Background: Atrophic rhinitis (AR) is a chronic nasal disease that is characterized by progressive atrophy of the nasal mucosa and underlying bone of the turbinates. The etiological factors blamed for its genesis are specific infections, autoimmunity, chronic sinus infection, hormonal imbalance, poor nutritional status, heredity, and iron deficiency anemia. Although its prevalence is in increasing trend, the study of clinical cases of the AR is found very much less.

Objectives: To throw light on the etiology and the various modalities of the management and complications.

Materials and Methods: A prospective study carried out for 2 years enrolled a total of 41 cases. The detailed study of each case of AR was carried out and data were recorded in the preformed case record form. Participants were grouped in one of the three treatment plan groups. They were followed for 6 months for the response of the treatment and the complications.

Result: Maximum incidence of AR was seen in the age group of 41–50 years (24.4%). It was common in women (65.9%) than in men (34.15%). The etiological factors showed 77% idiopathic type, and others were secondary to other diseases such as chronic sinusitis (12.5%), tuberculosis (7.5%), and leprosy (4.9%). The most common symptoms were crusting (100%) and fetor (97.6%). Investigations showed that 73.2% participants had hemoglobin level below 10 g% and 90% had increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate. The majority of the participants managed with injection placentrex and surgery showed good response on follow-up.

Conclusion: No specific etiological factor is known for AR but possibly more than one factor is responsible for etiology. More prevalent in the people of lower socioeconomic status. Conservative treatment is acceptable, harmless, cheap, and effective line of treatment and can be taken as most effective approach. Maintenance of hygiene, balanced diet, avoidance of snuff inhalation, and smoking, as well as early diagnosis and prompt treatment of any nasal pathology can prevent the AR.


This study examined the influence of psychosocial guidance and counselling services (GCS) on secondary school students' academic performance in Tanga City. The study employed a mixed method approach that utilized a correlation and a case study design. The study's sample size was 423 respondents, including 330 students, 26 heads of schools, 33 guidance counsellors, 33 academic teachers and one City Educational Officer. The study used questionnaires with close and open ended questions and semi structured interview guides for data collection. Data was analyzed thematically and through the descriptive statistics as well through the hypothesis testing. The study concludes that the academic performance of the students is good; psychosocial GCS have assisted them in providing helpful instruction on psychological and social issues which otherwise would interfere with their academic performance. Furthermore, there is a significant positive relationship between students' access to psychosocial GCS and their academic performance. The study recommends the establishment of a strong school GCS policy which will oversee the effective implementation of the psychosocial GCS in the schools. It also recommends the employment of supervisory personnel trained in guidance and counselling psychology, who would oversee the assessment of the problems and needs of students. Finally, the study recommends the training of the guidance and counsellor teachers in the field of school guidance and counselling psychology in order to equip them with professionalism for rendering quality services.


Objectives Organizations have recently introduced Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) to pro-mote work performance by helping employees to solve their current problems and reduce stress levels. This cross-sectional, retrospective study was conducted to measure features of work performance among EAP users in Korea. Methods Measurements were taken by employee surveys and employee records. Lost productivity time, job/organizational involvement, and job satisfaction were measured among 332 EAP users in ten organizations in Korea, which had introduced EAPs as of 2009. EAP users responded to measurements after one to three months after enrollment in EAP counseling service. A convenience sample of 297 workers, who had not used an EAP counseling service during the study period, was used as a comparison group. Results Compared with non-users, the EAP users showed more presenteeism (53.22 vs. 47.63 hours per four weeks, p=0.025) and more total lost productivity time (p=0.020). Job satisfaction was correlated with presenteeism. Conclusion EAP users showed decreased productivity. It would appear that EAP counseling is a useful program for those who are present at workplace but suffering from decreased performance due to personal stress. This study indicates the need for a prospective outcome study to assess the economic and clinical value of EAPs.


Infantile hemangiomas consist a  frequent childhood tumor and have been associated with hemodynamic complications. A 2-week-old female neonate presented to our clinic due to a large neck  hemangioma. Although the neonate was hemo-dynamically stable and no apparent clinical signs of heart failure were present, echocardiography revealed dysfunction of the left ventricle, which included dilatation and reduced ejection fraction. Heart failure therapy along with propranolol for the treatment of the hemangioma were initiated. The hemangioma showed progressive regression and heart function gradually improved. Clinicians should be aware of all possible cardiovascular complications of infantile hemangiomas and the need for thorough cardiac evaluation, including echocardiography, of infants with giant hemangiomas may be considered.


Objective. Liver disease is a potential complication from using dietary supplements. This study investigated an outbreak of non-viral liver disease associated with the use of OxyELITE Pro™, a dietary supplement used for weight loss and/or muscle building. Methods. Illness details were ascertained from MedWatch reports submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) describing consumers who ingested OxyELITE Pro alone or in combination with other dietary supplements. FDA's Forensic Chemistry Center analyzed samples of OxyELITE Pro. Results. From February 2012 to February 2014, FDA received 114 reports of adverse events of all kinds involving consumers who ingested OxyELITE Pro. The onset of illness for the first report was December 2010 and for the last report was January 2014. Thirty-three states, two foreign nations, and Puerto Rico submitted reports. Fifty-five of the reports (48%) described liver disease in the absence of viral infection, gallbladder disease, autoimmune disease, or other known causes of liver damage. A total of 33 (60%) of these patients were hospitalized, and three underwent liver transplantation. In early 2013, OxyELITE Pro products entered the market with a formulation distinct from products sold previously. The new formulation replaced 1,3-dimethylamylamine with aegeline. However, the manufacturer failed to submit to FDA a required "new dietary ingredient" notice for the use of aegeline in OxyELITE Pro products. Laboratory analysis identified no drugs, poisons, pharmaceuticals, toxic metals, usnic acid, N-Nitroso-fenfluramine, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, aristocholic acid, or phenethylamines in the products. Conclusions. Vigilant surveillance is required for adverse events linked to the use of dietary supplements.


BACKGROUND
 The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously disrupted the daily life of the general population, particularly the life of pregnant women. Since obstetricians and gynecologists (OBGYNs) are often the primary health care providers during pregnancy, they play a critical role in preventing and managing COVID-19 in their patients.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of OBGYNs with respect to COVID-19 and to identify existing gaps that need to be addressed to improve patient and occupational safety.

 METHODS
 A cross-sectional study using a web-based survey was conducted among Lebanese OBGYNs during the rapid growth of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon between October 20 and November 20, 2020. The analysis was performed using the SPSS software. Knowledge, attitude, and practice scores were computed. A good level of knowledge was considered when 80% of answers from the respondents were correct.

 RESULTS
 A total of 279 OBGYNs participated in the survey, of whom 57% were men. The majority of OBGYNs (64.2%) were more than 45 years of age and married (79.9%) and had extensive work experience (70.3%). Only 28.3% were reluctant to provide medical care for patients with COVID-19. Most of them were afraid of contracting COVID-19 or transmitting COVID-19 contracted through occupational exposure to their family members and 42.3% felt overwhelmed. Of the OBGYNs, 62.7% considered the policies implemented by the Ministry of Public Health to be sufficient. The majority of OBGYNs had a good level of knowledge in different basic and specific domains related to COVID-19 and pregnancy. Furthermore, the practice score was good in all relevant aspects (personal, clinic, and patient).

 CONCLUSIONS
 The high knowledge and practice scores among Lebanese OBGYNs indicate a strong commitment from these physicians to fulfill their responsibilities toward themselves and their patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.


The article treats morphothemic models of situation names in language objectivation and speech representation in the Russian and English languages. Situation names are distributed among situation classes depending on actualization of a certain logical and semantic category. Some cases of representation of non-stereotyped situation morphothemes are analyzed in the Russian and English languages.


There are analyzed the reasons why some scientists and their publications are not cited. There are given recommendations that help to increase the citation level. It is important to improve culture and ethics of citation, to use the method of quotation analysis in scientific organizations to monitor the effectiveness of scientific works and for promotion and certification of scientific staff. The citation level is regarded as the first stage of innovative process (introduction) and promotion of ideas and technologies, the formation of scientific status. The citation level of publications can be prevented with: information noise, no access to publications, language barrier, low information level of the journal (the source of information) and the article itself. Nowadays there is formed a new paradigm of scientific and information activity and it should be taken into account in organization and planning of science, certification of scientific staff. There are given the citation ratings of doctors and scientific medical journals of Belarus.


The number of U.S. workers classified as independent contractors has risen dramatically over the last two decades. While this trend, in part, reflects technological changes in how work is carried out, some of the increase may also reflect firms and workers taking advantage of the legal ambiguity between classifications to obtain preferential tax treatment or to avoid complying with regulations. To study this phenomenon, we use U.S. tax returns from 1997-2015 to link firm filings to associated employees and independent contractors. Our descriptive findings show that firm use of independent contractors is increasing on both the intensive and extensive margin throughout the first decade of the 21st century, and accelerates sharply after the 2009 financial crisis. In addition, independent contractor relationships increasingly resemble traditional employee relationships in their economic substance: 60% of independent contractors have relationships with three firms or fewer which last for multiple years, and, for the majority these workers, contract income is the primary source of total labor earnings, not simply a wage supplement. Next, we exploit sharp discontinuities in the marginal cost of hiring an employee, created by size based regulatory exemptions to "pay or play" regulations that require employers contribute to the cost of employees' health insurance costs. Preliminary analysis confirm that size-based regulation can affect the firm size distribution, and may result from substitution towards contract labor. We discuss empirical strategies to distinguish whether this substitution reflects re-organization in the production process (a real response) or misclassification (an evasion response).


Recent research has documented the decline of matching in financial reporting during the last few decades. The FASB has argued that earnings should provide investors and creditors with an ability to assess the amounts, timing, and uncertainty of cash flows to the organization (1978). This research investigates whether the decline in matching has affected the ability of earnings to forecast operating cash flows. Results indicate that earnings from earlier periods in which matching was better can be used to make more accurate predictions of operating cash flows than can earnings from later periods with poorer matching. Additionally, the more frequent recognition of special items in later periods also damages the ability of earnings to predict operating cash flows.


The review deals with the negative effects of high contents of manganese taken in by a body with drinking water and being potentially dangerous to population health. The data of national and foreign researchers on manganese effects on functional state of the central nervous system, the blood system and blood formation, the process of neuromuscular conduction, the bone structure, the absorbing capacity of the intestine, the excretory system (kidneys), fat and carbohydrate metabolism, the cellular immunity system status and nonspecific resistance have been given. It has been shown that in simultaneous intake of manganese and a number of other metals (nickel, chromium, lead) with drinking water, the risk of adverse effects development in the critical organs and systems increased. A correlation of chronic effects of manganese taken in with drinking water and the increase in the population morbidity rates in obvious and latent forms has been proven. Determination of mechanisms of a toxic effect of manganese on the critical organs and systems allows to define indices, change of which in the body biological fluids gives a possibility to assess more accurately and early prepathological states resulting from harmful effects of environmental factors, including manganese.


ABSTRACT Word order is one of the earliest aspects of grammar that the child acquires, because her early utterances already respect the basic word order of the target language. However, the question of the nature of early syntactic representations is subject to debate. Approaches inspired by formal syntax assume that the head–complement order, differentiating verb–object and object–verb languages, is represented very early on in an abstract, rulelike format. In contrast, constructivist theories assume that it is initially encoded as lexicalized, verb-specific knowledge. In order to address this issue experimentally, we combined the preferential looking paradigm using pseudoverbs with the weird word order paradigm adapted to comprehension. The results, based on highly reliable, coder-independent eye-tracking measures, provide the first direct evidence that as early as 19 months French-speaking infants have an abstract representation of the word order of their language.


In order to be able to understand the functioning of an organizational system that is conscious of its goal, we must abandon the classical approach to the explanation of how they function, and that is Cartesian, mechanistic approach. Functioning of a whole can no longer be interpreted through understanding of the functioning of its parts. The holistic principle teaches us that any whole is not a simple sum of its parts and relationships that govern them, but it is also the relationship of parts with the environment and the relationship of the whole itself and the interconnections towards the environment. This paper aims to show that holistic- systemic approach to change management is adequate approach because, by looking at the organization as a whole that is always more than simple sum of its parts, it provides – in a systematic way – changes to be perceived as processes, orders, sets of steps in designing and implementing appropriate changes. It also ensures that such changes remain sustainable.


ABSTRACT Hao, C.; Ge, C.; Ren, J.; Dong, Z.; Hu, R.; Li, R.; Yan, Y.; Zhou, Q.; Peng, C., and Qu, A., 2020. Accounting of environmental protection tax on taxable air pollutants in the process of coal storage, loading and unloading at the port. In: Liu, X. and Zhao, L. (eds.), Today's Modern Coastal Society: Technical and Sociological Aspects of Coastal Research. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 111, pp. 151–155. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The Environmental Protection Tax Law of China came into force in 2018, and China has entered a new stage where tax leverage is adopted to guide pollutant discharge units to reduce emissions. It is in this context that this article discusses the current implementation and challenges with regard to tax amount formulation, tax collection and management, and the tax system. The article takes the particulate pollution caused by coal storage, loading, and unloading as an example to discuss research progress in the accounting methods for main particulate emissions at home and abroad, evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the existing emissions accounting methods, and make proposals for improving the environmental tax system, strengthening cross department cooperation and improving the system for disclosure of self-monitoring information, so as to promote the smooth implementation of environmental protection tax policy in our country.


Rainbow trout farming is an important contributor to the aquaculture industry in Iran. This study number of the factors including the socio-economic factor was considered for analysing the factors affecting technical change in trout aquaculture. A two-stage estimation procedure for this analysis was applied. The Malmquist index is then employed to measure the productivity and technical change in the first stage, while the pooled logit and tobit models were performed in the second stage so as to ascertain factors affecting the technical change or innovation improvement. The study was conducted to utilize panel data of 207 trout farms in the country over a five-year period from 2003 to 2007. The results of this study revealed that the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of rainbow trout farming in the aquaculture sector is substantially formed from technical efficiency change rather than technical change or innovation improvement. Hence, Iran still has a room to improve the TFP growth in the trout aquaculture, and this can be done by shifting its production frontier through improving innovation and development of new technologies. Based on the marginal effects analysis derived from the pooled logit/tobit regression, the factors that mostly affected technical change positively were suitability of water temperature (13 to 18°C), extension workshop and educational level of the manager. Conversely, the negative factors included the governmental insurance coverage, pond size and being government tenure, such as public companies and cooperatives.


Sound sources at the same angle in front or behind a two-microphone array (e.g., bilateral hearing aids) produce the same time delay and two estimates for the direction of arrival: A front-back confusion. The auditory system can resolve this issue using head movements. To resolve front-back confusion for hearing-aid algorithms, head movement was measured using an inertial sensor. Successive time-delay estimates between the microphones are shifted clockwise and counterclockwise by the head movement between estimates and aggregated in two histograms. The histogram with the largest peak after multiple estimates predicted the correct hemifield for the source, eliminating the front-back confusions.


One characteristic linking members of the synaptotagmin family to endocytosis is their ability to bind the heterotetrameric AP2 complex via their C2B domain. By using CD4/synaptotagmin 1 chimeras, we found that the internalization signal of synaptotagmin 1 lies at the extreme COOH-terminus of the protein and can function in the absence of the C2B domain that contains the AP2 binding site. However, although not essential for internalization, the C2B domain of synaptotagmin 1 appeared to control the recognition of the internalization motif. By mutagenesis, two sites have been identified that modify regulation by the C2B domain in the neuroendocrine PC12 cell line. Mutation of a dilysine motif in the β sandwich core of the domain eliminates endocytosis. This site is known to be a site of protein–protein interaction. Mutations in the calcium binding region, or in its close proximity, also affect internalization in PC12 cells. In fibroblasts, the C2B domain inhibits the COOH-terminal internalization signal, resulting in an absence of internalization in those cells. Thus, internalization of synaptotagmin 1 is controlled by the presence of a latent internalization signal in the COOH-terminal region and a regulatory region in the C2B domain. We propose that internalization of synaptotagmin 1 is regulated in this way to allow it to couple the processes of endocytosis and calcium-mediated exocytosis in cells of the neuroendocrine lineage.


This study was concerned with the role of structural factors in influencing medical career outcomes. These factors were viewed as an interrelated network of institutions, linked in particular patterns, leading to alternative career outcomes. A conceptual model was developed to represent the expected, predominant routes to different career outcomes. Analysis of data gleaned from the Association of American Medical College's Longitudinal Study revealed neither the expected patterns nor distinctive, alternative patterns. Thus, the notion that medical education is a rigidly structured system, consisting of a few, relatively fixed patterns leading to different career outcomes, was not supported. However, further analysis indicated evidence of stratification among structural factors in the medical education system which serves to influence access to career pathways.


Photobiomodulation utilizes monochromatic (or quasimonochromatic) light in the electromagnetic region of 600∼1000 nm for the treatment of soft tissues in a nondestructive and nonthermal mode. It is conceivable that photobiomodulation is based upon the ability of the light to alter cell metabolism as it is absorbed by general hemoproteins and cytochrome c oxidase (COX) in particular. Recently it has been suggested radiation of visible and infrared (IR) activates retrograde signaling pathway from mitochondria to nucleus. In this review, the role of COX in the photobiomodulation will be discussed. Further a possible role of water as a photoreceptor will be suggested.


The total area brought under fish culture in the Ahmednagar district is 2,552 hectares. Dyneshawar sagar (Mula dam), Mulanagar, Rahuri is one of the major fresh water resources used for natural & artificial fishing. Fishing nets found to be used for fishing. Besides fishing nets; fish baits, dynamite palates may possibly used for fishing that may be the reason of death of fish Chela sps. In the present project survey conducted to collect the dead fishes along the bank of darn water. The water of mula dam also being polluted by local tourist. This study only highlights toward the irrational, cruel methods of fishing and cruelty against fishes and other aquatic animals.


Among US racial/ethnic minority women, we examined associations between maternal experiences of racial discrimination and child growth in the first 3 years of life. We analyzed data from Project Viva, a pre-birth cohort study. We restricted analyses to 539 mother–infant pairs; 294 were Black, 127 Hispanic, 110 Asian and 8 from additional racial/ethnic groups. During pregnancy, mothers completed the Experiences of Discrimination survey that measured lifetime experiences of racial discrimination in diverse domains. We categorized responses as 0, 1–2 or ⩾3 domains. Main outcomes were birth weight for gestational age z-score; weight for age (WFA) z-score at 6 months of age; and at 3 years of age, body mass index (BMI) z-score. In multivariable analyses, we adjusted for maternal race/ethnicity, nativity, education, age, pre-pregnancy BMI, household income and child sex and age. Among this cohort of mostly (58.2%) US-born and economically non-impoverished mothers, 33% reported 0 domains of discrimination, 33% reported discrimination in 1–2 domains and 35% reported discrimination in ⩾3 domains. Compared with children whose mothers reported no discrimination, those whose mothers reported ⩾3 domains had lower birth weight for gestational age z-score (β −0.25; 95% CI: −0.45, −0.04), lower 6 month WFA z-score (β −0.34; 95% CI: −0.65, −0.03) and lower 3-year BMI z-score (β −0.33; 95% CI: −0.66, 0.00). In conclusion, we found that among this cohort of US racial/ethnic minority women, mothers' report of experiencing lifetime discrimination in ⩾ 3 domains was associated with lower fetal growth, weight at 6 months and 3-year BMI among their offspring.


Beginning as a symptomatic reading of Arthur Conan Doyle's use of a fictional African root poison, the Radix pedis diaboli, in "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" (1907), and Indian poisoned darts in The Sign of the Four (1890), this article makes some general comments on the history of colonial tropical toxicology, focusing on the Indian aconite ( Aconitum ferox) and its roots ( Radix aconiti indica). Arguably, Doyle had aconite in his mind while creating the fictional African root poison. Victorian toxicologists, who were deeply interested in Indian poisons, created stereotypes of India as congeries of melancholy and culturally backward, industrially primitive, and morally corrupt societies. Doyle's fictional poisons were influenced by a normative cultural bias that saw tropical pharmakons like aconite with an Orientalizing gaze. By shifting the geographical focus from Doyle's "Ubangi country" to nineteenth-century India, I draw attention to a larger spectrum of tropical toxicology. The colonial zeal to taxonomize the properties and utility of tropical pharmakons obsessively revolved around their toxic uses as criminal weapons or accidental killers, while marginalizing the medicinal uses that the plant had been historically put to by ancient Indian physicians.


ABSTRACT: Casein-predominant infant milk formulas have been speculated to predispose to lactobezoar formation in preterm infants due to delayed gastric emptying. There have been, however, no prospective studies to prove this possi-bility. In a randomized, double-blinded, prospective study, we tested the hypothesis that preterm infants fed casein-predominant milk formula have slower gastric emptying than infants fed whey-predominant formulas. Twenty pre-term infants within the first 4 d of life were randomized to receive either the whey-predominant formula Similac Special Care (whey:casein ratio 60:40) or an experimental casein-predominant formula (whey:casein ratio 18:82). Only the protein composition differed between the two formulas. The infants were fed the assigned study formula until they reached approximately 2200 g body weight when a gastric emptying scan was performed, using the designated study formula mixed with 25 μCi of technetium-99 sulfur colloid. Gastric emptying was followed continuously for 2 h. Gastric emptying at 30, 60, 90, and 120 min was similar between the two study groups. The time for 50% gastric emptying was 64.9 ± 12.3 min for the infants fed the whey-predominant formula and 56.5 ± 14.8 min for those fed the casein-predominant formula (p = 0.75). We conclude that the rate of gastric emptying in preterm infants fed casein-predominant formulas is similar to that in those fed whey-predominant formulas.


Several Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods involve pairwise comparisons to obtain the preferences of decision makers (DMs). This paper proposes a fuzzy group prioritization method for deriving group priorities/weights from fuzzy pairwise comparison matrices. The proposed method extends the Fuzzy Preferences Programming Method (FPP) by considering the different importance weights of multiple DMs. The elements of the group pairwise comparison matrices are presented as fuzzy numbers rather than exact numerical values, in order to model the uncertainty and imprecision in the DMs' judgments. Unlike the known fuzzy prioritization techniques, the proposed method is able to derive crisp weights from incomplete and fuzzy set of comparison judgments and does not require additional aggregation procedures. A prototype of a decision tool is developed to assist DMs to implement the proposed method for solving fuzzy group prioritization problems in MATLAB. Detailed numerical examples are used to illustrate the proposed approach.


Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is an emerging technology for fabricating cells, biomaterials and extracellular matrix (ECM) into customized shapes and patterns. Here, we report additive manufacturing to create a customized 3D bioactive constructs for regenerative medicine. We have attempted to emphasize the use of agarose and graphene oxide as a promising material for the conceptualization of bioink unpaid to its unique physicochemical properties. The 3D printed structure is able to regenerating bone tissues and regulates the cellular differentiation without any significant morphological changes. The presence of graphene oxide enhances the osteoinductive behavior of the developed scaffolds, which is further supplemented by encapsulating human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) on the 3D printed scaffolds. A significant enhanced expression of early osteogenic markers like morphogenetic protein (BMP), Runx-2, collagen-1, osteopontin, osteocalcin as well as mineralized ECM are observed on agarose-hydroxyapatite and graphene oxide 3D printed scaffolds compared to agarose-hydroxyapatite 3D printed scaffolds. Thus, the outcomes of the developed 3D bioprinted scaffolds provide a promising strategy for development of personalized bone grafts for tissue regeneration.


ABSTRACT Floc'h, F.; Aziayibor, K.; Almar, R.; Du Penhoat, Y.; Lefebvre, J-P.; Dorel, M., and Delacourt, C., 2018. Origin of sediment fluxes in inner shelf zone via acoustic measurements, Grand Popo, Bénin. In: Almar, R.; Almeida, L.P.; Trung Viet, N., and Sall, M. (eds.), Tropical Coastal and Estuarine Dynamics. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 81, pp. 107–113. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. In the Gulf of Guinea, energetic swells generated in South Atlantic are responsible for one of the most important littoral drifts in the world, directed Eastward. The construction of harbour dams along this littoral disturbs the natural balance of the system and causes extreme erosion up to 10 m/year. Within the framework of this study, a serie of intensive measurements was conducted at Grand Popo from March, the 10th to the 19th, 2014. A large number of hydrodynamic, sedimentary and morphological parameters were measured. The backscatter signal from an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) colocalised with a turbidity meter is inverted emprirically. Three main events of suspension over the whole water column are observed, during intense wind (>5m/s) lasting more than 8 hours. Actually, the water surface entrains after about 3–4 hours of intense wind, then the momentum is advected to the bottom in 2 or 3 hours depending on the intensity of the wind. The turbidity is then directly linked to the bottom stress derived from the mean current. The longshore flux is thus due to wind and always Eastward. The cross-shore flux is alternatively directed onshore or offshore. During spring tide, the offshore flux is in phase with the beginning of the tide flow. The exact origin of the current was not identified. Longshore flux were found to be 20 times higher than cross-shore flux.


In the paper the issue of maritime safety is presented. Most of the modern world trade is carried by sea, where maritime safety plays a key role. The article also presents the analysis of marine casualties at the beginning of the 21st century, covering the years 2002–2015. Apparent systematic steady decline in accidents and total losses of vessels is the result of improved maritime safety.


To determine the risk of biopsy in different parts of heart and the artifacts of histomorphology, right heart endomyocardial biopsy in eight dogs were done. The result showed no tamponade occurred even 53 pieces of heart muscles were got from right ventricular free wall. In contrast, biopsies on right atrial free wall had higher risk in causing tamponade. It was confirmed by autopsy and histomorphology that endomyocardial biopsy could cause heart muscle damage. The artifacts caused by biopsy of normal beating heart muscle include: contraction bands (21.8%), widen of intracellular space (100%), interstitial edema (78%) and interstitial bleeding (53%). The results of the patients of right ventricular endomyocardial biopsy may provide practical value in the application of endomyocardial biopsy.


An uncommon clinical entity of papillary cystadenoma of the larynx
in a lady of 37-year-old is presented. The diagnosis after clinical examination was
achieved by video-stroboscopy, CT scan of the neck, biopsy and
histopathological examination. This case study emphasizes the importance of
recognition of this lesion by the clinician as the differential diagnosis
includes lesions with similar clinical appearance.


Building statistical models for estimating failure-proneness of systems can help software organizations make early decisions on the quality of their systems. Such early estimates can be used to help inform decisions on testing, refactoring, code inspections, design rework etc. This paper demonstrates the efficacy of building scalable failure-proneness models based on code complexity metrics across the Microsoft Windows operating system code base. We show the ability of such models to estimate failure-proneness and provide feedback on the complexity metrics to help guide refactoring and the design rework effort.


Spent activated carbon (SAC) usually exhibits a low specific surface area due to its high ash contents. In this study, pre-treatments, such as heat and acid treatments, were optimized to improve this feature. The heat pre-treatment did not reduce the ash content, nor did it increase the surface area. Because metallic ions adsorbed in SACs turn into ash upon the heat treatment. In the acid pre-treatment, the volatiles and fixed carbon were increased with decreasing ash contents. In this study, it was found that the surface area increase was correlated with the ratio between fixed carbon and ash. Among the pre-treatment methods, the combined heat and acid pre-treatment method highly increased the ratio, and therefore led to the surface area increase. Additionally, the acid pre-treatment was carried out using different types of acid (organic and inorganic acids) solutions to further improve the surface areas. The organic acid treatment caused a significant structural collapse compared to the inorganic acid treatment, decreasing the surface area. In particular, H3PO4 effectively removed ashes adsorbed on the activated carbon surface and regenerated the exhausted activated carbon. Both the heat and acid pre-treatments before chemical activation resulted in the positive effects such as strong desorption of pollutants and ashes within the internal structure of the activated carbon. Therefore, the regeneration introduced in this study is methodically the best method to regenerate SAC and maintain a stable structure.


Composite membranes were prepared by co-casting, incorporating two nonionic surfactants in a poly(ether-block-amide), Pebax® 1657 up to 50 wt %. These polysorbate nonionic surfactants contain many ethylene oxide units and are very CO2-philic agents; thereby, they can be exploited as membrane additives for gas separation involving carbon oxide. Dynamic light scattering analysis proved a higher stability of additionated Pebax® 1657 solutions with respect to those containing only the copolymer. Scanning electron microscopy showed a regular membrane morphology without pores or defects for all investigated samples. If on the one hand the addition of the additive has depressed the mechanical properties, on the other, it has positively influenced the gas transport properties of Pebax® 1657 films. CO2 permeability increased up to two or three times after the incorporation of 50 wt % additive in copolymer matrix, while the selectivity was not significantly affected. The effect of temperature on permanent gas transport properties was studied in the range of 15–55 °C.


A 5-year-old girl with a rare anomaly of a single system ectopic ureter draining into the mesonephric duct cyst and ipsilateral crossed fused kidney is presented. Both ureters were catheterized and three dimensional (3-D) images of the urinary tract were reconstructed with helical computed tomographic (CT) data. A mesonephric duct cyst, the right ureter draining into the cyst and an ectopic orifice were well depicted with these images, especially with inferior projection images. 3-D display of helical CT data with a retrograde contrast study is a promising method of obtaining anatomical detail of an ectopic ureter.


Nature contains an endless supply of natural products and has for long been a source of inspiration for the pharmaceutical industry. Many of the drugs currently in clinical use originate from natural products. Paclitaxel, the active substance in the anti cancer medicine Taxol, was first isolated from the Pacific yew tree (Taxus brevifolia) in the early 1960s during a screening program for novel anti cancer agents, initiated by NCI. After the discovery of paclitaxel's unique mechanism of action as a microtubule stabilizer, intense research followed, which despite drawbacks such as supply problems and low water solubility, resulted in the successful anti cancer medicine Taxol. At present, Taxol is used in the treatment of ovarian, breast and non-small cell lung cancer. The primary intention with the work presented in this thesis was to design and synthesize paclitaxel mimetics, based on a rigid skeleton decorated with the groups important for the paclitaxel activity. Molecular modelling was used to identify a spiro-bicyclo[2.2.2]octane skeleton as a suitable substitute for the rigid paclitaxel core. Four different paclitaxel mimetics have successfully been synthesized and tested for their biological activity in five breast-derived cell lines. In addition, some intermediates were also included in the biological evaluation. Some of the compounds tested were shown to be toxic but were less active than paclitaxel itself. In addition, methodology for the synthesis of bridgehead substituted bicyclo[2.2.2]octane-2,6-diones were developed followed by evaluation of the products as substrates in the asymmetric baker's yeast reduction. (Less)


Liangyoupeijiu was grown under different crop cultivation techniques viz: conventional tillage and transplanting (CTTP), no tillage and transplanting (NTTP), conventional tillage and direct seeding (CTDS) and no- tillage and direct seeding (NTDS) during 2011 and 2012. Results showed that, CTTP had higher leaf dry weight than NTTP. Maximum leaf dry weight reduced in direct seeded than transplanted rice. Shoot dry weight reduced by 6% both in transplanted and direct seeded rice from heading to 12 days after heading (DAH) in both the years. No tillage and transplanting had higher export percentage of dry matter and transport percentage of dry matter among the cultivation techniques in both the years. At heading, leaf nitrogen concentration (%) and nitrogen uptake (g m-2) were higher in transplanted than direct seeded rice and significantly higher nitrogen uptake was observed under conventional tillage and transplanting in both the years. The physiological nitrogen use efficiency was higher in no-tillage than conventional tillage in both the years. Total nitrogen (kg ha-1) uptake was higher in conventional tillage than no tillage either in transplanted or in direct seeded rice and was higher under conventional tillage and transplanting among the cultivation techniques in both the years. Grain yield was closely associated with uptake of total nitrogen at heading. Although, direct seeded rice had more than 23% higher panicle number than transplanted rice but conventional tillage and transplanting produced higher grain yield due to higher uptake of nitrogen by grain at maturity and bigger sink size.
Bangladesh Rice J. 26 (2): 51-62, 2022


Thermoelectric devices convert thermal energy to electrical energy and are particularly well-suited for energy harvesting from waste heat. Even as the number of electronic devices used in daily life proliferates, technical advances diminish the average power such devices require to perform a given function. Localized thermal gradients that abound in our living environments, despite having modest energy densities, are therefore becoming increasingly viable and attractive to power such devices. With this motivation, we report the design, fabrication, and characterization of single-wall carbon nanotube thermoelectric devices (CNT-TDs) on flexible polyimide substrates as a basis for wearable energy converters. Our aqueous-solution-based film fabrication process could enable readily scalable, low-cost TDs; here, we demonstrate CNT-hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) composite thermoelectric films by aerosol jet printing. The electrical conductivity of the composite films is controlled through the number of CNT/HPC layers printed in combination with control of the annealing conditions. The HPC initially disperses the CNTs in deionized water, the greenest of solvents, and is subsequently partially eliminated from the film by annealing, with concomitant morphological changes that we characterized by TEM. HPC removal is key to obtaining good electrical conductivity (0.94 to 1.10 × 105 S/m) and Seebeck coefficients (36 to 43 μV/K). We also report a power factor of 208 μW m−1 K−2 for a CNT-TD composed of 15 layers of CNT/HPC, promising performance for CNT-based flexible TDs that are deposited from aqueous solution, stable in air, and require no additional doping or sorting processes.


An experiment was conducted to see the impact of osmotic stress as it is one of the main cause in various soil and water disorders in agricultural field crops, speciallythe seed germination and seedling growth. The osmotic stress was generated using PEG-6000 and the seed germination, seedling growth were evaluated including the status of pigments i.e. chlorophyll (a, b and total), total carotenoids, pheophytin (a, b and total) and different enzymes like amylase, peroxidase, catalase and superoxide dismutase. The various osmotic potentials generated (-2, -5 and -10 bars) showed significant decrease in germination percentage as at the osmotic potential of -10 bars it was observed 70 in comparison to 90% of control. All the seedling growth parameter also showed inhibition with increase in osmotic potential. Increase in osmotic stress decreased Chlorophyll 'a', while Chlorophyll 'b' was increased in -5 bars while total chlorophyll showed decrease in -5 bars osmotic potential. Total carotenoids and pheophytin (a, b and total) were highly increased in -5 bars and decreased in -10 bars osmotic concentration. Enzymatic activity was found to be decreased in amylase while peroixidase, catalase and SOD were increased at different osmotic gradients in comparison to control. The data observed in the experiment can be helpful to assess the impact of any kind of osmotic stress on plant growth and development in crops.


It was a cheerless autumn day; the rain was falling in torrents; every thing was saturated with water; and as my wife passed among the sick and wounded and dying and dead soldiers, she bent over the wretched pallet of one, and asked him if ho needed any thing. " Nothing, Madam, I thank you." " Do you want any thing to read—any books, or papers, or magazines ?" Reaching his poor, sunburnt, scrawny hand from under the bed-clothing, he laid it on a book, and directing her attention to it, said: " This is all the reading I want." It was a well-worn Bible. Happy man ! A stranger, far from home, sick, in rags, apparently " not far " from the grave, he had no wants which Ills Bible could not supply. There were dark clouds in the sky above; his Bible was sunshine to him. He knew nobody; nobody knew him; he was literally " a pilgrim and a stranger;" but he had an acquaintance in his Bible, and as he read it, his eyes fell upon old familiar names, which carried his mind back to the village-church, to the " family worship " of his childhood, and he read of David and of Jonathan, of Moses and of Elias, of Peter and of Paul, but most of all, of Jesus of Nazareth, the Friend of sinners and the Saviour of man. Weak and wan as he was, he asked for no wine to sustain him, no delicacies, prepared by tender hands, to nourish him into life again ; for he had " meat to eat" which those around him " knew not of." He read in his Bible morning, noon, and night; and he found out that as often as he read it, he felt nourished and comforted. It was a dish of which he never became tired ; for although apparently the same, he found something new in it every day; some sweetness that he had not tasted before. No wonder, then, that he found every want supplied in the soiled book which he carefully kept always in reach. Some soldiers, in tents and under other forms of shelter, were writing letters, turning over the leaves of magazines, or reading newspapers; but this soldier's Bible supplied all the reading he wanted. In it he found " things both new and old;". he found them reliable; to-day brought no contradiction of what he read yesterday. The messages which he received were telegraphed from heaven, and he had heard the " Operator " there say over and over again, as to his messages: " If it were not so, I would have told you." Happy soldier! Blessed book! Doubtless he would feel a full accord with him who wrote:


The Zr4+ complexes with desferrioxamine (H3DFO) and its derivatives are the only 89Zr-based imaging agents for proton emission tomography (PET) that have been used so far in clinical trials. Nevertheless, a complete speciation of the Zr4+/H3DFO system in solution has never been performed and the stability constants of the relevant complexes are still unknown. Here we report, for the first time, the speciation of this system in water, performed by potentiometric titrations, and the determination of the stability constants of all complexes formed in the pH range 2.5–11.5. Surprisingly, although desferrioxamine gives rise to very stable 1:1 complexes with Zr4+ (logK = 36.14 for Zr4+ + DFO3− = [ZrDFO]+), 2:2 and 2:3 ones are also formed in solution. Depending on the conditions, these binuclear complexes can be main species in solution. These results were corroborated by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and MALDI mass spectrometry analyses of complex solutions. Information on complex structures was obtained by means of density functional theory (DFT) calculations.


In Experiment 1, 71 participants were trained to match three pictures of facial expressions (one that expressed happiness and two that expressed emotional neutrality) to three abstract line drawings and match three healthy food names to the abstract line drawings. The participants were then tested to verify equivalence between facial expressions, abstract pictures, and foods. They were required to rate the foods for pleasantness at the beginning and end of the experiment. The experiment had three different experimental groups that differed only in the amount of training. The foods that were equivalent to the happy and neutral female faces received more positive evaluations than the foods that were equivalent to the neutral male face; however, the data presented high variability. In Experiment 2, schematic faces and fi ctitious food names were used in a delayed matching-to-sample procedure. The food that was equivalent to the happy face was evaluated as more pleasant, and the food that was equivalent to the sad face was evaluated as less pleasant.


BACKGROUND
Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) depresses contractility in left ventricular myocytes. Its expression is upregulated in pressure-overloaded hypertrophied hearts; however, the effects of ANP on contractility in hypertrophied myocytes are not known. Our aims were (1) to examine the cellular mechanisms of this depression in contractility in normal myocytes and (2) to test the hypothesis that the effects of ANP on contractility differ in hypertrophied myocytes from rats with ascending aortic stenosis.

METHODS AND RESULTS
We measured the myocyte shortening as an index of contractility, [Ca2+]i with fluo 3, and pHi with seminaphthorhodafluor-1 (SNARF-1). In normal control myocytes (n=26), ANP caused a concentration-dependent depression of contractility and reduction in pHi. In the presence of 10(-6) mol/L ANP, fractional cell shortening was 78+/-5% of baseline (P<0.05) and pHi was reduced by 0.16+/-0.04 U from baseline (P<0.01) without changes in [Ca2+]i. The magnitude of the depression of contraction caused by ANP was similar to that caused by intracellular acidification induced by an NH4Cl pulse. The effects of ANP on contractility and pHi were prevented in the presence of 5-(N-ethyl-N-isopropyl)-amiloride (EIPA), which inhibits the Na+/H+ exchanger. In hypertrophied myocytes (n=23), ANP did not depress either myocyte contractility or pHi at concentrations of either 10(-8), 10(-7), or 10(-6) mol/L. ANP caused no change in pHi or the [Ca2+]i transient in hypertrophied myocytes. The cGMP level was increased and Na+/H+ exchanger mRNA levels were normal in left ventricles from aortic stenosis rats compared with controls.

CONCLUSIONS
ANP directly depresses contractility in normal myocytes via intracellular acidification, which decreases myofilament [Ca2+]i sensitivity. In contrast, ANP causes no effects on contractility and pHi in hypertrophied myocytes, suggesting a suppression in the coupling of the ANP-cGMP intracellular signaling pathway to the Na+/H+ exchanger.


Diffusion models, as a novel generative paradigm, have achieved remarkable success in various image generation tasks such as image inpainting, image-to-text translation, and video generation. Graph generation is a crucial computational task on graphs with numerous real-world applications. It aims to learn the distribution of given graphs and then generate new graphs. Given the great success of diffusion models in image generation, increasing efforts have been made to leverage these techniques to advance graph generation in recent years. In this paper, we first provide a comprehensive overview of generative diffusion models on graphs, In particular, we review representative algorithms for three variants of graph diffusion models, i.e., Score Matching with Langevin Dynamics (SMLD), Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Model (DDPM), and Score-based Generative Model (SGM). Then, we summarize the major applications of generative diffusion models on graphs with a specific focus on molecule and protein modeling. Finally, we discuss promising directions in generative diffusion models on graph-structured data.


The manual design of soft robots and their controllers is notoriously challenging, but it could be augmented—or, in some cases, entirely replaced—by automated design tools. Machine learning algorithms can automatically propose, test, and refine designs in simulation, and the most promising ones can then be manufactured in reality (sim2real). However, it is currently not known how to guarantee that behavior generated in simulation can be preserved when deployed in reality. Although many previous studies have devised training protocols that facilitate sim2real transfer of control polices, little to no work has investigated the simulation-reality gap as a function of morphology. This is due in part to an overall lack of tools capable of systematically designing and rapidly manufacturing robots. Here we introduce a low cost, open source, and modular soft robot design and construction kit, and use it to simulate, fabricate, and measure the simulation-reality gap of minimally complex yet soft, locomoting machines. We prove the scalability of this approach by transferring an order of magnitude more robot designs from simulation to reality than any other method. The kit and its instructions can be found here: github.com/skriegman/sim2real4designs


Lymphoid follicles were observed in 260 of 1,450 consecutive bone marrow aspirates (17.9%). As expected, the incidence of lymphoid follicles was less than those reported from autopsies (26.1-62.3%), but was twice as great as those in previous reports based upon study of aspirations (3.3-9.1%). The number of lymphoid follicles is also related to age and sex of the patient: they are rare in childhood and common after the fourth decade of life, particularly in women. Lymphoid follicles are found in higher incidence in bone marrow aspirates with plasma-cytosis and/or lipid granulomas than in those without these reactive changes. This relationship has not been described previously and suggests that the frequent occurrence of lymphoid follicles in the older age group may be a minifestation of a response to chronic immunologic stimulation.


A number of 'freedom of religion v. secular policies' cases in the European Court of Human Rights (and, before 1998, the European Commission of Human Rights) emanating from Turkey suggest that the Court endorses Turkish secular policies at the expense of Turkish Muslims' human rights. These cases include the high-profile case of Leyla Ş&semicahin v. Turkey that was decided in favour of the Turkish government by the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR on November 10, 2005. This thesis discusses Ş&semicahin and four other related cases against the backdrop of, on the one hand, ECHR case law on religious freedom and secularism and, on the other hand, the nature and history of Turkey's peculiar breed of secularism. The right to freedom of religion is protected by the ECHR. It includes, inter alia, a right to manifest one's religion openly in worship, teaching, practice and observance. In turn, the right to manifest a religion includes a right to public religious expression. Manifestations of religion in the public sphere are a highly contested issue in Turkey. The reason for this is an ongoing social-cultural conflict in that country, which involves secularists - mainly made up of an urbanised elite - and pious traditionalists of rural origin in a battle over 'the soul' of Turkey. Secularists, strongly represented in the educational sector, the bureaucracy, the military and the courts, seek to preserve a polity separating Islam from state affairs while retaining state control over religious matters. Over the decades, the military has on several occasions intervened in Turkish politics to this end&semic religious life and practices have been constrained&semic and Turkish courts have banned Islamist parties. In all five ECHR cases examined, the Turkish government motivated the measures complained of as protecting the principle of secularism. This argument was accepted in all instances by the Convention organs. Secularism in Turkey is according to the ECtHR a principle in harmony with the rule of law and respect for human rights and democracy. The other side of the coin is the Court's - less than generous - approach to Muslims' right to manifest and express their religion. Islamic manifestations and expressions were valued low and interpreted as potential threats to secular and democratic values. In the view of the Court, these threats went a long way to justify limitations on religious rights. When it came to assessing such threats, more often than not, the Court and Commission accepted the Turkish government's assertion of facts uncritically without conducting sufficient European supervision. There is thus a tendency on the part of the ECtHR to ascribe to, or at least implicitly accept, the secularist description of reality and, in the process, grant the Turkish government an excessively wide margin of appreciation. Based on this, the thesis argues that the Court has taken Turkish secular policies for something it is not, i.e. democratic and in line with human rights requirements. Furthermore, the Court has a tendency to mistake Islam for Islamic fundamentalism. This tendency might be due to a Judeo-Christian bias in the Court and a resultant lack of awareness as to how Islam is manifested.


Changes related to limbal stem cells deficiency in corneal epithelium in rabbits, as well as the results of amniotic membrane transplant on the cicatrisation were evaluated. The ulcer was induced with n-heptanol associated to 360° conjunctival peritomy; the corneal surface was covered with canine amniotic membrane, sutured to perilimbal episclera, cryopreserved in embryo solution or own medium, both with 50% glycerol and stored at -80°C. The control group was not treated with membrane. Histological evaluations were performed at seven, 15, and 30 days. All of them developed limbal stem cells deficiency, named conjunctivalization, with neovascularization, inflammation and recurrent epithelial defects, observed in histopathology by the occurrence of neovascularization, edema, leukocytes and goblet cells. Thus amniotic membrane transplantation was not efficient in the treatment of limbal stem cells deficiency, however it helped in the process of cicatrisation.


We apply window Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to the solution of the problem of assessment of the efficiency of regional production systems in Southern Russia. The proposed method allows to monitor the changes in efficiency of regional economic systems throughout time and has a high discrimination power. The simplicity of the technical implementation of the proposed method and the availability of the necessary software for its use allow one to hope for its wide implementation in the modern practice of regional environmental management.


In a previous article, a set of five conditions were given to describe the switching hypersurface of the minimum-time, single-axis controller for an undamped, one-mode model of a flexible slewing structure. The purpose of this paper is to show that the five conditions have been found to be reducible to three. This oversight is amended and a new plot of the three conditions in a two-dimensional plane is isolated. This characterization of the switching structure depends only on the rigid-body states, and can be easily used in real-time.


The design, development and performance evaluation of a novel radio frequency microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) gyroscope, based on a surface acoustic wave resonator (SAWR) and a surface acoustic wave sensor is presented in this paper. Most of the MEMS gyroscopes based on silicon vibratory structures that utilize the energy transfer between the two vibratory modes demand small fabrication tolerances to minimize signal output when there is no rotation (i.e. zero rate output). This 1 cm×1 cm gyroscope operates based on the principle of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) on a piezoelectric substrate. The SAWR creates SAW standing waves within the cavity space between the interdigital transducers (IDTs). The particles at the anti-nodes of a standing wave experience large amplitudes of vibration perpendicular to the plane of the substrate, which serves as the reference vibrating motion for this gyroscope. A number of metallic dots (proof masses) are strategically positioned at the anti-node locations so that the effect of the Coriolis force due to rotation will amplify the magnitude of the SAW that is generated in the orthogonal direction. The performance of this 74.2 MHz MEMS-IDT gyroscope has been evaluated using rate table and geophone set-ups, indicating very high sensitivity and dynamic range, which is ideal for many of the commercial applications. Unlike other MEMS gyroscopes, this gyroscope has a planar configuration with no suspended resonating mechanical structures, thereby being inherently robust and shock resistant. In view of its one-layer planar configuration, this gyroscope can be implemented for applications requiring conformal mounting onto a surface of interest.


Objective Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common and debilitating psychiatric illness. Although a genetic component contributes to its etiology, no single gene or mechanism has been identified to the OCD susceptibility. The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) genes have been investigated in previous OCD studies, but the results are still unclear. More recently, Taylor (2013) in a comprehensive meta-analysis of genetic association studies has identified COMT and MAO-A polymorphisms involved with OCD. In an effort to clarify the role of these two genes in OCD vulnerability, a family-based association investigation was performed as an alternative strategy to the classical case-control design. Methods Transmission disequilibrium analyses were performed after genotyping 13 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (eight in COMT and five in MAO-A) in 783 OCD trios (probands and their parents). Four different OCD phenotypes (from narrow to broad OCD definitions) and a SNP x SNP epistasis were also analyzed. Results OCD, broad and narrow phenotypes,were not associated with any of the investigated COMT and MAO-A polymorphisms. In addition, the analyses of gene-gene interaction did not show significant epistatic influences on phenotype between COMT and MAO-A. Conclusions The findings do not support an association between DSM-IV OCD and the variants of COMT or MAO-A. However, results from this study cannot exclude the contribution of these genes in the manifestation of OCD. The evaluation of broader spectrum phenotypes could help to understand the role of these and other genes in the pathophysiology of OCD and its spectrum disorders.


Automatic music captioning, which generates natural language descriptions for given music tracks, holds significant potential for enhancing the understanding and organization of large volumes of musical data. Despite its importance, researchers face challenges due to the costly and time-consuming collection process of existing music-language datasets, which are limited in size. To address this data scarcity issue, we propose the use of large language models (LLMs) to artificially generate the description sentences from large-scale tag datasets. This results in approximately 2.2M captions paired with 0.5M audio clips. We term it Large Language Model based Pseudo music caption dataset, shortly, LP-MusicCaps. We conduct a systemic evaluation of the large-scale music captioning dataset with various quantitative evaluation metrics used in the field of natural language processing as well as human evaluation. In addition, we trained a transformer-based music captioning model with the dataset and evaluated it under zero-shot and transfer-learning settings. The results demonstrate that our proposed approach outperforms the supervised baseline model.


This paper analyzes the process of technological transfer from the university to the industry, firstly through a brief overview of the innovation role, and particularly of universities, according to various economic theories (Neoclassical Theory, Schumpeter and his followers, and Marxism). Next, the Bologna Process, a specific European case of technology transfer, is considered from empirical sources, official speeches, regulations and official documents. Finally, the general trend of explicit relation in Argentina between the university and the productive sector is briefly analyzed from certain empirical evidence, official speeches and policies, in order to guide the understanding of this process in Latin America. The main conclusion of the study aims to consider technological transfer as intrinsic and necessary for the contemporary capitalism.


The role of the anti-phospholipid antibodies (APLA) and anti-endothelial cell antibodies (AECA) in the pathogenesis of anti-phospholipid syndrome (APS) is unclear. Differences in the reported involvement of APLA may be due, in part, to the polyclonal nature of these antibodies and the use of serum and serum fractions for analysis. To circumvent this issue, we generated monoclonal antibodies (MAB) from three patients with APS and two healthy controls. We then compared the antigen binding patterns and the heavy chain variable region (VH) DNA sequences of the MAB derived from patients with APS to those from healthy controls. The results of this study indicate that APLA and AECA comprise a highly heterogeneous population of antibodies with respect to the antigens they recognize, as well as VH gene usage. MAB derived from patients with APS do not differ from those derived from normal individuals based on either antigen recognition or VH gene usage. These results suggest the importance of additional predisposing factors in the pathogenesis of APS.


This study investigates the differences in three aspects of job satisfaction – total pay, promotion prospects, and respect received from one's supervisor – between male heterosexual and gay employees in Athens, Greece. Gay employees are found to be less satisfied according to all job satisfaction measures. Affect Theory proposes that the extent to which one values a given facet of work moderates how dissatisfied one becomes when one's expectations are not met. Furthermore, the data enable us to estimate that gay employees' job satisfaction is not associated more (as compared to heterosexuals' job satisfaction) with adverse mental health symptoms. This finding is crucial given the rising interest between job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Finally, wage gaps against gay employees are found after accounting for basic asymmetries. Interestingly, however, the wage gaps grow for very dissatisfied employees and shrink for very satisfied employees. As long as, the general patterns in Greece suggest that homosexual employees face labour market discrimination, gay employees will report being less satisfied at work. Actually, in this study, job satisfaction is associated with wage inequality. This research initiates efforts to compare job satisfaction based on sexual orientation.


Abstract This contribution critically examines various concepts related to damage functions in current use; it does not represent a comprehensive review, however. In heritage science, damage functions can be defined as functions of unacceptable change, dependent on agents of change. Unlike in other domains of science, the reference to unacceptable change implies that a value-based decision needs to be applied to the analytically determinable change, or dose–response function. Since there are a number of values associated with heritage, there can be a number of damage functions describing one and the same physical or chemical process of change. For practical reasons, it is thus useful to decouple the value function from the dose–response function, as the latter can be independently deduced (empirically or experimentally). While the behaviour of single materials and objects is often modelled deterministically, the probabilistic approach can be used to describe the degradation of complex structures, e.g. buildings, although not commonly in heritage research. There is a case to be made for more in-depth exploration of incremental and stochastic processes of degradation of heritage materials and structures, and the associated values, with a view towards developing more damage functions. Damage functions find use in modelling for predictive maintenance. However, predictions are associated with uncertainty due to the need for extrapolation, and this is also rarely analytically examined. Validation of modelling processes is possible using accurate methodologies of asset monitoring, which would enable an effective appraisal of preservation strategies.


The nonlinear Brownian rotational relaxation of magnetic fluids for the case of large excitation field was studied in relation to its biomedical applications. The Fokker–Planck equation, which describes the nonlinear behavior of magnetic fluids, was solved by numerical simulation when a large step or a sinusoidal field was applied. Deviations from the Debye theory were quantitatively clarified. First, it was shown that the response time of the magnetic fluids became shorter than the Brownian relaxation time for a larger excitation field, which can be expressed in terms of the field-dependent Brownian relaxation time. Next, the amplitude of the ac susceptibility became lower for larger excitation fields, and the frequency characteristic of the ac susceptibility moved to a higher frequency compared with that predicted by the Debye theory. Finally, higher harmonics occurred with increasing excitation fields. Approximate equations, that describe such nonlinear behaviors reasonably well, were also obtained. These equations are expected to be useful for developing biosensors based on Brownian relaxation.


Since the late 1950s John Rex has been at the forefront of British sociology and in particular the sociology of 'race' and ethnicity. His research and books have spawned debate and discussion in the fields of social and political theory, housing studies, education and the experiences of Muslim minorities. This volume charts the nature, direction and significance of John Rex's work in the fields of urban sociology, ethnic relations and multicultural studies. As well as identifying important and persistent points of controversy the book also reveals much common ground and the potential for a multi-faceted approach to the theorisation of 'race' and ethnicity. "Immigration and Race Relations" includes contributions from eminent thinkers from the perspectives of sociology, social anthropology, education, philosophy, political science and cultural studies.


The discipline of economics has treated technological standards creation as an outcome of network externalities and decisions on the demand side. They pay little attention to the supply side, where firms make strategic choices as to which standard to support. These choices can ignite a contest between adherents to the different proposed standards. This case study examines the contest between the Ethernet and Token Ring standards for local area networking. IBM sponsored Token Ring, but then made it difficult for other firms to be successful in supplying components. In contrast, Ethernet's sponsors, DEC, Intel, and Xerox, structured the marketplace in such a way as to encourage supporters. The resulting Ethernet community was able to lower costs and improve the technology so dramatically that the Token Ring standard, which had initially been technically superior, was overwhelmed. We find that the critical difference in explaining the success of Ethernet was the nature and strategy of the standard's sponsors in assisting the growth of a community of firms supporting the standard.


A MOSFET-based electrostatic discharge (ESD) power clamp circuit with only a 10 ns RC time constant for a 0.18-μm process is proposed. A diode-connected NMOSFET is used to maintain a long delay time and save area. The special structure overcomes other shortcomings in this clamp circuit. Under fast power-up events, the gate voltage of the clamp MOSFET does not rise as quickly as under ESD events, the special structure can keep the clamp MOSFET thoroughly off. Under a falsely triggered event, the special structure can turn off the clamp MOSFET in a short time. The clamp circuit can also reject the power supply noise effectively. Simulation results show that the clamp circuit avoids fast false triggering events such as a 30 ns/1.8 V power-up, maintains a 1.2 μs delay time and a 2.14 μs turn-off time, and reduces to about 70% of the RC time constant. It is believed that the proposed clamp circuit can be widely used in high-speed integrated circuits.


During the last decade, Peruvian government started to invest and promote Science and Technology through Concytec(National Council of Science and Technology). Many programs are oriented to support research projects, expenses for paper presentation, organization of conferences/ events and more. Concytec created a National Directory of Researchers(DINA) where professionals can create and add curriculum vitae, Concytec can provide official title of Researcher following some criterion for the evaluation. The actual paper aims to conduct an exploratory analysis over the curriculum vitae of Peruvian Professionals using Data Mining Approach to understand Peruvian context.


This paper presents a tool to detect the accumulation of risks in emerging market economies based on a synthetic index of "vulnerability" for three different types of crisis (sovereign, currency and banking crises). To build the index we first use a signalling approach (Auroc) to preselect the variables that issue adequate signals before the blown up of a crisis. The short-term interbank rate is a leading indicator for the three different types of crises and short term external debt also plays a prominent role. These variables are then introduced in a logistic estimation to obtain the predicted probability of being in a "vulnerable" state for each type of crisis. These indexes, labelled SHERLOC, which stands for Signalling Heightened Emerging Risks that Lead to the Occurrence of Crises, outperform all best single indicators in terms of in-sample and out-of-sample validation. Additionally, a synthetic index for each type of crisis seems to predict better "vulnerable" states than the use of an aggregate index for all types of crises.


Recent studies reveal that the main cause of the well-known unfairness problem in wireless networks is the ineffective coordination of CSMA-based random access due to topology asymmetry. In this paper, we take a modeling-based approach to understand and solve the unfairness problem. Compared to existing works, we advance the state of the art in two important ways. First, we propose an analytical model called the G-Model, which accurately characterizes the ineffective coordination of medium access in asymmetrical topologies. The G-Model can estimate network performance under arbitrary parameter configurations. Second, while previous works decompose a wireless network into embedded basic asymmetric topologies and study each basic topology separately, we go beyond the basic asymmetrical topology and design a model-driven optimization method called Flow Level Adjusting (FLA) to solve the unfairness problem for larger wireless networks. Through extensive simulations, we validate the proposed G-Model and show that FLA can greatly improve the overall fairness of wireless networks in which basic asymmetric topologies are embedded.


BACKGROUND
After the surgical correction of tetralogy of Fallot, surgical scars and natural obstacles form pathways capable of supporting an atrial tachyarrhythmia (AT). Radiofrequency (RF) ablation is effective, although the few studies published on this topic had relatively short follow-up periods.

AIM
The aims of the study were to evaluate the acute and long-term effects of RF ablation of AT and examine the charac-teristics of arrhythmia recurrence.

METHODS
Tetralogy of Fallot patients (n = 16, age 44.7 ± 10.7 years) referred for ablation of ATs, appearing 25.7 ± 9.6 years after repair, were studied.

RESULTS
Twenty-five ATs were ablated, including 16 cavo-tricuspid isthmus atrial flutters (CTI-AFLs) and nine intraatrial reentrant tachycardia (IART). In one patient with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF), pulmonary vein isolation was also performed. Ten patients had permanent, and six had paroxysmal arrhythmia prior to the first ablation. Four patients had PAF. Regardless of the type of first ablated arrhythmia, all 16 patients required CTI-AFL ablation. The effectiveness of the first RF ablation reached 88%. The acute efficacy of RF ablation was 100% for CTI-AFL and 78% for IART. Long-term follow-up was possible in 15 out of 16 patients (mean follow-up 68.8 ± 36.6 months). Four patients were free of sustained arrhythmia, nine (60%) had AF. After the last RF ablation, an episode suggestive of CTI-AFL/IART was documented only in one patient.

CONCLUSIONS
Ablation of CTI-AFL/IART in tetralogy of Fallot patients is safe and effective. AF was observed in most patients during the long-term follow-up. Regardless of the type of the first ablated arrhythmia, all patients required CTI-AFL ablation.


According to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), due to the increased risk of cardiovascular disease, the daily consumption of table salt should be reduced. To avoid the health consequences of iodine deficiency, it is necessary to include alternative food sources of this trace element in the human diet. One of the most effective ways of improving nutrition is the biofortification of crops with minerals and vitamins. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of iodine biofortification (potassium iodate/KIO3/, 5-iodosalicylic acid/5-ISA/and 3.5-diiodosalicylic acid/3.5-diISA/) on the chemical composition of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. capitata) cv. 'Melodion'. Plants were cultivated in a hydroponic system NFT (Nutrient Film Technique). We compared the effect of iodine fertilization on the basic chemical composition, fatty acid profile, macro- and micronutrients, content of sugars, nitrogenous compounds, chlorides, and iodine compounds. The results obtained in this research indicate that the application of iodine compounds has an influence on changes of concentration of iodine and other compounds in the treated samples. In lettuce, the main fatty acid was linolenic acid; however, fertilization with iodine did not affect the fatty acid profile in plants, except for concentrations of myristic and arachidic acids. We also found that iodine fortification has positive effects on concentrations of some micro- and micronutrients. Moreover, the application of 3.5-diISA decreased the concentration of nitrates as compared to control and other treatments. Therefore, it may be postulated that the production of lettuce fortified with iodosalicylates is worthy of consideration due to the fact that it may be a good source of iodine and other compounds in the human diet.


Developing a noninvasive magnetic imaging system to spatially and temporally map the magnetic fields generated by brain activity in infants at severe risk of developing cerebral palsy and epilepsy, so that medical doctors can intervene at an early stage.


State-of-the-art methods for relation extraction consider the sentential context by modeling the entire sentence. However, syntactic indicators, certain phrases or words like prepositions that are more informative than other words and may be beneficial for identifying semantic relations. Other approaches using fixed text triggers capture such information but ignore the lexical diversity. To leverage both syntactic indicators and sentential contexts, we propose an indicator-aware approach for relation extraction. Firstly, we extract syntactic indicators under the guidance of syntactic knowledge. Then we construct a neural network to incorporate both syntactic indicators and the entire sentences into better relation representations. By this way, the proposed model alleviates the impact of noisy information from entire sentences and breaks the limit of text triggers. Experiments on the SemEval-2010 Task 8 benchmark dataset show that our model significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To investigate patients' existential experiences in everyday life prior to a kidney transplantation with a living donor.

BACKGROUND
Kidney transplantation is a well-established treatment for patients with end-stage kidney disease. The prevalence of patients living with end-stage renal disease is increasing. Simultaneously, kidney transplantations with a living donor are increasing. However, patients experience challenging existential aspects concerning kidney transplantation.

DESIGN
A qualitative study with a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach inspired by Ricoeur was chosen.

METHODS
Fourteen interviews with patients living with end-stage kidney disease were conducted 7-14 days before a planned kidney transplantation with a living donor. Analysis and interpretation were based on Ricoeur's theory of interpretation. We applied the Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) (see supplementary file).

RESULTS
Four themes were identified: Living with subjective feelings of illness while objectifying the body; Living in one's own world while the world outside goes on; Feeling grateful while being concerned for the donor; and Hoping for the best, while preparing for the worst.

CONCLUSION
Patients' existential challenges are multifaceted. Patients articulate their kidney function in numeric terms, trying to make the invisible visible for themselves and others. Sustaining normality becomes important for patients, and the waiting time from donor evaluation to transplantation triggers excitement, hope and frustration.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
The results increase insights into individuals' existential experiences in their everyday lives. Hereby, the results articulate the need for support from health professionals prior to a kidney transplantation.


Five horses with histories of colic developed signs of myocardial failure and skeletal muscle disease. Necropsy revealed pale areas in the cervical, pectoral, pelvic, and cardiac musculature; histologically, the lesions were indicative of dystrophic myodegeneration. Serum vitamin E concentrations were normal in 2 of the horses but serum selenium concentrations were normal in 2 of the horses, but serum selenium concentrations were low when compared with values obtained from clinically normal horses.


Background. New information was obtained on brown coal occurrences in the northern part of the Yenisei-Khatanga trough (Lake Taimyr area). This region continues to attract the attention of geologists and oil producers due to its established oil and gas potential.Aim. To study the lithological features of rocks and material-petrographic composition of coals from a new promising area of the Yenisei-Khatanga trough in northern Russia.Materials and methods. A set of geological, lithological, and petrographic research methods was used to study a series of samples of coals and host rocks. Measurements were carried out on a QDI-302 Craic Spectrophotometer microscope with a 50× objective lens according to the standard methodology ISO 7404-5 in reflected polarised light using a Spinel standard (Ro = 0.426%) in oil immersion. X-ray fluorescence analysis was performed using a Respect device with an energy dispersive spectrometer without vacuum, having an X-ray tube with a silver anode (registration of elements only from K to U). Anode voltage — 30 kV. Current — 0.3 mA. Exposure time (τ) — 300 s. Y axis — intensity of characteristic lines, rel. unitsResults. The lithological features of the studied samples were elucidated, and the material-petrographic composition of the coals was studied. In the spore-pollen assemblage from the studied deposits, the dominant associations were determined by the predominance of two-bag pollen of Disaccites (Pinaceae) conifers. On this basis, the age of the Begichevskaya Formation rocks was established as belonging to the Albian and Cenomanian stages of the Lower-Middle Cretaceous.Conclusion. The degree of variability of coals was estimated; their grades (technological groups) and the trace element composition of ash were determined. The reflection values of vitrinites were measured in order to clarify the stage of changes in brown coals and obtain the quantitative characteristics of their quality. The reflection values of vitrinites (Ro) are from 0.32 to 0.52%, which corresponds to the stages of brown coal changes, technological groups 1B—3B.


Twenty‐two consecutive patients with cancer of the head and neck, who were to receive a full tumoricidal dose of irradiation to a field that included the oral cavity and pharynx, were studied to determine the effect of the irradiation on their local bacterial flora. Aerobic cultures were taken prior to, at the completion of, and one month after the completion of their irradiation. The percentage of patients with potentially pathogenic organisms increased dramatically as the effect of the irradiation increased. This change in the local flora has obvious implications concerning the increased incidence of postoperative wound infections in patients who have received prior irradiation.


Rapidity, azimuthal and multiplicity dependence of mean transverse momentum and transverse momentum correlations of charged particles is studied in {pi}{sup +}p and K{sup +}p collisions at 250 GeV/c incident beam momentum. For the first time, it is found that the rapidity dependence of the two-particle transverse momentum correlation is different from that of the mean transverse momentum, but both have similar multiplicity dependence. In particular, the transverse momentum correlations are boost invariant. This is similar to the recently found boost invariance of the charge balance function. A strong azimuthal dependence of the transverse momentum correlations originates from the constraint of energy-momentum conservation. The results are compared with those from the PYTHIA Monte Carlo generator. The similarities to and differences with the results from current heavy ion experiments are discussed.


ABSTRACT: The past decade has been a difficult period in the history of the accounting profession in the U.S. This challenging environment provides an opportunity for the accounting academy, acting as "trustees" for the integrity of the profession, to play a significant role in sustaining and enhancing the profession's status as a profession. Generally, accounting educators play this role in two ways: through our practice-related scholarship and through our teaching. This paper draws on a recent comparative study of peer professions to offer insights to accounting educators as we seek to sustain the accounting profession specifically through our teaching. One key insight is that accounting education, as professional education, must be broadly formative, encompassing three broad spheres of professional preparation: technical knowledge, practice skills, and, of critical importance, normative purpose and professional identity. Other insights relate to the use of "signature images" of professional identity an...


The Drosophila wing primordium is defined by expression of the selector gene vestigial (vg) in a discrete subpopulation of cells within the wing imaginal disc. Following the early segregation of the disc into dorsal (D) and ventral (V) compartments, vg expression is governed by signals generated along the boundary between the two compartments. Short-range DSL (Delta/Serrate/LAG-2)-Notch signaling between D and V cells drives vg expression in `border' cells that flank the boundary. It also induces these same cells to secrete the long-range morphogen Wingless (Wg), which drives vg expression in surrounding cells up to 25-30 cell diameters away. Here, we show that Wg signaling is not sufficient to activate vg expression away from the D-V boundary. Instead, Wg must act in combination with a short-range signal produced by cells that already express vg. We present evidence that this vg-dependent, vg-inducing signal feeds forward from one cell to the next to entrain surrounding cells to join the growing wing primordium in response to Wg. We propose that Wg promotes the expansion of the wing primordium following the D-V segregation by fueling this non-autonomous autoregulatory mechanism.


Here, we established the inhibitory mechanism of p53 on hepatitis B viral gene expression using HepG2 cells. Our results are as follows. First, p53 down-regulated the activities of all four promoters of hepatitis B virus (HBV), suggestive of the presence of a common element mediating the p53-dependent transcriptional repression. Second, employing the 5′-deletion constructs of the pregenomic/core promoter, the liver-specific enhancer II region was localized as a target for the p53-mediated transcriptional repression. Third, in a detailed analysis of the enhancer II region, the 5′-proximal 31-base pair region was defined as a p53-repressible element. Throughout the study, p53-mediated repression was rescued upon coexpression of the X-gene product, HBx. Finally, in an electrophoretic mobility shift assay, the defined p53-repressible element did not bind purified p53 directly, but shifted three bands in HepG2 nuclear extract, two of which was supershifted upon addition of p53 monoclonal antibody. These results display a novel mechanism of p53-dependent transcriptional repression in which p53 negatively regulates the viral-specific DNA enhancer through protein to protein interaction with an enhancer-binding protein. At the same time, the results indicate that p53 plays a defensive role against HBV by transcriptionally repressing the HBV core promoter through liver-specific enhancer II and HBx is required to counteract this inhibitory function of p53.


There are about 60,000 chemical substances which may cause poisoning. Identifying the cause substances is, therefore, very important for patient at emergency department. Triage is an immunoassay kit for the qualitative test for the metabolites of 8 major abuse drugs in urine. We assessed the usefullness of Triage on two patient groups. The first Group consists of the patients considered having not taken substances at initial diagnosis; the second Group consists of the patients considered having taken substances. The result are as follows. 1) The rate of Triage positive patients in the first Group were: attempt-suicide 23%, coma 24%, shock 10%, trauma 7%, respectively. Except for the habitually used medicine, narcotic and stimulant drugs were detected. In the first Group, negative result of Triage was effective in diagnosing the patients as not poisoned, excluding the possitivity of 8 major drugs usage. 2) The rate of Triage positive patients in the second Group were very high: attempt-suicide 77%, coma 51%, shock 57%, trauma 30%, respectively, showing mostly any of 8 major drugs were the cause of poisoning. In the second Group, positive result of Triage was effective in diagnosing the patient as poisoning or as coexisting poisoning with other diseases. 3) The specificity of Triage diagnosis in the first Group was 80% (113/142). The specificity and the sensitivity in the second Group were 64% (50/78) and 97% (74/76), respectively. These results means that Triage is very useful for diagnosis on 8 major drugs poisoning. 4) Triage is efficient for identifying the cause substances in drug poisoning and, therefore, can save medical expense. Triage is a very useful test kit at emergency department.


Abstract:Though they are now a global phenomenon, many of the "lifestyle sports" like body building, surfing, and skateboarding emerged from Southern California in the mid-twentieth century. In time, these sports and their practitioners became symbolic embodiments of a distinctly "Californian" way of life. This article explores how these sports took root in the Golden State, latching on to earlier notions of a localized ideology often referred to as the "California dream." Spanning visions of robust health, limitless wealth, and the freedom to fulfill one's own destiny, the California dream positioned the state as the ideal incubator for physical practices that buck tradition, embrace creativity, and celebrate expression. From the state's early boosters in the pages of the Los Angeles Times to the rise of a Progressive Era parks and playground movement, the stage was set for Californians to "live the dream" through lifestyle sports.


We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a discretely tunable all-fiber frequency shifter based on mixing the outputs of two stimulated Brillouin scattering fiber ring resonator lasers. The frequency tuning was achieved by differentially heating the rings. The observed temperature dependence of the frequency shift was as expected, with the discrete frequency jumps being equal to the free spectral range of the resonator.


Canine transmissible venereal tumour (CTVT) is a naturally occurring contagious neoplasm of dogs located mainly on the external genitalia of both sexes. The course of vincristine chemotherapy, the most effective and practical therapy, is affected by the immune status of the host. The aim was to investigate recombinant human interferon alpha-2a (rhIFNα-2a) and vincristine for treatment of CTVT. A total of 21 female dogs were included. In group I (n = 9), vincristine (0.025 mg/kg, IV) was administered weekly. In group II (n = 6), dogs were injected intratumorally weekly with 1.5 million IU rhIFNα-2a. In group III (n = 6), rhIFNα-2a and vincristine were combined. No tumour regression was observed after three injections of rhIFNα-2a in group II and weekly vincristine was administered. The number of tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), mitotic figures and apoptotic cells were counted in subsequent incisional tumour biopsies. The Kaplan-Meier Method was used to analyse survival using complete tumour regression as the outcome and Breslow Test was used for comparison of survival curves. Differences in TILs, cell proliferation and apoptosis between groups were assessed by analysis of covariance. Complete regression was observed in all animals included. Mean duration of vincristine treatment for complete regression was shorter in group II (3.50 weeks, 95% CI, 3.06-3.94, P < 0.05) and group III (3.17 weeks, 95% CI, 2.84-3.49, P < 0.01) compared to group I (5.11 weeks, 95% CI, 4.42-5.80). Vincristine and rhIFNα-2a combination increased TILs in CTVT biopsies compared to vincristine treatment (P = 0.017) and vincristine treatment after rhIFNα-2a (P = 0.049). Vincristine treatment after rhIFNα-2a (Group II; P < 0.001) and rhIFNα-2a and vincristine combination (Group III; P < 0.001) decreased apoptosis. The results indicate that intratumoral rhIFNα-2a treatment alone is not effective in CTVT. However, combination of rhIFNα-2a and vincristine shortens the duration of treatment compared to vincristine therapy.


Abstract The question of finding the best technology for software-based controller deployment is still open. One of the main problems is that computing infrastructures for controllers are composed by heterogeneous hardware and software platforms scattered over a set of heterogeneous networkig infrastructures. The standardised object-oriented efforts done around the the OMG specifications try to overcome some of the difficulties raised by this heterogeneity. Inside the Distributed Object Computing (DOC) landscape, CORBA is a well known framework for the construction of modularised, object oriented, distributed applications. The CORBA object model, however, is not enough when confronting the problems related to deplyment, configuration and evolutionary maintenance of systems. This paper describes the ECF component technology specifically built for the construction of component-based, distributed embedded systems.


Recently, several ultrasound imaging techniques for tissue characterization have been developed. Among them, ultrasound elastography is regarded as the most promising modality and has been rapidly developed. One of ultrasound elastography techniques is shear modulus imaging. Normal and cancerous tissues show big difference of shear moduli and they have good image contrast. However shear wave elastography requires more complicated hardware and more computations for image reconstruction algorithm. Therefore new efficient techniques are being developed. In this paper, we have developed a very flexible ultrasound system for elastography experiments. The developed system has capabilities to acquire ultrasound RF data of all channels and generate arbitrary ultrasound pulse sequences. It has a huge amount of memories for RF data acquisition and a simple and flexible pulse generator. We have verified the performance of the system showing conventional B-mode images and preliminary results of elastography. The developed system will be used to verify our own reconstruction algorithm and to develop more efficient elastography techniques.