ABSTRACT The prolongation of the Ebola epidemic may have allowed some countries to prepare and respond to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. In Uganda, the surveillance structure built for Ebola virus disease (EVD) has become a pillar in the COVID-19 response. This testing and tracing apparatus has limited disease spread to clusters with zero mortality compared with the neighboring East African countries. As more sub-Saharan countries implement social distancing to contain the outbreak, the interventions should be phased and balanced with health risk and socioeconomic situation. However, having a decision-making matrix would better guide the response team. These initial lessons from EVD-experienced Uganda may be helpful to other countries in the region.


Research Highlights: We find that biochar plus fertilizer has synergistic and positive effects on seedling growth and robustness, but slightly lowers early seedling survival. Biochar plus fertilizer has the potential to greatly decrease costs associated with afforestation as compared to traditional fertilization and gives better results. Background and Objectives: Biochar can improve soil fertility and plant yield in crops. However, there is little information regarding the effects of biochar on trees, even though reforestation/afforestation projects are increasing and are often unsuccessful due to soil fertility limitations. This study aims to increase knowledge of biochar use as a reforestation tool. Materials and Methods: We measured survival and growth in an early ((Guazuma crinita Mart. [n = 240])) and a late (Terminalia amazonia (J.F. Gmel.) Exell. [n = 240]) successional species under 6 different biochar treatments in a 6-month nursery experiment. Results: (i) Survival was highest in the 1 t/ha biochar treatment, while treatments containing fertilizers or biochar at 5 t/ha lowered the survival rate of both species compared to the control; (ii) simultaneous addition of biochar and fertilizer lead to significant increases in height, diameter, total number of leaves, and aboveground and belowground biomass of both species as compared to other treatments; (iii) biochar treatment containing 1 t/ha with and without fertilizer showed significantly better results than applications of 5 t/ha; and (iv) Guazuma crinita responded more strongly to treatments containing biochar and fertilizers compared to Terminalia amazonia, which is suggestive of greater synergetic effects of biochar and fertilizer addition on early successional tree species. Conclusions: Applying biochar and fertilizer is synergistic and outperforms any single treatment, as well as the control, in terms of plant performance. This case study suggests that biochar can greatly improve reforestation/afforestation projects by increasing plant performance while substantially reducing fertilizer and labor maintenance costs. Field experiments and testing of additional species is needed to generalize the findings.


Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal genetic disease caused by an absence of the 427kD muscle-specific dystrophin isoform. Utrophin is the autosomal homolog of dystrophin and when overexpressed, can compensate for the absence of dystrophin and rescue the dystrophic phenotype of the mdx mouse model of DMD. Utrophin is subject to miRNA mediated repression by several miRNAs including let-7c. Inhibition of utrophin: let-7c interaction is predicted to 'repress the repression' and increase utrophin expression. We developed and tested the ability of an oligonucleotide, composed of 2'-O-methyl modified bases on a phosphorothioate backbone, to anneal to the utrophin 3'UTR and prevent let-7c miRNA binding, thereby upregulating utrophin expression and improving the dystrophic phenotype in vivo. Suppression of utrophin: let-7c interaction using bi-weekly intraperitoneal injections of let7 site blocking oligonucleotides (SBOs) for 1 month in the mdx mouse model for DMD, led to increased utrophin expression along with improved muscle histology, decreased fibrosis and increased specific force. The functional improvement of dystrophic muscle achieved using let7-SBOs suggests a novel utrophin upregulation-based therapeutic strategy for DMD.


The use of vegetation analyses to outline areas of near-surface enrichment(3k@ metals and organic compounds was pioneered by the mining and petroleum ?/ industries. Research and development (R&D) on environmental applications is focusing on the ability of vegetation to remediate soils. Certain contaminants are taken up by pkmts and either stored in the plant tissue for easy harvesting and . removal or changed into products that are not a health concern. In the development of its Expedited Site Characterization (ESC) methodology, our group at Argome has focused its R&D on the application of vegetation analyses to detect subsurface contamination in vadose zone soils. We have developed the technology to locate past spills or leaks of carbon tetrachloride that penetrated the vadose zone and contaminated underlying drinking water supplies. Vegetation analysis is attractive as a f~st-step exploratory tec-kique be~ause it ~ noninvasive, rapid, inexpensive. The technique requires collection of a uniform, constant sample and an analytical method with a low detection limit and high-quality results.


Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is one of the important underlying molecular mechanisms for most types of cancers including bladder cancer. The precise underlying molecular mechanism in EMT-mediated bladder cancer progression is far from completed. LSD1, a histone lysine-specific demethylase, is known to promote cancer cell proliferation, metastasis, and chemoresistance. We found in this study that LSD1 is highly upregulated in bladder cancer specimens, especially those underwent chemotherapy, and the elevated levels of LSD1 are highly associated with bladder cancer grades, metastasis status, and prognosis. Inhibiting or knockdown LSD1 repressed not only EMT process but also cancer progression. Mechanistically, LSD1 complexes with β-catenin to transcriptionally upregulate LEF1 and subsequently enhances EMT-mediated cancer progression. More importantly, LSD1 specific inhibitor GSK2879552 is capable of repressing tumor progression in patient-derived tumor xenograft. These findings altogether suggest that LSD1 can serve as not only a prognostic biomarker but also a promising therapeutic target in bladder cancer treatment.


AbstractThere is an underlying conflict in the management of historic sites and monuments in the UK between public interest and private property. Such conflict can be recognized in the genesis of the earliest legislation (the Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1882). This tension remains important and the relative weights given to public and private interest might be seen as a barometer of wider political and economic conditions. This paper seeks to address changes in the funding of archaeology and heritage presentation during the period of the Conservative administration of 1979–97, when the economics of the free market were espoused with vigour in the UK. Funding of fieldwork shifted from direct grants from the central purse, to the support of job creation schemes and latterly to developer funding. Meanwhile heritage presentation has become more aggressively commercial, as English Heritage, the National Trust, the museums and private entrepreneurs seek to maximize financial return to underwrite the con...


A standard rabbit thoracic-aorta strip preparation was used to determine the effect of varying preload on KA(the dissociation constant), A50(the concentration that produces half maximal response) and the ratio KA/A50. Additionally, the stimulus-response relationships were obtained for the drug and preload conditions tested. Values of KA and A50 were calculated from dose-response curves obtained for three alpha-adrenergic agonists (phenylephrine, methoxamine and norepinephrine) in the presence and absence of partial irreversible blockade by phenoxybenzamine. For all three drugs, values of KA and A50 were found to be significantly greater at 1/4 gram preload than at 10 gram preload. However, the ratio KA/A50 was found to be independent of preload conditions. The stimulus-response relationships were all found to be non-linear, in contrast to the predictions of classical receptor theory. The significance of the constancy of KA/A50, rather than either KA or A50, and the non-linear relation between drug stimulus and response is discussed in terms of Stephenson's theory of drug action.


We used information derived from expert elicitation to measure progress in conservation of the Bengal Florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis) by calculating six metrics, namely: (a) current threat impact, (b) research need, (c) research achievement, (d) management need, (e) management achievement, and (f) percentage threat reduction. We then used the metrics to identify priority threats, namely predation by dogs, hunting, power lines, and vegetation changes caused by human activities. The metrics indicate that although there has been little progress in addressing predation and power lines, reductions in hunting have been achieved and practitioners have a good understanding of how to ameliorate vegetation changes. We assessed conservation needs across all sites that support Bengal Florican, and highlight conservation achievements at Stoung‐Chikreang Bengal Florican Conservation Area (BFCA), Manas National Park and Kaziranga National Park. We used our results to develop a framework for prioritizing collaboration on tackling priority threats. We highlight D'Ering Wildlife Sanctuary in India as one of the highest priority sites for Bengal Florican conservation, and propose that conservation in Stoung‐Chikreang Bengal Florican Conservation Area (BFCA), Manas National Park and Kaziranga National Park must be continued, scaled‐up and good‐practice replicated at Koklabari, Baray BFCA and Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve. If these plans are followed, then we believe that priority threats can be adequately addressed and the extinction of Bengal Florican can be prevented.


The use of neurotrophic agents as therapy for neurodegenerative disorders was originally proposed several years ago (1). Since then, several lines of evidence have converged to support the consideration of neurotrophic factor therapy for clinical disorders. In particular, the cholinergic neuronal atrophy that occurs in Alzheimer's disease has been identified as a strong potential candidate for the first clinical trials of nerve growth factor (NGF) in a human neurodegenerative disorder. In the current communication, we review issues related to potential trials of NGF in Alzheimer's disease.


The present paper documents the development and application of a Knowledge Management (KM) architecture and tool, customized to the specific needs within the Concurrent Engineering (CE) scenario. The paper gives an overview and update on the recent development work, executed for ESA's Concurrent Design Facility (CDF). Here, a tailored KM system for the specific needs of the CE design process has been created. An in-depth investigation of the KM awareness within the CEenvironment and its participants marked the beginning of the research. The developed KM architecture is divided into four major sections: Capture, Organization, Distribution and Development of knowledge. Every section has several interface modules that are interacting with each other. In addition to these, the concept of a Knowledge Unit (KU) is introduced, where its different contents (e.g. documents, trade-off tables, mass summaries) are stored and linked with so-called metadata, which gives additional information. During a CE-session, engineers do not have the possibility to review extensive report-libraries regarding their relevant subsystem. Therefore, accessing knowledge needs to be straightforward. The challenging task to transfer tacit knowledge elements of CE studies, which are usually created during Round-Tables or Splinter-Meetings, requires new approaches in soft- and hardware support. The developed prototype software platform SPOCK (Software Platform for Organizing & Capturing Knowledge) helps to facilitate all aspects of capturing and distributing knowledge within the Concurrent Engineering environment.


This study aimed to analyze the changes in human being in terms of alchemy. The process of human being goes through three stages. The first stage is the germinal period, the second stage is the embryo period, and the third one is the fetal period. Alchemy creates new things through three alchemical stages: nigredo (black), albedo (white), rubedo (red).This research attempts to figure out whether there is any relationship between the beginning of life and the stage of transformation in alchemy. The results show that the stone in alchemy is regarded as a zygote. It contains the prima material for human being. The human heart and soul are intrinsic in gene, which can be scientifically found. Scientific studies already proved that new changes take place when chemical reactions occur. The physical changes in the human body can be embryologic. The research explains how the mind, body and soul are different, and how these three are integrated to form a human being. The results of this study seem to increase the understanding of the psychological development of the human being. In addition, the understanding scope in Jung's perspective in human creation and psychology will be extended.

 Key words: Alchemy, nigredo, albedo, rubedo, human creation, transformation.


The environmental stress may produce to behavioral changes. In this study using a rodent stress model that exposure to the repetitive restraint stress elicits behavioral alterations, especially changes the patterns of the innate behavior but not the contextual memory and learning abilities. Nine weeks old Sprague-Dawley male rats were given the restraint stress (the stressed group) for 6 hours per day for seven consecutive days. The stressed rats were indicated the retarded development within the stressed-session compared to the control group. After the exposure to restraint stress for seven days, the rats' brains were performed to the NADPH-diaphorase stain on the limbic region of the brain. In the stressed animals have increased the counts of the neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) active neurons in the central amygdala of the brain. For behavioral assessments, animals were subjected to the exposure to novel environment-open-field apparatus-in order to examining the exploratory behaviors especially the ambulatory activity after the stress paradigm. The stressed animals indicated a significantly higher ambulatory activity for 5 min compare to the control animals. Moreover, the zone analysis of the tracking of exploration in open-field monitoring system, the stressed rats were a significantly decreased their activities in the center of arena compared to the control rats. However, the stressed rats were repetitively exposed to the same arena at once per day for 3 consecutive days, which ambulatory activity did attenuate to the control levels 3 days after exploration. These results suggested that the increase of counts of the nNOS reactive neurons in the central amygdala area due to the experience of repetitive stress paradigm can alter the eliciting pattern of the innate behavior and which has not been modulate the contextual learning and memory functions of the brain. ( Korean J Str Res 2011;19:107 ∼ 114)


Since the 1950s, China has had a very wide coverage of healthcare service at the local level. In urban areas, the employment-based healthcare-insurance schemes (Government Insurance Scheme and Labour Insurance Scheme) worked hand in hand with the full employment policy of the Government, which guaranteed basic care for almost every urban resident. However, since the economic reforms of the early 1980s, China's healthcare system has met great challenges. Some came from the reform of the labour system, and other challenges came from the introduction of market forces in the healthcare sector. The new policy of the Chinese Government on the Urban Employees' Basic Health Care Insurance is to introduce a cost-sharing plan in urban China. Like other major social policy changes, this new health policy also has a great impact on the lives of the Chinese people. Affordability has been the major concern among urban residents. Shanghai implemented the cost-sharing healthcare policy in the spring of 2001. It may be too early to assess the pros and cons of the new policy, but evidence shows that the employment-based health-insurance scheme excludes those at high risk and in most need. It is argued that the cost-sharing healthcare system will limit access by some people, especially those who are most vulnerable to the consequences of ill health and those in low-income groups, unless the deductibles vary according to income and unless low-income groups are exempt from paying premiums and deductibles.


We evaluated a ZnS buffer layer prepared using a chemical bath deposition (CBD) process for application in cadmium-free Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells. The ZnS buffer layer showed good transmittance (above 90%) in the spectral range from 300 to 800 nm and was non-toxic compared with the CdS buffer layers normally used in CIGS solar cells. The CBD process was affected by several deposition conditions. The deposition rate was dependent on the ammonia concentration (complexing agent). When the ammonia concentration was either too high or low, a decrease in the deposition rate was observed. In addition, post heat treatments at high temperatures had detrimental influences on the ZnS buffer layers because portions of the ZnS thin films were transformed into ZnO. With optimized deposition conditions, a CIGS solar cell with a ZnS buffer layer showed an efficiency of 14.18% with a 0.23 cm2 active area under 100 mW/cm2 illumination.


Groundwater availability, utilization, sustainability, and climate change implications were assessed at regional and provincial scales of Canada. It remains an unexplored resource, estimated to be renewing between 380 and 625 km3/year. However, the provinces have initiated developing their quantitative and qualitative databases for their accurate inventory. Sustainable groundwater availability at the national scale was estimated as 19,832 m3/person/year (750 km3/year), with high regional variations ranging from 3949 in the densely populated Prince Edward Island (PEI) province to 87,899 in the thinly populated Newfoundland and Labrador (NFL). It fulfills 82%, 43%, and 14% of water requirements of the rural population, irrigation, and industry, respectively. It is the potable water source for more than 9 million people countrywide (24% of the population), and provinces of Quebec, and Ontario (1.3 million people), and PEI (0.15 million people) particularly depend on it. It is mostly a free or nominally charged commodity, but its utilization was found to be well under sustainable limits (40% of recharge) at the provincial scales, i.e., under 4% for all the provinces except New Brunswick (NB), which also had just 8% extraction of sustainable availability. Nevertheless, localized issues of quantitative depletion and qualitative degradation were found at scattered places, particularly in Ontario and Quebec. Climate change impacts of warming and changing precipitations on groundwater underscored its stability with some temporal shifts in recharge patterns. In general, increased recharge in late winters and springs was observed due to reduced frost and more infiltration, and was somewhat decreasing in summers due to more intense rainfall events.


1Department of Surgery, Urology Division, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Atma Jaya Catholic University, Jakarta, Indonesia; 2Department of Urology, St. Carolus Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia; 3Department of Pulmonology and Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia; 4Department of Pulmonology and Respiratory Medicine, St. Carolus Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is a worldwide disease and remains a major public health problem in developing countries, with 95% of cases occurring in developing countries, including Indonesia. It is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, an acid-fast aerobic bacillus. When M. tuberculosis infects other than lung, it is called extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB). Among other organs, genitourinary tuberculosis (GUTB) is responsible for 30–40% of all EPTB cases. Methods: The study was conducted in a secondary health-care hospital in central Jakarta over a five-year period. We took data from hospital's medical records and collected all the positive histopathological reports on biopsied tissue of the genitourinary tract from 2014–2019. Results: Eleven patients showed positive histopathological results for TB on their biopsied genitourinary tissue. The genitourinary tracts involved were as follows: prostate (n=2), kidney (n=1), ureter (n=2), epididymis (n=1), epididymo-orchitis (n=1), bladder (n=4). All of them presented with specific genitourinary symptoms, such as lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) (n=8), dysuria (n=9), urinary retention (n=2), flank pain (n=6), and incontinence (n=1). Nine of 11 patients (81.8%) exhibited systemic manifestations, with fever being the most common (n=8), followed by malaise (n=6), dyspepsia syndrome (n= 4), and weight loss (n=3). Discussion: Consistent with other studies, our research found that the prevalence of GUTB is substantially decreased with advancing age. Kidney is the most common site infected in GUTB infection. GUTB is easily overlooked, because its signs and symptoms are usually typical of a conventional bacterial cystitis. Conclusion: Because of its insidious nature and late-onset symptoms, diagnosis of GUTB is often late to approach, leading to higher morbidity and even mortality rate. This leads into further complications of the disease, which are largely preventable by a correct and timely diagnosis followed by appropriate therapy.


The authors sought to create a curriculum suitable for a newly created clinical fellowship curriculum across Harvard Medical School–affiliated teaching hospitals as part of a newly created 2-year quality and safety fellowship program described in the companion article "Design and Implementation of the Harvard Fellowship in Patient Safety and Quality." The aim of the curriculum development process was to define, coordinate, design, and implement a set of essential skills for future physician-scholars of any specialty to lead operational quality and patient safety efforts. The process of curriculum development and the ultimate content are described in this article.


Applied organic geochemistry provides the information needed to make maps of the richness, type, and thermal maturity of a source rock. These maps are a necessary step toward determining the stratigraphic and geographic extent of a pod of active source rock in a petroleum system, and they are based on geochemical analyses of rock samples from outcrops and wells that are displayed on logs. These geochemical well logs are based on Rock-Eval pyrolysis, total organic carbon, vitrinite reflectance, and other rapid, inexpensive "screening" methods. The logs define (1) potential, effective, and spent petroleum source rock; (2) the thermal maturation gradient, including immature, mature, and postmature zones, and (3) in situ and migrated petroleum shows. Useful geochemic l logs require proper sample selection, preparation, analysis, and interpretation. Detailed studies, including oil-source rock correlations by biomarker and supporting techniques, are undertaken on selected samples only after the screening methods are completed.


A pyogenic infection-induced brain abscess is rare, and usually affects immunocompromised people. Brain imaging and bacterial culture from the infection site are used to diagnose a brain abscess. An effective treatment method is surgical resection combined with antibiotic treatment with bacteria-sensitive antibiotics for a sufficient period of time.
Presentation of the Case: A 16-year-old boy was confirmed to have Sphenoidal Sinusitis. The patient had been diagnosed with dengue fever three weeks ago and corona infection four months ago. And finally, he was diagnosed with Sphenoidal Sinusitis which manifested as severe headache, vomiting, and fever. He underwent bilateral Functional Endoscopy Sinus Surgery (FESS), sphenoidotomy and also temporal craniotomy and evacuation of abscess.
Conclusion: The treatment of a brain abscess requires early diagnosis, appropriate surgical treatment, and adequate duration of therapy with effective antibiotics.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of physical abuse among domestic child labours and to assess the nutritional status by calculating the Body Mass Index of children involved in domestic labour in Karachi.

METHODS
A cross sectional study was conducted in the squatter settlements of Karachi. Questionnaire based interviews were conducted to capture physical abuse with 385 children who worked as domestic labour in the household of their employer. The ages of the children were between 10 to 14 years belonging to both genders. The children were enrolled in study by snow-ball sampling technique.

RESULTS
The overall prevalence of physical abuse among domestic child labour in Karachi was found to be 8.3 %. Over 9 % had low weight and about 90% were stunted. This study also highlighted that 95% of the children involved in domestic labour perform overtime work in their employer's home, more than once per week.

CONCLUSIONS
There is high burden of physical abuse among the domestic child labour and these children are malnourished. There is a need to recognize and regulate this form of labour in Pakistan.


The field of Text-to-Speech has experienced huge improvements last years benefiting from deep learning techniques. Producing realistic speech becomes possible now. As a consequence, the research on the control of the expressiveness, allowing to generate speech in different styles or manners, has attracted increasing attention lately. Systems able to control style have been developed and show impressive results. However the control parameters often consist of latent variables and remain complex to interpret. In this paper, we analyze and compare different latent spaces and obtain an interpretation of their influence on expressive speech. This will enable the possibility to build controllable speech synthesis systems with an understandable behaviour.


2-fluorofucose (2FF) inhibits protein and cellular fucosylation. Afucosylation of IgG antibodies enhances antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity by modulating antibody affinity for FcγRIIIa, which can impact secondary T-cell activation. Immune responses toward most common solid tumors are dominated by a humoral immune response rather than the presence of tumor-infiltrating cytotoxic T cells. IgG antibodies directed against numerous tumor-associated proteins are found in the sera of both patients with breast cancer and transgenic mice bearing mammary cancer. We questioned whether 2FF would have antitumor activity in two genetically distinct transgenic models; TgMMTV-neu (luminal B) and C3(1)-Tag (basal) mammary cancer. 2FF treatment significantly improved overall survival. The TgMMTV-neu doubled survival time compared with controls [P < 0.0001; HR, 7.04; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.31–15.0], and survival was significantly improved in C3(1)-Tag (P = 0.0013; HR, 3.36; 95% CI, 1.58–7.14). 2FF treated mice, not controls, developed delayed-type hypersensitivity and T-cell responses specific for syngeneic tumor lysates (P < 0.0001). Serum IgG from 2FF-treated mice enhanced tumor lysis more efficiently than control sera (P = 0.004). Administration of 2FF for prophylaxis, at two different doses, significantly delayed tumor onset in both TgMMTV-neu; 20 mmol/L (P = 0.0004; HR, 3.55; 95% CI, 1.60–7.88) and 50 mmol/L (P = 0.0002; HR: 3.89; 95% CI, 1.71–8.86) and C3(1)-Tag; 20 mmol/L (P = 0.0020; HR, 2.51; 95% CI, 1.22–5.18), and 50 mmol/L (P = 0.0012; HR, 3.36; 95% CI, 1.57–7.18). Mammary cancer was prevented in 33% of TgMMTV-neu and 26% of C3(1)-Tag. 2FF has potent antitumor effects in mammary cancer models. The agent shows preclinical efficacy for both cancer treatment and prevention.


Hematogenous dissemination of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) metastatic to skeletal musculature in the absence of osseous involvement is an infrequent occurrence. We retrospectively reviewed our institution's indexed database for patients evaluated from 1975 through 1997 who were diagnosed as having skeletal musculature metastases from NSCLC. Eight men and 2 women were identified (age range, 51-80 years at time of metastases). Four primary adenocarcinomas, 4 primary lung squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs), and 2 poorly differentiated primary NSCLCs were identified. Approximate tumor sizes ranged from 10 cm3 to 288 cm3. External-beam radiation therapy was used in 7 of 10 cases; complete surgical excision was performed in 3 cases. Patients with known neoplasm who have extremity pain and negative findings on bone scan should be evaluated for soft tissue tumor involvement because such findings significantly affect clinical management. One case of lung SCC metastatic to the quadratus femoris muscle in a 63-year-old man is discussed in detail.


Background Recent evidence suggests a link between deficient states of the ubiquitous protease inhibitor alpha-one antitrypsin (A1AT), and autoimmunity in vitro.1 The most common phenotype in Ireland is MM, however heterozygous individuals for the Z allele (i.e. MZ) have increased activation of the TNF α system, a key cytokine in the pathogenesis of inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).2 Previous studies of the prevalence of allelles associated with deficient states of A1AT in RA have given conflicting results.3,4 Objectives We set out to examine the A1AT phenotype of an RA cohort, and to determine if heterozygosity is associated with higher levels of auto-antibodies for ANA, RF and anti-CCP. Methods Qualitative detection and characterisation of A1AT phenotypes in 135 RA patients was performed using the Hydrasys electrophoresis platform (Sebia) and the Hydragel 18 A1AT Isofocusing kit (Sebia). A cohort of 1,100 randomly selected individuals from the voting registry in Ireland were used to determine the overall prevalence of phenotypes in Ireland.1 Fisher's exact test was used to test for a correlation between allelic status and RA. Antibody dilution factors for ANA and titres for RF and ACPA were available for all patients for RF (n=135), and for anti-CCP in 118 of the patients. The Mann Whitney U-Test was employed to determine differences in median levels of antibodies between the cohorts. Results Higher concentrations of ANA were associated with heterozygosity for A1AT when compared with homozygous states (p=0.045, see fig 1), and this was not observed for RF or anti-CCP titres. There was no difference between the prevalence of the homozygous MM phenotype and the heterozygous phenotypes i.e. MZ or MS in patients with RA and the control group. Conclusions ANA is a non-specific marker of many auto-immune conditions. A direct role has been observed for A1AT in regulating neutrophil degranulation in the innate immune system,1 and the higher titres of ANA seen in those heterozygote for A1AT alleles may implicate A1AT in the adaptive immune response, for example RA. References Bergin DA, Reeves EP, et al. The Circulating Proteinase Inhibitor α-1 Antitrypsin Regulates Neutrophil Degranulation and Autoimmunity. Science Translational Medicine. 2014;6(217):217ra1 McInnes IB, Schett G. Cytokines in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. Nature Reviews Immunology. 2007;7(6):429-42. Cox DW, Huber O. Association of severe rheumatoid arthritis with heterozygosity for alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency. Clin Genet. 1980;17(2):153-60. Cox DW, Huber O. Rheumatoid arthritis and alpha-1-antitrypsin. Lancet. 1976;1(7971):1216 Disclosure of Interest None declared


Recently, various versions of combining code division multiple access (CDMA) with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) have drawn much attention for IMT-advanced (4G) and new broadcasting systems. In particular, variable-spreading-factor orthogonal frequency and code multiplexing (OFCDM) and multicarrier CDMA adopt 2-D spreading, i.e., time-domain and frequency-domain spreading. Maeda , Yang and Hanzo, Zheng , and Zhou have mentioned a few strong points of 2-D spreading. However, what is missing in their analysis/simulations is the system-level aspect of 2-D spreading. In particular, we are interested in the following questions: ldquoWhat are the advantages of frequency-domain spreading in multicell environments?rdquo and ldquoWhat is the optimal frequency reuse factor in 2-D spreading systems?rdquo Answers to these questions are investigated in this correspondence.


Cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis and hypertension, are associated with arterial stiffening. Previous studies showed that ANG II exacerbated atherosclerosis and induced hypertension and aneurysm formation in apolipoprotein E-deficient (apoE-KO) mice. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of chronic treatment of ANG II on the arterial elastic properties in apoE-KO mice. We hypothesized that ANG II will injure the arterial wall resulting in increased arterial stiffening. Male apoE-KO mice were infused with either ANG II (1.44 mg. kg(-1). day(-1)) or vehicle (PBS) for 30 days. ANG II treatment accelerated atherosclerosis in the carotid artery by sixfold (P < 0.001) and increased blood pressure by 30% (P < 0.05). Additionally, our data demonstrated that ANG II increased arterial stiffening using both in vivo and in vitro methods. ANG II significantly increased pulse wave velocity by 36% (P < 0.01) and decreased arterial elasticity as demonstrated by a more than 900% increase in maximal stiffening (high strain Young's modulus) compared with vehicle (P < 0.05). These functional changes were correlated with morphological and biochemical changes as demonstrated by an increase in collagen content (60%), a decrease in elastin content (74%), and breaks in the internal elastic lamina in the aortic wall. In addition, endothelium-independent vasorelaxation to sodium nitroprusside was impaired in the aortic rings of ANG II-treated mice compared with vehicle. Thus, the present data indicate that ANG II injures the artery wall in multiple ways and arterial stiffening may be a common outcome of ANG II-induced arterial damage.


Indonesia  is  the  largest  Muslim  populations  in  the  world.  According  to  the 2011  census,  there was  about  eighty  eight  percentage  (nearly  two  hundred and  five  million  Muslims)  of  the  total population  of  this  country.  Does  this largest  number  of  Muslims  demonstrate  their  Islamic identity  in  Indonesia? This  country  has  attracted  imperialist  countries  to  colonize,  invade and plunder  its  resources.  Although  Indonesia  reached  its  independence  on  7 August  1945,  this country  still  witnesses  other  types  of  colonization  in  terms of  information  and  communication technology,  which  have  led  particularly  its Muslims  to  neglect  their  'Islamic  identity'  and generally  its  people  to neglect  their  predecessors'  efforts  to  obtain  the  freedom  of  this  country. DOI:  10.15408/insaniyat.v1i1.4389


The subject of this bachelor thesis is to analyze forms and methods of education used in the Vitar, S.r.o. Company. The greatest emphasis is put on the system that is used to educate managers in this company. Theoretical part of this thesis is focused on opportunities that this company has to provide adequate education for their representatives. Next part is focused on an ideal manager profile. Practical part is focused on procedures and methods used by Vitar, s.r.o. to achieve its objectives. All together these procedures are consulted with responsible persons in the company. The goal of this thesis is to evaluate whether this system of education is effective for Vitar, s.r.o. or recommend adaptations to improve the system.


Green marketing has been emerged due to increased acid rains, depletion of the ozone layer, degradation of the land, deforestation, increasing pollution, and greenhouse gas effect, etc. Green marketing is a 'Go Green' concept has been introduced into the production process of a product which is environmentally safe and makes a profit for the organisations by satisfying consumers. Green marketing is a new concept and hence draw a new idea is not easily accepted. The practice green marketing a huge investment in the area of research and development is needed. Three factors that may influence the green marketing were examined in this study: challenges and prospects of green marketing benefits with green marketing, the role of government initiatives to promote ecofriendly products. Data were collected from the Rayalaseema Region of Andhra Pradesh, and all factors were found to have positive effects on purchasing green products. The results also indicated that the consumers buying green products due to environmental problems were the main contributor to buying green products.


The topic of "quality" has received much concern in the context of higher education all over the world. Developing countries like India are also striving forward to improve their higher education system by taking various initiatives. Experts in the respected field have been envisaged that assessment of quality must incorporated the perceptions of its stakeholders. However, with reference to India, the quality of higher education has been assessed through external bodies and the quality of higher education has been hardly studied through its internal bodies particularly the primary stakeholders views were not actually taken into account. The present study is about studying the perceptions of the primary stakeholders on the key components of the higher education. The study will aid the authorities in reflecting and planning the higher education system in order to improve and maintain the quality.

KEYWORDS: Higher education, Quality, Perceptions of stakeholders, Mizoram.


Among many approaches to address the high-level decision making problem for autonomous robots and agents, the robot programming and plan language Golog follows a logic-based deliberative approach, and its successors were successfully deployed in a number of robotics applications over the past ten years. Usually, Golog interpreter are implemented in Prolog, which is not available for our target platform, the bi-ped robot platform Nao. In this paper we sketch our novel prototype implementation of a Golog interpreter in the scripting language Lua. With the example of the elevator domain we discuss how the basic action theory is specified and how we implemented fluent regression or backtracking in Lua. One possible advantage of the availability of a Non-Prolog implementation of Golog could be that Golog becomes available on a larger number of platforms, and also becomes more attractive for roboticists outside the Cognitive Robotics community.


Background—Left atrioesophageal fistula is a rare but devastating complication that may occur after catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation. We used capsule endoscopy to assess esophageal injury after catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation in a population randomized to undergo general anesthesia or conscious sedation. Methods and Results—Fifty patients undergoing atrial fibrillation ablation for paroxysmal symptomatic atrial fibrillation refractory to antiarrhythmic drugs were enrolled and randomized, including those undergoing the procedure under general anesthesia (25 patients, group 1) and those receiving conscious sedation with fentanyl or midazolam (25 patients, group 2). All patients underwent esophageal temperature monitoring during the procedure. The day after ablation, all patients had capsule endoscopy to assess the presence of endoluminal tissue damage of the esophagus. We observed esophageal tissue damage in 12 (48%) patients of group 1 and 1 esophageal tissue damage in a single patient (4%) of group 2 (P<0.001). The maximal esophageal temperature was significantly higher in patients undergoing general anesthesia (group 1) versus patients undergoing conscious sedation (group 2) (40.6±1°C versus 39.6±0.8°C; P< 0.003). The time to peak temperature was 9±7 seconds in group 1 and 21±9 seconds in group 2, and this difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). No complication occurred during or after the administration of the pill cam or during the procedures. All esophageal lesions normalized at the 2-month repeat endoscopic examination. Conclusion—The use of general anesthesia increases the risk of esophageal damage detected by capsule endoscopy.


Though Americans make 1.8 million asthma-related outpatient visits to the emergency department (ED) annually, little is known about the episodic charges for asthma care in the ED. We therefore sought to assess the bills patients could face for acute asthma incidents by examining hospital charges for asthma-related outpatient ED visits. We performed a nationwide, cross-sectional study of 2.9 million weighted asthma-related outpatient ED visits from 2006–2008 using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. We found that the average charge for an outpatient ED visit was $1,502 (95% CI $1,493–$1,511). The charges did not vary significantly by insurance group but did increase significantly with age. Our results indicate that the financial burden of ED care for asthma may take a severe toll on low-income populations who have limited ability to pay, especially patients who must pay undiscounted charges, including the uninsured and those on high-deductible health plans.


Normal luminescent solar concentrators (LSC) have a great limitation in their light transportation because the light produced by the recently reported LSCs is not a point light source. In order to enable LSCs to use optical fibers as the effective remote light transport media, a new design of LSC, which uses three color luminescent fibers for solar absorption and uses clear optical fiber bundles to transport the absorbed sunlight into a remote place, is fabricated and tested. Radiation flux ratios with a mean value of 5.7%, the luminous flux up to 114.1 lumens, and the light efficiency of 0.56% have been achieved during the trial run. The luminous efficacy as 0.643 lm W−1 is higher than that of combusting candles (0.3 lm W−1) but lower than that of the incandescent light bulbs (16–40 lm W−1). Further, since the sun light is free, different from electrical light sources, the luminous efficacy of the new LSC does not result in any electricity consumption when it is under operation. A color analysis and spectrum test proves that the light produced by the new LSC performs a great match to the direct sun light in color. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey (MYTS) was administered to 12,376 public school students in grades 6 through 12 to obtain baseline data at the start of the state's latest efforts to reduce tobacco use among youth. The sample is representative of public school students in the state. More than one-third of high school students (38.7%) and 12.6% of middle school students are current tobacco users, defined as use of tobacco on one or more days in the previous 30 days. Current use of cigarettes is 32.4% in high school and 9.1% in middle school. More than 90% of students, including most smokers, agree that tobacco use is addictive and harmful. More than three-fourths (78.4%) of current smokers report that two or more of their four closest friends are smokers. Students who live with a smoker are more likely to become current smokers than students who do not live with anyone who smokes (42.5% to 25.1% in high school). Most current smokers (61.0%) tried to quit smoking at least once in the past 12 months. Eighty-eight percent (88.4%) of current smokers in high school smoke one of the top three advertised brands: Marlboro, Camel, or Newport. Results of the MYTS illustrate some of the challenges facing the state's tobacco reduction efforts and some of the factors that must be considered as Minnesota tries to design and implement effective programs.


Power quality is one of major problems in the presence era. It has become importance especially, with the introduction of sophisticated devices, whose performance is very sensitive to quality of power supply. power quality problem is an occurrence manifested as a nonstandard voltage,current,or frequency that results in a failure of end use euipement.One of the major problem deal here is the voltage sag. To solve this problem, custom power devices are used. One of those devices is the Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR),which is the most effective modern custom power device used in power distribution networks.Its appeal includes lower cost, smaller size, and its fast dynamic response to the disturbances. Keywords— DVR, Power Quality, Voltage Sag, Voltage Swell, Fuzzy Logic Controller, PI controller MATLAB/SIMULINK.


The role of such physicians as Rudolph A. Kolliker, Johann N. Czermak, Ludwig Tuerck, Friedrich E. Voltlini, Benjamin B. Loewenberg, Hubert v. Luschka in the building of the science on hypertrophy of pharyngeal tonsil are pointed out first of all. The specific significance of achievements of Wilhelm Meyer (1824-1895) of Copenhagen based on scrupulous examinations is described. In the Polish territories the innovatory were works of Teodor Heryng, Klemens Koehler, Władysław Wróblewski, Jan Sedziak, Teofil Zalewski. The epidemiology, etiology, pathogenesis, anatomo-patological examinations, the role of pharyngeal tonsil on immunity system are presented widely. The influence of hypertrophy of pharyngeal tonsil on general evolution of child, on his intellectual sphere, on speech disorders, on upper respiratory tract disorders, on auditory disorders, on the origination of deaf-mutism, on the origination of reflexogenous neuroses are described in more detail. An important role of anterior rhinoscopy, posterior rhinoscopy, and digital examination in the diagnosis of this illnes are also presented with full particulars.


A sleeve bearing assembly and method of construction therefore has an inner portion constructed from a plurality of yarns to provide a journal bearing surface for receipt of a journal for relative movement therein and an elastic outer portion injection molded at least partially about the inner portion. The plurality of yarns are woven together with at least some of the yarns being woven in a warp direction corresponding to a length of the journal bearing surface and in a weft direction corresponding to a circumferential direction of the journal bearing surface to form a backing of the inner portion. At least one of the plurality of yarns is provided as a self-lubricating yarn woven with the backing in a weft direction to substantially form the bearing surface radially inwardly of the backing.


Background: The advantages of laparoscopic adrenalectomy (LA) over open adrenalectomy are undeniable. Nevertheless, carbon dioxide (CO2) pneumoperitoneum may have an unfavourable effect on the local immune response. The aim of this study was to compare changes in the systemic inflammation and immune response in the early post-operative (p.o.) period after LA performed with standard and low-pressure CO2pneumoperitoneum. Materials and Methods: We studied, in a prospective randomised study, 51 patients consecutively with documented adrenal lesion who had undergone a LA: 26 using standard-pressure (12-14 mmHg) and 25 using low-pressure (6-8 mmHg) pneumoperitoneum. White blood cells (WBC), peripheral lymphocyte subpopulation, human leucocyte antigen-DR (HLA-DR), neutrophil elastase, interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-1, and C-reactive protein (CRP) were investigated. Results: Significantly higher concentrations of neutrophil elastase, IL-6 and IL-1 and CRP were detected p.o. in the standard-pressure group of patients in comparison with the low-pressure group (P < 0.05). A statistically significant change in HLA-DR expression was recorded p.o. at 24 h, as a reduction of this antigen expressed on the monocyte surface in patients from the standard group; no changes were noted in low-pressure group patients (P < 0.05). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that reducing the pressure of the pneumoperitoneum to 6-8 mmHg during LA reduced p.o. inflammatory response and averted p.o. immunosuppression.


The article provides an overview of research in Russian rap culture. The works are classified by time, subject, and research methodology. The study shows a correlation between an increase in research and the popularity of rap battles in 2015–2017. The article explains the popularity of studies in rap culture among young scholars and shows why more experienced researchers opt for an evaluative approach. The article also identifies the branches of knowledge with an unwavering focus on rap studies in Russia (linguistics, translation studies, sociology).
Despite the controversial attitude to hip-hop culture, rap is gaining popularity in Russia. It is making its way from the music of underground to mainstream music to become an economically viable asset of cultural industry. Now, it is absolutely clear that rap has turned from an exclusively subcultural phenomenon into the phenomenon of global culture no longer limited to the age group of 14–20-year-olds. Modern Russian rap is a mouthpiece for youth protests and the most pressing challenges of our time. It has acquired the aesthetic features inherent to serious art. High-quality rap is marked by philosophical depth and multiple meanings and it takes intellectual effort to get it.
Russian rap has become part of political, religious, and social discourse, hence its potential for research. Many texts are marked by high artistic quality and will leave their mark on the history of Russian literature. Consistent large-scale literary analysis of rap texts is not far away. It will make it possible to understand the scope and originality of creative/poetic projects as well as the specifics of modern cultural industry.


Since urban land development launched in 1987, urban land transactions and local land leasing revenue have exploded sharply in China. Classical research on urban land use and urbanization often focuses on making decisions and enacting policies of zoning and land use regulations. Scholars from different disciplines have long been aware of this issue and have attempted to account for it with different theories of urbanization. This paper considers urbanization and the associated spatial interaction effect as an alternative factor in China's urban land revenue. After reviewing the existing literature on China's land reform, a dynamic panel data model with GMM estimator is established to explore the reasons for the emerging land revenue. The empirical results show that the spatial weight matrix is significant to the land leasing revenue, and the provincial level of fiscal decentralization has negative effect on the volume of urban land leasing revenue. These empirical results demonstrate that local governments have the intrinsic motivation to maximize the land leasing revenue, which is significant to expand local optional revenues. The province having higher urbanization level usually experiences the larger scale of urban land revenue. The spatial interaction effect among adjacent provinces has a significant effect on urban land revenue which is closely associated with local economic growth. However, it is essential to know that the large scale of rural land conversion and disordered urbanization force negative payoffs, such as environmental degradation, the damage of farmland, and the problem of food safety.


Transport networks play a crucial part in the global economy, with roads and railways being of particular importance at regional and national scales. However, roads and railways are founded on earthworks such as embankments, which can be susceptible to slope failure. Slope instability is a costly problem, which can lead to travel disruption, and injury or loss of life. Earthwork stability assessment is therefore a critical activity for management bodies. However, current approaches are largely limited to hazardous onfoot site inspections. Although high resolution geospatial datasets are becoming increasingly available, there is currently a mismatch between the availability of these datasets, and the ability to use this data in support of decision making. This paper presents one aspect of an integrated methodology for risk assessment in transport corridor environments. The potential of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) for assessment of slope deformation and failure is examined through application to two test sites in the north of England. The first site is a full-scale test embankment, while the second is a modern highway embankment. Results have shown that for both sites, multi-temporal TLS surveys facilitate the detection of minor changes, such as soil creep and surface runoff. However, vegetation was found to be a complicating factor, contributing to registration errors between individual scans. This was resolved through the use of a least squares surface matching algorithm, which ultimately facilitated detection of change at the centimetric level. These results confirm the potential of TLS for embankment stability assessment, while highlighting some of the practical limitations. * Corresponding author.


In this paper we give an overview of the 2007 evaluation campaign for the International Workshop on Spoken Language Translation (IWSLT) 1 . As with previous evaluation campaigns, the primary focus of the workshop was the translation of spoken language in the travel domain. This year there were four language pairs; the translation of Chinese, Italian, Arabic, and Japanese into English. The input data consisted of the output of ASR systems for read speech and clean text. The exceptions were the challenge task of the Italian English language pair which used spontaneous speech ASR outputs and transcriptions and the Chinese English task which used only clean text. A new characteristic of this year's evaluation campaign was an increased focus on the sharing of resources. Participants were requested to submit the data and supplementary resources used in building their systems so that the other participants might be able to take advantage of the same resources. A second new characteristic this year was the focus on the human evaluation of systems. Each primary run was judged in the human evaluation for every task using a straightforward ranking of systems. This year's workshop saw an increased participation over last year's workshop. This year 24 groups submitted runs to one or more of the tasks, compared to the 19 groups that submitted runs last year [1]. Automatic and human evaluation were carried out to measure MT performance under each condition, ASR system outputs for read speech, spontaneous travel dialogues, and clean text.


Direct trifluoroacetylation of indoles with ethyl trifluoropyruvate as a trifluoroacetylating reagent has been developed. This novel protocol provides an attractive route for the preparation of 3-trifluoroacetylindole derivatives, due to its operational simplicity and practicability as well as mild reaction conditions.


This paper deals with mental health taken within the context of Brazilian Psychiatric Reform and profiling the transformations in the organization of work processes. This has occurred as a result of the advances with respect to the implementation of the services that replaced the classic psychiatric model and the reconfiguration of the scope of intervention and practices. From this standpoint, the paper seeks to pinpoint the contradictions and problems related to this process and its impact on the organization of work processes on the management of services and on worker health. Lastly, strategies are prepared for the purpose of tackling the problem, chief among which are the following: the redefinition of spaces, practices, and the relationships among the different actors, namely managers, workers, and users; the adoption of co-management mechanisms; and clinical-institutional supervision.


As insulin is a regulator of cartilage and bone growth, plasma levels of pancreatic hormones were determined in 41 lame male turkeys with long bone distortion and 42 control toms without leg deformities. Blood samples were collected 3.5 h following the removal of feed and then 1 h after the return of feed. The day following blood collection, toms, 119 days of age, were slaughtered to obtain leg measurements. Body weight, width, and length of the tarsometatarsus, presence of tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) lesions, pancreas weight, and plasma glucose did not differ between lame and control turkeys. A significantly greater proportion of growth plates of the tarsometatarsus was closed in the control as compared to the lame turkeys. Pancreas weight relative to BW was significantly greater for lame as compared to control turkeys. Plasma insulin was undetectable in both fasted lame and control turkeys. When feed was returned to the turkeys, plasma insulin concentrations were significantly lower in lame compared to control turkeys. The return of feed had no effect on plasma glucagon levels in controls, but concentrations were decreased significantly in lame birds. These data suggest that the regulation of plasma insulin and glucagon may be altered in lame turkeys perhaps contributing to the cause of long bone distortion.


For spectrometers that measure and count individual events, such as those listed in Table 1, counting statistics normally controls the precision for measuring the number of events. In the case of a small peak superimposed on a high background in the acquired spectrum, the fluctuation in the background counts seriously degrades the precision with which the net peak counts can be measured. Ultimately, it is this uncertainty in the background counts that determines the detection limit for the peak.


An abduction-based diagnosis technique for a class of discrete-event systems (DESs), called deep DESs (DDESs), is presented. A DDES has a tree structure, where each node is a network of communicating automata, called an active unit (AU). The interaction of components within an AU gives rise to emergent events. An emergent event occurs when specific components collectively perform a sequence of transitions matching a given regular language. Any event emerging in an AU triggers the transition of a component in its parent AU. We say that the DDES has a deep behavior, in the sense that the behavior of an AU is governed not only by the events exchanged by the components within the AU but also by the events emerging from child AUs. Deep behavior characterizes not only living beings, including humans, but also artifacts, such as robots that operate in contexts at varying abstraction levels. Surprisingly, experimental results indicate that the hierarchical complexity of the system translates into a decreased computational complexity of the diagnosis task. Hence, the diagnosis technique is shown to be (formally) correct as well as (empirically) efficient.


The local critical current density Jc of Bi-2223 thick films (thickness  mm) was nondestructively measured using an ac inductive technique previously developed for measuring Jc of large bulk superconductors (Mawatari et al 2003 Appl. Phys. Lett. 83 3972). In this method an ac magnetic field is generated by an ac drive current (I0cosωt) in a small flat coil placed just above the superconducting specimen. When the magnetic fluxes penetrate the superconductor, a third-harmonic voltage (V3cos3ωt) is generated in the coil, and V3 can then be calculated as V3 = (G3ω/Jc)I02, where G3 is a coil coefficient calculated from the size and configuration of the coil. Thus, Jc can be measured in the surface region (typically down to  mm beneath the surface) of the bulk superconductor by measuring V3 as a function of I0. In the measurement of Jc of Bi-2223 thick films, in regions with small I0, V3 followed the expected behaviour, , and thus the surface Jc can be measured from the slope of the V3–I0 curves. With larger I0,V3 gradually deviated from this behaviour. With further increase in I0, V3 suddenly changed its curvature, reaching a plateau and then increasing again, due to magnetic-field penetration below the bottom of the film. The threshold current Ith at the change in curvature is nearly proportional to Jcd, and thus the total Jc can be estimated as the average critical current density for the entire thickness. The distribution of Jc in a large superconducting thick film can be measured by scanning the measuring coil over the entire sample surface.


: Introduction; World Health Organization (WHO) recorded more than 7 million people died of Acute Coronary Syndrome (SKA) around the world in 2002. This figure is estimated to rise up to 11 million people in the year 2020. Did Antman et al, (2004). SKA is a coronary heart disease that is the leading cause of death in the world, where there are more than 4.5 million people died because it contains the SKA, SKA is: ST Elevation Myocardial (STEMI), Non ST Elevation Myocardial (NSTEMI) and the Unstable Angina Pectoris (UAP). A Prevalence disease of the heart and blood vessels (Cardiovascular) in Indonesia keeps increasing the number of event. Method; This research uses descriptive observational design with the design of One Group pretest posttest, namely the draft research where there were no comparison groups (control), but most are not already done the first observation (Pretest) allowing researchers can test the changes that occurred after the experiments. Result; There is the influence of health education on pulmonary cardiac resuscitation based on guidelines the American Heart Association (AHA) year 2010 to increased cognitive ability, then performed the analysis using statistical test of chi square and obtained by the p-value = 0.000 < 5%, thus the alternative hypothesis (H 1) received, which means there is the influence of illumination cardiac pulmonary resuscitation of health based on the guidelines the American Heart Association. Discussion; The Professional Nursing Care, then a nurse must show the ability of the developed skills and knowledge on an ongoing basis. On improving the quality of nursing services, particularly in the action of heart lung resuscitation treatment in an effort to stop the heart (cardiac arrest), nurses are expected to start implementing a wide range of skills and his knowledge directly on clients who are hospitalized and strive to provide a quality Professional Nursing Care.


SEPA Direct Debit (SDD) at the crossroads of competition enforcement and regulation* 1. Introduction The Commission has recently adopted a proposal for a Regulation to promote the transition to…


When grown on two agar media in Petri dishes a Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. isolate produced sclerotia in different patterns, predominantly at the colony centre on one medium (glucose/yeast extract) but at the dish wall on the other (glucose/ammonium nitrate). However, on both media a short cold treatment (3 h at 5 °C) of colonies grown at 24 °C temporarily interrupted growth and induced subsequent sclerotial formation in a ring where the colony margin was at the time of the cold shock. A second cold treatment 1 d after the first induced a sclerotial ring but negated the effect of the first treatment. The results support the view that interruption of hyphal growth triggers sclerotial formation.


High intakes of trans fatty acids (TFA), particularly industrially-produced TFA, are implicated in the etiology of cardiovascular diseases, which represent the leading cause of mortality in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). This systematic review aims to document existing national TFA reduction strategies in the EMR, providing an overview of initiatives that are implemented by countries of the region, and tracking progress toward the elimination of industrially-produced TFA. A systematic review of published and gray literature was conducted using a predefined search strategy. A total of 136 peer-reviewed articles, gray literature documents, websites and references from country contacts were obtained, up until 2 August 2021. Randomized-control trials, case-control studies, and studies targeting unhealthy population groups were excluded. Only articles published after 1995, in English, Arabic or French, were included. Key characteristics of strategies were extracted and classified according to a pre-developed framework, which includes TFA intake assessment; determination of TFA levels in foods; strategic approach; implementation strategies (TFA bans/limits; consumer education, labeling, interventions in public institution settings, taxation), as well as monitoring and evaluation of program impact. Thirteen out of the 22 countries of the EMR (59%) have estimated TFA intake levels, 9 have determined TFA levels in foods (41%), and 14 (63.6%) have national TFA reduction initiatives. These initiatives were mainly led by governments, or by national multi-sectoral committees. The most common TFA reduction initiatives were based on TFA limits or bans (14/14 countries), with a mandatory approach being adopted by 8 countries (Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, KSA, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman and Palestine). Complementary approaches were implemented in several countries, including consumer education (10/14), food labeling (9/14) and interventions in specific settings (7/14). Monitoring activities were conducted by few countries (5/14), and impact evaluations were identified in only Iran and the UAE. The robustness of the studies, in terms of methodology and quality of assessment, as well as the lack of sufficient data in the EMR, remain a limitation that needs to be highlighted. Further action is needed to initiate TFA reduction programs in countries that are lagging behind, and to ensure rigorous implementation and evaluation of ongoing programs.


How it was in that place, how light hung in a bright pool Of air like water, in an eddy of cloud and sky, I will long remember, 1 will long recall The maples blossoming wings, the oaks proud with rule, The spiders deep in silk, the squirrels fat on mast, The fields and draws and coves where quail and peewees call. Earth loved more than any earth, stand firm, hold fast; Trees burdened with leaf and bird, root deep, grow tall. —James Still, "Wolfpen Creek"


The phenomenon of e-parking itself has been implemented in several big cities in Indonesia, namely in Jakarta, Bali, Solo, Surabaya, and Bandung. The application of e-parking carried out by DISHUB in Bandung was used to overcome the problem of leakage of parking retribution receipts. This study aims examine Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the adoption of e-Parkir as parking infrastructure collection. In this study sampling using snowball sampling with staff in UPT Parkir Kota Bandung. The methodology of research is qualitative method and the data collected by interview, literature review, and observation. Meanwhile the analyses data done by reduction, presentation, and conclusion drawing and then the analyses method used description analysis. Conclude it was found perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use one of the most that affecting e-parkir acceptance. Our result also have confirmed perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use has been positively influencing attitude towards using e-parkir and give positive effect to behavioral intention dan actual usage e-parkir.


Wind power production is intermittent due to varying wind conditions. This leads to frequent temperature changes in the wind farm transformers, which in turn affects the lifetime of the transformer winding insulation. To extend the lifetime through prediction of effects from dynamic loading, new models for degradation of insulation systems are needed. This article is laying the foundations of a model for dynamic moisture migration in the winding insulation of wind farm transformers. Relevant equations and approximations are presented and an experimental setup for laboratory testing of transformer insulation ageing related moisture migration under dynamic loading is described. The demonstration experiment clearly shows moisture migration through paper layers in a simple physical winding insulation model. As the ageing of cellulose is very moisture-dependent, the migration should clearly be included in models of ageing under dynamic load.


Many technologies afford functionalities that may be relevant to the daily lives of diverse groups of people but that does not necessarily mean that in all communities that they are mundane. Indeed our construction of domestication may reflect power relations and existing inequalities and its influence in design may exacerbate exclusion. We introduce a process to respond to the needs of Aboriginal women in designing systems to support community connectivitiy and preserve their heritage and some of the challenges it presents. We discuss designing technology probes to help us refine applications that can be subsumed into family and social life. We propose issues relating to rural-urban differences that arise when considering these users that have wider relevance for mundane technologies.


Objectives: The study was performed to identify the clinical manifestation of Covid-19 infection during pregnancy its impact on the pregnancy outcomes, and its presentation in completely/incompletely vaccinated women. Material and Methods: We conducted this cross-sectional study at Ha`il, a northern city in Saudi Arabia, starting from 15th Dec. 2021 till 15th Jan. 2022. The mean differences of background variables were computed by using the Independent-Sample t-test. A Chi-square test was applied to assess the presentation of the disease in pregnant/non–pregnant and vaccinated/ non-vaccinated women. P-value <0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Results: Fatigue followed by fever and cough (65, 42, and 38% respectively) were the most common presentations of infection during pregnancy. Hospitalization (15.4%) and ICU (9.4%) admissions were more in pregnant than in non-pregnant women. Clinical manifestations were the same in the completely and incompletely vaccinated women. The incompletely vaccinated women were at increased risk of hospitalization (p-value 0.01), and pneumonia (p-value 0.05). The covid-19 infection has no significant association with age of the participants, body mass index, and parity. Covid-positive women during pregnancy underwent fewer cesarean- sections than Covid negative (20% vs. 80%, p <0.05). The mean gestational age at delivery, preterm birth, and neonatal weight at birth were the same in both groups. The rate of transmission of the infection to the neonates remained extremely low. Conclusion: Covid disease during pregnancy doesn't increase the risk of preterm birth, cesarean delivery, or low birth weight of the babies. Complete vaccination against tcovid-19 declines the risk of hospital admission for severe disease and pneumonia in women.


Background: African American men (AAM) have a 60% higher risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer and a 2 to 3 times greater risk of dying from the disease compared to European American men (EAM). We previously reported evidence that there may be a molecular basis for these disparities from high-throughput gene expression analysis of PCa specimens, the data showed that pro-inflammatory cytokine signaling factors, including IL6 and TGFB1, are significantly upregulated and over-represented in PCa from AAM. Objective/Methods: the objective of our more recent research was to gain understanding of the role for IL6 in promoting aggressive prostate cancer in AAM. We used established cell lines derived from PCa from AAM and EAM to study if cancer cells produce IL6 and how IL6 impacts cancer cell phenotypes in vitro. We also conducted a pilot RNA-sequencing study to analyze aggressive PCa specimens and matched non-cancer adjacent prostate tissue for insights as to the role of the microenvironment and potential PCa-stroma crosstalk. Results: Results of our PCa cell line work indicate that a subpopulation of stem-cell like cancer cells produce IL6 and that IL6 acts in autocrine fashion to maintain that subpopulation. For the African American MDA-PCa2b cell line, IL6 expression was not detected. However, treatment of these cells with IL6 induced cancer stem cell-like prostasphere formation and growth. Results of our high-throughput gene expression analysis suggest that specifically for AAM, cancer cells are the source of pro-inflammatory cytokines in less aggressive cancer, but for aggressive prostate cancer pro-inflammatory cytokines originate from the non-cancer, prostate microenvironment. Conclusion: our mechanism studies in PCa-derived cell lines and high-throughput functional genomic analyses of human specimens converge to improve understanding of the molecular biology unique to aggressive PCa in AAM. Continued research and development is warranted to show how this knowledge could be used to improve clinical decision-making and patient outcomes. Citation Format: Aliccia B. Bollig-Fischer, Bin Bao, Christophe Legendre, Greg Dyson, Wael Sakr, John Carpten, Isaac Powell. The Role of Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines in Prostate Cancer in African American Men. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Ninth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2016 Sep 25-28; Fort Lauderdale, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(2 Suppl):Abstract nr B34.


This essay replies to a review essay written by Robert L. Campbell, "An End to Over and Against" (The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies 13, no. 1), which discussed recent biographical and historical studies of Ayn Rand by Jennifer Burns (Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right) and Anne C. Heller (Ayn Rand and the World She Made). The main point of discussion is the way in which Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden engaged the ideas and practices of modern psychology.


Observables of cosmic structures are usually not the underlying matter field but biased tracers of matter, such as galaxies or halos. We show how the bias found in Newtonian N-body simulations can be interpreted in terms of the weak-field limit of General Relativity (GR) . For this we employ standard Newtonian simulations of cold dark matter and incorporate GR/radiation via a weak-field dictionary that we have recently developed. We find that even when a simple local biasing scheme is employed in the Newtonian simulation, the relativistic bias becomes inherently scale-dependent due to the presence of radiation and GR corrections. This scale-dependence could be in principle observed on large scales in upcoming surveys. As a working example, we apply our methodology to Newtonian simulations for the spherical collapse and recover permille-level agreement between the approaches for extracting the relativistic bias on all considered scales.


After recalling the conditions of fixation of iron on human native serum, the authors determined the TIBC on 15 commercial control sera after titration. The transferrin concentration was determined on 13 sera of human origin, by two immunochemical techniques. They were thus able to demonstrate certain sera including a chelator substance other than transferrin, their TIBC depends only on the experimental conditions; such sera are not usable for quality control. Lyophilisation seems to reduce the reactivity of sites of fixation. It is thus necessary to provide a large excess of iron and prolong the duration of contact.


An endonuclease, which was originally identified for its RNA polymerase inhibitory activity, was isolated from rat liver endoplasmic reticulum. The enzyme yields on gel chromatography four active fractions of different molecular weights (Mr 5.3 X 10(4), 9 X 10(4), 1.55 X 10(5) and Sephacryl S-200 fraction at V0). Each fraction contains polypeptide chains which give a single band on sodium dodecylsulphate electrophoresis (Mr 5.4 X 10(4). This indicates that the enzyme is an oligomeric protein and each of its subunits exhibits the same or very similar molecular weights. Deoxyribonucleoside and ribonucleoside triphosphates can bind to the endoplasmic reticulum nuclease. Binding is enhanced in the presence of divalent cations particularly Mg2+. The enzyme exhibits mainly RNase activity but can also degrade denatured DNA and DNA . RNA hybrids which contain breaks in one of the two strands. Poly(A) and mainly poly(U) are most susceptible to its nucleolytic activity whereas poly(C) is completely resistant.


Guidance is provided for geotechnical engineers designing civil engineering works in silty soils. A detailed characterization of two estuarine silt sites in Ireland is performed and the soil properties are linked to their geological origin. It was found that these soils are susceptible to densification by conventional and high-quality fixed piston tube sampling and care needs to be taken when using laboratory-derived design parameters, particularly for consolidation and shear strength properties. The 1D consolidation and creep of these silts can be modelled successfully by the well-known Janbu formulation. Settlement predictions from laboratory-derived parameters match measured data reasonably well, but tend to underestimate primary consolidation, consistent with a sampling densification effect. Vane data should be used with caution, as measured strength values may be high, and it seems that more reliable parameters can be derived from cone penetration tests. Conventional techniques for determining soil strength from triaxial tests in silt are inappropriate because of the dilational nature of the material, and more reliable and logical strength estimates can be made from a limiting strain criterion.


A novel thermophilic bacterium, designated CFH 72773T was isolated from the enrichment of a Jinze hot spring sample which was collected from Dientan town, Tengchong county, Yunnan province, south-western PR China. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped and non-sporulating. The taxonomic position of the strain was investigated by using a polyphasic approach. Growth occurred at 37-75 °C, pH 6.0-8.0 and with 0-2.0 % (w/v) NaCl. Comparison of the 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated the strain represented a member of the genus Thermus and showed close relationships to the type strains Thermus caliditerrae YIM 77925T (96.3 % similarity) and Thermus igniterrae RF-4T (96.2 % similarity). The whole genome of CFH 72773T consisted of 2.25 Mbp and the DNA G+C content was 69.5 mol%. A total of 2262 genes, including a variety of enzymes for chemolithotrophy and anerobic respiration, were predicted. The strain had a unique negative oxidase activity and could hydrolyze starch at high temperature. Furthermore, various genes related to methane, sulfur, fumarate and nitrate metabolism were found, all these indicated that it is worth studying the novel strain. The predominant menaquinone is MK-8. The predominant cellular fatty acids included iso-C15 : 0, iso-C16 : 0 and iso-C17 : 0. The major polar lipids were comprised of aminophospholipid, glycolipid and two phospholipids. On the basis of low ANI values, different phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characters and phylogenetic analysis, we made a proposal that strain CFH 72773T represents a novel member of the genus Thermus, for which the name Thermus thermamylovorans sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is CFH 72773T (=CCTCC AB2018244T=KCTC 43129T).


This study aims to find out how consumptive behavior is in shopping on social media among students of FIS UINSU. This study uses a research approach used in this study is a qualitative approach. As for what is meant by qualitative research, namely research that intends to understand the phenomena of what is experienced by research subjects holistically, and by means of descriptions in the form of words and language, in a special natural context and by utilizing various scientific methods (Moleong, 2007:6). The type of this research approach is descriptive. Descriptive research is research that seeks to describe current problem solving based on data. The type of qualitative descriptive research used in this study is intended to obtain information about consumptive behavior in online shopping among students. This study resulted that from the three selected informants, the existing consumptive behavior started from habits and a sense of inclination to continue shopping online on various online shopping platforms. From the three informants, it can be seen that there are informants who like to shop at Shopee, olshop accounts on social media, and even shop at the busy TikTok Shop.


Dōgen's treatment of evil starts with a reflection on four statements found in the Pali Buddhist Cannon, namely, "Do no evil, Do good, and Purify the mind. This is the teaching of the Buddhas." In order to grasp his philosophical reflection on evil, we must cast our inquiry within the wider issues that conceptually frame these four statements; namely, the idea of karmic retribution and an agent trapped in it. This requires us to clarify why "do no evil" precedes "do good," and why there is a demand to "purify the mind." The first two injunctions deal with an issue of human nature, and the third with the practice of Zen meditation, which is Dōgen's method for "purify[ing] the mind." His reflection on meditation experiences enabled him to discover how "do no evil" changes into "nonproduction of evil." Dōgen's contention then is that "do no evil" as an ethical imperative transforms into "nonproduction of evil." Therefore, an ethical imperative as understood by an ordinary person is not the true intent of the above injunction for a practicing Buddhist. This is because the practice of meditation renders a practicing Buddhist incapable of producing evil. "Nonproduction of evil" describes an achieved state of personhood. It is for Dōgen a term of achievement, that is, a transformative process reached from a prescriptive imperative to a state descriptive of embodied, meditational experience. With this transformation, one comes to understand "the teaching of the Buddhas."


Background: The Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN) is one of the important index to find out orthodontic need of patients. Aim: To find out the need of orthodontic treatment in patients visiting Nishter Institute of Dentistry, Multan (NID). Method: The index was applied using plaster models and intraoral examination. The measurements of various components of IOTN index was taken with the help of digital vernier calliper. Results: The results of various measurements of IOTN index was taken, recorded and analyzed statistically. Result of the present cross-sectional study showed that 65% patients were in grade 4 and 5 of IOTN. The analysis showed that 13% were in grade 4 of IOTN, 52% were in grade 5, 15% were in grade 3, 16% were in grade 2 and 4% patients was in grade 1 of IOTN index. Conclusion: No significant sex differences were shown for the need of orthodontic therapy in any category of IOTN. The need of orthodontic treatment is very high in patients of Southern Punjab, Pakistan. Keywords: Treatment Need; IOTN; Orthodontics.


Galloping-based energy harvester was developed for scavenging small-scale wind energy. An electromechanical coupled distributed parameter model is proposed based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, quasi-steady approximation and Gauss law for electromagnetic energy harvesting from the galloping. The analytical solutions are derived using the equivalent structure method and confirmed by the numerical solutions of the full coupled model. In addition to the aerodynamic properties, modal shape and structural damping, the onset speed to galloping, tip displacement and harvested power are also functions of the electric damping and modified natural frequency. Such two critical variables depend on the natural frequency, coil inductance, coupling factor, load resistance and coil resistance. The bifurcation and performance analyses are conducted. Two optimal load resistances are found for the maximal power at fixed resistance ratio. When the resistance ratio changes, the optimal load resistance is unique. Larger resistance ratio, larger electromagnetic coupling factor and higher wind speed lead to higher maximal power. For small resistance ratio, there is an optimal magnet position to maximize the power. For large resistance ratio, the power increases monotonously with the magnet position. With small electromagnetic coupling factor, the power is higher with lower tip displacement at smaller coil inductance. The maximal power occurs at the medium coil inductance with large electromagnetic coupling factor.


Background: Persons with Lynch syndrome (LS) have high lifetime risk of developing colorectal tumors (CRTs) because of a germline mutation in one of their mismatch repair (MMR) genes. An important process in the development of CRTs is inflammation, which has been shown to be modulated by diet.Objective: We aimed to investigate the association between the inflammatory potential of the diet and the risk of CRTs in persons with LS.Design: We used the dietary intake of 457 persons with LS from a prospective cohort study to calculate the adapted dietary inflammatory index (ADII). The ADII was split into tertiles in which the highest tertile reflects the most proinflammatory potential of the diet. Cox proportional hazard models, with robust sandwich variance estimates to adjust for dependency within families, were used to calculate HRs and 95% CIs of CRTs by ADII tertile. HRs were adjusted for age, smoking status, and education level, and number of colonoscopies as a time-dependent variable. A potential effect measure modification was explored by stratifying the results by mutated MMR gene, sex, and a history of CRTs. We performed sensitivity analyses by repeating the analyses in non-nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) users (n = 315).Results: During a median follow-up time of 59 mo, 200 participants (43.8%) developed CRTs. No significant association was shown between highest compared with lowest ADII tertiles (HR for highest compared with lowest tertiles: 1.37; 95% CI: 0.80, 2.34). Stratification by mutated MMR gene, sex, and CRT history did not show significantly differential associations (P-interactions ≥ 0.64). In non-NSAID users, an HR of 1.60 (95% CI: 0.88, 2.93) for highest compared with lowest tertiles was shown. No significant effect modification was shown in this group either (P-interactions ≥ 0.24).Conclusion: A proinflammatory potential of the diet does not seem to be significantly associated with CRT risk in persons with LS.


This study aims to contribute to the understanding of unethical practices in business and asks whether certain types of organizations are considerably more exposed to unethical business practices than others are. Drawing from the tenets of institutional theory, the paper investigates the occurrence of unethical practices in different organizational "fields", namely the industry sector (with focus on Finance and Construction), company membership in professional networks, company ownership (public/private), and company age. The method of stratified random sampling by proportional allocation is used to establish the sample (n = 1295), composed mostly of company owners and higher managers. Results show that, in general, the industry sector, membership in professional networks, and company age are associated with significant variance in the perceived incidence of unethical practices, whereas company ownership has no significant effect in this regard. More specifically, the construction sector is significantly more exposed to unethical practices than other sectors in the sample, while the finance sector is not. Companies with membership in professional networks report a significantly lower occurrence of unethical practices. Young companies are significantly more exposed than their more mature counterparts; however, here the effect of company size must be accounted for. The research was conducted in one of the former CEE block countries—Slovakia. Given their common communist past and comparable peripeties with the transition process, these findings might be useful for understanding business ethics issues in a wider context of the CEE region.


There has been much focus on the mechanisms of temporal integration, but little on how circuits learn to integrate. In the adult oculomotor system, where a neural integrator maintains fixations, changes in integration dynamics can be driven by visual error signals. However, we show through dark-rearing experiments that visual inputs are not necessary for initial integrator development. We therefore propose a vision-independent learning mechanism whereby a recurrent network learns to integrate via a 'teaching' signal formed by low-pass filtered feedback of its population activity. The key is the segregation of local recurrent inputs onto a dendritic compartment and teaching inputs onto a somatic compartment of an integrator neuron. Model instantiation for oculomotor control shows how a self-corrective teaching signal through the cerebellum can generate an integrator with both the dynamical and tuning properties necessary to drive eye muscles and maintain gaze angle. This bootstrap learning paradigm may be relevant for development and plasticity of temporal integration more generally. Highlights - A neuronal architecture that learns to integrate saccadic commands for eye position. - Learning is based on the recurrent dendritic prediction of somatic teaching signals. - Experiment and model show that no visual feedback is required for initial integrator learning. - Cerebellum is an internal teacher for motor nuclei and integrator population.


A study was carried out on 30 normotensive patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status 1) to investigate whether or not a suppressive effect of 0.3 or 0.6 μg/kg prostaglandin E1 on the hypertensive response to tracheal intubation was due to inhibition of the increase in plasma catecholamine concentrations following the stressful stimulation. A total of 30 patients in three groups underwent elective surgery. Anaesthesia was induced with 5 mg/kg sodium thiopentone given intravenously and tracheal intubation was facilitated by 0.2 mg/kg vecuronium. Either saline (group A) or 0.3 (group B) or 0.6 μg/kg (group C) prostaglandin E1 was administered intravenously 15 s before direct laryngoscopy (lasting 30 s) which was attempted 2 min after administering thiopentone and vecuronium. All groups exhibited significant (P < 0.05) increases in mean arterial pressure, heart rate, rate – pressure product and plasma noradrenaline concentrations following tracheal intubation, but the increases in mean arterial blood pressure and rate – pressure product were significantly (P < 0.05) less in groups B and C than in group A. Prostaglandin E1, however, enhanced the increase in plasma noradrenaline concentrations following intubation. Data suggest that attenuation of the pressor response to intubation by prostaglandin E1, may not be due to inhibition of the noradrenaline release stimulated by intubation but to inhibition of noradrenaline-induced vasoconstriction.


The superconductivity at 39 K discovered in MgB2 among simple binary chemical composition attracted much interest in its fabrication techniques and practical applications [1]. MgB2 superconductor exhibits many impressive properties such as highest critical temperature amongst intermetallic superconductors which means low cooling costs, impressive grain boundary transparency to the flow of current which leads to greater critical current density [24], comparatively large coherence length which allows a better Josephson junction fabrication, low material cost which will lead to a cheaper superconductor technology, simple crystal structure, etc. Hence, MgB2 superconductors, especially the MgB2 wires and coils, have the outstanding potential to be integrated into diverse commercial applications, such as, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) [5, 6] , fault current limiters (FCL), Josephson junctions and SQUID [7, 8, 9], transformers, motors, generators, adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators, magnetic separators, magnetic levitation applications, energy storage, and high energy physical applications. But the MgB2 itself is mechanically hard and brittle and therefore not amenable to drawing into the desired wire and tape geometry. Thus, the powder-in-tube (PIT) technique that was used to make the Y-Ba-Cu-O oxide superconductor has been employed in the fabrication of MgB2 wires and tapes these years [10-14]. So far, in-situ sintering, including the in-situ PIT, from the mixture of magnesium and boron is the major method to fabricate MgB2 superconductors (bulks, wires and tapes). The corresponding sintering parameters have a significant influence on the superconducting properties of MgB2. Thus it is necessary to investigate the sintering mechanism of MgB2 superconductors.


Abstract Traps in eastern Washington and northeast Oregon wheat fields, baited with a sex attractant for the moth of the wheat head armyworm Dargida diffusa (Walker), captured the congener moth Dargida terrapictalis (Buckett). When the two components of a sex attractant for the wheat head armyworm were tested singly versus together in a trap, nearly all D. terrapictalis captured were in traps baited with the combination of (Z)-11-hexadecenyl acetate and (Z)-11-hexadecenal, indicating synergy of the two compounds as attractants. Traps baited with this sex attractant and maintained through the growing season captured D. terrapictalis primarily in May in Umatilla County, Oregon, and in June and early July in eastern Washington. Small numbers of D. diffusa were present also in these traps, largely coincident in time with D. terrapictalis captured. This is the first demonstration of a sex attractant for D. terrapictalis and confirms the presence of D. diffusa in the states of Oregon and Washington through the identification of trapped moths.


ABSTRACT Background: We performed a retrospective evaluation of histological and imaging results of patients submitted to computed tomography (CT)-guided biopsy for vertebral fractures (VFs) of unknown etiology to evaluate the pathological causes of fractures and also to observe the diagnostic results of imaging studies available. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all the CT-guided vertebral biopsies performed in our institution in the last 2 years, selecting patients with VF of unknown etiology. We reviewed clinical records, imaging studies, and histological examination results. We compared diagnostic performance of the 2 most sensitive imaging modalities for detection of malignancy on the collapsed vertebral body: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography-CT (PET-CT). Anatomopathological results have been considered the gold standard to assess the diagnostic performance of imaging studies. Age stratification has been performed to understand the distribution of different anatomopathological diagnoses in age groups. Results: Among 282 CT-guided vertebral biopsies, 36 (12.8%) have been performed to diagnose the etiology of VF of unknown origin. In 26/32 (81.3%), the vertebral biopsy was diagnostic: 8 osteopenia, 6 multiple myelomas, 4 osteomyelitis, 2 eosinophilic granuloma, 3 metastases, 1 mastocytosis, 1 Paget's disease, and 1 dysmielopoiesis. In 6 cases, the anatomopathological diagnosis was normal bone structure, most likely excluding malignancy. There were no statistically significance differences between MRI and PET-CT results (P = 1.0000). Conclusions: Multiple myeloma and osteopenia represent the most frequent causes of this condition in adult patients, while eosinophilic granuloma and osteomyelitis in pediatric patients. Computed tomography-guided biopsy permits one to reach diagnosis in most of cases. Both PET and MRI could be insufficient to discriminate benign from malignant causes of fractures. Computed tomography-guided biopsy is needed when the etiology of fracture remains unclear.


[1] The projected effects of rising CO2 levels on Northern Hemisphere extratropical cyclone activity and cyclone-associated precipitation are examined for September–May, using output from version 3 of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM3). A cyclone identification algorithm was applied to a five member ensemble of CCSM3 20th and 21st century output, along with a method of isolating precipitation produced by each cyclone. Mean seasonal statistics describing cyclone activity and the character of associated precipitation were calculated over several study regions for 20 a periods. The dominant change in cyclone activity is a marked midlatitude decrease in frequency during autumn, winter, and spring. Few significant shifts in storm tracks or cyclone intensity were identified. Total daily precipitation from these events is found to increase into the 21st century, largely because of increases in available atmospheric moisture with rising temperatures. This thermodynamic increase in precipitation leads to large rises in total seasonal cyclone-associated precipitation over high latitudes, while over midlatitudes the thermodynamic increase is offset by the dynamic effect associated with decreased cyclone frequency.


The estimation of electrical properties of living biological tissues is relevant to several medical applications ranging from hyperthermia treatment planning to dosimetry and, more in general, is pivotal for a fundamental understanding of bioelectromagnetic interactions. Non-invasive electromagnetic imaging, either based on the processing of electric fields measured via microwave tomography or magnetic fields acquired in magnetic resonance is suitable to pursue this goal. In this framework, the possibility of imaging without the need of phase information would be extremely relevant, as it would enable simpler and more reliable devices and would avoid limiting assumptions typically used in the literature. With reference to the canonical yet significant 2D case, in this paper we propose an inverse scattering approach for tissue characterization from only-amplitude electromagnetic data, which, by virtue of a unified mathematical framework, is viable for both microwave tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. The key feature of the method is the innovative use of morphological maps derived by other medical imaging modalities as prior spatial information. In particular, these images are exploited to define a convenient and effective patient-specific representation of the unknowns. The approach is tested against simulated data derived from anatomically realistic scenarios.