Gravitational Search Algorithms (GSA) are heuristic optimization evolutionary algorithms based on Newton's law of universal gravitation and mass interactions. GSAs are among the most recently introduced techniques that are not yet heavily explored. An early work of the authors has successfully adapted this technique to the cell placement problem, and shown its efficiency in producing high quality solutions in reasonable time. We extend this work by fine tuning the algorithm parameters and transition functions towards better balance between exploration and exploitation. To assess its performance and robustness, we compare it with that of Genetic Algorithms (GA), using the standard cell placement problem as benchmark to evaluate the solution quality, and a set of artificial instances to evaluate the capability and possibility of finding an optimal solution. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is competitive in terms of success rate or likelihood of optimality and solution quality. And despite that it is computationally more expensive due to its hefty mathematical evaluations, it is more fruitful on the long run.


Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common mesenchymal neoplasms of the gastrointestinal tract. Although most patients with advanced GISTs benefit from imatinib mesylate (IM) as standard targeted therapy, the optimal duration of adjuvant IM for GIST patients with high risk of recurrence who underwent surgical resection remains unknown. In this article, we present a case of a ruptured GIST of the small intestine accompanied by peritoneal metastases, which was effectively treated by surgical procedure followed by long-term adjuvant therapy with IM. Surgical resection was performed for the ruptured small intestinal GIST, and multitude of peritoneal metastases were cauterized. The patient received adjuvant therapy with IM (400 mg/day) for 12 years without an interruption or a dose change. Peritoneal metastatic recurrence was observed by the follow-up computed tomography scan obtained 12 years after surgery, and surgical resection of the recurrent GIST was performed. The molecular examination indicated a KIT exon 11 deletion mutation in both the primary GIST and recurrent GIST. An additional point mutation was observed in the recurrent GIST in exon 17 that caused resistance to IM. The present case might indicate that extensive removal of the tumor cells through surgery and long-term administration of IM without an interruption or a dose change were important for achieving improved recurrence-free survival in patients with ruptured GISTs of the small intestine with peritoneal metastases.


Impaired airway homeostasis in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) could be partly related to club cell secretory protein (CCSP) deficiency. We hypothesize that CCSP G38A polymorphism is involved and aim to examine the influence of the CCSP G38A polymorphism on CCSP transcription levels and its regulatory mechanisms. CCSP genotype and CCSP levels in serum and sputum were assessed in 66 subjects with stable COPD included in a 1-yr observational study. Forty-nine of them had an exacerbation. In an in vitro study, the impact on the CCSP promoter of 38G wild-type or 38A variant was assessed. BEAS-2B cells were transfected by either the 38G or 38A construct, in the presence/absence of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) or lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Cotransfections with modulating transcription factors, p53 and Nkx2.1, identified by in silico analysis by using ConSite and TFSEARCH were conducted. A allele carrier COPD patients had lower serum and sputum CCSP levels, especially among active smokers, and a decreased body mass index, airflow obstruction, dyspnea, and exercise capacity (BODE) score. In vitro, baseline CCSP transcription levels were similar between the wild and variant constructs. CSE decreased more profoundly the CCSP transcription level of 38A transfected cells. The opposite effect was observed with p53 cotransfection. LPS stimulation induced CCSP repression in 38A promoter transfected cells. Cotransfection with Nkx2.1 significantly activated the CCSP promoters irrespective of the polymorphism. Circulating CCSP levels are associated with smoking and the CCSP G38A polymorphism. CSE, LPS, and the Nkx2.1 and p53 transcription factors modulated the CCSP promoter efficiency. The 38A polymorphism exaggerated the CCSP repression in response to p53 and CSE.


American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis is a post modern satire of the 1980s American culture. In this essay, I argue that Ellis uses the facets of a serial killer to methodically break down the impact that trickledown economics had on marginalized communities in the U.S. Trickledown economics is a tax policy which posits that favoring the rich in terms of tax breaks, allows the the wealthy to trickledown to the masses. While a seemingly good theory, the results devastated marginalized communities throughout the nation as the richer got richer and the poor got poorer. Ellis' novel establishes Bateman as the stand-in for this type of unchecked capitalism, and his violence is a representation of this. For example, Ellis' depiction of Bateman as a product killer establishes how capitalism treats its victims before leaving them behind in the form of the homeless and marginalized. Furthermore, these people become Bateman's victims, who in the true crime community are known as the "less dead." This is Ellis' commentary on how the justice system treats these individuals already and why Bateman ultimately gets away with his crimes.


Abstract The possibility that occupational exposure to styrene causes genotoxic effects in humans has been the focus of many biomonitoring studies based on classic cytogenetic biomarkers. Contrasting results have been reported, positive studies being counterbalanced by a number of negative findings. The strength of the conclusions of single studies, either positive or negative, was often weakened by factors such as limited sample size, inadequate exposure assessment, poor epidemiological design, or inappropriate statistical analysis. We have undertaken a meta-analysis of 25 biomonitoring studies of occupational exposure to styrene, in the attempt to discover whether, regardless of the limitations of the individual studies, a general trend could be evinced from a quantitative review of the available evidence on this topic. Essentially, our approach involved a dichotomic classification of all studies according to the median environmental exposure level to styrene, i.e. 125 mg m(-3) (30 p pm), anda quantitative evaluation of the biological effects comparable among the studies considered, i.e. frequency ratio (FR). In order to provide combined estimates of effect across all studies, a weight was attributed to each study depending on its sample variance, andweighted frequency ratios (w FR) were calculated for the endpoints considered, i.e. chromosome aberrations (CA), sister-chromatid exchanges (SCE), andmicronuclei (MN). A significant increase of the wFR was found for CA from the studies performed on workers with 'high level' exposure to styrene (wFR = 2.18; 95%.CI = 1.52-3.13), while inconclusive data were obtained for SCE andMN.


: A study was made of 97 clinic women who attended a series of preparation for childbirth classes and 24 primigravida clinic women who elected not to attend such classes. Both groups completed a standardized knowledge and understanding (KU) questionnaire related to pregnancy, labor and delivery. In addition, a post-delivery structured interview was undertaken to determine the relative importance of certain subjective variables relating to the labor and delivery experience. KU scores were significantly higher in clinic women who elected to attend such classes. Class attendance was associated with a significant increase in KU scores following 4 class sessions. An inverse correlation was observed between KU scores and the number of anesthesia encounters for prepared clinic women during first and second stage of labor. Prepared multigravidas had significantly fewer medication encounters than did prepared primigravidas (P <.001) and, as a group, prepared women had significantly fewer medication encounters than unprepared primigravid women (P <.001). Both groups of clinic women rated medication during labor of less importance than the presence of a labor companion.


The elevated plus-maze (EPM) test is one of the most commonly used behavioral assays to evaluate anxiety-related behavior in rodents. It is an economic test (5 min duration) without prior conditioning of the animals. The critical measure for anxiety is the time spent in the open arms of the maze. A confounding problem of the EPM is the so called one-trial tolerance (OTT), characterized by a marked decrease of open arm exploration in spite of treatment with anxiolytic acting benzodiazepines upon re-exposure to the EPM. This consistent finding is often raised as an evidence for the inappropriateness to re-test rodents in the EPM. However, a reliable re-test paradigm would broaden the usability and effectiveness of this test. Therefore, we tested how an extension of the inter-trial interval to 28 days (instead of the usual 24 h), and an additional change of the testing room would affect the open arm time and other behaviors on the EPM. In two experiments, drug-naive Wistar rats were exposed to the EPM on trial 1, and treated intraperitoneally with either vehicle or midazolam (0.25 mg/kg) 30 min before trial 2. Then, trial 2 (28 days after trial 1) was carried out in either the same testing room (Experiment 1) or in another unfamiliar room (Experiment 2). Twenty-eight days after trial 1 the open arm time of the rats in the vehicle treated control rats of both experimental groups was comparable to that of the first trial, independent of the testing room. Most importantly, we found that the treatment with the benzodiazepine midazolam had a significantly anxiolytic-like (i.e., increase of open arm time) effect in trial 2 only when conducted in the previously unfamiliar testing room (Experiment 2). We suggest that in order to reliably re-test the EPM and to prevent confounding effects due to the OTT, an inter-trial interval of 28 days and a change in testing rooms reinstates anxiolytic-like actions of benzodiazepines.


Background: SLIM stands for 'Socuak Learning for the Integrated Management and Sustainable Use of Water at Catchment Scale'. It is a multi-country research project funded by the European Commission (DG RESEARCH - 5th Framework Programme for research and technological development, 1998-2002). Its main theme is the investigation of the socio-economic aspects of the sustainable use of water. Within this theme, its main focus of interest lies in understanding the application of social learning as a conceptual framework, an operational principle, a policy instrument and a process of systemic change.


In the scopes of measure, AD conversion is a very important part, the higher bit AD converter always is chosen in order to gain high precision, but it is very expensive for the circuit . With twice sampling theory, an analog voltage is converted twice to realize the high precision. The converter is composed of lingyang SPCE061A mcu, ordinary gates and amplifiers, it is simple. That how to realize the high precision conversion is showed clearly on hardware circuit and software programs in this article.


Abstract This report focuses on one aspect of the social impact of the arts--their influence on civic engagement. The inquiry was undertaken during 2008 in collaboration with Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts. The purpose was to assess the state of knowledge about the relationship of the arts to civic engagement and to suggest ways that artists, cultural and community organizations, philanthropists, and public agencies could improve the quality of that knowledge. The approach was a review of literature drawn from the social sciences, the humanities, and public policy in an attempt to bridge theory with practice and research with evaluation. The authors structure the report as a conventional research design--that is, they define terms, conceptualize relationships among variables, identify methodological challenges, and assess data gathering strategies. Lastly, they propose a three-tier approach--with organizational or program-scale strategies, regional-scale strategies, and initiative-scale strategies--to improve the field's ability to document and understand the impact of the arts and culture on civil society.


[ReO(ppme)X] (where ppme(2-) is 2,5-diazo-N,N'-dimethylhexyl-1,6-bis(phenylphosphinate), X = Br0.3Cl0.7) has been synthesized via a substitution reaction and structurally characterized. The coordination geometry is a distorted octahedron and one phosphinate coordinates cis and the other trans to the oxo O atom. This coordination mode is conserved in all [ReOppmeX] complexes synthesized in this study. [ReO(ppme)Cl] has been prepared by a reduction/complexation reaction from [NH4][ReO4]. [ReO(ppme)Cl] reacts with thiocyanate and benzene thiolate forming [ReO(ppme)X] (X = (-)NCS, (-)SC6H5), but the one-pot synthesis of the respective ternary thiolate complexes from perrhenate was not successful. The reduction/complexation reaction of a thiol, H2ppmeCl4, and perrhenate resulted in the formation of [H3ppme][ReO(SR)4], the reaction of which with [ReO(ppme)Cl] does not lead to [ReO(ppme)SR] in high yields.


The diffusion profile of a stripe optical waveguide formed by ion exchange has been calculated. A finite-difference technique was used to solve the nonlinear ion-exchange equation in two dimensions. The effect of employing a metallic rather than a nonconducting mask is to significantly reduce the width of the diffused stripe.


ABSTRACT The Variscan orogenesis in Europe peaked during the Late Devonian–Early Carboniferous times when Gondwanan terranes collided with Laurasia. Hitherto it has been thought that Carboniferous tectonics in northern Arabia and the adjacent parts of NE Africa were broad swells ('arches') and depressions ('basins') that formed as a far-field contractional effect of the Variscan compression. The discovery of a 351 ± 3 Ma (U–Pb in zircon) within-plate felsic volcanism in the Helez borehole, southern coastal Israel, suggests that the Levant Arch is, instead, extensional in origin. Felsic volcanism was associated with gabbro underplating of the crust, an extreme (~50°C/km) crustal thermal gradient, major uplift, and truncation of the ≥2.5 km section. Taken together with the recent discovery of the ~340 Ma oceanic crust in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Levant Arch is interpreted as an uplifted shoulder of a rift, preceding ocean spreading.


This paper examines the role of cytoskeletons, such as stress fibers, on magnetic orientation of Schwann cells after strong magnetic field exposure (8-T in maximum). Schwann cells were cultured from dissected sciatic nerves of neonatal rats. Schwann cells oriented parallel to the magnetic field after 60 h of more than 4-T magnetic field exposure. Actin fibers oriented in the direction of the magnetic field after 60 h of 8-T magnetic field exposure but randomly oriented without magnetic field. Orientation of Schwann cells was not observed by inhibiting stress fiber formation using Y-27632, an inhibitor of small guanosine triphosphatases (GTPase) Rho-associated kinase. Our results indicate that the magnetic field elicits reorientation of actin fibers through Rho kinase to allow a response to magnetic orientation of Schwann cells.


We have tested the potential of three types of vibration motors for use in a tactile vision substitution device for the blind. The motors were of the coin type, which are available off-the-shelf, and are characterized by their affordability, energy efficiency, and ease of implementation. The primary limitation of coin motors is the lack of control they offer over stimulus parameters. Specifically, adjusting the input voltage of a coin motor not only changes the vibration intensity, but also the vibration frequency and duration. This characteristic may result in unpredictable perceptions in psychophysical tests. By using standard psychophysical procedures, we were able to show that the tested coin motors evoked predictable magnitude perceptions across their dynamic range, following Fechner's law as if vibration intensity alone were varied. The best-performing motor was able to generate a median number of 15 available just-noticeable differences, meaning that it was potentially capable of conveying 16 gray levels in its dynamic range. We conclude that coin motors are potential candidates for the construction of a tactile display to substitute for lost vision.


Abstract Background Self-tracking through mobile health technology can augment the electronic health record (EHR) as an additional data source by providing direct patient input. This can be particularly useful in the context of enigmatic diseases and further promote patient engagement. Objectives This study aimed to investigate the additional information that can be gained through direct patient input on poorly understood diseases, beyond what is already documented in the EHR. Methods This was an observational study including two samples with a clinically confirmed endometriosis diagnosis. We analyzed data from 6,925 women with endometriosis using a research app for tracking endometriosis to assess prevalence of self-reported pain problems, between- and within-person variability in pain over time, endometriosis-affected tasks of daily function, and self-management strategies. We analyzed data from 4,389 patients identified through a large metropolitan hospital EHR to compare pain problems with the self-tracking app and to identify unique data elements that can be contributed via patient self-tracking. Results Pelvic pain was the most prevalent problem in the self-tracking sample (57.3%), followed by gastrointestinal-related (55.9%) and lower back (49.2%) pain. Unique problems that were captured by self-tracking included pain in ovaries (43.7%) and uterus (37.2%). Pain experience was highly variable both across and within participants over time. Within-person variation accounted for 58% of the total variance in pain scores, and was large in magnitude, based on the ratio of within- to between-person variability (0.92) and the intraclass correlation (0.42). Work was the most affected daily function task (49%), and there was significant within- and between-person variability in self-management effectiveness. Prevalence rates in the EHR were significantly lower, with abdominal pain being the most prevalent (36.5%). Conclusion For enigmatic diseases, patient self-tracking as an additional data source complementary to EHR can enable learning from the patient to more accurately and comprehensively evaluate patient health history and status.


Despite the large volume of research that has been published in the field of endocrinology during the past 50 years, the precise biochemical function of a hormone has yet to be established. It is clear, however, that several hormones influence protein metabolism in such a way as to produce effects of considerable interest to the clinician as well as to the biochemist. The purpose of this presentation will be to consider both the clinical and biochemical implications of the hormonal adjustments in a number of common medical situations. The object of endocrine control might be stated to be an adjustment of metabolism through the intervention of numerous hormones acting in specific biochemical or biophysical areas to produce optimum substrate concentrations, adequate enzyme activity, and appropriate work performance in all organs and tissues in a variety of physiological and pathological states. In some instances, two hormones may stimulate a single process


The possible side effects of antipsychotics are extensive, varied, frequently, intolerable, too often serious and sometimes fatal. The knowledge about pharmacoepidemiological and toxicological aspects of atypical neuroleptics usage is very important in clinical practice. In this paper we described practical information about side effects, toxicological profile and unwanted drug interactions of atypical neuroleptics.


Simulation models are routinely used as a powerful tool for reservoir management. The underlying static models are the result of integrated efforts that usually includes the latest geophysical, geological and petrophysical measurements and interpretations. As such, these models carry an inherent degree of uncertainty. Typical uncertainty analysis techniques require many realizations and runs of the reservoir simulation model. In this day and age, as reservoir models are getting larger and more complicated, making hundreds or sometimes thousands of simulation runs can put considerable strain on the resources of an asset team, and most of the times are simply impractical. Analysis of these uncertainties and their effects on well performance using a new and efficient technique is the subject of this paper. The analysis has been performed on a giant oil field in the Middle East using a surrogate reservoir model. The surrogate reservoir model that runs and provides results in real-time is developed to mimic the capabilities of a full field simulation model that includes one million grid blocks and takes 10 hours to run using a cluster of twelve 3.2 GHz CPUs. In order to effectively demonstrate the robustness of Surrogate Reservoir Models and their capabilities as tools that can be used for uncertainty analysis, one must demonstrate that SRMs are competent in providing reasonably accurate results for multiple realizations of the reservoir being studied. In order to demonstrate such robustness and their predictive capabilities as well as their limitations, this paper will examine the performance of the surrogate reservoir models on different geologic realizations of the static model.


This study purposes to find the best one for dyeing with artemisia in order to develop a more efficient method of dyeing with artemisia and investigates the antibiotic activities of artemisia. After dyeing cotton, rayon, silk, wool and nylon fabrics with dyebath extracted from artemisia, observation on dyeability by temperature, concentration and time has been carried out. And I took an observation on color change, color fastness to washing and color fastness to light after mordanting treatment. Also observation on the antibiotic properties of non-dyed fabrics, artemisia-dyed fabrics and artemisia-dyed fabrics with post-mordant has been performed to investigate the antibiotic activities of artemisia. And the following results have been obtained. 1. The dyeability of artemisia was better for protein fabrics such as silk or woo and amide-based synthetic fabrics like nylon than for cellulose fabrics such as cotton and rayon. 2. For all tested fabrics, the dyeability was increased as the concentration of artemisia dyebath, dyeing time and dyeing temperature was increased. Especially the dye ability for protein fabrics was most affected by the temperature, and high dyeability was obtained at high temperatures. 3. For the color fastness of artemisia-dyed fabrics with mordanting treatment, the color fastness to washing was good with grade of 4-5 while the color fastness to light ranged from grade 2 to grade 3, which requires improvement for practical use. 4. The artemisia-dyed fabrics were shown to have much higher antibiosis than the non-dyed fabrics, and the artemisia-dyed fabrics with mortanting treatment showed the following result; Cu 99.9%, Al 64% and bittern 64.7%.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the effects of low-dose dopamine on norepinephrine-induced renal and systemic vasoconstriction in normotensive healthy subjects.

DESIGN
On separate days, either a low-dose dopamine (4 microg/kg/min) or a placebo (5% glucose) infusion was added in a single, blinded, randomized order to incremental norepinephrine infusions of 40, 80, and 150 ng/kg/min over a 60-min period each.

SETTING
Outpatient clinic of a university-affiliated hospital.

SUBJECTS
Normotensive healthy volunteers.

INTERVENTIONS
Infusions of norepinephrine and dopamine.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Blood pressure and heart rate were measured with a semiautomated device, and glomerular filtration rate and effective renal plasma flow were determined with constant infusions of 125I-iothalamate and 131I-hippurate, respectively. Norepinephrine alone progressively increased mean arterial pressure to pressor levels, whereas this effect was attenuated by the addition of dopamine (p < .05 vs. norepinephrine alone). Glomerular filtration rate increased during lower norepinephrine doses and did not decrease at the highest norepinephrine dose. Addition of dopamine further increased glomerular filtration rate. Effective renal plasma flow decreased with each norepinephrine alone infusion step, but this decrease was completely prevented by concomitant dopamine infusion (p < .01 vs. norepinephrine). Sodium excretion tended to decrease with norepinephrine, but increased two- to three-fold after addition of dopamine (p < .01 vs. norepinephrine alone).

CONCLUSIONS
In healthy man, norepinephrine causes a large decrease in renal plasma flow but not in glomerular filtration rate. Concomitant dopamine administration prevents this decrease in renal plasma flow, increases sodium excretion, and also attenuates the norepinephrine-induced systemic blood pressure increase. These findings warrant further clinical evaluation of the effect of concomitant low-dose dopamine and norepinephrine administration in critically ill patients.


The control of a process characterized by major " pure time delay" or " transport lag" by means of a coentonal analog controller is difficult because of the finite time which must elapse before a change in the controller output produces any measurable change in the process output. Linear predictor control is a well-known theoretical scheme for compensating the dead time; this requires incorporation of dead time in the controller itself and hardware difficulties have limited the use of this scheme in practice. It is shown in this paper that using an approximate-analog model of dead time synthesized from relatively inexpensive electronic components, a controller using the linear predictor approach is quite practicable in a typical process conatrol situation. A design of a control scheme for a laboratory process implementing the linear predictor control principle is given and it is shown that the improvement obtained in the control of the process, using an approximate analog model of dead time, is considerable.


This study investigates the effect of different types of subtitle on incidental vocabulary learning among Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 60 high school students in Behbahan were selected after taking a proficiency test. The test was administered to ensure participants' homogeneity. Participants were randomly assigned to three experimental groups, namely, Bimodal group (A), Standard group (B) and Reversed group (C). They watched ten video clips selected from three animated movies with different types of subtitles: A) Bimodal subtitles, B) Standard subtitles and C)Reversed subtitles. Research instrumentation included a pre-test and post-test. Participants took a pre-test containing new words selected from the clips. After ten treatment sessions, the post-test was administered. Data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially. To arrive at any difference between the three different types of subtitles, the researcher conducted one-way ANOVA. The results obtained from the test showed that participants in reversed subtitling group performed significantly different and learned more new vocabulary items. Standard subtitling was the second type of subtitling which revealed to be more effective than bimodal subtitling. Also, the effect of different types of subtitles on incidental English vocabulary learning between male and female was investigated in this study. To arrive at any difference between male and female in incidental English vocabulary learning an independent samples test was performed. The results obtained from the test showed that there is no significant difference between male and female in incidental English vocabulary learning.


Background - The majority of patients with advanced cancer develop cachexia, a
weight loss syndrome that severely reduces quality of life and limits survival. Our
understanding of the underlying mechanisms that cause the condition is limited, and
there are currently no treatment options that can completely reverse cachexia. Several
tumor-derived factors and inflammatory mediators have been suggested to contribute
to weight loss in cachectic patients. However, inconsistencies between studies are
recurrent. Activin A and IL-6 are among the best studied factors that seem to be
important, and several studies support their individual role in cachexia development.
Methods – We investigated the interplay between activin A and IL-6 in the cachexia
inducing TOV21G cell line both in culture and in tumours in mice. We previously found
that the human TOV21G cells secrete IL-6 that induce autophagy in reporter cells and
cachexia in mice. Using this established cachexia cell model, we targeted autocrine
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activin A by genetic, chemical and biological approaches. The secretion of IL-6 from
the cancer cells was determined both in culture and tumor-bearing mice by a species
specific ELISA. Autophagy reporter cells were used to monitor the culture medium for
autophagy inducing activities and muscle mass changes were evaluated in tumor
bearing mice.
Results – We show that activin A acts in an autocrine manner to promote the synthesis
and secretion of IL-6 from cancer cells. We find that this is important for the ability of
the cancer cells to accelerate autophagy in non-cancerous cells. Consistently,
interfering with activin A signaling in cachectic tumor-bearing mice reduces serum
levels of cancer cell-derived IL-6 and reverses cachexia. Thus, our data support a
functional link between activin and IL-6 signaling pathways, and indicate that
interference with activin A-induced IL-6 secretion from the tumor has therapeutic
potential for cancer-induced cachexia.


The innovative development of Wearable Electronics (WE) is creating exciting opportunities for application across many industries. Two sectors with high potential are healthcare and childcare. However, it is in these two sectors where the challenges of privacy are presumed to be of the highest. In order to ascertain the personal views of people about potential privacy problems in WE application in these two sectors, interviews with questionnaires were conducted in two different countries: Finland and the United Kingdom (UK). The results indicated that the majority of people in both countries are positive about the use of WE in healthcare and childcare environments. However, when more information is added to be read wirelessly, the attitudes become more negative. In general, the application of WE is more favorable in the UK and the reason as to the difference will make for interesting further research. Several interesting viewpoints and concerns were presented in the interviews. It can be concluded that the implementation of WE in these two sectors will require the collaboration of work on several areas and the development of versatile user studies.


This study was conducted to determine job availability for athletic trainers in school and/or clinic settings in western Kansas, western Nebraska, western Oklahoma, and eastern Colorado. A survey was sent to 109 physical therapy (PT) clinics and 194 public schools to determine the major factors associated with job marketability. Of the 194 questionnaires mailed to the public schools, 119 were returned for a 61% response rate. Of the 109 questionnaires mailed to PT clinics, 57 were returned for a 52% response rate. Very few school districts (13%) hired their own trainer due to financial restrictions; therefore, the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) athletic trainer would increase his/her likelihood of being hired if he/she was also teacher-certified. Most of the clinics responding would hire an NATA-certified athletic trainer if that individual was also licensed as a physical therapist, whereby, the trainer without PT licensure could be used for outreach programs for the local high schools. Essential factors identified by both the public school and clinic personnel for increasing the marketability of athletic trainers were: 1) NATA certification, 2) acquisition of an additional certification such as a teaching endorsement or a PT degree, and 3) willingness to provide services jointly to the schools and/or clinic with either being the primary hiring agent.


The instant cross-country-speed of gliders is defined and a formula given which is discussed in detail, explaining for instance why the classical theory is failing to provide suitable instantaneous results, why the instant cross-country speed may be regarded to be the shadow speed of the glider if the sun rays are inclined in the right manner and the shadow is cast on flat ground, or how energy is gained and transformed into cross-country speed.  Igc-files of two flights are evaluated to test the formula, showing promising results suggesting its implementing into modern flight computers for the purpose of helping pilots to improve their cross-country-speed and flying performance.


Author(s): Keshavan, Anisha | Advisor(s): Henry, Roland | Abstract: Imaging biomarkers from magnetic resonance images have provided insights into the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS). As neuroimaging datasets grow in size to accommodate multidimensional association studies, traditional methods for data collection and analysis are too imprecise and inefficient on a large scale. This dissertation addresses the challenges associated with collecting datasets from multiple scanners with non-standardized acquisition protocols, presents software for time and space efficient image processing, and software for collaborative quality control. Finally, a visualization framework is proposed to gain better intuition and understanding of high-dimensional imaging datasets through a web-based interactive data exploration tool. This dissertation lays the groundwork for large, multivariate studies in MS, and translational tools for the use of imaging biomarkers in the MS clinic.


Abstract Cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases (CRKs) are a large family of plasma membrane-bound receptors ubiquitous in higher plants. However, despite their prominence, their biological roles have remained largely elusive so far. In this study we report the characterization of an Arabidopsis mutant named crk10-A397T in which alanine 397 has been replaced by a threonine in the αC helix of the kinase domain of CRK10, known to be a crucial regulatory module in mammalian kinases. The crk10-A397T mutant is a dwarf that displays collapsed xylem vessels in the root and hypocotyl, whereas the vasculature of the inflorescence develops normally. In situ phosphorylation assays with His-tagged wild type and crk10-A397T versions of the CRK10 kinase domain revealed that both alleles are active kinases capable of autophosphorylation, with the newly introduced threonine acting as an additional phosphorylation site in crk10-A397T. Transcriptomic analysis of wild type and crk10-A397T mutant hypocotyls revealed that biotic and abiotic stress-responsive genes are constitutively up-regulated in the mutant, and a root-infection assay with the vascular pathogen Fusarium oxysporum demonstrated that the mutant has enhanced resistance to this pathogen compared with wild type plants. Taken together our results suggest that crk10-A397T is a gain-of-function allele of CRK10, the first such mutant to have been identified for a CRK in Arabidopsis.


Abstract Objective Our primary objective is to identify the costs associated with imaging in the diagnostic workup of uncomplicated Bell's palsy. Our secondary objective is to identify a dollar amount spent on extraneous diagnostic testing on a state and national level. Design and Setting Retrospective chart analysis was performed at our tertiary care medical center between 2007 and 2018. International Statistical Classification of Diseases-10 code G51.0 was used to identify patients with Bell's palsy seen by the senior author. A total of 163 patients were divided into two groups: those having received imaging and those diagnosed without imaging. The imaging group was then further subdivided by imaging modality: computed tomography (CT) only, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) only, or both. There was a total of 138 scans in 115 patients. To quantify the amount spent by insurance companies or patients on these scans, net expected pay (NEP) for each modality was used as a representation of cost. The NEP for a CT was $618. The NEP for an MRI was $1,119. The NEP for both scans was $1,737. We extrapolated our results to a state and national level. Main Outcome Measurements Cost of workup; state and national economic burden. Results Extrapolating our data, we forecast that in Illinois and in the United States, over $2 million and $53 million, respectively, are spent on unnecessary imaging. Conclusion By highlighting an unnecessary financial burden, our study provides concrete evidence to support the American Academy of Otolaryngology's recommendation that clinicians should not perform routine imaging studies when diagnosing uncomplicated Bell's palsy.


WE mapped cells immunoreactive (ir) for the protein encoded by the immediate early gene zenk in the brains of male Japanese quail after they engaged in either appetitive or consummatory sexual behavior (i.e. copulation). Castrated males treated with testosterone were either allowed to copulate with a female or exhibited a learned social proximity response indicative of appetitive sexual behavior, and were compared with control males in their home cage or in the experimental chamber but not exhibiting the proximity response. Copulation increased the number of ZENK-ir cells in the nucleus striae terminalis and the nucleus intercollicularis, while both copulation and the proximity response induced increases in the medial and anterior ventral hyperstriatum. These results indicate that zenk is induced in the context of sexual behavior.


A family of diffusion-annihilation processes is introduced, which is exactly solvable. This family contains parameters that control the diffusion and annihilation rates. The solution is based on the Bethe ansatz and using special boundary conditions to represent the reaction. The processes are investigated, both on the lattice and on the continuum. Special cases of this family of processes are the simple exclusion process and the drop-push model.


Nowadays, we are to find out solutions to huge computing problems very rapidly. It brings the idea of parallel computing in which several machines or processors work cooperatively for computational tasks. In the past decades, there are a lot of variations in perceiving the importance of parallelism in computing machines. And it is observed that the parallel computing is a superior solution to many of the computing limitations like speed and density; non-recurring and high cost; and power consumption and heat dissipation etc. The commercial multiprocessors have emerged with lower prices than the mainframe machines and supercomputers machines. In this article the high performance computing (HPC) through parallel programming paradigms (PPPs) are discussed with their constructs and design approaches.


INTRODUCTION
Any type of boot or footwear is designed to attenuate and distribute loading to the bottom of the foot. Anthropomorphic test device (ATDs) are used to assess potential countermeasures against these loads. The specific aims of this study were to compare and quantify force attenuation characteristics as a function of input energy for Hybrid-III and Mil-Lx ATD human surrogates.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Two lower leg ATD surrogates (Mil-Lx and Hybrid-III) were tested to investigate the influence of a commercially available military boot on lower extremity force response and assess such differences against previously published postmortem human surrogate studies. The testing apparatus impacted the bottom of the foot using a rigid plate at velocities from 2 to 10 m/s. Tests were conducted on each ATD to obtain axial force response with and without boots as a function of input energy.

RESULTS
Peak forces ranged from 1 to 16.4 kN for the Hybrid-III, and 1 to 8.4 kN for the Mil-Lx for similar input conditions. The average force attenuation for the Hybrid-III at upper and lower load cells was 71% (59%-80%) and 70% (58%-78%). The average attenuation for the Mil-Lx at upper and lower load cells was 20% (13%-28%) and 37% (36%-37%), respectively. At the knee load cell, the attenuated peak loads ranged from 62% to 81% for the Hybrid-III and 16% to 30% for the Mil-Lx.

CONCLUSIONS
Force attenuation characteristics in the booted vs unbooted configuration of the Mil-Lx were significantly different than force attenuation characteristics of the H3 and may better represent in vivo forces during vertical impact injuries, such as IED blasts. Hence for military relevant applications where boots are used, the Mil-Lx may provide a more conservative evaluation of lower extremity protection systems.


ABSTRACT Dog bites are a human public health and dog welfare problem. This qualitative study is the first to use YouTube™ to examine how viewers perceive risk of, and attribute blame for, dog bites. Comments underneath 10 videos, chosen to represent a diversity of dog-bite scenarios, were analyzed inductively using thematic analysis. Six themes emerged: 1) Commentators thought that dogs are inherently good-natured but wild animals and emphasized how dogs try to avoid biting people; 2) all recognized breeds of dogs were stereotyped and breed stereotypes were used to shift the blame away from the dog and onto a bite victim, unless the dog identified in a video was a pit bull type. The dog was often blamed in such case; 3) It was argued that a breed limits the extent to which a dog can be trained and controlled; 4) Owners/handlers were often blamed for bites due to their inability to control the dog, and commentators identified the need for appropriate training and socialization in order to control dogs and reduce bite risk; 5) Bite victims were also blamed for the bites when their behavior was perceived as provoking a dog. Although children's behavior was identified as causing a risk, parents of children bitten in the videos were blamed for bites instead due to their approach to child supervision; 6) Bites in a range of contexts, such as play or when viewers thought that the victim's behavior provoked a dog, were seen as well-de-served and normal. It was concluded that although comments on publicly available videos need to be interpreted with caution due to a self-selection bias, their analysis can help to identify attitudes and perceptions towards risk around dogs that could aid bite prevention interventions and policies.


Objectives: In Japan, as a result of legislation, the role of occupational physicians and the function of occupational health have been strengthened. Employers are now required to provide information to occupational physicians. This study explored what information occupational physicians considered should be available to them. Methods: We conducted a focus group discussion with eight professional occupational physicians and developed a draft list of the information that occupational physicians should obtain from employers. To assess the validity of the list, we conducted a questionnaire survey of 777 occupational physicians in the training and certification system of the Japan Society of Occupational Health. Results: We obtained valid responses from 155 occupational physicians. In total, over 80% agreed or somewhat agreed that all 24 categories were required, indicating that a consensus had been reached. In two of the eight categories for which fewer than 80% responded "agree", more senior or special-ized physicians were significantly more likely to respond "agree" than others. Conclusion: The results of the survey suggest specific experiences and systematic education influence decisions about whether certain types of information are considered necessary. Finally, based on the opinions in the open-ended section of the questionnaire, we recommend a list with 26 categories of information collecting from an employer. We believe the key to sharing information is to have a common understanding with employers and develop a good relationship so that additional information will be disclosed voluntarily. Occupational physicians need to be mindful of this need to develop rela-tionships with employers.


The N-terminal six transmenbrane helices (N6) and the C-terminal six transmembrane helices (C6) of the lactose permease of Escherichia coli, each with a Cys residue, were co-expressed independently, and crosslinking was studied. Proximity of paired Cys residues in helices II (position 49, 52, 53, 56, 57, 60, 63 or 67) and VII (position 227, 230, 231, 234, 238, 241, 242 or 245) or XI (position 350, 353, 354, 357, 361 or 364) was examined by using two homobifunctional thiol-specific crosslinking agents of different lengths (6 or 10 A). The results demonstrate that a Cys residue placed in the periplasmic half of helix II (position 49, 52, 53 or 57) crosslinks to Cys residues in the periplasmic half of helix VII (position 241, 242 or 245). In contrast, no crosslinking is evident with paired-Cys residues in the cytoplasmic halves of helices II (position 60, 63 or 67) and VII (position 227, 230, 231, 234 or 238). Remarkably, a Cys residue in the cytoplasmic half of helix II (position 60, 63 or 67) crosslinks with a Cys residue in the cytoplasmic half of helix XI (position 350, 353 or 354), while paired-Cys residues at positions in the periplasmic halves of the two helices do not crosslink. Therefore, helix II is tilted in such a manner that the periplasmic end is close to helix VII, and the cytoplasmic end is close to helix XI. Furthermore, ligand-binding alters the crosslinking efficiency of paired-Cys residues in helices II and VII or XI, indicating that both interfaces are conformationally active. The results are consistent with the conclusion that ligand-binding induces a scissors-like movement of helices II and VII that increases interhelical distance by 3 to 4 A at the periplasmic ends and decreases the distance by 3 to 4 A at the approximate middle of the two transmembrane helices.


Objectives Disorders with chronically elevated ICP have salient imaging findings associated with the sella turcica and optic nerves. We aim to quantify the degree of correlation between imaging features and ICP. Design Prospective case-cohort study. Subjects One-hundred and twenty-six patients (35M:91F) underwent ICPM with recent MR imaging. Methods T1-saggital views for sella volume, optic nerve vertical tortuosity, then T2-axial views for optic nerve sheath distension were blindly reviewed against respective median ICP and pulse amplitudes (PA). Imaging was triple reviewed for discordant values. Results The mean ICP of four sella morphologies (full/flat/concave/empty) were 1.2, 4.8, 8.4 and 16.7 mmHg respectively (p<0.01). AUROC for sella morphology predicting ICP was 0.81. This measurement was able to detect minimum ICP of 5.3 mmHg with 73.0% sensitivity and specificity, 73.0% PPV and 69.8% NPV. The mean PA values were 4.0, 5.2, 6.1 and 9.6 mmHg respectively (p<0.01). AUROC for sella morphology predicting PA was 0.78. This measurement was able to detect minimum PA of 5.47 mmHg with 76.3% sensitivity, 79.5% specificity, 63.5% PPV and 81.0% NPV. Mean PA values for vertical tortuosity (nil/uni/bi) were 5.2, 7.1 and 7.0 mmHg respectively (p<0.05). Mean ICP values for rail tracking (nil/uni/bi) were 4.5, 7.5 and 15.7 mmHg respectively (p<0.01). Mean PA values were 5.2, 5.8 and 8.0 mmHg respectively (p<0.0001). Conclusions Combined radiological features of ICP are promising non-invasive markers for raised ICP.


Article history: Received 8 October 2007 Received in revised form 28 March 2009 Accepted 7 April 2009 Available online 17 April 2009 Price determination theory typically focuses on the role of monetary policy, while the role of fiscal policy is usually neglected. From a different point of view, the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level takes into account monetary and fiscal policy interactions and assumes that fiscal policy may determine the price level, even if monetary authorities pursue an inflation targeting strategy. In this paper we try to test empirically whether the time path of the government budget in EMU countries would have affected price level determination. Our results point to the sustainability of fiscal policy in all the EMU countries but Finland, although no firm conclusions can be drawn about the prevalence of either monetary or fiscal dominance. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: E62 H62 O52


This paper presents a method for acquiring a concession strategy of an agent in multi-issue negotiation. This method learns how to make a concession to an opponent for realizing win-win negotiation. To learn the concession strategy, we adopt reinforcement learning. First, an agent receives a proposal from an opponent. The agent recognizes a negotiation state using the difference between their proposals and the difference between their concessions. According to the state, the agent makes a proposal by reinforcement learning. A reward of the learning is a profit of an agreement and a punishment of negotiation breakdown. The experimental results showed that the agents could acquire the negotiation strategy that avoids negotiation breakdown and increases profits of an agreement. As a result, agents can acquire the action policy that strikes a balance between cooperation and competition.


Sleep is necessary for survival and good health. However, individual requirements vary. Newborn babies sleep 13-17 hours a day; adults require anything from 4 to 9 hours. As people get older, they tend to require less sleep.


Epidemic-type aftershock sequence (ETAS) point process is a common model for the occurrence of earthquake events. The ETAS model consists of a stationary background Poisson process modeling spontaneous earthquakes and a triggering kernel representing the space–time-magnitude distribution of aftershocks. Popular nonparametric methods for estimation of the background intensity include histograms and kernel density estimators. While these methods are able to capture local spatial heterogeneity in the intensity of spontaneous events, they do not capture well patterns resulting from fault line structure over larger spatial scales. Here we propose a two-layer infinite Gaussian mixture model for clustering of earthquake events into fault-like groups over intermediate spatial scales. We introduce a Monte Carlo expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm for joint inference of the ETAS-I 2 GMM model and then apply the model to the Southern California Earthquake Catalog. We illustrate the advantages of the ETAS-I 2 GMM model in terms of both goodness of fit of the intensity and recovery of fault line clusters in the Community Fault Model 3.0 from earthquake occurrence data.


Increasing resistance to dapsone (DDS) leads to recommend triple drug chemotherapy (TCT) in multibacillary leprosy (ML). To determinate long term evolution, we evaluated patients who received TCT 8 years ago. Between 1974 and 1976, 30 patients with ML received TCT (rifampicin, prothionamid, and DDS) during 6 or 12 months. At this time satisfactory clinical and bacteriological findings were reported, and from then DDS was given alone. Twelve of the thirty patients have been evaluated in 1983. Six patients had bacteriological index greater than or equal to 2+, three of them had clinical relapse. Seven of the twelve patients did not take regularly DDS; the six relapses belong to this group.


The full adiabatic theory is used to describe wave propagation in a warm magnetoplasma for frequencies around the plasma frequency and the upper hybrid resonance frequency. By comparison with the microscopic theory for directions perpendicular and parallel to the static magnetic field, we can well define the range of validity of the full adiabatic theory, which can then be used for computation of the group velocity. The variation of this group velocity as a function of frequency for several directions of propagation is shown for models corresponding to the ionosphere and the far magnetosphere. Three factors deserve attention: (1) the upper hybrid resonance and its neighborhood can be rigorously studied for far magnetospheric conditions by using the full adiabatic theory; (2) the computed modes present a mixed electrostatic-electromagnetic character; (3) The minima in group velocities for pseudoresonance frequencies progressively fill up as the temperature increases.


Strip material and substrate losses, that occur at the radiating element and the feeding-matching network of electrically small printed YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/spl minus/x/ (HTS) antenna systems, can substantially degrade their performance and, therefore, have to be considered in optimum efficiency and SNR designs. Identification and numerical estimation of such loss mechanisms, and assessment of the overall efficiency of the antenna system, which is of particular importance in design, is facilitated by fundamental microwave network analysis and the method of moments (MM). Four efficient designs, incorporating different feeding-matching configurations, are experimentally tested, and their performance is compared with the theoretical predictions. Superior gain can be demonstrated over similar supercooled Cu and Ag antennas. The applicability of low frequency efficiency measurement methods for highly efficient HTS antenna systems is outlined and extended for improved accuracy.<<ETX>>


Sulfhydryl and disulfide metabolism in platelet function has recently reemerged as a focus of platelet research. In this study we tested the effect of redox buffer on platelet aggregation and the effect of reduced glutathione (GSH) and platelet activation on sulfhydryl exposure in the platelet fibrinogen receptor, alpha IIb beta 3. In the presence of subthreshold concentrations of agonist, physiologic concentrations of GSH (10 microM) stimulated platelet aggregation and secretion. These effects were found with more than one platelet agonist and with different low molecular weight thiols, including homocysteine. The effect of low molecular weight thiols was reproduced with the peptide LSARLAF which directly activates platelets through alpha IIb beta 3, suggesting that the mechanism is at the level of this integrin. After determining optimal sulfhydryl labeling conditions for alpha IIb beta 3 (5 mM EDTA, 37 degrees C, 60 min), we found that GSH (10 microM) generated sulfhydryls in the beta 3 subunit. To determine if the requirement was for reducing equivalents or for a redox potential (ratio of GSH to GSSG), aggregation was further studied with the addition of low concentrations of GSSG to the GSH. With a ratio of GSH/GSSG of 5/1, similar to that of blood, the addition of GSSG potentiated the stimulatory effect as compared to GSH alone. This indicates that, for potentiation of aggregation, GSH is not simply reducing disulfide bonds; there is rather a requirement for a certain redox potential. Additional studies performed in the absence of added glutathione showed an increase in sulfhydryl labeling in the beta 3 subunit during platelet activation. Finally, we show that vicinal dithiols of platelet surface proteins are involved in the sulfhydryl-dependent pathways of platelet activation. In summary, these data imply that the redox potential of blood regulates activation of the alpha IIb beta 3 integrin and together with other reports in the literature suggest that disulfide bond cleavage with sulfhydryl generation in beta 3 is involved in activation of this receptor.


Summary The effect of human granulocyte proteases and related pancreatic enzymes on the procoagulant (VIII:C) and the von Willebrand (VIIIR:WF) activities of factor VIII was investigated. VIII:C appeared to be several hundred times more sensitive towards granulocyte enzymes than VIIIR: WF. The elastase-like protease (ELP) decreased both activities of factor VIII more effectively than the chymotrypsin-like enzyme (CLP). ELP increased co-operatively the inactivating effect of CLP. In the presence of a CLP-ELP mixture in a ratio of 3:1, the rate of inactivation of VIII:C was seven times as high as that with CLP alone. Factor VIII was more resistant towards the damaging effect of pancreatic enzymes. The rate of inactivation of VIII: C was about a thousand times and that of VIIIR:WF about a hundred times lower than those measured with the related granulocyte enzymes of the same proteolytic activity. The sensitivity of VIII: C towards proteolysis was not as pronounced with pancreatic enzymes as with granulocyte proteases. Our data suggest that, even though CLP and ELP are called "-like" enzymes, the specificity of granulocyte proteases is not identical with that of the pancreatic enzymes. The extreme sensitivity of VIII: C for granulocyte proteases may bring about blood coagulation disorders in certain pathological conditions.


Fifteen polar extracts from leaf, seed, pod, stem, flower and root of Crotalaria spectabilis were prepared using aqueous systems, based on the principles of green chemistry, and showed different protease inhibitor (PI) activities on trypsin, papain, pepsin and the extracellular L. amazonensis serine protease (LSPIII). The most pronounced inhibitory effect on LSPIII was observed in leaf (CS-P), root, stem, flower (CS-FPVPP) and pod (CS-VA) extracts. Crotalaria extracts exhibited low cytotoxicity on macrophages; however, they decreased the viability of L. amazonensis promastigotes and amastigotes, as observed in leaf (CS-AE, CS-P, CS-T and CS-PVPP), seed (CS-ST), flower and root (CS-RA) extracts. CS-P was chosen to study PI and secondary metabolites and a 10-12 kDa protein, analyzed by mass spectrometry, was identified as a serine PI homologous with papaya latex serine PI. Glycosylated flavonoids, such as quercetins, vitexin and tricin were the major secondary metabolites of CS-P. The presence of PIs in C. spectabilis is a new finding, especially in other organs than seeds since PIs have been reported only in seed legumes. Besides, this is the first report of antileishmanial activity of C. spectabilis extracts and the identification of serine polypeptide PI and glycosylated flavonoids from leaf.


List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. "Don't Panic, I'm Hispanic": The Trends and Economy of Cultural Flows 2. Knowledges: Facts and Fictions of a People as a Market 3. Images: Producing Culture for the Market 4. Screening the Image 5. Language and Culture in the Media Battle Zone 6. The Focus (or Fuck Us) Group: Consumers Talk Back, or Do They? 7. Selling Marginality: The Business of Culture Notes References Index


A probabilistic stress analysis tool predicting reliability of composite wind turbine rotor blades was developed and validated by comparing with results from a three-dimensional shell finite element model of a blade. Stress analysis was based on thin wall multicellular Euler–Bernoulli beam theory using as input section stress resultants directly from aeroelastic simulations; a finite strip method was implemented for elastic stability calculations. Reliability analysis was performed at the ply level of the multidirectional laminates implementing various methods such as the response surface method, β-index and crude Monte Carlo simulation. Physical and statistical uncertainties of the basic variables was taken into account while several model uncertainties related to the material properties were further introduced and quantified in the light of appropriate test results. To prove the efficiency of the code as a design tool, the effect of various probabilistic assumptions concerning the material properties was directly investigated on the estimated reliability β-index values for two rotor blade design cases typical of stall-regulated and pitch-regulated wind turbines. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


At least two thyroid hormone receptor (hTR) genes are present in humans, but the significance of this multiplicity is unknown. These receptors could have differences in tissue distribution or possess different functions. We studied the distribution and abundance of three hTR mRNAs (hTR beta, hTR alpha 1, and hTR alpha 2) by Northern blot analysis. Three mRNAs were expressed in all tissues examined. hTR beta was strongly expressed in brain and prostate predominantly as a 10.0-kilobase (kb) mRNA. This mRNA was also expressed in thyroid and was much less abundant in liver, kidney, placenta, tonsil, and spleen. hTR alpha 1 is represented by two mRNAs with sizes of 6.0 and 3.2 kb. The 6.0-kb mRNA was constantly less abundant than the 3.2-kb mRNA. hTR alpha 2 was detected as a single mRNA with a size of 3.2 kb, using a probe unique for this mRNA. Both hTR alpha 1 and hTR alpha 2 were strongly expressed in brain, prostate, and thyroid and much less in other tissues. The relative amounts of the three hTR mRNAs were roughly parallel in each tissue. It is of interest that none of these hTRs was abundant in liver, which is the major thyroid hormone-responsive organ. Another hTR may be present in liver.


A difference scheme involving acceptable fitting parameters is suggested for differential equations with delay and advanced terms, the solutions of which show boundary layer behaviour. First, the original problem is reshaped into asymptotically comparable second order singular perturbation problem using Taylor series approximation for the retarded terms. In order to obtain precise solution, fitting parameters are introduced in difference scheme using modified upwind differences for the first order derivatives. Thomas procedure is used to solve the resulting tri-diagonal difference system. The method is tested on numerical examples for various values of the perturbation, delay and advance parameters. Computed maximum absolute errors are tabulated. Numerical experiments are shown in graphs and the effects of small shifts have been studied on the boundary layer region. Also, convergence has been established of the proposed method.


In this paper we propose an active broadband MMIC circuit simulating a negative capacitance. It is based on a Negative Impedance Converter (NIC). A prototype has been fabricated using 0.25 ¿m pHEMT technology. The measurement results are good. We propose the application of this circuit for the design of a tunable capacitance with a wide tuning range and for the design of a low-loss capacitance multiplier.


The characterization of a video segment by a digital signature is a fundamental task in video processing. It is necessary for video indexing and retrieval, copyright protection and other tasks. Semantic video signatures are those that are based on high-level content information rather than on low-level features of the video stream. The major advantage of such signatures is that they are highly invariant to nearly all types of distortion. A major semantic feature of a video is the appearance of specific persons in specific video frames. Because of the great amount of research that has been performed on the subject of face detection and recognition, the extraction of such information is generally tractable, or will be in the near future. We have developed a method that uses the pre-extracted output of face detection and recognition to perform fast semantic query-by-example retrieval of video segments. We also give the results of the experimental evaluation of our method on a database of real video. One advantage of our approach is that the evaluation of similarity is convolution-based, and is thus resistant to perturbations in the signature and independent of the exact boundaries of the query segment.


A 76‐year‐old woman with permanent atrial fibrillation and a mechanical aortic valve came to our attention. Echocardiography showed a 50‐55% ejection fraction (EF) with good prosthesis performance. For symptomatic bradyarrhythmia, she received a VVI pacemaker (Proponent MRI L2010 model; Boston Scientific.). During follow‐up, frequent symptomatic (presyncopal) episodes of nonsustained episodes of ventricular tachycardia (VT) were detected. Amiodarone proved unsuccessful; she was then offered an upgrade to an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and a subcutaneous ICD (S‐ICD) was chosen by the patient. A few weeks later, two sustained VT were detected and effectively treated with 80‐J shock delivery. In both cases, device interrogation revealed a VT rate around 163 bpm (370 ms cycle length), below the lowest device detection cutoff. The report is a case‐based review.


Ray-finned fishes are a diverse, but understudied, component of the Maastrichtian marine fauna of the southeast Netherlands (Limburg) and northeast Belgium (Liege-Limburg). The most extensive reviews of fishes from these uppermost Cretaceous deposits were made in the early and mid-Twentieth Century, but little research on this important assemblage has been executed since. The present paper provides figures and brief descriptions of fishes from the Maastrichtian type area as an aid for field identification of fossil discoveries. A simple key to common Maastrichtian fish teeth from this area is also included. All convincing records of ray-finned fishes from the Maastrichtian of the Netherlands and Belgium, inclusive of the Mons Basin, are teleosts, and include both stem- and crown-group members. Higher teleost clades reported here are: Pycnodontiformes (Pycnodontidae), Pachycormiformes (Pachycormidae), Aspidorhynchidiformes (Aspidorhynchidae), Ichthyodectiformes (Saurodontidae), Pachyrhizodontoidei (Pachyrhizodontidae), Aulopiformes (Apateopholidae, Cimolichthyidae, Dercetidae, Enchodontidae), Polymixiiformes (Polymixiidae), Trachichthyiformes (family incertae sedis) and Tetraodontiformes (family incertae sedis).


Objective: To evaluate the change in central choroidal thickness in children with asthma attack before and after treatment with β2 agonists. Materials and methods: About 100 eyes of 50 patients (5–17 years old) with visual acuity of 20/20 who had no retinal, choroidal, and systemic comorbidity were examined by enhanced depth optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT) before and after asthma attack treatment. Sixty eyes of 30 healthy children of similar age and gender were evaluated as the control group. The central choroidal thickness, peak expiratory flow (PEF), forced expiratory volume 1(FEV1), oxygen saturation, and heart rate were evaluated. Results: The mean age of the patients was 9.2 ± 3.1 years, and the mean saturation values of patients was 97.2 ± 1.3 before treatment, and it increased to 98.3 ± 0.9 after treatment with a statistically significant difference. The mean FEV1 values were 80.8 ± 15.2 before, and 92.7 ± 12.9 after the treatment and PEF values were 75.9 ± 18.6 before and 89.3 ± 18.9 after treatment. This differences were statistically significant (p < 0.001). The average choroidal thickness before the treatment were 310.4 ± 34.2 μm and decreased to 302.7 ± 34.4 μm after the treatment, this decrease was statistically significant (p < 0.001). The mean choroidal thickness of the control group was 303.0 ± 7.3 μm and compared to the pre-treatment and post-treatment values, it was more similar to the post-treatment values, although there was no statistically difference. Conclusion: In our study, it was shown that choroidal thickness was significantly reduced in children with asthma who received attack treatment with β2 agonists, and it was similar to the control group after the treatment.


What is the central purpose of writing Nigerian Foreign Policy Towards Africa? In part, it is to advance the study and understanding of the distinct relations among contemporary African states. This study is as much an integrated assessment of the development of Nigeria's African policies as it is an analytical overview of the structural factors impeding the adoption of rational policies towards the collective management of conflicts, promotion of economic cooperation, and political democratization in Africa. Issues raised in this study will facilitate further insight into how the dominant class in control of state power might use the instruments of foreign policy to restructure Africa's external economic relations, in order to effect fundamental change in the prevailing condition of underdevelopment.


The attitude deviations of an airborne stabilized platform have significant impact on the distribution and point density of the laser point cloud obtained from airborne LiDAR. On one hand, the attitude deviations can cause the laser point cloud to horizontally shift along the scanning direction, leading to the coverage area deviating from the target terrain and resulting in missing scan of some important topography. On the other hand, the attitude deviations can cause the point density to be nonuniform, further deteriorating the elevation accuracy of the digital surface model (DSM) reconstructed from the laser point cloud. Among the three attitude deviations of the airborne stabilized platform, the roll and pitch deviations have more significant impact than the heading deviation. Thus, it is of practical importance to take appropriate steps to compensate the attitude deviations of the airborne stabilized platform, especially for the roll and pitch deviations. In this paper, firstly, an attitude compensation device was designed to compensate the impact of both the roll and pitch deviations in real time. Then, through numerical simulation and semi-physical simulation experiments, the compensation effectiveness of the device was evaluated. The experimental results show that the device can effectively compensate the roll and pitch deviations. After the compensation of the roll and pitch deviations, offsets of the distribution of the laser point cloud were well corrected, and the elevation accuracy of the reconstructed DSM was improved.


Women's activities and relations to men are persistent metaphors for man's projects. I query the prominence of these and the lack of equivalent metaphors where men are the metaphoric vehicle for women and women's activities. Women's role as metaphor results from her otherness and her relational and mediational importance in men's lives. Otherness, mediation, and relation characterize the role of metaphor in language and thought. This congruence between metaphor and women makes the metaphor of woman especially potent in man's conceptual economy.


Background : Maternal mortality ratio, infant mortality rate, and underfive mortality rate are still high in Indonesia. Pasuruan is one of the districts in East Java with the highest infant mortality rate. One of the public health interventions that has been undertaken to address this issue is maternal and child health surveillance program with community health workers being the leading implementers. This study aimed to describe the role of community health workers in maternal and child health surveillance to optimize maternal and child health care services in Pasuruan District, East Java. Subje cts and Method: This was a qualitative study using case study approach. It was conducted in Pasuruan, East Java. Key informants were selected by criterion sampling. The data were collected by in-depth interview, focus group discussion, observation, and document review. Data validity was checked by triangulation. Results : Community based maternal and child health surveillance program has been implemented for 4 years. However, only some of all community health workes have been trained in this program. The tasks of these community health workers included advocacy and monitoring of maternal and child health in the areas of posyandu. The implementation of these surveillance program had some obstacles, including low insentive of community health worker, inactive community health worker, lack of awareness among community members on maternal and child health issues, and medical factors of pregnant mothers that caused mortality. Conclusion : Community health workers help improve the quality of maternal and child health care by surveillance program, although their performances have yet to be enhanced. Keyword : maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate, community health workers Correspondence:  Ninil Dwi Pangestu. Masters Program in Public Health, Sebelas Maret University,  Jl. Ir. Sutami No. 36A Surakarta 57126, Jawa Tengah. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. Mobile +62856553737. Journal of Health Policy and Management (2017), 2(2): 128-136 https://doi.org/10.26911/thejhpm.2017.02.02.04


This article has described what gyros and accelerometers are and how they can be used to make various inertial systems. Gyros, accelerometers, and inertial systems are used in the military, scientific, automotive, industrial, medical, and consumer fields. With so many different types, grades, manufacturers, and users of inertial sensors and systems, standardization is important. Standards reduce confusion by establishing an accepted way to describe the technology and product. Standards development requires consensus and can lead to interesting stories.


All living structures have a genome, which contains the "blueprint" that provides all the instructions necessary to make and maintain an organism. With the exception of the red blood cells, each of the various billions of cells which make up each individual, contains a complete genome.This consists of a double chain of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The chromosomes are portions of DNA plus protein. Our genes, ca. 100,000, are a small part of the very long stretch of DNA which is composed of about 3 x 10 nucleotides, generally abbreviated as "bases". These bases contain the purines, adenine and guanine and the pyrimidines, cytosine and thymine. The double chain is so formed that whenever there is an adenine in a chain, there will be a thymine in the opposite chain and whenever there is a guanine in one there will be a cytosine in the other chain. A great portion, ca. 90%, of the nuclear DNA does not contain genes. On the other hand the very small DNA of the mitochondria is occupied entirely by genes, and is inherited entirely from the mother. This has a very important application in legal medicine as will be extensively covered in this encounter. In this regard, because of its historical interest I will refer to the work of Mary Clare King with the children of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina. Also, I will discuss the Declarations of Valencia and of Bilbao. Because of its pioneer interest, the 2nd Declaration of Valencia is included.


ABSTRACT Intracranial  aneurysms are common. It is the most commonly encountered  aneurysms in the human body. Rupture  of an aneurysm producing intracranial bleeding is considered a medical emergency, and requires further investigation  and  management. Cerebral  angiography is still the examination of choice to confirm the diagnosis of aneurysms. In our study, 29 cases of ruptured cerebral aneurysms show no sex difference And 13 out of 29 cases are in the range of 40-60 years. The most common location of cerebral aneurysms is the anterior communicating artery aneurysms, 11 out of 29 cases. No multiple aneurysm is seen in this study.


Synthesis of ergodic, stationary visual patterns is widely applicable in texturing, shape modeling, and digital content creation. The wide applicability of this technique thus requires the pattern synthesis approaches to be scalable, diverse, and authentic. In this paper, we propose an exemplar-based visual pattern synthesis framework that aims to model the inner statistics of visual patterns and generate new, versatile patterns that meet the aforementioned requirements. To this end, we propose an implicit network based on generative adversarial network (GAN) and periodic encoding, thus calling our network the Implicit Periodic Field Network (IPFN). The design of IPFN ensures scalability: the implicit formulation directly maps the input coordinates to features, which enables synthesis of arbitrary size and is computationally efficient for 3D shape synthesis. Learning with a periodic encoding scheme encourages diversity: the network is constrained to model the inner statistics of the exemplar based on spatial latent codes in a periodic field. Coupled with continuously designed GAN training procedures, IPFN is shown to synthesize tileable patterns with smooth transitions and local variations. Last but not least, thanks to both the adversarial training technique and the encoded Fourier features, IPFN learns high-frequency functions that produce authentic, high-quality results. To validate our approach, we present novel experimental results on various applications in 2D texture synthesis and 3D shape synthesis.


Quadricuspid pulmonary valves (QPV) are rare entities. Such valves can be associated with other cardiac anatomical anomalies. In this report, we present a case of a quadricuspid valve with an additional variant and discuss the morphometrics of this anatomical variation. During the routine dissection of an adult male body, two anatomical variations were found within the pulmonary trunk. This individual had a QPV. In addition, one of the leaflets of this valve contained fenestrations. No additional cardiac anomalies were identified. Clinicians who review imaging of the heart or treat patients with cardiac conditions should be well-informed about QPV.


The desire to create more complex visual scenes in modern flight simulators outpaces recent increases in processor speed. As a result, simulation transport delay remains a problem. New approaches for compensating the transport delay in a flight simulator have been developed and are presented in this report. The lead/lag filter, the McFarland compensator and the Sobiski/Cardullo state space filter are three prominent compensators. The lead/lag filter provides some phase lead, while introducing significant gain distortion in the same frequency interval. The McFarland predictor can compensate for much longer delay and cause smaller gain error in low frequencies than the lead/lag filter, but the gain distortion beyond the design frequency interval is still significant, and it also causes large spikes in prediction. Though, theoretically, the Sobiski/Cardullo predictor, a state space filter, can compensate the longest delay with the least gain distortion among the three, it has remained in laboratory use due to several limitations. The first novel compensator is an adaptive predictor that makes use of the Kalman filter algorithm in a unique manner. In this manner the predictor can accurately provide the desired amount of prediction, while significantly reducing the large spikes caused by the McFarland predictor. Among several simplified online adaptive predictors, this report illustrates mathematically why the stochastic approximation algorithm achieves the best compensation results. A second novel approach employed a reference aircraft dynamics model to implement a state space predictor on a flight simulator. The practical implementation formed the filter state vector from the operator s control input and the aircraft states. The relationship between the reference model and the compensator performance was investigated in great detail, and the best performing reference model was selected for implementation in the final tests. Theoretical analyses of data from offline simulations with time delay compensation show that both novel predictors effectively suppress the large spikes caused by the McFarland compensator. The phase errors of the three predictors are not significant. The adaptive predictor yields greater gain errors than the McFarland predictor for short delays (96 and 138 ms), but shows smaller errors for long delays (186 and 282 ms). The advantage of the adaptive predictor becomes more obvious for a longer time delay. Conversely, the state space predictor results in substantially smaller gain error than the other two predictors for all four delay cases.


Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold great promise for basic research and regenerative medicine. They offer the same advantages as embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and moreover new perspectives for personalized medicine. iPSCs can be generated from adult somatic tissues by over-expression of a few defined transcription factors, including Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-myc. For regenerative medicine in particular, the technology provides great hope for patients with incurable diseases or potentially fatal disorders such as heart failure. The endogenous regenerative potentials of adult hearts are extremely limited and insufficient to compensate for myocardial loss occurring after myocardial infarction. Recent discoveries have demonstrated that iPSCs have the potential to significantly advance future cardiovascular regenerative therapies. Moreover, iPSCs can be generated from somatic cells of patients with genetic basis for their disease. This human iPSC derivates offer tremendous potential for new disease models. This paper reviews current applications of iPSCs in cardiovascular regenerative medicine and discusses progress in modeling cardiovascular diseases using iPSCs-derived cardiac cells.


As the functional requirements for 3D printed parts become more demanding, the use of fiber reinforced materials in material extrusion printers is increasingly common. Although fiberreinforced thermoplastics offer higher stiffness and strength, the internal volume of the extruded material often has a high degree of porosity which can negatively impact mechanical properties. This research surveys the internal porosity present across a range of material extrusion additive manufacturing platforms, primarily those involving a single screw extruder, such as the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) system. The porosity within the volume of an extruded bead was quantified through image analysis of cross sectional micrographs. The impact of extrusion rate, transient vs steady state flow, multiple hardware configurations, and material conditions were evaluated. Across the five systems studied porosities ranged from 0.1% to 18.4% with the greatest reductions in porosity coming from two systems that added a vent to the extruder barrel which lowered porosity 64% in one case and 98% in the other.


The random feature model exhibits a kind of resonance behavior when the number of parameters is close to the training sample size. This behavior is characterized by the appearance of large generalization gap, and is due to the occurrence of very small eigenvalues for the associated Gram matrix. In this paper, we examine the dynamic behavior of the gradient descent algorithm in this regime. We show, both theoretically and experimentally, that there is a dynamic self-correction mechanism at work: The larger the eventual generalization gap, the slower it develops, both because of the small eigenvalues. This gives us ample time to stop the training process and obtain solutions with good generalization property.


An accurate model for the structure of speech is essential to many speech processing applications, including speech enhancement, synthesis, recognition, and coding. This paper explores some deficiencies of standard harmonic methods of modeling voiced speech. In particular, they ignore the effect of fundamental frequency changing within an analysis frame, and the fact that the fundamental frequency is not a continuously varying parameter, but a side effect of a series of discrete events. We present an alternative, time-series based framework for modeling the voicing structure of speech called the fine pitch model. By precisely modeling the voicing structure, it can more accurately account for the content in a voiced speech segment.


The concepts, methods, and practices associated with process management and continual improvement have recently gained wider acceptance within the software community. In this book, Florac and Carleton further this advancement by detailing the use of statistical process control (SPC) to manage and improve software processes, where software process refers to any process or subprocess used by a software project or organization. By establishing a framework and providing the necessary detail to implement SPC, this book demonstrates how quantitative insights into the behavior of software processes can be gained and used to achieve both business and technical goals. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the basic concepts of managing, measuring, controlling, and improving software processes and also presents the rationale behind the use of control charts. The first chapter concludes by outlining a framework for measuring and improving process behavior through activities that include clarifying business goals, identifying and prioritizing issues, selecting and defining measures, collecting, verifying, and retaining data, analyzing process behavior, and evaluating process performance. Chapter 2 discusses those activities that are prerequisites to collecting and analyzing process performance data. These activities include identifying process management issues, selecting and defining the measures, and integrating the defined measures with the organization's software process. Chapter 3 provides specifics associated with collecting, verifying, and retaining software process data. Methods and tools for obtaining data, execution of data-collection procedures, and the capture and recording of data are all provided. In Chapter 4, the basics of Shewhart control charts, including the distinction between signals and noise, evaluation of process stability, the structure of control charts, and methods for detecting anomalous process behavior, are presented. Chapter 5 further expands on these concepts by providing the procedures and formulas for constructing standard control charts for both variables and attributes data. Chapter 6 continues by discussing a number of topics that need to be considered using control charts. These topics include considerations such as amount of data necessary to construct a control chart, rational sampling and subgrouping, and aggregation of data. Although the previous chapters provided the mechanics for constructing and analyzing control charts, Chapter 7 gives guidance on appropriate actions to take after construction and analysis. These actions include the removal of assignable causes, process changes, and improvement methods. The book concludes with Chapter 8, which provides 10 steps for initiating the application of SPC in a software environment. This chapter also includes the answers to some frequently asked questions about SPC. Throughout the chapters, examples are provided to further clarify the use of SPC in software processes. Additional features of the book include tables for calculating control-chart limits, detailed discussions addressing SPC fundamentals, and an extensive list of references. Florac and Carleton state that the book is appropriate for software managers or practitioners who have responsibility for product quality or process performance. By starting with the basics of SPC, this book allows those software managers or practitioners with minimal SPC experience to become familiar with the key issues, concepts, and techniques for applying SPC within their organization. For practitioners or statisticians who are experienced with the concepts and applications of SPC, the greatest use of this book will be the framework and the examples of appropriate metrics for measuring software processes.


It is well established that splenectomy terminates ocular immune privilege to promote rejection of intraocular tumors that would otherwise grow progressively in the anterior chamber (a.c.) of the eye. However, the mechanisms of intraocular tumor rejection in splenectomized mice remain undefined. Utilizing E.G7-OVA tumors transplanted in the a.c. of C57Bl/6 mice we identified the requirement for CD8+ T cells. Interestingly, E.G7-OVA tumor growth in both splenectomized and control mice induced expansion and differentiation of OVA specific CD8+ T cells into granzyme B+ CTL that infiltrated ocular tumors in comparable numbers. As splenectomized perforin deficient mice rejected ocular tumors, these data indicated that direct lytic activity was dispensable. Rejection of ocular tumors also required macrophages and immune cell expression of IFNγR1 suggesting that splenectomy restored IFNγ production by CD8+ T cells or rescued IFNγR1 signaling in macrophages. However, IFNγ was expressed by CTL infiltrating ocular tumors of both splenectomized and control mice, and CTL-expressed IFNγ induced expression of nitric-oxide-synthase-2 in intratumoral macrophages. FasL expression was also required for ocular tumor rejection. Based on these data we propose a model in which CD8+ T cells express IFNγ to induce FasL ligand expression by intratumoral macrophages that promotes apoptosis of Fas+ tumor cells.


The research was carried out on the sediments of the Batuasih Formation cropping out at Batuasih Village, Cibatu River, Padaarang Sukabumi. Data obtained from field observation, as well as foraminifera and sedimentology analyses conducted in the laboratory, were used to interpret its depositional environment. The investigation was focused on planktonic and benthic foraminiferal assemblages for depositional environment interpretation that might not be used by previous researchers. The Batuasih Formation is composed of black shaly claystone, where the lower part is rich in clay ball, and limestone intercalations in the upper part of the formation. In Cibatu Section, no clay balls is recognized in the lower part, but intercalations of limestone still occur. However, a contrast difference is found in Padaarang section, where green claystone interbeds with fine-grained sandstone. The Batuasih Formation conformably overlies the Walat Formation containing conglomerate. Foraminifera fossil found in the Batuasih Formation consists of bad preserved black benthic and planktonic foraminifera, more abundant towards the lower part of formation. Based on foraminifera assemblage comprising genus Uvigerina, Cibicides, Elphidium, Operculina, Bulimina, Bolivina, Eponides, and Neoconorbina, supported by sedimentology data, the Batuasih Formation was deposited in a shallow to deep marine environtment, during Early Oligocene (P19) time. Upwards to be the Rajamandala Formation, the depositional environment tends to be shallower gradually.


Having come of age, gas film bearings enable high-speed oil-free (micro) rotating machinery with gains in efficiency and reliability, longer maintenance intervals, and a reduction in contaminants released to the atmosphere. Among gas bearing types, porous surface gas bearings (PGBs) have proven successful for 50+ years and presently are off-the-shelf mechanical elements. This paper reviews the literature on PGBs since the 1970s and reproduces an exact solution for the performance of cylindrical PGBs. Both the analytical model and an accompanying finite-element (FE) model predict the performance for two PGBs, a commercially available 76 mm diameter bearing and a smaller 25 mm diameter laboratory unit whose experimental performance is available. As expected, the FE model results reproduce the analytical predictions obtained in a minuscule computing time. For a set external supply pressure, as the radial clearance increases, the flow rate through the bearing grows until reaching a peak magnitude. The PGB load capacity is a fraction of the product of the set pressure difference (pS − pa) and the bearing projected area with a significantly large centering static stiffness evolving over a narrow region of clearances. Operation with shaft speed enhances the bearing load capacity; however, at sufficiently high speeds, significant magnitude cross-coupled forces limit the stable operation of a PGB. At constant operating shaft speed, as the whirl frequency grows, the bearing effective stiffness (Keff) increases, while the effective damping (Ceff) becomes positive for whirl frequencies greater than 50% shaft speed. Similar to a plain hydrodynamic journal bearing, the PGB is prone to a half-frequency whirl, albeit the system natural frequency can be high, mainly depending on the external supply pressure. In essence, for the cases considered, PGBs are linear mechanical elements whose load capacity is proportional to the journal eccentricity.


Cattle (Bos taurus and Bos indicus) are organised on the basis of leadership and dominance in such a manner that a disturbance by an external stressor causes negative effects on their health, productivity, well-being, and behaviour. One of these effects is the excessive release of glucocorticoids, which results in increased alertness. We evaluated the action of exogenous oxytocin (OT) on serum cortisol levels in crossbred Red Angus heifers. Twelve Red Angus crossbred heifers were moved daily from the pasture to the corral in weeks 1 and 2 for adaptation to human contact and handling in the cattle crush. In weeks 3 and 4, they were divided into two groups of six (T1 and T2). The T1 group was administered 20 IU (2 mL) of OT via intramuscular injection and the T2 group was administered 2 mL of saline solution 0.85% (SS). In weeks 5 and 6, they were only contained in the cattle crush for evaluation. On days 01, 07, 14, 21, 28, 35, and 42, blood samples were collected by jugular venepuncture in vacuum tubes without anticoagulants. Then, serum cortisol levels were measured using a radioimmunoassay. In the period of adaptation, during weeks 1 and 2, serum cortisol levels decreased in both the groups, with higher levels in the SS group; the same result was obtained in weeks 5 and 6. During treatment, however, there was a significant difference between the two groups in week 4, with a reduction in cortisol levels in the OT group. This result suggests a modulator effect of OT on neuroendocrine response to stress.


Filariasis, a mosquito-borne parasitic disease, is a worldwide health problem. There is still, some controversial concerning the diagnosis of acute and chronic infections. The serum levels of endothelin-1 (ET-1), interleukin-2 (IL-2) and amino-terminal propeptide Type III (PIII NP) was measured in patients with acute and chronic filariasis as compared with controls. The ET-1, IL-2 and PIII NP levels were significantly high in chronic cases than in acute. On the other hand, the serum levels of IL-2 and PIII NP were significantly high in acute cases than in the controls. These three immuno-mediators play role in the pathogenesis of filariasis particularly. The chronic cases. So, these mediators can be used as markers for diagnosis of human cases infected with chronic and acute filariasis.


Study of the efficacy of methanogenesis inhibitors in the rumen has given inconsistent results, mainly due to poorly understood effects on the key microbial groups involved in pathways for methane (CH4) synthesis. The experiment described in this report was designed to assess the effect of propyl propane thiosulfinate (PTS), diallyl disulfide (DDS) and bromochloromethane (BCM) on rumen fermentation, methane production and microbial populations in continuous culture fermenters. No effects on total volatile fatty acids (VFA) were observed with PTS or DDS, but VFA were decreased with BCM. Amylase activity increased with BCM as compared with the other treatments. A decrease in methane production was observed with PTS (48%) and BCM (94%) as compared with control values. The concentration of methanogenic archaea decreased with BCM from day 4 onward and with PTS on days 4 and 8. Pyrosequencing analysis revealed that PTS and BCM decreased the relative abundance of Methanomicrobiales and increased that of Methanobrevibacter and Methanosphaera. The total concentration of bacteria was not modified by any treatment, although treatment with BCM increased the relative abundance of Prevotella and decreased that of Ruminococcus. These results suggest that the inhibition of methane production in the rumen by PTS and BCM is associated with a shift in archaeal biodiversity and changes in the bacterial community with BCM.


The systematic economic issue was analyzed on towing the aircrafts to runway before takeoff. The fuel consumption for airport tractors was estimated while the jet fuel consumption was calculated when taxiing out. Then the fuel expenditure was computed on a special designed algorithm focusing on the comparison between aircraft and tractor. The result reviewed that the benefit is big when towing out aircraft instead taxing out. It will lead to cost reduction, revenue and payload increasing, as well as increasing the aircraft utility and reducing the operation time. It also results in the reduction of pilots' working time while queuing before takeoff during the peak time. It indicates that the towing taxiing may cut down the emitting on airports. The selection for aircraft tractors was suggested finally.