Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

β-catenin is a key downstream effector in the Wnt signaling pathway. It is implicated in two major biological processes in vertebrates: early embryonic development and tumorigenesis. The receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE), a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily of cell membrane receptors, is encoded within the MHC Class III Region. It interacts with various ligands including high mobility group protein 1 [HMGB1], certain S100 protein family members, and advanced glycation endproducts and is involved in cancer, inflammation, diabetes and Alzheimer disease. To evaluate whether treatment with RAGE short hairpin RNA (shRNA) increases chemosensitivity in pancreatic cancers involves β-catenin signaling, we first examined the expression level of β-catenin and its target genes. In normal states, β-catenin and its target genes cyclinD1, c-myc, and Nr-CAM but not L1CAM were decreased when RAGE was depleted in the murine Panc02 cell line by western blot and immunofluorescence analysis. Importantly, RAGE deletion enhanced the suppressive effects of chemotherapy on the expression of β-catenin and its target genes. To evaluate the effects of β-catenin on chemosensitivity in pancreatic cancer cells, we used cells in which the expression of RAGE and/or β-catenin was suppressed by shRNA. Knockdown of β-catenin increased chemosensitivity in pancreatic cancer cells and these effects were enhanced when both β-catenin and RAGE were knocked down. Notably, knockdown of β-catenin had no effect on the commitment of cells to enhanced autophagic flux when assessed by evaluation of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) punctae formation. However, knockdown of β-catenin did significantly increase apoptosis when assayed by increased activity of caspase 3 and cleavage of caspase3. Taken together, these results suggest that RAGE regulates β-catenin transcription function and chemosensitivity in pancreatic cancer cell lines.

Note: This abstract was not presented at the AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010 because the presenter was unable to attend.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4674.


The impact of COVID-19 on socio-economic fronts, public health related aspects and human interactions is undeniable. Amidst the social distancing protocols and the stay-at-home regulations imposed in several countries, citizens took to social media to cope with the emotional turmoil of the pandemic and respond to government issued regulations. In order to uncover the collective emotional response of Moroccan citizens to this pandemic and its effects, we use topic modeling to identify the most dominant COVID-19 related topics of interest amongst Moroccan social media users and sentiment/emotion analysis to gain insights into their reactions to various impactful events. The collected data consists of COVID-19 related comments posted on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube and on the websites of two popular online news outlets in Morocco (Hespress and Hibapress) throughout the year 2020. The comments are expressed in Moroccan Dialect (MD) or Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). To perform topic modeling and sentiment classification, we built a first Universal Language Model for the Moroccan Dialect (MD-ULM) using available corpora, which we have fine-tuned using our COVID-19 dataset. We show that our method significantly outperforms classical machine learning classification methods in Topic Modeling, Emotion Recognition and Polar Sentiment Analysis. To provide real-time infoveillance of these sentiments, we developed an online platform to automate the execution of the different processes, and in particular regular data collection. This platform is meant to be a decision-making assistance tool for COVID-19 mitigation and management in Morocco.


Understanding the interactions of nanoparticles (NPs) with skin is important from a consumer and occupational health and safety perspective, as well as for the design of effective NP-based transdermal therapeutics. Despite intense efforts to elucidate the conditions that permit NP penetration, there remains a lack of translatable results from animal models to human skin. The objectives of this study are to investigate the impact of common skin lotions on NP penetration and to quantify penetration differences of quantum dot (QD) NPs between freshly excised human and mouse skin. QDs were mixed in 7 different vehicles, including 5 commercial skin lotions. These were topically applied to skin using two exposure methods; a petri dish protocol and a Franz diffusion cell protocol. QD presence in the skin was quantified using Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy. Results show that the commercial vehicles can significantly impact QD penetration in both mouse and human skin. Lotions that contain alpha hydroxyl acids (AHA) facilitated NP penetration. Lower QD signal was observed in skin studied using a Franz cell. Freshly excised human skin was also studied immediately after the sub-cutaneous fat removal process, then after 24 hours rest ex vivo. Resting human skin 24 hours prior to QD exposure significantly reduced epidermal presence. This study exemplifies how application vehicles, skin processing and the exposure protocol can affect QD penetration results and the conclusions that maybe drawn between skin models.


Speaker Verification still suffers from the challenge of generalization to novel adverse environments. We leverage on the recent advancements made by deep learning based speech enhancement and propose a feature-domain supervised denoising based solution. We propose to use Deep Feature Loss which optimizes the enhancement network in the hidden activation space of a pre-trained auxiliary speaker embedding network. We experimentally verify the approach on simulated and real data. A simulated testing setup is created using various noise types at different SNR levels. For evaluation on real data, we choose BabyTrain corpus which consists of children recordings in uncontrolled environments. We observe consistent gains in every condition over the state-of-the-art augmented Factorized-TDNN x-vector system. On BabyTrain corpus, we observe relative gains of 10.38% and 12.40% in minDCF and EER respectively.


Setting the Scene. Richard House and Sue Palmer: The Phenomenon of 'Toxic Childhood' from a Person-Centred Perspective 1.Tracey Walshaw: Creative Discernment: The key to the training and practice of person-centred play therapists 2. Cate Kelly: 'This Is No Ordinary Play': The influence of training on developing the play therapy relationship 3. Tracey Walshaw: Three years as a Person-Centred Counsellor in a Primary School 4. Jo Woodhouse: Sandplay: 'Growing ground' in person-centred play therapy' 5. Gill Clarke: The Risks and Costs of Learning to Trust the Client's Process when Working with Vulnerable Young People 6. Sue Hawkins: Working at Relational Depth with Adolescents in Schools: A person-centred psychologist's perspective 7. Nadine Littledale: Seal'd Respect: An emotional literacy group in a secondary school 8. Suzanne Keys: Widening Participation: A counselling service in a sixth form college 9. Tracey Walshaw: The Buzz: A person-centred pupil referral unit10. Cate Kelly: Adoption and the Person-Centred Approach: Working for the child 11. Julie West: Child- Centred Negotiation: Children participating in collective decision making 12. Ashley Fletcher: Rent Boys 13. Lisa Anthony: Working with Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Young People 14. Seamus Nash: Exploring Issues of Bereavement and Loss with Children and Young People: A person-centred perspective 15. Sheila C Youngson: The Wisdom of Little People: A reflection on forty years of personal and professional learning


Crowdsourcing is dependent on a number of skilled workers who are needed to accomplish spatial tasks. This has been an active area of research and is gaining wide popularity now. Most of these tasks can be completed online due to convenience, but this method fails when there is a need of completing a task at actual physical locations. This has led to a new area called Spatial crowd sourcing [1] that consists of location-specific tasks that require people who can accomplish them to physically be at specific locations. The tasks which require specific skillsets, completion times or other constraints are matched with workers who can meet these constraints and complete them. In this report we consider a situation where the jobs are at different locations with sequential subtasks, each with time and skill constraints, and are to be completed within the given interval by workers who have those required skills and are dispersed. The aim is to finish a majority of tasks in the environment before a final cap time given the constraints of this environment. First workers are assigned to tasks appropriately so that each worker has the skill needed to complete each of the tasks allocated. After the assignment is complete, a variant of the vehicle routing problem called vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) is used to assign these workers the paths and visiting times that they need to follow to reach specific task locations and finish them within the required time intervals. The vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) is a generalization of the vehicle routing problem where the service of a customer can begin within the time window defined by the earliest and the latest times when the customer will permit the start of service [2]. We also consider the case when a worker cannot reach a particular task location in an abnormal situation and perform a re-assignment that does not need to re-assign tasks to all workers and is faster. By following these approaches, we aim to create a technique that can be applied to many real-world problems in the spatial crowd-sourcing environment with such practical events.


Population density estimation is integral to the effective conservation and management of wildlife. The snow leopard Panthera uncia is categorized as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and reliable information on its density is a prerequisite for its conservation and management. Little is known about the status of the snow leopard in the central and eastern Qilian Mountains, China. To address this, we estimated the population density of the snow leopard using a spatially explicit capture–recapture model based on camera trapping in Machang in the central and eastern Qilian Mountains during January–March 2019. We set up 40 camera traps and recorded 84 separate snow leopard captures over 3,024 trap-days. We identified 18 individual snow leopards and estimated their density to be 2.26/100 km2. Our study provides baseline information on the snow leopard and the first population estimate for the species in the central and eastern Qilian Mountains.


Epilepsy has been increasingly recognized as one of the most significant disorders facing humanity, with nearly 65 million people affected globally. One in 26 people will have epilepsy in their lifetime. It is a disease that has been documented in human history for millennia, and continues to be a diagnosis surrounded by fear, misunderstanding, and discrimination. The burden of epilepsy has unfortunately been placed disproportionately on individuals living in low and middle income countries, often leaving the most vulnerable with limited treatment options and access to care. Children also suffer more frequently from the disorder and face the additional challenges of disrupted cognitive and social development. Additionally, in the pediatric population, individuals with epilepsy face the challenging prospects of decreased academic achievement, lower quality of life, and higher mortality when compared to their unaffected peers.


Abstract 2630 Background: Recent evidence has shown that an increased number of tumor-associated macrophages is associated with decreased survival in patients with classic Hodgkin lymphoma. Methods: Eighty-one patients treated for relapsed and refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center from 1995 to 2003 were identified. Patients received either standard ICE based chemotherapy or a risk stratified salvage therapy approach based on the number of pre-salvage therapy risk factors present (B symptoms, extranodal disease, and/or remission duration less than 1 year). Patients were also evaluated by functional imaging with gallium or fluorodeoxy glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET), as well as computed tomography (CT) prior to both salvage therapy and autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT). Patients with at least minimal response to salvage therapy proceeded to ASCT. Paraffin embedded tissue blocks were obtained from each patient. A tissue microarray (TMA) of tumor samples was constructed with triplicate 0.6mm tissue cores. A 4um section of the TMA was stained by immunohistochemistry with the anti-CD68 antibody (Ventana, CONFIRM anti-CD68 [KP-1]) on the Ventana Discovery XT instrument following manufacturerOs protocol. Staining was scored based on the percentage of CD68 positive cells compared to the total number of cells in selected representative areas. The final percent of CD68 positivity for each case was based on the average of the cores available for examination. Scoring was performed independently by two individuals (CC and MA). Results: Scores for CD68 positive tumor associated macrophages ranged from 0–74%. Patients were grouped into two categories based on scores of 0–29%, and >30%. Forty three percent of patients (35/81) had scores of 29% or less. Fifty six percent (46/81) had scores of 30% or greater. In the intent to treat population, patients with relapsed and refractory Hodgkin lymphoma and CD68 scores > 30% had shortened overall survival (OS) compared with scores 30% also had inferior OS compared with patients who had scores 30% were associated with an inferior PFS. Patients with CD68 scores 30% (p=.03). Conclusions: Pre-salvage therapy tumor biopsy specimens with elevated levels of CD68 positive tumor-associated macrophage were associated with poor outcomes. Scores > 30% conferred an inferior OS and PFS for patients with relapsed and refractory Hodgkin lymphoma undergoing salvage therapy and ASCT. We believe this score can be used to risk stratify salvage therapy in transplant eligible patients with relapsed and refractory Hodgkin lymphoma. In future studies we will correlate the scores of the initial tumor specimen with that of the relapsed tumor specimen. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


The Pb content effect of chemical solution deposited lanthanum-doped lead zirconate titanate (PLZT) (Pb:La:Zr:Ti = Pb:3:30:70, Pb = 105*117) was studied for conductive aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) and tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) deposited as top electrodes by means of pulsed laser deposition. The crystallinity, surface morphology, ferroelectric properties and hydrogen degradation resistance of the ITO/PLZT/Pt and AZO/ PLZT/Pt capacitors were evaluated. All the PLZT films showed perovskite phase (revealed by X-ray diffraction patterns) and showed similar surface morphology and grain size (revealed by scanning electron microscopy images). PLZT capacitors with a Pb content of 113 exhibited the largest remnant polarization (at 15 V (300 kV cm –1 )), however, the difference in hydrogen degradation resistance was small between the four levels of Pb content.


The implementation of a psychiatric outpatient experience for a first class of junior medical students in a nonmedical model community mental health clinic is presented. The advantages and disadvantages of exposing students to a community-oriented, rather than a medical-center-oriented, treatment system are discussed in some detail. Differences between the two settings of particular import were the stress placed by the clinic upon team decision-making, diffuse responsibility for client care, a somewhat antimedical orientation, and treatment of clients whose complaints are more often "problems of living" rather than of psychiatric illness. It is felt that the positive aspects of such an exposure outweigh the negative ones and that by careful planning many of the potential drawbacks of such a setting for a psychiatric outpatient rotation can be successfully avoided.


This article examines how high-performance sport coaches combine their professional and family lives. To address this issue, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 41 French coaches (8 females, 33 males) involved in the preparation of the French teams for the Olympic Games in Rio (2016), Pyeongchang (2018) and/or Tokyo (2020). The results show that all the coaches interviewed are engaged in a passionate relationship with their job. For some coaches, this commitment has an impact on their family life. Three groups of coaches stand out: (i) a majority of coaches who are unable to preserve their family life, (ii) coaches who maintain a distance from their profession and preserve their family life, (iii) coaches who have or have not preserved their family life and who position themselves as actors wishing to do everything possible to preserve the family life of the coaches they supervise. Thus, these results highlight, for some coaches, difficulties in combining professional and family life. For others, family life is a protection for engagement in a passionate profession. These data can provide useful information for sport organizations in charge of coaches.


ABSTRACT During the progressive decade of the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun governments (1998-2007), South Korea actively pursued an engagement policy with North Korea that aimed to facilitate de facto unification by means of exchanges and cooperation, trust-building, and peaceful coexistence. But the engagement policy has been subject to harsh criticism for its silence over human rights conditions in North Korea. This article looks into the nature of conservative critiques of the engagement policy on the human rights front and elucidates how its proponents have responded. Attention is given to how the trade-off between peace and human rights, as well as that between basic human needs and human rights, constrained their open pursuit of a human rights campaign against North Korea. Also examined is their belief that democracy and human rights should not be imposed from the outside and that North Koreans should win them through struggle from within. For conservatives, hard-line pressures are of limited utility, and opening and reform, the introduction of market system, the expansion of civil society, and the advent of the middle class through the engagement policy are the best ways, albeit time consuming, to enhance human rights and democracy in the North. Finally, the authors critically assess recent debates on the North Korean Human Rights Act in the South Korea's National Assembly as a way of exploring the limits and promise of the engagement policy.


Objective(s): Multifunctional nanomedicine is the new generation of medicine, which is remarkably promising and associated with the minimum toxicity of targeted therapy. Distribution and transport of nanoparticles (NPs) in the blood flow are essential to the evaluation of delivery efficacy. Materials and Methods: In the present study, we initially designed a phantom based on Murray's minimum work law using the AutoCAD software. Afterwards, the phantom was fabricated using lithography and imaged using a Siemens Magnetom 3T Prisma MRI scanner at the National Brain Mapping Laboratory, Iran. Finally, the velocity and pressure in the capillary network were simulated using the COMSOL software. Moreover, three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations were applied to model the NP transport and dispersion in blood suspension. Results: According to the findings, particle size, vessel geometry, and vascular flow rate affected the delivery efficacy and NP distribution. Cerebral blood flow, cerebral blood volume, mean transit time, and curves for the capillary network were obtained at different times. The simulations indicated that the velocity and pressure in the capillary network were within the ranges of 0.0001-0.0005 m/s and 5-25 mm/Hg, respectively. Higher particle concentration was also observed in the non-uniform NP distribution profile near the vessel wall. Conclusion: We investigated the effects of the vessel size and geometry and particulate nature of blood on the delivery and distribution of NPs. For targeted drug delivery applications, a mechanistic understanding on the nanomedicine design was provided as well.


Adsorption studies were carried out using urea activated melon (Citrullus colocynthis) husks as a low-cost potential adsorbent to remove cadmium from industrial effluents. Bioabsorption parameters considered were as contact time, adsorbent dosage and adsorbate concentration. Cadmium removal was found to be dependent on the three parameters with maximum removal attained at 50 minutes with 0.8 and 1.0g of urea activated melon husk. Cadmium ions were mostly removed at low adsorbate concentration. Maximum removal was attained at 20 minutes with 97.6% adsorption. Adsorption isotherms had positive correlation with both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models and their r 2 values ranged from 0.911 – 1.00. Experimental data were also evaluated to find out kinetic characteristics of the adsorption process. Adsorption process for the heavy metal ion was found to follow pseudo-second order adsorption kinetics with the r 2 value of 0.8309. Activated melon husk, a readily available adsorbent was found to be efficient in the uptake of Cd (II) ions in industrial effluents, thus, confirming it as an excellent alternative for the removal of heavy metals from water and waste water. Keywords : Bioadsorption, Cadmium removal, Waste water, Melon husk


Description The 11th edition of this popular problem-oriented coursebook introduces law students to the conduct of business in the world community. Problems on international contracting, financing, trade regulation, licensing and technology transfers, foreign investment, and international business dispute resolution are presented. The book provides a current, indepth examination of issues that clients are likely to face, such as defending against import competition; expanding exports and overseas markets; and dealing with NAFTA, the WTO, and other trade agreements. The coursebook is designed to survey a wide range of laws involving trade, licensing, and investment, and explore how issues and problems are addressed by lawyers serving as problem solvers.


A low molecular weight heparin (MW 4000-6000), PK 10169 (Pharmuka), with much reduced anticoagulant in vitro capacity, retains the properties of the standard heparin in releasing lipoprotein lipase and hepatic lipase activity after being injected intravenously.


A series of potent, broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies have been isolated from B cells of HIV-infected individuals. VRC01 represents a subset of these antibodies that mediate neutralization with a restricted set of IGHV genes. The memory B cells expressing these antibodies were isolated years after infection; thus, the B-cell subpopulation from which they originated and the extent of participation in the initial HIV antibody response, if any, are unclear. Here we evaluated the frequency of anti-gp120 B cells in follicular (FO) and marginal zone (MZ) B-cell compartments of naïve WT mice and comparable human populations in uninfected individuals. We found that in non–HIV-exposed humans and mice, the majority of gp120-reactive B cells are of naïve and FO phenotype, respectively. Murine FO B cells express a diverse antibody repertoire to recognize gp120. In contrast, mouse MZ B cells recognize gp120 less frequently but preferentially use IGHV1-53 to encode gp120-specific antibodies. Notably, IGHV1-53 shows high identity to human IGHV1-2*02, which has been repeatedly found to encode broadly neutralizing mutated HIV antibodies, such as VRC01. Finally, we show that human MZ-like B cells express IGHV1-2*02, and that IGHV1-53 expression is enriched in mouse MZ B cells. These data suggest that efforts toward developing an HIV vaccine might consider eliciting protective HIV antibody responses selectively from alternative B-cell populations harboring IGHV gene segments capable of producing protective antibodies.


Abbott, A. 1991. The Future of Occupations: Occupations and Expertise in the Age of Organization. Research in the Sociology of Organizations 8:17–42. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). 1985. Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Federal Register 50(4 January):598. Freidson, Eliot. 1990. The Centrality of Professionalism to Health Care. Jurimetrics 30:431–445. Havighurst, Clark C. 1990. The Professional Paradigm of Medical Care: Obstacle to Decentralization. Jurimetrics 30:415–429. ———. 2001. Health Care as a (Big) Business: The Antitrust Response. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 26:939–955. Rai, Arti K. 2001. The Information Revolution Reaches Pharmaceuticals: Balancing Innovation, Incentives, Cost, and Access in the Post-Genomics Era. University of Illinois Law Review 2001: 173–210. Symposium. Forthcoming. Is the Health Care Revolution Finished? Law and Contemporary Problems 65.


Background: Asymptomatic malaria in pregnancy evades most fever-based surveillance systems yet causes significant morbidities such as anaemia in the pregnant woman and low birth weight in the neonate.Objective: This study determined the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria and its association with anaemia among pregnant women who are yet to receive their first dose of Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine (SP) as intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp). Information on the use of insecticide treated nets (ITNs) as vector control by the pregnant women was also sought.Methods: This is a cross-sectional hospital-based study conducted in the Western Region of Ghana. Pregnant women at gestational ages, 16-26 wk were included. A structured questionnaire was used to collect vital information from the participants. Plasmodium parasitaemia was determined by rapid diagnostic test (MRDT), microscopy and species-specific nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Anaemia was classified using the level of haemoglobin.Results: A total of 413 antenatal clinic attendants were recruited. Prevalence of asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum infection was 13.1% by MRDT, 10.1% by microscopy and 13.8% by PCR. The mean haemoglobin was 10.73 g/dL. Prevalence of anaemia was 40.49% and the mean parasite density was 149.6 parasite/µL. Pregnant women with asymptomatic malaria were 4 times more at risk of being anaemic (adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval: 4.42, 1.82 -10.70) than those who did not have malaria. There was statistically significant negative correlation between parasite density and anaemia (r = 0.0028, p = 0.02).Conclusion: Asymptomatic P. falciparum infection was found among some of the pregnant women and the presence of the parasites make them 4 times at increased risk of developing anaemia. Anaemia when occurring amongst such women was significantly worsened by increasing parasitaemia.


Just like non-immigrant parents in the United States, immigrant parents want quality for appropriate special educational services for their child with a disability. However, immigrant parents often have negative experiences working with school professionals who provide special education services. According to Lai and Vadeboncoeur (2013), immigrant parents believe that language and cultural differences impede the establishment of trusting relationships with school staff. However, parental involvement, including that of immigrant parents, is mandated as a part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004), as well as essential to a child's success in school. The purpose of this paper is therefore to provide recommendations for GPE and APE teachers to establish a trusting relationship with immigrant parents of children with disabilities. Recommendations for GPE and APE teachers include: (a) finding effective communication methods, (b) working with classroom teachers and paraprofessionals, (c) providing educational resources, (d) inviting parents to GPE and APE classes, (e) educating parents about PE and their rights, and (f) understanding cultural differences. Subscribe to Palaestra


In this article, we develop the theory of weighted L 2 Sobolev spaces on un- bounded domains in R n . As an application, we establish the elliptic theory for elliptic operators and prove trace and extension results analogous to the bounded, unweighted case.


UNLABELLED
Spinal cord tumors are a rare neoplasm of the central nervous system (CNS). The occurrence of metastases is related to poor prognosis. The authors analyzed one series of metastasis cases and their associated mortality.

METHODS
Clinical characteristics were studied in six patients with intramedullary tumors with metastases in a series of 71 surgical cases.

RESULTS
Five patients had ependymomas of which two were WHO grade III. The patient with astrocytoma had a grade II histopathological classification. Two patients required shunts for hydrocephalus. The survival curve showed a higher mortality than the general group of patients with no metastases in the CNS (p<0.0001).

CONCLUSION
Mortality is elevated in patients with metastasis and greater than in patients with only primary lesions. The ependymomas, regardless of their degree of anaplasia, are more likely to cause metastasis than spinal cord astrocytomas.


The transformer-based model has great potential to deliver higher accuracy for object recognition applications when comparing it with the convolution neural network (CNN). Yet, the amount of weight sharing of a transformer-based model is significantly lower than that of the CNN, which should apply different dataflow to reduce the memory access. This brief proposes a transformer accelerator with an output block stationary (OBS) dataflow to minimize the repeated memory access by block-level and vector-level broadcasting while preserving a high digital signal processor (DSP) utilization rate, leading to higher energy efficiency. It also lowers the memory access bandwidth to the input and output. Verified through an FPGA, the proposed accelerator evaluates a transformer-in-transformer (TNT) model with a throughput of 728.3 GOPs, corresponding to energy efficiency of 58.31 GOPs/W.


Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) can capture how sleep, stress, and well-being are related within individuals. However, the use of EMA involves participant burden, which may be a major barrier when studying at-risk populations like frontline workers. To guide future research interested in using EMA, this study examined variance components in sleep, stress, and well-being variables collected from health care workers. Two samples of hospital nurses (60 inpatient, 84 outpatient) responded to 2-week smartphone-based EMA. Adherence to the EMA protocol was good in both samples. Results from intraclass correlations showed more momentary variability in stressors and uplifts, more daily variability in sleep, fatigue, and physical symptoms, and more between-person variability in affect, rumination, and work quality. Across the variables, however, there was substantial within-person variability. Variance components were relatively consistent between workdays and non-workdays and between week 1 and week 2. Some nuanced between-sample differences were noted.


Tuberculosis (TB), as a kind of chronic infectious disease by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (Mtb), is one of the most common causes of death worldwide. The strategy of anti-TB therapy has improved during the last decades following the development of agents against TB and advanced exploration of TB. However, accompanied with the medical progression, Multidrug-Resistant TB (MDR-TB) has also emerged which causes higher mortality and morbidity due to multiply factors from clinical treatment, epidemiology and compliance of patients including drug abusing, irregular schedules and gene mutations. Therefore, we present a case of TB with rifampin-resistance in this article to explore risk factors of drug-resistance.


Neuropsychological studies have documented frontal dysfunction in patients with a history of exposure to organic solvents. The deficits typically observed in these patients appear to be related to working memory (WM). This study used [15O] water positron emission tomography (PET) to examine the pattern of neural activation during verbal working memory in patients with a history of exposure to solvents. Six individuals with solvent exposure were compared with 6 age- and education-matched controls. On the 2 WM tasks examined with PET, with equivalent task performance, participants with solvent exposure demonstrated frontal peaks that were atypical for the tasks, whereas the posterior peaks were typical for the tasks. The results support frontal dysfunction and compensatory use within anterior regions of the WM system in patients with solvent exposure.


RESUMEN Disease is one of the main limitations on the amount and quality of crop production, by reducing the availability, absorption, distribution and use of nutrients by the plant. Silicon (Si) is one of the most abundant elements in the lithosphere and most soils have considerable amounts. Although not considered an essential nutrient for most plants, a lot of evidence shows the beneficial effects of nutrition with Si on growth, development and health of crops. Many studies have suggested that Si activates the defense mechanisms of plants, but the exact nature of the interaction between this element and the biochemical pathways that direct resistance still remains unclear. This article presents a review of the relationship between mineral nutrition and disease development and discusses the beneficial effects of silicon in crops, its mobility in soil, the process of assimilation through the roots and its influence on tolerance to fungal diseases.


Ants have been a common household problem faced by the society. These problems include, food contamination, destruction of household item, and health. A number of synthetic ant repellent and ant killer products, insect, are available in the market. However, most consumers are wary of using pesticides at home because of concerns over issues such as health risks, residual toxicity, and environmental pollution. The search for an ant repellent of a natural product is needed. Plants have defence mechanism that ensure their survival, with the most prominent function to deter herbivory. The phytochemicals may be the potential natural ant repellent. The objectives of this study is to determine the phytochemicals present in Pandanus amaryllifolius (Pandan), Citrus limon (Lemon), and used coffee, and their repellency properties. Common household ants were baited and captured and the genus was identified as Pheidole spp. Soxhlet's extraction with ethanol and distilled water, and maceration with ethanol, were used to extract the phytochemicals from the samples. The ants were trapped in a designated container together with the sample and their activity was constantly observed. It was found that Pandan have no repellency effect on the ants. While, used coffee and lemon showed repellency. For the qualitative test, alkaloids were present in Pandan, Lemon, and used coffee. The same goes to saponin, terpenoids, and quinone, except for pandan as quinone were found to be absent. For quantitative test, on the other hand, coffee has the highest flavonoid content (TFC) with a concentration of 34.186μg/ml whereas Pandan has the lowest TFC with a concentration of 11.783μg/ml. As for total phenolic content (TPC) coffee was the highest. It was proposed that terpenoids was the most probable phytochemical responsible for the observed repellency properties in lemon and coffee extract. Further research are needed to determine the potential of these alternative repellents.


East Asia has a remarkable record of high and sustained economic growth. From 1965 to 1990 the twenty-three economies of East Asia grew faster than all other regions of the world (World Bank 1993). Most of this achievement is attributable to seemingly miraculous growth in just eight economies: Japan; the "Four Tigers"--Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan; and the three newly industrializing economies (NIEs) of Southeast Asia--Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The success of these eight high performing Asian economies (HP AEs) in achieving rapid and equitable growth broadens our understanding of the range of policies that are consistent with rapid development. East Asia's experience has influenced many nations to rethink how they ought to go about achieving economic development. The purpose of this study is to examine how some factors which lead to East Asia's success may have affected the economic growth in China and if so their magnitude. This study begins with the hypothesis that domestic investment, human capital, government expenditures on infrastructure, net exports and the free market system will have a significant positive impact on China's economic growth, while population growth will have a negative impact on China's economic growth. The method applied to this research introduces two dummy variables to capture the effect of a free market system on economic growth and that of birth control policy on population growth. The overall findings do indeed suggest that domestic investment, government expenditure and net exports have a positive impact on China's economic growth. However, the presence of multicollinearity raises some doubt concerning the reliability of the estimates. Also, a better indicator may be used in place of the primary graduates as a percentage of the total population as a proxy for education attainment, since, theoretically, education should maintain a strong and significant relationship with economic growth. The unusual results may very well be due to the unreliability and unstable nature of the data on the primary school graduates as a percentage of the total population. In the future, availability of more consistent and reliable data on each variable may be helpful in testing the models developed in this project.


[Objective] To observe apoptosis of gastric epithelial cells in gastric carcinoma and precancerous lesion and further elucidate the possible effect of Hp infecton on gastric carcinoma pathogenesis. [Methods] The expressions of Bcl-2 and Bax were examined by immunohistochemical SP technique in gastric epithelial cells. [Results] Of all patients, the expression of Bcl-2 was increased from CSG, IM to Dys, and reached a peak in GC, but there was no difference between Hp positive group and negative group. The expression of Bax was decreased from CSG to GC. In Hp positive CSG and IM groups the expression of Bax was higher than Hp negative groups. [Conclusion] Hp infection may induce apoptosis and gastritis by the excessive expression of Bax, which mainly occur in the initiating stages in gastric musocal lesions. Alberrant Bcl-2 expression plays certain role in gastric cancer and precancerous lesion formations.


Introduction: The research focuses on the degree of blood supply restoration in the brain by means of transcateter laser revascularization in patients after ischemic stroke.
Materials and Methods: 874 patients 29-81 years old (average age 74) after ischemic stroke were examined: 647 men (74.03%), 227 women (25.79%).
The examination included CDR, MMSE, IB, cerebral CT, MRI, MRA, scintigraphy (SG), rheoencephalography (REG), cerebral MUGA. Test Group was comprised of 533 (60.98%) patients undergoing transcatheter interventions. Control Group included 341 (39.11%) patients receiving conservative treatment. High-energy and low-energy lasers were used for cerebral revascularization.
Results:
Test Group:
• Good clinical outcome was achieved in 323 (60.60%) cases;
• Satisfactory clinical outcome was acquired in 136 (25.52%) cases;
• Relatively satisfactory clinical outcome was procured in 74 (13.88%) cases;
• Relatively positive clinical outcome was not gained in any case.
Control group:
• Good clinical outcome - 51 (21.07%) cases;
• Satisfactory clinical outcome - 72 (21.11%) cases;
• Relatively satisfactory clinical outcome - 123 (36.07%) cases;
• Relatively positive clinical outcome - 95 (27.86%) cases.
Conclusion: Transcatheter laser revascularization is much more effective in the treatment of ischemic stroke consequences than conservative methods of treatment are. When intracerebral blood flow is restored, it reduces the level of mental, cognitive, and motor disorders and helps to quickly bring patients back to their active daily life.


Abstract:This is a coming-of-age story of kids who play in southern marching bands and the teachers who mentor them. In the South, "show-style" bands are Black excellence personified. They are also institutions that perpetuate norms of race and gender. This essay follows middle school kids as they navigate the hierarchies of masculinity that govern band. The stories come from teachers, students, and graduates of The Roots of Music, an afterschool program in New Orleans. Volunteering with Roots since 2008, I've met hundreds of boys and girls who are now young men and women. Every one of them is different, but in each case the masculine ideals of toughness, discipline, and competition are entwined with vulnerability, loss, and love. Their words are paired with photographs by Abdul Aziz that convey the brash sound and fierce presentation of a 150-piece band: eyes forward, still as statues, in formation, at the ready.


This thesis gives a contribution to matching theory. It examines three one-to-one matching models: the roommate problem, the partnership formation problem and the assignment game. In the former two, it is known that stable matchings may not exist. In the latter, stable outcomes do exist; we examine if they still do if we generalize the model. The thesis consists of three separate papers. In the first paper, "When Do Stable Roommate Matchings Exist? A Review", I compare different preference restrictions that ensure the existence of a stable roommate matching. Some of these restrictions are generalized to allow for indifferences as well as incomplete preference lists, in the sense that an agent may prefer remaining single to matching with some agents. I also introduce a new type of cycles and in greater detail investigate the domain of preferences that have no such cycles. In particular, I show how the absence of these cycles relates to the "symmetric utilities hypothesis" by Rodrigues-Neto (Journal of Economic Theory 135, 2007) when applied to roommate problems with weak preferences. The second paper, "A Competitive Partnership Formation Process" (co-authored with Tommy Andersson, Dolf Talman, and Zaifu Yang) considers a group of heterogeneous agents who may form partnerships in pairs. All single agents as well as all partnerships generate values. If two agents choose to cooperate, they need to specify how to split their joint value among one another. In equilibrium, which may or may not exist, no agents have incentives to break up or form new partnerships. The paper proposes a dynamic competitive adjustment process that always either finds an equilibrium or exclusively disproves the existence of any equilibrium in finitely many steps. When an equilibrium exists, partnership and revenue distribution will be automatically and endogenously determined by the process. Moreover, several fundamental properties of the equilibrium solution and the model are derived. In the third paper, "Assignment Games with Externalities" (co-authored with Helga Habis), we introduce externalities into a two-sided, one-to-one assignment game by letting the values generated by pairs depend on the behavior of the other agents. Extending the notion of blocking to this setup is not straightforward; a pair has to take into account the possible reaction of the residual agents to be able to assess the value it could achieve. We define blocking in a rather general way that allows for many behavioral considerations or beliefs. The main result of the paper is that a stable outcome in an assignment game with externalities always exists if and only if all pairs are pessimistic regarding the others' reaction following a deviation. The relationship of stability and optimality is also discussed, as is the structure of the set of stable outcomes. (Less)


Objectives The anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) test has been promoted as a way to inform women about their future fertility. However, data consistently show the test is a poor predictor of natural fertility potential for an individual woman. As fertility centre websites are often a primary source of information for reproductive information, it is essential the information provided is accurate and reflects the available evidence. We aimed to systematically record and categorise information about the AMH test found on Australian and New Zealand fertility clinic websites. Design Content analysis of online written information about the AMH test on fertility clinic websites. Setting Accredited Australian and New Zealand fertility clinic websites. Methods Data were extracted between April and June 2020. Any webpage that mentioned the AMH test, including blogs specifically about the AMH test posted since 2015, was analysed and the content categorised. Results Of the 39 active accredited fertility clinics' websites, 25 included information about the AMH test. The amount of information varied widely, and embodied four overarching categories; (1) the utility of the AMH test, (2) who the test is suitable for, (3) possible actions in response to the test and (4) caveats and limitations of the test. Eight specific statements about the utility of the test were identified, many of which are not evidence-based. While some websites were transparent regarding the test's limitations, others mentioned no caveats or included persuasive statements actively promoting the test as empowering for a range of women in different circumstances. Conclusions Several websites had statements about the utility of the AMH test that are not supported by the evidence. This highlights the need for higher standards for information provided on fertility clinic websites to prevent women being misled to believe the test can reliably predict their fertility.


We use data from the USDA's 1994-96 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals and the 1994-96 Diet and Health Knowledge Survey to ascertain whether economic factors help explain weight differences among adults. Weight differs among demographic subgroups, and differences in specific behaviors, health awareness, and eating patterns can be linked to weight outcomes. An economic framework helps explain how socioeconomic factors affect an individual's ability to achieve good health. Our results suggest that income, household composition, and formal education help explain variation in behaviors and attitudes that are significantly associated with weight outcomes.


Background: Children admitted to intensive care with diabetic ketoacidosis are at risk of acute kidney injury. Recent UK guidelines recommends against restricted fluid provision due to a theoretical risk of kidney injury. To date no data has been published that documents this risk in an intensive care cohort. Aims: To describe the natural history of acute kidney injury in patients admitted with diabetic ketoacidosis in whom a restrictive fluid regime was provided. Methods: Retrospective analysis, within a UK Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Between January 2011 and December 2020 219 patients were referred to the South Thames Retrieval Service with Diabetic Ketoacidosis, of whom 52 were admitted to Evelina PIC. 49 of these records were complete and used for analysis of acute kidney injury stage using Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes criteria measured by serial creatinine. Clinical outcome at discharge from Pediatric Intensive Care was also recorded. Results: 19 out of 49 (38%) patients had acute kidney injury (17 present on admission to pediatric intensive care). Three patients required renal replacement therapy though all of them went on to re-establish their baseline renal function. This compares favourably to published data documenting an acute kidney injury incidence of 43-64% in general paediatric and pediatric intensive care cohorts. Conclusion: In the context of diabetic ketoacidosis, use of a restrictive fluid regime was not associated with higher levels of acute kidney injury than other studies and renal function recovery was observed in all patients followed up.


The ISO/IEC MPEG-2 advanced audio coding (AAC) system was designed to provide MPEG-2 with the best audio quality without any restrictions due to compatibility requirements. The main features of the AAC system (ISO/IEC 13818-7) are described. MPEG-2 AAC combines the coding efficiency of a high-resolution filter bank, prediction techniques, and Huffman coding with additional functionalities aimed to deliver very high audio quality at a variety of data rates.


The impact of artificial intelligence on human life has increased significantly in recent years. However, as the complexity of problems rose aswell, increasing system features for such amount of data computation became troublesome due to the von Neumann's computer architecture. Neuromorphic computing aims to solve this problem by mimicking the parallel computation of a human brain. For this approach, memristive devices are used to emulate the synapses of a human brain. Yet, common simulations of hardware based networks require time consuming Monte-Carlo simulations to take into account the stochastic switching of memristive devices. This work presents an alternative concept making use of the convolution of the probability distribution functions (PDF) of memristor currents by its equivalent multiplication in Fourier domain. An artificial neural network is accordingly implemented to perform the inference stage with handwritten digits.


Background

This study aimed to modify the Bouyoucos method of soil texture analysis by proposing the best sample treatment and analysis protocol that would give the most accurate results. The Bouyoucos method lacks sample pre-treatment whereby samples are dispersed for only 2 minutes after being soaked in 5% sodium hexametaphosphate (calgon) for 15 to 20 hours. In this study, the Pipette method was used as the standard method due to its increased precision and reproducibility. Different treatments modified from the Bouyoucos procedure were compared with the Pipette method aiming to identify the treatment whose soil texture proportions were closest to those obtained through the Pipette method. The treatments involved variation in the concentration of the digesting material during sample pre-treatment, concentration of the dispersing material, time of hydrometer readings, method of agitation before taking the first hydrometer reading and method of dispersing. Obtained data was analyzed statistically using Genstat and SPSS.
Results

Percent sand obtained through the Pipette method significantly correlated with that obtained through Shaking at the 0.01 level (r = 0.862; P-value = 0.001) and that obtained through Shaking + Stirring at the 0.05 level (r = 0.737; P-value = 0.015). The sand measurements made using the hydrometer variations overestimated the sand fraction in the soil samples. None of the Bouyoucos treatments estimated the percentage silt with sufficient accuracy. There was a positive correlation in the clay proportion between the Pipette method and Shaking + Stirring treatment (r = 0.644, P-value = 0.044) at the 0.01 level. There was a negative correlation between the clay proportion obtained using the Pipette method and no-digestion treatment (r = -0.234). The 4%Calgon treatment was negatively correlated with the Pipette method (r = -0.712; P-value = 0.021) at the 0.05 level. Treatments involving shaking and increased concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and calgon estimated the clay proportion with sufficient accuracy.
Conclusions

These observations are indicative of the need for soil pretreatment with hydrogen peroxide and also the use 10% calgon as the dispersing agent during soil texture analysis. A modification to the Bouyoucos method was proposed and dubbed The Mwendwa Protocol.


As the speed regulating and energy saving of the Adjustable Speed Asynchronous Magnetic Coupling (ASAMC) is realized by changing the contact area of the air gap magnetic field through the axial movement of the squirrel cage rotor, while the axial force is generated. In order to calculate the axial force which plays a very important role in the design of the speed regulating mechanism. Firstly, the magnetization of the cage rotor is equivalent by using mirror method of electromagnetic field theory; the axial force theoretical analysis model is solved by the equivalent magnetic charge method. Then, the axial force of the cage rotor in different axial direction is obtained by using ANSYS 3D-finite element analysis. Finally, a 22kW ASAMC prototype was manufactured and tested for its axial force. The axial force experimental results show that is in agreement with the theoretical and finite element analysis, specific test results are as follows: the axial force in the moving process of the inner rotor firstly increases and then decreases, its maximum value occurs in the axial direction of the rotor 30 mm, at this time the axial force is 1123 Nm. The study provides reference for the design of ASAMC series and speed regulating mechanism.


Abstract . The paper presents researches that were conducted in Czarna Orawa River catchment, situated within the Tatra and Beskidy Mountains. Czarna Orawa River channel is segmental meandering system with the index of tortuosity up to 1.6. The aim of the article is to characterize gravels which were transported from the Tatra Mountains and their role in valley bottom formation. The gravels; originating from Beskidy and Tatra mountains, supply the alluvial cone of Czarny Dunajec. In Czarna Orawa Valley we meet coarser gravel (the Tatra Mountains gravel) and more angular than grains from the Beskidy Mountains. On the Holocene terraces in the valley gravel layer is 1-2 m thick. The grains are 1-6 cm in diameter and the biggest are found on the south bank (up to 20 cm). Between Jabłonka and Orawa Reservoir the change of petrographic composition is observed. Beneath Jabłonka village flysh gravels are common, and in the lower part, in the neighbourhoods of Orawa Reservoir, more than 55% are granites and gneisses. Gravel sediments are basic material building Holocene plain, showing fast erosional incision into the higher terrace level


This research contributes to the debate about the impacts of ICTs on the business of local government. It conceptualises the city as a site of local governance where ICTs have an impact on the social, political and economic complexities. Indeed, the starting point of this research is the widely held view that technology holds promise to alleviate both economic and democratic challenges faced by local government today. The conceptual framework combines Manuel Castells' Network Society with theories of democracy, governance and citizenship, as well as the so-called ?new economy?. Furthermore, the role and purpose of e-government is explored from the citizen/user perspective. Technology implementation in local government is contrasted combining the 'top-down' perspective of policy-makers with 'bottom-up' experiences of frontline officers and citizens. The research design is a case study of the City of Manchester with European benchmarking perspectives.The research found that whilst technology offers promise in theory, its implementation in a real context rarely fulfils that potential from an economic efficiency or democratic engagement perspective. It is concluded that ICTs are often used to trigger a desired behaviour related to the local government modernisation policy agenda. However, a lack of clarity and shared understanding between managers, users and citizens about the purpose of that technology lead to patchy implementation and poor take-up. Furthermore, the justification for new technology is often based on managerial and narrow values steeped in assumptions about rationality, economic efficiency or competitiveness. These managerial priorities are often camouflaged with a broader discourse of empowerment or inclusion, or sold as ?must haves? for which there is no alternative. Overall, in Manchester it is found that ICTs tend to increase the distance between the local government service provider and the user (citizen) as access channels are made ?corporate?. Moreover, the fragmented and atomised nature of communites is highlighted through the use of modern ICTs when the primary motives are to do with the interests of the private consumer-citizen. However, the benchmarking case study discovered that there can be alternatives and that citizens are more likely to adopt online access channels if they have higher levels of trust towards local government. The research concludes that local government should take their democratic governance role equally seriously as its economic governance role in designing and implementing technology. Incorporating broader democratic values into ICT policy and programmes is likely to broaden the appeal among the citizens, as well as steer the unknown ?spin-offs? and consequences of new technology in the direction of collective, public interest rather than individual, private interest. Democratic governance and socially inclusive policy-making serve as an insurance policy against the risks (e.g. in the field of privacy, economic viability, accountability) in the future electronically networked city. ?


Background: Nutrients boost the host's immune responses against various pathogens including mycobacterium tuberculosis. People with latent tuberculosis do not exhibit any clinical signs or symptoms of illness because the infection is contained by their immune system. The direct evidence of effect of nutrition on tuberculosis is difficult but the weight of evidence still favors the view that malnutrition may be an important factor in the high susceptibility and morbidity from tuberculosis.
Aim and objectives: To find out the knowledge regarding nutrition, attitude towards it and practices of nutrition among nursing staff involved in the management of tuberculosis patients.
Material and methods: This study was carried out in a tertiary care teaching hospital. A total seventy nursing staff, involved in care of tuberculosis patients either in tuberculosis wards and OPDs, participated in the study. Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices regarding nutrition was done with pretested and structured questionnaire.
Statistical analysis: Percentages, Means, Chi-square test and ANOVA using the SPSS 17.0 Software.
Results: GNM trained participants with work experience of more than 3 years were much better than B.Sc. nursing students regarding their knowledge about daily caloric requirements, dietary recommendations for tuberculosis patients and influence of dietary habits on tuberculosis outcome (p < 0.05) but there was no statistically significant difference in the mean score of their knowledge about food nutrients. Both the groups showed positive attitude towards morning breakfast and having 3 meals and snacks in a day. Skipping of breakfast was more common among the GNM staff as compared with B.Sc. nursing students (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: Results from the study indicated KA scores higher than P scores. The effect of nutritional supplementation on tuberculosis prevention and health outcomes among health care workers had not previously been systematically reviewed. This study will provide guidance on recommendations for nutritional care among health care workers who are directly involved in care of patients with tuberculosis.
Keywords: Nutrition, Tuberculosis, Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices, Nursing staff.


In the process of reducing the speculative financial adjustment that artificially stimulates consumer demand in developed countries, the importance of suppliers of physical goods (commodities) from developing countries will increase. I don't believe in a complete dictate of commodities producers because they are dependent on counter deliveries of technologies from developed countries. However, relationships will be built between holders of physical goods, and technologies will change significantly. The pricing function for commodities will be transferred to several exchanges of developing countries which will be controlled by the commodity producers. Food consumers from Asian and African developing countries will be provided with the BRICS assistance in the creation and protection of reserve food warehouses on their territory as well as supporting their key exports through the creation of a network of new commodity exchanges. The article substantiates the need for independent formation of regional prices by the BRICS countries for the primary goods of their exports on their exchanges. I propose various combinations among the founding countries for new commodity exchanges for mineral fertilizers, oil, diamonds, titanium, vanadium, palladium, wheat, and uranium. Trading on all these new commodity exchanges must take place entirely in the currencies of the engaged countries.


—Extensive bimodal igneous activity occurred in the Middle Proterozoic of North America, affecting areas of Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. We discuss the portion of this activity affecting west Texas and eastern New Mexico. Igneous intrusions formed in west Texas and New Mexico between 1215-1074 Ma. These bodies are exposed or have been penetrated by drilling in the Central Basin platform, Franklin Mountains, Van Horn uplift, Pajarito Mountain and Devils River uplift. Information from previous studies of Precambrian outcrops and wells drilled to the Precambrian are combined with gravity maps to produce a picture of Middle Proterozoic activity in this region. This picture shows that igneous activity occurred in two areas coincident with the Debaca-Swisher terrain and the Delaware aulacogen. The bimodal igneous activity suggests extension. This igneous activity was in part coincident with formation of the Midcontinent rift system and Grenville age tectonic events in Texas. Further geologic and geophysical studies are necessary to understand the Middle Proterozoic of the region and its relationship to Middle Proterozoic tectonics.


In 2011, NASA Glenn s Icing Research Tunnel underwent a major modification to it s refrigeration plant and heat exchanger. This paper presents the results of the subsequent full cloud calibration. Details of the calibration procedure and results are presented herein. The steps include developing a nozzle transfer map, establishing a uniform cloud, conducting a drop sizing calibration and finally a liquid water content calibration. The goal of the calibration is to develop a uniform cloud, and to build a transfer map from the inputs of air speed, spray bar atomizing air pressure and water pressure to the output of median volumetric droplet diameter and liquid water content.


A thoughtful, disturbing and darkly funny new collection by Anna Jackson, "The Gas Leak" offers a glimpse of the gaps and cracks that can exist between family members in everyday life. In the first section, a gas-fitter slips in and out of his own and other people's lives with his 'master key', concerned by his strained marriage and his adulterous feelings for his wife's sister. In the second, the 'gothic comedy' and 'epic tragedy' of his daughter's teenage life is deftly and humorously handled, as she deals with friends, boyfriends, her alienated parents. The third section follows the gas-fitter's wife as she copes with her own problems - including the Russian coursing hounds stealthily left in her basement - and deploys memory, poetry and dialogue with God in reaction to her 'unrecognisable' family and the everyday life she 'can only continue'. Wry, absorbing, fully human, these poems show Jackson turning her poetic talents to fruitful new ground, pioneering an offbeat and insistent use of italic and a deliciously uneasy sonnet form.


Abstract The design of an encapsulation system consisting of a synthetic peptide which is fully biodegradable into non-toxic constituents. This system should be capable of encapsulating perfluorinated hydrocarbons and should be a promising basis for oxygen carriers to be used as artificial blood replacement. A diblock-peptide is synthesised following a phosgene-free method and characterised by 1H-NMR. Subsequently, this diblock-peptide is self-assembled with perfluorodecalin (PFD) to form PFD-filled capsules as potential artificial oxygen carriers allowing for rapid oxygen uptake and release. The diblock-peptide Bu-PAsp10-PPhe10 is successfully synthesised and used to encapsulate PFD. The capsules have a spherical shape with an average diameter of 360 nm in stable aqueous dispersion. NMR measurements prove their physical capability for reversible uptake and release of oxygen. The resulting capsules are expected to be fully biodegradable and possibly could act as oxygen carriers for artificial blood replacement.


The prominence of clay minerals in the hydrothermally altered rocks of many mineral deposits has been emphasized in recent years. The presence of clay minerals of hydrothermal origin has long been recognized but for obscure reasons not much importance had been attributed to them. It has now been shown that most of the minerals belonging to the clay groups (kaolin, montmorillonite and hydromica groups) occur abundantly in many hydrothermally altered rocks. In general the clay minerals form during the early stage, or advancing front of the alteration and are commonly converted to sericite as the process continues.The detailed paragenesis of clay minerals in hydrothermally altered rocks is imperfectly known and needs much work for its clarification.


In this work, a liquid crystal based tunable composite right/left-handed transmission line for future leaky wave antennas working at the Ka-band is presented. The tuning of the liquid crystal is achieved by means of magnetic and electric biasing. For this purpose, different prototypes are fabricated for each biasing technique and their dispersive characteristics compared. Electric tunability is achieved by implementing highly resistive bias lines in the unit cell layout. Both techniques yield similar tuning capabilities at the operation frequency of 27GHz whereas the electric one has the advantage of being easily integratable in the layout.


Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have significant involvement in Leishmania infection, although little is known about the relationship between these receptors, cytokines and nitric oxide (NO) in patients with visceral leishmaniasis (VL) before or after treatment with anti-leishmanial drugs. The goal of this study was to evaluate the expression of TLR2 and TLR4 in CD3+ and CD14+ cells and the production of TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-17, IL-10, TGF-β and NO in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from VL patients pre- and post-treatment with anti-leishmanial drugs. In addition, we investigated whether these receptors were involved in the production of these cytokines and NO. In the active VL patients, increased TLR2 and TLR4 expression in lymphocytes and monocytes, increased production of TNF-α, IL-10 and TGF-β and decreased production of IFN-γ, IL-17 and NO were observed. After treatment, TLR2 and TLR4 were still expressed in lymphocytes and monocytes, the TNF-α and IL-10 levels were lower, the production of IFN-γ, IL-17 and NO was higher, and the TGF-β level remained high. Before treatment, the production of TNF-α and NO was associated with TLR2 and TLR4 expression, while IL-10 production was only associated with TLR2 expression. After treatment, both receptors were associated with the production of TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-10 and NO, while the production of IL-17 was associated only with TLR4 expression. The results presented in this study suggest that both TLR2 and TLR4 participate in the modulation of cytokine and NO production in VL patients, contributing to the pathogenesis of VL prior to treatment and the protective immune response after treatment.


The Rev. Mr. Andrews has made a careful section of the railway cutting at Teffont, which shows the Hastings beds and the Middle and Lower :Purbccks. The Roy. O. Fisher marked the divisions on the section. :Mr. Andrews is of opinion that no higher Purbeck beds occur in his neighbourhood than those shown on the section, and that the Hastings series were deposited upon the eroded Purbeck strata; the Purbeek strata continue 50 ft. or more below the base of the railway-cutting, as there are many quarries in the neighbourhood with many feet of Purbecks resting upon the Portland beds. The section in the railway-cutting ends 7 ft. below the "cinder bed ;" but the quarry near the Rectory has been carried 19 ft. below the " cinder," into hard grey marls, which are burnt for lime, and contain many fish, insects, Archœoniscus, Cyclades, Cyprides, &c. The following is a detailed section of the Portland beds in the railway-cutting, drawn up by Mr. Andrews, which, although similar to the woodcut-section on p. 252, nevertheless enters more into the particulars of the beds, both as to thickness and succession, and will doubtless be found useful ff the district is visited and examined :— Discussion Mr. Hulke remarked that the fauna of the "Cinder-bed" being very limited, even where it was best known, namely at Swanage, any addition to it was of great importance. The discovery of the species described by Mr. Etheridge was especially important, the fossil being so strongly characterized


Leaf area index (LAI) is one of the key vegetation indices for many biological and physical processes in plant canopies. In this study, an assimilation technique was used to simulate the LAI's varying in time series in an alpine wetland located in western China. The Terra MODIS 16 day composite surface reflectance products at 250 m resolution in 2010 with high quality were used. LAI was retrieved based on the ACRM canopy reflectance model and LUT algorithm. An experiential LOGISTIC model was fitted using the retrieved LAI, and the ensemble Kalman filter algorithm was introduced to assimilate the estimated LAI into the LOGISTIC model to update the model state.


This article investigates the issue of the efficiency of the Law of Ukraine 2662-VIII «On the Specification of Church Names with Governing Centers Located in an Aggressor Country» in wartime conditions.It emphasizes the significant role played by laws concerning freedom of religion as a subjective legal right and religious organizations as instruments and systems for satisfying religious needs following Ukraine's declaration of independence. Furthermore, it analyzes the main laws, subsidiary acts, and decrees that ensure the right to freedom of religion in Ukraine.An analysis is conducted on the effectiveness of Law No. 2662-VIII «On Amending Article 12 of the Law of Ukraine 'On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations'» enacted on December 20, 2018, as well as the mechanisms for implementing this law in practice through executive government bodies. The risks of interpreting this law in the context of human rights violations and the potential for creating informational grounds for propagating «suppression of faith» within the Russian media space are noted. It is emphasized that Law No. 2662-VIII solely mandates the correction of the name of a religious organization and does not alter the philosophy of said organization regarding national security and state-building.The article clarifies the concept of the efficiency of legislative innovations at the time of their adoption, indicating that such efficiency is determined dynamically through socio-historical positive changes.Furthermore, it underscores the necessity of conducting teleological analysis, analysis of social needs, representativeness, and other factors to define the comprehensive goals set by laws or acts before their implementation in the legal framework of the country.The need is identified to develop a legislative proposal for the re-registration of all religious organizations, without exception, within a specified timeframe. Additionally, there is a call to expand the authority of the executive branch in the establishment of religious associations and to strengthen the oversight conducted by law enforcement agencies over their activities.


The application of conductive hydrogels in intelligent biomimetic electronics is a hot topic in recent years, but it is still a great challenge to develop the conductive hydrogels through a rapid fabrication process at ambient temperature. In this work, a versatile poly(acrylamide) @cellulose nanocrystal/tannic acid-silver nanocomposite (NC) hydrogel integrated with excellent stretchability, repeatable self-adhesion, high strain sensitivity, and antibacterial property, was synthesized via radical polymerization within 30 s at ambient temperature. Notably, this rapid polymerization was realized through a tannic acid-silver (TA-Ag) mediated dynamic catalysis system that was capable of activating ammonium persulfate and then initiated the free-radical polymerization of the acrylamide monomer. Benefiting from the incorporation of TA-Ag metal ion nanocomplexes and cellulose nanocrystals, which acted as dynamic connecting bridges by hydrogen bonds to efficiently dissipate energy, the obtained NC hydrogels exhibited prominent tensile strain (up to 4000%), flexibility, self-recovery, and antifatigue properties. In addition, the hydrogels showed repeatable adhesiveness to different substrates (e.g., glass, wood, bone, metal, and skin) and significant antibacterial properties, which were merits for the hydrogels to be assembled into a flexible epidermal sensor for long-term human-machine interfacial contact without concerns about the use of external adhesive tapes and bacterial breeding. Moreover, the remarkable conductivity (σ ∼ 5.6 ms cm-1) and strain sensitivity (gauge factor = 1.02) allowed the flexible epidermal sensors to monitor various human motions in real time, including huge movement of deformations (e.g., wrist, elbow, neck, shoulder) and subtle motions. It is envisioned that this work would provide a promising strategy for the rapid preparation of conductive hydrogels in the application of flexible electronic skin, biomedical devices, and soft robotics.


Measuring the performance of hydrophones in submarine and surface ship towed arrays at low frequencies in the Leesburg test facility (Okahumpka, FL) is achieved using ambient noise as a calibration source. The preferred method of calibration that relies on a known, repeatable sound source is not implemented because the equipment capable of generating sound at such low frequencies does not currently exist. This project examines the feasibility of implementing a moving magnet actuator (MMA) as the motor force in a very low frequency (VLF) underwater acoustic projector. MMAs have the potential to advance low frequency projector technology by providing large linear displacements and large force outputs in a small package. To explore this potential, three methods of investigation are performed in this study: analytical modeling, numerical modeling, and experimental testing. Analytical modeling is performed in Matlab using fundamental equations for a simple acoustic point source. Numerical modeling is represented as a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problem and is solved using the finite element program Abaqus. Experimental testing is conducted by placing a load on a Bose MMA to simulate the mass of the VLF projector's water displacement. Analytical and numerical modeling efforts estimate a projector source level of over 125 dB// 1 μPa @1m at 1Hz and over 180 dB// 1 μPa @1m at 30Hz. The experimental efforts find that the Bose MMA operates at displacements necessary to achieve sound pressure levels calculated from the analytical and numerical models. This study indicates that an MMA is a suitable force generator for the VLF projector and explores future work necessary for VLF projector design, manufacture, and operation.


The performance of an automatic frequency control (AFC) loop is investigated using two measures, the mean time to loss of lock and the average switching rate. The AFC is considered to operate in fading while a single interferer is also present at its input. Channels are modeled using independent non-identically distributed Rayleigh, Rician and Nakagami-m fading while the special case of independent identically distributed channels is also considered. Closed-form expressions and integral form formulas are derived for the general case of modulated signals as well as important special cases of similar modulations and unmodulated signals. The considered scenarios include previous results from the literature as special cases. Corresponding numerical examples are provided and discussed to illustrate the performance of an AFC in such scenarios.


Educational Robotics holds the potential to promote the development of important 21st century skills, such as creativity and problem-solving skills in addition to digital literacy. However, the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has posed particular obstacles that had to be overcome in order to allow Educational Robotics activities to be conducted in distance learning. In the first place, the obligation to work from home limited the access to required equipment for many students. Secondly, many teachers had to face the novel challenge of creating pedagogically meaningful activities in online learning formats. Aiming to address these challenges, this work explored maker-based approaches as a way to implement Educational Robotics activities in online learning. The devised tools and activities were evaluated in two case studies performed with (i) high school students participating in a mobile robotics summer school and (ii) in-service teachers attending a professional development course on Educational Robotics. The teachers' and students' perception of the proposed activities was analyzed using online surveys and video interviews. The findings showed that the combination of the devised tools and activities allowed teachers and students to explore the basics of mobile robotics while helping them develop a maker mindset. The use of ubiquitous construction materials and affordable electronic components promotes the accessibility of the approach. The proposed tools and activities may therefore provide an exemplary framework for more general applications of Educational Robotics in online learning that go beyond the context of emergency remote teaching.


Abstract Statistical analysis is usually done on data sets that contain precise information. However, data obtained may not be precise always. This may be due to vagueness in the process of measurement itself or due to the values being expressed in linguistic terms. Data that are not precise are referred to as imprecise data or fuzzy data. Developing statistical measures for imprecise data has been pursued by researchers during the past decade. However, the methodologies adopted involve operations on fuzzy numbers through α-cut approach, thereby making the process difficult. Liu (2007) developed a mathematical theory for studying the behavior of fuzzy phenomena known as "Credibility Theory". This theory provides operations on fuzzy numbers that do not depend on the α-cut approach. In this paper, a methodology for obtaining measures of location for imprecise data is developed by using the concepts available in "Credibility Theory". Numerical Illustration for calculating the proposed measures is also provided. Keywords: Credibility theory, credibility distribution, fuzzy number, expectation, variance, percentiles


In the paper we consider the role of seasonal intercepts in seasonal cointegration analysis. For the nonseasonal unit root, such intercepts can generate a stochastic trend with a drift common to all observations. For the seasonal unit roots, however, we show that unrestricted seasonal intercepts generate trends that are different across the seasons. Since such seasonal trends may not appear in economic data, we propose a modified empirical method to test for seasonal cointegration. This method is illustrated on German consumption and income data.


This thesis considers how to use a computer to break a document into pages suitable for printing. Although this problem is easy to solve when the document consists of just text, it becomes complicated when footnotes, displays, and figures are introduced. These elements add some freedom of choice in the way breaks are chosen, since the white space around the displays and the exact placement of the figures can be decided by the pagination algorithm. Out of the many possible ways to paginate such a document, the pagination algorithm should pick the one that is in some sense optimal. The approach taken here is to define a badness function that depends on the way the document is broken up, and then to design an algorithm to find a way to minimize the value of this function.
The document is modelled by two lists, the text list and the figure list. Each item in the text list is either a 'box', corresponding to something that will print such as a line of text, a 'glue' item, corresponding to the white space between the lines, a 'penalty' item, corresponding to a legal place to break the list, or a 'citation', marking a reference to one of the figures. The items in the figure list indicate the size of each figure, and by how much each figure is allowed to stretch or shrink. This model is based on the one used in the TEX typesetting system.
The optimizing pagination algorithm uses dynamic programming to find, for each i, j, and k, the best way to put the first i lines of text and the first j figures onto the first k pages; to make the program run in a reasonable amount of time, this calculation includes only those subproblems that are feasible, i.e., likely to lead to a solution with a small badness value.
The badness function must be chosen carefully in order to get a problem that can be solved by these techniques. For certain simple badness functions, the pagination problem is NP-complete; two such functions are described in the thesis.


UNWTO, the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance (WINTA) and OECD have joined efforts to contribute to the "UNWTO Inclusive Recovery Guide – Sociocultural Impacts of Covid-19, Issue 4: Indigenous Communities", the fourth set of guidelines relating to the sociocultural impacts of COVID-19 on tourism. This set of guidelines has been developed by the UNWTO Ethics, Culture and Social Responsibility Department, in collaboration with Indigenous leaders, while also benefitting from inputs provided by OECD. The recommendations suggest specific solutions for the socio-economic empowerment of Indigenous Peoples through tourism. These include transitioning from "assisting" towards "enabling" indigenous entrepreneurship, strengthening skills and building capacities, fostering digital literacy for running indigenous tourism businesses, and, acknowledging the relevance of indigenous peoples and their cultural capital by destination authorities and the tourism sector, at large.


Artificial Searching Swarm Algorithm (ASSA) is a novel optimization algorithm. This paper presents the comparison results on the performance of the ASSA for solving constrained optimization problems. The penalty function method and non-parameter penalty method are applied to a set of constrained problem. The simulation results show that ASSA is an efficient algorithm for constrained optimization problems.


Continual Learning methods strive to mitigate Catastrophic Forgetting (CF), where knowledge from previously learned tasks is lost when learning a new one. Among those algorithms, some maintain a subset of samples from previous tasks when training. These samples are referred to as a memory . These methods have shown outstanding performance while being conceptually simple and easy to implement. Yet, despite their popularity, little has been done to understand which elements to be included into the memory. Currently, this memory is often filled via random sampling with no guiding principles that may aid in retaining previous knowledge. In this work, we propose a criterion based on the learning consistency of a sample called Consistency AWare Sampling (CAWS). This criterion prioritizes samples that are easier to learn by deep networks. We perform studies on three different memory-based methods: AGEM, GDumb, and Experience Replay, on MNIST, CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets. We show that using the most consistent elements yields performance gains when constrained by a compute budget; when under no such constrain, random sampling is a strong baseline. However, using CAWS on Experience Replay yields improved performance over the random baseline. Finally, we show that CAWS achieves similar results to a popular memory selection method while requiring significantly less computational resources.


Metamaterials are man-made composite materials, fabricated by assembling components much smaller than the wavelength at which they operate (1). They owe their electromagnetic properties to the structure of their constituents, instead of the atoms that compose them. For example, sub-wavelength metal wires can be arranged to possess an effective electric permittivity that is either positive or negative at a given frequency, in contrast to the metals themselves (2). This unprecedented control over the behaviour of light can potentially lead to a number of novel devices, such as invisibility cloaks (3), negative refractive index materials (4), and lenses that resolve objects below the diffraction limit (5). However, metamaterials operating at optical, mid-infrared and terahertz frequencies are conventionally made using nano- and micro-fabrication techniques that are expensive and produce samples that are at most a few centimetres in size (6-7). Here we present a fabrication method to produce hundreds of meters of metal wire metamaterials in fiber form, which exhibit a terahertz plasmonic response (8). We combine the stack-and-draw technique used to produce microstructured polymer optical fiber (9) with the Taylor-wire process (10), using indium wires inside polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) tubes. PMMA is chosen because it is an easy to handle, drawable dielectric with suitable optical properties in the terahertz region; indium because it has a melting temperature of 156.6 °C which is appropriate for codrawing with PMMA. We include an indium wire of 1 mm diameter and 99.99% purity in a PMMA tube with 1 mm inner diameter (ID) and 12 mm outside diameter (OD) which is sealed at one end. The tube is evacuated and drawn down to an outer diameter of 1.2 mm. The resulting fiber is then cut into smaller pieces, and stacked into a larger PMMA tube. This stack is sealed at one end and fed into a furnace while being rapidly drawn, reducing the diameter of the structure by a factor of 10, and increasing the length by a factor of 100. Such fibers possess features on the micro- and nano- scale, are inherently flexible, mass-producible, and can be woven to exhibit electromagnetic properties that are not found in nature. They represent a promising platform for a number of novel devices from terahertz to optical frequencies, such as invisible fibers, woven negative refractive index cloths, and super-resolving lenses.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

Neuroblastoma, an extracraniel tumor of childhood generally progresses to therapy resistant metastatic tumor. Increased expression and activities of mitogenic FGF and the Notch signaling have been extensively correlated with highly malignant behavior and poor prognosis of many cancers including neuroblastoma, making FGF2-Notch3 as rational targets for therapeutic intervention. We have previously shown that a cell surface protease called dipeptydyl peptidase IV (DPPIV) induces apoptotic cell death of neuroblastoma cells thereby inhibiting their tumorigenic potential. In this study, we further examined if tumor suppressor activity of DPPIV is linked to decreased FGF2 and notch signaling pathways. We utilized Affymetrix microarray gene expression analysis, RNA interference and pharmacological inhibitor approaches, western blot and immunofluorescence analysis in these studies. Our results show that either endogenous up-regulation of DPPIV or exogenous treatment of DPPIV leads to decreased FGF2 and Notch3 levels. Furthermore, inhibition of FGF2 expression using FGF2-targeted small interfering RNA decreased the levels of Notch3 and matrix metalloproteinases leading to down regulation of p-Akt, an important survival factor for tumor cells. Blocking of Notch3 function either through a pharmacological inhibitor gamma secretase, or through shRNA also resulted in decreased p-Akt levels, and increased p21/waf1 and cleaved caspase 3 that are apoptosis inducers. Decreased levels of FG2 and Notch3 were associated with induction of differentiation, apoptosis and growth inhibition of neuroblastoma cells (SK-N-AS). In summary, our studies suggest a cooperative role for FGF2 and Notch3 signaling pathways in maintaining tumor phenotype and blocking of these pathways can lead to neuroblastoma tumor cell death. Thus these studies identify FGF2-Nothch 3 signaling pathways as potential targets for inhibiting growth and survival of neuroblastoma cells.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4979. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-4979


Twenty-four patients with refractory affective disorders who were taking carbamazepine were followed in an open-label fashion for an average of 4 years. Carbamazepine, usually in combination with lithium and other previously ineffective medications, reduced the number and severity of manic and depressive episodes. An overall illness index of morbidity (duration x severity) decreased 72% in the first year and 66% in the second year of carbamazepine treatment. One-half of the patients (N = 11) who were followed for more than 2 years showed a pattern of continued improvement (stable); the other half showed loss of prophylaxis (escape). Those showing the escape pattern had a more rapidly deteriorating course of illness in the 4 years before the study than those showing the stable improvement. Clinical and mechanistic implications of these findings are discussed, including the phenomenon of contingent tolerance as a possible explanation for the emergence of loss of efficacy in a subgroup of patients.


A robust 2-D vehicle-positioning system based on constraint propagation on a data horizon is proposed. Using asynchronous unreliable absolute positions and reliable proprioceptive measurements, the proposed method outputs the bounds of the pose at any desired rate. A bounded error approach is used to propagate the imprecision of the input data to the final pose estimation. Measurements are represented by intervals taking errors into account. Integrity is assumed on proprioceptive measurements error bounds. In opposition, the bounds set on exteroceptive positions are not required to be guaranteed. Indeed, a relaxed intersection of constraints is applied to achieve robustness, given a maximum ratio of erroneous positions. This approach is implemented for an automotive vehicle equipped with a GPS receiver and a CAN gateway. An real experimental validation is carried out with a dataset including wrong GPS measurements and the crossing of a tunnel.


In diverse context,elegant language and literature education is developing without any attention.Its soul has been lost when the common language and literature education concept has become orthodox school while diversity has been missing.In community context,education thoughts and teaching methods can't be colorful,and diverse schools can't be formed.The tendence that common education is hold in esteem but elegant one is hated has reduced not only language and literature teaching quality but also the language and literature standards of the whole society.With commercial attraction and abnormal comment and assessment,language and literature has to be eager to success and profits.Language and literature education needs to back to common sense,to be connected with tradition.Elegance and common should be kept in balance.


Heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems have played an important role in building energy and comfort management. It is designed to provide a relatively constant and comfortable temperature in buildings and provide fresh and filtered air with a comfortable humidity level. In this paper, an optimal control strategy is proposed to control the HVAC system for maintaining building's indoor environment with high energy efficiency. The control strategy utilized swarm intelligence to determine the amount of energy dispatched to each equipment in the HVAC system. In order to study the impact of HVAC system operations in the indoor environment, both the building model and HVAC equipment models are developed. A case study is carried out to simulate the real time control process in a specified building environment.


Fetal nuchal translucency thickness at the 11(+0) - 13(+6) weeks scan has been combined with maternal age to provide an effective method of screening for trisomy 21; for an invasive testing rate of 5%, about 75% of trisomic pregnancies can be identified. When maternal serum free B-human chorionic gonadotropin and pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A at 11(+0) - 13(+6) weeks are also taken into account, the detection rate of chromosomal defects is about 85-90%. In 60-70% of fetuses with trisomy 21 the nasal bone is not visible at the 11(+0) - 13(+6) weeks scan and examination of the nasal bone can increase the detection rate of screening by the first trimester scan and serum biochemistry to more than 95%.


Aims/Objectives/Background COVID-19 is a newly emerging pandemic viral disease. Multiple management guidelines were introduced; nevertheless, their efficacy is still under debate. Thus, the presences of prognostic factors are essential for predicting which patients will need more invasive treatments. The study aims to investigate the prognostic accuracy of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in COVID-19 infection. Methods/Design This is a prospective study done in Al-Ain Hospital in the United Arab Emirates. All the Covid-19 patients presenting to the hospital were enrolled over one month from 20/3 to 20/4/2020. We gathered information about their age, sex, mode of transmission and calculated their Neutrophils/Lymphocytes ratio (NLR) from the first complete blood picture on admission. We divided the patients into two groups: those aged 50 years and above and those aged less than 50 years. We chose the best NLR cut-off value based on the Youden index and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The target endpoint was the presence or absence of intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Results/Conclusions The study revealed that 48 patients (14%) needed ICU admission, while 296 patients (86%) were admitted to a ward or quarantine facilities. When the patient's age was > 50, and NLR was ≥ 3.10, it showed a sensitivity of 95.24% and a specificity of 92.86% for predicting the need for ICU admission. When NLR was ≥ 4.21, and the patient's age was < 50, the sensitivity and specificity were 70.3% and 93.7%, respectively. NLR proved to be highly specific and sensitive in helping to identify patients who need more invasive care among people over 50 years of age with COVID-19. Additionally, it can be used as a ruling out gadget for low-risk patients among people under 50 years old.


Pharmacy as a profession started in India in the early 20 th Century. Since then, it has undergone many changes educationally and professionally. Unfortunately, pharmacists in India have been reduced to selling medicines, unlike the West, where the pharmacist is responsible for dispensing medicines prescribed by the physician, and advising patients about their judicious administration. To be at par with their Western counterparts, the Indian educational and pharmacy practicing standards require extensive revision. This change would enhance the profile of pharmacists and enable them to be an integral part of the health care system. In the future, innovations in the discovery and development of newer drugs and dosage forms will be used and personalised pharmacotherapy will be propagated. The future pharmacist has to be aware of these developments to advise the physician and the patient and to be a competent partner in the health care team. Simultaneously, the drug regulatory authorities in India and medical professionals have to recognise the contribution of the pharmacist to society. Only then will the noble pharmacy profession be able to reach the level of greatness it deserves.