Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is often understood as the monitoring of the structure's fatigue . The fatigue consumption of an aeronautic structure is performed either by load or respectively strain monitoring and the analysis of the strain spectra or by identifying the fatigue crack initiation in-service. The fatigue life estimation in such cases is only possible with respect to the macroscopic crack growth. This paper is split in two parts. On one hand, it will give an overview about the IABG activities regarding the development and aeronautic application of SHM systems. Therein, it is demonstrated that a combined usage of fibre optical sensors as well as Lamb wave analysis on the fatigue test of an aircraft structural component allows precise conclusion regarding fatigue life consumption. It further allows to benchmark both technologies. Therefore, a specific concept and development of an on-board SHM System for the in-service use on an aircraft is presented. On the other hand, the requirements in order to technically qualify a generic SHM-system are illustrated and how IABG can support the SHM developer in this process, especially when higher requirements of Technology Readiness Levels are to be validated by the developer.


Abstract The new phase of social protection expansion in the global south remains poorly understood. Current interpretations of the spread of social transfers in sub-Saharan Africa tend to emphasize the influence of elections and donor pressure, often by drawing correlations from statistical data, and focusing on the moment of programme adoption. This study adopts a different approach that traces the actual process through which countries have not just adopted but institutionalized social transfers. We test a new theoretical framework through within and cross-case analysis of the degree to which social protection programmes have become institutionalized in eight African countries. Two main pathways emerge: the first confirms the sense that both donors and elections matter, but goes further in showing the particular ways in which these drivers combine. In particular, transnational policy coalitions tend to play a leading role in adoption, whereas governments pursue the further institutionalization of social transfers as a top-down response to competitive elections. However, we also identify an alternative pathway that involves electorally uncompetitive countries; here, the primary motivation is not elections but elite perceptions of vulnerability in the face of distributional crises, augmented by ideas and resources from transnational policy coalitions. Consequently, the latest phase of social transfer development results from the interplay of political survival strategies and transnational policy coalitions.


This paper is divided into three sections. §1 consists of an argument against the validity of Berry's paradox; §2 consists of supporting arguments for the thesis presented in §1; and §3 examines the possibility of re-establishing the paradox. Berry's paradox, a semantic antinomy, is described on p. 4 of the textbook [4] as follows: For the sake of argument, let us admit that all the words of the English language are listed in some standard dictionary. Let T be the set of all thenatural numbers that can be described in fewer than twenty words of the English language. Since there are only a finite number of English words, there are only finitely many combinations of fewer than twenty such words—that is, T is a finite set. Quite obviously, then, there are natural numbers which are greater than all the elements of T; hence there is a least natural number which cannot be described in fewer than twenty words of the English language. By definition, this number is not in T; yet we have described it in sixteen words, hence it is in T. We are faced with a glaring contradiction; since the above argument would be unimpeachable if we admitted the existence of the set T, we are irrevocably led to the conclusion that a set such as T simply cannot exist.


We conducted a preliminary study to evaluate the contribution of confidence measure for improving the comprehension of an automatic transcription. The future framework is deaf children studying in a standard school classroom. We defined local confidence measures that can be estimated as soon as possible without waiting for the recognition process to be completed. We then defined different modalities to highlight words of low confidence in an automatic transcription and we presented the different modified transcriptions to several subjects who had to answer to some questions of comprehension and to restore the sentences originally uttered. We showed that highlighting words of low confidence can improve the comprehension of the automatic transcription.


The infiltration of Shiism and subsequent increasing growth of the Shia community in Sunni dominated northern Nigeria, especially from the 1980s to date (2015), have generated ideological tension and anxiety. The introduction of the Shia into northern Nigeria has challenged Sunni ideological dominance and ascendancy. The Shia ulama (scholars) clandestinely converted thousands of Sunnis into the new religious group. The Sunni ulama responded to the penetration and emerging Shia community through a myriad of ways in order to arrest what they perceive as a diffusion of antithetical ideology. The responses came in the form of public condemnation, invective songs, theological debates, and literary antiphon. The main thrust of all of these responses is the condemnation of Shia ideology, rituals and practices, especially the ones that oppose Sunni ideological beliefs. One of the major consequences of these responses is the emergence of literature in different languages, namely: Arabic, English and Hausa. However, there is an apparent lack of academic attention to this body of literature in spite of its relevance to understanding Sunni-Shia relations and theological contestations in northern Nigeria. This paper analyses some selected Hausa and English Sunni-reactive literature and assesses its attempt to challenge the spread of Shia ideology in northern Nigeria. DOI:  https://doi.org/10.32690/SALC52.5


Abstract Background: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been widely applied as promising adjunctive drugs for ovarian carcinoma (OC) in China and other Asian countries. However, its exact clinical efficacy and safety is still not well investigated. In this study, we aimed to summarize the efficacy of TCM on survival, quality of life (QoL), and immune function in patients with OC through the meta-analysis. Methods: Relevant clinical trials of TCM for the treatment OC patients will be searched in Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed, Medline, Embase, China Scientific Journal Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and Wanfang Database from their inception to November 2020. Two researchers will perform data extraction and risk of bias assessment independently. The clinical outcomes, including overall survival (OS), QoL, immune function, tumor markers, and adverse events, were systematically evaluated by using Review Manager 5.3 and Stata 14.0 statistical software. Results: The results of this study will provide high-quality evidence for the effect of TCM on survival, QoL and immune function in patients with OC. Conclusion: The conclusions of this meta-analysis will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, and draw an objective conclusion of the efficacy of TCM on survival, QoL, and immune function in patients with OC. Trial registration number: INPLASY2020110104.


Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the learning curve of robotic spine surgery quantitatively with the well-described power law of practice.Methods: Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital set up a robotic spine surgery team by the neurosurgery department in 2013 and the orthopedic department joined the well-established team in 2014. A total of 150 cases and 841 transpedicular screws were enrolled into 3 groups: the first 50 cases performed by neurosurgeons, the first 50 cases by orthopedic surgeons, and 50 cases by neurosurgeons after the orthopedic surgeons joined the team. The time per screw and accuracy by each group and individual surgeon were analyzed.Results: The time per screw for each group was 9.56±4.19, 7.29±3.64, and 8.74±5.77 minutes respectively. The accuracy was 99.6% (253/254), 99.5% (361/363), and 99.1% (222/224), respectively. The first group took significantly more time per screw, but without significance on the nonlinear parallelism test. Analysis of 5 surgeons and their first 10 cases of short segment surgery showed the time per screw by each surgeon was 12.28±5.21, 6.38±1.54, 8.68±3.10, 6.33±1.90, and 6.73±1.81 minutes. The first surgeon who initiated the robotic spine surgery took significantly more time per screw and the nonlinear parallelism test also revealed only the first surgeon had a steeper learning curve. Conclusions: This is the first study to demonstrate that differences of learning curves between individual surgeons and teams. The roles of teamwork and the unmet needs due to lack of active perception are discussed.


Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the most common cardiac disease in the cat. A recent study showed that in a cardiology referral centre, 46% of cats with heart disease showed no clinical signs of heart failure, which highlights how difficult it can be for veterinary nurses to recognize a cat with severe heart disease. Stress should be avoided at all costs because it acutely increases the body's metabolic demands, and patients with heart failure do not have sufficient cardiac reserve to accommodate such an increase in demand. Cats therefore should always be handled in a calm and competent manner. If a cat presents to the veterinary practice in respiratory distress, first line treatment should include oxygen therapy, diuresis and minimal handling.


Since the Doi Moi (Vietnam's economic reform) in 1986 to date, Vietnam has continuously made efforts to reform its legal system to better adapt with requirements to develop in different historical periods. Vietnam considers ensuring fundamental human rights as one of the cross-cutting goals in national development policies and strategies. It is undeniable that the outcomes of legal system reform had a positive impact on all aspects of life and on the assurance of human rights and citizen's rights in particular. However, due to the effects of e international integration and 4.0 industrial revolution the emergence of new-generation trade agreements (FTAs), the current legal system in Vietnam has revealed certain limitations that need to be improved in order to better guarantee fundamental rights. With the objective to bring about the general picture of legal reform on human rights in the recent years in Vietnam, this article will focus on introducing the legal system and its impact on the assurance of human rights standards and highlighting the priorities that need to be revised.


Table-to-text generation refers to generating a descriptive text from a key-value table. Traditional autoregressive methods, though can generate text with high fluency, suffer from low coverage and poor faithfulness problems. To mitigate these problems, we propose a novel Skeleton-based two-stage method that combines both Autoregressive and Non-Autoregressive generations (SANA). Our approach includes: (1) skeleton generation with an autoregressive pointer network to select key tokens from the source table; (2) edit-based non-autoregressive generation model to produce texts via iterative insertion and deletion operations. By integrating hard constraints from the skeleton, the non-autoregressive model improves the generation's coverage over the source table and thus enhances its faithfulness. We conduct automatic and human evaluations on both WikiPerson and WikiBio datasets. Experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms the previous state-of-the-art methods in both automatic and human evaluation, especially on coverage and faithfulness. In particular, we achieve PARENT-T recall of 99.47 in WikiPerson, improving over the existing best results by more than 10 points.


We have been elucidated the mechanism by which pelvic belt reduces lumbar burden. Pelvic tightening increases the lumbar joint stiffness and inhibits the flexion of the lumbar spine in the forward bending. Flexion of the lumbar joint is substituted by the hip joint, which corrects the posture during forward bending and reduces the lumbar burden (lumbar joint torque). The level of the assisting effect of the tightening force has the individual difference, but at present, it is not clear what factors cause it. In this study, we develop a model that represents the assistance effect based on the physique such as height and weight, and the posture and shape of the pelvis and lumbar spine (pelvic alignment).This study developed a regression model that expresses the amount of change in joint stiffness due to tightening force, using the individual physique and pelvic alignment characteristics as input. The joint stiffness was estimated from motion measurement using optical motion capture and obtained from the equation of motion of the link model representing the human body. Pelvic alignment was measured by X-ray images, and five features were obtained: sacral inclination angle (SS angle), pelvic inclination angle (PT angle), inclination angle of the sacrum relative to the pelvis (PI angle), curvature of the lumbar lordosis, and pelvic aperture angle. Among these, the SS angle, PT angle, and PI angle were measured under two conditions: standing and 45 degrees forward bending and obtained a total of eight pelvic alignment features. In addition, height, weight, BMI, and back muscle strength were added as physique characteristics expressing body size and muscle strength, for a total of 12 variable measured. These features were measured on 15 subjects. Among the 12 features, three to four variables were input to the model by excluding those that were strongly correlated with each other and less capable of explaining changes in the target value, joint stiffness.From the proposed model, changes in joint stiffness could be estimated from pelvic alignment and physique characteristics. At large forward bending angles, we found that to obtain a high assistance effect, tilting of the sacrum anteriorly relative to the pelvis and forward tilting of pelvis is necessary. On the other hand, in the mild forward bending, the person who is higher body weight in addition to the forward tilt of the PT and PI angles tend to obtain higher assistive effect.


Pressure oscillating tubes are core components of the gas wave refrigerator. The reverse compression waves will limit refrigeration efficiency by reheat cooling gas. The promotion from traditional rotation gas wave refrigerator with single opened pressure oscillating tubes to the streamlined pressure exchange gas wave refrigerator with double opened pressure oscillating tubes is mainly in terms of this issue. However, through weakened, reverse compression waves are still inevitable. For further development, the concept of a wave attenuator has been proposed, installed at the high-temperature (HT) port. Numerical simulation has been utilized to analyze mechanism of wave attenuator and the practical effect has been proved by experiment research. The conclusions are as follows: due to structure of wave attenuator, the intensity of reverse compression waves has been weakened; the optimal structure of wave attenuator has been obtained; the refrigeration efficiency of the refrigerator has been significantly increased because of wave attenuator in HT port.


In this paper we develop a compact model for ballistic/quasi-ballistic transport in Nanowire. Starting from the well-known approach of Natori/Lundstrom, we enhanced it by including an original modeling of SCE/DIBL (Short Channel Effect and Drain Barrier Lowering), scattering mechanisms and quantum mechanical confinement. Our drain current model has been validated by comparisons with numerical simulations at device and circuit levels. Finally, we used our model to simulate simple circuit elements and to evaluate the impact of Nanowire architecture on the device and circuit performances.


Background: The inability of individuals with Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD) to recognize and describe their feelings and cravings may be due to alexithymia. Previous researches have shown evidence for a negative influence of alexithymia on treatment outcomes in patients with AUD. Therefore, it was hypothesized that high alexithymic patients with AUD would benefit less from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) compared with low alexithymic patients. Methods: One hundred alcohol-dependent inpatients (DSM IV) were assessed with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for psychiatric disorders, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and the European Addiction Severity Index (EuropASI). Baseline alexithymia, as a categorical and continuous variable, was used to compare or relate baseline demographic and addiction characteristics, time in treatment, abstinence, and differences in addiction severity at 1-year follow-up. Analyses were performed using χ2 test, analysis of variance or Kruskal–Wallis, paired t-tests or Wilcoxon's signed rank tests, multivariate logistic, and linear regression models, as appropriate. Results: The prevalence of high alexithymia (TAS-20 > 61) was 45%. The total TAS-20 score correlated negatively with years of education (r = −.21; p = .04) and positively with the psychiatry domain of the EuropASI (r = .23; p = .04). Alexithymia showed no relation to abstinence, time in treatment, or change in severity of alcohol-related problems on the EuropASI. Conclusion: High alexithymic patients with AUD do benefit equally from inpatient CBT-like treatment as low alexithymic patients with AUD. Scientific significance: Multimethod alexithymia assessments with an observer scale have been advised to judge the relationship with resulting outcome in CBT.


Ca(2+) sparklets are local elevations in intracellular Ca(2+) produced by the opening of a single or a cluster of L-type Ca(2+) channels. In arterial myocytes, Ca(2+) sparklets regulate local and global intracellular Ca(2+). At present, the molecular identity of the L-type Ca(2+) channels underlying Ca(2+) sparklets in these cells is undetermined. Here, we tested the hypotheses that voltage-gated calcium channel-alpha 1.3 subunit (Ca(v)1.3) can produce Ca(2+) sparklets and that Ca(v)1.2 and/or Ca(v)1.3 channels are responsible for Ca(2+) sparklets in mouse arterial myocytes. First, we investigated the functional properties of single Ca(v)1.3 channels in tsA201 cells. With 110 mM Ba(2+) as the charge carrier, Ca(v)1.3 channels had a conductance of 20 pS. This value is similar to that of Ca(v)1.2 and native L-type Ca(2+) channels. As previously shown for Ca(v)1.2 channels, Ca(v)1.3 channels can operate in two gating modes characterized by short and long open times. Expressed Ca(v)1.3 channels also produced Ca(2+) sparklets. Ca(v)1.3 sparklets had properties similar to those produced by Ca(v)1.2 and native L-type channels, including quantal amplitude, dihydropyridine sensitivity, bimodal gating, and dual-event duration times. However, the voltage dependencies of conductance and steady-state inactivation of the Ca(2+) current (I(Ca)) in arterial myocytes were similar to those recorded from cells expressing Ca(v)1.2 but not Ca(v)1.3 channels. Furthermore, nifedipine (10 microM) eliminated Ca(2+) sparklets in wild-type myocytes but not in myocytes expressing dihydropyridine-insensitive Ca(v)1.2 channels. Accordingly, Ca(v)1.3 transcript and protein were not detected in isolated arterial myocytes. We conclude that although Ca(v)1.3 channels can produce Ca(2+) sparklets, Ca(v)1.2 channels underlie I(Ca), Ca(2+) sparklets, and hence dihydropyridine-sensitive Ca(2+) influx in mouse arterial myocytes.


The construction of house in Korea firstly has been made up quantitative supply and margin of confined land until the latest. But, residents interest of living environment, demand of high-quality has varied with the latest elevation of life quality Specially, the interest for environment-friendly architecture is increased by the recent well-being trend in 2002, So, construction company and construction materials manufacturing industry are trying to offer more healthy and agreeable indoor aerial environment. Related circles do their best to commercialize and develop environment-friendly finish materials which influence indoor aerial environment. Therefore, in this study, that developing raw material and productive system that can minimize hazardous article quality discharge with formaldehyde in development of correction of deformities board such as plywood that is used mainly by a environment-friendly materials indoor finish, and examines application possibility of construction correction of deformities board through properties of matter examination by purpose, do.


ME-DEPICTING, a 2D multi-echo readout achieving short echo times was combined with SS-SI-VASO for simultaneous CBV and BOLD measurements at 3T. Results were compared with a traditional ME-EPI readout. Uncorrected time courses of the first echo of ME-DEPICTING demonstrated high sensitivity to functional CBV changes without further BOLD correction, while time courses of S0 and R2* of the multi-echo fit proved almost equivalent for both readouts. Remarkably, a TE dependence was observed in the BOLD-corrected VASO signals obtained by dynamic division with the corresponding control images of VASO indicating a more reliable CBV measure from the S0 fit.


The three-cornered hat method and the Groslambert covariance are very often used to estimate the frequency stability of each individual oscillator in a set of three oscillators by comparing them in pairs. However, no rigorous method to assess the uncertainties over their estimates has yet been formulated. In order to overcome this lack, this paper will first study the direct problem, i.e., the calculation of the statistics of the clock stability estimates by assuming known values of the true clock stabilities and then will propose a first attempt to solve the inverse problem, i.e., the assessment of a confidence interval over the true clock stabilities by assuming known values of the clock stability estimates. We show that this method is reliable from 5 equivalent degrees of freedom (EDF) and beyond.


During the period of exceedingly critical news coverage surrounding the Monica Lewinsky debacle, President Bill Clinton's job approval ratings were at some of the highest levels they reached during his tenure in office. Given this public response, many pollsters, pundits, and scholars argued that news coverage of the scandal must have been largely irrelevant to the public. Our view counters these claims by ad- vancing a theory that recognizes that citizens' political preferences are influenced substantially by frames and cues provided by news media. To test our ideas, we draw upon three types of data, all from January 1993 to March 1999: (a) a longitudinal content analysis of major news media, (b) a time-trend of opinion polls on presidential job approval, and (c) monthly estimates of real disposable personal income, seasonally adjusted. Analyses reveal that news media emphasis upon and framing of certain issue regimes—specifically, coverage of the economy, general policy performance, and scandal—explained changes in mass evalu- ations of Clinton throughout his presidency, including the surprising trend during the "Lewinsky period." In particular, findings suggest that sustained support for Clinton can be explained as a complex counter- response—a backlash—to the framing of the scandal in terms of the strategic motives of conservative elites.


One hundred and eighty-nine (189) dog brain samples submitted to the National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom, Nigeria for rabies diagnosis were assayed by the Direct Microscopic Examination (DME) for Negri bodies, the Fluorescent Antibody Test (FAT) for rabies antigens, and the Mouse Inoculation Test (MIT). The MIT was used as a confirmatory test. There were 12(12.5%) false negative and 6(6.7%) false positive results with DME, while there was 2(1.7%) false negative and 2(1.7%) false positive with FAT. The FAT was more sensitive (98.26%) than the DME (87.5%), and also more specific, 97.29% and 93.55% respectively. The FAT predicted positive and negative results more accurately than the DME. Positive predictive value of FAT was 98.26% compared with 93.33% of DME, and the negative predictive value of FAT was 97.29% compared with DME's 87.88%. The pre-test probability of rabies in Vom was 60.8%. This finding shows that FAT is a sensitive and reliable rabies diagnostic test than DME and its continued use is recommended in Nigeria whenever is feasible. The DME is still useful as a screening test, and the MIT must be used to confirm both FAT and DME Keywords: Fluorescent antibody test, mouse inoculation, direct microscopic examination, rabies diagnosis, Nigeria.


The goal of this research was to design an RFID based wearable platform capable of continuous heart rate monitoring for infants. Two TechnikTex P180+B conductive fabric electrodes with interconnects were integrated onto a baby onesie and connected to an RFID heart rate detection circuit that used an on-off keying modulation scheme to transmit heart rate data. The quality of the output signals obtained from the TechnikTex P180+B electrodes had 98.90% correlation with that obtained from a standard MediTrace-230 foam electrode. An antenna connected to an RFID reader captured the RFID tag information and fed the data into a Raspberry Pi processor that was programmed to compute the heart rate. The real time heart rate was calculated by using a four-heartbeat moving average window with an acceptable error rate of 3 bpm. The calculated heart rate was then communicated to a mobile app via Bluetooth. The app displayed the heart rate as a discrete value and also as a real time graph. A local alarm system integrated with the Raspberry Pi was used as an emergency backup system to alert in case the baby's heart rate was not in the range of 80 bpm to 180 bpm and/or in case there was a communication failure between the RFID tag, RFID reader, processor or the mobile device.


A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Received: 14 December, 2017 Accepted: 18 January, 2018 Online: 10 February, 2018 In recent years, a number of studies have been conducted exploring the potential of digital tour guides, that is, multimedia components (e.g., 2D graphic, 3D models, and sound effects) that can be integrated into digital storytelling with location-based services. This study uses component-based software engineering to develop the content of game-based tourism information services. The results of this study are combined with 3D VR/AR technology to implement the digital 2D/3D interactive tour guide and show all the attractions' information on a service platform for the gamification of cultural tourism. Nine kinds of game templates have been built in the component module. Five locations have completed indoor or external 3D VR real scenes and provide online visitors with a virtual tour of the indoor or outdoor attractions. The AR interactive work has three logos. The interactive digital guide includes animated tour guides, interactive guided tours, directions and interactive guides. Based on the usage analysis of the component databases built by this study, VR game types are suited to object-oriented game templates, such as the puzzle game template and the treasure hunt game template. Background music is the database component required for each game. The icons and cue tones are the most commonly used components in 2D graphics and sound effects, but the icons are gathered in different directions to approximate the shape of the component to be consistent. This study built a vivid story of a scene tour for online visitors to enhance the interactive digital guide. However, the developer can rapidly build new digital guides by rearranging the components of the modules to shorten the development time by taking advantage of the usage frequency of various databases that have been built by this study to effectively continue to build and expand the database components. Therefore, more game-based digital tour guides can be created to make better defined high-quality heritage attractions understood.


Background . Antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation is critical for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. Objectives. To quantify factors that were barriers or facilitators to the initiation of ART in pregnant HIV-infected women in Swaziland. Methods . We conducted a cross-sectional survey in HIV-infected women with at least one antenatal care (ANC) visit, who had delivered in maternity wards between April and August 2013 in Swaziland. Variables collected included intrapersonal, interpersonal and organisational factors. Logistic regression models were used to calculate univariate and adjusted multivariate measures of association between ART initiation and the independent variables. Results . Among the 163 pregnant women who were eligible for ART, 110 (67.5%) were initiated on ART by the time of delivery. The most commonly cited reason for not initiating ART ( n =53) was women not being ready to initiate life-long treatment (24.5%). On multivariate logistic regression, favourable perceptions of the benefits of ART (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 3.04; 95% CI 1.55 - 5.96) and presence of partner support (AOR 4.75; 95% CI 2.11 - 10.67) remained significantly and independently associated with ART initiation. Conclusion . ART initiation among ART-eligible pregnant women in Swaziland was independently associated with the presence of partner support and favourable perceptions of the benefits of ART. Stronger counselling and education for pregnant women and male involvement strategies need to be implemented as universal life-long ART for all HIV-infected pregnant women is implemented.


He aim of the study was to investigate the linkage of diffuse euthyroid goiter (DEG) in Moscow population to polymorphisms of TSHR (rs 3783949, alleles - A/C), NIS (rs 7250346, alleles - C/G), DUOX1 (rs2467825, alleles - A/G), DUOX2 (rs7171366, alleles - G/T), TPO (rs17091737, alleles - G/T). To approach the problem, the prevalence of these polymorphisms was estimated in two age- and sex-matched groups: in DEG patients (n = 100) and in the control group (n = 100). High risk DEG formation was found in patients with the following genotypes: GG and CG of NIS, OR = 2.07 (95% CI 1.18-3.64); AG and AA of DUOX1, OR = 1.92 (95% CI 1.08-3.39); TT of TPO, OR = 2.09 (95% CI 1.19-3.7). Low risk DEG formation was found in patients with the following genotypes: CC of NIS, OR = 0.48(95% CI 0.27-0.85); GG of DUOX1, OR = 0.52 (95% CI 0.29-0.92); GG and TG of TPO, OR = 0.48 (95% CI 0.27-0.83). No significant difference between genotypes prevalence of DUOX2 and TSHR in two comparable groups was observed. Our results provide the first confirmation of linkage of diffuse euthyroid goiter to polymorphisms of NIS, DUOX1 and TPO in Moscow population.


Background. A valid and reliable instrument that can measure adherence is needed to identify nonadherent patients and to improve adherence. However, there is no validated Japanese self-report instrument to evaluate adherence to immunosuppressive medications for transplant patients. The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Basel Assessment of Adherence to Immunosuppressive Medications Scale (BAASIS). Methods. We translated the BAASIS into Japanese and developed the Japanese version of the BAASIS (J-BAASIS) according to the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research task force guidelines. We analyzed the reliability (test–retest reliability and measurement error) and validity of the J-BAASIS (concurrent validity with the medication event monitoring system and the 12-item Medication Adherence Scale) referring to the COSMIN Risk of Bias checklist. Results. A total of 106 kidney transplant recipients were included in this study. In the analysis of test–retest reliability, Cohen's kappa coefficient was found to be 0.62. In the analysis of measurement error, the positive and negative agreement were 0.78 and 0.84, respectively. In the analysis of concurrent validity with the medication event monitoring system, sensitivity and specificity were 0.84 and 0.90, respectively. In the analysis of concurrent validity with the 12-item Medication Adherence Scale, the point-biserial correlation coefficient for the "medication compliance" subscale was 0.38 (P < 0.001). Conclusions. The J-BAASIS was determined to have good reliability and validity. Using the J-BAASIS to evaluate adherence can help clinicians to identify medication nonadherence and institute appropriate corrective measures to improve transplant outcomes.


Bayesian neural networks allow us to keep track of uncertainties,
for example in top tagging, by learning a tagger output together
with an error band. We illustrate the main features of Bayesian
versions of established deep-learning taggers. We show how they
capture statistical uncertainties from finite training samples,
systematics related to the jet energy scale, and stability issues
through pile-up. Altogether, Bayesian networks offer many new
handles to understand and control deep learning at the LHC without
introducing a visible prior effect and without compromising the
network performance.


Estimating the signal-to-interference power ratio with traditional measuring equipment such as spectrum analyzers is not an easy task when the disturbance is intermittent. In these situations, the power may rapidly switch between its peak value and the equipment noise floor. As a consequence, instantaneous values obtained with a marker do not faithfully represent the actual signal power. In this paper, we propose a methodology to overcome such an issue, based on the post-processing of oscilloscope measurements. Although we use it to estimate critical signal-to-interference power ratios of a LoRa system, it can be used to calculate any power ratio.


The diverse works of architect Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661-1736) ranged from small architectural details to ambitious urban plans, from new parish churches to work on the monument of his age, St Paul's Cathedral. As a young man Hawksmoor assisted Christopher Wren and John Vanbrugh, emerging from these formidable apprenticeships to design some of the most vigorous and dramatic buildings in England. In this study, architectural historian Vaughan Hart examines both Hawksmoor's built and planned work. In addition, he explains Hawksmoor's theory of architecture. Most famous for his brooding London churches and the mausoleum at Castle Howard, Hawksmoor also designed the twin towers of Westminster Abbey and, in Oxford, the Clarendon Building and college of All Souls. He dreamed of transforming the historic centres of Oxford and Cambridge into ideal cities, and at Westminster he planned a new bridge and triumphal route to celebrate London's growing status as a world capital. Hart explains why Hawksmoor's buildings look the way they do, what contemporary events influenced his work, and how such ancient buildings as Solomon's temple and Mausolus's tomb inspired him. He underscores the unique qualities of the architect's accomplishments and aspirations, revealing his role in the development of English architecture.


Peripheral vascular disorder is one of the most important symptoms in diagnosing vibration disease. Several kinds of tests have been introduced to evaluate the peripheral vascular function. Among those tests, cold water immersion test has been mostly applied. In Japan, the generally used method is to measure the skin temperature of one finger of the hand immersed up to the wrist joint in water at 5 degreesC for 10 minutes. However, because the suffering during the test is so severe and some unfavorable warning symptoms have been observed during group examinations, a safer and milder method is more desirable. In order to examine the applicability of the test by using water at 10 degreesC in comparison with that at 5 degreesC, and to know the degree of suffering during the tests, a comparative study was performed. Sixteen students and 29 patients with vibration disease joined in this study. The results suggest that water at 10 degreesC can be effective stimulus, if the immediate rewarming response is used for evaluation. The self-rating scores revealed that the suffering was milder in case of water of 10 degreesC than at 5 degreesC for both the students and the patients. And the patients seemed to suffer more from chest discomfort than the students.


In recent years,  motivated by computational purposes, the singular value and spectral features of the symmetrization of Toeplitz matrices generated by a Lebesgue integrable function have been studied. Indeed, under the assumptions that $f$ belongs to $L^1([-\pi,\pi])$ and it has real Fourier coefficients, the spectral and singular value distribution of the matrix-sequence $\{Y_nT_n[f]\}_n$ has been identified, where $n$ is the matrix size, $Y_n$ is the anti-identity matrix, and $T_n[f]$ is the Toeplitz matrix generated by $f$. In this note, the authors consider the multilevel Toeplitz matrix $T_{\bf n}[f]$ generated by $f\in L^1([-\pi,\pi]^k)$, $\bf n$ being a multi-index identifying the matrix-size, and they prove spectral and singular value distribution results for the matrix-sequence $\{Y_{\bf n}T_{\bf n}[f]\}_{\bf n}$ with $Y_{\bf n}$ being the corresponding tensorization of the anti-identity matrix.


School counsellors are professionals with specialized training in personal counselling who work in school settings. They are usually the front-line school personnel required to deal with youth suicide. Despite the important roles of school counsellors, there is little research that explores the experiences of school counsellors who have lost clients to suicide. In this study, seven school counsellors were individually interviewed, and data were analyzed using a basic interpretative qualitative method informed by grounded theory. Themes related to training and practice standards, support resources, and self-care were identified by participants as critical to personal well-being and continued effective professional functioning. Personal and professional implications are discussed.


Flywheel Energy Storage has attracted new research attention recently in applications like power quality, regenerative braking and uninterruptible power supply (UPS). As a sustainable energy storage method, Flywheel Energy Storage has become a direct substitute for batteries in UPS applications. Inner design of the flywheel unit is shown to illustrate the economical way to construct the system. A comprehensive model of Flywheel energy storage system (FESS) that bridging the gap caused by power outage for critical loads in commercial and industrial areas is presented. The basic circuit consists of bidirectional power converter and flywheel unit coupled with interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM). Maximum torque per ampere (MTPA) and flux weakening are used in the control scheme on IPMSM. Detailed block diagrams of the control scheme are given. The FESS for UPS application is modeled, simulated, and analyzed in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment.


Coating the redox-active transition-metal oxides (e.g., MnO2) with a conductive metal layer is one efficient approach to improve the electrical conductivity of the oxide-based electrodes, which could largely boost the energy density and power density of supercapacitors. Here, we report a facile yet efficient method to uniformly decorate conductive silver (Ag) nanoparticles (∼10 nm) on MnO2 nanowires (width of ∼10–20 nm), which leads to a remarkable improvement of the electrical conductivity and the supercapacitive performance of MnO2-based electrodes. For instance, at a low scan rate of 10 mV s−1, the as-designed Ag/MnO2 hybrid electrode delivers a specific capacitance of 293 F g−1, which is twofold higher than that of the bare MnO2 electrode (∼130 F g−1). In addition, the highly conductive Ag nanoparticle layer can also improve the rate capability of the Ag/MnO2 nanowire electrode, delivering a high specific energy density and power density of 17.8 W h kg−1 and 5000 W kg−1, respectively, at a current density of 10 A g−1.


Abstract : THIS REPORT PROVIDES THE RESULTS OF A BENCHMARKING STUDY TO IDENTIFY THE BEST TRAINING PRACTICES WITHIN THE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING COMMUNITY. WE SURVEYED 24 ORGANIZATIONS TO CREATE A BROAD PICTURE OF TRAINING AS IT CURRENTLY EXISTS IN INDUSTRY. WE THEN CHOSE THREE OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS FOR AN IN-DEPTH STUDY TO IDENTIFY THE BEST TRAINING PRACTICES AND ENABLERS TO THOSE PRACTICES. THIS REPORT SUMMARIZES THE RESULTS OF THE SURVEY AND THE IN-DEPTH STUDY, AND DISCUSSES ThE BEST PRACTICES AND ENABLERS THAT WERE IDENTIFIED.


Background and study aim Although colonoscopy is reliable in identifying colorectal cancer (CRC), studies have demonstrated incorrect tumour localization in 21–34% of colonoscopies when compared with surgical localization. The aim of this study was to determine our accuracy in determining the position of CRCs detected at colonoscopy with the aid of the ScopeGuide endoscope positioning device. Patients and methods Cancers identified within the English National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme were studied. Retrospective analysis was undertaken of all patients diagnosed with CRC during the first screening round in Wolverhampton Bowel Cancer Screening Centre, England. ScopeGuide was used in all cases. Data from colonoscopy reports, computed tomography reports and surgical resection specimens were analysed. Results A total of 82 cancers were identified within the surgical resection specimen in 80 patients. Two proximal cancers were not identified at colonoscopy due to obstruction by the distal cancers. Colonoscopy with the aid of the endoscopy positioning device correctly identified the tumour location in 93.75% of cases in which the tumour could be reached endoscopically. Abdominopelvic computed tomography localized 82.5% of CRC. Conclusion The ScopeGuide endoscopy positioning device enables accurate localization of cancers at colonoscopy. Tattooing of suspected cancer remains to be a best practice for localization during laparoscopic resection. The use of the endoscopic-positioning device may, however, result in greater confidence for localization of polypectomy sites, which have not been tattooed, in cases when cancer was not suspected but found histologically.


Hydrolysis of whole thyroid after the method of Kendall, concentrates the substance producing the characteristic metabolic effect of thyroid. Kendall designates this substance product "A." The iodin contents of the products we obtained were about 6-7 times as high as those of the whole glands and the pharmacological activity approximately 12 times as great. The activity of product "A" is proportional to the iodin content. Product "A" does not produce symptoms of poisoning in guinea pigs, when introduced intraperitoneally.

It has long been known that the activity of whole thyroid is in general proportional to its iodin content and also that iodin-free thyroid is inactive and we have shown that an iodin-free product "A" is also inactive. Attempts to activate it by artificial iodization were negative. Product "B" and the "Residue," although they contain iodin are apparently inactive. The slight loss of weight of the tadpoles noted in most of the experiments might be due to incomplete hydrolysis or incomplete separation of product "A," in as much as the method is a crude one. This method of hydrolysis has afforded an additional means of establishing the fact that the thyroid normally contains both active and inactive iodin in varying amounts. Our experiments confirm the statements of Morse and of Lenhart that "Iodalbin" has a thyroid-like action on tadpoles, but this action takes place more slowly.


Hereditary pyropoikilocytosis (HPP) is a severe hemolytic anemia due to abnormalities of the red blood cell (RBC) membrane skeleton. In the original HPP kindred, there is compound heterozygosity for an allele encoding a structural variant of alpha-spectrin (L207P) and an alpha-spectrin allele associated with a defect in alpha-spectrin production. To identify the molecular defect in the production-defective allele, reticulocyte alpha-spectrin cDNA from one of the original HPP patients was analyzed. Transcripts from the production-defective, non-L207P allele demonstrated a pattern of abnormal splicing between exons 22 and 23, resulting in insertion of intronic fragments with an in-frame premature termination codon. A G to A substitution at position +5 of the donor consensus splice site of IVS 22 was identified in the inserts. Following gene transfer into tissue culture cells, there was complete absence of normally spliced alpha-spectrin gene transcripts derived from a minigene containing the IVS 22 +5 mutation.


: The article compares elastoviscous properties of the myocardium and large vessels in patients with ischemic heart disease and arterial hypertension in chemotherapy and its combination with therapeutic exercise and physiotherapy.


The study deals with architecture and plant relations, aims to help the landscape designers to achieve integration between architecture and planting design of surrounding landscapes in accordance to the designer desire. The study also deals with employing planting design in changing architectural perception through changing its dimensions to be more horizontal or vertical and changing depth perception to be more closer or far from the viewer. The study aims at adopting a theoretical framework for the illusion phenomena to be employed in planting design in order to change architectural perception. This is done through using physiological phenomena related to eye and optical deviations in addition to using gestalt theory laws represented by proximity, continuity and direction , illusion properties for monocular and binocular clues, light and color formation clues, texture pattern formation and perspective clues.


Since 1 August 1986, the [U.S.] Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has required medical kits be carried on all aircraft with thirty or more seats. In addition, kits are commercially available, as are published suggestions for the composition of kits which can be used by physicians during wilderness, overseas, and shipboard travel. However, little data are available regarding medical kits to be carried in a physician's private automobile for use in prehospital emergencies. It was the goal of this study to design such a kit for use by the residents, graduates, and faculty of the Emergency Medicine Residency at Wright State University. This paper will discuss how and why the various items were chosen for inclusion in this kit.


Polypeptides are receiving increasing attention as building blocks to create nanostructures for biomedical applications. The first goal of this investigation was to explore the influence of the reaction conditions in the synthesis of well-defined dendritic graft (arborescent) polypeptides from amine-terminated poly(γ-benzyl L-glutamate) (PBG) chains. The optimization was carried out in terms of the reaction temperature, solvent, reaction time, and mole ratio of reactants and coupling agents. Size exclusion chromatography served to evaluate the grafting reaction in terms of grafting yield (fraction of side chains coupled with the substrate) and coupling efficiency (fraction of coupling sites consumed on the substrate). The maximum grafting yield and coupling efficiency achieved were 67% and 74%, respectively. These arborescent PBG substrates were subsequently grafted with poly(ethylene oxide) segments forming a hydrophilic shell, to obtain water-dispersible unimolecular micelles useful as delivery vehicles for doxorubicin.


Kovacs (1997) indicated that, as with adult populations, there is extensive under-recognition and intervention of childhood depression. The increasing likelihood that significant numbers of depressed children are now attending our schools, unrecognised and unsupported, obliges all professionals who come into regular contact with children and young people to become more informed about the signs and symptoms of depression, more equipped with knowledge of how to intervene directly; and more informed about the roles and expertise of other professionals who can be mobilised. Greig (2004, this volume) focused on the theoretical basis of the nature and causes of childhood depression, its intervention and broad practical implications. Of particular importance was the recognition of the multidimensional nature of depression and the resulting necessity of having a multidisciplinary, multi-level, longer-term approach to its prevention, recognition and management. This second paper (Part 2), considers in more detail how educational psychologists can better recognise the signs of depression, intervene as early as possible and collaborate with others on behalf of depressed children and young people.


The Transformer translation model employs residual connection and layer normalization to ease the optimization difficulties caused by its multi-layer encoder/decoder structure. While several previous works show that even with residual connection and layer normalization, deep Transformers still have difficulty in training, and particularly a Transformer model with more than 12 encoder/decoder layers fails to converge. In this paper, we first empirically demonstrate that a simple modification made in the official implementation which changes the computation order of residual connection and layer normalization can effectively ease the optimization of deep Transformers. In addition, we deeply compare the subtle difference in computation order, and propose a parameter initialization method which simply puts Lipschitz restriction on the initialization of Transformers but can effectively ensure their convergence. We empirically show that with proper parameter initialization, deep Transformers with the original computation order can converge, which is quite in contrast to all previous works, and obtain significant improvements with up to 24 layers. Our proposed approach additionally enables to benefit from deep decoders compared to previous works which focus on deep encoders.


We consider a task graph to be executed on a set of processors. We assume that the mapping is given, say by an ordered list of tasks to execute on each processor, and we aim at optimizing the energy consumption while enforcing a prescribed bound on the execution time. While it is not possible to change the allocation of a task, it is possible to change its speed. We study the complexity of the problem for different models: continuous speeds, discrete modes, distributed either arbitrarily or regularly, and VDD-hopping.


AIMS
To measure the effectiveness of a high-visibility enforcement campaign to reduce rates of underage drinking and driving.

DESIGN
Mixed-model analysis compares rates of drinking and driving (1) between the baseline and intervention period and (2) between the baseline and follow-up period. The impact of the intervention was evaluated using roadside surveys and web surveys.

SETTING
Two college-town communities in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

PARTICIPANTS
Study participants consisted of 6825 drivers stopped, interviewed and breathalyzed on weekend nights. Web survey data were collected from 2061 students from large state universities in each community.

INTERVENTION
Increased high-visibility enforcement of drinking and driving laws, featuring the use of passive alcohol sensors by police, along with a coordinated publicity campaign.

MEASURES
Roadside surveys measured breath alcohol concentrations (BrAC) of drivers. The web surveys measured self-reported drinking.

FINDINGS
Mixed-model analysis revealed a statistically significant reduction in drivers with BrACs ≥ 0.08 g/dl during the intervention and follow-up periods, F(2, 5744)  = 6.5, P < 0.01. The web-survey revealed that students under age 21 also reported significantly less driving after drinking during the intervention and follow-up periods, F(2, 1767)  = 4.6, P < 0.01.

CONCLUSIONS
A high-visibility enforcement campaign targeting underage drinking and driving appeared to reduce both underage driving after drinking among US college students as well as drunk driving (breath alcohol concentration ≥ 0.08 g/dl) at any age..


Abstract 2209 Poster Board II-186 Introduction: Imatinib mesylate (IM), an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is now standard front line therapy for the treatment of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). As demonstrated in the IRIS trial, IM has a 7-year over-all survival rate of 86%. While treatment with IM is effective, adherence among patients receiving IM is suboptimal. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed using Medstat Marketscan employer-based data from Jan 1, 2004 through October 1, 2008 for the purposes of identifying key factors associated with patients who are non-adherent to IM. Patients included in the study were adult patients below age 65, with a diagnosis of CML (ICD-9 205.1x), received two or more prescriptions for IM treatment, and are continuously eligible in the health plan. Patients were required to have a 12-month follow-up data of their complete medical and pharmacy events from their first IM prescription in the study period. Independent variables examined included patient demographics, CML disease complexity, frequency of medical treatment received for adverse events, plan type (PPO/HMO), duration of time on IM, duration of time between CML diagnosis and initiation of IM, average daily dose of starting IM, use of chemotherapies prior to initiation of IM, comorbid conditions, bone marrow/stem cell treatment, and the average percent of patient copayment. Patient adherence to IM treatment was measured by calculating average medication possession ratio (MPR) over the 12-month period. Patients were categorized as adhering to the treatment if they maintained on average an MPR of >85%. A sensitivity analysis was performed utilizing an MPR cut-off of 80%. Descriptive and multivariate statistics were conducted. Logistic regression models were developed to determine the factors that influenced odds of achieving an 80% and 85%, adherence rates. Results: A total of 522 patients had a CML diagnosis and received two or more prescriptions of IM treatment. After applying the exclusion criteria, the final sample included data from 430 patients. The mean age of the patients was 49 years and majority were male (54%). Only 15% of patients received additional chemotherapy during the study period. The number of unique medications consumed by patients averaged 14. The mean MPR in this patient group was 80%, with only 60% of patients categorized as adherent based on MPR of >85%. The following factors were found to be significantly associated with patients who had an MPR of 985%: lower age (p Conclusions: Approximately 40% of patients receiving IM treatment were categorized as non-adherent to the treatment. Understanding the factors associated with failure to adhere to the treatment regimen will help physicians assess and educate patients receiving CML treatment. Our findings suggest that duration on IM treatment, time lag between CML diagnosis and IM index date, starting IM dose, and patient cost-sharing to be strong predictors of IM non-adherence, suggesting a need for monitoring of these areas within patients with CML. Persistent monitoring, ongoing dialogue, and appropriate IM dosing is crucial to achieving optimal patient adherence in patients with CML. Disclosures: StCharles:Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation: Research Funding. Bollu:Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation: Employment. Hornyak:Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation: Employment. Coombs:Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation: Employment. Blanchette:Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation: Research Funding. DeAngelo:Enzon Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Celgene: Speakers Bureau; Bristol-Meyers Squibb: Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Speakers Bureau.


A natural linker of approximately 20 residues connects the acyl carrier protein with the carboxy-terminal thioesterase domain of the animal fatty acid synthase. This study examines the effects of changes in the length and amino acid composition of this linker on catalytic activity, product composition, and segmental motion of the thioesterase domain. Deletion of 10 residues, almost half of the interdomain linker, had no effect on either mobility of the thioesterase domain, estimated from fluorescence polarization of a pyrenebutyl methylphosphono moiety bound covalently to the active site serine residue, or functionality of the fatty acid synthase; further shortening of the linker limited mobility of the thioesterase domain and resulted in reduced fatty acid synthase activity and an increase in product chain length from 16 to 18 and 20 carbon atoms. Surprisingly, however, even when the entire linker region was deleted, the fatty acid synthase retained 28% activity. Lengthening of the linker, by insertion of an unusually long acyl carrier protein-thioesterase linker from a modular polyketide synthase, increased mobility of the thioesterase domain without having any significant effect on catalytic properties of the complex. Interdomain linkers could also be used to tether, to the acyl carrier protein domain of the fatty acid synthase, a thioesterase active toward shorter chain length acyl thioesters generating novel short-chain fatty acid synthases. These studies reveal that although truncation of the interdomain linker partially impacts the ability of the thioesterase domain to terminate growth of the acyl chain, the overall integrity of the fatty acid synthase is quite tolerant to moderate changes in linker length and flexibility. The retention of fatty acid synthesizing activity on deletion of the entire linker region implies that the inherent flexibility of the phosphopantetheine "swinging arm" also contributes significantly to the successful docking of the long-chain acyl moiety in the thioesterase active site.


Lunar soils gradually become mature when they are exposed to a space environment, and nanophase metallic iron (npFe0) generates within them. npFe0 significantly changes the optical properties of lunar soils and affects the interpretation of the remotely sensed data of the lunar surface. In this study, a correlation analysis was conducted between npFe0 abundance and reflectance spectra at short wavelengths for lunar soil samples in four size groups based on their spectral and compositional data, collected by the Lunar Soil Characterization Consortium (LSCC). Results show that 540 nm single scattering albedo (SSA) of lunar soils correlates well with their corresponding npFe0 abundance for each size group of lunar soil samples. However, it is poorly correlated with npFe0 abundance when all size groups were considered because of the strong interference from grain size variation of lunar soils. To minimize the effect of grain size, the correlation of npFe0 abundance with the spectral ratio of 540 nm/810 nm SSA of all size groups for LSCC samples was calculated and results show that a higher correlation existed between them (R2 = 0.91). This ratio can serve as a simple empirical model for estimating npFe0 abundance in lunar soils. However, bias could be introduced to the estimation result when lunar soils possess a high content of agglutinitic glass and ilmenite. Our future work will focus on improving the model's performance for these lunar soils.


In nearly allmodern tracking systems, signal processing is an important part with state estimation as the fundamental component. To evaluate and to reassess different tracking systems in an affordable way, simulations that are in accordance with reality are largely used. Simulation software that is composed of many different simulating modules, such as high level architecture (HLA) standardized software, is capable of simulating very realistic data and scenarios. A modular and general-purpose state estimation functionality for filtering provides a profound basis for simulating most modern tracking systems, which in this thesis work is precisely what is created and implemented in an HLA-framework. Some of the most widely used estimators, the iterated Schmidt extended Kalman filter, the scaled unscented Kalman filter, and the particle filter, are chosen to form a toolbox of such functionality. An indeed expandable toolbox that offers both unique and general features of each respective filter is designed and implemented, which can be utilized in not only tracking applications but in any application that is in need of fundamental state estimation. In order to prepare the user to make full use of this toolbox, the filters' methods are described thoroughly, some of which are modified with adjustments that have been discovered in the process. Furthermore, to utilize these filters easily for the sake of user-friendliness, a linear algebraic shell is created, which has very straight-forward matrix handling and uses BOOST UBLAS as the underlying numerical library. It is used for the implementation of the filters in C++, which provides a very independent and portable code.


The current models for predicting the phase behavior of gas injection in shale can be highly unreliable because nanopores (with diameters less than 50 nm) form a significant pore volume in many shale formations. Conventional PVT models cannot describe the phase behavior in nanopores. Here, we present a practical framework to regenerate the PVT considering the shale nanopores effect for a more reliable compositional simulation of gas injection in shale reservoirs by using existing commercial simulators.
 The pore-size distribution in shale reservoirs can be discretized into a bulk-region (fractures and macropores) and nanopores. We use a pore-size-dependent equation of state (PR-C EOS) to describe the phase behavior of the fluid for each pore. Bulk fluid characterization with laboratory PVT reports determines the bulk fluid parameters for the PR-C EOS. The confinement parameters for the PR-C EOS are from the reported database (Luo et al. 2018a). Further, multi-scale phase equilibria are calculated by minimizing the free energy. We model the multi-scale constant composition expansion and constant volume depletion with volume expansion per stage. The modeling generates multi-scale PVT (formation volume factor, saturation, etc.) for the shale reservoir, which is used to retrain the Peng–Robinson equation of state (PR EOS) by modifying the acentric factor, binary interactions, and critical temperature and pressure. The retrained PR EOS is then applied in a commercial compositional simulator to forecast gas injection improved oil recovery (IOR) in shale. We also use the updated gas saturations in the multi-scale PVT model to modify the relative permeability tables used in the compositional simulation.
 We predict significantly higher gas production and lower oil production when the effect of shale nanopores on the phase behavior and updated relative permeability are considered in the compositional simulation of the primary depletion of shale reservoirs. In the gas injection improved oil recovery (IOR) stage, the cumulative oil production is enhanced with both the original and multi-scale PVT models. However, when the effect of nanopores is not considered in the compositional simulation, the increases in the cumulative oil production and cumulative gas production can be underestimated and overestimated, respectively. This can have significant consequences on the economic evaluation of the gas IOR projects in shale reservoirs.
 The application of multi-scale phase equilibria in shale reservoirs is challenging in compositional simulators. Our proposed framework enables engineers to incorporate multi-scale phase equilibria from the PR-C EOS in their shale reservoir simulations. It does not require a change in the cubic equations of state in current developed commercial compositional simulators, thus preserving the efficiency of the compositional simulators.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the time of whole brain irradiation and the prognostic factors for non-small lung cancer patients with brain metastasis.

METHODS
From August 1996 to December 2003, 147 patients with brain metastasis from non-small cell lung cancer received whole brain irradiation. The patients were divided into two groups: with or without symptoms caused by brain metastasis, each group was then divided into two sub-groups, early whole brain irradiation group (the interval between the diagnosis of brain metastasis and the brain irradiation < or = one month) and late group ( the interval > one month ). Univariate and multivariate analysis (Cox regression) as well as Kaplan-Meier method in SPSS software package 11.5 was used to analyze the data of the 147 patients including 72 with brain metastasis symptom and 75 without.

RESULTS
The median survival time (MS) of patients with or without extracranial metastasis was 9.9 months and 11.3 months (P = 0.0002). Multivariate analysis indicated that extracranial metastasis was an independent prognostic factor (P = 0.0004). For 72 patients with brain metastasis symptom, the MS of the patients with and without extracranial metastasis was 9.3 months and 11.3 months (P = 0.0036). The MS of patients with early and late whole brain irradiation was 11.4 months and 9.2 months (P = 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that extracranial metastasis, the interval between the diagnosis of brain metastasis and the whole brain irradiation were independent prognostic factors. However, for 75 patients without brain metastasis symptom, the MS difference of those with early or late whole brain irradiation was not statistically significant (P = 0.1643).

CONCLUSION
The extracranial metastasis in non-small cell lung cancer patients with brain metastasis is an independent prognostic factors. Early whole brain irradiation may improve the survival for those with brain metastasis symptoms.


The COVID-19 pandemic has seen multiple waves, in part due to the implementation and relaxation of social distancing measures by the public health authorities around the world, and also caused by the emergence of new variants of concern (VOCs) of the SARS-Cov-2 virus. As the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to transition into an endemic state, how to manage outbreaks caused by newly emerging VOCs has become one of the primary public health issues. Using mathematical modeling tools, we investigated the dynamics of VOCs, both in a general theoretical framework and based on observations from public health data of past COVID-19 waves, with the objective of understanding key factors that determine the dominance and coexistence of VOCs. Our results show that the transmissibility advantage of a new VOC is a main factor for it to become dominant. Additionally, our modeling study indicates that the initial number of people infected with the new VOC plays an important role in determining the size of the epidemic. Our results also support the evidence that public health measures targeting the newly emerging VOC taken in the early phase of its spread can limit the size of the epidemic caused by the new VOC (Wu et al., 2139Wu, Scarabel, Majeed, Bragazzi, & Orbinski, ; Wu et al., is a product of two factors: the average contact rate between the susceptible and infected individuals, and the probability of transmission per contact. During COVID-19, social-distancing measures and face masking were aimed at reducing the contact rate among individuals and the probability of transmission, respectively. The parameters g 1 and g 2 are the natural recovery rates from variant 1 infection and variant 2 infection, respectively, for infected people who are not detected by the public health surveillance. Parameters r 1 and r 2 are case-infection ratios for variants 1 and 2, respectively. A COVID-19 case is an individual diagnosed as COVID-19 positive by a PCR test as is recorded in the public health surveillance system. An undetected infection is an individual infected with COVID-19 but not recorded in the public health surveillance system. The case-infection ratio is de fi ned as the number of new cases divided by the number of people living with undetected COVID-19 infections, or the so-called hidden infections. The ratio 1/ r i , i ¼ 1, 2, measures the number of undetected COVID-19 infections by variant i in the community for each newly diagnosed variant i case, and it is a measure of the effectiveness of public health surveillance. Daily positive cases identi fi ed through testing is denoted by r 1 I 1 ( t ) and r 2 I 2 ( t ) for variants 1 and 2, respectively. Once detected through testing, individuals are assumed to not infect others until recovered, which is analogous to isolation requirements and/or reduced social interactions while ill. The rate at which individuals lose immunity is given by the parameter d . The parameter L is the in fl ux of susceptible individuals from birth and migration.


A series of 1-[4-(3-Substituted-acryloyl)-phenyl]-pyrrole-2,5-diones(5a-f) were synthesized and characterized. All the compound synthesized from 1-(4-Acetyl-phenyl)-pyrrole-2,5-dione(3) and substituted benzaldehydes(4a-f) by using Claisen-Schmidt Condensation reaction under conventional heating method and microwave irradiation methods. All the compoundswere characterized based on spectroscopic analysis such as IR, 1H-NMR and Mass spectral data.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Objectives: Positron Emission Tomography (PET) plays a pivotal role in the surgical care of cancer patients pre- and post-operatively, however, no functional imaging approaches are currently available for real-time surgical guidance. Recently, antibodies dual-labeled with radioactive and near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) labels have emerged as potential agents to extend whole-body nuclear imaging capabilities into the operating room, but structural limitations in conventional labeling reagents necessitate a random, two-step labeling process which can reduce bioactivity and batch reproducibility. Here, we evaluate the utility of a site-specific multimodal chelator (MMC) that combines PET/NIRF labeling into a single moiety for enhanced production of immunoconjugates for hybrid imaging.

Methods: An anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM)-specific antibody, mAb7, was treated with varying amounts of the reducing agent dithiothreitol (DTT) to partially reduce the interchain disulfides and permit conjugation with MMC-maleimide. The number of MMC moieties per mAb were quantified by isotopic dilution using non-radioactive Cu and immunoreactivity was assessed by ELISA. 64Cu labeling was performed and samples were purified by size exclusion prior to HPLC analysis. Stability of the immunoconjugates was evaluated by HPLC. Multimodal PET/NIRF imaging was performed in an orthotopic prostate tumor model to assess in vivo targeting.

Results: mAbs treated with increasing amounts of DTT had higher conjugation ratios, with values ranging from 1-8 MMC moieties per mAb. ELISAs showed no differences in binding potency for the MMC-immunoconjugates. Radiochemical yields were high for all samples (>80%) and increased as a function of conjugation ratio. Interestingly, initial 64Cu labeling of the immunoconjugate with a MMC/mAb ratio of 4 had a corresponding HPLC trace showing >95% radiochemical purity, however, labeling 8 weeks later revealed formation of a second, prominent radioactive peak. Conversely, the HPLC profile of the immunoconjugate with a MMC/mAb ratio of 2 was consistent throughout the study, suggesting a possible correlation between the extent of partial reduction and protein stability. This observation was supported by in vivo imaging findings as lesions were better visualized in mice receiving 64Cu-MMC-mAb7 with a MMC/mAb ratio of 2.

Conclusions: The results indicate that site-specific conjugation of MMC is effective for dual labeling antibodies. However, partial reduction conditions must be optimized in order to obtain a multimodal immunoconjugate with suitable imaging properties and stability.

Citation Format: Sukhen C. Ghosh, Barrett R. Harvey, Holly Robinson, Kenneth L. Pinkston, Nathaniel Wilganowski, Banghe Zhu, Eva M. Sevick-Muraca, Ali Azhdarinia. Comparison of dual labeling strategies for NIRF/PET hybrid imaging. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 4298. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-4298


Information Extraction has become an important task for discovering useful knowledge or information from the Web. A crawler system, which gathers the information from the Web, is one of the fundamental necessities of Information Extraction. A search engine uses a crawler to crawl and index web pages. Search engine takes into account only the informative content for indexing. In addition to informative content, web pages commonly have blocks that are not the main content blocks and are called the non-informative blocks or noise. Noise is generally illogical with the main content of the page and affects two major parameters of search engines: the precision of search and the size of index In order to improve the performance of information retrieval, cleaning of Web pages becomes critical. The main objective of proposed technique is to eliminate the non-informative content blocks from a Web Page. In the proposed technique, the extraction of informative content blocks and elimination of non informative blocks is based on the idea of Web page Segmentation. Here, a web page is divided into n blocks and the block importance is calculated for each block. The blocks with importance >=threshold are considered as important blocks and the remaining blocks are eliminated as noisy blocks. The proposed approach saves significant space and time


(1) Background: Marine n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and ɤ-linolenic acid (GLA) are well-known anti-inflammatory agents that may help in the treatment of inflammatory disorders. Their effects were examined in patients with rheumatoid arthritis; (2) Methods: Sixty patients with active rheumatoid arthritis were involved in a prospective, randomized trial of a 12 week supplementation with fish oil (group I), fish oil with primrose evening oil (group II), or with no supplementation (group III). Clinical and laboratory evaluations were done at the beginning and at the end of the study; (3) Results: The Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS 28 score), number of tender joints and visual analogue scale (VAS) score decreased notably after supplementation in groups I and II (p < 0.001). In plasma phospholipids the n-6/n-3 fatty acids ratio declined from 15.47 ± 5.51 to 10.62 ± 5.07 (p = 0.005), and from 18.15 ± 5.04 to 13.50 ± 4.81 (p = 0.005) in groups I and II respectively. The combination of n-3 PUFA and GLA (group II) increased ɤ-linolenic acid (0.00 ± 0.00 to 0.13 ± 0.11, p < 0.001), which was undetectable in all groups before the treatments; (4) Conclusion: Daily supplementation with n-3 fatty acids alone or in combination with GLA exerted significant clinical benefits and certain changes in disease activity.


In How Do We Look? Fatimah Tobing Rony draws on transnational images of Indonesian women as a way to theorize what she calls visual biopolitics—the ways visual representation determines which lives are made to matter more than others. Rony outlines the mechanisms of visual biopolitics by examining Paul Gauguin's 1893 portrait of Annah la Javanaise—a trafficked thirteen-year-old girl found wandering the streets of Paris—as well as US ethnographic and documentary films. In each instance, the figure of the Indonesian woman is inextricably tied to discourses of primitivism, savagery, colonialism, exoticism, and genocide. Rony also focuses on acts of resistance to visual biopolitics in film, writing, and photography. These works, such as Rachmi Diyah Larasati's The Dance that Makes You Vanish, Vincent Monnikendam's Mother Dao (1995), and the collaborative films of Nia Dinata, challenge the naturalized methods of seeing that justify exploitation, dehumanization, and early death of people of color. By theorizing the mechanisms of visual biopolitics, Rony elucidates both its violence and its vulnerability.


The 2019 edition of the IAS-USA drug resistance mutations list updates the Figure last published in January 2017. The mutations listed are those that have been identified by specific criteria for evidence and drugs described. The Figure is designed to assist practitioners in identifying key mutations associated with resistance to antiretroviral drugs, and therefore, in making clinical decisions regarding antiretroviral therapy.


Predictive analytics refers to technology that uses patterns in large datasets to predict future events and inform decisions. This article considers the challenges of this technology and how these should be considered, before incorporating this technology into healthcare settings.


For a $(p, q)$-graph $G$, if the vertices of $G$ can be arranged in a sequence $v_1, v_2, \ldots, v_p$ such that for each $i = 1, 2, \ldots, p-1$, the distance from $v_i$ to $v_{i+1}$ equal to $k$, then the sequence is called an $AL(k)$-step traversal. Furthermore, if $d(v_p,v_1) = k$, the sequence $v_1, v_2, \ldots, v_p, v_1$ is called a $k$-step Hamiltonian tour and $G$ is $k$-step Hamiltonian. In this paper we completely determine which rectangular grid graphs are 3-step Hamiltonian and show that the torus graph $C_m \times C_n$ is 3-step Hamiltonian for all $m \ge 3, n \ge 5$.


This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows:

This review will aim to look at the benefits and harms of single dose antibiotics compared with short- (+ 3 days) and long- (7 to 14 days) term antibiotic therapy for symptomatic UTIs in children. These results shall be further analysed in children with anatomically normal urinary tracts and children with urogenital abnormalities


Finding methods for generating coherent, robust, useful and adaptive behavior in groups of autonomous robots is an increasingly active area of research. The incremental approach to robotics-first studying control and learning in a single robot-is not sufficient or even relevant (for some problems) to the multi-robot coordination and learning problem. Instead, the problem requires a general approach-which is fundamentally different from most of today's robot control and learning methods-to make the necessary strides in this challenging domain. Based on our research of situated, embodied systems, we suggest that control and learning in multi-robot systems must be addressed as a separate, novel and unified problem-not an additional "module" in a single-robot approach. We propose a bottom-up methodology to produce the desired system behavior.


Background: Since doctors represent a significant human resource within a country, improving and preserving their health, is a form of preservation of a national resource. Doctors generally have difficulty maintaining a healthy lifestyle and good health practices.

Aims & Objective: (1) To study dietary habits of the medical students. (2) To study the levels of physical activity. (3) To study the prevalence of addictive habits among the students.

Materials and Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted to assess the lifestyle practices of students of RMC, Loni. Self-structured pre-tested questionnaires were given to 266 students for study purpose.

Results: Out of all students that participated in study, 68 (25.56%) were from first year, 93 (34.96%) from second year and 105 (39.47%) belonging to third year. Out of all participants, only 12.78% eat fruits daily. Daily junk food consumption was seen in 24.81% students and more than half (57.14%) tend to skip meals. Out of 92.10% students who perform physical activity in their leisure time, only 31.83% exercise adequately.

Conclusion: It is important to emphasize on the value of healthy lifestyles in medical colleges if the students are to value the importance of a healthy lifestyle for themselves and for their subsequent patients.


Results of a theoretical investigation of the plasmon-polaritons formed by the interaction of two-dimensional plasmons in a planar Bragg microresonator with guided modes of a dielectric substrate slab are presented. The dispersion and attenuation of guided plasmons are calculated. It is concluded that guided plasmon-polaritons may be used in the development of controllable guided-wave THz frequency filters and modulators based on GaAs heterostructures.


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Aim: To examine the association between clinicopathological factors and survival in advanced epithelial ovarian, tubal, and primary peritoneal cancers patients who had primary cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and those that received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Methods: Women who had CRS or NAC between 2008-2017 were included. Association between clinical characteristics, pretreatment imaging, serum markers, surgical and pathological factors, and disease recurrence/progression/death was examined in multivariable analysis. Results: Two hundred and three women were recruited in this study (CRS 128 women and NAC 75 women). Median overall survival was 33.7 months for the CRS group and 27.9 months for the NAC group (p=0.04). Median progression-free survival was 14.9 months in the CRS group and 12.1 months in the NAC group (p=0.04). For the CRS group, factors independently associated with increased risk of death included primary peritoneal carcinoma (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 6.94), stable disease/progression at treatment completion (aHR 5.97), and initial tumor size of more than 12 cm (aHR 1.87). For the NAC group, stable disease/progression after complete treatment (aHR 6.45) and pre-treatment platelet to lymphocyte ratio of more than 310 (aHR 2.20) were significantly associated with an increased risk of death. Conclusions: NAC appeared to be a good alternative treatment for stage III/IV tubo-ovarian carcinoma. The worse survival outcome associated with primary peritoneal carcinoma and large initial tumor size in the patients who received CRS suggested that NAC could be an attractive option for those with these characteristics.


This paper describes a teacher knoledge framework for technology integration called technological pedagogical content knowledge (originall TPCK, now knows as TPACK, or technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge). This framework builds on Lee Shilman's (1986, 1987) construct of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) to include technology knowledge. The development of TPACK by teachers is critical to effective teaching with technology. The paper begins with a brief instroducction to the complex ill structure nature of teaching. The nature of technologies (both analog and digital) is considered, as well as how the inclusion of technology in pedagogy further complicates teaching. The TPACK framework for teacher knowledge is drescribed in detail as a complex interacction among three bodies of knowledge: content, pedagogy, and technology. The interaction of these bodies of knowledge, both theoretically and in practice, produces the types of flexible knowledge needed to successfully intregrate technology use into teaching.


The total number of road crashes in Europe is decreasing, but the number of crashes involving cyclists is not decreasing at the same rate. To help car drivers avoid or mitigate crashes while overtaking a cyclist, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) have been developed. To evaluate and further improve these ADAS to support drivers as they overtake cyclists, we need to understand and model driver behaviours. This thesis has two objectives: 1) to extract and analyse cyclist-overtaking manoeuvres from naturalistic driving data and 2) compare driver behaviour models for overtaking manoeuvres that can be used in counterfactual simulations for evaluating ADAS safety benefits. The drivers' comfort zone boundaries (CZBs) when overtaking a cyclist were identified and analysed using naturalistic driving data. Three driver models that predict when a car driver starts steering away in order to overtake a cyclist were implemented: a threshold model, an evidence accumulation model, and a model inspired by a proportional-integral-derivative controller. These models were tested and verified using two different datasets, one from a test-track experiment and one from naturalistic driving data. Model parameters were obtained using computationally efficient linear programming. The results show that, when an oncoming vehicle was present, the drivers were significantly closer to the cyclist before steering away. This finding indicates that the presence of an oncoming vehicle is a crucial factor for the safety of the cyclist and needs to be taken into account for the development of ADAS that maintain safe distance to the cyclist. Furthermore, the quantification of the CZBs has implications for the development of ADAS which can estimate the time-to-collision to an oncoming vehicle or a cyclist to be overtaken, providing timely and acceptable warnings—or interventions—when drivers exceed their usual CZBs. A comparison of the models shows that all three are highly variable in detecting steering away time for different drivers. Furthermore, differences were discovered in detected steering away time between models fitted to test-track experiments and naturalistic driving data. Future work may focus on using larger, more diverse datasets and investigating more advanced models before including them in counterfactual simulations.


Summary Introduction: Electronic health record systems used in conjunction with clinical decision support (CDS) or computerized provider order entry (CPOE) have shown potential in improving quality of care, yet less is known about the effects of combination use of CDS and CPOE on prescribing rates at discharge. Objectives: This study investigates the effectiveness of combination use of CDS and CPOE on appropriate drug prescribing rates at discharge for AMI or HF patients. Methods: Combination use of CDS and CPOE is defined as hospitals self-reporting full implementation across all hospital units of CDS reminders, CDS guidelines, and CPOE. Appropriate prescribing rates of aspirin, ACEI/ARBs, or beta blockers are defined using quality measures from Hospital Compare. Multivariate linear regressions are used to test for differences in mean appropriate prescribing rates between hospitals reporting combination use of CDS and CPOE, compared to those reporting the singular use of one or the other, or the absence of both. Covariates include hospital size, region, and ownership status. Results: Approximately 10% of the sample reported full implementation of both CDS and CPOE, while 7% and 17% reported full use of only CPOE or only CDS, respectively. Hospitals reporting full use of CDS only reported between 0.2% (95% CI 0.04 – 1.0) and 1.6% (95% CI 0.6 – 2.6) higher appropriate prescribing rates compared to hospitals reporting use of neither system. Rates of prescribing by hospitals reporting full use of both CPOE and CDS did not significantly differ from the control group. Conclusions: Although associations found between full implementation of CDS and appropriate prescribing rates suggest that clinical decision tools are sufficient compared to basic EHR systems in improving prescribing at discharge, the modest differences raise doubt about the clinical relevance of the findings. Future studies need to continue investigating the causal nature and clinical relevance of these associations.


In this study, the output tracking of delayed logical control networks (DLCNs) with state and control constraints is further investigated. Compared with other delays, state-dependent delay updates its value depending on the current state values and a pseudo-logical function. Multiple constraints mean that state values are constrained in a nonempty set and the design of the controller is conditioned. Using the semi-tensor product of matrices, dynamical equations of DLCNs are converted into an algebraic description, and an equivalent augmented system is constructed. Based on the augmented system, the output tracking problem is transformed into a set stabilization problem. A deformation of the state transition matrix is computed, and a necessary and sufficient condition is derived for the output tracking of a DLCN with multi-constraint. This condition is easily verified by mathematical software. In addition, the admissible state-feedback controller is designed to enable the outputs of the DLCN to track the reference signal. Finally, theoretical results are illustrated by an example.


BACKGROUND
To identify current risk factors for hepatitis B virus (HBV) transmission in Greater Cairo.

METHODS
A 1:1 matched case-control study was conducted in two 'fever' hospitals in Cairo. Acute hepatitis B cases were patients with acute hepatitis, positive HBs antigen, and high anti-HBc IgM titres. Control subjects were acute hepatitis A patients (positive anti-HAV IgM) or relatives of patients diagnosed with acute hepatitis C, identified at the same hospitals, with no past HBV infection (negative anti-HBc) and matched to cases on the same age and sex. Conditional logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with acute hepatitis B.

RESULTS
Between April 2002 and June 2006, 233 cases and 233 controls were recruited to the study. In multivariate analysis, factors associated with an increased HBV risk in males were illiteracy [odds ratio (OR) = 6.1, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.8-13.1], shaving at barbers (OR = 2.1, 95% CI = 1.1-3.9) and injecting drug use (IDU) (OR = 3.4, 95% CI = 1.0-11.4). In females, factors associated with an increased HBV risk were illiteracy (OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.0-5.0), recent (<1 year) marriage (OR = 42.0, 95% CI = 3.8-463.9 compared with single women) and giving birth (OR = 3.7, 95% CI = 1.0-13.9).

CONCLUSION
In this study, HBV transmission took place primarily in the community, whether as a result of recent marriage (presumably first sexual intercourse), shaving at barbershops or IDU, and was more common among illiterates. Health promotion campaigns should be carried out to increase awareness about community transmission of HBV. In addition to routine immunization for infants and other populations, premarital screening might be useful to identify at-risk spouses in order to propose targeted immunization.


Periphytic communities were investigated using glass slide substrates at four sites downstream from the montane Hyalite Reservoir, Montana, USA. Comparison of the most upstream site with the three lower sites revealed that the discharges to Hyalite Creek stimulated periphytic productivity, increased periphytic proportions of chlorophyll ° in the organic accumulations, and increased diatom species diversity and evenness. As nitrogen concentration was the only stream physiochemical parameter which correlated with periphytic variations, it is probable that ammonia nitrogen discharged from the reservoir was the primary factor influencing periphytic growth. Cocconeis placentula var. lineata dominated generally °70—80% of the diatom communities at the three downstream sites whereas only three individuals of this species were observed at the upper site. Data from two successional series following colonization of the slides suggested that species other than Cocconies had higher initial growth rates. It appears the Cocconies become dominant at the three downstream sites because of higher efficiencies for obtaining or incorporating limiting nitrogen resources: species other than Cocconeis dominated the diatom communities in which nitrogen concentrations were enriched,apparently because of higher potential growth rates which could be realized with the elevated nutrient conditions. A brief review of the literature and new data presented indicate that species diversity first increases and then decreases as a function of resource abundance.


Galangin (3,5,7‑trihydroxyflavone), a natural flavonoid present in plants, has been reported to possess anticancer properties in various types of cancers comprising glioma. The underlying mechanism, however, has not been fully elucidated. CD44, a hall marker in glioma, has been reported to be associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and angiogenesis, which play important roles in glioma progression. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether galangin can inhibit EMT, angiogenesis and CD44 expression in glioma. We observed that galangin inhibited the proliferation, migration, invasion and angiogenesis of glioma cells in a dose-dependent manner, suppressed the expression of CD44 and inhibited angiogenesis of glioma cells through downregulating vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in HUVECs. In addition, the overexpression of CD44 in U87 and U251 cells partly abolished the effects of galangin on glioma cells. Moreover, galangin suppressed tumor growth in an intracranial glioma mouse model. These results indicate that galangin is a potential novel drug for glioblastoma treatment due to its ability to suppress of CD44, EMT and angiogenesis.


INTRODUCTION Myeloid sarcoma (MS) in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a rare entity which is suggestive of advanced phase of the disease and poorer outcomes. There is little data in literature available regarding its presentation in medullary chronic phase (CP) as well as outcomes in the era of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) and needs to be carefully evaluated as it can present the first sign of progressive disease before haematological progression. METHODS We identified cases of MS presenting with medullary CML-CP from January 2002 to December 2015. We analyzed their clinical profile and outcomes with TKI. RESULTS Only 8 out of 615 CML-CP cases developed MS. Median age of presentation was 43 years with male: female ratio of 1.7:1. Sites of presentation were soft tissue deposits (7 cases) and lymph nodes (2 cases). All the cases had myeloblastic morphology. With higher dose Imatinib/Nilotinib, median overall survival was 14 months with longest survival of 36 months in a case on Nilotinib while 4 patients progressed to medullary BP at a median duration of 9 months (2-10) and expired. CONCLUSION MS in medullary CML-CP carries better prognosis than medullary CML-BP. Due to rarity of presentation, MS presenting in soft tissues might be overlooked as an infection/hematoma unless proven otherwise. Our series emphasizes the need of meticulous examination and investigation of such presentations for earlier intervention to improve patient outcomes.


Purpose: Depression is a significant problem in cardiac patients. A disease-specific measure, the Cardiac Depression Scale(CDS), was developed in 1996 with an Australian population. To date, it has not been validated in other countries. This study reports its validation in a UK cardiac population. Method: A battery of questionnaires(the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey, the Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Cardiac Depression Scale(CDS)) was mailed to 487 individuals with coronary heart disease. The process was repeated on a sub-sample of 80 participants 4–6 weeks later for the purpose of test-retest analysis. Results: 396 (81%) full responses were received from the first administration and 43(54%) from the test-retest subsample. Factor analysis revealed a one-factor solution with high internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha 0.93 ) and acceptable test-retest reliability (0.79). Concurrent validation against the SF-36, BDI and HADS demonstrated strong correlations. Conclusion: The CDS is both a reliable and sensitive instrument for measuring depression in cardiac patients. 1301 Lifestyle changes following a myocardial infarction-patients' perspectives Condon C. School of Nursing and Midwifery Corresponding author. Carol Condon, College Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork, Ireland. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


Abstract We study the willingness to compete against self and others in an experiment with over 650 participants, using a modified version of the Niederle and Vesterlund (2007) design. We show that introducing a possibility to self-compete, in addition to the standard other-competition option, increases the proportion of participants who compete by more than 60 percent, indicating that self-competition attracts many of those who would otherwise have stayed out of competitions altogether. This holds for both men and women. Moreover, men and women prefer self-competitions to other-competitions, especially when they have to select one of the two types of competitions. We also document that self-competitions are perceived as more controllable than other-competitions.


Tracking single molecules is instrumental for quantifying the transport of molecules and nanoparticles in biological samples, e.g., in brain drug delivery studies. Existing intensity-based localisation methods are not developed for imaging with a scanning microscope, typically used for in vivo imaging. Low signal-to-noise ratios, movement of molecules out-of-focus, and high motion blur on images recorded with scanning two-photon microscopy (2PM) in vivo pose a challenge to the accurate localisation of molecules. Using data-driven models is challenging due to low data volumes, typical for in vivo experiments. We developed a 2PM image simulator to supplement scarce training data. The simulator mimics realistic motion blur, background fluorescence, and shot noise observed in vivo imaging. Training a data-driven model with simulated data improves localisation quality in simulated images and shows why intensity-based methods fail.