Vascular injury and plaque rupture activate the haemostatic response, resulting in the formation of a thrombus comprising platelets, red cells and leucocytes, incorporated into a mesh of plasma proteins. Whether cells within the thrombus act simply as structural and secretory components, or have a more active role involving gene expression is unclear. To investigate this, thrombi were produced at 37°C in a Chandler loop, using re-calcified citrated blood from healthy donors (n=6). The thrombi were removed after 2, 4 and 6 h of rotational incubation, and homogenised to extract total RNA. Following in vitro transcription, samples were hybridised to Illumina WG6 beadchips, and data normalised using Illumina Beadstudio. Differences in gene expression were assessed using a Student t test, applying fdr2d correction to eliminate false positives (R Bioconductor). Genes which demonstrated significant (>twofold) time-dependent increases included genes encoding proteins involved in chemotaxis (IL8, CCL2, CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCR4), cell adhesion (ITGAV, ITGA5, ITGB1, ALCAM), regulation of coagulation (THBD, PLAU, SERPINE1, ANXA5), wound healing (TGM2, ENDG, SPP1, LAMB3, PTGS2, TNFAIP6) and regulatory transcription factors (FOS, BMP6, IRAK2, KLRG1, PPARG). Whereas initiation of thrombosis is driven by plasma proteins and facilitated by the platelet surface, this study provides evidence that thrombus resolution may be driven by changes in gene expression within the thrombus that regulate the haemostatic response, thrombus growth and facilitate wound healing. This finding could have implications for individuals at risk of plaque rupture, where variation in gene expression may affect not just the formation of an occlusive thrombus but also the rate of resolution.


In this paper we provide new evidence on the relationship between internal governance structures (board composition and ownership concentration) and audit fees of UK industrial quoted companies, before the recommendations of the Cadbury Committee were implemented. We also develop a new hypothesis derived from agency theory, in an attempt to explain the puzzling positive relationship between audit and non-audit fees. In common with post-Cadbury research, we find no significant evidence that board structure variables, including chairman/chief executive officer split and the proportion of non-executive directors on the board, impact significantly on external audit fees. Also, while prior research has shown that the aggregated level of institutional and managerial ownership are negatively associated with audit fees, we find that only one constituent of this variable, namely directors' ownership, has a significant impact.


Potted Cardinal, Chardonnay, and Chenin blanc vines were subjected to heat stress of 40°C and 20°C (day and night temperatures, respectively) for periods of 0 (control), four, eight, and 12 days before returning the vines to optimal day temperature conditions of 25°C to 29°C in a greenhouse for an eight-day "recovery period". Root temperatures were maintained constant during the heat stress period by holding the pots in a water bath. Stomatal conductance, predawn leaf water potential, air and leaf temperatures, relative humidity, and photosynthetic active radiation were measured throughout the experiment. Heat stress markedly reduced stomatal conductance (Cs)in Chardonnay and Chenin blanc vines. Under optimal temperature conditions (25 ° to 29°C/15 ° to 16°C day/night temperatures), Chardonnay vines had the highest Cs, followed by Chenin blanc and Cardinal, whereas under heat stress (40°C), Chenin blanc had the highest Cs, followed by Chardonnay and Cardinal. However, Cardinal was the least affected of the three cultivars. Within one to four days after heat-stressed vines were returned to optimal day temperature conditions, Cs was similar to that of control vines.


The idea that the corona is at least in part supplied by chromospheric evaporation in loop "micro-events" is quantified in tel ms of the power requirements of evaporation mechanisms, using recent analyses of data on such events in high temperature EUV lines from the SoHO EIT instrument. Estimates are derived for the pre-event and event values of loop density and temperature and it is shown, using the conductive scaling law, that the event emission measure enhancements are too large to be accounted for solely by enhanced conductive flux from coronal heating. That is, observations demand that supply of coronal mass by evaporation events need a mechanism which enhances upper chromospheric heating and not just conductively driven evaporation. Thus coronal mass supply in transients is inextricably linked to direct chromospheric heating processes. Using parametric models of a chromospheric heating function and of the pre-event chromosphere. an estimate is made of the extra Fewer required to yield the emission measure enhancement of a large event evaporatively. The dependence of the result on just how the EUV solar images are interpreted is emphasised and observational tests are discussed for the case of heating by fast particles. Implications of the results in terms of the global supply of the hot corona and wind mass loss ale briefly mentioned


Abstract A new architecture of temporal neural network, called Recurrent Radial Basis Function is proposed. This new architecture of neural network take into account the temporal aspect of the data in a dynamical way. This functionality is obtained by input layer neurons self-connections. The RRBF network is validated on a dynamic monitoring problem by analyzing strongly varying sensors signals. The obtained monitoring model is able to divert false alarms and to anticipate the system operation in order to consider corrective actions, before undesired modes occur.


Japanese discourse requires speakers to index, in a relatively explicit manner, their stance toward the propositional information as well as the hearer. This is done, among other things, by means of a grammaticalized set of modal markers. Although previous research suggests that the use of modal expressions by second language learners differs from that of native users, little is known about "typical" native or non-native behavior. This study aims (a) to delineate native and non-native usage by a quantitative examination of a broad range of Japanese modal categories, and qualitative analyses of a subset of potentially problematic categories among them, and (b) to identify possible developmental trajectories, by means of a longitudinal observation of learners' verbal production before and after study abroad in Japan. We find that modal categories realized by non- transparent or non-salient markers (e.g., explanatory modality no da, or utterance modality sentence-final particles) pose particular challenges in spite of their relatively high availability in the input, and we discuss this finding in terms of processing constraints that arguably affect learners' acquisition of the grammaticalized modal markers.


We present new results for relative sea‐level change for southern Greenland for the interval from 9000 cal. yr BP to the present. Together with earlier work from the same region this yields a nearly complete record from the time of deglaciation to the present. Isolation and/or transgression sequences in one lake and five tidal basins have been identified using lithostratigraphic analyses, sedimentary characteristics, magnetic susceptibility, saturated induced remanent magnetisation (SIRM), organic and carbonate content, and macrofossil analyses. AMS radiocarbon dating of macrofossils and bulk sediment samples provides the timescale. Relative sea level fell rapidly and reached present‐day level at ∼9300 cal. yr BP and continued falling until at least 9000 cal. yr BP. Between 8000 and 6000 cal. yr BP sea level reached its lowest level of around ∼10 m below highest astronomical tide. At around 5000 cal. yr BP, sea level had reached above 7.8 m below highest astronomical tide and slowly continued to rise, not reaching present‐day sea level until today. The isostatic rebound caused rapid isolation of the basins that are seen as distinct isolation contacts in the sediments. In contrast, the late Holocene transgressions are less well defined and occurred over longer time intervals. The late Holocene sea‐level rise may be a consequence of isostatic reloading by advancing glaciers and/or an effect of the delayed response to isostatic rebound of the Laurentide ice sheet. One consequence of this transgression is that settlements of Palaeo‐Eskimo cultures may be missing in southern Greenland. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Attachment theory focuses on the bond that develops between child and caretaker and the consequences that this bond has on the child's future relationships. Adolescents attempt to define their identity by experiencing various risky behaviors. The first aim of the study was whether risk taking behavior differs according to attachment styles. The second was to examine risk taking behavior differences according to gender. The third aim of this study was to examine attachment X gender interaction effect for risk taking behavior. And final was to investigate attachment styles differences according to gender. Data were collected from 218 participants (114 female and 104 male) who are university students. The results of this study showed that attachment styles differentiated by risk taking behavior and males had higher risk taking score than females. It was also found out that there was significant attachment X gender interaction effect for risk taking behavior. And finally, the results showed that attachment styles differentiated according to gender. Keywords—Attachment style, risk taking


The Lee path connection algorithm is probably the most widely used method for finding wire paths on printed circuit boards. It is shown that the original claim of generality for the path cost function is incorrect, and a restriction, called the pathconsistency property, is introduced. The Lee algorithm holds for those path cost functions having this property. Codings for the cells of the grid are proposed which will allow the correct operation of the algorithm under the most general path cost function, using the minimum number of states possible, six states per cell. Then methods for reducing the number of calculations by increasing the number of states are presented.


Background and Purpose: The problematic reduction of civic engagement in local communities of Khuzestan province in the southwest of Iran has became a serious issue for research in social planning and policy making. Efforts have been made to study the risk factors as the deterrents to engaging in the society. Methods: this study aims to investigate the factors influencing civic engagement among elderly citizens, focusing on the role of the background variables and individual characteristics as the reducing or active factor. The community of study is 201 elderly citizens from the selected urban areas of Ahwaz city selected through cluster sampling method. The independent variables are gender, socioeconomic status, membership in non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the duration of living in the city, the sense of satisfaction of urban services, traditionalism, and fatalism. Results: It was observed that some independent variables have no significant relationship with civic engagement of the elderly, though elders have fewer participating interactions in this study. Conclusion: Some proposals within the research itself were recognized as potential improvement and reinforcement energies to participation-based planning in the population, especially among women and the elderly. The growth of social networks and societal links, along with social trust revival seemed helpful.


We present an identity authentication system which is cryptographically strong, pseudonymous, efficient enough to run well on current smart phone devices, and easily extensible for payment and banking functionality. We also describe high security algorithm and programming methods for the implementation, including server, network transmission, and application development. The system is intellectual property unencumbered and provably secure. The end user app implementation uses three factor security, a combination of unique device, user password, and fingerprint. We use well-known and proven cryptographic primitives.


Objectives: We investigated the effects of air pollution on allergic diseases (allergic rhinitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis) in metropolitan cities in Korea, adjusting for meteorological factors. Methods: Data on daily hospital visits and hospital admissions for 2003-2010 was obtained from the National Health Insurance Cooperation. Meteorological data was obtained from the Korea Meteorological Administration. We then calculated daily mean temperature, daily mean humidity, daily mean air pressure at sea level, and diurnal temperature range. We used data on air pollution provided by the National Institute of Environmental Research. Maximum daily eight-hour average ozone concentrations and the daily mean PM10 were used. We estimated excess risk and 95% confidence interval for the increasing interquatile range (IQR) of each air pollutant using Generalized Additive Models (GAM) that appropriate for time series analysis. Results: In this study, we observed an association between ozone and hospital visits for allergic rhinitis, asthma, and atopic dermatitis in all metropolitan cities, adjusting for temperature, humidity, air pressure at sea level, diurnal temperature range, and day of the week. Ozone was associated with hospital visits for allergic rhinitis, asthma, and atopic dermatitis across all metropolitan cities. However PM10 was associated with allergic-related diseases in only select cities. Also, ozone and PM10 were associated with hospital admission for asthma in all cities except Gwangju. Hospitalization for the other diseases failed to show consistent association with air pollutants. Conclusion: In the findings of this study, there was a significant association between air pollutants and allergicrelated diseases. More detailed research subdivided age group or conducting meta-analyses combining data of all cities is required.


Genomic selection based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) has led to the collection of genotypes for over 2.2 million animals by the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding in the United States. To assure that a genotype is assigned to the correct animal and that the animal's pedigree is correct, the pedigree parents are checked. As of January 2018, the sire was validated for 97% and the dam for 39% of the 2.2 million genotyped animals that passed edits. The genotype is compared with all other genotypes to detect unknown parent-progeny relationships or identical genotypes. If a parent is not confirmed, the grandsire is checked. If a grandsire is unknown or designated as unlikely, possible grandsires are proposed. If SNP conflicts for a parent-progeny pair are concentrated on a single chromosome, a chromosomal deletion or other abnormality is considered; 102 such cases have been detected. All comparisons consider the SNPs in common between the genotypes from the current 30 chip types. Comparison of each genotype with all others is a major and increasing consumer of computer resources. Because processing time has continued to increase, ways to reduce the time have been investigated. In 2012, a set of 1,000 SNPs that are present on nearly all chips was selected for preliminary screening. To further speed up processing, a set of 100 SNPs recently was selected based on minor allele frequency, call rate, and Mendelian consistency. Tests with the 100-SNP set showed that excluding cases with more than three opposite homozygotes could eliminate 99.7% of genotypes without eliminating any confirmed parent-progeny relationships. A continuing effort is required to maintain extensive checking and pedigree correction within the time available for processing incoming genotypes and applying updates caused by pedigree changes. In addition to grandsire checking when genotypes are loaded, maternal grandsire and maternal great-grandsire are checked and discovered using haplotypes from the imputation process as part of the genomic evaluation. For dams with unknown sires, the discovered maternal grandsire is assigned as her sire. The genotypes provide a rich source of information for validation and discovery of genetic relationships.


The case is reported of a patient with a previously undiagnosed cause of severe congestive heart failure (CHF) caused by the presence of a discrete subaortic stenosis (SAS) from a subvalvular membrane (SVM). The clinical decision making was complicated by the concurrent presence of systolic anterior motion (SAM) of the mitral valve leaflet. Due to the limitations and eventual failure of physiologically opposing medical management strategies, the patient eventually required an open-heart surgical approach and underwent intraoperative SVM resection. A persistent intraoperative left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) gradient of 50 mmHg due to SAM prompted mitral valve replacement, which resulted in a complete resolution of the LVOT gradient and symptoms. In this extremely rare scenario of SAS and SAM, when SVM resection is thought to be inadequate to relieve LVOT obstruction due to the concurrent presence of SAM, mitral valve replacement represents a reasonable therapeutic approach.


An experimental investigation on design of a vapour absorption system using LiBr-H2Ofor high grade heat recovery in thermal cooling system for process heat applications has been conducted. A 1.5 kW cooling capacityof the LiBr-H2O vapour absorption system has beend esigned and tested under various operating conditions. Generator temperature, absorber tem-perature, condenser temperature and evaporator temperature have been varied and perfor-mance of LiBr-H2O vapour absorption system has been analysed. Experimental results are presented in terms of COP and circulation ratio. Further, to validate the results thermody-namic model is developed using first law of thermodynamics and simulate in Engineering Equation Solver. The COP and the circulation ratio estimated through simulationsand exper-iments have been in good agreement with ±5% standard deviation. Further, this this research work is beneficial for dairy industries in process heat applications and realizing the impor-tance of the need for energy conservation in dairy industries.


In last year's review of polymer synthesis (Nachr. Chem. Tech. Lab. 1992, 40, 221), particular attention was paid to publications on metathesis and Ziegler–Natta polymerization, emphasizing the stormy and far-reaching developments in these areas of polymer synthesis. This year's review will also stress specific points of interest, the most important one being anionic polymerization, where much has happened. Additionally, progress in other very different and less extensive areas of polymer synthesis will be presented. Like last year, areas of work in which polymers have been synthesized with new types of molecular structures will be somewhat preferentially treated.


Accurate and rapid identification of the effective number of panicles per unit area is crucial for the assessment of rice yield. As part of agricultural development, manual observation of effective panicles in the paddy field is being replaced by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging combined with target detection modeling. However, UAV images of panicles of curved hybrid Indica rice in complex field environments are characterized by overlapping, blocking, and dense distribution, imposing challenges on rice panicle detection models. This paper proposes a universal curved panicle detection method by combining UAV images of different types of hybrid Indica rice panicles (leaf-above-spike, spike-above-leaf, and middle type) from four ecological sites using an improved You Only Look Once version 4 (YOLOv4) model. MobileNetv2 is used as the backbone feature extraction network based on a lightweight model in addition to a focal loss and convolutional block attention module for improved detection of curved rice panicles of different varieties. Moreover, soft non-maximum suppression is used to address rice panicle occlusion in the dataset. This model yields a single image detection rate of 44.46 FPS, and mean average precision, recall, and F1 values of 90.32%, 82.36%, and 0.89%, respectively. This represents an increase of 6.2%, 0.12%, and 16.24% from those of the original YOLOv4 model, respectively. The model exhibits superior performance in identifying different strain types in mixed and independent datasets, indicating its feasibility as a general model for detection of different types of rice panicles in the heading stage.


Abstract Background Patients increasingly receive home-based outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT). Understanding which patients might be at higher risk of complications is critical in effectively triaging resources upon and after hospital discharge. Methods A prospective cohort of patients discharged from 1 of 2 academic medical centers in Baltimore, Maryland, between March 2015 and December 2018 were consented and randomly divided into derivation and validation cohorts for development of a risk score for adverse OPAT outcomes. Data from the derivation cohort with the primary outcome of a serious adverse outcome (infection relapse, serious adverse drug event, serious catheter complication, readmission, or death) were analyzed to derive the risk score equation using logistic regression, which was then validated in the validation cohort for performance of predicting a serious adverse outcome. Results Of 664 patients in the total cohort, half (332) experienced a serious adverse outcome. The model predicting having a serious adverse outcome included type of catheter, time on OPAT, using a catheter for chemotherapy, using a catheter for home parenteral nutrition, being treated for septic arthritis, being on vancomycin, being treated for Enterococcus, being treated for a fungal infection, and being treated empirically. A score ≥2 on the serious adverse outcome score had a 94.0% and 90.9% sensitivity for having a serious adverse outcome in the derivation and validation cohorts, respectively. Conclusions A risk score can be implemented to detect who may be at high risk of serious adverse outcomes, but all patients on OPAT may require monitoring to prevent or detect adverse events.


Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gels have recently been found to exhibit mechanoelectrical transduction or sensing capabilities under compressive loading applications. This phenomenon is not wholly understood but has been characterized as an adsorption-like phenomena under varying amounts and types of plasticizers. A different polymer lattice structure has also been tested, thermoplastic polyurethane, which showed similar sensing characteristics. This study examines mechanical and electrical properties of these gel sensors and proposes a mathematical framework of the underlying mechanisms of mechanoelectrical transduction. COMSOL Multiphysics is used to show solid mechanics characteristics, electrostatic properties, and transport of interstitial plasticizer under compressive loading applications. The solid mechanics takes a continuum mechanics approach and includes a highly compressive Storakers material model for compressive loading applications. The electrostatics and transport properties include charge conservation and a Langmuir adsorption migration model with variable diffusion properties based on plasticizer properties. Results show both plasticizer concentration gradient as well as expected voltage response under varying amounts and types of plasticizers. Experimental work is also completed to show agreeance with the modeling results.


Water availability is one of the major physiological factors influencing plant growth and development. An assessment study has been done at the Szent István University, Gödöllő to evaluate and identify the water footprint of protein yield of field crop species. Six field crop species (Sugar beet Beta vulgaris, winter barley Hordeum vulgare, winter wheat Triticum aestivum, maize Zea mays, potato Solanum tuberosum, and alfalfa Medicago sativa) were involved in the study. Evapotranspiration patterns of the crops studied have been identified and physiologically reliable protein ranges within crop yields were evaluated. The results obtained suggest, that water footprint of cereals proved to be the lowest, however maize values were highly affected by the high variability of protein yield. Alfalfa, potato and sugar beet water footprints were in accordance with their evapotranspiration patterns.


Background: HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a type of RNA retrovirus that attacks the human immune system. AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is a complication of symptoms and infections that arise because of the immune system damage. Besides attacking the immune system, infection of HIV also affects the nervous system and can cause neurological disorder. Opportunistic infections can occur due to the decreased immunity in patients with HIV / AIDS. These infections can attack the nerve system that endangers the health and function of nerve cells. The purpose of this study is to determine the pattern of neurological disease that occurs in patient with HIV / AIDS in RSUP Dr. Kariadi Semarang.
Methods: The research design is a retrospective descriptive research, using medical records as samples. 67 samples that meet the criteria for inclusion were taken from the Internal Medicine and Neurology department of RSUP Dr. Kariadi Semarang period January 2005- July 2010. The data being describe in the form of tables and images.
Results: Total were 665 patients of HIV/AIDS and use for 67 HIV / AIDS patients who suffer from neurological diseases. 39 people (58,20%) suffer from brain toxoplasmosis, 5 people (7,50%) suffer from TB meningitis, 6 people (9%) suffer from CMV encephalitis, 5 people(7,50%) suffer from HIV encefalopati and 3 people (4,50%) suffer from non-hemorrhagic stroke. There were 2 patients (2,90%), each from cephalgia and meningoensefalitis; and patient that suffer from cryptococcal meningitis, brain edema, brain stem death, and cerebral atrophy is one (1,50%) for each diseases. From 67 patients there were 38 patients that get their CD4 checked. The results from the CD4 examination showed that 65.8% had CD4 levels of 100 cells / μl. Symptoms that often felt by the patients are 68,66% headache (46 patients); 25,37% impairment of consciousness (17 patients); and 5,97% limb weakness (4 patients).
Conclusion: The neurological disease that mostly suffered by patients with HIV / AIDS in the department of internal medicine in RSUP Dr. Kariadi Semarang is CNS Toxoplasmosis with the major complaints that often arises is headache.

Keywords: neurological diseases, HIV / AIDS, CD4.


High-grade glioma is a highly aggressive form of brain cancer associated with a poor prognosis. Recently, we identified that mesenchymal glioma stem cells (Mes GSCs) of HGG are linked to radiation resistance and proneural (PN) GSCs acquire Mes identity via radiation treatment. Here we performed a combined kinome-wide RNA interference screen with genome wide expression analysis to identify kinase-encoding genes that are essential for mesenchymal identity of GSCs. Through this stepwise screening with patient-derived GSC samples, we identified the serine/threonine kinase MLK4 as a key regulator for Mes GSC survival and cell cycle progression in vitro and tumor initiation and propagation in vivo. In addition, overexpression of MLK4 promotes, while both its gene-specific shRNA and pharmacological inhibition attenuate, proneural-mesenchymal transformation (PMT) of GSCs. In patient-derived GSCs, expression of MLK4 protein positively correlated with endogenous EGFRvIII expression and the in vivo growth of mouse xenografts derived from glioma cells with EGFRvIII expression was prominently inhibited by MLK4 knockdown. MLK4-overexpressing PN GSCs acquired radiation resistance, while MLK4 elimination by shRNA radiosensitized Mes GSCs. Patients with a higher MLK4 expression showed reduced survival in CD44-high populations. Collectively, these data indicate that MLK4 as a plausible target for therapy against Mes GBM as well as post-irradiation PN GBM. Citation Format: Kim Sunghak, Rosenstiel-Goidts Violaine, Shi-Yuan Cheng, Nakano Ichiro. Serine/threonine kinase MLK4 is a master regulator for proneural-mesenchymal transformation of glioma stem cells. [abstract]. In: Abstracts: AACR Special Conference on Cellular Heterogeneity in the Tumor Microenvironment; 2014 Feb 26-Mar 1; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(1 Suppl):Abstract nr B72. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.CHTME14-B72


A dual‐polarization wire grid beam divider has been developed. This beam divider features simultaneous uniaxial dual‐polarization operation, broad instantaneous coupling bandwidth, beam wave front preservation, and ease of fabrication. This paper describes a beam divider for 95 GHz, gives construction details, and presents a dual‐polarization local oscillator injection diplexer as a typical example of a beam divider application.


Augmented Reality (AR) is expected to be applied to manuals for assembling or inspecting tasks instead of traditional paper-based ones. Our previous study revealed that when an AR manual was experimentally used for a wiring task, efficiency became higher and human error decreased. However, in order to practically apply AR manuals in actual work situations, some human factor requirements should be clarified in advance. Thus, in this study, we attempt to make it clear what kinds of effects they have on performance by some conditions or restrictions. Particularly considering that a user wears a head-mounted display (HMD) and sees images presented by that superimposed on the real view, we examine the effects of those through some experiments. From the results, we found that a monocular HMD is better to be worn on nondominant eye, that information of an AR manual should be given part by part or one by one when the real view is complicated, and so on. We suggest conditions that do not affect their performance, or rather that enhance it in actual work situations, in this study.


ADHD is one of the most commonly diagnosed disorders during adolescence. Recently, significant increases in the diagnosis of ADHD have caused the prescription of the ADHD medication methylphenidate (MPH) to increase. MPH is a psychostimulant that blocks the dopamine transporter, which is responsible for dopamine reuptake at the synapse. The blockade of the dopamine transporter results in an increase in the availability of dopamine in the synaptic cleft. This increase of dopamine accounts for the addictive properties of a MPH due to strong effects on portions of the brain's drug-reward pathway, including the striatum and nucleus accumbens. In this study, we hypothesized that dopamine D2 receptor antagonism would block MPH-induced conditioned place preference. We also hypothesized this will be more effective in adolescent male rats as compared to adolescent female rats based on evidence that has shown a higher density of dopamine D2 receptors in the brain's reward areas of adolescent male rats. The effects of MPH on the associative effects of MPH was analyzed using the conditioned place preference (CPP) behavioral paradigm. Results showed that MPH-induced CPP was not blocked by the dopamine D2 receptor antagonist, likely due to its effects on the inhibitory presynaptically located dopamine D2 autoreceptor. The importance of these findings is discussed relative to the role of the D2 receptor in MPH addiction.


Abstract Background Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods allow for real-time, real-world survey data collection. Studies with adults have reported EMA as a feasible and valid tool in the measurement of real-world listening experience. Research is needed to investigate the use of EMA with children who wear hearing aids. Objectives This study explored the implementation of EMA with children using a single-blinded repeated measures design to evaluate real-world aided outcome. Methods Twenty-nine children, aged 7–17, used manual program switching to access hearing aid programs, fitted according to Desired Sensation Level (DSL) version 5.0 child quiet and noise prescriptive targets. Aided outcome was measured using participant-triggered twice-daily EMA entries, across listening situations and hearing dimensions. Results Adherence to the EMA protocol by the children was high (82.4% compliance rate). Speech loudness, understanding and preference results were found to relate to both the hearing aid program and the listening situation. Aided outcomes related to prescription-based noise management were found to be highest in noisy situations. Conclusions Mobile device-based EMA methods can be used to inform daily life listening experience with children. Prescription-based noise management was found to decrease perceived loudness in noisy, non-school environments; this should be evaluated in combination with hearing aid noise reductions features.


Background: Inspired by peroral Endoscopic Myotome (POEM), a new technique named Submucosal Tunneling Endoscopic Resection (STER) was developed for the treatment of submucosal gastrointestinal tumors.
Objective: To evaluate the clinical security and the feasibility of Submucosal Tunneling Endoscopic Resection (STER) for treating the submucosal tumors of esophageal.
Methods: Collecting cases during 2011 November to 2014 December in Shandong Provincial Hospital, all patients were diagnosed as esophageal submucosal tumors by Ultrasonography Endoscopic (EUS), and Computed Tomography (CT) scan. 58 patients were treated with STER, and 30 patients were treated with ESE, to observe two group's indicators such as operation time, intraoperative and postoperative complications, tumor size, pathology and postoperative hospitalization days.
Results: All 58 patients' tumors were resected en bloc successfully by STER at one time, the en bloc resection rate was 100%, the mean operation time was 63.24 ± 15.10 min, a bit shorter than the ESE group (71.97 ± 25.46 min), and there was significant difference between two groups (t=2.018, P=0.047). The mean size of the tumors was 2.07 ± 0.8 cm, larger than ESE group (1.28 ± 0.63 cm), and there was significant difference between two groups (t=4.659, P=0.013). No intraoperative perforation occurred in STER, and fevers 9 cases (15.8%), subcutaneous emphysema 3 cases (5.3%) and pneumothorax 2 cases (3.5%) were observed post operation, all patients recovered after conservative treatment. No delayed bleeding and secondary infection and esophageal fistula. The mean postoperative hospitalization days were 5.72 ± 2.24 d, no significant difference was observed compared with ESE group (6.27 ± 3.10 d). The incidence rate of fever, subcutaneous emphysema and pneumothorax of STER group were lower than the ESE group, but no statistical significance was observed. Three months later, gastroscope or Ultrasonography (EUS) review showed wound healing, and no residual tumor or relapse.
Conclusion: STER is a safe and feasible method for treating esophageal sumucosal tumors, and it worth of clinical promotion.


We show that when using Mindlin's first-order theory of piezoelectric plates to analyze a thickness-shear mode resonator, while the frequency can be predicted accurately, the charge, the current, and hence the motional capacitance have significant inaccuracy.


The purpose of the study was to label Flixotide (fluticasone propionate [FP] with HFA propellant), with technetium-99m and validate that (99m)Tc acts as a suitable marker for FP when delivered via pMDI-spacer. Sodium pertechnetate was mixed with 5 mL of butanone. (99m)Tc was extracted into butanone and transferred into an empty canister. The (99m)Tc lined canister was heated, and the butanone evaporated to dryness. A supercooled commercial Flixotide canister was decrimped, and the contents transferred to the (99m)Tc lined canister and recrimped. The particle size distribution of FP and (99m)Tc from 10 radiolabeled canisters was measured using an Anderson cascade impactor calibrated to 28.3 L/min, and compared to commercial FP. The drug (FP) content of each particle size fraction was measured using ultraviolet spectrophotometry and the (99m)Tc level in each fraction was measured using an ionization chamber. The percentage of particles in the fine particle fraction (<;4.7 microm) and the percentage of (99m)Tc from commercial and radiolabeled canisters were compared. The mean (SD) % FP in the fine particle fraction, before and after label was 43.2 (1.8) % and 43.9 (2.6) %, respectively. The mean (SD) % (99m)Tc in the fine particle fraction was 42.1 (5.1) %. The mean %FP exiting spacer at (<4.7 microm) before labeling was not significantly different from the mean % FP exiting spacer at (<4.7 microm) after labeling (p > 0.05). The mean % (99m)Tc attached to particles at (<4.7 microm) after radiolabeling was not significantly different from the mean % FP levels (p > 0.05). The validation in this study indicates that (99m)Tc can act as a suitable marker for HFAFP, delivered via pMDI-spacer.


Saliba, an Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea, has complex predicates in which two or more stems combine to form a single word. The stems in these complex verbs can express a number of functions including cause and result, manner, directionality, and other adverbial-like functions. It is possible to identify a number of positional slots in these constructions, based on the sequential ordering and cooccurrence restrictions of stems. The slots in complex verbs host different classes of stems, and different types of relations between the slots can be distinguished.


Abstract This article is a plea for a non-biblical approach to biblical texts, the so called "Rezeptionsästhetik" (aesthetics of reception). Important points of this approach are reading biblical texts as fictional (poetic) texts and the reader's role in decoding the texts according to his "encyclopaedia". Using aesthetics of reception in interpreting Bible texts can contribute to the better acceptance of different points of view on the same scripture passage and to more respect and understanding between the different religious traditions concerning biblical interpretation.


This Paper explores the power behind Costa Rica's foreign policy. It takes a constructivist approach to the analysis of Costa Rica's international influence and then compares it to Ghandian Peace-making. The paper concludes that Costa Rica has exerted more international influence than expected considering its small size, small population, and lack of an army, due to the "soft-power" it has accumulated over the years by following widely accepted international norms.


Optimizing the design of aviation propulsion systems using computational fluid dynamics is essential to increase their efficiency and reduce pollutant as well as noise emissions. Nowadays, this design process is increasingly aided by computational fluid dynamic methods for which and with the adequate modeling approach it is possible to perform meaningful unsteady computations of the various components of a gas-turbine engine. However, these simulations are often carried out independently of each other and only share averaged quantities at the component interfaces minimizing the impact and interactions between components. The present work investigates the interactions between fan, compressor and annular combustion chamber at takeoff conditions by simulating a 360 azimuthal degrees large-eddy simulation of over 2100 million cells of the DGEN-380 demonstrator. In that case, the domain includes: 14 fan blades; 42 outlet-guide vanes (OGV); the impeller with 11 main blades and 11 splitter blades; a radial and an axial diffuser with 22 and 55 vanes, respectively; and the annular combustion chamber with a contouring casing and 13 swirlers on the back of the chamber. At take-off conditions it is found that the compressor operates in transonic conditions in the rotating frame of reference of the impeller and a shock is formed at the leading edge of the main blades which propagates upstream towards the fan and it is perceived at half the impeller blade-passing frequency (BPF). Preliminary results also show that pressure fluctuations at the impeller BPF generated by the interaction of the impeller blades with the diffuser vanes are propagated through the axial diffuser and enter the combustion chamber through the dilution holes and the swirler. The objective of this paper is to provide a deeper analysis of the interactions between components through the use of the novel operator-based analysis called dynamic mode tracking method (DMT). Indeed, this method facilitates the analysis of three-dimensional results despite the billion-size mesh and the complexity of the simulation, since it extracts modes at specific frequencies on-the-fly within the code. The frequencies corresponding to the fan, impeller and half the impeller BPF are analyzed in the domain and compared against traditional and more computationally demanding methods like the well-known Dynamic Mode Decomposition or the Direct Fourier transform.


Papillary renal cell carcinomas (pRCC) are classically divided into type 1 and 2 tumors. However, many cases do not fulfill all the criteria for either type. We describe the clinical, morphologic, and immunohistochemical (IHC) features of 132 pRCCs to better characterize the frequency and nature of tumors with overlapping features. Cases were reviewed and classified; IHC evaluation of CK7, EMA, TopoII&agr;, napsin A, and AMACR was performed on 95 cases. The frequencies of type 1, type 2, and "overlapping" pRCC were 25%, 28%, and 47%, respectively. The 2 categories of "overlapping" tumors were: (1) cases with bland cuboidal cells but no basophilic cytoplasm (type A); and (2) cases with predominantly type 1 histology admixed with areas showing prominent nucleoli (type B). The pathologic stage of "overlapping" cases showed concordance with type 1 tumors. Using the 2 discriminatory markers (CK7, EMA), "type A" cases were similar to type 1. Although the high–nuclear grade areas of "type B" tumors showed some staining differences from their low–nuclear grade counterpart, their IHC profile was closer to type 1. Single nucleotide polymorphism array results, although preliminary and restricted to only 9 cases (3 with overlapping features), also seemed to confirm those findings. In conclusion, we demonstrate that variations in cytoplasmic quality and/or presence of high-grade nuclei in tumors otherwise displaying features of type 1 pRCCs are similar in stage and IHC profile those with classic type 1 histology, suggesting that their spectrum might be wider than originally described.


Abstract A major extinction of terrestrial plants occurred at the end of the Westphalian (Middle Pennsylvanian) in the lowland tropics of North America. Approximately 67% of the species in peat-forming mires, and at least half the species in clastic wetlands were eliminated by changing climatic conditions, probably protracted moisture deficits or exaggeration of seasonal dryness. Independent studies suggest that the end of the Westphalian was marked by deglaciation in Gondwana and increase in global temperature. In peat-forming habitats major floristic changes followed the extinction. Earliest Stephanian (Late Pennsylvanian) dominance-diversity patterns were highly variable temporally; several different plant groups that were of minor importance in Westphalian mires became major framework dominants, with high coal to coal variability. Ultimately opportunistic tree ferns, previously subdominant, became the dominant elements. Westphalian tree ferns were mostly small, cheaply constructed colonists with massive reproductive outputs and broad ecological amplitudes. Stephanian tree ferns were much larger and appear to have occupied sites for extended periods; they retained the cheap construction of earlier forms but added massive root mantles, which permitted greater height and girth. The 'marsh'-forming lycopsid Chaloneria also became common in Stephanian mires. These elements formed mire landscapes that had few analogues in the older Westphalian mire forests, dominated by tree lycopsids. Generic dominance patterns in the Stephanian became fairly consistent after the initial period of irregularity; however, the species composition of Stephanian mires was highly variable within generic themes. Ecological assemblages were persistent during most of the Westphalian and Stephanian. Patterns at the end-Westphalian suggest that high levels of species extinction disrupt self-regulatory properties of groups of species and create intervals of lóttery-like ecological dynamics. Opportunists may have an advantage during these periods, but ultimately they must give rise to species capable of site occupation. Thus the size of the extinction, and the proximity of existing species that can recolonize vacated resource space, will dictate whether speciation or colonization will rebuild the new landscapes.


The concept of gas pipelines sectionalized by block valves in Brazil has focused on safety rather than operability, and so all such valves are automatically controlled. However, operational history has indicated that undesired actuation of automatically controlled blocking valves is among the major risks of supply failure. Thus, a statistical study was carried out to identify the chief causes for undesired closures and opportunities for improvements. One of the most important causes is the lack of standardization of equipment and procedures within the pipeline network. The lack of standardization usually results in higher costs and complexity of operation and maintenance.With the purpose of overcoming such drawbacks, it was required to establish a program for process optimization, in order to obtain well-adjusted maintenance and operational procedures throughout the life cycle of the equipment and facilities. A maintenance strategy for the automatic block valves is an important point to achieve the objectives defined in this program, such as an increase in operational reliability, minimizing the risks of gas-supply failure and the reduction of operational costs.Although the project is still in progress, it is already possible to observe some positive outcomes related to operational reliability, showing a significant reduction in the number of operational occurrences of automatic block valves in 2013.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


: An improved operational structure is necessary to deal with today's rapidly changing health care environment. This article explores the alternatives for organizational structure that have been used to date and recommends modifications which will lead to more proactive management.


Drug-induced liver toxicity is a significant problem in drug development and clinical practice, yet its mechanisms are not well understood. Growing evidence suggests that inhibition of bile acid transport may be one mechanism of hepatotoxicity. A number of hepatic transporters work in concert to transport bile acids and xenobiotics from blood to bile, and many drugs have been shown to perturb this process with detrimental consequences. Hepatocytes cultured in a sandwich configuration maintain transporter activity and liver-specific metabolic functions; thus, the sandwich-cultured hepatocyte model represents a useful tool for evaluating hepatotoxicity caused by interference with hepatic transporters. As an example, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) agonist troglitazone is one such drug that has been shown to inhibit bile acid transport in vitro. Data presented in this manuscript indicate that troglitazone inhibits both basolateral uptake and canalicular excretion of taurocholate in a concentration-dependent manner in both sandwich-cultured and suspended human and rat hepatocytes. These data confirm both the interaction of troglitazone with bile acid transporters in hepatocytes and the utility of the sandwich-cultured hepatocyte model to study such interactions.


We consider a family of surfaces of revolution ranging between a disc and a hemisphere, that is spherical caps. For this family, we study the spectral density in the ray limit and arrive at a trace formula with geodesic polygons describing the spectral fluctuations. When the caps approach the hemisphere the spectrum becomes equally spaced and highly degenerate whereas the derived trace formula breaks down. We discuss its divergence and also derive a different trace formula for this hemispherical case. We next turn to perturbative corrections in the wave number where the work in the literature is done for either flat domains or curved without boundaries. In the present case, we calculate the leading correction explicitly and incorporate it into the semiclassical expression for the fluctuating part of the spectral density. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first calculation of such perturbative corrections in the case of curvature and boundary.


of the observed diusion the problem admits a closed form solution. The method of proof is based on embedding the initial problem into a two-dimensional optimal stopping problem and solving the equivalent free-boundary problem by means of the smooth-fit conditions.


The causes of a greening trend detected in the Arctic using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) are still poorly understood. Changes in NDVI are a result of multiple ecological and social factors that affect tundra net primary productivity. Here we use a 25 year time series of AVHRR-derived NDVI data (AVHRR: advanced very high resolution radiometer), climate analysis, a global geographic information database and ground-based studies to examine the spatial and temporal patterns of vegetation greenness on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia. We assess the effects of climate change, gas-field development, reindeer grazing and permafrost degradation. In contrast to the case for Arctic North America, there has not been a significant trend in summer temperature or NDVI, and much of the pattern of NDVI in this region is due to disturbances. There has been a 37% change in early-summer coastal sea-ice concentration, a 4% increase in summer land temperatures and a 7% change in the average time-integrated NDVI over the length of the satellite observations. Gas-field infrastructure is not currently extensive enough to affect regional NDVI patterns. The effect of reindeer is difficult to quantitatively assess because of the lack of control areas where reindeer are excluded. Many of the greenest landscapes on the Yamal are associated with landslides and drainage networks that have resulted from ongoing rapid permafrost degradation. A warming climate and enhanced winter snow are likely to exacerbate positive feedbacks between climate and permafrost thawing. We present a diagram that summarizes the social and ecological factors that influence Arctic NDVI. The NDVI should be viewed as a powerful monitoring tool that integrates the cumulative effect of a multitude of factors affecting Arctic land-cover change.


The 1950s was a decade of crisis and confrontation between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the United States. Considering China as a major threat to U.S. interests in East Asia and the Pacific, the Eisenhower administration adopted a policy of political isolation, economic embargo, and military containment against the PRC. Leaders in Beijing viewed the United States as a primary enemy hostile to China's revolution and its unification with Taiwan. They maintained an intense anti-American campaign throughout the decade. How did this condition of hostility come about? How did policymakers in Washington and Beijing view each other? What objectives did the Eisenhower administration plan to achieve in pursuing a policy of toughness against the Chinese Communists? And how did Mao Zedong and his associates react to American pressure and antagonism? This essay will use recently released American and Chinese documents to answer those questions.


Reverse-time migration RTM exhibits great superiority over other imaging algorithms in handling steeply dipping structures and complicated velocity models. However, lowfrequency, high-amplitude noises commonly seen in a typical RTM image have been one of the major concerns because they can seriously contaminate the signals in the image if they are not handled properly. We propose a new imaging condition to effectively and efficiently eliminate these specific noises from the image. The method works by first decomposing the source and receiver wavefields to their one-way propagation components, followed by applying a correlation-based imaging condition to the appropriate combinations of the decomposed wavefields. We first give the physical explanation of the principle of such noises in the conventional RTM image. Then we provide the detailed mathematical theory for the new imaging condition. Finally, we propose an efficient scheme for its numerical implementation. It replaces the computationally intensive decomposition with the cost-effective Hilbert transform, which significantly improves the efficiency of the imaging condition. Applications to various synthetic and real data sets demonstrate that this new imaging condition can effectively remove the undesired low-frequency noises in the image.


. The quality of ontologies in terms of their correctness and completeness is crucial for developing high-quality ontology-based applications. Traditional debugging techniques repair ontologies by removing unwanted axioms, but may thereby remove consequences that are correct in the domain of the ontology. We propose an interactive approach to mitigate the negative effects of removing unwanted axioms for EL ontologies by axiom weakening and completing. This is the first approach that allows for different ways to combine removing, weakening and completing. The choice of combination strategy influences the amount of work for a domain expert as well as the completeness of the repaired ontology. In this paper we describe a system based on a repairing approach that allows for different such combinations 1 .


Higher education has faced, and will continue to face, significant challenges in the future (Bradley et al., 2009). Some of these challenges are foreseeable, for example, increasingly diverse student cohorts, many of whom are the 'first in family' to come to university. In addition, students today are more likely to have other responsibilities such as  multiple jobs or caring duties whilst pursuing their studies (Kift et al., 2010). In addition, students' expectations about how they will learn at university are changing, with learning technologies playing a bigger role than in the past (Dvoretskaya et al., 2018). These expectations include the use of technology to facilitate learning, more choices in learning approaches and subjects that are directly relevant and immediately translate to career pathways.
In the face of these challenges, institutions are adopting a range of different and innovative measures, including experimenting with the use of technological affordances (Jeong & Hmelo-Silver, 2016) to allow for course restructuring and modifications. While some have long called for these changes (Preston et al, 2010), it could be argued that COVID has provided further stimulus for universities to investigate and trial these new ideas. One such modification is the development and implementation of microcredentials and short courses that exist both as stand-alone courses but also directly feed into terminal degree offerings (Ehlers, 2018). While the notion of microcredentials is not new (DeMonte, 2017), the entry of tertiary institutions into this space is, and is, in part, a response to the offerings of non-higher education providers.  However, developing, implementing and advertising these new courses is not without its own challenges including how these might 'stack' meaningfully into larger qualifications (Hall-Ellis, 2016).
This presentation describes the innovative development and implementation of eight learning design microcredentials within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. The challenges faced by faculty and learning designers responsible for the design and delivery of these microcredentials are analysed, including: multiple entry and exit points for students; the intensity of the short time frame of the courses; the requirement to find the right mix of synchronous and asynchronous delivery; the best way to ensure facilitation throughout the student experience and, most importantly, creating a sense of belonging beyond the bounds of a single microcredential.
This presentation then examines the creative structure and nature of the eight microcredentials, the blended learning theories that underpinned their design,  the articulation pathways that they offered, and the design decisions that informed the development of the microcredentials, including the decision to focus on experience over expertise, situate the course close to industry and practice, manage an internship-like experience, and assess students' achievements through a competency-based  portfolio It also describes the way that technology enhanced learning approaches provided the pedagogical basis for the design of the microcredentials. The paper concludes with a summation of the learning design principles that will inform the development of future microcredentials as pathways using innovative program designs into terminal degree opportunities.


Abstract A positive-definite transport scheme for moisture is tested in a nonhydrostatic forecast model using convection-permitting resolutions. Use of the positive-definite scheme is found to significantly reduce the large positive bias in surface precipitation forecasts found in the non-positive-definite model forecasts, in particular at high precipitation thresholds. The positive-definite scheme eliminates spurious sources of water arising from the clipping of negative moisture values in the non-positive-definite model formulation, leading to the bias reduction.


The European Union is facing a new era of politicization. Populist parties across Europe have challenged its legitimacy and ever-expanding authority. While the European Union was designed to govern, rather than represent, that is no longer enough. Today there is an urgent need to build a culture of healthy electoral contestation that does not shy away from debate over the very real transfer of political authority that is occurring. Upgrading norms about democratic contestation, rather than doubling down on technocracy, is the only way to generate a more robust European identity, adjudicate what kind of Europe its citizens want, and repair Europe's frayed social solidarity.


Peripheral nerve physiology and regeneration has been observed and investigated in literature but surgical applications to reconstruct and restore motor or sensory functions are still in a developmental phase. The peripheral nerve progresses slowly and incompletely compared with other tissues, it may provoke separations of the nerve stumps and the axonal proliferation of the conduits is restricted to 30 mm. Recent surgical attempts to treat proximal nerve injures include direct nerve restoration, transfer, and autografting measures with favorable results. Moreover, studies are suggesting that engineering tissue tubes maybe as effective as nerve grafting to restore separations of more than 4 cm toward optimal nerve repair.


veterinary students in their third year of the veterinary curriculum or graduate students. Students will learn clinical aspects of comparative anatomy, physiology, husbandry and handling of zoological companion mammal species encountered in companion zoological practice including rodents (Guinea Pigs, rats, hamsters, chinchillas


In this paper, we present the design of reinforced silica-filled elastomer composites exhibiting a high transparency, high mechanical performance in static and dynamic conditions, and improved electrical conductivity. Two different imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) were used with increasing loads: 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (BMIMTFSI) and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrachloroaluminate (BMIMAlCl4). The composites were prepared in a two-roll mill. The influence of the ILs on the dispersion of the silica in the nitrile rubber (NBR) matrix was assessed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The presence of ILs in the NBR/SiO2 systems improved the crosslink density and ionic conductivity of the composites. Their mechanical properties and aging stability remained almost unchanged, at a very satisfactory level. Greater crosslinking was observed for the NBR/SiO2 composites containing BMIMAlCl4, due to its catalytic effect on the efficiency of interface crosslinking reactions. We found the optimal formulation for obtaining transparent reinforced NBR/SiO2 composites. The application of 2.5 phr of BMIMAlCl4 resulted in a high transparency in the case of NBR composites filled with 30 phr of silica.


Weak calf syndrome (WCS) produces "dummy calves" that are weak and unable to stand or nurse. The causes of WCS are not well understood and often attributed to hypoxic and ischemic injury without confirmation. Recent research in other species has pointed to an alternative mechanism behind neonatal syndromes comparable to WCS. This involves the persistence of progesterone metabolites in the neonatal brain resulting in symptoms consistent with WCS. One specific progesterone metabolite, allopregnanolone, may be a significant contributor to WCS pathogenesis, which this study intended to demonstrate.


Akheng Kobar is one of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that is growing, which produces concrete blocks manually. The brick making process has an ergonomic problem, because the posture of workers in a squatting and bending position for a long time during work. Based on interviews with workers, there were complaints of pain in the back, arms, wrists, calves and thighs. Other complaints include the neck, hands and ankles. In this study, an analysis of initial working conditions, tool design, implementation and results analysis were carried out. Analysis of current conditions using REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment), obtained a score of 11, and the JSI (Job Strain Index) analysis score was 39. The results indicate that the process of bricks production must be changed and improved. Furthermore, it was carried out to design a concrete brick press, with the aim of reducing the level of ergonomic risk and increasing productivity. Tool design based on operator complaints, body posture analysis and anthropometric data. Of the several alternatives, obtained the best design alternatives and then made a prototype. Implementation results show a decrease in REBA Score from 11 to 7. Ergonomic Risk Factor decreased from 9 to 5, Job Strain Index scores decreased from 39 to 6.8, and standart time of process decreased by 44, 38%.


Abstract The present study investigated the relationship between discrimination and social anxiety disorder (SAD) in a sample of African-Americans, Caribbean blacks, and non-Hispanic whites using the National Survey of American Life, the most comprehensive study of psychopathology among American blacks to date (N = 6082). Previous work has highlighted a strong association between discrimination and mental health symptoms (Keith, Lincoln, Taylor, and Jackson [Sex Roles 62:48–59, 2010]; Kessler, Mickelson, and Williams [J Health Soc Behav 40:208–230, 1999]; Soto, Dawson-Andoh, and BeLue [J Anxiety Disord 25:258–265, 2011]). However, few studies have examined the effects of particular types of discrimination on specific anxiety disorders or among different black subgroups. In this study, logistic regression analyses indicated that everyday but not major experiences of discrimination are associated with SAD for African-Americans, Caribbean blacks, and non-Hispanic whites. This study adds to the extant literature by demonstrating that specific types of discrimination may be uniquely associated with SAD for different ethnic/racial groups.


G lbal M onoring Rport 2010 What is the human cost of the global economic crisis? This year's Global Monitoring Report, The MDGs after the Crisis, examines the impact of the worst recession since the Great Depression on poverty and human development outcomes in developing countries. Although the recovery is under way, the impact of the crisis will be lasting and immeasurable. The impressive precrisis progress in poverty reduction will slow, particularly in low-income countries in Africa. No household in developing countries is immune. Gaps will persist to 2020. In 2015, 20 million more people in Sub-Saharan Africa will be in extreme poverty and 53 million more people globally. Even households above the $1.25-a-day poverty line in higher-income developing countries are coping by buying cheaper food, delaying other purchases, reducing visits to doctors, working longer hours, or taking multiple jobs. The crisis will also have serious costs on human development indicators:


lthough criteria vary, the most common definition of chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is continuous or episodic (noncyclic) pain located below the umbilicus, lasting at least 6 months in duration, and of sufficient severity to cause interference with activities of daily living and/or to require medical or surgical intervention. However, this simple definition falls short of expressing the immense physical and psychologic impact the condition can have on the patient, or the complexity of the diagnostic challenge it presents to the clinician. Indeed, because multifactorial etiologies may be present (eg, gynecologic, urologic, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, and neuropsychiatric), a multidisciplinary approach is essential from the onset of the pursuit of the diagnosis to the design of an integrative management plan— which must take into consideration the physical as well as psychologic impact of CPP on the individual's quality of life. Chronic Pelvic Pain—Part 1: Prevalence, Evaluation, Etiology, and Comorbidities


Religion was a relatively overlooked factor in the study of political science until the 21st century. Even when the focus on religion increased in the aftermath of 9/11, a majority of the scholarship still dealt with religion and violence. "Religion and peace" has arguably been a less popular topic, yet there is still a vibrant literature that has contributed to our understanding of religion and social dynamics, especially given the significant number of religiously inspired organizations that are active in postconflict processes, such as Network of Engaged Buddhists, Sant'Egidio, and American Jewish World Service. Religion can play a critical role in conflict resolution and negotiation, especially in settings where secular approaches fall short of resolving the tensions, and where religious actors are seen as more neutral than the political actors. Peacebuilding literature has also recognized the importance of religion. Every religious tradition has its own sources of nonviolence within itself, and under the right conditions, these sources can help with reconciliation, peacebuilding, and transitional justice. At the same time, involvement of religious actors in postconflict processes poses its own challenges. Religious actors are rarely fully neutral, their assistance usually comes with conditions attached, and their involvement in political processes can undermine their moral authority. In addition, there are religious leaders who work against reconciliation to protect their own status in conflict settings. Recognizing that it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of faith-inspired initiatives, more scholarship is needed to explore the dynamics of religious initiatives in postconflict processes. There are gaps especially when it comes to non-Christian actors' involvement in peace processes, and how the faith-inspired initiatives of individuals differ from those of religious institutions and organizations.


In multiple agent computing environments, the communication issue for negotiation, task allocation, etc. is vital for agents to do their tasks. It has been shown that agent systems with many intercommunicating agents can be very difficult to develop without appropriate tools to monitor and mediate communications. Moreover, without agent communication management, the performance of agent systems with large participants may suffer from communication livelocks, deadlock and inconsistency. The objective of this paper is to explore how to improve the multiagent system development process by incorporating a high-level monitoring and control facility into agent communication and distribution environments. A Petri net-based modeling approach is adopted in constructing task-oriented conversation schemata. Conversation managers are deployed into agent daemons throughout the network to provide an environment at network nodes to which agents may be dispatched. An example in an agent-based shop floor is briefly introduced.


Although large language models (LLMs) are widely deployed, the data used to train them is rarely disclosed. Given the incredible scale of this data, up to trillions of tokens, it is all but certain that it includes potentially problematic text such as copyrighted materials, personally identifiable information, and test data for widely reported reference benchmarks. However, we currently have no way to know which data of these types is included or in what proportions. In this paper, we study the pretraining data detection problem: given a piece of text and black-box access to an LLM without knowing the pretraining data, can we determine if the model was trained on the provided text? To facilitate this study, we introduce a dynamic benchmark WIKIMIA that uses data created before and after model training to support gold truth detection. We also introduce a new detection method Min-K% Prob based on a simple hypothesis: an unseen example is likely to contain a few outlier words with low probabilities under the LLM, while a seen example is less likely to have words with such low probabilities. Min-K% Prob can be applied without any knowledge about the pretraining corpus or any additional training, departing from previous detection methods that require training a reference model on data that is similar to the pretraining data. Moreover, our experiments demonstrate that Min-K% Prob achieves a 7.4% improvement on WIKIMIA over these previous methods. We apply Min-K% Prob to two real-world scenarios, copyrighted book detection, and contaminated downstream example detection, and find it a consistently effective solution.


We show how algebraic K-theory and related theories can be defined in terms of "algebraic mapping spaces" to appropriate ind-schemes.


The influence of sub-temperature quenching temperature on the strength and hardness of 65Mn steel during austenite inverse phase transformation is studied and the microstructure and property are analyzed. The results showed that in the range of 760~810°C , the strength and hardness of the 65Mn steel second sub-temperature quenched increased with quenching temperature increasing, reached the highest strength and hardness at 790°C quenching and then began to decrease. A small number of ferrite and ferrite dual-phase structure existed in martensite when quenching temperature was low. Fine martensite was obtained by second sub-temperature quenching due to the smaller austenitic crystal grain and austenitic nucleation sites. The mechanical properties of samples second sub-temperature quenched are better than that of conventional samples 830°C once quenched.


Participating in large-scale musical performances as part of a secondary school ensemble can be exhilarating. Although students experience such events differently, emotional state is not uniform throughout the process. Developing musicians may put themselves under pressure to perform well and once the event is over, the feelings of anxiety and anticipation are replaced by relief, euphoria or in some cases, melancholy. These emotional reactions can impact the desire to attend subsequent rehearsals and performance projects. Three student members of a school choir reflected on their emotional state from the early part of the rehearsal process to the post-event period. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed and thematically analysed. Findings address the five phases of the performance process: early rehearsals, later rehearsals, the performance, immediately after the event, and the aftermath. Recommendations for secondary school music ensemble conductors encourage lifelong learning of adolescent ensemble musicians through understanding fluctuating emotions connected with performance.


The Punggi (風旗) is one of the meteorological instruments made in the Joseon Dynasty (朝鮮王朝). Its purpose was to observe the direction of the wind. It is estimated that it started its operation in the 16th century at least. But it does not remain in a perfect form, like the Chugugi (測雨器) and the Supyo (水標). The Punggi (風旗) can only be found at old document data, while the stone used to build the Punggi still remains. Since the stone had been named as the Punggi-dae (風旗臺) by 和田雄治 (1917), the name has not been changed until now. The Punggi is currently located in the Gyeongbok-gung (景福宮) and the Changgyeong-gung (昌慶宮). Meantime, there have been several transfers of its position. However, 和田雄治 (1917)'s paper and the『每日新報』(Maeil-Sinbo, 1929) articles have provided new clues. Also, the word 'Hupungso (候風所)' was found in the 『朝鮮王朝實錄』(The annals of the Joseon Dynasty) and the『承政院日記』(Daily records of royal secretariat of Joseon dynasty). A designed harbor where the ship was staying was usually considered a special section for wind observations. It is assumed that the Hupungso was in most of the harbors at that time. This paper assumes the Punggi and the Hupungso had a lot of interest in wind observations in the Joseon Dynasty. In this study, we"ll look for contained information about the Punggi and the viewpoints about wind during the Joseon Dynasty.


Bilateral obstructing ureteric calculi is a rare cause of acute renal failure. Although urolithiasis in later pregnancy is not uncommon, the development of bilateral obstruction secondary to ureteric calculi in the first trimester is rare and poses difficulty to diagnosis and management. Symptoms of diseases and physiological changes associated with pregnancy can obscure diagnosis of urolithiasis and obstructive uropathy. Advances in minimally invasive endourology afford intervention with reduced risk to fetal health. We present the second case of acute renal failure caused by bilateral obstructing ureteric calculi in a pregnant patient and discuss current management algorithms for this group.


The unicellular cyanobacterium Gloeocapsa alpicola contains both photoreactivation and excision repair mechanisms for correcting UV-induced damage to its cellular DNA. An 11.5 kb EcoRI fragment was isolated from a cosmid bank of G. alpicola and was shown to complement a recA deletion in Escherichia coli S.17 and JC10289. These recA strains showed increased survival to UV and methyl methanesulphonate (MMS) when transformed with the cyanobacterial DNA fragment, and also showed filamentation in response to UV irradiation. Preliminary analysis of the protein encoded by the cyanobacterial DNA fragment indicated a major protein of 39,000 Da; this is very similar in size to the recA protein of E. coli.


Nitrogen is a key element in aquatic environments, and in Aquaculture it is an important pond management variable. In current aquaculture research two important goals are to maintain the water quality within the system, and to improve the retention of nutrients applied to the system in order to minimize the discharge. The principal objectives of this study were to integrate the information available of nitrogen processes in fish ponds into a predictive model, and to investigate further the nitrogen dynamics between the water, the sediments and the biota present in this systems. First, a nitrogen balance in fish ponds was followed along a growing cycle; by combining estimates of the deposition rates of uneaten feed, faeces and dead phytoplankton with measurements of nitrogen accumulation in the sediment, the rate of decomposition of organic matter in the sediment was evaluated. The cumulative recovery at the end of the experiment was almost 100%, meaning that the nitrogen budget in the system studied can be fully explained without any consideration of nitrogen volatilisation, due to either denitrification or ammonia volatilisation. The interactions between various N-species are complex and difficult to integrate. A model that calculates the amounts of various N-compounds in the water column and in the sediment was constructed, and used to gain insight into the relative importance of transformation processes between the various N-compounds. The model was divided into three modules: fish, phytoplankton and sediment-water. All concentrations of the various N-species present were simulated well except the N retained in organic matter in the sediment. To improve our understanding of the bottom organic matter dynamics, and make the model a more comprehensive predictive tool, an estimation of the principal sources of organic matter that accumulate in fish pond bottoms was assessed. Organic matter accumulation in fish ponds was quantified, and the data was used to construct, to calibrate and to validate a dynamic simulation model of organic matter deposition/decomposition in fish ponds. Besides, the rates of sedimentation and resuspension were measured along a growing cycle, following the influence of nutrient input, water parameters, fish biomass and fish size on these processes. Using a dilution analysis method to differentiate between sedimented and resuspended particles, sedimentation and resuspension rates were calculated. The rate of material collected in sediment traps increased from 88.5 to 330 g/m 2 per day along the growing cycle, but the relative resuspension did not change significantly, being always in the range of 42 to 47% of the total collected material. The processes of sedimentation of organic matter and resuspension were included in the original model. The proportion of three principal sources of organic matter that accumulate in the pond bottom were also included as parameters of the sedimentation process. A logistic equation relating the rate of resuspension and the fish biomass was calculated; and seepage, as a potential loss of nitrogen from the system, was also considered. The additions to the model represented a substantial improvement to model simulations.


Despite living with a gluten-free diet, Swedish women with celiac disease report a higher rate of gastrointestinal symptoms than women without the disease. This study was designed to assess the impact of active patient education on gastrointestinal symptoms in women with a gluten-free diet. A total of 106 Swedish women, aged 20 years or older, with celiac disease on a gluten-free diet for a minimum of 5 years took part in a randomized controlled trial. The intervention group (n = 54) underwent a 10-session educational program, "Celiac School," based on problem-based learning. Controls (n = 52) were sent information regarding celiac disease at home. The outcome measure was gastrointestinal symptoms at 10 weeks and 6 months after intervention, assessed with the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale. After 10 weeks of "Celiac School," the participating women reported significant improvements that remained 6 months later (p = .029). The controls did not improve significantly. A comparison of the development of scores, from baseline to 10 weeks, could not demonstrate a significant difference in the overall index between the 2 groups but showed a significant improvement concerning 1 of its components, namely the index reflecting Abdominal Pain (p = .007). Intervention methods should be refined to reach an even more pronounced effect.


C-3 alkenylation/alkylation of indoles depends on the position of the substituent on the indole used in the reaction. C-2 substituted indole results in the formation of C-3 alkenylated indole derivatives, whereas plain indole gives rise to the bis(indolyl)carbonyl derivative instead of the C-3 alkenylation product under the same set of reaction conditions. Deep eutectic mixtures are cost-effective, and bio-degradable.


Financial crises are often preceded by an asset market bubble or strong credit growth. To prevent further crises, it is essential to identify and combat excessive price and credit developments as early as possible. The momentum observed in the German housing market in recent years has led to concerns that a house price bubble already exists or still can emerge. However, a clear outcome is still missing. The present study analyses bubbles in the prices of owner-occupied flats in Germany by using the augmented Dickey-Fuller test and a generalized version of the sup augmented Dickey-Fuller test. A distinctive feature of the latter test is that it delivers a consistent date stamping strategy for the origination and termination of multiple bubbles. At first sight, there is evidence of so-called rational bubbles both in regional markets as well as in the overall German housing market. But most of them are linked to decreasing interest rates. Possibly, rational bubbles in seven German cities can be identified.


An electronic point-of-contact narrative clinical record was developed and implemented in a multidisciplinary regional cancer center with an annual new caseload of 1,200. Design principles included (1) natural clinician-intuitive interface with pen, touch, and sound input options; (2) structure and processes enabling direct input of both clinician-reported and patient-reported data; (3) embedding of decision support and practice guidelines directly into the interface; (4) incorporation of automated cancer staging algorithms; (5) automatic production of consultation and progress notes, limiting transcription requirements to sound fields; (6) outcomes--focused report formats; and (7) integrated billing and activity reporting. The system was implemented in Windows, both on a local area network and on mobile devices. Evaluation parameters included feasibility, acceptance, performance, cost of hardware and software development and/or customization, cost of system maintenance, and comparison of net clinician time for encounter documentation relative to a paper-based standard. Feasibility, acceptance, and cost-effectiveness were established.


The emergence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains with complex drug resistance profiles necessitates a rapid and extensive drug susceptibility test for comprehensive guidance of patient treatment. Here, we developed two targeted-sequencing workflows based on Illumina MiSeq and Nanopore MinION for the prediction of drug resistance in M. tuberculosis towards 12 anti-tuberculous agents. A total of 163 M. tuberculosis cultured isolates collected from Hong Kong and Ethiopia were subjected to a multiplex PCR for simultaneous amplification of 19 drug-resistance associated genetic regions. The amplicons were then barcoded and sequenced in parallel on MiSeq and MinION in respective batch sizes of 24 and 12 samples. Both platforms successfully sequenced all samples with average depths of coverage of 1,127× and 1,649× respectively. Utilizing a self-developed Web-based bioinformatics pipeline, Bacteriochek-TB, for variant analysis, we found that the MiSeq and MinION result could achieve 100% agreement if variants with an allele frequency of <40% reported by MinION were excluded. For drug resistance prediction, both workflows achieved an average sensitivity of 94.8% and specificity of 98.0% when compared with phenotypic drug susceptibility test. The turnaround times for the MiSeq and MinION workflows were 38 and 15 hours, facilitating the delivery of treatment guidance at least 17-18 days earlier than pDST respectively. The higher cost per sample on the MinION platform (US$71.56) versus the MiSeq platform (US$67.83) was attributed to differences in batching capabilities. Our study demonstrated the interchangeability of MiSeq and MinION sequencing workflows for generation of accurate and actionable results for the treatment of tuberculosis. Importance TB therapy involving different combinations of antibiotics have been introduced to address the issue of drug resistance. However, this practice has led to increasing numbers of M. tuberculosis with complex drug resistance profiles. Molecular assays for rapid and comprehensive drug resistance profiling of M. tuberculosis are lacking. Here, we described targeted-sequencing workflows based on Illumina MiSeq and Nanopore MinION for the detection of drug resistance mutations scattered across 19 genetic regions in M. tuberculosis. A bioinformatics pipeline was also developed to translate raw datasets into clinician-friendly reports that provide comprehensive genetic information for the prediction of drug resistance towards 12 antibiotics. This is the first study to evaluate and compare the uses of Illumina and Nanopore platforms for diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Remarkably, our diagnostic strategy is compatible with different sequencing platforms that can be applied in diagnostic centres with different levels of throughput and financial support for TB diagnosis.


Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have been extensively used for many computer vision applications including optical flow estimation. Although CNNs have been very successful in optical flow problem, they have been rarely used for displacement estimation in Ultrasound Elastography (USE) due to vast differences between ultrasound data and computer vision images. In USE, a main goal is to obtain the strain image which is the derivative of the axial displacement in axial direction; therefore, a very accurate displacement estimation is required. Radio Frequency (RF) data is needed to obtain accurate displacement estimation. RF data contains high frequency contents which cannot be downsampled without significant loss of information, in contrast to computer vision images. We propose a novel technique to utilize LiteFlowNet for USE. For the first time, we incorporate analytic signal to improve the quality of the displacement estimation. We show that this network with the designed inputs is more suitable for USE compared to more complex networks such as FlowNet2. The network is adopted to our application and it is compared with FlowNet2 and a state-of-the-art elastography method (GLUE). The results show that this network performs well and comparable to GLUE. Furthermore, not only this network is faster and has lower memory footprint compared to FlowNet2, but also it obtains higher quality strain images which makes it suitable for portable and real-time elastography devices.


Aims. We determine the atmospheric parameters and abundance pattern of the chemically peculiar metal-poor Fehrenbach & Duflot (Feh-Duf) star to more clearly understand its evolutionary state and the nature of the s-element enhancement in this star. Methods. Its atmospheric parameters and chemical abundances were determined using high resolution optical spectroscopy and employing the local-thermodynamic-equilibrium model atmospheres of Kurucz and spectral analysis code MOOG. Results. The derived abundances show that the Feh-Duf star is a low-metallicity ([Fe/H] = −1.93) star with high carbon and heavy s-element abundances, while the abundance of the light s-process element yttrium is low ([Y/Fe] = −0.07). The oxygen abundance is lower than for Galactic halo stars of similar metallicity.We conclude that the Feh-Duf star could be a CH star with C/O = 1.3. Another possibility is that the Feh-Duf star could be an early-AGB star. The Fehrenbach & Duflot star is also a lead star with [Pb/Ce] = +0.69. In addition, it displays an extreme retrograde motion (VGRF = −259 km s−1), which in combination with its underabundance of α-elements suggests that this star may have been captured by the Milky Way galaxy.


Flight intercept traps of various designs (multiple funnel, panel or crossvane) were tested to determine their effectiveness in capturing Monochamus beetles. The retention of insects in crossvane traps with the collection receptacle left dry, dry with insecticide or partially filled with soapy water, and the efficacy of treating the crossvane panels with a slippery surfactant was investigated. Captures of female (but not male) Monochamus scutellatus scutellatus (Col., Cerambycidae) were significantly higher in custom‐made crossvane traps than two commercially available funnel or panel traps. Male and female M. mutator responded equally to traps of all designs, as did three species of Buprestidae (Buprestris maculativentris, Dicerca tenebrosa and Chalcophora virginiensis). Dry crossvane traps with or without insecticide were less effective than wet traps in retaining insects. Adding a surfactant to increase the slipperiness of the trap panels generally resulted in significantly higher trap catches than untreated traps.


Abstract
 Background The microbiota is reported to affect tumor growth and the microenvironment of gastrointestinal cancers. However, the possible role of keystone bacterial infection in the development of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (EsoSCC) remains unclear. In the present study, we studied the relationship between the oral microbiome, the periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis (PG), and EsoSCC and elucidated the underlying mechanisms.Methods The microbiota in oral biofilms from patients was studied to identify bacterial biomarkers associated with EsoSCC by bioinformatics analyses. We then performed immunohistochemistry to examine the presence of PG in the esophageal tissues and analyze its relationship with the clinicopathologic characteristics in 156 EsoSCC patients. Furthermore, we investigated the role of PG infection in the progression of EsoSCC and its relationship with tumor microenvironment.Results The microbiota profiles from oral biofilms revealed that the abundance of PG was associated with a higher risk of developing EsoSCC. The presence of PG was detected immunohistochemically in 57% of cancerous tissues and was associated with a higher clinical stage and poor prognosis. Using cellular experiments and a 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4NQO)-induced tumor animal model, the presence of PG was found to be associated with a higher risk of esophageal cancer. Increased IL-6 expression associated with an augmented epithelial-mesenchymal transition and recruitment of myeloid-derived suppressor cells were possible underlying mechanisms. Furthermore, in animal model including 4NQO-induced tumor and xenograft tumor model, we showed that the increased vitamin D3 induced by UVB light treatment obviously down-regulated IL-6 signaling and subsequently attenuated the increased risk of esophageal cancer induced by PG infection.Conclusions Our findings suggested that the presence of PG played an important role in the progression of esophageal cancer. Directly targeting PG or increasing vitamin D3 could be a promising strategy for the treatment of EsoSCC patients with PG infection noted by oral microbiota screening.


The most important elements for analysis of human's motions are object's motions. Therefore, in the sports areas, many researchers has been researched analysis and retrieved method using motion pictures. But, many technologies focused on analysis of direction of motion or path than recognition of motion. So, we proposed a system which represented and retrieved of object's motion used by motion sequence descriptor and change of motions. An inputted motion data transferred 2-dimensional spatial information used image sequence information. And those data transferred 1-dimensional spatial characterized data used by shape descriptor. And extracted characterized data from motion used shape descriptor as sequential array, and represented association relationships of each objects. Finally, proposed system recognized kind of motion based on Poisson Non-zero probability distribution algorithm. The system which proposed applied not only the Taekwondo Poomsae but also uses from various sports areas. Specially, which system very useful from the sports area which needs a video interpretation and motion of motion recognition, used by search keyword or motion name.


Several factors are known to affect the length of time a ventilation tube remains in the tympanic membrane. These include the design of ventilation tube, the insertion technique and the presence of intercurrent infection. In addition there are theoretical reasons to suggest that a ventilation tube placed superiorly should remain longer than one placed inferiorly. A randomised prospective study was undertaken on 54 children to test this theory. It showed that there is no significant difference in the extrusion rates for a particular type of ventilation tube (Shah grommet) when comparing the anterosuperior quadrant with the anteroinferior quadrant of the tympanic membrane.


by Brian F. Hilbert A heat transfer measurement technique based on the solution of an inverse conduction problem has been developed, validated, and applied in transonic turbine casings with variable surface roughness. A major advantage of the method is that it can be implemented for irregular surface geometries, as opposed to contact sensors which are generally not applicable in these types of situations. Additionally, the presence of contact sensors, e.g. heat flux gauges, is known to disturb the near wall flow field and modify thermal boundary conditions in many applications. The inverse measurement technique requires an array of thermocouples to be embedded in machined holes within metal hardware. An internal sensor spacing criteria, i.e. the axial distance separating measurements and the appropriate wall normal distance between a thermocouple and an estimation boundary, is identified and evaluated for accurate inverse solutions. The measurement technique is theoretically and experimentally validated for various boundary conditions. Heat transfer measurements in over-rotor casings of a transonic turbine rig provide a practical demonstration of the method. A commercially available CFD code is validated based on the experimental turbine data and gives added confidence in the measurement technique.


Living organisms are being exposed to ionizing radiation since its existence from sources like cosmic rays, terrestrial radio nuclides which occur in the earth's crust, in building materials, in air, water, foods and in the human body itself. Cosmic rays are more intense at higher altitudes and the concentration levels of U and Th in soils are elevated in localized areas. Building construction materials of houses, the design and ventilation systems strongly influences the doses due to indoor levels of the radioactive gas radon and its decay products, which contributes significantly to through inhalation. Periodic review of the dose values reported here are very essential to understand the contribution to the background radiation sources. Brief account and comparison of the dose rates arising from natural and manmade sources to the Indian population are presented.


Detection of epileptic seizures from EEG signals is well-studied topic for the last couple of decades. Lately, automated signal processing and machine learning methods were developed to detect epileptic seizures. However, most of the methods are tailored to subjects and require fine tuning of many parameters. In this study, we proposed to use Riemannian geometry-based signal processing method that already showed superior performance on brain-computer interface problems, to extract features. We showed that tangent space mapping features of EEG signals can be used to detect seizures with high accuracy and precision.


this study investigated the effect of spinal alignment during the streamlined position on passive drag generated by towing. Twenty-three male collegiate swimmers underwent a spinal alignment test and a passive drag test. The spinal alignment test measured the angles of thoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis when the participants took the prone streamlined position on land. The spinal alignment data were collected using a Spinal Mouse to record the sagittal outline of the back. The passive drag test at streamlined position was measured by the passive towing method using a towing series comprising four 20-m towing trials at towing speeds of 0.7 m/s, 1.2 m/s, 1.7 m/s, and 2.2 m/s. Significant correlations were found between the angle of thoracic kyphosis and the coefficients of drag at 1.2 m/s, 1.7 m/s, and 2.2 m/s. No significant correlations were found between the angle of lumbar lordosis and coefficient of drag at any towing speed. These results suggest that the angle of thoracic kyphosis during the streamlined position would have a significantly effect on passive drag generated by towing.


A novel microphysiometry platform for dynamic cell culture monitoring in drug screening and cancer cell research is presented. The transparent system features an integrated cell cultivation area, microfluidics and (bio-)sensors for multiparametric metabolic monitoring, combined on a single glass chip. The parameters include glucose and lactate (amperometric biosensors), oxygen (amperometric), pH (potentiometric) and cellular adhesion (interdigital electrode). In contrast to traditional silicon chip based systems, the choice of transparent materials allows microscopy at all times of cell cultivation and measurement. The introduction of biosensors allows the monitoring of additional key metabolic parameters with a detection limit for lactate as low as 2 µM. Integrated multi layer microfluidics enable dynamic measurements, further improving the analytical performance. The modular system is microfabricated in a cost-effective hybrid integration of thin film and laminate technology.