Abstract Objective: To characterize the food environment in schools that participated in the Study of Cardiovascular Risks in Adolescents (ERICA) and to identify individual and contextual factors associated with hypertension and obesity. Design: National school-based survey. Setting: Blood pressure, weight and height were measured, and characteristics of the schools were obtained in interviews with the principals. For each outcome, multilevel models of mixed effects were applied by logistic regression. Participants: School-going adolescents aged 12–17 years. Results: A total of 73 399 adolescents were evaluated. The prevalence of hypertension was 9·6 (95 % CI 9·0, 10·3) % and that of obesity was 8·4 (95 % CI 7·9, 8·9) %. Approximately 50 % of the adolescents were able to purchase food at school and in its immediate vicinity and 82 % had access to no-charge meals through Brazil's National School Feeding Program. In the adjusted analysis, hypertension was associated (OR; 95 % CI) with the consumption of meals prepared on the school premises (0·79; 0·69, 0·92), the sale of food in the school's immediate vicinity (0·67; 0·48, 0·95) and the purchase of food in the school cafeteria (1·29; 1·11, 1·49). It was observed that there were lower odds of obesity among students who were offered meals prepared on the school premises (0·68; 0·54, 0·87). Conclusions: High frequency of sales of ultra-processed foods in schools was identified. Contextual and individual characteristics in the school food environment were associated with hypertension and obesity, pointing to the need for regulation and supervision of these spaces.


Graduating is not only about taking compulsory education, but also fulfilling the qualifications of graduates' abilities which include attitudes, knowledge, and skills. This is in accordance with the provisions of the education system contained in Government Regulation 32 of 2013. The lack of understanding of graduate quality standards is due to minimal socialization carried out by the government and related institutions. Therefore, this community service is important in order to provide knowledge to the society, so that it can further increase its participation to help in realizing high-quality education. The implementation model is carried out through the partnership method, by involving the government of Pematang Johar Village in several stages, namely: 1) pretest; 2) socialization; and 3) posttest to measure the success rate of the program. The results show that there is an increase in knowledge for the society about the quality of graduates in accordance with national education standards and there is a better awareness that society participation is needed to help realize high-quality education.


The anionic complex [Ir(2-phenylpyridine)2(benzene-1,2-dithiolate)](-) ([IrSS](-)) is a nucleophile and metalloligand that reacts with methyl iodide and AuPR3(+) (R = Ph or Et) to form S-methylated complexes (thiother-thiolate and dithiother complexes) and S-aurated complexes, respectively. The reactions are completely diastereselective, producing only the enantiomers ΛS and ΔR or ΛSS and ΔRR. The diastereoselectivity is stereoelectronically controlled by the orientation of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of [IrSS](-) arising from filled dπ-pπ antibonding interactions, and the chirality of the iridium ion. Methylation or auration removes the high-energy lone pair of the thiolate S atom, leading to low-lying HOMOs composed mainly of the Ir d-orbital and the 2-phenylpyridine π (ppyπ) orbital. The methylated and aurated complexes can be oxidized by H2O2 or peracid to give sulfinate-thiother, disulfoxide, and sulfinate-sulfoxide complexes, and the oxygenation further stabilizes the HOMO. All the complexes are luminescent, and their electronic spectra are interpreted with the aid of time-dependent density functional theory calculations. The thiother-thiolate complex exhibits ligand(S)-to-ligand(π* of ppy)-charge-transfer/metal-to-ligand-charge-transfer absorption (LLCT/MLCT) and a relatively low-energy (3)LLCT/MLCT emission, while the other complexes display (3)ππ*/MLCT emissions.


Covers both tribal law sources, including tribal constitutions, tribal codes and tribal court decisions, and federal law sources, including treaties.


The transcription factor Nkx6.1 is required for the establishment of functional insulin-producing beta-cells in the endocrine pancreas. Overexpression of Nkx6.1 has been shown to inhibit glucagon gene expression while favouring insulin gene activation. Down-regulation resulted in the opposite effect, suggesting that absence of Nkx6.1 favours glucagon gene expression. To understand the mechanism by which Nkx6.1 suppresses glucagon gene expression, we studied its effect on the glucagon gene promoter activity in non-islet cells using transient transfections and gel-shift analyses. In glucagonoma cells transfected with an Nkx6.1-encoding vector, the glucagon promoter activity was reduced by 65%. In BHK21 cells, Nkx6.1 inhibited by 93% Pax6-mediated activation of the glucagon promoter, whereas Cdx2/3 and Maf stimulations were unaltered. Although Nkx6.1 could interact with both the G1 and G3 element, only the former displayed specificity for Nkx6.1. Mutagenesis of the three potential AT-rich motifs within the G1 revealed that only the Pax6-binding site preferentially interacted with Nkx6.1. Chromatin immunoprecipitation confirmed interaction of Nkx6.1 with the glucagon promoter and revealed a direct competition for binding between Pax6 and Nkx6.1. A weak physical interaction between Pax6 and Nkx6.1 was detected in vitro and in vivo suggesting that Nkx6.1 predominantly inhibits glucagon gene transcription through G1-binding competition. We suggest that cell-specific expression of the glucagon gene may only proceed when Nkx6.1, in combination with Pdx1 and Pax4, are silenced in early alpha-cell precursors.


Underground coal gasification (UCG) is a promising option for the recovery of low-rank and inaccessible coal resources. Detailed mineralogical information is essential to understand underground reaction conditions far from the surface and optimize the operation parameters during the UCG process. It is also significant in identifying the environmental effects of UCG residue. In this paper, with regard to the underground gasification of lignite, UCG slag was prepared through simulation tests of oxygen-enriched gasification under different atmospheric conditions, and the minerals were identified by X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and a scanning electron microscope coupled to an energy-dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS). Thermodynamic calculations performed using FactSage 6.4 were used to help to understand the transformation of minerals. The results indicate that an increased oxygen concentration is beneficial to the reformation of mineral crystal after ash fusion and the resulting crystal structures of minerals also tend to be more orderly. The dominant minerals in 60%-O2 and 80%-O2 UCG slag include anorthite, pyroxene, and gehlenite, while amorphous substances almost disappear. In addition, with increasing oxygen content, mullite might react with the calcium oxide existed in the slag to generate anorthite, which could then serve as a calcium source for the formation of gehlenite. In 80%-O2 UCG slag, the iron-bearing mineral is transformed from sekaninaite to pyroxene.


Efficacy of topical tretinoin was assessed in 30 cases of idiopathic acanthosis nigricans which were recalcitrant to conventional modalities of treatment. Topical tretinoin once at night application was found to be very effective both clinically and histologically.


There are problems with the paper by Harwood et al.} The authors, by paraphrasing the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition of handicap,2 lose the sense that handicap is a social value that, for a person with impairment and disability, results in limitation or prevention of fulfilment of a role. Thus rehabilitation is concerned with the prevention and reduction of both disability and handicap, and not just with the reduction of handicap. The WHO definition, rather than being "closely defined", is so broad as to require an operational approach. Rather than attempt to classify the values associated with impairment and disability that limit or prevent roles, the WHO propose six key accomplishments necessary for social survival. These are, as Harwood and his colleagues state, orientation, mobility, physical independence, occupation, social integration, and economic self sufficiency. The WHO, however, did not consider that these six accomplishments exhausted the dimensions of handicap,3 by contrast with Harwood and his colleagues. The WHO also did not consider that these dimensions


The last decades' increase in female incarceration has translated into an increasing number of women being released from prison. Understanding their characteristics and criminal trajectories can enlighten us regarding the different needs of women upon re-entering society after incarceration. Drawing on data from the Reinserción, Desistimiento y Reincidencia en Mujeres Privadas de Libertad en Chile study, this article identifies different profiles among a cohort of 225 women who were released from prison in Santiago, Chile, and demonstrates that significant heterogeneity exists among them in terms of their criminal trajectories and the intervention needs to support their transition out of prison.


For the multisensor systems with unknown noise variances, by the correlation method, the information fusion noise variance estimators are presented by taking the average of the local noise variance estimators under the least squares fusion rule. They have the average accuracy and have consistency. A self-tuning Riccati equation with the fused noise variance estimators is presented, and then a self-tuning decoupled fusion Kalman predictor is presented based on the optimal fusion rule weighted by scalars for state component predictors. In order to prove their convergence, the dynamic variance error system analysis (DVESA) method is presented, which transforms the convergence problem of the self-tuning Riccati equation into a stability problem of a dynamic variance error system described by the Lyapunov equation. A stability decision criterion of the Lyapunov equation is presented. By the DVESA method, the convergence of the self-tuning Riccati equation is proved, and then it is proved that the self-tuning decoupled fusion Kalman predictor converges to the optimal decoupled fusion Kalman predictor in a realization, so it has asymptotic optimality. A simulation example for a tracking system with 3-sensor shows the effectiveness, and verifies the convergence.


Introduction. Pesticides are widely used in the agricultural sector to increase production by cutting costs and improving product quality. However, these chemicals come with serious health effects when individuals are exposed to large quantities at once or low amounts over time.
Objective. This study aimed to identify the health symptoms and physical assessment findings affecting farmers from their repeated occupational exposure to pesticides in a rural region in the Philippines.
Methods. This research study used a cross-sectional design, and samples were drawn based on a multistage sampling of 387 agricultural workers. The target site was in the southern Philippines, and the sample was selected randomly from the identified municipalities. Survey questionnaires were given to the respondents, and a physical assessment was made by medical doctors and trained registered nurses. The data were encoded using SPSS™ 13.0. The statistics used were both descriptive and inferential.
Results. The farmers used pesticides in their farms with an average of 2.3 days per week (SD: 2.13). The mean total spraying time was 3.07 hours (SD: ± 14.76) per day. The average amount of pesticide used in an application was 1.33 L per application (SD: ± 6.53). Sixty-three percent (63%) had spills while spraying, and 47% reported having spilled pesticides while mixing. Farmers were assessed and found to have experienced symptoms and exhibited physical assessment findings surrounding the following body systems: general, EENT, neurologic, gastrointestinal, respiratory, cardiovascular, and integumentary systems. Abnormalities in laboratory parameters were also observed among the respondents. The mini-mental state examination was done to test if the respondents showed signs of cognitive impairment. The results showed that most respondents (93.95%) had normal cognitive function, while 6.05% of respondents had some level of cognitive impairment. Associations were also tested using Phi Coefficient, and certain pesticide exposure variables were associated with farmers' physical findings and symptoms experienced by farmers.
Conclusion. This study translates pesticide's health impact by identifying the common symptoms experienced by farmers and concerning physical assessment findings. The study found that farmers suffered from various symptoms concerning the general health, eye, ears, nose, and throat region, neurological system, gastrointestinal system, respiratory system, cardiovascular system, and the integumentary system. In addition, the laboratory parameters of the participants also exhibited abnormalities indicative of exposure and possible adverse effects from pesticides.


A decade has passed since the fall of president Soeharto. The landscape of Indonesia's economy and polity has considerably changed. Preaching market and democratic solutions become new medicines for healing Indonesia's economy. This paper argues that the imposition of liberalisation without accounting for institutional contexts in which textile businesses operate have implications for deindustrialisation. By situating a textile producing region in Central Java as a case study and by using new institutional approach, this paper shows a process of depletion of various textile business networks. A process characterised by the lessening positions of actors in the textile market. The rise of political parties and civic associations has opened public dialogue. However, long steps have to be taken to facilitate the emergence of strong textile business association to influence the politics of textile industry.


The material on registration of malformation has been studied in Bukhara region for 2010. Out of 159 infants, born with different intrauterine anomalies the 16.35% (26) were found with the cleft lip and palate in different variants. After the complex examination by specialists (surgeon, pediatrician, orthopedist, otolaryngologist, psychoneurologist) operative treatment was conducted depending on degree of the defect. The study of the condition of immune system in infants was conducted after operative treatment. The examined were divided into 2 groups infants without postoperative complications and infants with postoperative complications. We studied the quantitative determination of lymphocytes with phenotype CD3, CD4, CD8, CD16, concentration IgG, IgA IgM, phagocytic activity of neutrophils and the level of CIA. It was found that in infants with congenital cleft lip and palate exist the deflections on the condition of immune system, which were more denominated in infants with postoperative complications. AMRILLO INOYATOV,


Slope stability analysis is performed to assess the equilibrium conditions and the safe design of a human-made or natural slope to find the endangered areas. Investigation of potential failure and determination of the slope sensitivity with regard to safety, reliability and economics were parts of this study. Ground anchor is designed to support a structure in this study. Ground anchor were implemented at the Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) wall along Anak Persiaran Jubli Perak to overcome the further cracking of pavement parking, concrete deck and building of the Apartments. A result from the laboratory testing of soil sample such as index test and shear strength test were applied to the Slope/W software with regard to the ground anchors that were implemented. The ground anchors were implemented to increase the value of the factor of safety (FOS) of the MSE Wall. The value of the factor of safety (FOS) before implementing the ground anchor was 0.800 and after the ground anchor was implemented the value increase to 1.555. The increase percentage of factor of safety by implementing on stability of slope was 94.38%.


We investigated growth, annealing conditions and magnetic properties of the Heusler alloy Fe2+xVyAl by means of X-ray diffraction, magnetic hysteresis and exchange-bias measurements. Ferromagnetic Heusler alloy films were obtained by sputtering Fe2VAl and Fe3VAl targets and performing post-growth annealing. The characteristic (220) Heusler alloy peaks were seen in the X-ray diffraction measurements and corresponding ferromagnetic behaviours were observed. In addition, antiferromagnetic Heusler alloy films were deposited by employing Al pegs on Fe3VAl sputtering targets. The deposited films had elemental ratios close to the predicted Fe2.5V0.5Al phase, and a 16 Oe exchange-bias was measured in a Fe2.5V0.5Al/Co60Fe40 system at 100 K.


Antidunes migrating upstream during aggradation produce a distinctive internal structure that results from the upstream climb of the bed form. This structure differs markedly from the upstream-dipping foresets usually ascribed to antidunes. Most studies on antidune internal structures focus on equilibrium conditions where there is no net deposition and preservation potential of structures is limited. Experiments where aggradation was induced in small coastal streams show that upstream-climbing antidunes produce low-angle, downstream-dipping, cross-stratification 1-10 mm thick. The stratification results from grain size and density segregation between the antidune trough and crest. Studies show that small, dense grains form a lag in the antidune trough while coarser, less-dense grains accumulate at the crest. The grain segregation causes inverse grading within the stratification as the antidune body and crest pass over the finer grained lag in the trough. Upstream-dipping foresets are not commonly formed by this process as there is no avalanching of grains over the bed form. Temporal variations in flow velocity may produce upstream-dipping foresets bounded by the downstream-dipping cross-stratification, but these features are subtle. The studies above suggest that antidune cross-stratification may be more common in fluvial deposits than previously thought. Deposits along the Toutle River in southern Washington showmore » numerous examples of inversely graded, downstream-dipping, low-angle (up to 15) cross-stratification 1-5 cm thick, quite similar to antidune cross-stratification produced experimentally. Local upstream-dipping cross-stratification bounded by the downstream-dipping strata strengthens the interpretation.« less


A variation of a branch of the splenic artery was reported in a Taiwanese male cadaver during dissection in 1999. This artery arose from the splenic artery and ran inferiolaterally to the area of the left colic flexure. Since left colic flexure is a segment of embryonic hindgut and the splenic artery typically supplies the foregut, the condition in which an artery of foregut crosses midgut to supply an area of the hindgut becomes interesting.


Underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) have recently attracted increasing research attention for their potential use in supporting many important applications and services. Examples include scientific applications such as studies of marine life, industrial applications such as monitoring underwater oil pipelines, humanitarian applications such as search and survey missions, and homeland security applications such as monitoring of ships and port facilities. The design of UWSNs, however, faces many challenges due to harsh water environments. In particular, nodes in such networks are subject to small scale and large scale uncontrollable movements due to water currents. Since maintaining network connectivity is crucial for performing many tasks that require node collaboration, it becomes important to quantify the likelihood that a network maintains connectivity during some interval of time of interest. In this thesis, we approach the above challenging problem by adopting a probabilistic model to describe node location uncertainty in semi-mobile and mobile deployments. Using this model, we devise a notion of probabilistic graphs to tackle the problem. We then formalize four probabilistic network connectivity problems that deal with fully and partially connected networks that may utilize relay nodes. Using the theory of partial k-trees, we devise algorithms that run in polynomial time, for any fixed k, to solve the formalized problems. We present simulation experiments to illustrate the use of the devised algorithms in the topological design of UWSNs.


The No.1 document of the Central Government of China has been on the theme of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" for nearly ten years, placing the solution of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" at the forefront of the Chinese government's work. Located in the Central Plains, Henan Province in China is one of the major agricultural provinces in China and plays an extremely important role in the field of agricultural production in China. This paper uses an empirical approach and the DEA-Malquist model to study the efficiency of rural public financial inputs to rural revitalisation in Henan Province. The results show that due to different levels of regional economic development, the efficiency of rural public finance investment in Henan Province in promoting rural revitalisation varies, and there is a phenomenon of unreasonable allocation of funds. At the same time, the region's agricultural base also has a greater impact on the efficiency of financial investment. Therefore, Henan Province should adjust measures according to the different regional economic levels and agricultural bases to improve the efficiency of the use of fiscal funds.


THE OCCURRENCE of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in normal adults has been reported only rarely; it is almost exclusively a disease of immunocompromised hosts. 1 A case of a previously healthy adult with fatal P carinii pneumonia, documented by open lung biopsy and necropsy, who was treated unsuccessfully with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and pentamidine isethionate, is presented. Report of a Case A 38-year-old homosexual man was in excellent health until July 1980, two months before admission to the hospital, when recurrent sore throats, anorexia, and dyspnea began. These symptoms continued; one week before admission, fever, night sweats, headache, and a nonproductive cough developed. Progressive fever to 39.4 °C, substernal chest pain, and dyspnea on minimal exertion led to his admission. No coryza, myalgias, arthralgias, or mental changes were noted. The patient appeared ill; respirations were 36/min; pulse rate, 88 beats per minute; and temperature, 40.3 °C. Results of the physical examination were otherwise


The power-frequency withstand voltage tests are regulated on electric power equipment in JEC by evaluating the lifetime reliability with a Weibull distribution function. The evaluation method is still controversial in terms of consideration of a plural number of faults and some alternative methods were proposed on this subject. The present paper first discusses the physical meanings of the various kinds of evaluating methods and secondly examines their effects on the power-frequency withstand voltage tests. Further, an appropriate method is investigated for an oil-filled transformer and a gas insulated switchgear with taking notice of dielectric breakdown or partial discharge mechanism under various insulating material and structure conditions and the tentative conclusion gives that the conventional method would be most pertinent under the present conditions.


How to get a better balance between the push and pull of the event data is the common goal of the various data dissemination algorithms in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). And the characteristics of the any-type query in WSNs is different from the All-type query. At this basis , the load of the system hotspot should be further decreased and the number of the event data replicas should be reduced. In the paper, two well-known typical structured and unstructured data dissemination algorithms (DCS and CN) are analyzed and their advantages and disadvantages are figured out. At the same time, by combining the push- pull strategies of the two algorithms, two new data dissemination algorithms are proposed based on the sequential DCS and CN push-pull strategies for the ANY-type queries in the different application situation in WSNs. The two new algorithms are Sequential-Dcs- Cnl(SDCl) and Sequential -Dcs-Cn2(SDC2). They have resolved the problems of the high load of the hotspot and the large number of the event data replicas and the low energy efficiency of queries on the premise that ensuring the balance between the push and pull. The theoretical analyses and simulations show that the performance of SDC1 is much better than that of the existing algorithms, and that ofSDC2 is close to DCS, but is more fit for the case of unevenly distributed events than SDC1. So they are much more appropriate for the WSNs which are large-scale and have large volume of data to be dealt with, and they are two energy-efficient data dissemination algorithms.


The aim of this study was to investigate the level of evolutionary divergence among five isofemale lineages of Metopolophium dirhodum Walker (Hemiptera: Aphididae) using sequences of the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) of ribosomal DNA (rDNA). These isofemalelineages were derived from parthenogenetic females, previously genetically characterized by having strong association of RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA) molecular markers and host plant preference. Out of 25 sequences, only 17 containing ITS2 (the second spacer) were used for analysis due to their quality. Within 250 nucleotide sites originated by multiple alignments, 10.4% were variable, with the predominance of indels over substitutions. The average of nucleotide diversity (π) within isofemale lineages was similar to the diversity found among all isofemale lineages. The topology inferred by the Neighbor-Joining method showed that no evolutionary divergence inferred by ITS2 sequences among isofemale lineages typified by RAPD could be associated with host preference. The ITS2 sequence differences found within lineages and their causes are discussed.


Traditional algorithms to solve the problem of sorting by signed reversals output just one optional solution while the space of optimal solutions can be huge. Algorithms for enumerating the complete set of solutions traces were developed aiming to support biologists studies of alternative evolutionary scenarios. Due to the exponential complexity of the algorithms, their practical use is limited to small permutations. In this work, we propose and evaluate three different approaches to producing a partial enumeration of the complete set of traces to transform a given permutation to another one.


This letter investigates machine learning approach for the joint optimal phase shift and beamforming in the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) assisted multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) network, consisting of one source node, one RIS panel and one destination node. If individual source-to-RIS and RIS-to-destination channels are known, the joint optimization is similar to that in the traditional MIMO network, which has been well studied. However, the channel estimation for the individual channels is complicated and often inaccurate. On the other hand, while estimating the cascaded channels for the source-RIS-destination links are more accessible, the corresponding joint optimization is complicated. In this letter, we propose a novel double deep learning network model which is superior to the conventional reinforcement learning in the RIS joint optimization. Numerical simulations are given to verify the proposed algorithm.


We start by demonstrating that an elementary learning task—learning a linear filter from training data by means of regression—can be solved very efficiently for feature spaces of very high dimensionality. In a second step, firstly, acknowledging that such high-dimensional learning tasks typically benefit from some form of regularization and, secondly, arguing that the problem of scale has not been taken care of in a very satisfactory manner, we come to a combined resolution of both of these shortcomings by proposing a technique that we coin scale regularization. This regularization problem can also be solved relatively efficient. All in all, the idea is to properly control the scale of a trained filter, which we solve by introducing a specific regularization term into the overall objective function. We demonstrate, on an artificial filter learning problem, the capabilities of our basic filter. In particular, we demonstrate that it clearly outperforms the de facto standard Tikhonov regularization, which is the one employed in ridge regression or Wiener filtering.


OBJECT
An in vitro flexibility experiment was performed to compare the biomechanical stability of asymmetrical lumbar pedicle screw fixation (longer hardware attached ipsilaterally to a 1-sided lesion), short and long fixation, and fixation with and without interconnection to the involved vertebra.

METHODS
Seven human cadaveric specimens (T12-S1) were studied intact; after simulated unilateral lesions were created at L2-3 and L3-4, the segments were stabilized by 1) L2-4 unilateral fixation (L-3 excluded), 2) L2-4 bilateral fixation (L-3 included contralaterally), 3) L2-5 unilateral fixation (L-3 excluded), 4) L2-5 fixation ipsilateral (L-3 excluded) and L2-4 fixation contralateral (L-3 included), 5) L2-5 bilateral fixation (L-3 included contralaterally), and 6) L2-5 bilateral fixation (L-3 excluded). The testing order varied among specimens. Angular range of motion (ROM) and lax zone were recorded optically while loading to 6.0 Nm was created with nonconstraining pure moments.

RESULTS
Unilateral short fixation provided significantly worse stabilization than any other construct tested in all loading modes (p < 0.05, repeated-measures analysis of variance). There was a mean 56% reduction in ROM across the lesion after adding 1 additional level rostrally and caudally. Asymmetrical long/short stabilization provided similar stability to symmetrical long stabilization. Minimal additional stability was gained by including L-3 in the long bilateral fixation construct.

CONCLUSIONS
Unilateral fixation is inadequate for stabilizing a 2-level unilateral lesion. Bilateral fixation, whether symmetrical or asymmetrical, provides good stabilization for this injury. It is not important for stability to include the level of the lesion within the long construct contralaterally.


A damage imposed on an unmanned aerial vehicle changes the flight dynamic characteristics, and makes difficult for a conventional controller based on undamaged dynamics to stabilize the vehicle with damage. This paper presents a neural network based adaptive control method that guarantees stable control performance for an unmanned aerial vehicle even with damage on the main wing. Additionally, Pseudo Control Hedging (PCH) is combined to prevent control performance degradation by actuator characteristics. Asymmetric dynamic equations for an aircraft are chosen to describe motions of a vehicle with damage. Aerodynamic data from wind tunnel test for an undamaged model and a damaged model are used for numerical validation of the proposed control method. The numerical simulation has shown that the proposed control method has robust control performance in the presence of wing damage.


Background/Aims: One hallmark of chronic liver disease in patients with portal hypertension is the formation of portal-systemic collaterals in which angiogenesis has a fundamental role. We studied patients with chronic liver disease undergoing liver transplantation to correlate levels of circulating angiogenic factors in portal and peripheral circulation with portal pressure and portal-systemic collaterals. Methods: Sixteen patients who underwent liver transplantation were enrolled. During transplant surgery, we determined portal venous pressure and portal-systemic collateral formation. We determined angiogenics mediator levels in systemic and portal plasma. Peripheral plasma from healthy donors was measured as controls. Results: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-R1 and 2, Ang-1 and 2, Tie2, FGF- 1 and 2, CD163, PDGFR-β, PDGFsRα, PDGF-AB and BB, CD163, TGF-β VASH-1 levels were significantly different in the controls in comparison to cases. Significantly decreased portal venous levels of Ang-1, FGF-1, PDGF-AB/BB, and CC were observed in patients with higher portal pressure. Peripheral VEGF, Ang-1, pPDGF-AB, BB, and CC were significantly decreased in patients with more severe collateral formation. While peripheral VEGF-R1 was higher in patients with severe collateral formation. For portal circulation, VEGF, Ang-1, pPDGF-AB, BB, and CC were significantly decreased in patients with more severe collateral formation Conclusions: Angiogenesis factors correlated with portal pressure and collateral formation and different patterns of circulating angiogenesis mediators were found in peripheral and portal blood of patients with chronic liver disease. These results support the importance of angiogenic pathways in cirrhosis and portal hypertension and highlight areas for further study to identify clinically useful noninvasive markers of portal pressure and collateral formation.


The aim of this study was to prepare nanosized Tripterygium wilfordii multi-glycoside (GTW) powders by the supercritical antisolvent precipitation process (SAS), and to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects. Ethanol was used as solvent and carbon dioxide was used as an antisolvent. The effects of process parameters such as precipitation pressure (15–35 MPa), precipitation temperature (45–65 °C), drug solution flow rates (3–7 mL/min) and drug concentrations (10–30 mg/mL) were investigated. The nanospheres obtained with mean diameters ranged from 77.5 to 131.8 nm. The processed and unprocessed GTW were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and thermal gravimetric analysis. The present study was designed to investigate the beneficial effect of the GTW nanoparticles on adjuvant-induced arthritis in albino rats. The processed and unprocessed GTW were tested against Freund's complete adjuvant-induced arthritis in rats. Blood samples were collected for the estimation of interleukins (IL-1α, IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). It was concluded that physicochemical properties and anti-inflammatory activity of GTW nanoparticles could be improved by physical modification, such as particle size reduction using supercritical antisolvent (SAS) process. Further, SAS process was a powerful methodology for improving the physicochemical properties and anti-inflammatory activity of GTW.


Modified atmosphere is widely used to extending the shelf life of fresh fruits; however, it can alter their quality. The objective of this work was to evaluate the sensory quality of papaya Formosa Tainung-01 fruits coated with cassava starch, or low-density polyethylene film. The treatments consisted of fruits coated with a 3% cassava starch solution (w/v), or low-density polyethylene film (X-tend® 815 PP26), and fruits with no coating as control, stored at a mean temperature of 27.7 °C and air relative humidity of 50%. External appearance, peel color, pulp firmness, soluble solids (SS), titratable acidity (TA), SS to TA ratio, pH, vitamin C, and weight loss were evaluated at 0, 4, 7, 9, and 11 days of storage. A test consisted of ordering of fruits by preference was used for the sensory quality analysis. The fruits coated with cassava starch, or low-density polyethylene film presented low soluble solid contents, which affects negatively their sensory quality. The low-density polyethylene film reduced the weight loss, and vitamin C content of the fruits. Key-words: Carica papaya L., Cassava Starch, Postharvest


Demultiplexing methods have facilitated the widespread use of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) experiments by lowering costs and reducing technical variations. Here, we present demuxalot: a method for probabilistic genotype inference from aligned reads, with no assumptions about allele ratios and efficient incorporation of prior genotype information from historical experiments in a multi-batch setting. Our method efficiently incorporates additional information across reads originating from the same transcript, enabling up to 3x more calls per read relative to naive approaches. We also propose a novel and highly performant tradeoff between methods that rely on reference genotypes and methods that learn variants from the data, by selecting a small number of highly informative variants that maximize the marginal information with respect to reference single nucleotide variants (SNVs). Our resulting improved SNV-based demultiplex method is up to 3x faster, 3x more data efficient, and achieves significantly more accurate doublet discrimination than previously published methods. This approach renders scRNAseq feasible for the kind of large multi-batch, multi-donor studies that are required to prosecute diseases with heterogeneous genetic backgrounds.


When resources are spatially fragmented, strength of competition between species is diminished by alternative patterns of resource use and parasitoids of the same host species become potential competitors. The coexistence of competing species in spatially fragmented habitats may be achieved, however, due to niche partitioning and alternative responses to patch characteristics. To evaluate responses to resource patterns facilitating coexistence, we examined the resource use patterns of four parasitoid species (Orthopelma mediator, Pteromalus bedeguaris, Torymus bedeguaris and Glyphomerus stigma) of the gall inducer Diplolepis rosae at both landscape and local scales. Parasitoid species of rose gall communities behave differently at landscape and local scales. Parasitism rates and parasitoid incidence showed correlations with local characteristics in some cases, with landscape characteristics in others and, in some other cases with both. Species responses to the examined characteristics depend rather on life history traits of parasitoids than on their frequency within the community. The examined parasitoids responded differently to landscape and local characteristics, while their phenology corresponded with their responses. Species emerging earlier in spring (O. mediator and P. bedeguaris) responded only to local variations, while later emerging species (T. bedeguaris and G. stigma) were sensitive to landscape characteristics as well. Differences between species‐specific and overall responses highlight the importance of species characteristics when considering multiparasitoid communities, and support both fine and coarse partitioning between different species coexisting in the community.


There are very limited reports of aplasia of bilateral submandibular glands associated with bilateral sublingual gland hypertrophy. We report the case of a 13-year-old girl with bilateral submandibular gland aplasia associated with symmetrical sublingual gland hypertrophy that herniated from bilateral mylohyoid defects and presented as bilateral masses on CT and MRI images. Prolapsed bilateral sublingual gland hypertrophy should be considered in patients with bilateral submandibular masses to avoid unnecessary biopsy or surgery. We suggest that radiological evaluation of these cases should be performed before any intervention.


Normal skeletal development in the pediatric ankle is dynamic and often produces variable imaging appearances that are subject to misinterpretation. Radiologists must understand the underlying developmental phenomena, such as endochondral and membranous ossification and physeal fusion, and be familiar with their common and uncommon imaging manifestations unique to the pediatric ankle. This is especially true as the use of MRI in the evaluation of musculoskeletal trauma expands among younger populations. The authors focus on MRI evaluation of the skeletally maturing pediatric ankle and present pearls for accurately distinguishing normal findings and imaging pitfalls from true pathologic findings. The normal but often variable imaging findings of preossification, secondary ossification, and multiple ossification centers, as well as the range of bone marrow signal intensities that can be visualized within ossification centers, are described, along with tips to help differentiate these from true pathologic findings such as contusion, fracture, or tumor. The authors also review dynamic periosteal and physeal contributions to bone growth to highlight helpful distinguishing features and avoid misdiagnosis of common subperiosteal and periphyseal abnormalities. For example, the normal trilaminar appearance of the immature cortex and periosteum should not be mistaken for periosteal reaction, traumatic stripping, or subperiosteal hematoma. In addition, the physis can have several confusing but normal appearances, including normal physeal undulations (eg, Kump bump) or focal periphyseal edema, which should not be mistaken for pathologic findings such as physeal fracture, infection, or bar. ©RSNA, 2020.


Background: The development of inhibitors is the most serious complication a patient with hemophilia can experience on treatment with clotting factor concentrates. In a cohort of 100 severe hemophilia A patients, we have recently found that the inhibitor-positive status was associated with dysfunctional indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1)1. The mechanisms whereby IDO1 promotes regulatory effects include production of tryptophan catabolites, collectively known as kynurenines. Some of those tryptophan derivatives are endogenous in nature and act as activating ligands for the Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), a transcription factor that belongs in the family of basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors2. Specifically, in dendritic cells (DCs), tryptophan-catabolite interactions with AhR promote the transcriptional induction of anti-inflammatory cytokines and the emergence of T regulatory (Treg) cells. Here, we report on the potential of tryptophan-related AhR ligands for inhibiting the formation of anti-FVIII antibodies in hemophilic (F8 KO) mice, a finding that could be important in developing novel strategies to prevent or eradicate FVIII inhibitors. Methods: Four different endogenous AhR ligands have been selected and used in these experiments. All molecules were administered in vivo to F8-deficient mice at incremental doses and by different routes (orally or intravenously), either concomitantly or after rhFVIII immunization. In specific experiments, AhR knockout mice and co-administration of AhR antagonist were used to analyze the impact of AhR deficiency. To co-deliver AhR ligands and FVIII antigens to APCs in vivo and induce antigen-specific Tregs, we administered molecules via a nanostructured delivery system3. Specifically, we engineered four types of nanoparticles (NPs), 60 nm in diameter, that were stabilized by a thiol-polyethyleneglycol (PEG) layer. Overall, we used 1) unloaded NPs, 2) NPs loaded with AhR ligands, 3) NPs loaded with rhFVIII, and 4) NPs loaded with AhR ligands and rhFVIII. Results: Administration of one of the four AhR ligands prevented the generation of anti-FVIII antibodies in nearly 80% of F8 KO mice. Similar effects were obtained with both the NPs-based approach and the oral delivery of ligands. Of note, the protective effect was negated by co-administration of the AhR antagonist CH-223191. Conclusions: Our results suggest that AhR is a possible molecular partner whereby tryptophan catabolites will control the immune response to FVIII. These findings might lead to novel interventions for preventing or eradicating inhibitors in hemophilia A patients. Bibliography: 1.Matino D., et al. IDO1 suppresses inhibitor development in hemophilia A treated with factor VIII. J Clin Invest. 2015 Oct 1;125(10):3766-81. 2. Yeste A, Nadeau M, Burns EJ, Weiner HL, Quintana FJ. Nanoparticle-mediated codelivery of myelin antigen and a tolerogenic small molecule suppresses experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109(28), 11270-11275 (2012). 3. Bessede A, et al. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor control of a disease tolerance defence pathway.Nature. 2014;511(7508):184-190. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Replicated field studies were conducted to evaluate the factors that could influence the efficacy of Paraburkholderia phytofirmans PsJN for the control of Pierce's Disease of grape as well as to determine the extent to which disease control was systemic within plants. Topical applications of PsJN with an organosilicon surfactant was an effective way to introduce this bacterium under field conditions and provided similar levels of disease control as its mechanical inoculation. Disease incidence in inoculated shoots was often reduced 2- to 3-fold when PsJN was inoculated a single time as much as 3 weeks before Xylella fastidiosa and up to 5 weeks after the pathogen. Inoculation of a shoot with PsJN greatly decreased the probability of any symptoms rather than reducing the severity of disease, suggesting a systemic protective response of individual shoots. While the likelihood of disease symptoms on shoots inoculated with the pathogen on PsJN-treated plants was lower than control plants inoculated only with the pathogen, the protection conferred by PsJN was not experienced by all shoots on a given plant. This suggested that any systemic resistance was spatially limited. While the population size of PsJN increased to more than 106 cells/g and spread more than 1 m within 12 weeks after its inoculation alone into grape, its population size subsequently decreased greatly after about 5 weeks and its distal dispersal in stems was restricted when co-inoculated with X. fastidiosa. PsJN may experience collateral damage from apparent host responses induced when both species are present.


Synopsis: Pulsating Mixing (PM) process has been devised for refining molten steel in ladle. Ihe objectives of the new process are summarized as follows: ( 1 ) Retaining the same ability in deoxidation and alloy trimming as those of RH treatment. ( 2 ) Minimizing the contamination of steel, such as rephosphorization and reoxidation, arizing from top slag during the treatment. ( 3 ) Significantly decreasing operation cost and investment in comparison with those for RH or DH-process. Water model experiments have been carried out with a 1/3 scale model apparatus for investigating the feasibility of the process, showing that the process satisfies the above requirements. A mathematical model has been developed based on the water model experiments for the basic designing of a commercial scale PM facility. The dimensions and operational conditions of the facility have been discussed to achieve the same stirring intensity, hence the same ability in deoxidation treatment, as that obtainable in RH treatment.


We are interested in estimating the effect of a treatment applied to individuals at multiple sites, where data is stored locally for each site. Due to privacy constraints, individual‐level data cannot be shared across sites; the sites may also have heterogeneous populations and treatment assignment mechanisms. Motivated by these considerations, we develop federated methods to draw inferences on the average treatment effects of combined data across sites. Our methods first compute summary statistics locally using propensity scores and then aggregate these statistics across sites to obtain point and variance estimators of average treatment effects. We show that these estimators are consistent and asymptotically normal. To achieve these asymptotic properties, we find that the aggregation schemes need to account for the heterogeneity in treatment assignments and in outcomes across sites. We demonstrate the validity of our federated methods through a comparative study of two large medical claims databases.


A passive voltage-current simulator developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is used to compare the accuracy of critical current measurements and the power-law behavior of high temperature superconductors (HTS). In this study, critical current measurements made from four data acquisition and analysis systems are compared with those carried out at NIST. This paper also discusses various measurement techniques, methods of calculating critical current, and n-values. The V-I simulator is believed to be an advancement towards defining the standards for critical current measurements and ensuring the traceability of results at different test facilities. >


Purpose – The present experiment aimed to test the impact of a self‐regulatory strategy of goal pursuit – called mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) – on an integrative bargaining task.Design/methodology/approach – Participants were randomly assigned to dyads and negotiated over the sale of a car. Before negotiating, participants were prompted to engage in MCII, or one or the other of its two component strategies: to contrast mentally achieving success in the integrative bargaining task with the reality standing in the way of this success (MC), to form implementation intentions on how to bargain (i.e. if‐then plans) (II), or both to contrast mentally and form implementation intentions (MCII).Findings – The strategy of mental contrasting with implementation intentions led dyads to reach the largest joint agreements, compared to dyads that only used mental contrasting or if‐then plans. Moreover, participants who mentally contrasted formed more cooperative implementation intentions than ...


Accelerated degradation tests (ADT) have been widely used to assess the reliability of products with long lifetime. For many products, environmental stress not only accelerates their degradation rate but also elevates the probability of traumatic shocks. When random traumatic shocks occur during an ADT, it is possible that the degradation measurements cannot be taken afterward, which brings challenges to reliability assessment. In this paper, we propose an ADT optimization approach for products suffering from both degradation failures and random shock failures. The degradation path is modeled by a Wiener process. Under various stress levels, the arrival process of random shocks is assumed to follow a nonhomogeneous Poisson process. Parameters of acceleration models for both failure modes need to be estimated from the ADT. Three common optimality criteria based on the Fisher information are considered and compared to optimize the ADT plan under a given number of test units and a predetermined test duration. Optimal two- and three-level optimal ADT plans are obtained by numerical methods. We use the general equivalence theorems to verify the global optimality of ADT plans. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the proposed methods. The result shows that the optimal ADT plans in the presence of random shocks differ significantly from the traditional ADT plans. Sensitivity analysis is carried out to study the robustness of optimal ADT plans with respect to the changes in planning input.


The unexpected death of an athlete during the practice of his sport is generally an event largely covered by the newspapers. It raises the problem of screening the athletic population in the aim to disclose anomalies (generally cardiac in origin) that predisposes to sudden death during exercise. In young people, most of these episodes are due to cardiac disorders that can be detected before initiation of the training program. The low prevalence of these disorders, the large number of people to screen and the cost of the examinations however appear to be limiting factors for this type of mass screening. Despite this notion, a scheme of a screening program is proposed in order to prevent as much as possible the occurrence of sudden death in young athletes.


The exact solution and time evolution operator for the SU(1, 1) system are obtained by making use of the Lewis-Riesenfeld theory. The time-evolution operator is used to derive the Aharonov-Anandan phase. The noncyclic evolution is then discussed with the help of the Aharonov-Anandan phase. Finally, the Berry phase is calculated by taking the adiabatic limit.


Metaphor and poeticity
In my paper, I am addressing the following questions from the perspective of cognitive
stylistics and cognitive poetics: What are the general features of a poetic metaphor?
How can poeticity (poetic quality) itself and metaphor be interpreted? How can the
relationship of everyday and poetic metaphors be described? What are the main
theoretical and methodological possibilities and problems of their differentiation?
What makes a poetic metaphor and what is the point when it actually gains a poetic
quality? On the basis of an overview of the relevant literature, and on the basis of
analyses, it can be ascertained that cognitive metaphor theory, especially blending
theory, provides sufficient background for interpreting the notion of metaphor. The
paper makes a suggestion for clarifying the relationship between everyday and literary,
poetic metaphors as well. Although it seems an open question for the time being as
to what are the essential operations and specificities of describing a poetic metaphor
in general, the following text creating operations, characteristics and factors may be
highlighted: devices of extension, elaboration, questioning and combining; novelty;
the role of context, the proportion of metaphors, their interplay and scope within a text.


Background: Pain is a significant burden experienced by patients admitted to the adult Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Acute conditions associated with severe pain include surgical incision, traumatic wounds, effect of prolonged immobility, and sometimes hidden infections in the body's cavities and treatment by invasive procedures. Pain in ICU is difficult to assess due to the nature of patients admitted to that unit. Pain assessement requires health care providers to have a good knowledge of it, and involves a number of care providers including the nurses among others. However little is known about the nurses' knowledge and attitudes related to pain management in ICU. The purpose of this study is to assess nurses knowledge and attitudes toward pain management of ICU patients in three university teaching hospitals in Rwanda. Methods: The tool and attitudes Survey Regarding Pain "developed by Ferrell and McCaffery was adapted to local context. The tool was used in the three referral hospitals in Rwanda to assess knowledge and attitudes from 69 nurses practicing in ICU. We compared the pain management performance in regard to the age, level of education, experience and history of training in pain management between nurses. The researcher used one way ANOVA to compare nurses' scores among hospitals with a significance level α=0.05. A multiple linear regression analysis was used to highlight independent factors associated with best performance. A p value ≤0,05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The results from this study showed that nurses lack adequate knowledge and have poor attitudes toward pain management. The level of nursing education (p<0.008) and the hospital where nurses worked (P<0.0001) had a strong influence on attitudes toward pain management. In addition, knowledge gap and inappropriate attitude towards pain management noticed among some ICU nurses could lead to their underestimation of pain, and under medication. Conclusion: Poor performance in pain management in ICU is multifactorial. Continuous Professional Training and improved working environment towards standard practice are key to pick up that performance. Keywords: Intensive care unit, pain management, nurses, knowledge attitude, medication


Purpose:The purpose of this study was to evaluate the informative value of Turkish videos submitted to YouTube about erectile dysfunction (ED).
Materials and Methods: The first 125 videos published on Youtube.com between January 11 and 18, 2023, accessed with the keyword "erectile dysfunction," published in Turkish, and displayed in search results in a standard order of relevance were studied. Videos that were less than 1 minute long, do not contain information, contains jokes, movie trailers, or product advertisements, were less than 1 month old since their publication, or were unrelated to ED were excluded from the study. The quality of the information content of the videos was assessed using DISCERN scoring. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics 24 software.
Results: It was determined that out of the 100 videos that met the inclusion criteria, 74% were uploaded by healthcare professionals, 3% by the Pharmaceutical Industry, 5% by the Dietary Supplement Industry, 3% by psychologists, and 15% by non-healthcare professionals. When the videos were examined based on their content, it was determined that the topics of the published videos primarily focused on diagnosis and treatment. However, it was also found that there were videos that provided content on the etiopathology and symptoms of the disease. The total duration of the videos was 10 hours, 58 minutes, and 24 seconds (1 minute to 53.05 minutes). While the total number of views was 21.893.514 (15-1.700.000), the total number of likes was determined to be 130,340. The average views were 8.002,64 (1.998,76-11.953,26), and the average monthly likes were 47,30 (11,88-73,1). The average value for DISCERN was calculated to be 3.3 (1-5). There was a negative correlation between the DISCERN scores and the average monthly number of likes. It was found that there was a positive and significant correlation between the duration of videos and DISCERN scores. Videos uploaded by physicians had a high DISCERN score, while the content quality of the other videos was moderate to poor.
Conclusions: Overall, 50% of ED-related videos on YouTube have moderate to poor content quality. Videos uploaded by physicians had high DISCERN scores and high likes and view rates. A negative correlation existed between DISCERN ratings and average monthly likes and views.


This study explores challenges experienced by first-line managers as strategy makers and particularly how these relate to converting strategic goals into reality within organizational frontline contexts. Using Heideggerian building and dwelling perspectives as a conceptual foundation, the first-line managers` role as organizational strategy makers are explored. A building perspective implies deliberate strategy making based on goals usually determined by upperlevel management. From a dwelling perspective, on the other hand, strategy making is carried out non-deliberately by actors immersed in a relationally constituted nexus of social activity, as practical coping. The study reveals challenges related to facilitation of practical coping within organizational front-line contexts as dwelling contexts requiring a balancing of strategic and operational leadership behaviors. Implications for the leadership of organizational strategy making are elaborated.


The reflectivity method plays an important role in seismic modelling. It has been used to model different types of waves propagating in elastic and anelastic media. The diffusive–viscous wave equation was proposed to investigate the relationship between frequency dependence of reflections and fluid saturation. It is also used to describe the attenuation property of seismic wave in a fluid‐saturated medium. The attenuation of diffusive–viscous wave is mainly characterised by the effective attenuation parameters in the equation. Thus, it is essential to obtain those parameters and further characterise the features of the diffusive–viscous wave. In this work, we use inversion method to obtain the effective attenuation parameters through quality factor QP to investigate the characteristics of diffusive–viscous wave by comparing with those of the viscoacoustic wave. Then, the reflection/transmission coefficients in a dip plane‐layered medium are studied through coordinate transform and plane‐wave theory. Consequently, the reflectivity method is extended to compute seismograms of diffusive–viscous wave in a dip plane multi‐layered medium. Finally, we present two models to simulate the propagation of diffusive–viscous wave in a dip plane multi‐layered medium by comparing the results with those in a viscoacoustic medium. The numerical results demonstrate the validity of our extension of reflectivity method to the diffusive–viscous medium. The numerical examples in both time domain and time–frequency domain show that the reflections from a dip plane interface have significant phase shift and amplitude change compared with the results of horizontal plane interface due to the differences in reflection/transmission coefficients. Moreover, the modelling results show strong attenuation and phase shift in the diffusive–viscous wave compared to those of the viscoacoustic wave.


This paper presents the results of the shared task on Lay Summarisation of Biomedical Research Articles (BioLaySumm), hosted at the BioNLP Workshop at ACL 2023. The goal of this shared task is to develop abstractive summarisation models capable of generating "lay summaries" (i.e., summaries that are comprehensible to non-technical audiences) in both a controllable and non-controllable setting.There are two subtasks: 1) Lay Summarisation, where the goal is for participants to build models for lay summary generation only, given the full article text and the corresponding abstract as input; and2) Readability-controlled Summarisation, where the goal is for participants to train models to generate both the technical abstract and the lay summary, given an article's main text as input.In addition to overall results, we report on the setup and insights from the BioLaySumm shared task, which attracted a total of 20 participating teams across both subtasks.


Family planning services were introduced in Vietnam by the Americans about 20 years ago, but on a limited basis. Many of the Vietnamese refugee women have had no contact with such services. Abortion was illegal until 1975 in South Vietnam, but since the takeover, abortion clinics have been available as part of the public hospital system. Family planning was available in some of the refugee camps. Most of the Vietnam refugees fled their country by boat. Before their acceptance by Australia, the Vietnamese refugees have health checks by the Australian Commonwealth Health Department in the country of transit. Shortly after their arrival in Australia, health screening is done by the State Health Department. The majority of refugees are accommodated in migrant hostels for the 1st 3-12 months. Family planning is incorporated into Eastbridge Hostel's orientation program. During participation in some family planning discussion groups with the Indochinese refugees, it was observed that the women were particularly shy and hesitant to talk about sexual concerns in a large group or in mixed company. As personal matters are dealt with in the family, it is preferable to have a female as a discussion leader and interpreter. Visual aids such as a display of contraceptive devices, a model showing female anatomy and a family planning film for non-English speaking migrants are particularly useful. As a female doctor using a female interpreter the aim was to provide an accessible service for Indochinese women with family planning inquiries or gynecological problems. It is important that the interpreter is present in the consulting room. Nonverbal cues are most important and particular attention should be paid to establishing eye contact with the patient. Simple miming techniques or the use of diagrams may be helpful in reinforcing the work of the interpreter. When listening to the patient, it is useful to look and listen for nonverbal cues from them. Between February 1980 and May 1981, 60 Indochinese women presented with gynecological problems. Approximately 50% of these women had either not been using an effective method of family planning or had been using the rhythm method. A considerable number of the women who were using a reliable method of contraception began doing so either in the country of transit or in Australia, and probably in the postnatal period. The majority of women requesting family planning chose an oral contraceptive (OC) agent. Indochinese women seem more reluctant that Australian women to select surgically related procedures such as IUD insertion or tubal ligation. The different cultural background of the Indochinese refugees influences both attitudes toward family planning and the communication process in the family planning consultation.


Abstract Voluntary land conservation programs depend upon the willingness of land owners to participate. Since participation requires commitment to long‐term contracts, most studies on participation focus on changes to the pecuniary incentives facing land owners. This study presents a large‐scale field experiment within the USDA's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) that examines whether informational outreach, including behavioral nudges, could improve land owners' willingness to participate. The experiment evaluates the impact of three types of reminder letters on the rate at which land is offered into the CRP. We find that for the most well‐informed group, farms with expiring CRP contracts, the reminder letters did improve participation. We interpret this result as evidence of inattentive behavior. We do not detect any differences in the estimated treatment effects among the basic reminder letter and the letters augmented with peer comparisons and social norm messaging, nor do we detect any treatment effect among currently unenrolled farms. From a policy perspective, these results imply that the USDA can generate additional CRP offers among farms with expiring contracts at an average cost of $39 per additional offer. Assuming a twenty‐five million acre program, reminder letters sent during every sign‐up period would result in re‐enrollment offers from an additional 420,000 acres. Using simulations based on offers from prior CRP sign‐ups, we estimate that these additional offers in the CRP auction would reduce program costs. Depending on the year of simulation, the outreach effort achieves a benefit‐cost ratio of between 20:1 and 90:1. JEL codes: Q28, D44, D83.


We consider level-sets of the Gaussian free field on $\mathbb Z^d$, for $d\geq 3$, above a given real-valued height parameter $h$. As $h$ varies, this defines a canonical percolation model with strong, algebraically decaying correlations. We prove that three natural critical parameters associated to this model, namely $h_{**}(d)$, $h_{*}(d)$ and $\bar h(d)$, respectively describing a well-ordered subcritical phase, the emergence of an infinite cluster, and the onset of a local uniqueness regime in the supercritical phase, actually coincide, i.e. $h_{**}(d)=h_{*}(d)= \bar h(d)$ for any $d \geq 3$. At the core of our proof lies a new interpolation scheme aimed at integrating out the long-range dependence of the Gaussian free field. The successful implementation of this strategy relies extensively on certain novel renormalization techniques, in particular to control so-called large-field effects. This approach opens the way to a complete understanding of the off-critical phases of strongly correlated percolation models.


A new ternary polar intermetallic, Ca(18)Li(5)In(25.07), was obtained from high-temperature reactions of the elements in welded Nb tubes. Its crystal structure, established by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, was found to crystallize in the orthorhombic space group Cmmm (No. 65). Unit cell parameters are a = 9.9151(6) A, b = 26.432(2) A, and c = 10.2116(6) A; Z = 2. The structure of Ca(18)Li(5)In(25.07) features two distinct types of indium anionic layers. An "electron-deficient" layer is made up of Li-centered In(12) icosahedra that are interconnected by bridging planar In(4) units and In atoms. A second In(3)(5-) layer is an electron-precise Zintl layer formed by fused four-, five-, and six-membered rings of three- and four-bonded indium atoms. The two distinct layers are alternately stacked and linked into a complex three-dimensional network. Vacancies are observed to occur only at the In(12) icosahedral and the bridging indium units within the "electron-deficient" layers. Magnetic property measurements indicate that Ca(18)Li(5)In(25.07) exhibits temperature-independent paramagnetism consistent with metallic behavior. Band structure calculations were performed to elucidate the role of defects and vacancies in the electronic structure of the electron-deficient "metallic" Zintl phase.


Icon and fresco restoration and conservation are among the most appropriate meeting places for science and art, even when this art is essentially liturgical. The science is present here not only because chemicals, minerals, and colours are involved, but also because the most advanced scientific techniques and methods are used, both in order to restore the original appearance to frescoes and individual icons, and also to prevent their deterioration. Among the techniques used are optical microscopy, Digital Image Analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-Ray Microanalysis, and gas-chromatography. My paper gives several examples in which these modern techniques are used for restoration and/or conservation, and shows the results obtained as a consequence. The examples refer to icons and frescoes from Thessaloniki, Mount Athos, Athens and Lysi (Cyprus).


Indo-Iranian Joumal, in the three decades since its inception, has published leading and authoritative papers on ancient and medieval Indian languages, literature, philosophy and religion, ancient and medieval Iran, and papers on Tibet. Archaeological and specific historical studies are normally excluded. Recent issues of Indo-Iranian Journal have contained linguistic articles on Sanskrit, Middle Indian (Pakrit), New-Indo-Aryan, on Munda linguistics (including the results of fieldwork), old and modern Dravidian languages (including new material on little-known Central Dravidian languages). Indo-Iranian Journal also contains many reviews of new publications, and lists many more publications received.


A novel approach for the detection of falls, the analysis of body postures, mobility and metabolic energy expenditure of elderly people has been developed. It is based on a distributed intelligence architecture, supported by it wireless personal area network (WPAN) which allows a full 24-hour supervision of the user, both indoor and outdoor home. An open design methodology lets the addition of new sensors for the on-line monitorization or other biosignals. In this paper general guidelines and design issues are reported, with special emphasis on the Intelligent Accelerometer Unit (IAU), based on a four-axis accelerometer, the signals of which are transmitted to the WPAN server (PSE) for on-line processing. The availability of three axis in the median plane provides an inclination measurement with high sensibility. The IAU can be worn like a patch, fixed to the back, at the height of the sacrum. A prototype of the IAU is currently under validation phase, in order to optimize signal transmission between IAU and PSE.


Doxorubicin is an effective antineoplastic drug; however, its clinical benefit is limited by its cardiotoxicity. The inhibition of mitochondrial biogenesis is responsible for the pathogenesis of doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy. Endothelin-1 is a vasoconstrictive peptide produced from big endothelin-1 by endothelin-converting enzyme-1 (ECE-1) and a multifunctional peptide. Although plasma endothelin-1 levels are elevated in patients treated with doxorubicin, the effect of ECE-1 inhibition on doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy is not understood. Cardiomyopathy was induced by a single IP injection of doxorubicin (15 mg/kg). Five days after treatment, cardiac function, histological change, and mitochondrial biogenesis were assessed. Echocardiography revealed that cardiac systolic function was significantly deteriorated in doxorubicin-treated wild-type (ECE-1+/+) mice compared with ECE-1 heterozygous knockout (ECE-1+/−) mice. In histological analysis, cardiomyocyte size in ECE-1+/− mice was larger, and cardiomyocyte damage was less. In ECE-1+/+ mice, tissue adenosine triphosphate content and mitochondrial superoxide dismutase were decreased, and reactive oxygen species generation was increased compared with ECE-1+/− mice. Cardiac mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid copy number and expressions of key regulators for mitochondrial biogenesis were decreased in ECE-1+/+ mice. Cardiac cGMP content and serum atrial natriuretic peptide concentration were increased in ECE-1+/− mice. In conclusion, the inhibition of ECE-1 attenuated doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy by inhibiting the impairment of cardiac mitochondrial biogenesis. This was mainly induced by decreased endothelin-1 levels and an enhanced atrial natriuretic peptide-cGMP pathway. Thus, the inhibition of ECE-1 may be a new therapeutic strategy for doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy.


Autogenic abreaction and psychoanalytic therapy have at their very root a common concept: the pathogenicity of disturbing mental recordings. Despite the difference in techniques and approach, both methods share, to a certain extent, many other conceptual similarities. Although it is impossible in a short paper to review the fields of psychoanalysis and autogenic abreaction, I will try to elaborate on some of the common areas, and the possibility of cross-fertilization between the two disciplines.


Students' informal conversations on social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) shed light into their educational experiences-opinions, feelings, and concerns about the learning process. Data from such uninstrumented environments can provide valuable knowledge to inform student learning. Analyzing such data, however, can be challenging. The complexity of students' experiences reflected from social media content requires human interpretation. However, the growing scale of data demands automatic data analysis techniques. In this paper, we developed a workflow to integrate both qualitative analysis and large-scale data mining techniques. We focused on engineering students' Twitter posts to understand issues and problems in their educational experiences. We first conducted a qualitative analysis on samples taken from about 25,000 tweets related to engineering students' college life. We found engineering students encounter problems such as heavy study load, lack of social engagement, and sleep deprivation. Based on these results, we implemented a multi-label classification algorithm to classify tweets reflecting students' problems. We then used the algorithm to train a detector of student problems from about 35,000 tweets streamed at the geo-location of Purdue University. This work, for the first time, presents a methodology and results that show how informal social media data can provide insights into students' experiences.


T cells are critical decision-makers in the immune system and their activation determines whether a cell or molecule constitutes a threat to the body and needs to be eliminated or whether it should be ignored and tolerated by the immune system. Many molecules that play a role in T cell activation and their interactions with each other have been identified, but an overall understanding of the decision-making processes that lead to changes in T cell behaviour remain enigmatic. We are studying human T cell activation through a combination of in vitro experimental stimulation experiments and mathematical modelling. Our minimal experimental platform allows us to systematically vary the input signals the T cell receives by modulating antigen dose, antigen affinity, stimulation time and costimulatory ligands, and by stimulating through either a TCR or a CAR. We show here that T cell activation (measured as cytokine production) shows an adaptation phenotype in response to all antigen doses and affinities. A detailed study of TCR downregulation and the incorporation into a mathematical model revealed that TCR downregulation is sufficient to explain this adaptation. The intrinsic inactivation of the T cells is contextdependent and the cells can be re-activated with a higher affinity ligand. Furthermore, we show that the inactivated cells can be re-activated when a non-stimulating pMHC is presented together with a costimulatory ligand. We generated a similar dataset for CAR T cells and showed that they can equally get desensitised by antigen and that the CAR is also downregulated depending on antigen dose and affinity, suggesting that a similar model may apply. We used the resulting mathematical model of T cell activation to predict the potential effects of costimulatory molecules on the dose response profiles, including, for example, adhesion effects or signal amplification. We then systematically stimulated T cells with ligands to CD2 and CD28 and compared the responses to the model predictions. We found that CD28 primarily lowers the threshold for T cell activation downstream of the TCR whereas CD2 showed a more complex phenotype with a strong adhesion effect combined with amplifying effects on downstream signalling.


Osteoporosis and fractures are features in adults with Turner syndrome (TS). Using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, correcting bone mineral content (BMC) for height and lean mass (LTM) avoids misclassification of short children as osteopenic. Total body (TB), lumbar spine (LS), and femoral neck (FN) dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scans were performed on 83 patients with TS (aged 4-24 yr). A prepubertal subgroup (n = 17) receiving GH was followed for 24 months. Age z-scores for height, TB BMC, LTM, the BMC/LTM ratio, and LS volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) decreased significantly (P < 0.001) with age in prepubertal subjects (n = 51) but were constant in the combined pubertal and postmenarchal group (n = 32). Osteopenia was found in 14.5% (TB), 15.8% (LS), and 28.4% (FN) of patients. In the longitudinal subgroup, TB BMC z-scores decreased by -0.28 (0.31) in subjects remaining prepubertal (n = 11) but increased by 0.71 (0.56) in subjects entering puberty (n = 6; P = 0.007). The z-scores for height and LTM increased in both groups. Our results show a height-independent prepubertal decrease in bone mass accrual, which ceased with puberty. Optimizing bone mass in TS may require earlier induction of puberty than currently recommended. However, reduced FN volumetric bone mineral density and a dissociation of bone and muscle measures were age independent, suggesting an additional intrinsic bone defect.


Farmer's participation in system design and management ensures the sustainability of the system. In the context of irrigation management in Indonesia, enactment of law No. 20/2006 has largely emphasized the importance of farmer's participation in irrigation management. The implication of the law is participatory irrigation development and management which involves stakeholders including government, water users association and irrigation commission. Consequently, farmers are encouraged to play more active management role. Whether farmers are actively involved? How is their involvement in terms of farmer participation at local level in the management of irrigation system? This study attempts to answer these questions which was carried out in irrigation system in Nagari Paninggahan. This study used qualitative and quantitative approach. Both secondary data and primary data were collected. Primary data was collected through key informant interview and households survey. Farmers participation is analyzed in the design or planning and during operation and maintenance of irrigation system. Overall, level of farmer participation is categorized as tokenism. Farmers participation is already recognized but they lack the power to ensure their views will be considered by decision-makers thus brings changes to the farmers. It indicates that progress of farmers participation in irrigation management in the study area is low. Several factors hinder farmers participation, the existence of water user association faced several problems such as in the management of the association. In most cases, operation and maintenance of irrigation system was conducted individually by farmers. What are the factors influence farmer participation in irrigation management in the study area need to be further analyzed.


Simulators that generate observations based on theoretical models can be important tools for development, prediction, and assessment of signal processing algorithms. In order to design these simulators, painstaking effort is required to construct mathematical models according to their application. Complex models are sometimes necessary to represent a variety of real phenomena. In contrast, obtaining synthetic observations from generative models developed from real observations often require much less effort. This paper proposes a generative model based on adversarial learning. Given that observations are typically signals composed of a linear combination of sinusoidal waves and random noises, sinusoidal wave generating networks are first designed based on an adversarial network. Audio waveform generation can then be performed using the proposed network. Several approaches to designing the objective function of the proposed network using adversarial learning are investigated experimentally. In addition, amphibian sound classification is performed using a convolutional neural network trained with real and synthetic sounds. Both qualitative and quantitative results show that the proposed generative model makes realistic signals and is very helpful for data augmentation and data analysis.


The development of spatial or non-spatial digitized Consolidated Sarawak Geotechnical Site Investigation (CoGSI) database aims to enable information to be stored in a digital form with the efficient search and fast retrieving data. The CoGSI database for Sarawak Soil is a function of a database management system, which consists of the site information; includes the project name, locations coordinates (division), borehole logs, field and laboratory test results. The main objectives of the project are to collect, store & digitized all verified & approved Geotechnical SI data and the input gathered from the local authority, consultants and contractors. The digitized database would be enormous value for future planning of infrastructure developments; making preliminary design estimates for earthwork/foundation assessment; and future decision making with early identification of potential areas for construction purposes, which will produce an economic and safe design. The SI databases are important resources where the insufficient ground conditions information, will cause either a significantly over-designed or an under-designed solution, which lead to potential failures. In addition, the project is also intended to realize a web-based application to allow users to search borehole, view bore-logs and provides digital downloadable boreholes data of the available ground information in a standard format for analysis. At present most of the SI data are available in the form of hardcopy reports, which is time consuming and often frustrating, especially when the required report or data cannot be found. In summary, the Consolidated Sarawak Geotechnical Site Investigation (CoGSI) database system, which stored in a digital format are deployed as a web-based system. This platform provides exploration of the digital databases, which then can be accessed anywhere and anytime through the desktop & portable computer and smart phones with internet access facility.


Sir, From my experience in Zaria, northern Nigeria, I agree with Dr Browning that the provision of a hostel adjacent to maternity units is essential as part of the antenatal care of women with previous vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) repair. In Zaria, only a small minority of the pregnant women who had VVF in a previous pregnancy used the available hostel when they needed it. Unlike the situation reported by Browning in Ethiopia, in Zaria, previous VVF repair was by itself not regarded as an absolute indication for delivery by elective Caesarean section in subsequent pregnancies. There, the size of the maternal height and bony pelvis changed markedly between the first and subsequent pregnancies in teenage girls who had not finished growing during their first pregnancies. Growth spurts even occurred during the first pregnancy in adolescents who took malarial chemoprophylaxis and iron and folic acid supplements. Furthermore, in some, the VVF resulted from the gishiri cut performed by traditional birth attendants, for reasons unrelated to prolonged obstructed labour. Therefore, in a subsequent pregnancy, if clinical and radiological pelvimetry at 36 weeks showed the pelvis to be suitable for vaginal delivery, and if there were no other contraindications, including vaginal fibrosis and stenosis, then vaginal delivery assisted by episiotomy was allowed. Otherwise, delivery was by elective Caesarean section at term. Of 22 774 consecutive births that took place at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, between January 1976 and July 1979, 144 had previous repair of VVF with or without previous Caesarean section, and 79 had acquired VVF not in their previous pregnancies but in the course of labour at the end of their index pregnancies. We compared pregnancy outcomes following previous VVF repair (144), previous surgery for ectopic pregnancy (41), previous Caesarean section (866), and the remainder without previous operations. Those with previous VVF repair stood out as the group with the worst possible reproductive results: the highest incidence of short maternal stature, the lowest rates for literacy, the lowest rate of child survival from previous births, the highest rate of operative delivery, the highest rate of low birth weight babies, and the worst fetal results in their current pregnancies. The principal indication for operative delivery was cephalopelvic disproportion and its complications, including uterine rupture. Of the 79 women found to have a fresh VVF when they were admitted in labour or reported to hospital shortly after delivery at home, 12 died, all from complications of advanced obstructed labour. Only five of the 66 singleton babies delivered in hospital survived; the rest were mostly intrauterine deaths before arrival in hospital, necessitating abdominal deliveries and craniotomies in the presence of gross genital tract infection and severe anaemia. Furthermore, the surviving babies were on the average lighter (mean 2.77 kg) than the perinatal deaths (mean 3.14 kg). Hence, in terms of birth weight distribution, the babies who failed to survive were potentially superior to the babies who did survive. Although the numbers are small, they suggest that in places where disproportion is common and most deliveries are unsupervised, the surviving babies may not necessarily be the best babies. This pattern of reproduction carries serious implications for the future well-being of the population. In as much as health reforms including curative centres for fistula repairs are important, prevention is the priority. Firefighting in hospital by itself will not break the cycle of death and destruction: political intervention and socioeconomic reforms, beginning with compulsory universal formal education, will. j


This scientific review substantiates the role of leukocytes and microglia in the pathogenesis of inflammation in ischemic brain. Primary neuronal damage occurs within a few minutes after ischemia, while the inflammatory response, contributing to the progression of disease can last from a few days to several months. The attention in focused on the fact that the migration of neutrophils into the brain parenchyma and secretion of proteases — one of the main causes of neurons' and glia death in reperfusion and delayed brain injury. There is discussed the role of integrin, CXCR1/2 chemokine receptors, TNF-α, TLR2 and TLR4, Slit1-protein, angiotensin II, epinephrine and serotonin in the modulation of the functional activity of leukocytes. It has been shown that increased blood-brain barrier permeability is mediated by P2Y2 receptors related to G-protein, causing an increase in intracellular Ca2+, and by P2Y1 receptors affecting by inhibition of adenylate cyclase. Interest in lymphocytes is dictated by the presence of lymphopenia after a stroke that creates the possibility of autoimmune inflammation in this cohort of patients. These authors' data confirm the fact that after cerebral ischemia monocytes/macrophages are activated through chemokine receptor CCR2 and act indirectly through TGF-β1, required to maintain the functional integrity of the neurovascular complex.


The purpose of our research was to test the therapeutic efficacy of the acaricide «Simparica®» in combination with the biostimulator «Catosal» and the hepatoprotector «Tioprotectin» for demodicosis in dogs in the conditions of veterinary clinics in the Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine. The study has been performed on dogs of different genders, ages and breeds that had a generalized form of demodicosis (affected at least 6 areas on the body of animals), to test the effectiveness of this drug in different treatment schemes. Acarological studies of scrapings from the skin of experimental animals for the presence of live or dead mites Demodex canis or their eggs have been carried out by the vital method according to D.O. Pryselkova. As a result of the conducted researches the choice of acaricidal drugs and development of complex therapeutic measures for demodicosis of dogs has been experimentally substantiated. The drug «Simparica®» has proved to be quite effective against demodicosis of dogs, even with a single use. The dependence of the effectiveness of the use of prolonged acaricide «Simparica®» on clinical forms of demodicosis has been shown. The absolute therapeutic effect of acaricide is obtained in the scaly form of demodicosis. However, in pustular and mixed clinical forms of demodicosis, its effectiveness decreased to 71.4 and 57.1%, respectively. In combination with the drug of pathogenetic therapy «Catosal» for pustular and mixed forms of demodicosis, the therapeutic efficacy of the drug «Simparica®» increases to 85.7%. When added to the scheme of hepatoprotector "Thioprotectin", it is possible to achieve 100% therapeutic effect in pustular forms of demodicosis. However, in severe mixed form of demodicosis, the effectiveness was not absolute and was only 85.7%. In case of generalized demodicosis of dogs, regardless of clinical forms, it is recommended to use the acaricide «Simparica®» in combination with the drug «Catosal» and in the combination of «Catosal» and «Thioprotectin».


This study is designed to evaluate the possible effect of ethanolic extract of Euphorbia hirta on haematological and biochemical parameters of wistar albino rats. Forty male wistar albino rats were used for this experiment. The animals were divided randomly into four groups of ten animals each. Group I (control) were given 0.2 ml normal saline to drink. Group II, Group III and Group IV were given 200mg/kg, 400mg/kg and 600mg/kg of Euphorbia hirta ethanol extract respectively for 14days. The results of this study with respect to the haematological changes showed that E. hirta caused a significant increase (P<0.05) in RBC, WBC, PLT, Hb and PCV level while there is a reduction in lymphocytes. E. hirta extract caused significant decrease (P<0.05) in serum lipid profile (cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL-cholesterol and VLDL) when compared to normal control wistar albino rats. There was a slight increase in the levels ALT and AST activities in the treated group when compared with control. The treated group showed a significant increase in serum urea activity (p<0.05) when compared with the control. In conclusion, these plants possess medicinal properties, this study has shown that: E. hirta had erythropoiesis and hpyolipidemic activities. It can be suggested based on these reports that the high dose administration of this extract might have been too toxic to the rats to have caused the increase in liver enzymes recorded in the experimental group.


New mixed analog/digital PRML (partial response maximum likelihood) architecture for the optical drive system is presented. In order to realize high speed, low power and low cost solution, new data and clock recovery circuits are proposed. The proposed architecture is based on the efficient combination of digital and analog circuits to provide high speed and low power data detection for optical data storage system. The presented circuit shows increased operating speed by 67%, reduced power consumption by 28% and area by 42%, therefore it provides high speed, low power and low cost SOC solution for the future optical drive system. A test chip produced is fabricated using 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS technology and the product has been proved to demonstrate the performance of the proposed architecture.


Ultrastructural studies of sensory endings in monkey posterior medial knee joint capsule were undertaken. Three distinct sensory nerve endings have been identified: free nerve endings, Ruffini corpuscles, and Pacinian corpuscles. The free nerve endings are present in all layers of the joint capsule excluding the synovium. Two types of Ruffini corpuscles have been found in the fibrous layer. The first type is characterized by a thin perineurial capsule, the second type by a thicker perineurial capsule, and extensive intracapsular space. Both types of Ruffini corpuscles are innervated by approximately one to four myelinated axons which lose their sheaths as they course through the corpuscle. They terminate on collagen fiber bundles as distinct swellings with spiny membrane projections that are covered by a thin basal lamina. These terminals contain abundant mitochondria, agranular vesicles, and irregularly arranged neurofilaments and neurotubules. Two types of Pacinian corpuscles were occasionally observed. The first was a small, typically laminated structure with an inner core at the layer between the synovium and the fibrous layer and between the fibrous layer and muscle/ligament; larger Vater‐Pacinian corpuscles were noted only at the boundary between the fibrous layer and the muscle/ligament layer.


The spin-reorientation phenomenon in Nd2Fe14B has been investigated using an angular dependent free energy approach. A magnetic Hamiltonian which includes the crystal electric field term and the exchange term has been established using realistic band structure results. The temperature dependence of the molecular field is accounted for by introducing the Brillouin function and the magnetic Hamiltonian is diagonalized within the ground state multiplet of the Nd ion. The eigenstates are then used to form the partition function for the free energy. At each temperature, the direction of the molecular field is obtained by searching for the minimum in the angular parameter space of the free energy. Our calculations show that for Nd2Fe14B, the net magnetic anisotropy direction is canted away from the c axis at a temperature close to the experimentally reported spin-reorientation temperature of 150 K. The temperature dependence of the magnetic structure is found to be very sensitive to the size of the second order crystal field parameter B20.


Peristonsillar abscess (PTA) is a common deep neck space infection in children. Children with PTA often present with sore throat, dysphagia, peritonsillar bulge, uvular deviation, trismus, and a muffled voice. The diagnosis of PTA can be made based on history and physical examination in the majority of children. Treatment of pediatric PTA necessitates aspiration or surgical drainage and antibiotic therapy. Challenges exist with the diagnosis and management of PTA that are unique to pediatric patients. Examples include difficulty with examination of the oropharynx in an uncooperative child and controversy surrounding bedside needle aspiration verses operative incision and drainage. Early identification of PTA and initiation of appropriate treatment can prevent serious complications.


Rodríguez-Muñoz et al. raise concerns about our study on the effectiveness of the European Union's Birds Directive, based on the provenance of the trend data used and on the predictions that were tested. Here, we show that our results are robust to different assumptions of uncertainty surrounding trend estimates and that criticisms of the methods stem largely from misunderstandings of the original paper.