Bubbles suspended in a fluid cause the suspension to have different rheological properties than the base fluid. In general, the viscosity of the suspension increases as the volume fraction of the bubbles is increased. A current application, and motivation for this study, is in wellbore cements used for hydrocarbon extraction and carbon sequestration. In these settings, the gas bubbles are dispersed into the cement to reduce the density as well as improve the properties for specific conditions or wellbore issues. In this paper, we use Stokesian dynamics to numerically simulate the behavior of a large number of bubbles suspended in a Newtonian fluid. Going beyond prior work on simulating particles in suspension, we account for the nature of bubbles by allowing for slip on the bubble surface, the deflection on the bubble surface, and a bubble–bubble pairwise interaction that represents the surfactant physics; we do not account for bubble compressibility. We incorporate these interactions and simulate bubble suspensions of monodisperse size at several volume fractions. We find that the bubbles remain better dispersed compared with hard spherical particles that show a greater tendency to structure or cluster.


Recently, there has been great progress in the self-supervised pre-training of multimodal representation models that understand image and language jointly. One particularly popular application of such models is text-to-image generation, which is typically obtained via a two-stage process: in the first stage, a representation model is trained via self-supervised objectives; then in the second stage, a conditional generative decoder is trained on top of the representation to generate natural images. In this work, we aim at bringing representation learning and conditional generation together by unifying the two stages into a single model and training objective. We present UPGen, a unified pre-trained model for both representation learning and generation. UPGen is trained with a simple masked token prediction objective on a flexible mixture of image and language data. We use a pre-trained VQGAN image tokenizer to convert images into discrete tokens, then train a masked token prediction model on both paired image-text datasets and unpaired language datasets, using randomly sampled mask ratios. We show that this masked token prediction model can be directly used to generate images and language by iteratively re-masking and predicting the masked tokens. We demonstrate empirically that UPGen serves as both a good representation learning model and a generative model for both image and language.


Bile duct brushing is the procedure of choice for the assessment of neoplasia of the biliary and pancreatic ducts. Conventional cytopathologic evaluation has been reported to have high specificity but relatively low sensitivity. Although a number of molecular studies regarding biliary tract tissue specimens have been performed, to the authors' knowledge their precise applicability to cytopathology specimens has not been critically analyzed.


In electronic financial markets, algorithmic trading refers to the use of computer programs to automate one or more stages of the trading process: pretrade analysis (data analysis), trading signal generation (buy and sell recommendations), and trade execution. Trade execution is further divided into agency/broker execution (when a system optimizes the execution of a trade on behalf of a client) and principal/proprietary trading (where an institution trades on its own account). Each stage of this trading process can be conducted by humans, by humans and algorithms, or fully by algorithms.


It's every physician's worst nightmare: Receive payment for services rendered, but then a payer identifies an aberrant pattern in claims data, audits the records, decides it has overpaid the practice, and recoups those funds. That money you already allocated for overhead, staff salaries, bonuses, or new medical equipment? Gone. The good news is, physicians can take steps to focus on accurate billing and avoid costly recoupments.


INTRODUCTION
Male sexual dysfunction is a common medical condition, which is addressed mainly from a biomedical perspective by Swiss general practitioners (GPs) and urologists as the results of part I of our study showed. A psychosocial orientation in sexual history taking (SHT) leads to a truly patient-centered approach and is crucial for improving therapy decisions related to sexual dysfunction.

AIM
To analyze to what extent Swiss GPs and urologists have a psychosocial orientation in SHT, and what therapeutic options they focus on when confronted with male sexual dysfunction.

METHODS
A semistructured interview was developed and used in face-to-face encounters with 25 GPs and 25 urologists.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Content and frequency of interview responses.

RESULTS
The GPs and urologists differed significantly from each other in 5 out of 22 psychosocial factors. Summarizing these psychosocial factors in four domains showed a difference between the GPs and urologists in only one domain. Both groups focus on an open conversation as their approach in SHT. No GP and only a minority of urologists based their diagnosis on criteria of the International Classification of Diseases (10th edition) (ICD-10) or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edition) (DSM-IV). The GPs and urologists differed significantly from each other in 4 out of 16 combinations resulting from the given therapeutic options and form of sexual dysfunction. The urologists focus more strongly on medication as a therapeutic option.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of part II additionally justify establishing guidelines and training resources related to SHT in Switzerland. Swiss physicians should be encouraged to apply a more psychosocial orientation in SHT. This will contribute to a better patient-centered approach with positive consequences on physicians' therapeutic decisions. Optimizing the approach in SHT and the choice of therapeutic options may better facilitate real sexual satisfaction for the patient and ultimately result in fewer health insurance costs.


Background Injury prevention has featured as a relatively low priority on Government health agendas in Europe and elsewhere, the result of which has been a lack of national policy development. Successful policy making criteria have not been used to systematically evaluate injury and violence prevention policies. Aim To provide a content analysis of national policies to address violence and injury prevention in the WHO European Region so as to inform where improvements can be made in developing policy. Methods A network of health ministry focal persons, an internet search of relevant Ministry web-sites, and a Google-search using key words were used to identify national policies for violence and injury prevention. A framework was used for policy content analysis. Results The majority of national policies had been developed after 2003. 80 English-language policies from 26 countries were analysed further and 43 non-English policies from 16 countries were excluded. The majority of policies fulfilled the criteria for successful health policy making: lead body, intersectoral collaboration, budgets, government approval, defined implementations, timeframe, evaluation. Some areas warranted attention such as quantitative objectives, target population and implementing interventions not based on evidence. Conclusions Encouraging progress is being made in the WHO European Region. Following the criteria for successful policy making more closely could increase the effectiveness of the preparation and implementation of policies for violence and injury prevention. Areas that warrant attention include setting targets for child maltreatment and domestic violence prevention, as do certain types of injury and violence prevention such as suicide prevention.


In the genre of monumental wood carved coffered ceilings some of the most significant examples can be seen in the palaces of the Cesi family, built between the seventh and ninth decades of the 16th century in Rome and in their country homes in Umbria and Lazio. The ceilings of the Acquasparta palace, probably designed by Giovan Domenico Bianchi, are  great quality expressions  of Roman artistic taste and their magnificence fully reflects the celebratory intention of the clients and their taste for this kind of decoration. In the case of the ceilings of Cantalupo in Sabina, some still in operation, we have detailed documentation on the sculptors and carpenters involved, including Guglielmo Della Porta and the French Stefano Possenti. As for the palazzo Armellini-Cesi in Via della Conciliazione there are two sumptuous ceilings whose decoration recalls typical models of the first half of the century. The Cesi always invested a great deal of resources in their residences for the implementation of imposing decorative systems to enhance the wealth and power of the family in Rome and the study of these ceilings and of the artists involved helps to understand the dynamics of work, of some models and their diffusion.


The electrodeposition of poly(pyrrole) in the presence of a polyanionic electrolyte (poly(styrenesulphonate), poly(vinylsulphate) or Nafion) leads to the formation of a film of a composite polymer at the surface of the two polymeric structures prevents the anionic dopants from being expelled during the dedoping, consequently cations are inserted. This cation-exchange behaviour is the origin of applications in the field of charge-controllable membranes such as water deionisation and the polymer battery, reported by Shimidzu and co-workers (1987). The immobilisation of the anionic dopant has also been achieved by their direct covalent binding to the conductive polymer backbone, leading to the concept of internal doping or 'auto-doping'. The poly(3-alkylsulphonate-thiophenes) (1987) reported by Wudl, Heeger and co-workers (187) are revealed to be the first water-soluble conductive polymers. A study of the poly(3-methylpyrrole-4-carboxylic acid) by Pickup (1987) shows that the formal potential of this polymer is sensitive to pH. The copoly(pyrrole+N-alkylsulphonate-pyrrole) presented by the authors in more detail exhibits a remarkable mixed behaviour as a result of the coupling of cationic membrane with conductive polymer properties. In particular, the electrochemical behaviour of this co-polymer is very sensitive to the water content of the solvent.


Crack free GaN films were grown on 1200×1200μm2 patterned Si (111) substrates and 36 light emitting diodes (LEDs) were fabricated in each pattern unit. Spatial distribution of the tensile stress in the pattern units and its influence on the LED performance are studied by micro-Raman and electroluminescence (EL). The Raman shift of the GaN E2 mode shows that the tensile stress is the maximum at the center, partially relaxed at the edge, and further relaxed at the corner. With the stress relaxation, the EL wavelength has a significant blue shift and the luminous intensity shows a great enhancement.


Metal–halide lamps have high efficiencies. These lamps often contain rare-earth additives (in our case dysprosium iodide) which radiate very efficiently in the visible spectrum. Colour separation is a problem in these lamps; this is caused by axial segregation of these additives as a result of diffusion and convection. To vary the effect of convection, parabolic flights were performed with micro-gravity (0g) and hyper-gravity (∼1.8g) phases. During these flights, the atomic dysprosium density was measured by means of laser absorption spectroscopy. In addition, the lamp voltage, which is strongly influenced by the total amount of Dy in the lamp, was measured. The Dy density and axial segregation are dependent on the gravity. The dynamic lamp behaviour during the parabolas was investigated: the dysprosium density and lamp voltage followed the gravity variations. When entering the micro-gravity phase, the axial diffusion time constant is the slowest time constant; it is proportional to the mercury pressure in the lamp.


The emerging vehicle technologies, i.e. connected vehicle technology and autonomous driving technology, can be beneficial for traffic control and operations. They not only serve
 as new source of information, but also enable us to control and modify the trajectory of vehicles. Reinforcement learning is widely used to design intelligent control algorithms in various
 disciplines. This paper provides preliminary results on how the reinforcement learning methods perform in a connected vehicle environment.


The success of any wood treatment process and the measure of protection conferred on treated wood are determined by the uptake and penetration of the treatment chemicals, in addition to the efficacy of the chemicals used for the treatment. Hence, the level of treatability of wood species should be pre-determined prior to the wood treatment to ensure the overall protection of the treated wood. Gmelina arborea wood, due to its low durability, requires impregnation with chemicals for preservation or chemical modification to enhance its durability. However, more details are required to establish the influence of its anatomy on impregnation to recommend appropriate treatment methods. Therefore, gmelina wood samples were treated under pressure to determine the solution uptake and penetration, while anatomical studies were carried out with light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) measurements. Variations in stem heights, stem diameters, and samples from other tree stands were considered. The outcome of the study showed that the liquid uptake was generally low for gmelina wood among the selected stands (16%–23%) and there was no significant difference in stem diameters; meanwhile, penetration was less than 4 mm in the axial direction, and very low in the lateral (radial and tangential) direction. Vessels of gmelina wood have abundant tyloses, while crystalline structures with needlelike shapes are present in a large proportion of the ray parenchyma cells, and are confirmed with SEM-EDX to be made up of calcium oxalate. The low liquid uptake and penetration in gmelina wood suggest that the impregnation of chemicals into its microstructure is next to impossible. Hence, alternative treatment methods other than those involving impregnation with chemicals should be sought to enhance its durability.


Background Portrayals of suicidal behaviour in the media have been linked with copycat suicidal behaviour, a phenomenon referred to as the Werther Effect. In recent years, media reporting of high-profile suicides and portrayals of fictional suicides in film/television have been associated with increased deaths. The Netflix series 13 Reasons Why was released on 31 March 2017 and received a lot of public attention, particularly for its detailed portrayal of the suicide of the female protagonist. We examined whether there was any evidence of an increase in hospital-presenting self-harm in Ireland following the release of the series. Methods The National Self-Harm Registry Ireland records self-harm presentations to all Irish hospital emergency departments. Case ascertainment and data collection are carried out by trained data registration officers who follow standard operating procedures. We examined the temporal pattern of hospital-presenting self-harm by persons aged ≥10 years, stratified by sex and whether the self-harm involved sharp objects as depicted in 13 Reasons Why or other means. Poisson regression was used to compare the incidence in the three months after the series' release compared to the rest of the calendar year 2017 and to make the same comparison for each of the preceding six years. Results During 2011–2017, there was an annual average of 11,515 self-harm presentations to hospital from an annual average population of 3.99 million persons aged. Self-harm involving sharp objects accounted for one in four presentations (2,937 per year, 25.5%) and had an age-standardised female and male incidence rate of 79 and 75 per 100,000 person-years, respectively. Three quarters of presentations involved other means (8,578 per year, 74.5%), primarily intentional drug overdose, with a female and male incidence rate of 245 and 197 per 100,000 person-years, respectively. The incidence of female self-harm involving sharp objects was 100 per 100,000 in the three months after the release of 13 Reasons Why, 20% higher than the incidence in the rest of 2017 (incidence rate ratio, IRR=1.20; 95% confidence interval=1.08–1.33). Such an increased rate was not observed for the same period in any of the previous six years (IRR range=0.95–1.07). The same three-month period showed no notable change in incidence in any year for male self-harm involving sharp objects or for female or male self-harm involving other means. Conclusion The study findings show evidence of an increase in female hospital-presenting self-harm involving sharp objects following the release of the 13 Reasons Why series.


Adaptive control of robotic manipulators in task space or Cartesian space is considered. A general Lyapunov-like concept is used to design an adaptive control law. It is shown that the global stability and convergence can be achieved for the adaptive control algorithm. The algorithm has the advantage that the inverse of Jacobian matrix is not required. The algorithm is further modified so that the requirement for the bounded inverse of estimated inertia matrix is also eliminated. In addition, two approaches are presented to achieve robustness to bounded disturbances. >


OBJECTIVE
To compare the effectiveness of intravenous patient-controlled (i.v.-PCA) ketorolac to i.v.-PCA morphine in the treatment of postoperative pain in cancer patients.

DESIGN
In a double-blind, prospective, randomized trial, patients received either morphine in 1 mg/ml concentration or ketorolac 5 mg/ml for postoperative pain control. On arrival to the postanesthesia care unit (PACU), the patients received 2 ml of medication every 5 min, until satisfactory analgesia was achieved. If pain persisted after 20 ml of study drug had been administered, 0.1 mg/kg morphine was given i.m. On discharge from the PACU, the patients were placed on an i.v.-PCA pump. All patients received a basal infusion of 1 ml/h with a 1-ml on-demand bolus and a lockout interval of 10 min. Patients were offered 0.1 mg/kg morphine IM every 6 h, which they could refuse.

SETTING
University Cancer Center.

PATIENTS
Seventy patients scheduled for abdominal or truncal cancer operations.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Visual analog pain scores (VAPS) and Visual analog sedation scores (VASS) were used to measure the quality of pain control achieved either with ketorolac or morphine. The incidence of side effects was documented.

RESULTS
The VAPS were comparable between the groups. Patients in the ketorolac group requested more supplemental i.m. morphine. However, the total morphine dose and incidence of side effects was significantly higher in patients receiving i.v.-PCA morphine.

CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that ketorolac supplemented with small doses of morphine is associated with a lower incidence of nausea, vomiting, and pruritus compared to morphine alone. This combination should be considered where immunosuppression from operation and administration of morphine is undesirable.


In the Bible the source of the law is the One God, that is the idea of the transcendence of law has a completely radical expression. The law is based on the will of the Creator God. Society development is considered by experts to be the foundation that objectively leads to the disappearance or change of the old and the emergence of new spheres of regulation, norms, institutions or branches of law. This paradigm of law development applies to Jewish law, but even more so to Jewish law concerns the danger of emasculation and formalization of any religious right over time and the work of interpreters. Thus, some rabbinical structures (such as the Sanhedrin) did not create new laws, but merely interpreted the existing code but their activities led to a change in the qualitative component of this right.


Patients with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) frequently suffer from poor balance and proprioception and are at an increased risk for falls. Here we present a means of assessing a variety of balance and postural conditions in a fast and non-invasive manner. The equipment required is commercially available and requires limited personnel. Patients can be repeatedly tested to determine balance and postural differences as a result of disease progression and aging, or a reversal following balance/exercise interventions.


Schumpeter suggests that the role of the entrepreneur is to create greater value. This paper focuses on football, and football club owners in questioning and contesting not just if club owners create value – but more specifically, value for whom? And at what cost? The questions bring to the fore commodification and a profit maxim versus community asset and a utility maxim. We question the current pursuit of football clubs where owners have sidelined the indigenous fan base to satisfy their thirst for global market growth, at the expense of heritage and social value of the 'club'. There have been various critical papers written on the subject of the changing nature of professional football, however, little has been written on this topic from a social value perspective. Therefore, whilst focussing on football club owners, our research questions commodification of public utility in the pursuit of globalisation through the commercialisation of clubs and the capitalisation of supporters as club assets to the detriment of social and cultural value. Our theoretical framework utilises Parsons' systems theory, in particular, Groen et al's (2008) four capitals adaptation to analyse 'sustainable value creation' (a blend of strategic, economic, cultural and social). Groen et al's model is used to map ownership of each of the 44 clubs in the top 2 divisions of English football. Following this we draw attention to some examples in highlighting different forms of ownership. Our findings suggest the main current of ownership is in transition and movement towards economic and strategic capitals, which we argue is unsustainable as it comes at the expense of other forms of capital. The mobility of 'charlatan entrepreneurs' in this industry is a major concern to us as academics and football supporters. Although the work of unscrupulous owners in football is nothing new, our approach is. We highlight the finite balance between the four capitals that as Groen et al claim, should balance in order to achieve (blended) sustainable value creation, where the changes in football club ownership are putting the sport in a precarious position.


Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are extending the arena within which extremists and terrorists operate. Among the most active participants are Islamists and the Far Right, whose increasingly networked formats are enhanced by such technologies. These provide them with new benefits: interconnectivity; anonymity; cheapness; power enhancement; new audiences. Islamists and Jihadists are turning to the Internet to recruit, and to issue religious injunctions to the world-wide Muslim community. The stealthy growth of the U.S. militias was aided by the Internet, and white supremacists and neo-Nazis in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere increasingly see it as the last communication medium free of interference, and which they can use to best effect. Although all use it to communicate, they are poised to use it for command and control.


China National Chartering Corporation (also known as Sinochart), a subsidiary of Sinotrans, whose capital is fully invested by the People's Republic of China (PRC), held the charter of the Ocean Victory, a vessel belonging to Ocean Line Holdings Limited (Ocean Line). The Ocean Victory ran aground, broke in two, and sank while the vessel was trying to depart from the port of Kashima, Japan. An order of attachment was issued in this admiralty case by the judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on September 20, 2007, authorizing the seizure of up to $177,520,838 of Sinochart's assets (part of it from electronic funds transfer (EFT)). The claim was disputed by Sinochart and the merits will be contested in arbitration proceedings in London pursuant to the charter party. Three applications were made to the court by Sinochart. It moved to vacate the attachment on the grounds that it is immune from attachment as an instrumentality of the PRC under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). It alternatively seeks countersecurity for its claims for losses resulting from the casualty. It moves for an order in which Ocean Line is required to post security for costs incurred in posting surety bonds. In this case, the core and background facts are twofold. Sinochart is a subsidiary of PRC-owned company Sinotrans. PRC is a socialist country with many enterprises owned by the population. The Rule B attachment, moreover, is on an EFT affiliated with an intermediate bank in New York, the validity of which was under debate during the trial


The aim of this paper is only to provide a systematic review of important research undertaken thus far in Deep Learning (DL) applications in healthcare and biomedicine. A total of 47 papers were shortlisted for this review. The review revealed that DL can be and has been applied in a number of healthcare contexts to improve outcomes. The two most important ones among them, indicated by the number of available papers, are cancer and medical imaging. A good number of papers on drugs and their development were also available. However, it must be highlighted that such categorisations may be somewhat arbitrary. It may be possible to categorise one paper in more than one category. The primary implication of this research for the academia is that there is a large deficit of papers on many of the chronic and lifestyle related illnesses such as diabetes as well as some diseases caused by immunodeficiency. There is also a complete deficit of literature on most of the acute health problems. This may be indicative of the need for more intensified research in the deficit areas. The primary implication of this research for health practitioners is that there is a plethora of substantial research that is currently available and accessible regarding the applications of DL to cancer and medical imaging which may be utilised for their practice.


The bispectrum and third-order moment can be viewed as equivalent tools for testing for the presence of non-linearity in stationary time series. This is because the bispectrum is the Fourier transform of the third order moment. An advantage of the bispectrum is that its estimator comprises terms which are asymptotically independent at distinct bifrequencies under the null hypothesis of linearity. An advantage of the third order moment is that its values at any subset of joint lags can be used in the test, whereas when using the bispectrum the entire (or truncated) third order moment is required to
construct the Fourier transform. In this paper we propose a test for non-linearity based upon the estimated third order moment. We use the phase scrambling bootstrap method to give a non-parametric estimate of the variance of our test statistic under the null hypothesis. Using a simulation study we demonstrate that the test obtains its target significance level, with large power, when compared to an existing standard parametric test that uses the bispectrum. Further we show how the proposed test can be used to identify the source of nonlinearity due to interactions at specic frequencies. We also investigate implications for heuristic diagnosis of non-stationarity.


Existing shadow detection methods suffer from an intrinsic limitation in relying on limited labeled datasets, and they may produce poor results in some complicated situations. To boost the shadow detection performance, this paper presents a multi-task mean teacher model for semi-supervised shadow detection by leveraging unlabeled data and exploring the learning of multiple information of shadows simultaneously. To be specific, we first build a multi-task baseline model to simultaneously detect shadow regions, shadow edges, and shadow count by leveraging their complementary information and assign this baseline model to the student and teacher network. After that, we encourage the predictions of the three tasks from the student and teacher networks to be consistent for computing a consistency loss on unlabeled data, which is then added to the supervised loss on the labeled data from the predictions of the multi-task baseline model. Experimental results on three widely-used benchmark datasets show that our method consistently outperforms all the compared state-of- the-art methods, which verifies that the proposed network can effectively leverage additional unlabeled data to boost the shadow detection performance.


The theorem stating that the number of nodal cells of a pure eigenfunction of a Hamiltonian with a smooth and uniformly bounded potential may change as the potential is continuously varied, is illustrated by constructing a particular two-dimensional Hamiltonian (two coupled oscillators) of which one of the eigenfunctions exhibits the nonconservation property. The analytical form of both the potential (a six-order polynomial) and the eigenfunction is given.


The current DTI-based markers of traumatic brain injury are able to capture affected WM in the brain, but missthe areas of crossing fibers and complex WM due to the simplicity of the model. In this work, we use a novelset of spherical-harmonics rotation invariant indices, recently proposed in the literature. We demonstrate thatthese 12 invariants capture all the information provided by DTI. But in addition, they capture differences incomplex WM, beyond DTI measures. This combined with the clinical feasibility of the method, paves the wayfor them to be used as better markers of brain injury.


A cross sectional study was carried out in the District of Kuala Langat, Selangor in February 1997. The intention is to determine the relationship between effective communication of individuals towards patient satisfaction and factors that influence effective communication. The study was carried out in outpatient clinics of six health clinics and a district hospital which involves 336 patients selected using universal sampling. The data was obtained using guided questionnaires. The outcome of the study shows significant relationship between effective communication and patient satisfaction (t = 3.06, p < 0.05). Communication media, verbal communication and non verbal communication are also the factors that shows significant relationship towards effective communication. Other factors studied such as patient age, sex and ethnic group, doctor's attitude, sex of the doctor and doctor's communication skill do not show any significant relationship towards effective communication. Multiple logistic regression analysis was carried out between media factor, verbal communication and non-verbal communication against effective communication. The result shows that a doctor using media during interaction with a patient, communicates 2.8 times more effective than a doctor who does not utilise the media. For a doctor using verbal communication with easily understood language, the communication is 3.4 times more effective than a doctor who does not use an easily understood language. Meanwhile, a doctor who use non-verbal communication, produce 2.3 times more effective communication as compared to a doctor who did otherwise. By controlling all the confounding factors at the same time, the three factors above still shows significant relationship. This indicates that the factors are the predictive factors towards effective communication. Since effective communication by doctors is an important factor in ensuring patient satisfaction, therefore a comprehensive study should be carried out by taking into consideration other factors which would contribute to effective communication and patient satisfaction


The study aimed to compare the egg production and hatchability of local ducks under different management systems, namely semi-intensive and extensive. The research conducted was an experimental one-way classification with two treatments. Each treatment used 15 male and 120 females (mating ratio 1:8), and ducks aged 13-14 months. Eggs production was recorded during three weeks period. About 300 eggs were selected from each treatment to be hatched. Fertility was observed at 4 th days of hatching process using egg candler. Data of eggs production, eggs weight, fertility, and hatchability were analyzed using unpaired two sample Student ' s t-test. The results showed that average of egg weight, fertility and hatchability were not different under two management system, but egg production in the semi-intensive maintenance was significantly higher (P<0.05) than those in the extensive system. Egg production in the semi-intensive was 12.3% higher than those in the extensive. In conclusion, the semi-intensive system that is applied in this study the number of eggs production but did not affect the average of egg weight, fertility and hatchability.


This review summarizes current knowledge on systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) coexisting with myasthenia gravis (MG). SLE can precede or follow the development of MG. SLE can also be observed in patients with MG following thymectomy. Overlapping signs and symptoms of a few different autoimmune diseases in a given patient are presented. Coexistence of SLE and MG is a rare phenomenon. It has already been observed; however, only sporadic clinical cases have been described.


An ultrasonic angioplasty device comprising an elongate ultrasound transmission member having a proximal end attachable to an ultrasound generating device and a bulbous distal head or probe formed on the distal end thereof for effecting ablative treatment of an occluding lesion. The ultrasound transmission member may be formed of one or more superelastic metal alloys such as NiTi (50 at. % Ni). A guidewire lumen may be formed in the distal head or probe to permit passage of a guidewire therethrough. Portions of the ultrasound transmission member may be curved or bent. Portions of the ultrasound transmission member may be tapered or narrowed. One or more surface disruptions may be formed on the distal head or probe to improve treatment efficacy. An increased hardness coating or outer skin may be formed on the ultrasound transmission member. The device of the present invention may be incorporated into an angioscopic device.


The research deals with the importance of illustrations in the press work as an essential part that helps in highlighting the content of an article, story, or editorial investigation. The study focuses on newspapers and magazines graphic illustrations and their prominent role in communicating the type of journal and/ or magazine whether it being political, social, or specialized. In Egypt, graphics began to occupy distinctive places in the front pages of newspapers and magazines, starting with black and white, then an additional color, followed by four colors. The first issue of Al-Ahram newspaper was in 1876, and in the same year, an illustrated magazine for literature and fine arts was issued and it was called "the magazine of women and men"; there was also 'caricature journalism' or 'comics'. The graphic artists contributed to the rise of the Egyptian press and its brilliance through the illustrations they presented to express the topics, stories and press stories .It can be said that the technical and comic press in Egypt started from one starting point, or stemmed from one cell that carried its features together, before the specialization stage related to the maturity of the technical level.
The research includes the reference to pioneer newspapers and magazines in Egypt that contributed greatly in the propagation of graphic illustrations and helped in its accession to a prominent place in the press work; in Dar Akhbar Al-Youm, artists such as Rakha, Saroukhan, Bicar, Canaan, Mustafa Hussein and others, represent a good example. In this paper, the author selected two of the previously stated artists: Hussein Bicar and Mounir Canaan, for an in-depth study. They characterize the press illustration in Egypt during a period of forty years – from the fifties to the beginning of the nineties. Hussein Bicar has his unique style in illustrations for adult and for children books and magazines; he left a legacy of outstanding drawings and writings; his academic study at Fine Arts in Cairo helped him to master the art of painting and to take interest in the anatomical aspect. On the other hand, Mounir Canaan did not get any academic education in art, yet, he advanced in the field of illustrations and painting in ink.
In sum, the author sees that this art is not as prominent and high level nowadays as it was in the study period; therefore, he recommends that Newspaper and magazine operators should search for, and employ talented artists like before in drawing illustrations, to add an aesthetic dimension to journalistic work, thus help creating a relationship between the newspaper and the reader. Newspapers should devote space to painters to show their illustrative talents in fixed columns weekly as illustrations enrich journalism beyond what photographic images currently do.


Ketone bodies, namely beta-hydroxybutyrate (βHB), acetoacetate (AcAc) and acetone, are produced in the liver during physiological states and manipulations that result in reduced carbohydrate availability. Exogenous ketone supplements, namely ketone esters and ketone salts, have been developed with the aim of achieving acute nutritional ketosis i.e. βHB concentrations > 0.5 mM. We investigated whether exogenous ketone supplements had an effect on the metabolic response to exercise, physical and cognitive performance in athletes.
A literature review was undertaken to examine the relationship between elevated ketone bodies, achieved via intravenous fusion of ketone bodies or fasting, and metabolism both at rest and during exercise1. The review focused on seminal work performed in the 1970s and 1980s and identified a number of metabolic effects that may have relevance to improve performance and recovery in athletic populations.
Study 1 investigated the effect of a commercially-available ketone salt product formulation on the metabolic response to a graded exercise session in trained endurance athletes2. We observed an elevation in βHB concentrations (0.4-0.5 mM), a reduction in plasma glucose concentrations, but no effect on plasma lactate concentrations or exercise efficiency.
Study 2 investigated the effect of co-ingestion with carbohydrate of a ketone ester supplement in the form of a (R)-3-hydroxybutyl (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate ketone mono ester on physical and cognitive performance in team sport athletes in response to a simulated soccer task3. Ingestion of the ketone ester had no effect on 15 m sprint times during the simulated task, or on reaction time or sustained attention performed afterwards. Compared to carbohydrate alone, we observed a preservation in executive function, measured by a decision making task, but a possible impairment in performance in a short high intensity intermittent performance test in the ketone ester condition.
Study 3 investigated the effect in trained runners of co-ingestion with carbohydrate of a (R)-3-hydroxybutyl (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate ketone mono ester on the metabolic response to submaximal exercise, and performance in 10 km time trial and cognitive tasks. We observed no effect on endurance performance or cognitive performance with the ketone ester compared
to the carbohydrate alone condition.
Future research should focus on exploring the optimal dosage and timing of
exogenous ketone supplements around exercise to confer performance benefits, if any. It remains to be confirmed which exercise modalities may benefit from exogenous ketone supplementation.

References
1. Evans M, Cogan KE, Egan B (2017) Metabolism of ketone bodies during exercise and training: physiological basis for exogenous supplementation. Journal of Physiology 595(9):2857–71.
2. Evans M, Patchett E, Nally R, Kearns R, Larney M, Egan B (2018) Effect of acute ingestion of A-hydroxybutyrate salts on the response to graded exercise in trained cyclists. European Journal of Sport Science 18(3):376–86.
3. Evans M, Egan B (2018). Intermittent running and cognitive performance after ketone ester ingestion. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 50(11):2330-2338.


An organosilicon polymer was developed for the release of antimicrobial drugs. The influence of the drug itraconazole (Itrax) on polymer properties such as density, hardness, rebound resilience, tensile strength, accelerated aging, structure and antifungal activity was investigated. There were slight changes in physicochemical properties and significant deterioration of mechanical ones. The evaluation of the fungicidal activity showed time-limited antifungal properties.


This paper presents an analytical model for describing the tidal effects in a two‐dimensional leaky confined aquifer system in an estuarine delta where ocean and river meet. This system has an unconfined aquifer on top and a confined aquifer on the bottom with an aquitard in between the two. The unconfined and confined aquifers interact with each other through leakage. It was assumed that the aquitard storage was negligible and that the leakage was linearly proportional to the head difference between the unconfined and confined aquifers. This model's solution was based on the separation of variables method. Two existing solutions that deal with the head fluctuation in one‐dimensional or two‐dimensional leaky confined aquifers are shown as special cases in the present solution. Based on this new solution, the dynamic effect of the water table's fluctuations can be clearly explored, as well as the influence of leakage on the behaviour of fluctuations in groundwater levels in the leaky aquifer system. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This letter proposes a new on-line load sensitivity identification by means of power electronics-based devices. Applying a voltage and frequency perturbation and measuring the consumed power of the loads, the proposed method computes in real time the voltage and frequency dependency of the load active and reactive power. In this work a Smart Transformer application has been proposed, but the method is general for any power electronics converter able to influence dynamically the voltage and frequency in the grid.


In ultra-deep submicron very large-scale integration (VLSI) designs, clock network layout plays an increasingly important role on determining circuit quality indicated by timing, power consumption, cost, power-supply noise, and tolerance to process variations. In this brief, a new merging scheme is proposed for prescribed nonzero skew routings which are useful in reducing clock cycle time, suppressing power-supply noise, and improving tolerance to process variations. This technique is simple and easy to implement for practical applications. Experimental results on benchmark circuits with both buffered and unbuffered routings exhibit large improvement on wirelength and buffer cost compared with other existing works.


O‐GlcNAc is a common post‐translational modification of nuclear, mitochondrial, and cytoplasmic proteins that is implicated in the etiology of type II diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, as well as cardioprotection. This unit covers simple and comprehensive techniques for identifying proteins modified by O‐GlcNAc, studying the enzymes that add and remove O‐GlcNAc, and mapping O‐GlcNAc modification sites. Curr. Protoc. Mol. Biol. 95:17.6.1‐17.6.33. © 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


We describe our experience using a deep-plane technique to create an inferiorly based musculocutaneous flap to decrease distal flap necrosis in reconstruction of large anterior cheek and lower eyelid defects. Our early experience with the use of the deep-plane cervicofacial flap has been encouraging. We believe that it deserves more study for use in the population at risk for flap necrosis.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2019; March 29-April 3, 2019; Atlanta, GA

Only a small number of genes are bona fide oncogenes and tumor suppressors such as Ras, Myc, p53 and PTEN . However, targeting these cancer drivers frequently fail to demonstrate sustained cancer remission. Tumor heterogeneity and evolution contribute to cancer resistance and pose challenges for cancer therapy due to differential gene expression profiles driving distinct tumor responses to treatments. Here we report that intratumor heterogeneity of Wnt/β-catenin/armadillo modulator δ-catenin controls individual cell behavior to promote cancer. The differential intratumor subcellular localization of δ-catenin mirrors its compartmentalization in prostate cancer xenograft cultures as a result of mutation-rendered δ-catenin truncations. Wildtype and δ-catenin mutants displayed non-overlapping protein interactomes that highlight rewiring of signal networks. Localization specific δ-catenin mutants influenced p120ctn-dependent Rho GTPase phosphorylation and shifted cells towards bFGF-responsive growth, a known signal to bypass androgen receptor dependence. Mutant δ-catenin promoted Myc -induced prostate tumorigenesis by increasing proliferation over apoptosis as well as β-catenin stabilization and HIF-1α expression. Therefore, intratumor δ-catenin heterogeneity by genetic remodeling promotes prostate cancer expansion towards androgen independence, supporting a neomorphism model paradigm for targeting tumor progression.

Citation Format: Mingchuan Li, Jongdee Nopparat, Jiao Zhang, Byron J. Aguilar, Yan-Hua Chen, Jie Du, Xin Ai, Yong Luo, Yongguang Jiang, Christi Boykin, Qun Lu. Intratumor δ-catenin heterogeneity driven by genomic rearrangement dictates growth factor dependent prostate cancer cell fate and behavior [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2904.


In this paper, the problem of fault detection for a dual-motor driving servo system is investigated. The dual-motor driving servo system is modeled as a linear system with disturbances, and the actuator and sensor faults are both considered. Based on the system model, an observer-based fault detection scheme which consists of a residual generator and a residual evaluator is proposed. An optimal residual generator based on the H∞/H∞ index is designed to guarantee a suitable trade-off between sensitivity to faults and robustness against disturbances, and then the residual evaluator including a norm-based residual evaluation function and a threshold is presented to detect the occurrence of faults. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method.


Yaws is commonly known in Ceylon as "Parangi". Dr. W. R. Kynsey stated, in his report on "Parangi Disease" (Ceylon Sessional Paper VIII of 1881), that an obstinate chronic endemic disease had been known to exist in Ceylon for centuries. The attention of the Government was drawn to the gravity of the problem in 1866 when the Committee of the Legislative Council on Irrigation Works and Rice Cultivation made the following statement:


This article introduces the Clinton Email Corpus, comprising 33,000 recently released email messages sent to and from Hillary Clinton during her tenure as United States Secretary of State, and presents the results of a first investigation into the effect of status and gender on politeness-related linguistic choices within the corpus, based on a sample of 500 emails. We describe the composition of the corpus and mention the technical challenges inherent in its creation, and then present the 500-email subset, in which all messages are categorized according to sender and recipient gender, position in the workplace hierarchy, and personal closeness to Clinton. The analysis looks at the most frequent bigrams in each of these subsets as a starting point for the identification of linguistic differences. We find that the main differences relate to the content and function of the messages rather than their tone. Individuals lower in the hierarchy but not in Clinton's inner circle are more often engaged in practical tasks, while members of the inner circle primarily discuss issues and use email to arrange in-person conversations. Clinton herself is generally found to engage neither in extensive politeness nor in overt displays of power. These findings present further evidence of how corpus linguistics can be used to advance our understanding of workplace pragmatics.


A major issue in the study of word perception concerns the nature (perceptual or nonperceptual) of sentence context effects. The authors compared effects of legal, word replacement, nonword replacement, and transposed contexts on target word performance using the Reicher-Wheeler task to suppress nonperceptual influences of contextual and lexical constraint. Experiment 1 showed superior target word performance for legal (e.g., "it began to flap/flop") over all other contexts and for transposed over word replacement and nonword replacement contexts. Experiment 2 replicated these findings with higher constraint contexts (e.g., "the cellar is dark/dank") and Experiment 3 showed that strong constraint contexts improved performance for congruent (e.g., "born to be wild") but not incongruent (e.g., mild) target words. These findings support the view that the very perception of words can be enhanced when words are presented in legal sentence contexts.


This paper discusses the comparative aspect of Charles Halperin's biography of Ivan the Terrible. In his book, Halperin reassesses Michael Cherniavsky's view of Ivan the Terrible as a Renaissance prince by noting that Cherniavsky overestimated the importance of Moscow-the Third Rome theory and used unreliable later sources. In Russian scholarship, according to Halperin, comparative works on Ivan iv have been marred with nationalism. One should also add here the negative impact of vulgar Marxism on Soviet comparative studies of Ivan iv. Nevertheless, a comparative approach to Ivan the Terrible is still viable because, as Halperin astutely notes, the first Russian tsar "resembled his contemporaries among foreign rulers more than he did his Muscovite predecessors or successors." In this article I apply Halperin's comparative methodology to Ivan iv the Terrible and Philip ii the Prudent of Spain. What Ivan and Philip had in common was not Renaissance ideas but intensive religious beliefs. The paper examines the foreign and domestic policies of both monarchs, as well as their contemporary visual representations from the perspectives of their religious views. Ivan's and Philip's preoccupation with their countryside residences, Aleksandrovskaia Sloboda and the Escorial respectively, is also discussed in the context of the rulers' intensive religiosity. Despite their different confessions, Ivan iv and Philip ii were driven by aspirations for what they saw as original, simple, correct Christianity.


Natural resource management (NRM) is an impertant issue to be addressed carefully,
more so in the semi-arid tropics where majority of the rural livelihoods are dependent
on agriculture, Water scarcity and land degradation are the major constraints along
with poor socio-economic conditions and lack of infrastructure for increasing
agricultural productivity of rainfed systems. The sustainability of production, soil
quality and other environment resources are the major impact factors of INRM. With
watershed as an entry point, assessing the impact of integrated natural resource.
management (INRM) interventions offer useful information 'on the performance of
agricultural watersheds. Pathways of impact in watersheds are multi-pronged (Fig. 1)
and complex demanding critical analytical framework to assess the impact of
. watersheds. Agricultural interventions typically involve opening closed natural
systems thai may have attained certain equilibrium; Such products as food, feed,
fuel, etc. are exported from the system reSUlting in more outflows than inflows. When
this happens, unless outflows are complemented by external inputs, resource
productivity will gradually decline. Land degradation is a commonly used term to
describe this situation and refers to the productivity loss andj or diminishIng ability
of land to provide such esst;ntial ecological services as groundwater recharging,
carbon fixation and storage, detoxification o f harmful compounds, and water
purification. In order. to minimise the process of degradation and to maintain
productive capacity and ability to provide ecosystem services for present arid future
generations, various natural resource management (INRM) options have been
developed and implemented (Wahi et al., 2004).


In this study, focusing our attention on the Paraphrase of Dionysius the Areopagite's De divinis nominibus, we investigate whether matter is in George Pachymeres (1242-1310) a passive condition, which constantly receives the divine intervention, or expresses sensibly the productive projections of the divine energies. Raising a number of questions, we approach, on the one hand, the concept of causality as a relation between God and the creation and as a relation among the created beings and, on the other hand, the meaning of the concepts of corruption and death, in the sense that all of them are related to the forms of matter. The most important conclusions of ours are that matter is for G. Pachymeres absolutely related to the concept of causality and that corruption is just a microcosmic scale fact. Regarding whether G. Pachymeres tends to adopt materialist theories, we conclude that he accepts matter as a main component of the created world, in the sense of the projection of the divine creative action, without ever ignoring metaphysics of transcendence.


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a malignant tumor with high morbidity and mortality worldwide. Recent studies have shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in almost all human tumors, including CRC. Competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory networks have become hot topics in cancer research. Tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TICs) have also been reported to be closely related to the survival and prognosis of CRC patients. In this study, we used the lncRNA–miRNA–mRNA regulatory network combined with tumor immune cell infiltration to predict the survival and prognosis of 598 CRC patients. First, we downloaded the lncRNA, mRNA, and miRNA transcriptome data of CRC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and identified differentially expressed genes through "limma" package of R software. The ceRNA regulatory network was established by using the "GDCRNATools" R package. Then, univariate Cox analysis and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator analysis were performed to identify the optimal prognostic network nodes, including SRPX, UST, H19, SNHG7, hsa-miR-29b-3p, and TTYH3. Next, we analyzed the differences in 22 types of TICs between 58 normal subjects and 206 CRC patients and included memory CD4 T cells, dendritic cells and neutrophils in the construction of a prognostic model. Finally, we identified the relationship between the ceRNA prognostic model and the infiltrating immune cell prognostic model. In conclusion, we constructed two prognostic models that provide insights on the prognosis and treatment strategy of CRC.


Herbal mouthwashes have been considered to be a more advantageous option to their chemical counterparts, for a long time. Neem, Honey bee extract and Cranberry extract, among others, have had scientists actively researching their properties. However, having demonstrated significant medicinal uses from treating cancers to lowering heart disease, pomegranate extract is the newest talk of the dental community. This is mainly because of its active component, polyphenolic flavonoid that is believed to prevent gingivitis and basic plaque formation through its anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-oxidant properties. Besides being able to exert considerable control over the levels of different enzymes in the oral cavity, the polyphenols are significantly active against notable oral bacteria like A. actinomycetemcomitans, S. aureus, P. intermedia and P. gingivalis. Through a series of laboratory tests and animal trials, the pomegranate extract has been shown to reduce the clinical signs associated with chronic, inflammatory periodontitis, among other indications such as treatment of oral ulcers. The aim of this systematic review is to propose pomegranate extract as an effective active ingredient in a mouthwash by describing the properties, significant trials and studies and past literature reviews that have marked it suitable for such a use.


Six crystalline polyoxo-titanium clusters (PTCs) derived from oximes, namely, Ti4(μ4-O)(OMe)6(L1)4 (PTC-125; H2L1 = salicylaldoxime), H[Ti5(μ2-O)(μ3-O)2(OMe)3(L1)6] (PTC-126), Ti6(μ2-O)(μ3-O)2(O iPr)10(OAc)2(L2)2 (PTC-127; H3L2 = salicylhydroxamic acid; HOAc = acetic acid), Ti7(μ3-O)2(OEt)18(L2)2 (PTC-128), Ti12(μ2-O)4(μ3-O)4(OEt)20(L2)4 (PTC-129), and Ti18(μ2-O)10(μ3-O)8(μ4-O)2(OEt)30(L3)2 (PTC-130; HL3 = acetoxime) have been solvothermally synthesized and structurally characterized. Compared with the reported solid-state monomer, dimer, trimer, and tetramer titanium oximes, these compounds possess high nuclearity structures in the range Ti4, Ti5, Ti6, Ti7, Ti12, and Ti18 as a result of the presence of oxo bridges. Even though three examples of tetranuclear and hexanuclear derivatives have been documented, PTC-130 with a centrosymmetric Ti18 cluster core represents the currently highest PTC compound in the oxime system. In addition, Ti/oximate ratio by solvothermal synthesis in this work possessed a broad range from 0.83:1 to 9:1, different from the constant ratio of 1:1 in the reported ones. According to the solid-state UV-vis diffuse reflectance measurement, the existence of oxime ligands largely enhanced their visible light harvest. Furthermore, their photocurrent response properties are also studied.


Over the past 20 years, solution-based spray dried powders have transformed inhaled product development, enabling aerosol delivery of a wider variety of molecules as dry powders. These include inhaled proteins for systemic action (e.g., Exubera®) and high-dose inhaled antibiotics (e.g., TOBI® Podhaler™). Although engineered particles provide several key advantages over traditional powder processing technologies (e.g., spheronized particles and lactose blends), the physicochemical stability of the amorphous drug present in these formulations brings along its own unique set of constraints. To this end, a number of approaches have been developed to maintain the crystallinity of drugs throughout the spray drying process. One approach is to spray dry suspensions of micronized drug(s) from a liquid feed. In this method, minimization of drug particle dissolution in the liquid feed is critical, as dissolved drug is converted into amorphous domains in the spray-dried drug product. The review explores multiple formulation and engineering strategies for decreasing drug dissolution independent of the physicochemical properties of the drug(s). Strategies to minimize particle dissolution include spray blending of particles of different compositions, formation of respirable agglomerates of micronized drug with small porous carrier particles, and use of common ions. The formulations extend the range of doses that can be delivered with a portable inhaler from about 100 ng to 100 mg. The spray-dried particles exhibit significant advantages in terms of lung targeting and dose consistency relative to conventional lactose blends, while still maintaining the crystallinity of drug(s) in the formulated drug product.


PURPOSE
The perceptions of the effectiveness of antimicrobial control programs (ACPs) among infectious diseases (ID) pharmacists were studied.

METHODS
A survey asking pharmacists to characterize the ACP in their hospitals and rate the program's effectiveness was distributed electronically in 1999 and by regular mail in 2000 to all 365 members of the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists residing in North America.

RESULTS
Of the 365 surveys distributed, 323 (88.5%) were completed, 233 of which were eligible for analysis. Most respondents (99%) indicated the use of one or more ACP components (mean +/- S.D., 4.3 +/- 1.9) in their hospitals. The ACP components used most frequently included prescriber education, review of patient medical records, formularies, prior authorization, infectious diseases consultation, and clinical practice guidelines. A similar percentage of respondents indicated that ID pharmacists and ID physicians directly participated in implementing and monitoring the effectiveness of ACPs (57% and 58%, respectively). Of the 231 respondents whose hospitals had an ACP, 73% perceived that their ACP effectively addressed antimicrobial resistance, patient outcomes, or costs, with cost reduction viewed as being accomplished more often than the improvement of patient outcomes or containment of antimicrobial resistance (62%, 35%, and 38%, respectively; p < 0.001). Many indicated uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of their ACP, with a substantial percentage of respondents believing that the level of support for these programs was inadequate.

CONCLUSION
ID pharmacists in 231 North American hospitals perceived that their ACP was not sufficiently effective at improving patient outcomes, containing antimicrobial resistance, and decreasing medication costs, possibly due to inadequate institutional support for the program.


The Multiresolution Time Domain (MRTD) method is applied to Maxwell's equations and used to simulate lumped element transistor circuits. These lumped element circuits are expressed in terms of equivalent sources, or difference equations derived a priori to describe the behavior of the transistor. In this formulation, the transistor is modeled as a current source truncating the computation region. MRTD results are compared to those generated by LIBRA and good correlation is noted.


Carbon steel is the cheapest and the most versatile materials for pipeline. During fabrication of the pipeline, carbon steel will undergo specific heat treatment to serve their specific purposed. Heat treatment is a process of modification of the microstructure by heating and cooling of the metals to achieve desired physical and mechanical properties. In carbon dioxide (CO2) environment, the corrosion product, Iron Carbonate (FeCO3) will form as the iron ion (FE2+) in the carbon steel reacted with the bicarbonate anion (CO32-) from the dissolved CO2. Previous study has shown that difference in heat treatment will give difference in corrosion rate. In the presence of Acetic Acid (HAc), it will act as catalyst for CO2 corrosion where it will affected the pH value. Thus it will cause the corrosion product to from faster. The objective of this project, it is to study the influence of heat treatment process on carbon steel pipe corrosion in the presence of Carbon Dioxide and Acetic acid. The experiments were conducted by using an X-65 Carbon Steel pipe. The sample have undergo further heat treatment process which were annealing, normalizing and quenching. The corrosion rate measuring technique used was Linear Polarization Resistance (LPR) and Weight Lost (WL). Three-electrode glass cell experiment and immersion test were conducted. An investigation by using Optical microscope was conducted to determine the microstructure of each samples. For annealing, the microstructure appear to be coarse pearlite, normalizing to be fine pearlite while quenching form a martensite microstructure. From the analysis of corrosion rate, annealing showed the lowest corrosion rate compared to other type of heat treatment. This concluded that annealing have the highest corrosion resistance. The result also showed that 1000ppm of acetic acid caused the corrosion rate to increase up to 50 percent for each sample regardless of the heat treatment applied.


The possible existence of a granulosa cell growth factor (GGF) in the oocyte was investigated by using the mitotic index (%) of granulosa cells (GC) in human antral follicles. 50 follicles (0.4-13 mm in diameter) in 35 ovaries obtained from 35 women were used for the experiments. In each follicle, GC were divided into two groups, cumulus and mural GC, according to the distance from the oocyte. The following results were obtained: The Mitotic Index (MI) of cumulus GC was 8.2 +/- 0.5 (M +/- SE) and was two fold higher than that of mural GC, 4.7 +/- 0.4 (p less than 0.001). As follicles developed, MI of mural GC increased until their diameter reached 3mm but beyond 3mm, MI decreased. On the other hand, there was little relationship between MI of cumulus GC and the follicular size, and MI was constantly high in value. MI of both cumulus and mural GC was higher in the late follicular phase than in other phases of the cycle. These results suggest that the proliferation of GC in growing follicle might be regulated by some unknown substance (GGF) secreted from the oocyte as well as the endocrinological environment. It is also suggested that the presence of the oocyte plays a crucial role in the cumulus oophorus formation in the antral follicles.


This paper puts forward the concept of laminar encoding based on frequency spectrum selection in 3D-DCT of sequence image. And the pattern of laminar encoding is suitable for the demands of the development of current communication. So this method is very useful in video communication and has wide prospect.


The compounds Nd2Co17−xVx and (Nd1−xErx)2Co15.5V1.5 with the rhombohedral Th2Zn17-type structure have been simulated by using a series of quasi-ab initio inter-atomic potentials. The computed lattice constants of Nd2Co17−xVx and (Nd1−xErx)2Co15.5V1.5 are in good agreement with experiment. The site preference of V atoms is also evaluated and the order is found to be 6c, 18f, 18h and 9d, and the decrease of the Curie temperature of Nd2Co17−xVx with increasing concentration of V is explained qualitatively. All the above results indicate that the inter-atomic potentials are valid for studying the structural properties of these kinds of anisotropic materials.


s A191 nomic model in order to evaluate the cost-effectiveness ratios between ertapenem and the patterns of antibiotics routinely used for the treatment of diabetic foot infections at the Social Security Mexican Institute (IMSS) from the health care payer's perspective. METHODS: A cost-effectiveness analysis was developed using a Bayesian decision-tree model. The model simulates costs and effectiveness outcomes in a 4-week period. The comparators were: ertapenem(1 g daily); metronidazole(500 mg every 8 h)/ceftriaxone (1 g every 12 h); metronidazole(500 mg every 8 h)/levofloxacin(500 mg every 12 h); metronidazole(500 mg every 8 h)/ciprofloxacin (500 mg every 12 h). Resource use and cost data were obtained from hospital (second level) records of 104 of treated patients. Effectiveness measures were the percentage of clinical success without adverse events (AE) at the end of the follow-up-period. Effectiveness data and transition probabilities were taken from international published literature and were adjusted according to the antimicrobial susceptibility identified locally. The model was calibrated according to international pharmacoeconomics guidelines. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed using Monte Carlo Simulation second-order approach. RESULTS: Patients who received ertapenem experienced 62.7% of clinical success without AE, followed by metronidazole/ceftriaxone (23.9%) and metronidazole/levofloxacin (17.8%). Mean cost per patient were lower for ertapenem (US$4306.46) followed by metronidazole/ceftriaxone(US$8014.93) and metronidazole/levofloxacin (US$8625.11). Based on ICER's ertapenem resulted as the dominant therapy. Acceptability curves showed ertapenem as the most cost-effective therapy closer to 100% independently of IMSS willingness to pay. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that in México, ertapenem is the most cost-effective antibiotic therapy for diabetic foot infections. These results should be taken into account by Mexican decision makers for the management of this complication in patients with Diabetes Mellitus. PIN26 COST EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS TO TREAT LATENT TUBERCULOSIS INFECTION: CAMPARING ISONIAZID, RIFAMPIN AND RIFAMPIN/ PYRAZINAMIDE


: This study aims at being acquainted with the using the body fat percentage (%BF) with body Mass Index (BMI) as input parameters in fuzzy logic decision support system to predict properly the lifted weight for students at weightlifting class lift according to his abilities instead of traditional manner. The sample included 53 male students (age = 21.38 ± 0.71 yrs, height (Hgt) = 173.17 ± 5.28 cm, body weight (BW) = 70.34 ± 7.87.6 kg, Body mass index (BMI) 23.42 ± 2.06 kg.m-2, fat mass (FM) = 9.96 ± 3.15 kg and fat percentage (% BF) = 13.98 ± 3.51 %.) experienced the weightlifting class as a credit and has variance at BW, Hgt and BMI and FM. BMI and % BF were taken as input parameters in FUZZY logic whereas the output parameter was the lifted weight (LW). There were statistical differences between LW values before and after using fuzzy logic (Diff 3.55± 2.21, P > 0.001). The percentages of the LW categories proposed by fuzzy logic were 3.77% of students to lift 1.0 fold of their bodies; 50.94% of students to lift 0.95 fold of their bodies; 33.96% of students to lift 0.9 fold of their bodies; 3.77% of students to lift 0.85 fold of their bodies and 7.55% of students to lift 0.8 fold of their bodies. The study concluded that the characteristic changes in body composition experienced by students when undergoing weightlifting could be utilized side by side with the Fuzzy logic decision support system to determine the proper workloads consistent with the abilities of students.


Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) constitutes a major global health burden. Previously study has found the expression of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) is up-regulated during the chronic HBV infection. However, the mechanism of how HBV infection modulates the expression of PD-1 on CD8+T cells are not well understood. In the present study, we aimed to analyzed the role of DNA methylation in regulating the expression of PD-1 on CD8+T cells during HBV infection, we also aimed to evaluate the HBV induced changes of tumor microenvironment (TME).Methods: The methylation microarray was used to assess the profile changes of gene methylation upon chronic HBV infection. CD8+T cells were separated from peripheral blood of health volunteers and HCC patients including HBV related HCC (HBV-HCC) and non-viral HCC. The immune microenvironments of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was interrogated by using Immunofluorescence staining. The PD-1 expression of CD8+T cells from peripheral blood were examined by western blot and flow cytometry. T cells function was determined by cytokine measurement. Sequenom MassARRAY platform was used to detected the DNA methylation status of PD-1 promoter.Results: HBV could drive 413 genes methylated while 3,023 genes including PD-1 demethylated, the reduced PD-1 expression and increased PD-1 demethylation was proved in HBV-HCC tissue. The subsequent analysis indicate that the expression of PD-1 differed by stages of HBV infection, it reduced on the cell membrane of HBV-transfected CD8+T cells upon transient HBV plasmid transfection which might mimic acute HBV infection, while upregulated on the HBV specific CD8+T cells by demethylation during chronic HBV infection. Interferon-gamma increased in the medium of HBV transfected CD8+T cells and interleukin-10 increased in the blood of chronic HBV infection patients. Increased tumor associated macrophage (TAM) cells and T regulatory cells (Tregs) invasion was identified in HBV-HCC tissue when compared with those from non-viral HCC tissue Conclusion: Our data suggested that the expression of PD-1 varies upon the stage of HBV infection, chronic HBV infection could drove the TME more immunosuppressive through PD-1 demethylation related CD8+T cells exhaustion as well as promotion of invaded Treg and TAM cells thereby to attenuating therapy of immune checkpoint inhibitors.


The purpose of this study is to compare and to investigate spray characteristics of dimethyl ether (DME) and diesel fuel in the various injection pressures, ambient pressures, and the energizing durations. For the analysis of the spray characteristics, the spray visualization system including the high speed camera and the spray image analyzer is installed. The spray characteristics such as the spray development process, spray tip penetraion and the spray cone angle are analyzed from the spray images. It was revealed that the spray characteristics of DME and diesel fuels are mainly affected by the injection conditions. However, in the region after the end of the injection, the spray tip penetration was affected by the fuel properties such as the fuel density, the surface tension, and the viscosity. DME fuel has generally a short tip penetration and a wide cone angle. In the elevating conditions of the ambient gas pressure, the spray cone angle of DME fuel converged to high value when comparing diesel fuel in advance. Also, the increasing rate of the spray tip penetration in DME fuel is significantly decreased from 0.7 ms of the energizing duration (diesel : 0.9 ms).


Introduction CD47 binds to SIRPα on the surface of macrophages and delivers a "do not eat" signal that suppresses phagocytosis. There is increasing evidence that acute myeloid leukemia (AML) stem cells exploit the CD47-SIRPα pathway to escape macrophage-mediated destruction. Blockade of CD47 using a soluble SIRPα-Fc fusion protein (SIRPαFc) has emerged as a promising strategy to neutralize the suppressive effects of CD47 and promote the eradication of AML cells. However, little information is available regarding the optimal structure of SIRPαFc. In particular, the influence of the Fc region, which can mediate antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and complement activation, on anti-leukemic activity and toxicity has not been explored.

Results We have generated three unique human SIRPαFc fusion proteins that vary in their Fc regions: SIRPα-G1, which contains the Fc region from human IgG1 with full effector activity; SIRPα-G4, bearing the Fc region from human IgG4, which has low effector activity; and SIRPα-G4m, which possesses a mutated human IgG4 Fc region that is devoid of any effector activity. These three fusion proteins were tested for their ability to promote macrophage-mediated phagocytosis of patient-derived AML cells in vitro . Although all three proteins were able to stimulate tumor cell destruction, SIRPα-G4m was clearly the least potent, while SIRPα-G1 and SIRPα-G4 showed similar activity. Next, the anti-leukemic activity of the fusion proteins was assessed in an AML xenograft model in NOD. SCID mice. SIRPα-G1 induced a profound anti-leukemic effect and was superior to both SIRPα-G4 and SIRPα-G4m, particularly with respect to eradicating tumor cells within the transplanted femur. Thus, while only a low level of Fc activity was required for maximal pro-phagocytic activity in vitro , full effector activity (human IgG1) provided superior anti-leukemic activity in vivo . The strong anti-tumor activity of this fusion protein presumably results from the simultaneous delivery of a positive macrophage activating signal (through Fc receptors) and blockade of the negative "do not eat" signal from CD47.

Increased Fc effector activity could also carry the risk of increased toxicity. Since human SIRPα has no measurable binding to mouse CD47, to assess tolerability in mice we generated a surrogate fusion protein consisting of NOD mouse SIRPα linked to a mouse IgG2a Fc region with full effector function (mSIRPα-G2a). Repeat administration of high dose mSIRPα-G2a to mice (50 mg/kg IP twice per week for 8 weeks) produced no adverse clinical effects. No abnormalities were observed in hematological parameters, (including erythrocyte, platelet and leukocyte counts) or bone marrow CD150+CD48- LSK hematopoietic stem cells, nor were gross or microscopic changes noted in any tissue. Furthermore, taking advantage of a fortuitous cross-reactivity between NOD SIRPα and human CD47, we conducted a xenograft study with patient-derived AML cells using the mSIRPα-G2a fusion protein. Compared to control Fc, mSIRPα-G2a profoundly reduced leukemic burden in both the injected femur and non-injected bone marrow at doses significantly below the 50 mg/kg used in the tolerability studies. Thus, a mouse surrogate fusion that can bind both human CD47 on xenograft AML cells and endogenous CD47 on host tissue is both safe and effective. A pilot repeat-dose toxicity study using various human SIRPαFc proteins is currently underway in non-human primates.

Conclusions These results demonstrate that SIRPαFc fusion proteins that combine Fc activity with CD47 blockade lead to effective AML destruction in vitro and in vivo , and are well tolerated in mice. Thus the therapeutic window in a homologous model system appears to be sufficiently wide to proceed with formal IND-enabling studies. On the basis of these findings we are moving forward with the development of a SIRPαFc therapeutic for the treatment of AML.

Disclosures: Uger: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Employment. Pang: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Employment. Wong: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Employment. House: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Employment. Dodge: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Employment. Viau: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Employment. Vigo: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Employment. Tam: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Employment. Truong: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Employment. Jin: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Research Funding. Malko: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Research Funding. Ho: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Research Funding. Prasolava: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Research Funding. Danska: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Research Funding. Wang: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Research Funding. Petrova: Trillium Therapeutics/Stem Cell Therapeutics: Employment.


Background: The major site of airflow limitation in bronchial asthma varied from central to peripheral airways.

Aims and objectives: To determine predominant site of airway obstruction in patients of bronchial asthma by impulse oscillometry and flow volume loop.

Methods: Twenty five patients of asthma underwent both impulse oscillometry and flow volume loop studies. Predominant site of airway obstruction was determined by impedance spectra and visual lung model of IOS, and parameters of flow volume loop.

Results: Two patients were excluded from final analysis as their impedance spectra showed significant upper airway influence which would have made localization of site of airway obstruction invalid.

Of the 23 patients, IOS could detect obstruction in all of them (P<0.05). It revealed predominant obstruction in central airways in 15 (65.5%) and predominant peripheral airway obstruction in eight (34.5%) patients.

Flow volume loop could detect obstruction in 18 patients (78.2%). This did localise combined central and peripheral airway obstruction among 12 patients (52.2%). Six (26.1%) patients had predominant obstruction in peripheral airways.

Conclusions: To determine site of airway obstruction, impulse oscillometry has proven to be an advantageous over flow volume loop. Furthermore, it could detect airway obstruction among those patients where flow volume loop was normal.


Motivation Low back pain is responsible for more global disability than any other condition. Its incidence is closely related to intervertebral disc (IVD) failure, which is likely caused by an accumulation of microtrauma within the IVD. Crucial factors in microtrauma development are not entirely known yet, probably because their exploration in vivo or in vitro remains tremendously challenging. In-silico modelling is, therefore, definitively appealing, and shall include approaches to integrate influences of multiple cell stimuli at the microscale. Accordingly, this study introduces a hybrid Agent-based (AB) model in IVD research and exploits network modelling solutions in systems biology to mimic the cellular behavior of Nucleus Pulposus cells exposed to a 3D multifactorial biochemical environment, based on mathematical integrations of existing experimental knowledge. Cellular activity reflected by mRNA expression of Aggrecan, Collagen type I, Collagen type II, MMP-3 and ADAMTS were calculated for inflamed and non-inflamed cells. mRNA expression over long periods of time is additionally determined including cell viability estimations. Model predictions were eventually validated with independent experimental data. Results As it combines experimental data to simulate cell behavior exposed to a multifactorial environment, the present methodology was able to reproduce cell death within 3 days under glucose deprivation and a 50% decrease in cell viability after 7 days in an acidic environment. Cellular mRNA expression under non-inflamed conditions simulated a quantifiable catabolic shift under an adverse cell environment, and model predictions of mRNA expression of inflamed cells provide new explanation possibilities for unexpected results achieved in experimental research. Contact firstname.lastname@example.com


Motifs (patterns, signatures, domains) are useful to determine nucleotides/amino-acids that are likely involved in structures, functions, regulations and evolutions, or to infer homology between genes/proteins. The main objective of this paper is the fusion of motifs. Our task is to analyze a set of possible motifs and to detect if similarity exists between them, to construct a general motif. The motifs fusion method is based on the algorithm of combinatorial optimization called Artificial Ants System. This method uses the nucleotides of the first motif to construct the graph where the ants will walk. Then, the graph is crossed by the ants according to the path of the second motif, using a transition function that promoves to flow the path between similar nucleotides. The ants when walking leave pheromone in the nodes, in a way that at the end several have a lot of or little pheromone. Finally the graph is crossed again to construct the resultant motif composed by the nodes with much pheromone. Key-Words: Ant Colony Optimization, Motif, DNA, Bioinformatics


The expansion of Information Operations (IO) over the past ten years has allowed individuals and groups to increase their sphere of influence on a global scale. Nation-state cyber threat actors have increased their presence on social media, building out false personas to influence large populations. This type of activity is difficult to stop due to the availability of social networks on the internet and the ease of creating false personas that can't be directly attributed to the actor. IO activity has been observed with the Russian cyber activity during the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections and from Russian social media campaigns provoking extremist groups and attempting to cause physical harm, such as the 2017 campaign on Facebook to start a rally and a simultaneous counter rally in front of the Islamic Da'wah Centre of Houston. Although Russia has been observed leveraging this capability, they are not the only global actor in the cyber domain taking advantage of IO. Global threat actors have leveraged social media platforms and blogs to influence the global population and spread propaganda. This type of activity has been seen within traditional warfare using propaganda techniques. With the introduction of the cyber domain into warfare, there is an increased ability to communicate not only to one population but to the global community with the intent to manipulate the masses using IO. This paper examines the Cybersecurity Operations (CO) that have been observed utilizing IO and the psychological impacts they have had in successful campaigns against the United States. This paper argues that with increased influence capabilities in the cyber domain, individuals and groups will continue using IO to support tactical and strategic objectives. Through the available literature, this paper examines the impacts that IO has had on the United States through attempts to manipulate elections and create divides in the nation over the last ten years. This paper leverages the psychology of group processes to analyze the literature involving social media campaigns and the influencing of groups through the lens of social identity theory to provide new insight into mitigating and countering IO.


Pyruvate formate-lyase (EC 184.108.40.206), a key enzyme in the anaerobic metabolism of Salmonella typhimurium, catalyzes the conversion of pyruvate to acetyl coenzyme A and formate. pfl::Mu dA operon fusions were isolated for the study of transcriptional regulation. pfl was transcribed both aerobically and anaerobically, but the activity increased about sixfold under anaerobic conditions. The addition of pyruvate, formate, and acetate in nutrient broth did not have any effect on the anaerobic expression of pfl. However, the addition of pyruvate to minimal glucose medium increased the anaerobic expression of pfl. The expression of pfl varied in different growth media. Anaerobic expression of pfl was lower when the culture was grown in minimal glucose medium than when it was grown in nutrient broth. When Casamino Acids (Difco Laboratories, Detroit, Mich.) were added to minimal glucose medium, the expression of pfl increased proportionally with the amount of Casamino Acids added. The transcription of pfl was positively controlled by the oxrA gene product and was affected by both the cya and crp mutations. However, mutations in genes affecting the cyclic AMP-cyclic AMP receptor protein complex or oxrA could not completely abolish the anaerobic derepression of pfl. In merodiploid strains, pfl::Mu dA/F' pfl+, the beta-galactosidase activities were decreased. The mutations gyrA, oxrC, and oxrE, which affected anaerobic metabolism, did not affect anaerobic expression of pfl.


A 19-year-old male had chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis with typical granuloma on the face, scalp and genital area. He had defects in cell-mediated immunity (cutaneous anergy to common antigens, but normal number of T lymphocytes and normal lymphocyte transformation with phytohemagglutinin), and there were no endocrine deficiencies. He had systemic involvement, including lungs, kidneys, liver and spleen diagnosed by radiologic studies. In the histologic findings of the skin, typical features were seen of candida granuloma lesions, and hyphae and spores of Candida albicans also were identified in the Malpighian layer. Therapy with 5-fluorocytosine resulted in a remarkable improvement.


Transparency and volume perception are important issues in 3-D object perception. We report here a new visual effect in 3-D illusory object perception with binocular viewing, named `pantomime effect', and introduce a new framework of the effect based on three types of `sustaining cues'. We also compare sustaining cues with occlusion cues. In addition, the perception of transparent and volumetrical objects was verified by the experiments using another illusory probe stimulus. It was also found that side sustaining cues played an essential role in volume perception, and the transparency in pantomime effect was different from that in multilayer transparent planes depicted by a random dot stereogram.


The mechanisms underlying neuroendocrine (NE) differentiation in prostate cancer (PCa) remain mostly uncharacterized. Since a deregulated calcium homeostasis has been reported in neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC), we explored herein the link between NE differentiation and the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR). CaSR expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry—together with NE markers—on tissue microarrays containing samples of normal prostate, localized PCa, metastatic castration resistant PCa (MCRPC) and NEPC. In prostate tissues, we observed a strong association between CaSR and chromogranin expression. Both markers were strongly expressed in all cases of NEPC and co-expression was confirmed by double immunostaining. In MCRPC, the expression of CaSR was significantly associated with shorter overall survival. The involvement of CaSR in NE differentiation was evaluated in PCa cell lines. Inhibition of CaSR led to decrease the expression of neuronal (NSE, βtubulinIII) and NE (chromogranin, synaptophysin) markers in the NE PCa cell line NCI-H660. A decrease of neuronal and NE markers was also observed in siCaSR-transfected PC3 and 22RV1 cells, respectively, whereas CaSR activation increased both NSE and synaptophysin expression in PC3 cells. These results strongly suggest that CaSR is a marker and a driver of NE differentiation in PCa and emphasize the potential of CaSR directed therapy for NEPC patients.


Multi wall carbon nanotubes have been successfully exploited as growth regulator for manipulation of plant development. Also, nanoparticles are gradually involved in target delivery systems as the carrier of hormones. Polyamines and their derivations play crucial roles in plant growth and development. Take the mentioned subjects into consideration, putrescine anchored carbon nanotube which had been labeled with fluorescein was synthetized in this study. A set of physiological and morphological parameters were assessed in an attempt to examine the usage potential of de novo synthetized nanotube in terms of plant in-vitro culture. For this purpose, the nanotube was applied onto the in-vitro plantlets of Malus niedzwetzkyana in three concentrations (0, 50 and 100 mg/l). Localization of the nanotube in the plantlets was accomplished using fluorescence microscopy. Bio-imaging of tissues indicated the existence of nanotube in nearly all studied organs. Application of the nanotube at both concentrations (50 and 100 mg/l) increased the rate of leaf formation and speeding up the plastochron. Also, proliferation of the plantlets was enhanced using the nanotube. The levels of the photosynthetic pigments, including chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids increased following application of the nanotube. Glutathione peroxidase activity was significantly affected by the nanotube. However, polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase were not influenced by the nanotube. Stomatal density was increased by treatment of the plantlets with the nanotube. Representing geometrical transformation of shape as a thin plate spline revealed that the nanotube effectively increased longitudinally of stomata and changes their aspect ratio.


In this paper, reliability of transmission network, considering effect of protective systems and fault probability for them is investigated. Protective system faults are one of the main sources of the cascade outages and may leads to vast blackouts. Desired performance of the protection system has a significant role in the improvement of the network reliability. The proposed method is based on minimal cutsets. The optimal algorithm to consider the protective system is presented, and then the mentioned approach is tested for a typical network. Finally effects of this method are compared to the other method, in which protection system has been neglected. Comparison is carried out through the reliability indices


BACKGROUND
Promoting the health and social participation of adolescents with intellectual disability is important as they are particularly vulnerable to encountering difficulties in those areas. Integration of these individuals in integrated sports is one strategy to address this issue.

METHODS
The main objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of the factors associated with the integration of adolescents with intellectual disability in sports alongside their non-disabled peers. Individual interviews were completed with 40 adolescents with intellectual disability and their parents, while 39 rehabilitation staff participated via either a discussion group or self-administered questionnaires. The Disability Creation Process (DCP) theoretical model was used to frame the analysis and the presentation of the findings (The Quebec Classification: Disability Creation Process. International Network on the Disability Creation Process/CSICIDH, Québec, QC, 1998).

RESULTS
Various personal and environmental factors that have an impact on integration in sports were identified by participants. For example, attitudes, practical support, individuals' experiences in sports and in integrated settings as well as behaviour control emerged as important elements to consider.

CONCLUSIONS
Integration in integrated sports can engender a lot of benefits for individuals with intellectual disability, their parents and non-disabled athletes. However, many barriers need to be removed before such benefits can be more widely realized.


The paper brings forward a hierarchical ring NoC (network on chip) topology whose links are divided into two groups of rings for fault-tolerance. Each group of ring contains one control-ring and one data ring. Control-ring propagates the information of routing, link error and error control of all nodes using packet switching. Data-ring exchanges data using circuit switching. Three pipeline stages architecture without buffer is presented that minimizes the delay of communications among nodes. Ring network adopts time division multiplexing and priority mechanism to implement space division multiplexing of bandwidth and fair routing. Simulation results show that the architecture can efficiently avoid traffic congestion, deadlock and starvation and ensure full use of bandwidth.


Background The HOX gene family of transcription factors, characterized by conserved homeodomains, is positively correlated with the resistance to chemotherapy drugs and poor prognosis, as well as the initiating potential of gliomas. However, there are few studies regarding the HOXC6 gene in glioma cells. Therefore, in the present study, we explored the regulatory roles and detailed mechanisms underlying the relationship between HOXC6 and the progression of GBM. Methods The expression levels and prognostic value of HOXC6 in GBM were evaluated using the data obtained from the GCCA, GEPIA, and ONCOMINE databases. The relationship between GBM prognosis and levels of HOXC6 was identified using Kaplan-Meier curves. The protein levels of HOXC6 in GBM and adjacent normal tissues were identified via Western blot and immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining methods. Lentiviruses containing full-length HOXC6 and HOXC6 specific siRNA sequences were used to overexpress and knock down, respectively, the expression of HOXC6 in U87 and U251 cells. The role of HOXC6 in the regulation of migration and proliferation of GBM cells was accessed using Transwell, wound healing, CCK-8, and colony formation assays. The activation of the TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway was detected via Western blotting. Results Compared to normal tissues and control cells, GBM tissues and cell lines showed higher expressions of HOXC6. The expression of HOXC6 was associated with disease-free and the overall survival of GBM patients. Additionally, positive correlations between the expression of HOXC6 and the migration and proliferation of GBM cells were observed in vitro. The mechanistic analyses indicated that HOXC6 exerts its promotive effect on the progression and invasion of glioma cells by promoting the activation of the EMT and TGF-β/Smad signaling pathways. Conclusions HOXC6 enhances the migration and proliferation of GBM by activating the EMT signaling pathway.


This paper deals with formalization of business rules by formal grammars. In our work we focus on methods for high frequency data processing. We process data by using complex event platforms (CEP) which allow to process high volume of data in nearly real time. Decision making process is contained by one level of processing of CEP. Business rules are used for decision making process description. For the business rules formalization we chose matrix grammar. The use of formal grammars is quite natural as the structure of rules and its rewriting is very similar both for the business rules and for formal grammar. In addition the matrix grammar allows to simulate dependencies and correlations between the rules. The result of this work is a model for data processing of knowledge-based decision support system described by the rules of formal grammar. This system will support the decision making in CEP. This solution may contribute to the speedup of decision making process in complex event processing and also to the formal verification of these systems.


Activation of complement (C) by haptenized liposomes has been utilized for a long time to study the interaction of biological membranes with C proteins, or as a sensitive immunoassay for the measurement of specific antigens, antibodies, or serum hemolytic C levels. However, it has been increasingly recognized that regardless of antigenicity, C activation is an intrinsic property of all charged phospholipid/cholesterol bilayers. Liposome-induced C activation and its biological consequences show significant interspecies and interindividual variation, and critically depend on the properties of vesicles as well. Activation can proceed through both the classical and the alternative pathways, with or without the involvement of antibodies. The practical significance of the phenomenon is twofold: 1) opsonization of the vesicles promotes their clearance from the circulation and 2) the liberation of C3a and C5a can cause numerous, potentially adverse, biological reactions. In fact, many cardiovascular and hematological changes observed following administration of liposomes in vivo can be explained by C activation; a fact that has not yet gained wide recognition in the field of drug-carrier liposomes.