Spastic paralysis is one of the frequently seen conditions in orthopaedic outpatient departments. It results due to a variety of causes like cerebral palsy, encephalitis, cerebral thrombosis, multiple sclerosis, transverse myelitis, injuries of brain or spinal cord, various causes of compression of cervical or dorsal spine, e.g., tuberculosis, fluorosis etc. Orthopaedic surgeons are called upon to treat these cases because of the deformities and disabilities produced in the limbs. Management of these cases has been largely neglected in the past due to the complex pathophysiology of muscle imbalance and spasticity in these cases. As a lot perseverance is required in the management of these cases and hence they are generally left to their fate. This wave of pessimism does not seem to be justified because with their fate. This wave of pessimism does not seem to be justified because with proper care in treatment and rehabilitation, majority of these cases can be made serviceable to themselves and to the society. It is with this aim in view that this study was undertaken. The literature is full of reports on surgical management of spastic paralysis with new methods coming up every day claiming superiority over the old ones. The old procedures like resection of posterior nerve roots, radicotomy, local alcohol injections, and selective nerve resection (Heyman 1939) have been largely abandoned. The surgical trend in recent years has been on procedures like tenotomy, tendon lengthening, tendon transfer, arthrodesis etc. Eggers (1952) described hamstring transplant into femoral condyles to improve flexion deformity at the hip was well as the knee. Pollock (1953) described gastrocnemius tendon lengthening to correct the equines deformity when the deformity was in this component. Bleck and Holstein (1964) perfumed iliopsoas tenotomy for correcting flexion deformity of hip. In the upper limb, surgery has been recommended for pronation deformity of forearm and flexion of wrist. Mccarroll and Schwartzmann (1943) advocated correction of the adduction contracture of the thumb by adductor release.


The complete amino acid sequence of Streptomyces glaucescens tyrosinase is reported. The molecule consists of 273 amino acids and has a Mr of 30 900 including two copper atoms. The primary structure was determined by a combination of amino acid and DNA sequence analysis. Peptide sequence information was derived from the cyanogen bromide, tryptic, and thermolytic fragments of apotyrosinase by automated Edman degradation and aminopeptidase M and carboxypeptidase C digestions. The nucleotide sequence of the tyrosinase gene cloned into the PvuII site of pBR322 was determined. The enzyme contains no apparent leader peptide despite the fact that it is secreted into the culture medium. As observed for a number of different Streptomyces genes, the tyrosinase gene shows a strong preference (97%) for codons ending in G or C. A comparison of the amino acid sequence of Streptomyces glaucescens tyrosinase with that of Neurospora crassa tyrosinase reveals an overall sequence homology of only 24.2%. However, the sequence homology is much higher in those regions thought to be involved in metal binding of the binuclear active site copper of this monooxygenase.


329 FRIDAY MORNING, JANUARY 9, 1998 CONCOURSE, 9:00 TO 12:OO Session GR MAGNETIC SENSORS AND APPLICATIONS (POSTER SESSION) Bruce Gurney, Cochair IBM Almaden Research Center, K66/803, 650 Harry Road, San Jose, CA 95120 Craig Grimes, Cochair University of Kentucky, Department of Electrical Engineering, Lexington, KY 40506-0046


We measured the reflectance spectra for the 85 color caps of the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue test. Eigenvectors and eigenvalues of a correlation matrix of cone responses were computed, with the cone responses being determined from the 85 test caps, arranged in order (according to color) by means of a linear model. It is shown that the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue test can be simulated by use of eigenvectors of the cone responses. The eigenvectors can be interpreted as nonopponent signal and opponent color signals. The normal observer can determine the color of a cap by using two opponent color signals. For color-blind persons (dichromats) one or the other opponent signal is defective, and errors can occur during the test. The simulation results also suggest that eigenvectors can be used to predict results of arrangement tests similar to the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue test.


In the present work, optimization of extraction natural dye from neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves with respect to dye bath concentration on silk fabric was studied before and after exposing to artificial daylight for 160 h. The effect of different dye bath concentrations in the range 40-240 g/L on the reflectance spectra of the unexposed and exposed silk fabric was followed by using spectrophotometric technique. The absorption coefficient, optical band gap energy and extinction coefficient as well as color strength were calculated from the reflectance data and the wash fastness was tested. The color parameters: the relative brightness (L*), color constants (a* and b*), whiteness index (W), color difference (∆E), chroma (C*), hue (H), and tint (T) and the CIE tristimulus values (xr, yr, and zr) were also determined. The obtained results showed that the absorption and extinction coefficients, color strength and color parameters were highly affected by changing dye concentration. In addition, it was also noticed that the variations in the values of the optical band gap energy with increasing dye concentration may be due to the induced structural change in the system. In addition, the dyed silk samples have shown good washing fastness properties. The washing fastness grade for color change ranged from 4 to 5, whereas from 4 to 4/5 for color staining with all samples. The present study indicates that the natural Original Research Article Abdel-Zaher et al.; AJOPACS, 5(4): 1-16, 2018; Article no.AJOPACS.40614 2 dye extracted from neem leaves has good potential in textiles dyeing and meet the environmental future demands technology of high quality fantastic dyed pattern through an economical point of view.


China is faced with significant challenges in the energy sector such as energy shortage, environmental pollution, greenhouse gas emission, and energy supply in rural areas, which severely restrict its sustainable development. The promotion of a sustainable energy system is the key solution to tackling those issues. In this paper, the current status and trends of sustainable energy development in China are elaborated, taking account of renewable energy, nuclear energy, and energy efficiency. The strategies of sustainable energy in China are brought forward accordingly, and the corresponding implementations of sustainable energy development in China are expounded as well. Note that the development of clean coal and nuclear power with innovative technologies can vigorously promote China's sustainable development since renewable energy as a whole, with the exception of hydro power, is still very small compared with conventional generation. In the end, this paper concludes that China must set a step-by-step unified national energy plan to promote the construction of a sustainable energy system, which will be economically, environmentally, and socially viable, and, thus, China would play an important role to promote global sustainable development.


Summary form only given. Amorphous carbon films were deposited on Si substrates by using microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD). It is often noted that a conditioning of carbon film is required before the onset of reproducible field emission. It involves the cycling of the voltage up and down over several cycles etc, which may be accompanied by surface damage and phase changing. The exact nature of this conditioning step and the role of the damage-induced surface structure is not fully understood. In this paper, the change of surface bonding structure by cycling of the voltage up and down, and the effect of sp2/sp3 bonding ratios of the carbon films on field emission are investigated. The surface microstructure and sp2/sp3 bonding ratios were analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy. Field emission measurements of the films were carried out in a vacuum chamber with a base pressure of below 5/spl times/10-5Pa. The surface bonding structure of the as-deposited film was mainly sp2 component before doing field emission measurement. After emission conditioning treatment by cycling of the voltage up and down over several cycles, the surface sp2/sp3 bonding ratio of 1.25 was got, and the I-V characteristic of the field emission was getting reproducible and stable. The current density of 0.28 mA/cm/sup 2/ was obtained at electric field of 4.8 V//spl mu/m. When the electric field was increased to 6.85 V//spl mu/m, the current density was dramatically decreased to 0.067 mA/cm/sup 2/, and the surface sp2/sp3 bonding ratio was decreased to 0.53. It was revealed that surface sp2 phase in amorphous carbon films may be the main factor in obtaining low turn-on field and high current density.


The objective of this paper is to investigate the determinants of European Union (EU) merger control decisions. We consider a sample of 167 EU mergers between 1990 and 2002 and evaluate their competitive consequences by the reaction of the stock market price of competitors to the merging firms. We then account for the discrepancies between the actual and optimal decisions as indicated by the stock market in terms of the political economy surrounding the cases. Our results suggest that the commission's decisions cannot be solely accounted for as protecting consumer surplus. The institutional and political environment does matter. As far as influence is concerned, however, our data suggest that the commission's decisions are not sensitive to firms' interests. Instead, the evidence suggests that other factors—such as market definition and procedural aspects, as well as country and industry effects—do play a significant role.


To the Editor of The Bulletin ; Illinois tax officials and tax attorneys have expressed disagreement and distress over a remark reportedly made by me about railroad taxes in Illinois when talking ofï the record at the dinner of the New England Tax Conference at Oyster Harbors. The publication of the stenographer's notes came without my participation or advance knowledge and I venture to think that the unsuitability of the product for perpetuation in print was due preponderantly to the transscription hazards of intermittent and imperfect stenographic snatches than to the inspiration of pre-prandial courtesies. Let me say therefore that I have no personal knowledge whatever of railroad taxation in Illinois and that I do not recall the original source of the hearsay that Illinois differs so markedly from New Jersey. While in the process of disavowal I should perhaps add that my conviction of undue New Jersey greediness was the fruit of professional efforts to secure judicial clemency and hence is open to the possibility of distortion not wholly lacking in paid advocates. T. R. Powell


Coffee seeds begin to develop shortly after fertilization and can take 6 to 8 months to complete their formation, a period during which all the characteristics of the mature seed are determined, directly influencing physiological quality. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that act during coffee seed maturation. The objective of the current study was to analyze expression of the β-tubulin (TUB) and endo-β-mannanase (MAN) genes during different phases at the end of development and in different tissues of Coffea arabica seeds. The transcription levels of the TUB and MAN genes were quantified in a relative manner using qRT-PCR in whole seeds, and dissected into embryos and endosperms at different developmental stages. Greater expression of MAN was observed in whole seeds and in endosperms during the green stage, and in the embryo during the over-ripe stage. High TUB gene expression was observed in whole seeds during the green stage and, in the embryos, there were peaks in expression during the over-ripe stage. In endosperms, the peak of expression occurred in both the green stage and in the cherry stage. These results suggest participation of endo-β-mannanase during the initial seed developmental stages, and in the stages of physiological maturity in the embryo tissues. TUB gene expression varied depending on the developmental stage and section of seed analyzed, indicating the participation of β-tubulin during organogenesis and coffee seed maturation.


With the ever-improving advances in computer vision and Earth observation capabilities, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) allow extensive forest inventory and the description of stand structure indirectly. We performed several flights with different UAVs and popular sensors over two sites with coniferous forests of various ages and flight levels using the custom settings preset by solution suppliers. The data were processed using image-matching techniques, yielding digital surface models, which were further analyzed using the lidR package in R. Consumer-grade RGB cameras were consistently more successful in the identification of individual trees at all of the flight levels (84–77% for Phantom 4), compared to the success of multispectral cameras, which decreased with higher flight levels and smaller crowns (77–54% for RedEdge-M). Regarding the accuracy of the measured crown diameters, RGB cameras yielded satisfactory results (Mean Absolute Error—MAE of 0.79–0.99 m and 0.88–1.16 m for Phantom 4 and Zenmuse X5S, respectively); multispectral cameras overestimated the height, especially in the full-grown forests (MAE = 1.26–1.77 m). We conclude that widely used low-cost RGB cameras yield very satisfactory results for the description of the structural forest information at a 150 m flight altitude. When (multi)spectral information is needed, we recommend reducing the flight level to 100 m in order to acquire sufficient structural forest information. The study contributes to the current knowledge by directly comparing widely used consumer-grade UAV cameras and providing a clear elementary workflow for inexperienced users, thus helping entry-level users with the initial steps and supporting the usability of such data in practice.


Modern vehicles have become increasingly computerized to satisfy the more strict safety requirements and to provide better driving experiences. Therefore, the number of electronic control units (ECUs) in modern vehicles has continuously increased in the last few decades. In addition, advanced applications put higher computational demand on ECUs and have both hard and soft timing constraints, hence a unified approach handling both constraints is required. Moreover, economic pressures and multi-core architectures are driving the integration of several levels of safety-criticality onto the same platform. Such applications have been traditionally designed using static approaches; however, static approaches are no longer feasible in highly dynamic environments due to increasing complexity and tight cost constraints, and more flexible solutions are required. This means that, to cope with dynamic environments, an automotive system must be adaptive; that is, it must be able to adapt its structure and/or behaviour at runtime in response to frequent changes in its environment. These new requirements cannot be faced by the current state-of-the-art approaches of automotive software systems. Instead, a new design of the overall Electric/Electronic (E/E) architecture of a vehicle needs to be developed. Recently, the automotive industry agreed upon changing the current AUTOSAR platform to the "AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform". This platform is being developed by the AUTOSAR consortium as an additional product to the current AUTOSAR classic platform. This is an ongoing feasibility study based on the POSIX operating system and uses service-oriented communication to integrate applications into the system at any desired time. The main idea of this thesis is to develop novel architecture concepts based on adaptation to address the needs of a new E/E architecture for Fully Electric Vehicles (FEVs) regarding safety, reliability and cost-efficiency, and integrate these in AUTOSAR. We define the ASLA (Adaptive System Level in AUTOSAR) architecture, which is a framework that provides an adaptive solution for AUTOSAR. ASLA incorporates tasks-level reconfiguration features such as addition, deletion and migration of tasks in AUTOSAR. The main difference between ASLA and the Adaptive AUTOSAR platform is that ASLA enables the allocation of mixed critical functions on the same ECU as well as time-bound adaptations while adaptive AUTOSAR separates critical, hard real-time functions (running on the classic platform) from non-critical/soft-real-time functions (running on the adaptive platform). To assess the validity of our proposed architecture, we provide an early prototype implementation of ASLA and evaluate its performance through experiments.


A carcinogenesis bioassay of locust bean gum, a widely used food stabilizer, was conducted by feeding diets containing 25,000 or 50,000 ppm of the test substance to 50 F344 rats and 50 B6C3F1 mice of either sex for 103 weeks. Groups of 50 untreated rats and mice of either sex served as controls. Mean body weights of high-and low-dose rats of either sex, of low-dose male mice, and of high-and low-dose female mice were comparable with those of the controls; mean body weights of high-dose male mice were slightly lower than those of controls. No other compound-related clinical signs or effects on survival were observed. Although the rats and mice might have been able to tolerate higher doses, 50,000 ppm (5%) is the recommended maximum concentration of a test chemical mixed in feed according to the guidelines of the Bioassay Program. Although alveolar/bronchiolar adenomas occurred in low-dose male mice at a significantly (P=0.017) higher incidence than that in the controls (7/50, 17/50, 11/50), no significant statistical results were obtained when the combined incidence of animals with either alveolar/bronchiolar adenomas or carcinomas was analyzed (14/50, 21/50, 14/50). Cortical adenomas in the adrenal gland of female rats occurred with a statistically significant (P=0.042) positive trend (1/50, 4/50, 6/50), but comparisons between test groups and the control group were not statistically different. Under the conditions of this bioassay, locust bean gum was not carcinogenic for male or female F344 rats or B6C3F1 mice. Levels of Evidence of Carcinogenicity: Male Rats: Negative Female Rats: Negative Male Mice: Negative Female Mice: Negative


Two adaptive controllers for a vibrational MEMS gyroscope are described. Both controllers tune the drive axis natural frequency to a preselected frequency, regulate the amplitude of the drive axis vibration, cancel out quadrature error due to stiffness coupling, and drive the sense axis vibration to zero for force-to-rebalance operation. The first controller is based on an averaged, low frequency model, and the second is based on the full gyroscope model. Both controllers are successfully simulated for the Berkeley Z-axis gyro. The Lyapunov function used is critical in obtaining a good transient response, especially for the force-to-rebalance and automatic gain control loops. To implement the full model controller with displacement measurements only, and no velocity measurements, the controller is approximated.


Extracellular recordings were performed from the paraventricular (PVN) neurosecretory cells in the anesthetized male rats. After sub- and suprathreshold stimulations to the neural stalk, two of 38 neurons showed inhibitory phases and eleven of the remaining 36 neurons showed inhibitory responses after suprathreshold stimulations. These results indicate that the recurrent inhibitory system exists in the PVN.


[structure: see text] Hydroxyaromatic aldehydes and ketones were used as building blocks to prepare ether oligomers. An iterative two-step protocol involving Mitsunobu coupling and carbonyl reduction provided a protecting-group-free route with high yields. Activity screening of an 84-member library against proteases led to the discovery of micromolar inhibitors for trypsin, chymotrypsin, and subtilisin.


The growth reduction observed in many plants caused by salinity is often associated with a decrease in their photosynthetic capacity. This effect could be associated with the partial stomatal closure and/or the non-stomatal limitation which involves the decrease in ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase (RUBISCO) activity. The objective of this study was to explore the mechanisms of inhibited photosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana ( Pa-1 accession) under salt stress. Pa-1 seeds grown on a solid substrate for 25 days on standard medium were challenged with 50 mM NaCl for 15 days. Harvests were carried out every five days by separating the rosette leaves and roots. Salt stress reduced growth by limiting the number of the rosette leaves and not their biomass. Accumulation of Na+ and Cl- increased during the treatment period, whereas K+ and Ca2+ accumulation were reduced in salt treatment. RUBISCO and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) activities were increased with the age of the leaves to a maximum after 10 days of treatment then later decreased. We concluded that the sensitivity of Pa-1 to salinity may be due to a reduction in number of leaves, in the photosynthetic assimilation with stomatal closure and damage of the RUBISCO and PEPC activities. Keywords : Arabidopsis thaliana , photosynthetic parameters, salinity, ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase (RUBISCO), phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC). African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(29), pp. 4594-4602


Bis (trimethylsiloxy) silicon naphthalocyanine (SiNc) LB films were fabricated to align nematic liquid crystals. Films obtained under different surface pressures exhibit different alignment effects. Films obtained under surface pressure of 15mN/m will induce a planar alignment, while those obtained under 30mN/m will induce a homeotropic alignment. Atomic force microscopy reveals that on films prepared under high surface pressure the SiNc molecules stack into separate monomers or aggregates to form lines of nanometer size with molecular macrocycles perpendicular to the surface of the film and the dipping direction of its formation. In addition, there are grooves of molecular size between the stacked SiNc molecular lines. Similar formation occurs in films prepared under low surface pressures, only instead of molecules all lying perpendicular to the surface, many SiNc molecules are lying obliquely to the film surface or even lying on the surface. The mechanism of the liquid crystal alignment is also discussed.


The background of this research "conventional marketing wisdom holds that a market orientation provides a company with a better understanding of its customers, competitors and environment, which subsequently leads to superior business performance. While researchers have explored the relationship between market orientation and business performance in different organizations, such studies in retailers industry are scarce."The objective of this research: "Is there an influence from the market orientation towards business performance of retailers industry?". This research is attempt to test the links among three dimensions of market orientation (intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination and responsiveness) and also the link between market orientation and business performance."Data for this study were collected through personal interviews; and Kohli, Jaworski and Kumar's market orientation scale was used to specify the dimensions of a market-oriented organization. These questions were structured in a Likert Scale model. Because of the size of the sample and number of variables; this research used the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis."The result of this research conclude that Kohli, Jaworski, and Kumar's market orientation scale provides a good measure of market orientation in this setting. Also the results of analysis indicated a significant link between market orientation and retailers industry performance.Keywords : Market orientation, Intelligence generation, Intelligence dissemination, Responsiveness, Business performance


A high-density CMOS-compatible deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) array fabricated with a modified metallization process is demonstrated. The array consists of silicon nitride isolation to confine the DNA sample to a specific cell area defined by silicon dioxide to achieve low crosstalk between neighboring cells. A prehybridization process together with a conductive enhancement method are also developed to improve the signal to noise ratio. Nine orders of magnitude difference in conductance is measured between array cells with matched and single-based mismatched DNA samples. The matching of DNA molecules can then be easily detected by a simple digital switching circuit.


We compare four different approaches towards modeling frame-level errors in GSM channels. One of these, the Markov-based trace analysis (MTA) model, was developed for the purpose of modeling a GSM channel. The next two, k/sup th/-order Markov models and hidden Markov models (HMMs) have been widely used to model loss in wired networks. All three of these have difficulty modeling empirical GSM frame-level error traces. The MTA model and HMM predict frame error rates substantially different from that measured from the trace, and all three models have difficulty capturing the long term temporal correlation structure. We propose a fourth model, the extended ON/OFF model, which alternates between an ON (error-free) and an OFF (error-filled) state. The state holding times are taken from mixtures of geometric distributions. We show that this model, with mixtures of three or four geometric distributions, captures first order and second order statistics significantly better than the preceding three approaches.


A low power microwave plasma torch as an excitation source was combined with a photochemical vapor generator (PVG) and a miniaturized charge-coupled device to construct a portable optical emission spectrometer. The PVG facilitates sampling of liquid samples without a desolvation system and avoids extinguishing the plasma. At a radio frequency power of 150 W, for example, limits of detection between 1 and 50 ng mL−1 were achieved for Ni, Hg, Fe and Se. Therefore, it could be a promising technique for field analytical chemistry in areas such as environmental analysis or fast screening analysis.


'"When a man walks into your office, sits down in front of your desk, and tells you that he is Napoleon Bonaparte, do not get drawn in a discussion of cavalry tactics at the battle of Austerlitz" … They conceal the central point. The thing is mad.'1

When private providers argue why they are good for UK primary care, we need to consider not only their 'cavalry tactics', but also the possibility that there is something inherently unsound about what they propose.

The main opportunity for private providers to gain access to the NHS tends to be practice vacancies, both real and manufactured, in deprived areas. An argument has been developed, therefore, that private providers have a particular contribution to make in such areas, delivering high quality care and narrowing health inequalities. While a little rhetoric appears to go a long way in securing NHS contracts, the claim merits inspection. What is it about private providers, and their understanding of the problems of primary care in deprived areas, that justifies support for their approach?

The continuing inverse care law comprises an old problem and a new problem.2 The old problem is that a flat distribution of medical and associated manpower in primary care is insufficient to address the burden of health problems in deprived areas, which is 2.5–3 times greater in the most deprived tenth of the population than in the most affluent tenth.3 With more cases and less time, the circle can only be squared by leaving many things undone. A culture of low expectations has evolved.

1948 solved one type of access problem, providing everyone with …


PURPOSE
This study is aimed to analyze and clarify the ambiguous concept of insight.

METHOD
This study used the process of Walker & Avant's concept analysis.

RESULTS
Insight can be defined in terms of its attributes as follows: Insight 1) comes as a release to the tension of inquiry, (2) is the outcome of the process to discover the overall structure of the problem situation and psychologically restructurize it, (3) comes suddenly and unexpectedly, (4) is to clearly perceive the solution of the abstract problem, and (5) promotes obtaining another new insight. The antecedents of insight include inquiry that can not be resolved easily and also a state where basic knowledge related to the inquiry can be utilized. The consequence of the insight is (1) a new judgement is made, (2) the problem is solved, (3) previous insight is retained and transferred, and it also facilitates the generation of fresh insight, and (4) it passes into the habitual texture of one's mind.

CONCLUSION
Nurse educators need to facilitate nursing students and nurses to accumulate systematically, various information that can become the basis of insight and provide them with an opportunity to experience a variety of problems. In addition, it is important to provide questions to learners as an education strategy to allow them to gain insight into problem solving. From now on, insight needs to be studied in conjunction with critical thinking and questioning in order to enhance nurses' ability to resolve problems.


The study focused on assessment of the factors affecting budget allocation to health sector, Survey of selected woredas in east wollega zone. Surveys of budget officials, interview with finance managers and documentary analysis used. The data was analyzed through us of SPS.  The results reveal that, the factors affecting budget allocation to health sector are; number of: beneficiaries, Health centers, Clinics, Health posts, health college, staff by profession, and for Administrative and general service.  But the variables are not supported by formula rather the budget allocated by budget official's judgment based on budget amount available. Based on the finding, it is recommended that the woredas should implementation all factors in the allocation process practically, use these factors with methods, allow woredas to share experience to each other, provide training for staff periodically. Keywords: Budget officials, Budget allocation, Factors, Health Sector, Woredas DOI : 10.7176/RJFA/10-9-04 Publication date :May 31 st 2019


Adoption of hydrogen infrastructure and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs) to replace gasoline internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles has been proposed as a strategy to reduce criteria pollutant and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector and transition to fuel independence. However, it is uncertain (1) to what degree the reduction in criteria pollutants will impact urban air quality, and (2) how the reductions in pollutant emissions and concomitant urban air quality impacts compare to ultralow emission gasoline-powered vehicles projected for a future year (e.g., 2060). To address these questions, the present study introduces a "spatially and temporally resolved energy and environment tool" (STREET) to characterize the pollutant and GHG emissions associated with a comprehensive hydrogen supply infrastructure and HFCVs at a high level of geographic and temporal resolution. To demonstrate the utility of STREET, two spatially and temporally resolved scenarios for hydrogen infrastructure are evaluated in a prototypical urban airshed (the South Coast Air Basin of California) using geographic information systems (GIS) data. The well-to-wheels (WTW) GHG emissions are quantified and the air quality is established using a detailed atmospheric chemistry and transport model followed by a comparison to a future gasoline scenario comprised of advanced ICE vehicles. One hydrogen scenario includes more renewable primary energy sources for hydrogen generation and the other includes more fossil fuel sources. The two scenarios encompass a variety of hydrogen generation, distribution, and fueling strategies. GHG emissions reductions range from 61 to 68% for both hydrogen scenarios in parallel with substantial improvements in urban air quality (e.g., reductions of 10 ppb in peak 8-h-averaged ozone and 6 mug/m(3) in 24-h-averaged particulate matter concentrations, particularly in regions of the airshed where concentrations are highest for the gasoline scenario).


A 58-year-old man presenting with increasing shortness of breath over several months is reported here. All investigations were repeatedly normal until he suddenly and rapidly deteriorated, warranting admission, and a diagnosis was made of early multiple myeloma associated with the hyperviscosity syndrome. The plasma viscosity was extremely high compared to the low concentration of paraprotein present, and the possible mechanisms are discussed. Although uncommon, the hyperviscosity syndrome is an important cause of dyspnoea which is readily reversible, and should be considered when investigations of cardiac and pulmonary function are normal.


ABSTRACT Cities can be considered as engines of the knowledge-based economy, because they are the primary sites of knowledge production activities that subsequently shape the rate and direction of technological change and economic growth. Patents provide rich information to analyse the knowledge specialization of specific places, such as technological details and information on inventors and entities involved. The technology codes attributed at the level of individual patent documents can be used to indicate the diversity and scope of the knowledge claims underlying a specific invention. In this study we introduce tools for portfolio analysis in terms of patents that provide insights into the technological specialization of cities. The mapping and analysis of patent portfolios of cities exploits data derived from the Unites States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and dedicated tools (at https://leydesdorff.net/software/patents/). The results allow policy makers and other stakeholders to identify promising areas of further knowledge development, including smart specialization strategies.


As crowdfunding technologies mature, designers and practitioners are continuing to discover new paradigms for fund‐raising activities. One such paradigm seeks to complement or replace third‐party crowdfunding websites by embedding crowdfunding technologies directly into fund seekers' personal websites. This promises more control and customisation for fund seekers yet also distances fund‐seeking activities from the established crowds on websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Consequently, fund seekers adopting this paradigm must be capable of gathering and sustaining a suitable crowd that does not already exist in any one location. However, not all organisations are likely to possess the social resources to meet this challenge. Of those that do, little is known about how they might leverage these resources or the manner in which specific resources have an impact. Thus, the objective of this study is to explore the social resources that enable self‐hosted crowdfunding activities. In particular, this research models these activities by leveraging 2 a priori theoretical lenses: activity theory and social capital theory. These are applied to analyse an extreme case of self‐hosted crowdfunding, the funding of Star Citizen. Observations from this case are used to develop a propositional model that links different types of social capital with specific elements of self‐hosted crowdfunding.


The Transformer architecture has proven to be highly effective for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) tasks, becoming a foundational component for a plethora of research in the domain. Historically, many approaches have leaned on fixed-length attention windows, which becomes problematic for varied speech samples in duration and complexity, leading to data over-smoothing and neglect of essential long-term connectivity. Addressing this limitation, we introduce Echo-MSA, a nimble module equipped with a variable-length attention mechanism that accommodates a range of speech sample complexities and durations. This module offers the flexibility to extract speech features across various granularities, spanning from frames and phonemes to words and discourse. The proposed design captures the variable length feature of speech and addresses the limitations of fixed-length attention. Our evaluation leverages a parallel attention architecture complemented by a dynamic gating mechanism that amalgamates traditional attention with the Echo-MSA module output. Empirical evidence from our study reveals that integrating Echo-MSA into the primary model's training regime significantly enhances the word error rate (WER) performance, all while preserving the intrinsic stability of the original model.


We consider a distributed estimation of the double-penalized least squares approach for high dimensional partial linear models, where the sample with a total of $N$ data points is randomly distributed among $m$ machines and the parameters of interest are calculated by merging their $m$ individual estimators. This paper primarily focuses on the investigation of the high dimensional linear components in partial linear models, which is often of more interest. We propose a new debiased averaging estimator of parametric coefficients on the basis of each individual estimator, and establish new non-asymptotic oracle results in high dimensional and distributed settings, provided that $m\leq \sqrt{N/\log p}$ and other mild conditions are satisfied, where $p$ is the linear coefficient dimension. We also provide an experimental evaluation of the proposed method, indicating the numerical effectiveness on simulated data. Even under the classical non-distributed setting, we give the optimal rates of the parametric estimator with a looser tuning parameter limitation, which is required for our error analysis.


Relevance The structure of the flowers of tomatoes is very thin adapted to self-pollination, and any violations of the technology of cultivation in protected ground lead to a significant reduction in the ability of plants to pollinate and fruit set. Violation of growing conditions can lead to changes in the structure of the inflorescences and flowers, which negatively affects pollination and fruit formation, reducing the yield. The article presents a review of literature data and the author's own research on this topic. It has been established that growing conditions in cultivation structures have a greater effect on the amount of pollen produced in tomato flowers and to a lesser extent, on its quality. In the flowers of the first inflorescence, the least amount of pollen is produced. This is due to the fact that the formation of this inflorescence occurs in the seedling period, while it is experiencing more stress. Basal (the first in the inflorescence) flowers produce low-quality pollen, while its amount is maximum. Additional pollination improves fruit set by increasing the amount of pollen grains falling on the stigma of the pistil. The use of bumblebees for additional pollination increases the yield by increasing the number of ensuing fruits. The formation of polynomial flowers on tomato plants – varietal reaction. More often they are found in multi-chamber largefruited tomato hybrids. Less commonly, polynomial flowers are found in tomato hybrids with plum and pepper fruits, such flowers are not found in cherry tomato hybrids. A polynomial flower - most often the first in the inflorescence. They are formed mainly in the first 4-5 inflorescences and give accreted non-harvest fruits. In order to increase the yield and quality of fruits, polynomials need to be removed in a timely manner.


The basic characteristics contributing to the nonlinear time-varying gluco-corticoid control mechanism in 300-gram male rats fasted 18 hours have been formulated. Intact animal time responses of the plasma levels of corticosterone to intraperitoneally injected doses of 50, 200, and 500 ?g/kg simulated on an analog computer were compared with the experimental results. Nonlinear time-dependent characteristics of the hypothalamic-hypophyseal complex, previously unobtainable experimentally, were arrived at indirectly through the use of experimental data and simple control theory analysis. Involved compartmental analysis of the complex kinetics for the intraperitoneally injected dose was bypassed by using experimental data and concepts of control mechanisms. The model was found to be compatible with the linear model of Yates.


This paper is concerned with symmetrization and diagonalization of real matrices and their implications for the dynamics of linear, second-order systems governed by equations of motion having asymmetric coefficient matrices. Results in the light of Taussky's theorem are presented. The connection of the symmetrizers with the eigenvalue problem is brought out. An alternative proof of Taussky's theorem for real matrices is presented. Diagonalization of two real symmetric (but not necessarily positive-definite) matrices is discussed in the context of undamped non-gyroscopic systems. A commutator of two matrices with respect to a given third matrix is defined; this commutator is found to play an interesting role in deciding simultaneous diagonalizability of two or three matrices. Errors in a few previously known results are brought out. Pseudo-conservative systems are studied and their connection with the so-called 'symmetrizable systems' is critically examined. Results for modal analysis of general non-conservative systems are presented. Illustrative examples are given.


The study was conducted to investigate the physicochemical parameters of the Jhenai River during the period from February-April 2018. The water samples were collected from three different sampling stations as St-1 (Kalihati), St-2 (Bahala Hat) and St-3 (Hazipur Hat) for analyzing the physicochemical parameters such as temperature, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, pH, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand and hardness in water. The physicochemical parameters were analyzed in the laboratory of the Department of Environmental Science, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Patuakhali, Bangladesh, The result of the study showed that the temperature was ranged from 23.7-31.7°C, indicated an increasing rate from February to April. The contents of EC and TDS were varied from 655-698µS/cm and 524-582mg/l, respectively, indicated high ionic concentration in the river water. The contents of DO and BOD of all stations were ranged from 4.2-5.4 and 1.1-1.4mg/l revealed that organic waste pollution, whereas the pH (7.34-7.56) of all stations showed alkaline condition. The hardness contents were ranged from 132.20-143.40mg/l indicated suitable for aquatic environment. The result of the study concluded that the water can be used for various purposes as well as for aquatic organisms. To maintain the river water quality and conserve the aquatic life, proper measures should be taken to prevent the introduction of water pollutants into the river water.


At 60-150 °C and 15-35 bar H2 , two model reactions of levulinic acid (LA), hydrogenation and reductive amination with cyclohexylamine, were explored in a multiphase system composed of an aqueous solution of reactants, a hydrocarbon, and commercial 5 % Ru/C as a heterogeneous catalyst. By tuning the relative volume of the immiscible water/hydrocarbon phases and the concentration of the aqueous solution, a quantitative conversion of LA was achieved with formation of γ-valerolactone or N-(cyclohexylmethyl)pyrrolidone in >95 and 88 % selectivity, respectively. Additionally, the catalyst could be segregated in the hydrocarbon phase and recycled in an effective semi-continuous protocol. Under such conditions, formic acid additive affected the reactivity of LA through a competitive adsorption on the catalyst surface. This effect was crucial to improve selectivity for the reductive amination process. The comparison of 5 % Ru/C with a series of carbon supports demonstrated that the segregation phenomenon in the hydrocarbon phase, never previously reported, was pH-dependent and effective for samples displaying a moderate surface acidity.


The Development of Scratch Test Methodology and Characterization of Surface Damage of Polypropylene. (August 2003) Min Hao Wong, B.S., Nanyang Technological University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Hung-Jue Sue A new scratch test methodology is proposed. The new test methodology is developed based on the principles of materials science and solid mechanics, which include the consideration of material parameters, use of microscopy for image analysis and the finite element method (FEM). The consistency and reproducibility of test results are shown using a new scratch test device on two sets of neat and talc-filled polypropylene (PP) systems. Three different test conditions, i.e., linear load increase under constant rate, constant load under constant rate, and linear rate increase under constant load, have been conducted to determine the most effective, informative test conditions for evaluation of scratch resistance of polymers. Experimental observations and FEM results show a good qualitative correlation. The unique advantages of the new scratch test method for evaluating scratch resistance of polymers are discussed. A systematic study of surface damage effected by a progressive scratching load is performed on model polypropylene (PP) systems. Mar-scratch and stress-whitening transitions can be readily observed, and the corresponding critical loads determined. Distinctive scratch hardnesses and surface damage features are found for different material systems. Visibility of scratched surface is quantified using gray level analysis via a flatbed scanner and a commercial image analysis tool. It is found that the onset of scratch visibility can be determined accurately and reproducibly using the custom-built scratcher under progressive loading condition. Talc particles are found to be responsible for the increased light scattering, leading to greatly increased visibility. The observed scratch visibility is also found to be related to the measured frictional force profiles. Approaches for producing scratch resistant PP are discussed.


Abstract : We seek to understand and predict the evolution of the brightness temperature (four Stokes parameters) of wind-driven foam-covered ocean surfaces. The correlation of polarimetric variation is studied as function of the medium state, modeled as a rough surface (ocean) overlayed by a random medium (foam). Many independent results are obtain by using a wide variety of electromagnetic techniques, such as radiative transfer, integral equation, finite-difference time-domain, etc. Depending on the technique chosen, the foam coverage is modeled as either a dense medium composed of densely packed scatterers, a dielectric layer of non-uniform thickness or a succession of volumetric scatterers.


Vertebro-basilar insufficiency (VBI) is a vague clinical entity including several symptoms such as faintness, dizziness, vertigo. Millikan and Siekert reported a 'syndrome of intermittent insufficiency of basilar arterial system'. But vascular abnormalities responsible for such symptoms are often hardly diagnosed by conventional angiography, because vertebro-basilar artery systems have many kinds of anomalous congenital origins. Conventional angiography gives us arterial informations such as stenosis, occlusion and malformations, but it often fails to reveal capillary perfusions because of its relatively poor density resolution. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is considered to have improved density resolution, and it may enable us to detect vascular perfusions more sensitively in the capillary phase. In this study, we evaluated the usefulness of the capillary filling analysis in digital subtraction angiography for diagnosis of VBI.


A novel approach to the design of M-channel pseudo-quadrature mirror filter (QMF) banks is presented. In this approach, the prototype filter is constrained to be a linear-phase spectral-factor of a 2Mth band filter. As a result, the overall transfer function of the analysis/synthesis system is a delay. Moreover, the aliasing cancellation (AC) constraint is derived such that all the significant aliasing terms are canceled. Consequently, the aliasing level at the output is comparable to the stopband attenuation of the prototype filter. In other words, the only error at the output of the analysis/synthesis system is the aliasing error which is at the level of stopband attenuation. Using this approach, it is possible to design a pseudo-QMF bank where the stopband attenuation of the analysis (and thus synthesis) filters is on the order of /spl minus/100 dB. Moreover, the resulting reconstruction error is also on the order of /spl minus/100 dB. Several examples are included. >


Reasonability of determination the hour characteristics of engine cycle depending on peculiarities of technological process, which is executed with a help of certain equipment, is shown in the article. The corresponding methodology is given.


The short stay unit (SSU) is a ward providing targeted care for patients requiring brief hospitalization and who are dischargeable as soon as their clinical condition is resolved. Therefore, SSU is an alternative to the ordinary ward (OW) for the treatment of select patients.1Short – stay surgery enhances the opportunity for social support from the family. The recovery of the patient in his/her own family environment results in better psychological adjustment as a result of enhanced patient comfort, control, independence, and better interaction with family members. Short - stay surgery reduces the quantum of medications prescribed and also aids in judicious utilization of the doctor's time.A checklist with the list of surgeries performed in the Urology department in the tertiary care teaching hospital was given to Surgeons and Anesthetists of the Urology department. They were asked to select the surgeries for short- stay. The common surgeries selected were included in the study. After obtaining the list of short stay surgeries, the existing Average Length of Stay (ALOS) was calculated for patients who underwent those selected surgeries from January 2014 to December 2014. Convenience sampling was the technique used. The selected twenty procedures accounted for fifty four percent of the total bed occupancy of the Urology department over one year. The bed occupancy rate of urology wards by the patients of the selected procedures in the study setting was about 50%. The urology ward has a bed occupancy of eighty five percent. There is a waiting list of patients. A short stay surgical unit would reduce the length of stay of patients. The existing average length of stay for the selected procedures ranged from 2.2 days to 13 days. Three hundred procedures were performed in four Urology operation theatres. The Urology operation theatre utilization rate ranged from 65% - 75%. By the implementation of the short stay surgical unit, the utilization of the Urology operation theatre in the study setting can be increased to 80%. The Bed turnover rate was approximately 74 patients per bed per year. 6 patients more can be catered to per bed every year, keeping other factors constant.


A nonlinear analysis is performed for the motion of a rolling re-entry vehicle for the case of constant roll rate and for the case of variable roll rate, dynamic pressure, and stability derivatives. Each of the restoring, damping, lag, Magnus, and induced moments is assumed to be a cubic function of the angle-of-attack with variable coefficients. In the constant roll rate case, the derivative expansion version of the method of multiple scales is used to derive equations that characterize the time variation of the amplitudes and phases of the nutation and precession modes. In the variable roll rate case, the generalized version of the method of multiple scales is used to derive equations for the roll rate and the amplitudes and phases of the oscillatory modes of the angle of attack near and away from roll resonance. The roll degree of freedom is coupled with the pitch and yaw degrees of freedom instead of assuming a priori the variation of the roll rate. The analytical solutions are found to be in good agreement with the numerical solutions of the full problem.


Integrated bio/nano/Complementary Metal‐Oxide‐Semiconductor (CMOS) interfaces for electrochemical molecular sensing are becoming more and more common in the literature, especially for developing new electronic biochips for smart and intelligent Internet‐of‐Things (IoT) applications in remote monitoring of human body metabolism. The need for a bio interface is to specifically recognize the sensing of target molecules. The need for a nano interface is to address issues related to device sensitivity with respect to the envisaged medical application. Finally, the need for a CMOS interface comes from the modern approach to wearable and personal electronics, now also thought as an entry gate for monitoring people in their daily lives (e.g., sportsmen during competitions or trainings, chronic patients at home, etc.). Therefore, this paper reviews some of the most advanced approaches and methods published in the literature over the last decade related to the co‐design of integrated bio/nano/CMOS interfaces for electrochemical sensing of molecules related to human metabolism. Several approaches for realizing nanostructures directly on top of CMOS dies are introduced as well, and the related applications in biosensing are described. © 2018 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Sublethal heating of spores has long been known to stimulate or activate germination; however, the underlying mechanisms are not yet fully understood. In this study, the entire germination‐to‐outgrowth process of spores from Clostridium perfringens, an anaerobic sporeformer, was visualized at single‐cell resolution. Quantitative analysis revealed that sublethal heating significantly reduces the time from completion of germination to the beginning of the first cell division, indicating that sublethal heating of C. perfringens spores not only sensitizes the responsiveness of germinant receptors but also directly or indirectly facilitates multiple steps during the bacterial regrowth process.


The linearised augmented plane-wave method and the local density functional potential are used to calculate the energy band and the density of states of two interstitial compounds Fe2B and FeB and to give the distribution of the electron density showing the bonds between Fe and B and between B and B atoms. The calculated density of states agrees with photo-electron spectroscopy results. The B 2s and 2p states are well below the Fermi energy in both Fe2B and FeB. Besides the metal bonds between Fe atoms, there exist strong covalent Fe-B bonds in Fe2B. With the increase in B content, rather strong covalent B-B bonds form in FeB, leading to a one-dimensional zigzag chain structure. No electron transfer occurs between Fe and B atoms in these two compounds.


The first decade of the history of independent Lebanon witnessed the arbitrary exclusion of women from the definition of the "Lebanese" who were granted and guaranteed equal rights and duties in the Lebanese Constitution.' Women were denied their political rights either explicitly in electoral laws2 or implicity by holding elections on the basis of electoral lists that did not have female voters on them yet.


This paper presents a framework for Robust Infrastructure over Shared Computing resource (RISC), which can offer Organizations with Small-scale Computing infrastructures (OSCs) a way to share their unused resources in an ad-hoc manner for suitable monetary incentives. Such a framework provides dual benefits to an OSC: it enables sharing of unused resource during periods of low computing load while allowing execution of any long-term computation on public or anonym zed data at a very low cost during periods of high load. The ad-hoc and heterogeneous nature of the shared infrastructure make the resource management problem inRISC non-trivial -- a resource manager needs to: (i) maximize profit while determining incentives for resource owners and prices for resource users in an integrated manner, and (ii)emulate large-scale cloud-like robustness and capabilities out of unreliable, small-scale and intermittently available resources at a low cost. This leads to a constrained market situation where offered prices and incentives should lead to a desired level of SLA and reliability for the consumers. Existing approaches of incentive based scheduling for market-like grids assume an open market, based only on demand response, and thus are inapplicable for the constrained market situation in shared resources infrastructure. Specifically, RISC framework has two main components: (i) a first-of-a-kind Dynamic Pricing and Incentivization (DPI) strategy that computes the incentives and the prices while maximizing profit for RISC, using an epoch-by-epoch pricing feedback loop, and (ii) a DPI dependent Reliability, Cost and Seaware(RCS) scheduler that takes the resource reservation requests as input and assigns replicas of these requests tone or more shared resources for guaranteeing performanceSLAs and reliability, while minimizing the cost of resource reservations. Moreover, to handle the communication overhead of computing over geographically distributed resources, the scheduler strives to reduce the network cost of resource allocation. Results from extensive trace-driven experimentation show that our approach can indeed provide appropriate incentives for resource providers, and robust cost-efficient infrastructure solution for resource users.


Multi-hop relaying is an important concept in future generation wireless networks. It can address the inherent problems of limited capacity and coverage in cellular networks. However, most multi-hop relaying architectures are designed based on a small fixed-cell-size and a dense network. In a sparse network, the throughput and call acceptance ratio degrades because distant mobile nodes cannot reach the base station to use the available capacity. In addition, a fixed-cell-size cannot adapt to the dynamic changes of traffic pattern and network topology. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-hop relaying architecture called the adaptive multi-hop cellular architecture (AMC). AMC adapts the cell size to an optimal value that maximizes throughput by taking into account the dynamic changes of network density, traffic patterns, and network topology. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that adaptive (or optimal) cell size is accounted for in a multi-hop cellular environment. AMC also achieves the design goals of a good multi-hop relaying architecture. Simulation results show that AMC outperforms a fixed-cell-size multi-hop cellular architecture and a single-hop case in terms of data throughput, and call acceptance ratio


Today, significant reserves of PJSC TATNEFT are concentrated in the filled-up terrigenous deposits. A feature of these objects is a high zonal heterogeneity, dissection, degraded filtration-capacitive properties, small thickness (no more than 3-4 meters). Effective development of reserves from these facilities is not possible without the use of high-tech methods of stimulation, primarily drilling of horizontal wells with multi-stage hydraulic fracturing (MSHF).
 The aim of the work was the search and adaptation of new solutions, among which was the MSHF using "Plug & Perf" technology. The advantages of this technology is that the whole process is performed exclusively using a logging lot and a hydraulic fracturing fleet, which significantly speeds up the process and allows you to work without additional tripping.
 This technology allowed the maximum acceleration of multiple fracturing and minimum damaging of the bottomhole zone during the formation davelopment. During the development, the planned values of the flow rate of the fluid were achieved, which made it possible to introduce a small-sized installation into the well. For the further development of the direction of multiple hydraulic fracturing in horizontal wells, development objects and technological solutions have been identified. The experience of using this technology will allow the low-permeability and clayey thin reservoirs to be actively involved in active development, at the same time increasing the efficiency and speed of work on the multi-stage hydraulic fracturing.


Meningococcal disease in the Western countries is frequently caused by Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B. Major efforts have been made to develop a safe and efficacious vaccine against this serogroup which is suitable for use in infants and young children. To assess the quality of the immune response after vaccination with candidate vaccines, laboratory correlates of protection are needed. For serogroups A and C, serum bactericidal activity (SBA) is a well established predictor for protection, but for serogroup B other mechanisms besides SBA may also be involved in conferring protection from disease. Several laboratory methods for identification and evaluation of the immunogenicity of possible vaccine antigens are described in this review.


A 5-week-old male infant presented with failure of separation of the umbilical cord. He was evaluated for the presence of integrin and selectin ligand leukocyte adhesion molecules on his neutrophils and monocytes. Integrin molecules appeared to be normally expressed, but expression of sialyl Lewis X (sLex) was decreased. The expression of sLex gradually increased, and the umbilical cord separated at 10 weeks of age. Further study revealed decreased numbers of sLex-positive neutrophils with a lower mean fluorescence intensity on neutrophils from cord blood compared to neutrophils in adult peripheral blood. This study indicates that this patient had an uncommonly low level of sLex expression and infers that adequate expression may be required for the inflammatory reaction needed for umbilical cord separation.


Kazakh (ISO 639-3, kaz) is a Kipchak (Northwestern) Turkic language with approximately ten million speakers (Muhamedowa 2015). While the majority of Kazakh speakers live in the Republic of Kazakhstan, significant Kazakh-speaking populations exist throughout Central Asia. See Figure 1 for a map of the region. Kazakh spoken in Kazakhstan is described as having three or four dialects, but many researchers agree that differences between dialects are small and largely lexical (Kara 2002, Grenoble 2003, Muhamedowa 2015; see Amanzholov 1959 for more on Kazakh dialects).


It is well documented that dendrimers were described as one of the most tunable nanomaterials both for therapeutic applications and diagnostics. This concise review surveys the different types of both non-targeted and targeted drug-encapsulated dendrimers and dendrimer–drug conjugates in oncology. In addition, progress in biocompatible dendritic architectures is discussed as it relates to the development of anti-cancer agents through in vitro and in vivo studies. In particular, we present relevant examples of these nanodevices to treat aggressive cancers such as colon and brain tumors. This review concludes with a brief survey of perspectives for clinical translation.


In this work, we extend the temperature–entropy formulation to multi-stage thermoelectric coolers. With reference to commercially available thermoelectric materials, temperature–entropy diagrams are constructed to facilitate understanding the effects of electric current(s) and/or ratios of the number of thermocouples between stages on devices' performance. The temperature dependence of material properties is taken into consideration.


We combine the physics of correlated many-body states of a two-dimensional electron system with the methods of cavity quantum electrodynamics. By coupling the cavity photon of an AlGaAs based DBR micro-cavity structure to optical interband excitations of a 20 nm GaAs quantum well we observe the emergence of novel many-body polariton modes. In the absence of a magnetic field we find Fermi-edge polaritons and provide a new interpretation of these modes as optical many-body excitations at the Fermi-edge that are strongly coupled to the cavity photon. In presence of a magnetic field we use the strong coupling of the cavity mode to bound trion states of inter Landau level transitions as a new spectroscopic tool to study correlated states in the integer and fractional quantum Hall regime. These quantum Hall polaritons provide a direct way to study the spin-polarization of quantum Hall states by measuring the polarization dependent normal-mode splitting. We think that our technique is also suited to study the compressibility of the electron system and therefore constitutes a powerful method to complement transport spectroscopy with the advantages of a minimally invasive local probe.


About 20 % of the Brazilian population is affected by anxiety disorders are more prevalent among women aged between 34 and 59 years and alprazolam is the second most widely used anxiolytic to treat this pathology. As to the characteristics of tablets, these must have physical and chemical stabilities, disintegrate at the expected time, be little crumbly, also smooth and shiny surface.The aim of this work was to evaluate the quality of alprazolam 0.5 mg tablets, making the comparison between reference, generic and similar medicines commercially available, as regards the visual aspect and the average weight tests, hardness and friability. For the assay, 270 uncoated tablets of 0.5 mg alprazolam were used, from three different laboratories. Among them, 90 were from Reference category medicines (Group A), 90 were Generic medicines (group B) and 90, Similar medicines (group C). Each group was composed of three subgroups corresponding to different batches, and each subgroup contained 30 tablets of the same lot. The assay was done in triplicate. Thus, the group A was composed of lots A1, A2, and A3; Group B consisted of the lots B1, B2 and B3 and the group C consisted of lots C1, C2, and C3. All lots were approved in the assays average weight and friability. However, considering package, the group C presented the number of the lot and expiration date illegible; and in the hardness test, two tablets of C1 lot showed hardness below of the specifications described by the Brazilian Pharmacopeia 5th Edition.


In this article we consider the spectral properties of a class of non-local operators that arise from the study of non-local reaction-diffusion equations. Such equations are used to model a variety of physical and biological systems with examples ranging from Ohmic heating to population dynamics. The operators studied here are bounded perturbations of linear (local) differential operators. The non-local perturbation is in the form of an integral term. It is shown here that the spectral properties of these non-local operators can differ considerably from those of their local counterpart. Multiplicities of eigenvalues are studied and new oscillation results for the associated eigenfunctions are presented. These results highlight problems with certain similar results and provide an alternative formulation. Finally, the stability of steady states of associated non-local reaction-diffusion equations is discussed.


Objective: In this study, we investigated protective effects of pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC), which is an antioxidant and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) inhibitor, on nephropathy in diabetic rat model. Materials and methods: Twenty-eight Sprague-Dawley rats were allocated into 3 groups. Control group (n=8) received no treatment; diabetes group (n=10) received single intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of streptozotocin (STZ, 65 mg/kg) to induce experimental diabetes; and PDTC group (n=10) received i.p. 100 μL/day PDTC for a total of 10 weeks following diabetes induction with i.p. STZ injection. At the end of the study kidneys were excised from sacrificed rats, and glomerular and tubular changes were examined under light microscopy. Immunohistochemically, NF-κB (p65) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression were evaluated in the renal cortex. Results: In diabetes group, immunohistochemical NF-κB expression was higher than control and PDTC groups (p<0.05). In PDTC group, NF-κB expression level was very similar to control group, but less than diabetes group (p<0.05). Immunohistochemical iNOS expression was less in control group. In PDTC group, iNOS expression was more intense than control group (p<0.05), but less than that in diabetes group (p<0.05). Conclusion: PDTC has a protective effect on renal injury secondary to diabetes and can be a treatment option for patients with diabetic nephropathy.


The study seeks to assess the income generating projects of Bulacan Agricultural State College from School Year 2018-2019. Descriptive research method and purposive sampling technique in the identification of respondents (faculty and project-in-charge or administrators) was used. The study sought to evaluate the level of attainment of goals and productivity of the IGPs as perceived by the faculty and the project-in-charge/administrators; extent of support provided by the administration on the IGP as perceived by the faculty and the project-in-charge/administrators; and the problems encountered in the operation of the Bulacan Agricultural State College (BASC IGP). Hence, the study concluded that, BASC IGP had been providing pecuniary support to the College. However, the financial outputs drawn from the IGPs are not substantial. Moreover, the continuous occurrence of the identified problems during IGP operation, if not properly addressed, would surely result to the declining on the productivity of the BASC's IGP particularly in providing pecuniary output, decrease in employment, and limitation of students scholarship grants, to name a few. Thus, the BASC would remain not selfreliant in terms of funds. Hence, the College's delivery of quality education would remain unchanged or affected due to the nonproductivity of BASC's IGPs that has to be strengthened in order to supply the inadequate school budget being given by the national government every year.


Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a clinically very severe zoonotic helminthic disease, characterized by a chronic progressive hepatic damage caused by the continuous proliferation of the larval stage (metacestode) of Echinococcus multilocularis. The proliferative potential of the parasite metacestode tissue is dependent on the nature/function of the periparasitic immune‐mediated processes of the host. Immune tolerance and/or down‐regulation of immunity are a marked characteristic increasingly observed when disease develops towards its chronic (late) stage of infection. In this context, explorative studies have clearly shown that T regulatory (Treg) cells play an important role in modulating and orchestrating inflammatory/immune reactions in AE, yielding a largely Th2‐biased response, and finally allowing thus long‐term parasite survival, proliferation and maturation. AE is fatal if not treated appropriately, but the current benzimidazole chemotherapy is far from optimal, and novel options for control are needed. Future research should focus on the elucidation of the crucial immunological events that lead to anergy in AE, and focus on providing a scientific basis for the development of novel and more effective immunotherapeutical options to support cure AE by abrogating anergy, anticipating also that a combination of immuno‐ and chemotherapy could provide a synergistic therapeutical effect.


Hypocalcemia has only been rarely reported during surgical procedures not involving massive blood transfusions. The frequent observation in our hospital of a low serum ionized calcium level during surgery in nonacutely ill patients prompted us to investigate the calcium-PTH axis in three groups of subjects undergoing major (hepatectomy; n = 10), moderately severe, or minor surgery under general anesthesia (colectomy; n = 7, herniorrhaphy; n = 9) compared to that in one group of minor surgery cases under epidural anesthesia (herniorrhaphy; n = 15). Serum samples were obtained before anesthesia, after anesthesia but before surgery, and 40 and 120 min after the beginning of surgery in all groups of patients and for up to 3 days in major and moderately severe cases. Significant falls (P < 0.01), always proportional to the severity of the surgical/anesthesia procedure, were observed for ionized calcium (6-20%), total calcium (8-19%), and albumin (8-23%) accompanied by increases in intact PTH (105-635%). The decrease in ionized and total calcium correlated with a decrease in albumin (P < 0.001). Phosphorus, pH, and magnesium levels remained within the normal range. Adjustment of ionized calcium for variation in albumin revealed that 50-100% of the variation in ionized calcium could be attributed to a fall in albumin resulting from fluid administration to patients before admission to the surgery ward and between the onset of anesthesia and the end of surgery (1.2-5.6 L). Albumin- and pH-independent residual ionized calcium decreases of 12.2% in the hepatectomy group, 4.6% in the group of moderately severe and minor cases under general anesthesia, and 3.7% in the control group reflected the severity of the surgical/anesthesia procedure.


There is a current surge of research interest in the potential role of developmental plasticity in adaptation and evolution. Here we make a case that some of this research effort should explore the adaptive significance of heterokairy, a specific type of plasticity that describes environmentally driven, altered timing of development within a species. This emphasis seems warranted given the pervasive occurrence of heterochrony, altered developmental timing between species, in evolution. We briefly review studies investigating heterochrony within an adaptive context across animal taxa, including examples that explore links between heterokairy and heterochrony. We then outline how sequence heterokairy could be included within the research agenda for developmental plasticity. We suggest that the study of heterokairy may be particularly pertinent in (i) determining the importance of non-adaptive plasticity, and (ii) embedding concepts from comparative embryology such as developmental modularity and disassociation within a developmental plasticity framework.


Guided waves are a potent tool in structural health monitoring, with promising machine learning algorithm applications due to the complexity of their signals. However, these algorithms usually require copious amounts of data to be trained. Collecting the correct amount and distribution of data is costly and time-consuming, and sometimes even borderline impossible due to the necessity of introducing damage to vital machinery to collect signals for various damaged scenarios. This data scarcity problem is not unique to guided waves or structural health monitoring, and has been partly addressed in the field of computer vision using generative adversarial neural networks. These networks generate synthetic data samples based on the distribution of the data they were trained on. Though there are multiple researched methods for simulating guided wave signals, the problem is not yet solved. This work presents a generative adversarial network architecture for guided waves generation and showcases its capabilities when working with a series of pitch-catch experiments from the OpenGuidedWaves database. The network correctly generates random signals and can accurately reconstruct signals it has not seen during training. The potential of synthetic data to be used for training other algorithms was confirmed in a simple damage detection scenario, with the classifiers trained exclusively on synthetic data and evaluated on real signals. As a side effect of the signal reconstruction process, the network can also compress the signals by 98.44% while retaining the damage index information they carry.


In this article I focus on constructions of diasporic national identities and the nation as active and strategic processes using the case study of Palestinians in Athens. I seek, thereby, to contribute to debates on national identity, the nation and long-distance nationalism, particularly in relation to those in diaspora with a collective cause to advocate. I explore how first- and second-generation Palestinians in Athens construct and narrate Palestinian national identities, the homeland and political unity. I argue that the need to 'choose' to be Palestinian, often for political reasons, highlights that the nation is not a 'given' entity. This can be a difficult process for those in diaspora to deal with, as there may be tensions between constructions of political unity and attachment to the homeland and feelings of ambivalence and in-between-ness that may be seen as politically counterproductive. However, I stress that 'messy' and contradictory narratives and spatialities of diasporic national identities that come about as a result of cross-border or transnational (dis)connections do not necessarily lead to apathy and, therefore, can be important.


Field experiments were conducted to study the effects of varying rates of nitrogen application on soil mineral nitrogen content, amount of nitrogen released from the straw, and grain yield of late sowing wheat with straw returning. The result showed that a high nitrogen fertilizer application rate enhanced the mineral nitrogen content in the soil layer of 0 to 50 cm, and also in the lower soil layers when using N at 270 and 360 kg · hm(-2) with the advance of growth stages. The amount of nitrogen released form the straw increased as the nitrogen application rate increased; the lowest appeared from overwintering to jointing, and the highest from jointing to maturity. During the whole growing season, apparent nitrogen surplus occurred when the nitrogen application rate was higher than 180 kg · hm(-2). The N surplus before jointing was significantly higher than that from jointing to maturity. Grain yield reached the highest at a nitrogen application rate of 270 kg · hm(-2), and a higher application rate obviously decreased the nitrogen use efficiency. It could be concluded that applying nitrogen at 270 kg · him(-2) could improve the grain yield of late sowing wheat with straw returning with the optimal ecological benefit.


A novel method for the preparation of the spirocyclic Δβ,γ-butenolides is presented. The developed strategy is based on a trienamine-mediated [4+2]-cycloaddition between (E)-3-alkylidene-5-arylfuran-2(3H)-ones and 2,4-dienals. Target products containing three contiguous centres including one quaternary are efficiently formed in a highly enantiomerically enriched form in the presence of the silyl-protected diphenylprolinol aminocatalyst.


—This report investigates whether a vulnerability found in one web framework may be used to find a vulnerability in a different web framework. To test this hypothesis, several open source applications were installed in a secure test environment together with security analysis tools. Each one of the applications were developed using a different software framework. The results show that a vulnerability identified in one framework can often be used to find similar vulnerabilities in other frameworks. Cross-site scripting security issues are the most likely to succeed when being applied to more than one framework.


Dupuytren's disease is a common fibroproliferative disorder with digital flexion deformities causing disability. Two forms are apparent clinically, nodules and cords. Transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-b1) has been implicated in Dupuytren's disease development. Myofibroblasts are prevalent in nodules and may be the source of cell-mediated contraction, which combined with matrix remodelling causes tissue shortening. The hypothesis was that nodule and cord derived fibroblasts have differing contractile properties; have inherently altered tensional homeostasis and responses to mechanical stimuli. It was found that nodule cultures contained significantly greater numbers of myofibroblasts, identified using immunohistochemical staining, than cord or carpal ligament. A culture force monitor model was used to study the contractile properties of fibroblasts in culture. Mean peak force generated at 20hrs was significantly greater in nodule cells, than cord, whilst carpal ligament generated minimal force. There was a failure of force to plateau before 20hrs in Dupuytren's cells, possibly representing delayed tensional homeostasis. Responses to increased tension were investigated by subjecting gels to four uniaxial overloads. Dupuytren's cells, particularly nodule fibroblasts, exhibited an unexpected increased contractile response to the first overload. TGF-b1 stimulation caused a significant upregulation of myofibroblasts in Dupuytren's cells to 25%; it also caused an increase in contraction profiles, with elevated mean 20hr force. Greatest stimulation occurred early in contraction, 2hr gradients increasing by 250 % in nodule fibroblasts. After overloading greater contractile responses were observed in the first postoverload period and these persisted to subsequent overloads after TGF- b1 stimulation. Flexion deformities in Dupuytren's disease occur due to shortening of the affected matrix. The abnormal contractile properties and altered tensional homeostasis in resident cells that we have found may be central to this. TGF- b1 stimulation upregulated myofibroblast differentiation in Dupuytren's cells and exacerbated the abnormal contractile properties and responses to loading. Clinical relevance is discussed.


Environmental exposures during sensitive windows of development can reprogram normal physiologic responses and alter disease susceptibility later in life in a process known as developmental reprogramming. For example, exposure to the xenoestrogen diethylstilbestrol during reproductive tract development can reprogram estrogen-responsive gene expression in the myometrium, resulting in hyperresponsiveness to hormone in the adult uterus and promotion of hormone-dependent uterine leiomyoma. We show here that the environmental estrogens genistein, a soy phytoestrogen, and the plasticizer bisphenol A, differ in their pattern of developmental reprogramming and promotion of tumorigenesis (leiomyomas) in the uterus. Whereas both genistein and bisphenol A induce genomic estrogen receptor (ER) signaling in the developing uterus, only genistein induced phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT nongenomic ER signaling to the histone methyltransferase enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2). As a result, this pregenomic signaling phosphorylates and represses EZH2 and reduces levels of H3K27me3 repressive mark in chromatin. Furthermore, only genistein caused estrogen-responsive genes in the adult myometrium to become hyperresponsive to hormone; estrogen-responsive genes were repressed in bisphenol A–exposed uteri. Importantly, this pattern of EZH2 engagement to decrease versus increase H3K27 methylation correlated with the effect of these xenoestrogens on tumorigenesis. Developmental reprogramming by genistein promoted development of uterine leiomyomas, increasing tumor incidence and multiplicity, whereas bisphenol A did not. These data show that environmental estrogens have distinct nongenomic effects in the developing uterus that determines their ability to engage the epigenetic regulator EZH2, decrease levels of the repressive epigenetic histone H3K27 methyl mark in chromatin during developmental reprogramming, and promote uterine tumorigenesis. Mol Cancer Res; 10(4); 546–57. ©2012 AACR.


Since 1990s there has been tremendous increase in the movement of FDI especially to
 developing and emerging markets due to the rapid liberalization policies initiated by
 these countries. The issue of FDI continues to attract the interest of scholars and
 policymakers due to its anticipated spillover effects on economic growth and
 development of the host countries. Intense competition among emerging economies and
 developing countries to entice foreign capital has led to formulation of various measures
 as FDI stands as the most important foreign financing in these countries.
 There are two main objectives of the study. First objective explores the determinants of
 services FDI, while the second objective examine the the impact of services FDI on
 services trade. There exist two conflicting arguments in respect to FDI-trade
 relationship. The first argues for a positive relationship meanwhile the second holds that
 FDI and trade are negatively related. The stated objectives were achieved using static
 linear panel data analysis namely; pooled OLS, random effects and fixed effects models
 covering data from 2000 until 2010. As for the first objective, the finding shows that
 market size, trade openness, human capital and the availability of quality infrastructure
 are important determinants of services FDI inflow for the ASEAN countries. In
 addition, the study finds insignificant relationship between services FDI and services
 trade.Therefore, it is crucial for the ASEAN countries to invest substantially in the education
 sector in order to produce a quality and highly skilled workforce that are required in the
 services subsectors. In addition, the government and central bank should play a key role
 in formulating appropriate monetary, fiscal and trade policy to effectively control the
 rising inflation rate if they are bale to identify the main causes of such inflation.
 Furthermore, well-developed, reliable and quality communications infrastructure will
 reduce costs and increase efficiency for investors, and hence, will convince them to
 choose ASEAN countries, in particular, as their investment destination. The ASEAN
 region has to extend their ICT networks in almost all provinces or states within
 respective countries along with reduction of internet, mobile and telephone subscription
 costs.


This study investigated students' observable and unobservable involvement behaviours and their possible relation with academic achievement in a Climatology course at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, Portugal, in the Fall 2018/19. A structured online questionnaire titled "Observable and Unobservable Student Involvement Behaviours (OUSIB)" featuring a zero-centred 5-point Likert scale was used to collect the data. The OUSIB questionnaire comprised 20 multiple-choice questions, which were divided into two subscales: (1) Observable Involvement Behaviours; (2) Unobservable Involvement Behaviours; it was validated using Cronbach coefficient alpha. The collected data show that unobservable involvement behaviours are more frequent than the observable ones. This may reflect the difficulties that most students face in understanding the course contents, which likely triggers their introspective (unobservable) in detriment of their observable involvement behaviour. We notice that most of the Climatology syllabus consists of new subjects for which students generally have no prior knowledge or experience. It may constitute a great challenge for students being able to provide regular observable feedback during an entire problem-solving class. Moreover, there is a common tendency for high-grade students to prepare the classes in advance and involve less both observably and unobservably in classroom activities. We found no significant correlation between students' final grades and their replies to the OUSIB questionnaire, which precludes any possible relationship between students' academic achievement and their involvement behaviours in problem-solving classes.


The effect of explosive reactive armour (ERA) on the penetration of a long-rod projectile is investigated using computational techniques. This area of research is especially relevant to main battle tanks as a large portion of them utilise ERA which is effective against both kinetic and chemical munitions. The ERA package consists of steel flyer plates sandwiched between an explosive layer that detonates on projectile impact. The influence of the stand-off distance and detonation delay and variation of the angle of impact is assessed to determine the overall effectiveness of the ERA package. The analysis presented in this study allows for a better understanding of impact dynamics and can be used in the development and optimisation of ERA as well as projectiles designed to defeat it.


In the present knowledge vibrant society, there is a need of new knowledge creation and knowledge sharing, storage as well as refinement. Knowledge is vital to any organization and its power. Knowledge management (KM) is a process consisting of the stages; storing, gathering, structuring, sharing, controlling, generating, distributing, codifying, using and exploiting. Knowledge management is not about managing knowledge for knowledge's sake; the overall objective is to create value and to leverage, improve, and refine the competences and knowledge assets to meet organizational goals and targets. Knowledge management is essentially about getting the right knowledge to the right person at the right time. It places a focus on knowledge as an actual asset, rather than as something intangible. In so doing, it enables the firm to better protect and exploit what it knows, and to improve and focus its knowledge development efforts to match its needs. Knowledge management therefore implies a strong tie to organizational goals and strategy, and it involves the management of knowledge that is useful for some purpose and which creates value for the organization. Knowledge and information are used interchangeably by so many people. Consequently, Knowledge Management solutions even today which are essentially nothing more than information or document management systems, that is which handle data, information, or perhaps even explicit knowledge, but which do not touch the most essential part of knowledge management - tacit knowledge. In addition, Knowledge management basically focuses on the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom and deals with the both codified and uncodified knowledge. Uncodified knowledge may be viewed as the most valuable type of knowledge which is found in the minds of practitioners and is unarticulated, context-based, and experience-based. Management of knowledge in agriculture is much needed in present scenario as there are various players in agriculture and allied sectors, serving the diverse needs of their clienteles on their level. The present paper reviews the knowledge management process and knowledge management cycle with its benefits and importance in organisation, agriculture and allied. Key word: Knowledge; KM Process; KM Concept; KM Stages; KM tools; REVIEW PAPER


The electrodeposition of zinc telluride (ZnTe) thin films on tin conductive oxide substrates in aqueous solution containing TeO2 and ZnSO4 was studied. The electrodeposition mechanism was investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The appropriate potential region where formation of stoichiometric ZnTe semiconductor occurs, was found to be −1.1 V versus saturated calomel electrode, and the pH was maintained at 3.5 ± 0.1. The crystallographic structure of the deposited film is seen to be cubic with a preferential orientation along the (111) phase. Optical absorption studies reveal a bandgap of 2.26 eV and optical constants (n and k) are evaluated. Scanning electron microscopy imaging was used to study the surface morphology. The composition of ZnTe films was analysed using an electron microprobe analyser, and the results are discussed.


This thesis examines the challenge of robust audio-visual person verification using data recorded in multiple environments with various lighting conditions, irregular visual backgrounds, and diverse background noise. Audio-visual person verification could prove to be very useful in both physical and logical access control security applications, but only if it can perform well in a variety of environments. This thesis first examines the factors that affect video-only person verification performance, including recording environment, amount of training data, and type of facial feature used. We then combine scores from audio and video verification systems to create a multi-modal verification system and compare its accuracy with that of either single-mode system. Thesis Supervisor: Timothy J. Hazen Title: Research Scientist, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Thesis Supervisor: James R. Glass Title: Principal Research Scientist, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory


Selecting a set of deterministic (e.g., P10, P50 and P90) models is an important and difficult step in any uncertainty quantification workflow. In this paper, we propose to use multi-objective optimization to find a reasonable balance between often conflicting features that must be captured by these models. We embed this approach into a streamlined uncertainty quantification workflow that seamlessly integrates multi-realization history-matching (MHM), production forecasting with uncertainty ranges and representative, deterministic model selection.
 Some uncertain parameters strongly impact simulated responses representing historic (production) data and are selected as active parameters for history-matching, whereas others are important only for forecasting. An ensemble of conditional realizations of active history match parameters is generated in the MHM stage using a distributed optimizer, integrated with either randomized-maximum-likelihood (RML) or Gaussian-mixture-model (GMM). This ensemble is extended with unconditional realizations of forecast parameters generated by sampling from their prior distribution. Based on production forecasting results from simulations of this ensemble representing the posterior uncertainty distribution, representative (P10/P50/P90) models are selected using multi-objective optimization.
 In addition to matching target values of the primary and a few secondary key performance indicators (e.g., cumulative oil/gas/water production, recovery factor, etc.), selected representative models often must satisfy other requirements or constraints, e.g., the value of some key parameters must be within a user specified tight range. It can be quite difficult to find a set of representative models that satisfy all requirements. Even more challenging, some requirements may be conflicting with others such that no single model can satisfy all requirements. To overcome these technical difficulties, this paper proposes formulating different requirements and constraints as objectives and applying a multi-objective optimization strategy to find a set of Pareto optimal solutions based on the concept of dominance. One or more representative models can then be selected from the set of optimal solutions according to case dependent preferences or requirements.
 The proposed method is tested and validated on a realistic example. Our results confirm that the proposed method is robust and efficient and finds acceptable solutions with no violation or minimal violations of constraints (when conflicting constraints are present). These results suggest that our advanced multi-objective optimization technique can select high-quality representative models by striking a balance between conflicting constraints. Thus, a better decision can be made while running much fewer simulations than would be required with traditional methods.


Background

Stroke is a serious vascular disorder that comprises intracerebral hemorrhages, subarachnoid hemorrhages and ischemic stroke (IS). The etiology of stroke, including hereditary components induced by cellular mechanisms, is therefore a research field of vital importance. The aim of this thesis was to assess possible genetic impact on stroke risk. We thus evaluated family history of stroke-related individual traits as well as allelic variations in selected candidate genes.

Methods

Association studies, primarily of Lund Stroke Register data, were fundamentals in the analyses in order to find possible genetic association with stroke risk. Hereditary risk factors, based on family-history data and candidate gene studies, were considered. Statistical methods for assessing the data, including basic chi-square tests of two-by-two tables as well as various logistic regression approaches and meta-analysis applications using the DerSimonian-Laird method, were used. TOAST subtypes of ischemic stroke were considered when available. Also, 25 coronary artery disease (CAD) susceptible SNPs from various genetic loci were joined together in risk scores and tested against IS risk by logistic regression.

Results

Paper I: The prevalence of stroke or TIA among first-degree relatives may affect the proband's stroke risk (odds ratio, OR=1.74; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.36-2.22), especially when considering mothers and offsprings (OR=2.04; 95% CI: 1.30-3.20). No such association was seen at all between spouses.

Papers II-III: SNP rs12188950 was significantly associated with IS in Paper II (OR=0.72; 95% CI: 0.58-0.91; N=1324), but not in Paper III (OR=0.93; 95% CI: 0.83-1.05; N=4692) where a different sample representing an analogous Swedish population was used.

Paper IV: SNP rs4977574 on chromosome 9p21 was related to IS risk (OR=1.12; 95% CI: 1.04-1.20) and large vessel disease risk (OR=1.36; 95% CI: 1.13-1.64). This genetic effect of chromosome 9p21 on IS was however already known. None of the other 24 SNPs or compiled risk scores were significant.

Conclusions and discussion

Significant transmission of stroke from parents to offsprings but not between spouses suggests a genetic inheritance component. But, for SNPs representing some particular carefully selected genes, the findings regarding possible impact on IS were not that clear: Ambiguous results were obtained, many significance tests were also negative. Moreover, we could not generally find significant associations between SNPs susceptible for CAD and IS risk.