reactive phosphate rock was effective in the 1st year were: (i) those on sandy, humic or peaty podsols with an annual rainfall in excess of 850 mm; (ii) those on soils that experienced prolonged winter inundation and lateral surface flow; and (iii) tropical grass pastures in very high rainfall areas (>2300 mm) on the wet tropical coast on North Queensland. The highly reactive North Carolina phosphate rock became effective by the 4th year at sites in southern Australia where annual rainfall exceeded 700 mm, and where the surface soil was acidic [pH (CaCl2) 84%). No single environmental feature adequately predicted reactive phosphate rock performance although the surface pH of the soil was most closely correlated with the year-4 SV50 (r = 0.67). Multiple linear regression analysis found that available soil P (0–10 cm) and the P sorption class of the surface soil (0–2 cm), together with annual rainfall and a measure of the surface soil"s ability to retain moisture, could explain about two-thirds of the variance in the year-4 SV50 . The results from this Project indicate that there are a number of specific pasture environments in the higher rainfall regions of Australia where North Carolina reactive phosphate rock can be considered as an effective substitute P fertiliser for improved pasture.


Increasing pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to reduce cost and focus internal resources on "high value" activities is driving a trend to outsource traditionally "in-house" drug discovery activities. Compound collections are typically viewed as drug discovery's "crown jewels"; however, in late 2007, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development (J PRD) took a bold step to move their entire North American compound inventory and processing capability to an external third party vendor. The authors discuss the combination model implemented, that of local compound logistics site support with an outsourced centralized processing center. Some of the lessons learned over the past five years were predictable while others were unexpected. The substantial cost savings, improved local service response and flexible platform to adjust to changing business needs resulted. Continued sustainable success relies heavily upon maintaining internal headcount dedicated to vendor management, an open collaboration approach and a solid information technology infrastructure with complete transparency and visibility.


In a continuing effort to improve computer system performance, Processor-In-Memory (PIM) architecture has emerged as an alternative solution. PIM architecture incorporates computational units and control logic directly on the memory to provide immediate access to the data. To exploit the potential benefits of PIM, a concept of Co-operative Intelligent Memory (CIM) was developed by the intelligent system group of University of Hertfordshire, based on the previously developed Co-operative Pseudo Intelligent Memory (CPIM). This paper provides an overview on previous works (CPIM, CIM) and realization of CPIM over two scenarios, cumulative successive addition, and non-cumulative successive addition, using Nexar 2004 EDS tool as a design environment to target device (SPARTAN II, XC2S300E-6PQ208C). The performance (speedup) is then measured against an SISD without significant performance acceleration methods to ensure a speedup assessment obtained against base-line architecture.


The large cities in the US are the most expensive places to live. Paradoxically, this cost is disproportionately paid by workers who could work remotely, and live anywhere. The greater potential for remote work in large cities is mostly accounted for by their specialization in skilland information-intensive service industries. We highlight that this specialization makes these cities vulnerable to remote work shocks. When high-skill workers begin to work from home or leave the city altogether, they withdraw spending from local consumer service industries that rely heavily on their demand. As a result, low-skill service workers in big cities bore most of the recent pandemic's economic impact.


Synthetic cannabinoids are designer drugs that mimic the effect of cannabis, which has become popular with young drug users. These drugs have a similar chemical structure and pharmacologic effects as marijuana, but seem to be more potent. These substances have been banned by the US Drug Enforcement Agency in 2010. Prior to 2010, these drugs were perceived as "safer" by the general population. Synthetic cannabinoids cause effects similar to marijuana making the subjects euphoric. However, they act as full, rather than partial, agonist at the receptor sites causing more severe side effects such as severe agitation, seizures, acute renal failure, and lactic acidosis.


We have developed a new numerical model suitable for rapid and wide-area estimation of tsunami inundation and damage. The model is based on the world-renowned TUNAMI code solving the two-dimensional nonlinear shallow water equations, and enables one-stop simulation of the initial tsunami distribution based on a fault model, tsunami propagation and inundation, and damage estimation. It extends the configuration of the grid system from conventional rectangular regions to polygonal regions so that deployment of high-resolution grids can be confined to the coastal lowland, resulting in remarkably improved efficiency in computation and better precision. For the purpose of real-time implementation of tsunami inundation simulation using a high-performance computing infrastructure, vectorization and MPI parallelization have also been conducted. Moreover, the model was verified and validated through several benchmark problems that the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, organized by federal agencies and states in the U.S., developed as the quality standards for simulating and assessing tsunami hazard and risk. The newly-developed model is named "Real-time Tsunami inundation (RTi) model," and its computational performance was examined using the SX-ACE, a vector supercomputer installed at Tohoku University. The results show that it requires only 128 cores of the SX-ACE for implementing six-hour tsunami inundation simulation with a 10-meter grid resolution within 10 minutes for the 700 km long coastline of Kochi Prefecture, Japan. This means that the RTi model is over 10 times more efficient as the conventional tsunami model with the rectangular domains, and it can be inferred that 2,451 cores of the SX-ACE are the overall computational resources needed for real-time tsunami inundation forecast on the whole coastal regions along the Nankai Trough subduction zone, corresponding to the computational performance of 170 Tflop/s. The resources required are equivalent to 24% of all the SX-ACE resources at Tohoku University, indicating the feasibility of real-time tsunami inundation forecast on a regional scale by using the RTi model. Since the Disaster Information System operated by the Cabinet Office of the Japanese Government adopted a function of tsunami damage estimation using the aforementioned numerical model, at the end of this paper, a brief overview of the subsystem for rapidly estimating tsunami damage on a regional scale is described.


Background: The Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) is a devastating neonatal gastrointestinal emergency. The incidence is inversely proportional to the gestational age (prematurity) and birth weight. Although the diagnosis and treatment are fast, the best way to treat this pathology is the prevention. A recent meta-analysis shows that supplementing enteral feeding with a combination of probiotics can reduce the incidence of NEC and mortality related with NEC in VLBW (very low birth weight infants; <1500g) but it has not clear results, for lack of sample, in the ELBW (extremely low birth weight infants; <1000g)
Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of supplementing the feeding with probiotics (Lactobacillus Acidophilus and Bifidobacterium Bifidum) vs. placebo for the prevention of NEC in ELBW. The secondary objective is to asses the mortality, mortality related to NEC, and late-onset sepsis
Methods: The design is a multicenter, randomized, double blind, placebo, parallel-group trial. 912 patients will be recluted during 3 years and randomizied into two groups. 456 will receive enteral feeding with probiotic supplementation and 456 will receive enteral feeding without supplementation


We report on the imaging of a molecular beam epitaxially grown GaAs/(AlAs)n(GaAs)m quantum well‐wire array by means of cross‐sectional scanning tunneling microscopy (XSTM) and scanning tunneling‐induced luminescence (STL). XSTM provides atomically resolved cross‐sectional images of sets of quantum well wires with chemical sensitivity within the group III species and electrical sensitivity to single dopant atoms. This permits the precise observation of growth mechanisms and the identification of defects responsible for inhomogeneities in the growth morphology, as well as the determination of dopant incorporation throughout the structure. STL permits the relative quantum efficiency of individual quantum wires to be quantified.


Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is most common cancer site in women worldwide. The CA 15-3 is tumor associated antigen which detects soluble forms of MUC-1 protein. In normal breast tissue MUC-1 is expressed in the duct and acini, but with neoplastic transformation normal cell polarization and tissue architecture is disrupted leading to shedding of MUC-1 in the blood, where it can be measured by immunoassay. It is the most widely used serum marker in patients with BC. Its main use is for monitoring therapy in patients with metastatic disease. Aim of the work: Aim of this work was to detect the diagnostic value of CA 15-3 in female patients with BC. Patients and Methods: This study was carried on one hundred women, included fifty female patients with BC presented to Medical Oncology Department at Sohag University Hospital from 2015 to 2017, their age ranged from (25-70 years). Patients were diagnosed by clinical examination and confirmed by mammography and surgical biopsies; fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) or core needle biopsy (CNB) and CA15-3. Other fifty women were 25 healthy control not relatives to the patients and the other 25 were first degree relatives to the patients. Results: Our study suggested that CA 15-3 is abnormal in the majority of patients with breast cancer. Conclusion: Serum markers in BC are helpful for clinicians in providing more effective management of the disease. To this end, different markers have been proposed in the last years. In particular, MUC1 (CA 15-3) is the most widely used and investigated in the breast cancer follow-up period.


Peter Fookes (ed.). A Geological Society Engineering Group Working Party Revised Report, 1999. £45 (Geological Society members, £25) hardback; 184 pages. ISBN 1-897799-38-1.

In 1990, the Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology (Volume 23, Pages 1–101) published the first report of a working party of the Engineering Group on Tropical Residual Soils. This handbook contains the second edition of that report. The original report has been updated and improved, largely by the original working party. According to the authors, a few errors and omissions have been corrected but the main changes are to Chapters 2 and 4 on the 'Origins and distribution of …


BACKGROUND Kidney function profile is one of the important parameters in determining the health of the elderly. In Indonesia, no study has been conducted on kidney function profile during Ramadan fasting to determine the safety of Ramadan fasting in the elderly. This study aimed to determine the kidney function profile in the elderly who fasted during Ramadan.
METHODS This study used a prospective cohort design. The inclusion criteria were elderly aged >60 years undergoing Ramadan fasting in Jatinegara, Jakarta from April to July 2019. Patients with end-stage renal failure who had an acute infection, hypertension crisis, or refused to participate in the study were excluded. Patients who did not fast for 3 consecutive days were dropped out. The kidney function profile was calculated by the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) using the CKD-EPI formula 1 week before the first day of Ramadan, 3 weeks after the first day of fasting, and 2 weeks after the last day of fasting. Decreased eGFR was defined as having a minimum of 20% eGFR decline during or after the fasting period. Bivariate analysis was performed using McNemar or Cochran tests.
RESULTS 2 patients had eGFR decline during fasting, and 7 patients had eGFR decline after fasting. The median eGFR before, during, and after fasting were 81.5, 88.7, and 76.8 ml/min/1.73 m², respectively. A total of 1.4% of subjects had decreased eGFR during Ramadan, while 9.1% had decreased eGFR after Ramadan. However, the changes were not statistically significant.
CONCLUSIONS Although most elderly had lower eGFR following Ramadan fasting compared to before and during Ramadan, only individuals with several comorbidities had significant changes of kidney function.


The purpose of this article is to identify how Russian citizens' participation in NGOs (both 'isolated' and 'open') affects their involvement in the movement of election observers and the intensity (frequency) of observations. A theoretical overview revealed the various ways non-profit organizations effect the development of democracy — positive ('school of democracy'), negative and differentiated. Taking into account the diversity of Russia's non-profit sector, the authors preferred the latter differentiated approach. Six hypotheses were formulated and tested about the way participation in NGOs effects citizens' involvement in election observation and its intensity. The empirical basis for the paper is data from an All-Russian survey of the general population, as well as data from an online survey of election observers conducted in 2013. It was established that the probability of becoming an election observer is significantly higher among those whose experience in volunteering and NGOs is complemented by interpersonal trust. The authors also revealed that citizens' who participate in 'open' NGOs are more likely to become election observers and have more intense experience in observation. Participation in 'isolated' types of NGOs does not affect involvement in election observation, but increases the intensity of it. In general, it is shown that Russian NGOs, within the context of research, do indeed have the potential to be 'schools of democracy'.


Strengthening the host immune system to fully exploit its potential as antimicrobial defense is vital in countering antibiotic resistance. Chemical compounds released during bidirectional host-pathogen crosstalk that follows a sensing-response paradigm, can serve as protective mediators. A potent, diffusible messenger is hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), but its consequences on extracellular pathogens are unknown. Here we show that H 2 O 2 , released by the host on pathogen contact, subverts the tyrosine signaling network of a number of bacteria accustomed to low-oxygen environments. This defense mechanism utilizes heme-containing bacterial enzymes with peroxidase-like activity to facilitate phosphotyrosine (p-Tyr) oxidation. An intrabacterial reaction converts p-Tyr to protein-bound 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (PB-DOPA) via a tyrosinyl radical intermediate, thereby altering antioxidant defense and inactivating enzymes involved in polysaccharide biosynthesis and metabolism. Disruption of bacterial signaling by DOPA modification reveals an infection containment strategy that weakens bacterial fitness and could be a blueprint for antivirulence approaches.