The car was checked by a local garage, and the fumes identified as exhaust. The exhaust system was intact through to the exhaust pipe which was bent upwards at an angle of almost 45°. Exhaust markings were noted on the bumper bar which had effectively directed the fumes upwards to the open boot. The mechanic postulated that turbulence in this region had allowed the exhaust into the boot, and thence readily through the ply panel behind the rear seat into the interior of the car. Opening the window of the car had apparently created a negative pressure in the car (Venturi effect), thereby effectively sucking further exhaust gases into the car. The case involved was one of those "freak accidents", but it docs highlight the danger of vehicles taking in exhaust fumes through open boots and tailgates, especially if an open window allows a negative pressure to develop in the car. The journey was only 33 kilometres, and attention was drawn to the problem only after the second child began fitting. How simple, with lesser levels of carbon monoxide over a long journey for the driver to merely doze off (drowsiness is one of the earliest features of carbon monoxide poisoning). The following suggestions were made: (i) close boot lids, or be aware of the danger; (ii) ventilate the car using the vents (rather than just winding down windows) to "pressurize" the interior; and (iii) if exhaust fumes tend to find their way into the car, have a garage redirect the flow of exhaust out into the slipstream of air to the side of the vehicle. GRAEME W. WOOD. 7 Scoresby Street, Kerang, Vic. 3579.


This paper analyses the concept of political risk, its evolution and conceptualisation, and explores its utility as a means of understanding political events and processes that can threaten order, stability and continuity in International Relations and disrupt the normal practices of inter-state investment, trade and commerce. More particularly, the article organises the disparate literature that surrounds the concept of political risk such that it might be more rigorously applied as a social science method for understanding political events and their effects upon commercial and strategic activities.


We compare two tools for displaying, in graphical form, information about vote outcomes in multiparty elections at the constituency level. One was recently proposed by Nagayama and introduced to the English-speaking world by Reed, who applied this method to Japanese and Italian election data. Reed labels the method Nagayama diagrams. Recently, Taagepera has shown how the domain of potential uses of Nagayama diagrams can be expanded significantly. A second graphical device has been used by a number of authors for various types of election analyses, but is not that well known in the comparative parties literature. This method, which uses barycentric coordinates (i.e. triangular) rather than the more familiar rectangular coordinates, has gone under a variety of names (e.g. trilinear plot, toroidal diagram and simplex representation), but we have chosen to use the last of these labels. We make use of both methods to visually present election data (by constituency) for the Italian national elections of 1994, 1996 and 2001. We show how different types of information may be readily gleaned from the two types of graph, and, perhaps most importantly, illustrate how we may improve the ready intuitive interpretability of each type of graph by specifying boundary constraints to define particular regions of the graph – a technique we call 'segmentation'.


Complexities are inherent in the application of the psychoanalytic principle of abstinence. The author defines abstinence, presents a historical and current review of the concept, and describes circumstances, in the psychoanalytic field and in the public at large, that have led to its misinterpretation. Three vignettes illustrate the conflictual situations that abstinence presents to the analyst, as well as its constructive and ultimately gratifying results.


Flat plate solar thermal collectors and photovoltaic solar collectors in combination with an electrical resistance heater have been compared as an additional solar heat source of a gas burner-based heating system for a residential building in Germany. The dependency on solar collector field area and retrofitting level of the building has been analyzed in parametric studies. On the economic side, the results are in favor of the photovoltaic-based collector option, which is largely due to significant reductions of the grid-supplied electric power and the electrical household demand. On the energy efficiency side, the thermal collector-based variant requires smaller collector field areas and causes lower fossil demands for heating. The analyses have been done taking into account different primary energy factors and different cost assumptions.


Objective: The aim is to determine the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on the functions and psychosocial conditions of children with speech and language disorders and their families. Material-Metod: Within the scope of the study, a questionnaire form created by the researchers through "Google Forms" was applied online to 70 families with speech and language disorders and 30 families with healthy children, feedback was obtained from the families of 100 children. In the questionnaire form applied to the families; before and during the covid-19 pandemic, there are questions about families' quality time with their children, daily life activities, emotional and anxiety situations. Study data were collected between June-July 2020. Results: Spending quality time with their families before the pandemic was significantly higher in the group with speech and language disorders compared to the families of the healthy group (p <0.05). During the pandemic, an increase in the use of television, tablets and computers was observed in the majority of children in both groups. In addition, families in both groups were found to have moderate/high levels of fear of transmission of the covid-19 virus to one of their families. Conclusion: It has been observed that the function and psycho-social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children with speech and language disorders and their families is similar to healthy children and their families. In particular, it has been observed that all families experience intense fear of transmission of the disease during this epidemic process, also have high levels of anxiety about future.


Here we catalogue 32 species in two genera of Fanniidae (Euryomma and Fannia) from Colombia and provide geographical information for all species, when available.


In the first half of the 20th century, two main types of plastics were produced in industrial volumes in the USSR – cellulose nitrate and phenolic resins. At first, these materials were used to make household items and some electrotechnical products. The most interesting of them are represented in the collection of the Moscow Polytechnic Museum, one of the oldest science museums in the world, founded in 1872. The first models of home vacuum-cleaners and washing devices with cases made entirely of phenolic resin appeared in the USSR in the late 1940s. While the range of household appliances produced expanded after the middle of the 20th century, production of household electric vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and refrigerators continued. To begin with, these novel devices were produced for only a short time. For the curators and researchers of the Moscow Polytechnic Museum, these rare examples are unique and valuable objects for studying and preservation.


BACKGROUND/AIMS
Local recurrence is a formidable problem after potentially curative resection for rectal cancer. We attempted to identify possible factors affecting the frequency of local recurrence, focusing on the clearance of the tumor and the margin of resection.

METHODOLOGY
The clinical cohort consisted of 66 patients suffering from rectal carcinoma. All patients underwent a low anterior resection with meticulous pelvic preparation and dissection. The proximal and distal margins of the tumor were measured before fixing for permanent sections.

RESULTS
Analysis by distance of the tumor from the anal verge revealed that 5 out of 33 patients (15.15%) from the upper rectal group and 7 out of 19 patients (36.8%) from the mid rectal group developed local recurrences (36.8% vs. 15.15% P=0.0369). Analysis by distance of the distal resection margins revealed that 8 out of 12 patients with local recurrence had distal margins less than 2cm, whereas 7 out of 40 patients free of local relapse had margins less than 2cm. Therefore 8 out of 15 patients with distal margins less than 2cm developed local recurrence (53.5%) whereas 4 patients among 37 with margins greater than 2cm developed a local failure (10.8%) (53.5% vs. 10.8% P=4.88E-04). The median survival in all patients of our series was 23 months. The median survival in 52 patients who underwent a potentially curative resection was 42 months.

CONCLUSIONS
Tumors located in the upper portion of the rectum presented a minor tendency for local recurrence compared to tumors located in the middle of the rectum. Our study provides strong indications that high rate of local recurrences are probably related to the limited anatomic margins that can be obtained in the pelvis during primary resections.


Objective Overexpression of dopamine and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein, Mr 32000 (DARPP-32), and its truncated isoform (t-DARPP) are associated with gastric tumorigenesis. Herein, we investigated the role of DARPP-32 proteins in regulating angiopoietin 2 (ANGPT2) and promoting tumour angiogenesis. Design Quantitative real-time RT-PCR, immunoblotting, luciferase reporter, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry and angiogenesis assays were applied to investigate the regulation of angiogenesis by DARPP-32 proteins. Results Overexpression of DARPP-32 significantly increased the mRNA and protein levels of ANGPT2 in gastric cancer cells. The overexpression of DARPP-32 T34A mutant or the N-terminal truncated isoform, t-DARPP, led to similar effects ruling out the T34-dependent regulation of protein phosphatase 1 activity in regulating ANGPT2. DARPP-32 proteins induced a secreted form of ANGPT2, which was detectable in the media, functionally active, and able to induce angiogenesis, measured by the human umbilical vein endothelial cells tube formation assay. Antibody blocking of the secreted ANGPT2 abrogated its function. To identify the mechanism by which DARPP-32 regulates ANGPT2, we examined the activities of NF-κB and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), known regulators of angiogenesis. The results ruled out NF-κB and showed induction of STAT3 phosphorylation, activation and nuclear localisation. Inhibition or knockdown of STAT3 significantly attenuated the induction of ANGPT2 by DARPP-32 proteins. In vivo xenograft models demonstrated that overexpression of DARPP-32 promotes angiogenesis and tumour growth. Analyses of human gastric cancer tissues showed a strong correlation between DARPP-32 and ANGPT2. Conclusions Our novel findings establish the role of DARPP-32-STAT3 axis in regulating ANGPT2 in cancer cells to promote angiogenesis and tumorigenesis.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

It is critically important to identify the molecular determinants and predictive molecular markers of cancer sensitivity to topoisomerase I (TOP1) inhibitors to personalize treatments and rationalize combination therapies. The NCI Anticancer Tumor Cell Line panel (NCI-60) encompasses 60 cancer cell lines from nine different tissues of origin, which have been tested since the 1980s for more than 400,000 compounds of natural and synthetic origin. Moreover, the NCI-60 have been extensively characterized for gene expression and miRNA with six different array platforms, copy number variation by aCGH, and are currently being sequenced for the entire exome and transcriptome at the NCI. To identify genes that, at the expression level, could predict the in vitro cytotoxicity profiles of TOP1 inhibitors in the NCI-60, we correlated the expression profile of more than 17,000 genes, finding 294 genes that correlated with camptothecin (CPT), 217 with topotecan, 699 with irinotecan, and 734 with a new non-CPT indenoisoquinoline derivative in clinical trial NSC724998, at a P + 0.613 with all the four compounds (uncorrected P < 2.5 x 10−7, two-tailed), as well as with several other CPT analogs. To test the causal relationship between SLFN11 expression and sensitivity to TOP1 inhibitors in cancer cell lines, we silenced SLFN11 expression in two different human lines: DU-145 (prostate) and HOP-62 (non-small cell lung cancer), both expressing SLFN11 and showing high sensitivities to TOP1 inhibitors. In both cell lines, siRNA-mediated silencing of SLFN11 induced a remarkable resistance to CPT. While SLFN11 expression was strongly positively correlated to the response to TOP1 inhibitors and other DNA damaging agents in the NCI-60, it did not correlate with other classes of chemotherapeutic agents such as microtubule-targeting compounds or kinase inhibitors. Accordingly, SLFN11 siRNA-induced depletion did not affect the cellular response to paclitaxel or the apoptosis inducer staurosporine. In conclusion, the identification of SLFN11 modulating effects towards in vitro response to TOP1 inhibitors lays the ground for the study of a previously unexplored player of cancer cell response to that class of agents. Moreover, SLFN11 expression could be tested in human tumor samples as a biomarker in response prediction to TOP1 inhibitor-based chemotherapeutical regimens, such as those used in colorectal and ovarian cancer.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4693. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-4693


: Histochemical characteristics of displasia, various forms of the cancer in situ and initial invasive cancer together with histochemical criteria for differential diagnoses of these processes are given.


ABSTRACT Strains of Bacillus thuringiensis such as B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (ONR-60A) and B. thuringiensis subsp. morrisoni (PG-14) pathogenic for mosquito larvae produce a complex parasporal body consisting of several protein endotoxins synthesized during sporulation that form an aggregate of crystalline inclusions bound together by a multilamellar fibrous matrix. Most studies of these strains focus on the molecular biology of the endotoxins, and although it is known that parasporal body structural integrity is important to achieving high toxicity, virtually nothing is known about the matrix that binds the toxin inclusions together. In the present study, we undertook a proteomic analysis of this matrix to identify proteins that potentially mediate assembly and stability of the parasporal body. In addition to fragments of their known major toxins, namely, Cry4Aa, Cry4Ba, Cry11Aa, and Cyt1Aa, we identified peptides with 100% identity to regions of Bt152, a protein coded for by pBtoxis of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis, the plasmid that encodes all endotoxins of this subspecies. As it is known that the Bt152 gene is expressed in B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis, we disrupted its function and showed that inactivation destabilized the parasporal body matrix and, concomitantly, inclusion aggregation. Using fluorescence microscopy, we further demonstrate that Bt152 localizes to the parasporal body in both strains, is absent in other structural or soluble components of the cell, including the endospore and cytoplasm, and in ligand blots binds to purified multilamellar fibrous matrix. Together, the data show that Bt152 is essential for stability of the parasporal body of these strains.


SNORKEL1 (SK1) and SNORKEL2 (SK2) are ethylene responsive factors that regulate the internode elongation of deepwater rice in response to submergence. We previously reported that normal cultivated rice lacks SK genes because the Chromosome 12 region containing SK genes was deleted from its genome. However, no study has analyzed how the genome defect occurred in that region by comparing normal cultivated rice and deepwater rice. In this study, comparison of the sequence of the end of Chromosome 12, which contains SK genes, between normal and deepwater rice showed that complicated genome changes such as insertions, deletions, inversions, substitutions, and translocation occurred frequently in this region. In addition to SK1 and SK2 of deepwater rice, gene prediction analysis identified four genes containing AP2/ERF domains in normal cultivated rice and six in deepwater rice; we called these genes SK-LIKE (SKL) genes. SKs and SKLs were present in close proximity to each other, and the SKLs in normal cultivated rice were in tandem. These predicted genes belong to the same AP2/ERF subfamily and were separated into four types: SK1, SK2, SKL3, and SKL4. Sequence comparison indicated that normal cultivated rice possesses a gene with high homology to SK2, which we named SKL1. However, none of the predicted SKLs except for SKL3s were expressed during submergence. Although SKL3s were expressed in both normal and deepwater rice, normal rice does not undergo internode elongation, suggesting that its expression does not contribute to internode elongation. Plants overexpressing SKL1, which showed the most homology to SK2, underwent internode elongation similar to plants overexpressing SK1 and SK2 under normal growth conditions. A yeast one-hybrid assay showed that the C-end of SKL1 has transcription activity, as do the C-ends of SK1 and SK2. Our results suggested that SKLs were derived via gene duplication, but were not expressed and pseudogenized in normal cultivated rice during sequence evolution.


Abstract : In past years, the radiation and scattering properties of aerospace components have been tested on large outdoor measurement ranges. The distance between the transmitting and receiving antenna (for radiation measurements) or target (for scattering measurements) is normally dictated by the far field criteria. Recent interest in the millimeter wavelength region and the need to measure larger targets requires longer distances between source and target to satisfy the far field condition. This report documents an alternative method of creating a 'space limited' far field environment for radiation and scattering measurements using the compact range approach. However, some questions concerning the planarity of the aperture field have been raised by the scientific community. Field probe data is presented here which unquestionably verifies the planarity of the aperture field.


We present a monophonic source separation system that is trained by only observing mixtures with no ground truth separation information. We use a deep clustering approach which trains on multichannel mixtures and learns to project spectrogram bins to source clusters that correlate with various spatial features. We show that using such a training process we can obtain separation performance that is as good as making use of ground truth separation information. Once trained, this system is capable of performing sound separation on monophonic inputs, despite having learned how to do so using multi-channel recordings.


(17.1%) had IM score 2-3, with corresponding mean methylation levels of 2.4% and 35.5%, respectively ( P =0.018). In patients with GOJ-IM, who received RFA re-treatment, the Meth-Score decreased from 24% to 4.2% ( P =0.027) as presented in figure 1. Conclusions The methylation panel can differentiate grades of dysplasia in Barrett ' s and significantly correlates with the extent of IM at the GOJ. We propose the Meth-Score as an objective measure of residual and recurrent disease following RFA.


Neuropsychology and neuroimaging studies have confirmed what we all knew already from introspection: some of our know-how is conscious, but most of it is not. Learning, skill, knowledge, and memory all come in two forms: explicit, in which we are aware of-and can hence describe in words-how we are able to do something, and implicit, in which we are unaware of how we are doing something. Most cognitive science is devoted to discovering the implicit mechanisms underlying our cognitive competence and making them explicit. Conscious introspection does not reveal what they are. The explanatory goal of cognitive science is to reverse-engineer what it takes to pass the Turing Test. That is, once we can successfully design a system that is capable of doing whatever any normal person can do, indistinguishably from any person, to any person, then we have a candidate explanation of how the human brain does it. In modeling human cognitive capacity, we must consider what to build into our candidate mechanism and what to offload onto external cognitive technology, such as Google Web searches. Word meanings can be internally represented in two ways: sensorimotor and verbal. In this work we tested conjunctive and disjunctive Google searches for target terms that have their own Wikipedia entries, using either the target terms themselves or the three words that had the highest co occurrence frequency with the target words in WordNet. We found that the highly co-occurring words were surprisingly ineffective in retrieving the target word and there was no significant correlation with age of acquisition or concreteness. This raises some questions about the similarity between human associative memory and Google-based associative search.


Graduate unemployment has worsened following the global crisis caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and has created increased pressures on universities to enhance their graduates' employability. Past studies have indicated that mentoring programs can positively impact student soft skills development and employability. While undergraduate mentoring programs have mushroomed, research on undergraduate mentoring has not kept pace. This study used a mixed methods approach to examine the effectiveness of a public university's initiative in mentoring new undergraduates. Using the College Student Mentoring Scale (CSMS), this study found that the university's undergraduate mentoring initiative is moderately effective. The CSMS assessed four mentoring dimensions, namely academic subject knowledge support, degree and career support, psychological and emotional support as well as role modelling. The results of this study highlighted the mentoring functions that are considered as least effective so that informed and targeted efforts can be undertaken to enhance university freshman mentoring. Findings from this study suggest that a new dimension namely mentor-mentee compatibility, competencies and expectations could be added to the College Student Mentoring Scale (CSMS) to enhance concept operationalization. A limitation of this study is that it is based on mentees' perspectives only. Future research could include the perspectives of mentors as well. © 2020. All Rights Reserved.


Abstract. We retrieved lower stratospheric vertical profiles of O3, HNO3, and HCl from solar spectra taken with a ground-based Fourier-Transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) installed at Syowa Station, Antarctica (69.0° S, 39.6° E) from March to December 2007 and September to November 2011. This was the first continuous measurements of chlorine species throughout the ozone hole period from the ground in Antarctica. We analyzed temporal variation of these species combined with ClO, HCl, and HNO3 data taken with the Aura/MLS (Microwave Limb Sounder) satellite sensor, and ClONO2 data taken with the Envisat/MIPAS (The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding) satellite sensor at 18 and 22 km over Syowa Station. HCl and ClONO2 decrease occurred at both 18 and 22 km, and soon ClONO2 was almost depleted in early winter. When the sun returned to Antarctica in spring, enhancement of ClO and gradual O3 destruction were observed. During the ClO enhanced period, negative correlation between ClO and ClONO2 was observed in the time-series of the data at Syowa Station. This negative correlation was associated with the distance between Syowa Station and the inner edge of the polar vortex. We used MIROC3.2 Chemistry-Climate Model (CCM) results to see the comprehensive behavior of chlorine and related species inside the polar vortex and the edge region in more detail. From CCM model results, rapid conversion of chlorine reservoir species (HCl and ClONO2) into Cl2, gradual conversion of Cl2 into Cl2O2, increase of ClO when sunlight became available, and conversion of ClO into HCl, was successfully reproduced. HCl decrease in the winter polar vortex core continued to occur due to the transport of ClONO2 from the subpolar region to higher latitudes, providing a flux of ClONO2 from more sunlit latitudes into the polar vortex. Temporal variation of chlorine species over Syowa Station was affected by both heterogeneous chemistry related to Polar Stratospheric Cloud (PSC) occurrence deep inside the polar vortex, and transport of an NOx-rich airmass from lower latitudinal polar vortex boundary region which can produce additional ClONO2 by reaction of ClO with NO2. The deactivation pathways from active chlorine into reservoir species (HCl and/or ClONO2) were found to be highly dependent on the availability of ambient O3. At an altitude where most ozone was depleted in Antarctica (18 km), most ClO was converted to HCl. However, at an altitude where there were some O3 available (22 km), additional increase of ClONO2 from initial value can occur, similar to the case in the Arctic.


SENSOR INTRUSION DETECTION IN CONTROL SYSTEMS USING ESTIMATION THEORY Jiayi Su, B.S. Marquette University, 2018 In this thesis, two different approaches to sensor intrusion detection are presented. In the first approach, an estimation algorithm using a bank of Kalman Filters is designed that is capable of estimating the intrusion signal when sensors are affected in control systems. The mathematical models of the control system will be estabilished and the system measurement will be shown and after that, various false signals, such as constant-type and ramp-type signal, will be selected as the intrusion signal to affect the system output mentioned above. The system measurement will be tested based on a bank of Kalman Filters. The probabilities of each intrusion state (affected and unaffected) of the control system will be calculated as a function of time. The estimation of the states from a bank of Kalman Filters together with the associated probabilities will determine whether the sensor is under attack or not by using the information from the estimation algorithm. The performance of the algorithm will be tested based on the various levels of the system and measurement noise. In the second approach, a new estimation algorithm is applied to detect the intrusion signal targeting the system mentioned above. By calculating the sample mean value of the system state and measurement in time, the changes of the system measurement can be detected by calculating the residual between the actual value and the theoretical sample mean value of the system measurement and in that case, the intrusion signal can be found. Thesis conclusions, summary and future work is also mentioned in the last chapter of this work.


Four turkeys from a commercial flock with acutely elevated mortality levels were submitted for postmortem examination and diagnostic workup. No clinical signs had been observed before death. On gross examination, hemorrhage and necrosis were present throughout the intestinal tracts, and the spleens were markedly enlarged and speckled. Microscopically, numerous, large basophilic-to-amphophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies were observed in mononuclear cells of the spleen and the lamina propria of the small intestine. In addition, there were lesions of diffuse villus blunting and necrosis of the small intestine, with large numbers of rod-shaped bacteria adhered to the epithelium and in the intestinal lumen. Hemorrhagic enteritis virus (HEV) infection was confirmed via PCR on the spleen. Clostridium perfringens was demonstrated in the small intestine by anaerobic culture and immunohistochemistry. The C. perfringens isolate was type F by PCR and, to our knowledge, necrotic enteritis in turkeys has not been described in association with C. perfringens type F infection.


With increasing widespread use of three-dimensional data, the demand for simplified data acquisition is also increasing. The range camera, which is a simplified sensor, can acquire a dense-range image in a single shot; however, its measuring coverage is narrow and its measuring accuracy is limited. The former drawback had be overcome by registering sequential range images. This method, however, assumes that the point cloud is error-free. In this paper, we develop an integration method for sequential range images with error adjustment of the point cloud. The proposed method consists of ICP (Iterative Closest Point) algorithm and self-calibration bundle adjustment. The ICP algorithm is considered an initial specification for the bundle adjustment. By applying the bundle adjustment, coordinates of the point cloud are modified and the camera poses are updated. Through experimentation on real data, the efficiency of the proposed method has been confirmed.


This study was conducted to determine the growth patterns of the Kuchi ecotype of chicken in Kenya. Data was obtained from intensively reared Kuchi birds at Indigenous Chicken Improvement Programme (INCIP) facility at Egerton University. Gompertz's nonlinear growth model was fitted to the Kuchi longitudinal growth data to predict the live body weight at various age points and the growth curve parameters. Growth rate and maturity parameters for all ages were calculated using growth curve parameters. The inflection parameter including age at inflection (TI), body weight at inflection (BWI), and growth rate at inflection (GI) was also calculated using the growth curve parameters. Males had significantly (P < 0.05) higher body weight from week 14 to week 32, and absolute growth rate from week 12 to week 28 of age. Males were significantly (P < 0.05) superior to counterpart females in asymptote (A), body weight at inflection (BWI), and weight gain at inflection (GI). Females attained puberty earlier than counterpart males and from week 8 of age, females were more mature than males with significant difference (P < 0.05) in both degree of maturity (U) and absolute maturity rate (AMR). From the results of this study, it is recommendable to rear Kuchi males and females separately from the age of inflection (week 12) when they experience significantly different growth rates. Optimum feeding of Kuchi should be done at age of week 8 to week 14 when its growth rate is highest thus high feed conversion efficiency and consequently high-profit margin. Kuchi chickens were found to have slower juvenile growth and may not be the best ecotype of chicken for quick production of tender meat among the indigenous chicken ecotype found in Kenya.


Introduction: Self-efficacy has a significant role to apply knowledge, scientific and professional skills. It is feasible to have more compatible and active students in both learning and their personal and social life via developing critical thinking and general self-efficacy. This study assesses the relationship between critical thinking and self-efficacy of nursing student. Methods: The present correlation study was conducted on all senior nursing students (N = 50) in 2013. Study instruments included demographics, standard California Critical Thinking Skills and Sherer general self-efficacy questionnaires. Data analysis was performed by SPSS software version 16 using descriptive statistics, Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficient tests. Results: Results revealed that there was positive and significant correlation between critical thinking and self-efficacy of nursing students (rs = 0.42, P = 0.002). Conclusions: According to the positive relationship between critical thinking and self- efficacy of nursing students, developing high level thinking skills as one of the most essential missions of higher education is a necessity to apply appropriate approaches which lead to thinking development.


We calculate the transverse momentum and invariant mass dependence of elliptic flow of thermal dileptons for Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The system is described using hydrodynamics, with the assumption of formation of a thermalized quark-gluon plasma at some early time, followed by cooling through expansion, hadronization and decoupling. Dileptons are emitted throughout the expansion history: by annihilation of quarks and anti-quarks in the early quark-gluon plasma stage and through a set of hadronic reactions during the late hadronic stage. The resulting differential elliptic flow exhibits a rich structure, with different dilepton mass windows providing access to different stages of the expansion history. Elliptic flow measurements for dileptons, combined with those of hadrons and direct photons, are a powerful tool for mapping the time-evolution of heavy-ion collisions.


We extract principal components from a panel of 17 exchange rates and use the deviations from the components to forecast future exchange rate movements, following the idea in Engel, Mark, and West (2015). Instead of using the standard method, we apply a generalized principal components analysis that captures temporal and cross-sectional variation and covariation among the exchange rates. We find that the method dominates forecasts by existing standard methods and random walk, with or without including macroeconomic fundamentals.


The ANPEd brings together two types of member: institutions represented by coordinators of postgraduate programmes in education and individual members - lecturers, researchers and postgraduate students in education. Since its creation in 1978, the coordinators have participated in the association's annual meetings, discussing problems related to their courses and otheir relations with the agencies which coordinate postgraduate studies and foment research. In 1993, they created the Forum of Programme Coordinators within ANPEd for the same reasons. As ANPEd had already created the system of working groups in 1981, the association was made up of two levels: the working groups in which the individual members presented their scientific production and the Forum whose central concern was policy for postgraduate programmes in education and especially for the evaluation of those programmes. This article seeks to recover problems faced by programme coordinators since the creation of ANPEd (1978), including the years of its constitution, institutionalization and legitimization of the Forum (1993-2002), up to the present date (2007). It also proposes to reflect on questions which enriched the action of the coordinators during these years as well as to understand the principles which they are constructing within the association. To achieve this goal, a documental and bibliographic research was carried out and interviews were made with researchers who participated in the organization of the Forum. The article also seeks to provide subsidies for the understanding of the history of the Forum and of ANPEd as well as serving as an introduction for new coordinators who are beginning their trajectory in this collective enterprise.


Introduction The Transplant Institute, associated with different Government Office and the General Direction of Projects of Intelligent City, (Buenos Aires, Argentina) have worked together for publication of information about the donation of organs and tissues in Buenos Aires City. Through this joint work have been published results, data and graphics in the data portal open Buenos Aires Data within the framework of the initiative of public data and transparency of the City Government. This initiative consists of open information which then translates to maps, charts, and databases of Government to promote transparency, collaboration and citizen participation and re-use of information of the city. Material and methods The opening of information in open data format (readable by machines, available for free to everyone, without restrictions of copyrigths, of easy accessibility, ideally, a single click), is a standard of perfect transparency, to which the cities and countries want to reach, and it is one of the axes of the concept of open Government, together with citizen participation and access to information. Working together with areas that push open government goals, we managed to make the translation of data that was hidden in the web, open and available data according to international standards. Statistics catalogue is composed of all the ministries of the city information, and information is organized in different open datasets. Results look examples. Discussion The challenges of open data - whose full scope would make unnecessary requests for access to information, tend to be technical, but also human. At the technical level, data from different areas of Government tend to be on paper, records, PDF files, books or in digital formats of non-free software, and in general, are not public. Then, which are digital and public, may be poorly made. There are also human factors that hinder the sharing of information between areas. Procurement and transplantation information is registered in the SINTRA, and although it is public access requires knowledge of the system making it difficult to access. Conclusion The Transplant Institute is a highly transparent institution, governed by a very strong national law, which has many available data and online, but many click away. Response of communication, open data and visualizations on interactive maps, it is a highly recommended tool.


Non-linear dynamical systems can be handily described by the associated Koopman operator, whose action evolves every observable of the system forward in time. Learning the Koopman operator from data is enabled by a number of algorithms. In this work we present non-asymptotic learning bounds for the Koopman eigenvalues and eigenfunctions estimated by two popular algorithms: Extended Dynamic Mode Decomposition (EDMD) and Reduced Rank Regression (RRR). We focus on time-reversal-invariant Markov chains, implying that the Koopman operator is self-adjoint. This includes important examples of stochastic dynamical systems, notably Langevin dynamics. Our spectral learning bounds are driven by the simultaneous control of the operator norm risk of the estimators and a metric distortion associated to the corresponding eigenfunctions. Our analysis indicates that both algorithms have similar variance, but EDMD suf-fers from a larger bias which might be detrimental to its learning rate. We further argue that a large metric distortion may lead to spurious eigenvalues, a phenomenon which has been empirically observed, and note that metric distortion can be estimated from data. Numerical experiments com-plement the theoretical findings.


Background: For more than four decades, studies have reported the existence of a large gap between research and clinical practice. This means that research results are not contributing to the improvement of care, and there is a high level of variability which complicates deciding on and implementing the "best care" available. In this context, it is important to understand how nurses use the research by generating different knowledge translation networks in clinical practice. Therefore, a tool is required to detect the structure of the links that are generated during the research utilization. Aim: to validate the content of a questionnaire for exploring the knowledge translation networks established among nursing professionals. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional content validity study of an instrument created to explore the knowledge translation network between nurses was carried out. The participants were divided into two groups: experts in Social Network Analysis (SNA) and practicing nurses. The instrument was a questionnaire with items that collected both the network's variables, and those of the individual. The content of the items of the questionnaire was validated as set out in the Content Validity Index (CVI). Results: The total Content Validity Index (CVI) of the survey was 0.91. All items received an excellent rating (K*>0.81). The modified kappa coefficient for the whole scale was 0.9. Conclusions: The validated questionnaire has good content validity for exploring social networks for knowledge translation and research utilization among nursing professionals.


Aging increases the risk of cardiac pathologies including atrial fibrillation and can alter myocardial responsiveness to therapeutic agents. Here, seeking molecular correlates of myocardial aging processes, we performed global "whole transcript" analysis of 25,388 genes using 572,667 probes to compare the left atrial (LA) transcriptomes of young adult (9 months old) versus elderly (10 years old) female swine. NHE2 (>9-fold) and KChIP2 (3.8-fold) exhibited the highest aging-related expression increases. Real-time qPCR recapitulated these findings and indicated a 50% decrease in LA NHE1, a twofold increase in right atrial KChIP2, but no significant changes for these transcripts in either ventricle. Notably, even in young adult pigs, NHE2 transcript was detectable and enriched in the atria over the ventricles. NHE1, the recognized cardiac isoform of the sodium hydrogen exchanger, has proven a compelling but clinically disappointing therapeutic target with respect to reperfusion arrhythmias. Our data challenge the dogma that NHE1 is alone in the myocardium and suggest that NHE2 could negatively impact the pharmacological responsiveness of atrial tissue to NHE1-specific inhibitors. KChIP2 is a cytosolic β subunit essential for generation of I to. The increased KChIP2 expression we observed with aging substantially shortened in silico atrial myocyte action potential duration, a predisposing factor in atrial fibrillation. Consistent with this, 4/5 elderly swine sustained pacing-induced AF≥15 s after cessation of stimulation, compared to 0/3 young swine. Our findings uncover potential molecular bases for increased arrhythmogenicity and reduced pharmacologic efficacy in the aging atrium, in a large animal model of human cardiac physiology.


BACKGROUND
The severity of occupational accidents and injuries in the construction industry is the greatest across all industries. Few studies have examined the causal relationships among physical and psychological variables affecting the safety behavior of construction workers.

OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to investigate the relationships among three factors (metal health, work ability and sleep quality) influencing the safety behavior of construction workers.

METHODS
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 204 workers in civil construction projects in Iran. The data were gathered via self-reporting questionnaires. The acquired data were analyzed by the Smart PLS3 software using structural equation modeling with the partial least squares (PLS) regression approach.

RESULTS
The R square revealed an acceptable fineness of the structural model. Similarly, as Q square values were higher than 0.15 for all factors, the predictability of the model was approved. The direct effect of mental health on safety behavior was not significant, but work ability and sleep quality had significant direct effects on safety behavior. Moreover, a decrease in mental health significantly reduced construction workers' sleep quality and work ability.

CONCLUSION
The results of this study prove that sleep quality and work ability mediate the relationship between mental health and safety behavior. The deterioration of construction workers' mental health can increase the risk of unsafe behavior and occupational injuries. Therefore, appropriate measures need to be taken to maintain and improve the mental health of construction workers.


To date, 10,000 steps per day are extensively promoted as a target for achieving health-related benefits. Despite mounting
evidence on the numerous health benefits provided by sufficient physical activities, little is known about physical activity
levels in terms of walking steps of adults in Kuala Terengganu and the relationship between activity levels and nutritional
status. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess daily walking steps taken as well as the relationship with nutritional status
among 100 adults in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. Walking activity was assessed using an Omron HJ-005 pedometer, while
nutritional status was assessed through BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting glucose and serum lipid concentration.
On average, participants recorded 5796 (4186) steps per day, below the recommended target of 10,000 walking steps goal.
There was no significant relationship found between number of walking steps and nutritional status. Remarkably, daily walking
steps were found to be significantly correlated with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), where r =
0.26, p < 0.01, indicating that pedometers are good indicators of physical activity levels. Nonetheless, an awareness program
to increase the level of leisure-type physical activities such as walking is much encouraged in this population.


Purpose: Esophageal cancer patients have a difficulty in the intake of meals through the blocked esophageal lumen, which is caused by an ingrowth of cancer cells and largely influences on the prognosis. It is reported that esophageal cancer has a very low survival rate due to the lack of nourishment and immunity as the result of this. In this study a new radioactive stent, which prevents tumor ingrowth and restenosis by additional radiation treatment, has been developed. Materials and Methods: Using research reactor, the radioactive stent assembly (-SA) was prepared by covering the metallic stent with a radioactive sleeve by means of a post-irradiation and pre-irradiation methods. Results: Scanning electron microscopy and autoradiography exhibited that the distribution of compounds in polyurethane matrix was homogeneous. A geometrical model of the esophagus considering its structural properties, was developed for the computer simulation of energy deposition to the esophageal wall. The dose distributions of -stent were calculated by means of the EGS4 code system. The sources are considered to be distributed uniformly on the surface in the form of a cylinder with a diameter of 20 mm and length of 40 mm. As an animal experiment, when radioactive stent developed in this study was inserted into the esophagus of a Mongrel dog, tissue destruction and widening of the esophageal lumen were observed. Conclusion: We have developed a new radioactive stent comprising of a radioactive tubular sleeve covering the metallic stent, which emits homogeneous radiation. If it is inserted into the blocked or narrowed lumen, it can lead to local destruction of the tumor due to irradiation effect with dilatation resulting from self-expansion of the metallic property. Accordingly, it is expected that restenosis esophageal lumen by the continuous ingrowth and infiltration of cancer after insertion of our radioactive stent will be decreased remarkably.


A (GA) n and (GT) n microsatellite-enriched library was constructed and 23 nuclear simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci were characterized in the guava species ( Psidium guajava L.). All SSR loci were found to be polymorphic after screening for diversity in different cultivars, and across-taxa amplification tests showed the potential transferability of most SSR markers in three other Psidium species. First to be published for P. guajava , this new SSR resource will be a powerful tool for genetic studies of guava, including cultivars identification and linkage mapping, as well as potentially for interspecific genetic studies within the genus Psidium .


Abstract Background. Vascular inflammation plays a key role in the development of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Pregnancy-Associated Plasma Protein A (PAPP-A) and calprotectin are two of several novel promising markers of inflammation. The present study evaluates the prognostic utility of these two biomarkers in patients with suspected ACS. Methods. Chest pain patients with suspected ACS (N = 871) were consecutively included in a prospective, observational study with a mean follow-up time of 84 months. Blood samples were drawn at admission, prior to treatment with heparin. Results. Total mortality was 38.9%. In univariate analyses, high PAPP-A levels were associated with significant increased mortality. The hazard ratio [HR] in quartile (Q) 3 and Q4 were 1.57 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.14–2.18), p = 0.006, and 1.41 [95% CI 1.02–1.97], p = 0.040, respectively, as compared to Q1. Calprotectin in the upper quartile (Q4) was associated with total mortality [HR1.94 (95% CI 1.42–2.66)], p = < 0.001, the combined endpoint of death or recurrent myocardial infarction (MI) [HR 1.68 (95% CI 1.26–2.24), p = < 0.001], and recurrent MI [HR 1.60 (95% CI 1.06–2.41); p = 0.024]. However, neither PAPP-A nor calprotectin was found to be an independent predictor of future adverse events. Conclusion. In this study, high levels of PAPP-A and calprotectin were associated with adverse clinical outcome in chest pain patients with clinically suspected ACS. However, neither of the two biomarkers was an independent predictor of long-term prognosis. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00521976.


Completing a series of nickel-group 13 complexes, a coordinatively unsaturated nickel-boron complex and its derivatives with a H2, N2, or hydride ligand were synthesized and characterized. The toggling "on" of a Ni(0)-B(III) inverse-dative bond enabled the stabilization of a nickel-bound anionic hydride with a remarkably low thermodynamic hydricity of kcal mol-1 in THF. The flexible topology of the boron metalloligand confers both favorable hydrogen binding affinity and strong hydride donicity, albeit at the cost of high H2 basicity during deprotonation to form the hydride.


A polymorphous variant of oligodendroglioma was described by K.J. Zülch half a century ago, and is only very sporadically referred to in the subsequent literature. In particular, no comprehensive analysis with respect to clinical or genetic features of these tumors is available. From a current perspective, the term polymorphous oligodendroglioma (pO) may appear as contradictory in terms, as nuclear monotony is a histomorphological hallmark of oligodendrogliomas. For the purpose of this study, we defined pO as diffusely infiltrating gliomas felt to be of oligodendroglial rather than astrocytic differentiation and characterized by the presence of multinucleate tumor giant cells and/or nuclear pleomorphism. In a total of nine patients, we identified tumors consistent with this working definition. All tumors were high‐grade. We characterized these with respect to clinical, histomorphological and genetic features. Despite clinical and genetic heterogeneity, we identified a subset of tumors of bona fide oligodendroglial differentiation as characterized by combined loss of heterozygosity of chromosome arms 1p and 19q (LOH 1p19q). Those tumors that lacked LOH 1p19q showed a high frequency of IDH1 mutations and loss of alpha thalassemia/mental retardation syndrome X‐linked gene (ATRX) immunoreactivity, indicating a possible phenotypic convergence of true oligodendrogliomas and gliomas of the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) pathway. p53 alterations were common irrespective of the 1p19q status. Histomorphologically, the tumors featured interspersed bizarre multinucleate giant tumor cells, while the background population varied from monotonous to significantly pleomorphic. Our findings indicate, that a rare polymorphous – or "giant cell" – variant of oligodendroglioma does indeed exist.


Wind turbine structures are long slender columns with a rotor and blade assembly placed on the top. These slender structures vibrate due to dynamic environmental forces and its own dynamics. Analysis of the dynamic behavior of wind turbines is fundamental to the stability, performance, operation and safety of these systems. In this paper a simplied approach is outlined for free vibration analysis of these long, slender structures taking the soil-structure interaction into account. The analytical method is based on an Euler-Bernoulli beam-column with elastic end supports. The elastic end-supports are considered to model the flexible nature of the interaction of these systems with soil. A closed-form approximate expression has been derived for the first natural frequency of the system. This new expression is a function of geometric and elastic properties of wind turbine tower and properties of the foundation including soil. The proposed simple expression has been independently validated using an exact numerical method, laboratory based experimental measurement and field measurement of a real wind turbine structure. The results obtained in the paper shows that the proposed expression can be used for a quick assessment of the fundamental frequency of a wind turbine taking the soil-structure interaction into account.


Seven murine anti-H-2 and three nonimmune mouse sera were tested for cytotoxicity toward B and T lymphocytes from a panel of human donors. One group of sera, including two anti-H-2.33 sera, exhibited cytotoxicity directed exclusively toward human B but not T cells from all donors. Absorption studies on human lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) of B or T cell origin corroborated these findings. Some nonimmune sera showed similar characteristics, indicating that the observed reactions were not attributable to cross-reactivities between mouse H-2K or D specificities and human antigens coded by the HLA-A, B, or C locus. Another set of mouse sera (anti-H-2.28b and anti-H-2.31) was highly cytotoxic to both B and T cells of some donors but not of others, suggesting that activity in these sera may arise from cross-reactions between mouse and human specificities. A third set of anti-H-2 as well as normal mouse sera showed only background cytotoxicity when tested on human cells. The ability of the B cell cytotoxic mouse sera to block the human mixed lymphocyte culture reaction (MLR) was compared to that of appropriate human alloantisera with exclusive B cell activity or a rabbit serum raised against human B cells. None of the mouse sera resulted in a significant reduction in the human MLR, whereas the human alloantisera as well as the rabbit antiserum caused a significant amount of blocking at several dilutions beyond their highest cytolytic titer. In an extensive search for cross-reactivity between specificities of the mouse and human major histocompatibility complex (MHC), Ivaskova et al. (1) found that many congenic H-2 sera react with almost all human cells if the serum dilutions are sufficiently low. Associations between some HLA locus antigens (mainly A2, B7, and B27) and certain of the H-2 sera can reportedly be detected only when end point titrations are carried out. The authors point out that there is considerable variability in the strength of reactions of human cells with the mouse alloantisera and that reproducibility of typings is not as good as with HLA alloantisera. This may indicate that some of the antibodies in the H-2 antisera may actually be reacting with subpopulations of human lymphocytes. The proportions of B and T cells from different donors seem to vary from bleed to bleed. This variability could result in different end titration points in sera containing mostly B cell antibodies. The reactivity of the HLA specificities with well defined typing sera usually varies little. This is to be expected, since HLA antigens are present on all lymphocytes. Therefore, some of the differences in reaction strengths observed when donors carrying similar HLA antigens are tested with heterologous antisera may be attributable to reactions involving only certain lymphocyte subpopulations. A preliminary investigation in this laboratory indicated that human LCLs, with B cell characteristics are much more sensitive to H-2 alloantisera than those classified as T cells. The present study demonstrates that some mouse sera exhibit cytotoxic patterns toward separated human B and T cells that closely resemble those of xenoantibodies produced against human B cell lines. The effect of the mouse sera on the human MLR is also investigated. The blocking activity of the mouse sera is, however, much weaker than that of xenoantibodies or human alloantibodies recognizing DRw specificities.


ABSTRACT Relying on the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) to better understand sub-Saharan African urban marketplaces, this article puts forward a conceptual framework whose objective is to a) investigate the effect of CSR on multiple dimensions of CBBE and b) investigate the moderating role of customer perceived value (CPV). Survey data are from 501 consumers in Ghana and are analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings suggest that engaging in CSR unquestionably improves all aspects of brand equity such as brand awareness, brand image, brand quality, and brand loyalty. We also find that the relationship between CSR and CBBE is moderated by CPV across all CSR-CBBE relationship. These findings have important implications for CSR, branding, international business and marketing in the Ghanaian marketplace.


A one-dimensional hydrodynamic model for the collapse of a fluidized bed following the instantaneous shut-off of fluidizing air was developed in terms of the sedimentation of a dense system of monodisperse particles. This model is based on the continuity and momentum equations written for the fluid and solid phases. The solution of the problem was formulated in terms of two distinct regions separated by a discontinuity. All hydrodynamic properties in these regions together with the speed of propagation of the discontinuity were calculated analytically. The predicted pressure distribution compares favorably with experimental data from the literature.


One hundred ten patients with clinically suspected deep venous thrombosis (DVT) were investigated by both venography and noninvasive testing (segmental air plethysmography and Doppler ultrasonography). The noninvasive tests were normal in all limbs that were normal by venography. The tests detected proximal venous thrombi (popliteal, femoral, or iliac) in 47 of the 50 limbs (94%) with venographically documented thrombi, but in only six of 16 limbs (37%) with calf DVT. Severe extrinsic compression could not be distinguished from acute DVT, but remote DVT usually could be distinguished from acute DVT. An abnormal noninvasive test is a usefiil finding on which therapeutic decisions can be based. A negative noninvasive test will not exclude calf vein thrombi or nonocclusive proximal vein thrombi.


This paper presents two experiments testing two—not mutually exclusive—accounts of the special status of final appositive relative clauses (Syrett and Koev, 2015; Anderbois et al., 2010/2015). The speech act account (Frazier et al., 2017) argues that appositives—in contrast to restrictive relative clauses—contribute a quasi-independent speech act and are available for discourse continuations by virtue of constituting the most recent speech act when in final position. The discourse structure account (Jasinskaja, 2016; Hunter and Asher, 2016) frames the problem in terms of Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (Asher and Lascarides, 2003), arguing that only sentence-final clauses make discourse segments at the right edge of the discourse structure available and more so with coordinating relations such as NARRATION. The experiments manipulated the type of relative clause and the type of discourse relation holding between the matrix clause and the final relative clause to test the distinct predictions of these accounts. Both relative clause type and discourse relations affected the interpretation of ambiguous pronouns, providing support for both accounts. The experiments also explored differences between personal and propositional pronouns but found no conclusive evidence for an interaction of anaphora type with the other factors.


The perceived sensitivity of animal cells to hydrodynamic shear has limited agitation and aeration at large-scale. This makes it difficult to ensure adequate mixing of the vessel contents and may lead to inhomogeneities in operational parameters such as temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, and especially pH. The effect of pH shifts and pH perturbations on the cellular responses, in batch culture, of a GS-NS0 mouse myeloma cell line, expressing a recombinant antibody, was investigated. In addition, the effect of extreme pH on the structure of the purified antibody product was studied using isoelectric focusing. The fermentation pH value was shifted abruptly from pH 7.3 to pH values ranging from 6.5 to 9.0. Culture pH was maintained at this new value for the remainder of the fermentation. All pH shifts of above 0.2 units caused a transient increase in apoptosis. However, cultures shifted to pH values between 7.0 and 8.0 continued to grow and the apoptotic fraction returned to initial levels. Cultures shifted to pH values above pH 8.0 and below pH 7.0 did not recover resulting in culture death. For example, a shift to pH 8.5 caused accumulation of cells in the G(2)/M phase of the cell cycle followed by apoptotic death. After the pH shift, maximum specific growth rate was observed over the range pH 7.3 to 7.5 and maximum viable cell number was seen at pH 7.3. Maximum volumetric antibody production, resulting from increased culture longevity, was seen at pH 7.0. It was also observed that glucose consumption increased with increasing pH. In a separate set of experiments cells were subjected to a single pH perturbation ranging in duration from 0 to 600 minutes. Exposure of cells to a pH value greater than 8.5 for more than 10 minutes caused a decrease in the proportion of viable cells and induced a lag in cell growth. At very low pH (6.5) similar effects were seen, but only for extended perturbations (600 min). However, after recovery from the pH perturbation, growth, product secretion and metabolism all returned to original levels. Incubation of the antibody, at the range of pH values investigated, indicated no alterations in the structure of the antibody as determined by the isoelectric focusing pattern.


PURPOSE
To study the efficacy and safety of maintenance treatment with itraconazole for disseminated histoplasmosis in patients with AIDS.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
This was a prospective, multicenter, open-label study conducted at university-based hospitals participating in the AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG). Forty-six AIDS patients with mild to moderate disseminated histoplasmosis who had successfully completed 12 weeks of induction treatment with itraconazole were treated with itraconazole, 200 mg once daily (42 patients) or 400 mg once daily (4 patients). Patients were followed at monthly intervals with clinical and laboratory assessment for relapse or toxicity. Primary outcome measures were relapse of histoplasmosis and survival. Secondary outcome measures included drug-limiting toxicity and changes in serum and urine Histoplasma polysaccharide antigen (HPA) levels.

RESULTS
Two patients relapsed during a median follow-up period of 87 weeks. The 1-year relapse-free rate was estimated to be 95.3% (95% CI, 85.3%-99.7%). One relapse may have been related to poor adherence to treatment and the second to concurrent administration of rifampin. From the start of maintenance treatment, the estimated 1-year survival rate was 73.0% (95% CI, 67.5%-77.9%). Five patients discontinued treatment because of suspected drug toxicity, three of whom had possible or probable hepatotoxicity. Median serum and urine HPA levels declined significantly during treatment. The only patient in whom antigen levels rose >2 U developed clinical relapse 1 week later; antigen levels were unavailable in the other relapsing patient.

CONCLUSIONS
Itraconazole, 200 mg daily, is effective in preventing relapse of disseminated histoplasmosis in patients with AIDS. It is generally well tolerated, but clinicians should be alert for drug interactions and possible hepatotoxicity.


In this study, we designed and synthesized a simple probe 2-(8-((8-methoxyquinolin-2-yl)methoxy)quinolin-2-yl)benzo[d]thiazole (DQT) for detection of Ag+ and Cd2+ in a CH3OH/HEPES (9 : 1 v/v, pH = 7.30) buffer system. Its structure was characterized by NMR, ESI-HR-MS and DFT calculations, and its fluorescence performance was also investigated. Probe DQT showed fluorescence quenching in response to Ag+ and Cd2+ with low detection limits of 0.42 μM and 0.26 μM, respectively. Importantly, the complexation of the probe with Cd2+ resulted in a red shift from blue to green, making it possible to detect Ag+ and Cd2+ by the naked eye under an ultraviolet lamp. The DQT-Cd2+ complex could be used for sequential recognition of S2−. The recovery response could be repeated 3 times by alternate addition of Cd2+ and S2−. A filter paper strip test further demonstrated the potential of probe DQT as a convenient and rapid assay.


Chronic inflammation such as asthma may lead to higher risks of malignancy, which may be inhibited by anti-inflammatory medicine such as inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). The aim of this study was to evaluate if patients with asthma-Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) overlap have a higher risk of malignancy than patients with COPD without asthma, and, secondarily, if inhaled corticosteroids modify such a risk in a nationwide multi-center retrospective cohort study of Danish COPD-outpatients with or without asthma. Patients with asthma-COPD overlap were propensity score matched (PSM) 1:2 to patients with COPD without asthma. The endpoint was cancer diagnosis within 2 years. Patients were stratified depending on prior malignancy within 5 years. ICS was explored as a possible risk modifier. We included 50,897 outpatients with COPD; 88% without prior malignancy and 20% with asthma. In the PSM cohorts, 26,003 patients without prior malignancy and 3331 patients with prior malignancy were analyzed. There was no association between asthma-COPD overlap and cancer with hazard ratio (HR) = 0.92, CI = 0.78–1.08, p = 0.31 (no prior malignancy) and HR = 1.04, CI = 0.85–1.26, and p = 0.74 (prior malignancy) as compared to patients with COPD without asthma. ICS did not seem to modify the risk of cancer. In conclusion, in our study, asthma-COPD overlap was not associated with an increased risk of cancer events.


: This research focused on the hilly and mountainous area of Yame City, Fukuoka Prefecture, which suffered damage due to the heavy rains that occurred in the northern part of Kyushu in July 2012. The objective of this research was to identify the distribution of damage to agricultural land in the Yame City area and the districts in which it was concentrated. In addition to characterizing the damage, the research was aimed at revealing the activities of aid agencies. To conduct this research, the carried out questionnaire survey by Yame City, the disaster report on the agricultural land and facilities was analyzed, and interviews were conducted to an NPO, and the leaders of the local. The results of our research led to the following conclusions: (1) Following a comparison of the reported disaster densities in the managed cultivated areas, it was ascertained that the damage was concentrated in Jouyo Town, Hoshino Village, and Kurogi Town, with totals ranging from 170.5 to 299.7 incidents/km2, and particularly in the Kasahara District of Kurogi Town, with a total of 1503.1 incidents/km 2 . (2) The damage to roads in the semi-mountainous regions and it was shown that this situation exacerbated the difficulties of the recovery. (3) It was reinforced that the presence of an NPO with a base in the disaster area meant that the initial support for the recovery was highly effective.


Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the level of knowledge and perception of the Turkish society about the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This cross-sectional study whose sampling consists of 903 adults. Results: About half (49.6%) of the participants' information sources about COVID-19 composed of printed and visual media tools such as television, radio, newspaper, etc. 57.5% of the participants stated that their self-knowledge levels about COVID-19 were at a good level, whereas 19.7% of them at a very good level. 64.4% of the participants stated that their health would be seriously damaged if they get this virus; 58.9% of them thinks that this virus will severely damage their place of the resident; 50.9% of them stated that they trust that this crisis will be handled effectively by the health authorities of Turkey. Participants rated themselves an average of 8.7 points on compliance with COVID-19 measures. It was found that the participants had a 55% confidence in the Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board (Turkey) and the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding COVID-19. Conclusions: Like all over the world, health authorities also in Turkey have taken several measures in the context of fighting against the pandemic and they expect society to comply with these measures. The fact that individuals in the society fulfill their individual responsibilities by confirming the accuracy of the information took place in printed/visual and social media from reliable sources is an important factor in reducing the effects of infectious diseases.


This study demonstrates that Ratzinger's theology of Baptism is situated in the framework of a historical and cosmological perspective on the Liturgy. Historically, Baptism cannot be truly understood if we fail to see and comprehend its shadow in the Old Testament where it has its «origin». At the same time, contemporary Baptism points as image to the reality of the crucified and resurrected Christ present in the Liturgy of the Church. Baptism is more than just a Christian ritual that initiates one into the religion of Christianity; it takes place in creation and uses created matter so as to make us contemporaries of Christ's historical death and resurrection. Finally, the indicative of the believer's participation in Christ's work by way of Baptism prescribes the imperative of the new life.


The first collection of its kind to bring together scholarly and practitioner perspectives, this book analyses the experiences, skills and techniques of actors when working on television. Featuring eleven chapters by internationally distinguished researchers and actor trainers, this collection examines the acting processes and resulting performances of some of the most acclaimed television actors.

Topics include: studio and location realism; actor training for television; actor well-being in the television industry; performance in reality television and British and Irish actors in contemporary US television. The book also contains case studies examining the work of Emmy-award-winning actor Viola Davis and the iconic character of Gene Hunt in Life on Mars (BBC, 2006-2007).


Abstract. The main objective of this study is the coupling of the regional climate model REMO with a new land surface scheme including dynamic vegetation phenology, and the evaluation of the new model version called REMO with interactive MOsaic-based VEgetation: REMO-iMOVE. First, we focus on the documentation of the technical aspects of the new model constituents and the coupling mechanism. The representation of vegetation in iMOVE is based on plant functional types (PFTs). Their geographical distribution is prescribed to the model which can be derived from different land surface data sets. Here, the PFT distribution is derived from the GLOBCOVER 2000 data set which is available on 1 km × 1 km horizontal resolution. Plant physiological processes like photosynthesis, respiration and transpiration are incorporated into the model. The vegetation modules are fully coupled to atmosphere and soil. In this way, plant physiological activity is directly driven by atmospheric and soil conditions at the model time step (two minutes to some seconds). In turn, the vegetation processes and properties influence the exchange of substances, energy and momentum between land and atmosphere. With the new coupled regional model system, dynamic feedbacks between vegetation, soil and atmosphere are represented at regional to local scale. In the evaluation part, we compare simulation results of REMO-iMOVE and of the reference version REMO2009 to multiple observation data sets of temperature, precipitation, latent heat flux, leaf area index and net primary production, in order to investigate the sensitivity of the regional model to the new land surface scheme and to evaluate the performance of both model versions. Simulations for the regional model domain Europe on a horizontal resolution of 0.44° had been carried out for the time period 1995–2005, forced with ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalyses data as lateral boundary conditions. REMO-iMOVE is able to simulate the European climate with the same quality as the parent model REMO2009. Differences in near-surface climate parameters can be restricted to some regions and are mainly related to the new representation of vegetation phenology. The seasonal and interannual variations in growth and senescence of vegetation are captured by the model. The net primary productivity lies in the range of observed values for most European regions. This study reveals the need for implementing vertical soil water dynamics in order to differentiate the access of plants to water due to different rooting depths. This gets especially important if the model will be used in dynamic vegetation studies.


METEOSPACE is a new partnership project between the Paris Observatory (OP), the Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur (OCA), the French Air Force and a service company (LUNA technology) for the development and operation of a set of small telescopes Hα / Ca II K / Ca II H / G band to be installed at on the Calern plateau (OCA). The objective is to monitor solar activity for both research and its applications in space weather through continuous optical observations of the dynamic phenomena that are visible in the chromosphere: eruptions, destabilization of the filaments triggering coronal mass ejections and associated Moreton waves.


Stopped in London, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, and Prague on way back to Vienna; outlook discouraging; obvious that England and France would not move in case of German aggression against Austria, but other conditions made aggression by Germany unwise at present; countries of central and Southeastern Europe realize since occupation of Rhineland they are on their own, and are taking measures; German economic penetration in Southeast Europe will inevitably mean political domination; Austrian Chancellor conferred with Mussolini and was told Italy would favor Austrian-German accord if it could be reached on Austrian conditions of independence and non-immixtion; [Kurt] Schuschnigg forced to accept, but didn't believe Hitler would agree to conditions; Schuschnigg knew restoration now out of the question, with Germany so definitely opposed; Hitler agreed to conditions and accord announced July 11; many blame Schuschnigg for making accord,but he could do nothing else; Austrian people do not want Anschluss, but they do want friendly relations with Germany for economic reasons; Mussolini had urged it, and although France and England not happy about it, they would have been first to call Schuschnigg a disturber of the peace if he had refused the accord with the conditions met; no one has illusions that Germany will keep the agreement, but it does relieve tensions for all concerned for the present; feared more Nazi activity in Austria as result of accord and on July 29 when Olympic Torch passed through Vienna there was a disturbance created by organized Nazi groups, but government took prompt action; Spanish situation may have repercussions over Europe; another Fascist government will make conditions more difficult; Locarno talks postponed to October; Germany wants Olympic Games and September Party meeting out of the way; Fascist government in Spain will mean more active cooperation between Germany and Italy, with probability of concession of naval and air bases in Mallorca, which would be embarrassing to France and England; Hungarians keeping quiet; they are largely pro-German and think they will gain more through German supremacy; Yugoslavs unhappy about economic situation, but pleased that Austro-German accord places restoration out of the question; Rumania marking time, but German economic penetration already there; Czechs in precarious position; France will not or cannot help them at present, and any temporary relief they get from Germany will cost them their alliance with Russia; Austrians now in Berlin negotiating trade relations, but they will de disappointed; Germany willing to take Austrian products, but not willing to give up any foreign exchange; wise Germans have made every attempt to convince Hitler he cannot wage successful war now, but not sure whether his strange mentality has grasped it; hopes if Armstrong comes to Europe he will have Vienna on his itinerary.


The increase of chronic disease patients, care dependent, has been responsible for bringing some families to live the experience of care in the home environment. In this context, this study aimed to analyze the perception of chronic patients regarding the care in the family home. This is a qualitative-descriptive research. Data was obtained through open interviews with nine patients. For analysis, it followed the steps of thematic analysis. The results showed a category, which deals with family care at home in the perspective of the chronically ill individual care dependent. For these individuals, caregiving has meanings of attention, promptness, devotion, affection, protection and understanding. They recognize, though, that the caring relationship can result in conflicts, disagreements and loss from the caregiving process. It was concluded that there are weaknesses and difficulties in the provision of care by the family in the home environment and, therefore, health professionals, especially Nursing, should include the family in the set of users who need guidance and support in qualifying assistance for this population group.


Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) can convert low-energy light (e.g. near-infrared, NIR) to high-energy light (e.g. visible). UCNPs such as NaYF4:Yb,Er will generate strong green emission at 540 nm and weak red emission at 650 nm. Considering the "optical window" of cells and tissues (600–900 nm) owing to the lack of efficient endogenous absorbers, red emission (600–700 nm) enhancement is especially important for deep tissue imaging. Therefore, it is of great significance to selectively enhance red emission of UCNPs. Placing UCNPs in proximity to gold nanorods (AuNRs) can enhance the emission of UCNPs. In this paper, we fabricate heteronanostructures composed of UCNPs and AuNRs and precisely control the distance with polyelectrolyte multilayers as spacers to enhance the red emission of UCNPs. Fluorescence spectra of UCNPs enhanced by AuNRs with different thicknesses of polyelectrolyte are measured. The results show that red emission intensity exhibits a strong dependence on the interparticle distance and spectral properties of these nanoparticles. At a optimized distance of 8 nm, the maximal fluorescence enhancement of 10.6-fold for red emission is achieved by tuning the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) wavelength of AuNRs to match with the red emission. The enhancement of the red emission is further confirmed by a decreased decay time induced by surface plasmon-coupled emission (SPCE). The enhancement also contributes to the increased penetration depth from 7.5 mm to 12.5 mm. These results reveal that our strategy possesses the ability of selectively enhancing red emission of UCNPs and provides theoretical guidance on preparing versatile systems with enhanced red emission by the SPCE effect.


Self-supervised deep learning for MR reconstruction has shown high potential in accelerating MR imaging as it doesn't need fully sampled dataset for model training. However, the performances of the current self-supervised methods are limited as they don't take full utilization of the available under-sampled data. We propose a physics-based data-augmented deep learning method to enable faster and more accurate parallel MR imaging. Novel augmenting losses are calculated, which can effectively constrain the model optimization with better utilization of the collected dataset. Extensive experiments are conducted, and better reconstruction results are generated by our method compared to the current state-of-the-art methods.


The state of electricity supply in Nigeria is nothing to write home about. The situation has resulted in the government adopting the privatization policy as the elixir to the affliction of inadequate power supply in the country. Thus, this paper investigated the privatization policy of the power sector and how it affects development in the rural areas of the Ijumu local government of Kogi State, Nigeria. The modernization theory was adopted in this paper. Data acquired from 120 respondents selected with the use of the three-stage sampling procedure, was analyzed with Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS/PC) Version 20. The study revealed that privatization of the power sector has not transformed into a significant improvement in electricity supply. Consequently, the study recommends that there is need for the government to ensure that the policy adopted should be of optimum form to achieve the desired results.


With MIMO antennas, the beamforming technique improves the received signal power which increases the RB's capacity and reduces the neighbouring cell users' interference on the cell edge, but the performance of the beamforming technique on a frequency depends on all the channels of involved UEs (User Equipment). We explain that a smart UE scheduling can increase the capacity improvement with the beamforming technique. For this reason, in this paper we propose to combine the beamforming technique with Resource Block (RB) allocation algorithms to improve the performance on the cell edge in OFDMA networks.


This study inspects the viability of engaging the discarded paper wastes in concrete by varying the volume proportions from 0%–20% with each 5% increment in replacement of the weight of cement. A physiomechanical study was conducted, and the results were presented. A glass fiber reinforced rectangular slab with a longer span (ly) to shorter span (lx) ratio of (ly: lx) 1.16 was cast with optimum replacement of waste-paper mass and compared the force-deformation characteristics with the conventional concrete slab without waste paper. The optimum percentage of discarded papers for the replacement of cement is 5%. Also, the results imply that the compressive strength at the age of 28 days is 30% improved for the optimum replacement. Based on the outcomes of the investigation, it can be inferred that the compressive strength gets progressively reduced if the volume of the discarded paper gets increases. The incorporation of glass fibers improves the split and flexural strength of the concrete specimens considerably. The ultimate load-carrying capacity of the glass fiber reinforced waste paper incorporated concrete slab measured 42% lower than that of the conventional slab. However, development of the new type of concrete incorporating waste papers is the new trend in ensuring the sustainability of construction materials.


We perform an ab initio study of multiphoton ionization (MPI) of carbon dioxide in intense linearly polarized laser pulses with arbitrary molecular orientation by means of a time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) with proper long-range potential. We develop a time-dependent Voronoi-cell finite difference method with highly adaptive molecular grids for accurate solution of the TDDFT equations. Our results demonstrate that the orientation dependence of MPI is determined by multiple orbital contributions and that the electron correlation effects are significant. The maximum peak of MPI is predicted to be at $40\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$ in good agreement with recent experimental data. Photoelectron angular distribution reveals the delicate relation between the orientation dependence and the molecular orbital symmetry.


Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) is a widespread Nontraditional Machining (NTM) processes for manufacturing of a complicated geometry or very hard metals parts that are difficult to machine by traditional machining operations. Electrical discharge machining is a material removal (MR) process characterized by using electrical discharge erosion. This paper discusses the optimal parameters of EDM on high-speed steel (HSS) AISI M2 as a workpiece using copper and brass as an electrode. The input parameters used for experimental work are current (10, 24 and 42 A), pulse on time (100, 150 and 200 µs), and pulse off time (4, 12 and 25 µs) that have effect on the material removal rate (MRR), electrode wear rate (EWR) and wear ratio (WR). A Minitab software environment was used to adopt Taguchi method to analyze the effect of input on output parameters of EDM. The results of the present work showed that the best of MRR in copper and brass electrodes with (current 42 A, pulse on time 100 µs and pulse off time 25 µs) are (84.355×10-3 g/min) and (43.243×10-3 g/min) respectively, and the MRR predicted by Taguchi are (86.1751×10-3 g/min) in copper electrode by using the parameters with (current 10 A, pulse on time 200 µs and pulse off time 25 µs) and (43.2979×10-3 g/min) in brass electrode at current 42 A, pulse on time 100 µs, and pulse off time 25 µs. The lowest EWR occurs with a value of (1.4510×10-3 g/min) with (current 10 A, pulse on time 100 µs, pulse off time 4 µs) variables when using a copper electrode. The highest WR (2.602508) was found for the brass electrode with (current 24 A, pulse on time 200 µs, pulse off time 4 µs) variables.


In this paper, we propose a new shape-coding algorithm called wavelet-based shape coding (WBSC). Performing wavelet transform on the orientation of original planar curve gives the corners called corner-1 points and end of arcs that belong to the original curve. Each arc is represented by a broken line and the corners called corner-2 points of the broken line are extracted. A polygonal approximation of a contour is an ordered list of corner-1 points; ends of arcs and corner-2 points which are extracted by using the above algorithm. All of the points are called polygonal vertices which will be compressed by our adaptive arithmetic encoding. Experimental results show that our method reduces code bits by about 26% compared with the context-based arithmetic encoding (CAE) of MPEG-4, and the subjective quality of the reconstructed shape is better than that of CAE at the same Dn.


The authors report on measurements of the local supercurrent density in long Y1Ba2Cu3O7−δ based coated conductors by the magnetoscan technique. Significant inhomogeneities were found, which are well resolved by the resulting magnetic field map. A single central line scan along the length of the conductor reflects the inhomogeneities over the entire width of the sample, thus offering the possibility of very fast characterization. Modifying the applied field leads to different results highlighting either the overall critical current or details of the defect structure. In addition, numerical simulations of the current dynamics were carried out for a qualitative and quantitative interpretation of the results.


Campylobacter bacteremia is rarely encountered, probably due to the fastidious nature of the organism. Moreover, it could be transient in nature, especially in immunocompetent individuals, but life-threatening in immunocompromised patients. We report a case of probable transient bacteremia in a recently diagnosed case Cirrhosis of Liver due to Autoimmune hepatitis with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis.


In this communication, we revisit and discuss the relationships among the truncation, discretization, phase, and amplitude dispersion errors of a finite-difference scheme. We show with a simple example how the truncation-error analysis plays a critical role in understanding the numerical inaccuracies not revealed by numerical-dispersion analyses.


The recent changes in work environment owing to the COVID 19 pandemic has made us rethink the utility of office space at a time when an exponential growth in the use of online platforms has been observed. With the flexibility of working space and timing, employees and the organizational heads have redefined work culture and the old adage of strict 9 to 5 job seems to have been completed changed. The current paper attempts to understand the four behavioral patterns of DISC exhibited by leaders in any work environment. It explains what are the four behavioral traits and how they influence communication. And in a hybrid work environment, with lot of flexibility in time and space, what steps are to be taken in order to make communication effective and avert miscommunication as half of the employees work offline while the other half works online.


The relation between semiclassical and density-functional approximations is clarified. Semiclassical approximations both explain and improve upon density-gradient expansions for finite systems. We derive highly accurate density and kinetic energy functionals of the potential in one dimension.


Background: Patients with estrogen receptor positive (ER+) early breast cancer have a continuous yearly recurrence rate extending out to 15 years after having received adjuvant endocrine therapy for five years. More than half of the recurrences (i.e. late recurrences) in this group will occur beyond five years from diagnosis. Thus, residual risk of recurrence remains a substantial concern for ER+ breast cancer patients. Current multi-gene signatures have significant prognostic performance in predicting early recurrence (0–5 years post-diagnosis), however, such signatures have limited performance in predicting the risk of late recurrence (> 5 years) (Albain et al. Lancet Oncol 2010; 11: 55–65; Buyse et al. JNCI 2006; 98: 1183–1192). The comparative prognostic performance of Breast Cancer Index (BCI), Recurrence Score (RS) and IHC4 for predicting early and late recurrence was examined in the translational arm of Arimidex, Tamoxifen, Alone or in Combination trial (TransATAC). Methods: RNA extracted from 1102 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded blocks of primary tumor samples previously collected for the TransATAC study was used to perform real-time RT-PCR for BCI analyses. BCI was calculated and risk groups were determined using pre-specified cut points. RS and IHC4 values were previously generated. The prognostic value of each signature beyond standard clinical variables (Clinical Treatment Score (CTS) was assessed using likelihood ratio chi-square (LR-χ2) and calculated by Cox proportional hazards models. Prognostic evaluation for early recurrences (0–5 years) was performed by censoring survival time to 5 years, and for late recurrences (5–10 years) by analyzing those patients who had remained recurrence-free for at least 5 years. Clinical endpoints examined were distant recurrence, any recurrence, breast cancer death and overall survival. Results: Of 1102 tumor specimens assayed, 29 failed quality control and 915 samples were matched for reportable values of BCI, IHC4 and RS. Here, only node-negative patients were evaluated (N = 665). All 3 signatures had significant prognostic performance for early distant recurrence (0–5 years), and overall (0–10 years) each provided prognostic information beyond CTS with LR-χ2 values of 22.7, 22.9 and 13.8 for BCI, IHC4 and RS, respectively. Notably, only BCI was significant beyond CTS for late distant recurrence (5–10 years) (LR-χ2: 7.97, p = 0.005) versus RS (LR-χ2: 0.51, p = 0.5) and IHC4 (LR-χ2: 1.63, p = 0.2). Similar comparative results of BCI, RS and IHC4 for late recurrence were observed for the other clinical endpoints. Discussion: This is the first large-scale clinical study to compare several multi-gene signatures for their prognostic strength to quantify late residual risk of recurrence after endocrine therapy. BCI, unlike IHC4 and RS, is a significant prognostic factor for late recurrence and enables the assessment of individual recurrence risk for ER+ patients recurrence-free after 5 years of endocrine therapy. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr S1-9.


In wireless sensor network, determine the position of the node position or events is very important to its surveillance activities, however, in the traditional wireless sensor network, are using two-dimensional spatial positioning technology, aiming at this problem, this article will wireless sensor network (WSN) 2 d algorithm is extended to 3 d space, analyzes the main factors affecting the positioning accuracy of wireless sensor network. In order to further improve the stability and precision of the algorithm, by introducing the Newton's method, gives the quasi-newton three-dimensional node localization hybrid localization algorithm. The simulation analysis shows that the proposed hybrid algorithm can under the same conditions with high positioning accuracy and stability, at the same time the CRLB are obtained. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can get g Latin American community, simulation analysis of the localization method is effective


Energy and power aware data distribution methods are essential for using these approaches in energy constrained devices and environments. Data Distribution Management (DDM) is a set of services defined in the High Level Architecture (HLA) that aims to efficiently propagate distributed simulation state information. This paper describes an empirical study of the energy consumption of computation and communication components of region based and grid based DDM approaches in mobile devices. Experimental data illustrate that region based approaches tend to consume more energy than grid based approaches for computations, but less for communications. These results also show that the choice of grid cell size and grid cell constraints on publication regions can play an important role in the energy efficiency of grid based approaches.


Multidrug resistance (MDR) bacterial infection is the next pandemic waiting behind the COVID-19 with annual mortality rate 700000 worldwide. Among the MDR bacteria, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis are showing average resistance of 50 to 80% to ampicillin, amoxicillin, third-generation cephalosporin's and fluoroquinolone and even to combinations antibiotics such as amoxicillin-clavulanic acid. To make the antibiotic resistance issue worst, pharmaceutical industry is reluctant to invest in research and development of new antibiotic typically due to low returns on investment. Accordingly, use of combination of two or more antibiotics or use of the antibiotic adjuvants are only available ways in combatting the ever growing Multidrug resistance (MDR) in bacteria. The present paper is designed to analyze the synergistic potential of black pepper phyto-constituents as the amoxicillin adjuvants in comparison with isolated piperine against the MDR E. coli. using in-silico molecular docking. The result indicates that binding energy (Kcal/mol) and torsion free energy (Kcal/mol) of piperine (-6.23, +0.89), beta caryophyllene (-6.36, +0.00), beta selinene (-6.93, +0.30), beta-Thujene (-5.42, +0.30) is less for the emrD efflux pump as compared to amoxicillin (-5.85, +2.93) respectively indicating strong inhibition for EmrD of MDR E-coli than amoxicillin. The results are also indicating that black pepper extract containing all aforementioned phyto-constituents has synergistic effect in comparison with isolated piperine against the MDR E. coli. ADMET of these phyto-constituents also indicates their safety profile in combination with amoxicillin.


The sudden transition of Higher Education (HE) from predominately face-to-face to online delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns placed many lecturers in unfamiliar situations. This study aimed to explore and represent the experiences of lecturers working in HE during this time. We used a storytelling approach to represent an amalgamation of experiences collated from lecturers. Data were collected using (i) a focus group interview, (ii) reflections on our experiences, and (iii) experiences alluded to by academics via online blogs. The data were presented using an ethnographic fiction. Salient experiences detailed throughout the ethnographic fiction include (i) challenges building a community between colleagues, academics, and students; (ii) concerns regarding the capacity of institutions and staff to deliver online; (iii) a lack of synergy between the expectations of staff to fulfil duties and the reality of being able to do so in time; (iv) the challenges of engaging students; (v) concerns regarding the accessibility of online learning for a diverse body of students; and (vi) challenges with work–life balance. The ethnographic fiction provides a voice for HE lecturers who candidly shared their experiences of working during the pandemic. Stakeholders are encouraged to develop their own interpretations of the story and apply these to policy and practice.