Two studies tested the generalizability of support for within- and between-construct validity based on responses to a French translation of the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ) by high school students. The PSDQ is a multidimensional physical self-concept instrument designed to measure 11 components: health, coordination, physical activity, body fat, sports competence, global physical, appearance, strength, flexibility, endurance, and esteem. In the first study (N = 752), preliminary reliability analysis revealed strong internal consistency and overall stability. Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for structural equivalence with the original instrument. In the second study (N = 288), PSDQ factors were related to 13 external criteria of physical fitness; each was predicted a priori to be most highly correlated with one of the PSDQ scales. Bivariate correlations and CFA models supported both the convergent and discriminant validity of the PSDQ responses. These overall results demonst...


Azacitidine (AZA) treatment is effective treatment for patients with myeloid disorders, and factors predictive of treatment outcome are under investigation. Little is known about the effect of bone marrow fibrosis on response to AZA therapy. We, retrospectively, evaluated clinical predictors of overall survival (OS) and overall response rate (ORR) for patients treated with AZA in a real-life cohort. We evaluated 94 consecutive patients treated with AZA outside of clinical trials (75mg/m2/day for 7 days every 28 days; 5 + 2 + 2 schedule), from June 2009 to February 2016. Ninety-three patients were evaluated for response. After a median of 6 cycles, ORR-complete response (CR; including marrow CR) + partial response (PR) + hematological improvement (HI)-was 41.9% (CR = 18.3%; PR = 11.8%; HI = 11.8%). Stable disease was observed in 21.5%, and failure in 36.5%. Pre-AZA bone marrow blast percentage, International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) or IPSS-R category, and time from diagnosis to AZA had no effect on response. Median OS from start of therapy was 18.5 months, and was significantly related to higher IPSS category (P = .01), poor cytogenetics according to the IPSS (P = .01), poor and very poor cytogenetics according to the IPSS-R (P = .02), and lower ORR (P = .006). Patients with MF-0 pre-AZA demonstrated significantly higher ORR, (CR + PR + HI) and stable disease, and lower failure rates than those with any grade of fibrosis. Indeed, cases with pre-AZA fibrosis > MF-1 had shorter OS (P = .005). Achievement of HI before 4 cycles of treatment negatively impacted OS (P = .009).


Objective(s):Inhibitors of p38 MAP kinase are considered as suitable target in the treatment of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and bowel inflammatory diseases. The development of 5-alkylthio-1-aryl-2-(4-pyridinyl) triazoles as inhibitors of p38 MAP kinase is described. These are analogues of 4- pyridinyl imidazole p38 MAP kinase inhibitor reported by Merck Research Laboratories, in which imidazole ring has been replaced with triazole. Materials and Methods:Reaction of pyridine-4-carboxylic acid hydrazide 1 and arylisothiocyanate (2a, b) gave the intermediate thiourea derivative 3a, b (Figure 2). Refluxing of the latter in aqueous saturated sodium carbonate gave 1-aryl-5-mercapto-2-(4-pyridinyl) triazoles 4a, b. Treatment of 4a, b with alkyl iodide afforded the desired 5-alkylthio-1-aryl-2-(4-pyridinyl) triazoles (5a-d). P38 MAP kinase inhibitory activity of the synthesized compounds was evaluated in vitro by ELISA method and also by molecular docking. Results:Compound 5c at 1 µM concentration and compound 5d at 1 µM and 10 µM significantly inhibited the p38 phosphorylation. These inhibitory effects are equal to those of standard compound SB202190 and no significant differences were observed. Conclusion:We demonstrated that both tested compounds have inhibitory effect on p38 MAP kinase and we did not find significant difference between their inhibitory effects and those of standard inhibitor SB202190.


An adult male Savannah monitor lizard (Varanus exanthematicus) was presented for bilateral lens opacities that had progressed rapidly over the previous 2 months. A diagnosis of bilateral mature cataracts was made and phacoemulsification cataract extraction was performed. Surgery restored vision and normal activity to the patient.


Real‐time reverse transcription PCR has greatly improved the ease and sensitivity of quantitative gene expression studies. However, measurement of gene expression generally requires selection of a valid reference (housekeeping gene) for data normalization to compensate for inherent variations. Given the dynamic nature of early embryonic development, application of this technology to studies of oocyte and early embryonic development is further complicated due to limited amounts of starting material and a paucity of information on constitutively expressed genes for data normalization. We have validated quantitative procedures for real‐time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) analysis of mRNA abundance during bovine meiotic maturation and early embryogenesis and utilized this technology to determine temporal changes in mRNA abundance for ribosomal protein L‐15, cyclophilin‐A, phosphoglycerokinase, β‐glucuronidase, glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase, β‐actin, and histone H2A. Quantification of amounts of specific exogenous RNAs added to samples revealed acceptable rates of RNA recovery and efficiency of reverse transcription with minimal variation. Progression of bovine oocytes to metaphase II resulted in reduced abundance of polyadenylated, but not total transcripts for majority of above genes; however phosphoglycerokinase exhibited a significant decline in both RNA populations. Abundance of mRNAs for above genes in early embryos generally remained low until the blastocyst stage, but abundance of ribosomal protein L‐15 mRNA was increased at the morula stage and histone H2A mRNA showed dynamic changes prior to embryonic genome activation. Results demonstrate a valid approach for quantitative analysis of mRNA abundance in oocytes and embryos, but do not support constitutive expression of above genes during early embryonic development. Mol. Reprod. Dev. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Objectives : To study the frequency of hypoglycemia, clinical features and the risk factors associated with development of hypoglycemia in newborns. Design: Cross-sectional study Setting:.All babies admitted to NICU, S AH & RC were included in the study. Subjects:. 366 newborn babies admitted to NICU were included in the study during the study period of 18 months. Methods:. Blood sugar was screened by glucometer at 3,24,48 and 72 hours of age or whenever any symptoms suggestive of hypoglycemia develops. Detailed clinical history , examinations and necessary laboratory investigations to diagnose high risk neonates were recorded. Results: 38 Newborn babies were hypoglycemic out of which 60% were asymptomatic and 40% were symptomatic. Males were 22(57.89%), Females were 16(42.10%), overall incidence of hypoglycemia is 4.2%, in that, Preterm -11.9%, Term -2.9% ,SGA-14.75%, LGA-22.22%. 21 cases (55.26%) presented hypoglycemia on day 2, 10 (26.31%) on day 1 and 3 7(18.42%) on day 3. Maternal risk factors contributed to the development of hypoglycemia were IGDM/IDM (40%), prolonged labour (15.35%) and eclampsia (40%). In newborn risk factors causing hypoglycemia, birth asphyxia had highest incidence of 26.86% followed by RDS and septicemia both 15%. In birth asphyxia, term babies were more prone to hypoglycemia with incidence of 61.11%.


Synthetic galactodihydrocerebrosides with widely different fatty acid components can evoke myelination-inhibiting antibodies in rabbits. Whether these are the only such haptens involved in experimental immunizations of other species or in spontaneous human diseases is not yet known.


Excisional surgery involving the vermilion cutaneous junction of the lips presents several problems for the dermatologist. There is concern not only with adequate and thorough eradication of the lip pathology but also with cosmetic and functional restoration of the incised surfaces. The occasion arises frequently in office practice to treat cysts, nevi, keratoses, and malignancies involving the vermilion surface of the lips. At times, successful eradication by excisional surgery involves removal of portions of the adjacent skin surface. Because the dermatologist most frequently uses local infiltration anesthesia (often with epinephrine in a vascular area such as the lip), there is obliteration of the vermilion skin border. Under such circumstances during excisional surgery in this area, it is difficult to approximate vermilion surface to vermilion surface while maintaining the cosmetic line of the lip. To help solve this problem the use of guide sutures is suggested. Various surface skin marking methods


BACKGROUND
Urine is routinely evaluated in dogs to assess health. Reference ranges for many urine properties are well established, but the scope of variation in these properties over time within healthy dogs is not well characterized.

OBJECTIVES
Longitudinally characterize urine properties in healthy dogs over 3 months.

ANIMALS
Fourteen healthy client-owned dogs.

METHODS
In this prospective study, dogs were evaluated for health; then, mid-stream free-catch urine was collected from each dog at 12 timepoints over 3 months. Urine pH, urine specific gravity (USG), protein, cultures, and antimicrobial resistance profiles were assessed at each timepoint.

RESULTS
Urine pH varied within and between dogs over time (Friedman's test: within P = .03; between P < .005). However, USG, protein, and bacterial diversity of urine were consistent within dogs over time, and only varied between dogs (Kruskal-Wallis: between all P < .005). Antimicrobial resistant isolates were identified in 12 out of 14 dogs with 34 of 48 of the isolates demonstrating resistance to amoxicillin.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE
Urine pH should be assessed at multiple timepoints via pH meter before making clinical decisions. Mid-stream free-catch urine with high concentrations of bacteria (>105  CFU/mL) should not be considered the only indicator of urinary tract infection. Bacterial isolates from dogs in this study had widespread resistance to amoxicillin/oxacillin underscoring the need for antimicrobial stewardship.


This 2-year research study focuses on the reclamation of bentonite inclined surfaces using hydroseeding in a quarry of the island of Milos. Three types of hydroseeding seed mixes were utilized: a) a mixture from 7 native species of Milos's island, b) a mixture from 6 commercial species, c) a barley-oat mixture and d) a non-hydroseeded control. The study included two inclined surfaces. The first had a northern while the second had an eastern orientation. Each inclined surface had 12 experimental plots (12-15 m height and 1,5 m width and each experimental plot was subdivided into 3 subplots along the height direction (high, medium, low). Measurements included the total number of plants, the total number of plants per species, the number of invading plants; soil moisture and plant dry weight. It was found that during the 2 years of the study, the number of plants as well as the soil moisture was higher in the northern inclined surface compared with the eastern one. The commercial species mixture provided the highest plant number (66%, 59% and 74% more than native species, barley-oat and the control, respectively). However towards the end of the second year a significant decrease in the number of plants of the commercial species mixture was observed that equalized its plant numbers with the barley-oat mixture. The number of the native mixture was minimal and equal to the non seeded control. In contrast plant number in the barley-oat mixture was reduced by 3% from the first to the second year. The commercial plants mixture provided the most biomass as indicated by the dry weight. The species that provided the highest plant numbers were mainly Lolium rigidum and Avena sterilis. The plant-intruders that were detected without participating in the hydroseeding mixture were Brassica nigra, Salsola kali, Inula viscosa and Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum.


We present a comparison between a continuum-scale drift-diffusion-reaction cluster dynamics prediction of helium retention in low-energy helium plasma exposed tungsten and experimental measurements, in a temperature regime that did not produce tungsten fuzz. Our cluster dynamics model, Xolotl, has been successfully benchmarked to high helium implantation flux MD simulations at relatively low implanted fluence. In this article, we also describe the extension of the Xolotl DDR model to incorporate the effect of bubble bursting, which is observed in very high rate MD simulations, as well as MD simulations at longer times than simulated in our prior benchmarking comparison. The bursting model parameters have been tuned by comparing to MD simulations at a flux of 5.0  ×  1027 m−2 s−1, and also compared to lower implanted fluence simulations performed at ~4.0  ×  1025 m−2 s−1. This article then reports on the consistency of the Xolotl predictions with respect to the size of the simulated cluster phase space (i.e. the maximum cluster size), initial vacancy concentration, and bubble growth trajectory (maximum number of helium atoms per vacancy). Finally, our simulation results are compared to helium plasma experiments that did not produce fuzz. While the Xolotl predictions including bubble bursting are in quantitative agreement with high-flux MD simulations, the initial comparison to plasma exposure experiments at a flux on the order of 1021 m−2 s−1 disagree by more than an order of magnitude, and in fact cannot reproduce the trends in helium retention with varying exposure temperature. Modifying the initial vacancy concentrations and helium cluster diffusion behavior in Xolotl leads to a reasonable agreement with the experimental observations, although the underlying physical explanation for these modifications remains unclear. The predicted helium content at experimentally relevant fluxes has been shown to be relatively insensitive to the parameters used in the bubble bursting model implemented in Xolotl, although these parameters have a larger influence at higher flux. More systematic comparisons between the modeling predictions with both experiments and MD simulation results is expected to improve the bubble bursting model in Xolotl in the future.


This paper analyses the workings of the German wealth tax that applied until 1996 and reviews the reasons why the wealth tax was judged unconstitutional by the German Federal Constitutional Court. In order to scrutinise the Courts ruling, it is necessary to explore the role of wealth taxation in Germany: its history, design, and especially its justifications. I conclude that although the wealth tax was judged unconstitutional in 1995 a wealth tax can be justified in the German taxation system. Nonetheless I argue that the tax is likely to remain undesirable due to its manifold negative side effects.


Background The prevalence of myocardial perfusion alterations in autoimmune diseases has been estimated by previous studies at 40%. There is no consensus on the scrutiny of cardiovascular alterations in patients with Antiphospholipid Syndrome. Objectives To evaluate the existence and seriousness of ischemic cardiomyopathy or asymptomatic ventricular dysfunction in a group of patients with primary or secondary Antiphospholipid Syndrome using 99Tc MIBI Gated-SPECT and equilibrium radioisotope ventriculography. Methods This is a transversal study performed in collaboration with the Rheumatology Departments of the following hospitals: General Naval de Alta Especialidad (SEMAR), Centro Médico Nacional 20 de Noviembre (ISSSTE), and the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the Instituto Nacional de Cardiología "Ignacio Chávez". The study started on January 1, 2010 and ended on November 15, 2010. Twelve patients participated in the study and all of them underwent a myocardial perfusion study with 99Tc MIBI Gated-SPECT and a planar equilibrium radioisotope ventriculography and SPECT. Results A total of 12 patients participated. There was no evidence of ischemic cardiomyopathy in any of the patients. The systolic and diastolic functions of the left ventricle were normal on all cases. Right ventricle alterations were observed: a third had dilation; one had systolic dysfunction (8%); and 4 had diastolic dysfunction (33%). The association of right ventricle dysfunction and the presence of seropositivity of anticardiolipin andtibodies isotype IgG and lupus anticoagulant (p=0.041) stands out. Conclusions Even though the Antiphospholipid Syndrome is associated with accelerated atherosclerosis, this group of patients didn't present any evidence of coronary disease or left ventricle dysfunction. However, right ventricle anomalies were found. These anomalies might be related to alterations of pulmonary circulation. Further studies are needed to establish the origin of these alterations. References Ian N. Bruce, Dafna D. Gladman. Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography Dual Isotope Myocardial Perfusion Imaging in women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. II. Predictive Factors For Perfusion Abnormalities. J Rheumatol 2003; 30: 288-91. Alexanderson E, Cruz P. Endothelial dysfunction in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome assessed with positron emission tomography. J Nucl Cardiol (2007);14:566-72. Nilda Espinola Zavaleta, Erick Alexánderson. Análisis de la utilidad de ecocardiografia de contratte y medicina nuclear en afecciόn cardiovascular de origen autoinmune. Archivos de Cardiología de México Vol. 75 2005:42-48. E. Alexánderson, A. Gόmez-Leόn. Myocardial ischemia in patients with primary antiphospholipid syndrome: a 13N-ammonia PET assessment. Rheumatology 2008;47:894-896. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Every bank needs to better understand the sources of its profitability. Whatever the size of the bank, funds transfer pricing (FTP) can be used to help managing the bank's profitability by analyzing earnings for the whole institution or for different profit centers. In today's banking environment, it is essential to look at the earnings both as a whole and broken down into various components. Funds Transfer Pricing is an analysis tool that can be used to help a bank measure its profitability in a variety of different ways. It allows management to compare the profitability of different product lines within the company, and it can be drilled down even further to allow comparison between individual employees. It is also very useful for comparison between branches. This study will reveal the role of Fund Transfer Pricing (FTP) in banks.


Dissemination of information to children has often been an issue of concern to web services consultants. Such is predetermined by the complexity that exists between managing the web content for children's view and sharing such useful content among them. Particularly, the process of dissemination of opinion, browsing through archived reviews to locate different opinions on particular topics, is a time-consuming and tedious task, and in most cases, the large amount of available information makes it difficult for users to absorb. To facilitate the process of synthesizing opinions expressed in various web domains essentially, the news portal, on a particular topic specified in a user query/question or as contained on the web, a quantum-based multi-document opinion summarizer is introduced. This creates a summary in response to queries or already available information, which either reflects general opinions on product, concept or opinion as specified in the query, by (i) identifying facets discussed in the reviews retrieved in response to query and (ii) employing a sentence-based, opinion classifier to determine the polarity of each sentence in each review. These steps dictate which sentences are included in the summary. The paper explores the processes of quantum based news rendering and show that such approach is useful in the presentation of news opinion for children understanding. The paper concludes by showing the usefulness of summarization to the general of Information Retrieval process.


Abstract Although ceremonial forms of public speech in the time of Louis XIV do not allow for the creation of a sphere of public deliberation, they aim at producing ethical effects and provide a rich source for the study of a historically determined cult of personality. They participate in the royal administration's program for the celebration of the absolutist monarchy, adding to its control over ideological mechanisms. Ceremonial speeches are an integral part of the royal text, a complex network of discursive practices which also includes histories and official memoirs as well as pictorial and sculptural representations. Each component has a specific function in its own given context, but it resonates with all the components within the royal text and derives its wider significance as an instrument of personality cult from this intertextual relationship. With Colbert as the major force behind its production, the royal text is elaborated in the context of State-sponsored institutions such as the French Academy, specifically as an instrument of monarchic celebration. By analysing two discursive strategies, the elaboration of the image of an infallible ruler and the defence and justification of his policies, we can identify topod at the core of all forms of personality cult, even perhaps contemporary totalitarian regimes. This article aims at developing tools for the analysis of personality cult as a general phenomenon, and at understanding the function of public speech in guaranteeing the apparently immutable social order of the Ancien Régime.


. The paper presents an automatic method for texturing three-dimensional computer models. The proposed method is based on the well-known voxel approach, according to which the resulting surface of the scene is obtained by combining a variety of views in the voxel space. Diffuse blurring of weighting function values in the voxel space is used to fill holes. Simple image projection results in visible seams on scan edges. To overcome this problem one normally needs to resort to highly computationally demanding methods. The proposed method of texturing offers a solution for these problems. The texturing algorithm is based on the blending of all available textures, taking into account the weight of each pixel in each triangle, as well the overlap and observability of these triangles. The algorithmic implementation of the method is optimized to improve computational performance of the method and the quality of a generated textured triangulation model. The algorithm of indexing of triangles makes use of a texture map for each view which allows reducing the amount of computation time and therefore to speed up reconstruction and texturing. The multi-core processing provided an additional increase in computational performance. Computational experiments were performed on real three-dimensional scene data obtained by a 3D scanner RangeVi-sion. The experiments showed that the current algorithm is able to generate realistic textures in a short time for highly detailed models


We present a segmentation method for fetal brain tissues of T2w MR images, based on the well known Expectation Maximization Markov Random Field (EM- MRF) scheme. Our main contribution is an intensity model composed of 7 Gaussian distribution designed to deal with the large intensity variability of fetal brain tissues. The second main contribution is a 3-steps MRF model that introduces both local spatial and anatomical priors given by a cortical distance map. Preliminary results on 4 subjects are presented and evaluated in comparison to manual segmentations showing that our methodology can successfully be applied to such data, dealing with large intensity variability within brain tissues and partial volume (PV).


In this paper a critical, syncretic discussion is offered of two connected, qualitative feminist studies focusing on the experiences of women academics in the UK Higher Education system. The studies were respectively entitled '"Loaded dice?" Barriers to women's progression' and 'Donning the "Slow Professor'" and consecutively explore women scholar's perceptions of their academic careers in terms of levels of satisfaction and progress, but where findings point to a greater level of concern relating to perceived barriers, stressors and dissatisfaction. In both studies the context of the working environment and how this influences individual careers foregrounds the discussion and is critically discussed. In terms of methodology Focus Group Discussions were employed for the completed first study with the subsequent use of a Participatory Action Research co-researcher methodology for the second, which is currently on-going. New insights are offered as finding in this paper regarding how women academics are situated and 'managed' in the gendered commodification of the academy, where careers are experienced as channelled, where this appears to be owing to social constructions governing gender. Such gendered normativity within this academy may be enacted within the institution at a variety of levels and can be unconsciously assumed by students in relation to expectations of enhanced levels of emotional labour from women academics directed towards student needs. Additionally, participant/co-researchers consider how the corporatization of the modern global university, with its regimes of managerialism, reinvention of scholarly time and productivity, as a form of isomorphic convergence, is giving rise to a feminist resistance in the form of embracing the so-called 'slow' academy, which is the topic of the second paper. Both studies were initiated under the auspices of the 'Women's Academic Network', a non-corporate support network and forum created by women scholars and dedicated to promoting academic women's careers and lobbying on a range of issues affecting the workplace.


Under the growing influence of dominant discourses such as ecological modernisation and neo- liberalisation, proposed alternative conservation approaches focus more and more on efficiency. In the realm of biodiversity conservation, synthetic biology - the application of engineering to facilitate and accelerate the design or modification of genetic materials in living organisms – has emerged as an efficient approach. However, the international governance of synthetic biology with the aim of biodiversity conservation is fraught with uncertainty, risk, uncertainty, and contrasting values. I discuss the role of knowledge production in the governance of making use of synthetic biology for biodiversity conservation. In this thesis, through an examination of documents involved in these international governmental processes, I apply a perspective of discourse interested in the social production, circulation, and transformation of knowledge (SKAD). I furthermore analyse the data with theories on knowledge production systems and the politics of environmental knowledge. My analysis shows a prioritisation of creating knowledge with the purpose of policy-relevance, resulting in synthetic biology being rationalised and preferred due to its potential of efficiently creating measurable ecosystem services of biodiversity. Relevance within interactions of policy, knowledge, and society has become embedded in procedures not often questioned. This analysis carries an undertone of warning. If we do not create a knowledge system with a diverse inclusion, solutions implemented to deal with synthetic biology for biodiversity conservation can, and probably will, backfire because the complexities of the issue are not properly addressed. However, the findings discussed in this analysis can also be viewed in a positive light. Acknowledging the diversity of knowledge by including other perspectives and knowledges can be an opportunity for more meaningful interactions between policy, knowledge, and society. A distribution of power more equal can be achieved by questioning the procedures of produced knowledge and opening them up for more diversity and accountability. (Less)


Trachoma is a disease known thousand years ago and still as a potential blindness disease all over the world. The authors call attention to the factors related with the transmission, present historical data and distribution of the disease in Brazil and in the world, comment on the agent, the signs and symptoms of this chronic conjunctivitis. Still, reinforce the need to enable professionals for the diagnosis, detection and treatment. The reflection of these attitudes will be the contribution to the elimination of this important disease as a blindness cause among us.


Countervailing discourses of cultural appreciation versus cultural appropriation are fueling a tension between the ethnic consumer subject, who views the consumption of cultural difference as a valorized identity project, and the responsibilized consumer subject, who is tasked with considering the societal impacts of such consumption. Drawing on an extended qualitative investigation of international K-pop consumers, this study illustrates that this tension spurs consumers to pursue self-authorization—the reflexive reconfiguration of the self in relation to the social world—through which consumers grant themselves permission to continue consuming cultural difference. Four consumer self-authorization strategies are identified: reforming, restraining, recontextualizing, and rationalizing. Each strategy relies upon an amalgam of countervailing moral interpretations about acts of consuming difference, informing ideologies about the power relationships between cultures, and emergent subject positions that situate the consuming self in relation to others whose differences are packaged for consumption. Findings show notable conditions under which each self-authorization strategy is deployed, alongside consumers' capacity to adjust and recombine different strategies as they navigate changing sociocultural and idiographic conditions. Overall, this study advances understanding of how consumers navigate the resurgent politics of marketized cultural diversity in an era of woke capitalism.


Copper, an essential trace element for health, plays various biological roles in human body. Serum copper reference values are important for assessing copper associated abnormalities and the prevalence of copper deficiency. The aim of this study was to determine reference range of copper in adult population of Lahore. Serum copper concentration was measured by flame atomic absorption spectrometry in 450 healthy adults aged 20 to 29 years, which were randomly selected. After application of exclusion criteria reference values were determined in apparently healthy subjects according to guidelines of International Federation of Clinical Chemistry. Reference value for serum copper concentration ranged between 4.72µmol/L to 31.48µmol/L (mean 17.62 µmol/L ±6.67). The mean serum copper level for males was 18.57µmol/L ± 6.61. The value for male subjects ranged between 4.72µmol/L to 31.7µmol/L. The mean serum copper level in females being 16.52µmol/L ± 6.67. Similarly, the values for females range between 4.72 µmol/L to 30.48µmol/L. In conclusion this study presents reference values for serum copper concentration in adult population of Lahore. The results here shows that there is significant difference in serum level of copper among different countries. This difference may be due to racial and genetic difference, dietary habits and socioeconomic and analytical variables.


The equality of covariance matrices is an essential assumption in means and discriminant analyses for high-dimensional data. The performance of tests for covariance matrices may vary substantially depending on the covariance structure, so using inappropriate methods to verify the assumption will result in worse performance. The purpose of this study is to assess and compare the performance of three tests for two-sample high-dimensional covariance matrices: Schott's (2007), Srivastava and Yanagihara's (2010), and Li and Chen's (2012) under various covariance structures. A simulation study was conducted when the covariance structures were spherical, compound symmetric, block-diagonal, and first-order autoregressive with homogenous variances. The results show that Li and Chen's test outperforms the others with a sample size of at least 10 under particular covariance structures. When the number of variables is increased with a fixed sample size, Li and Chen's test still performs well, whereas Schott's performance deteriorates. Some recommendations for selecting appropriate tests are also provided in this paper.


The present study investigated the phytochemical constituents of Cnidoscolus aconitifolius leaves extracts and its anti-hypercholesterolemia potentials using standard analytical methods. Forty five male albino rats weighing (115-121 g), divided into nine groups of five rats were used.  Group I served as the control while the other groups were administered 200, 400, 600 and 800 mg/kg body weight of aqueous and ethanol leaf extracts. GC-MS analysis showed 3,7,1,5-tetramethyl-2-hexadecen-1-ol, farnesyl bromide, β–sitosterol, squalene, β-amyrin, 1-heptatriacotanol, hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester, 2-pentadecanone, 6,10,14-trimethyl- ,n-hexadecanoic acid, 9,12-octadecadienoyl chloride, (Z,Z, δ- tocopherol, Ergosta-5,22-dien-3-ol acetate, (3β,22E)-, 9,10-secocholesta-5,7,10(19)-triene-3,24,25-triol, (3β,5Z,7E)-acetamide, N-methyl-N-[4-(3-hydroxypyrrolidinyl)-2-butynyl]-, 1-gala-I-ido-octose, 10-methyl-E-11-tridecen-1-ol propionate, dodecanoic acid, 2-(acetyloxy)-1-[(acetyloxy)methyl]ethyl ester, 11,14-octadecadienoic acid, methyl ester, cyclopentaneundecanoic acid and methyl ester. Lipid profile showed significant reduction in TC, LDL and TG with increase in HDL in dose dependent ratio. This shows that extracts of this plant could be useful in treatment of coronary heart diseases.

 Key words: Phytochemicals,hypercholesterolemia, Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, potentials.


This Article reviews recent developments in the law of access to information, that is, cases involving click-through agreements, the doctrine of trespass to chattels, the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and civil claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Though the objects of these different doctrines substantially overlap, the different doctrines yield different presumptions regarding the respective rights of information owners and information consumers. The Article reviews those presumptions in light of different metaphorical premises on which courts rely: Internet-as-place, in the trespass, DMCA, and CFAA contexts, and contract-as-assent, in the click-through context. It argues that the different doctrines should be applied consistently with one another and consistent with an understanding of the relevant metaphor that is based on consumer and user experiences of the Internet, rather than on formal property-based constructs.


Abstract States must investigate possible violations of international humanitarian law in armed conflict, and many States use military procedures for all or part of the investigation process. Particular tensions can arise with regard to the perception of justice in the context of military judicial procedures, especially surrounding questions of independence and impartiality. This article lays out the international legal framework which should be used to solve these challenges, arguing that a State must address both the specificities of military institutions and the need for a perception of justice by the affected communities in considering the proper administration of justice in armed conflict.


Herpes simplex virus (HSV) has been implicated in the aetiology of human cervical cancer, but despite intensive investigation the oncogenic properties of HSV are still not well understood. Studies reported here, explore one possible molecular mechanism by which this virus may cause oncogenic transformation; namely, the induction of cellular polypeptides which play a role in oncogenesis. A group of cellular polypeptides specific to cells showing the immortalized phenotype were previously detected in a range of cell lines, including the Bn5T cell line which is derived from rat embryo fibroblasts transformed by a fragment of the HSV type 2 (HSV-2) genome. These polypeptides which will be referred to as Bn5T:TBS polypeptides, are not detectable in control rat embryo fibroblasts. Bn5T:TBS polypeptides are immunoprecipitated by tumour bearing serum (TBS) and studies presented in this thesis confirm that they are also immunoprecipitated by the monoclonal antibody TG7A. The TG7A monoclonal was raised against affinity purified DNA binding proteins from HSV-2 infected cells and recognizes cellular polypeptides induced on infection by the virus. This suggests that Bn5T:TBS polypeptides are related to polypeptides induced in HSV-2 infection. Another feature of Bn5T:TBS polypeptides is that they all show oncofoetal expression, suggesting that they have a physiological role in cell proliferation and differentiation. Members of the Bn5T:TBS set have always been found to be either co-expressed or not expressed at all, in a range of different cell types and culture conditions. This suggests that these polypeptides may have a common precursor or be induced by the same factor(s) and it also suggests that they may have a common function. Three of the six members of the Bn5T:TBS set give similar peptide maps, suggesting that they possess similar or shared domains. In addition, pulse labelling and pulse-chase labelling experiments suggest that at least two members of the set result from post-translational processing events. Immunological and peptide mapping studies indicate that a Bn5T:TBS polypeptide of 97kDa molecular weight, is related to the 90kDa heat shock protein (HSP90) and that it may share a domain with an HSV-2-induced form of HSP90. The TG7A monoclonal recognizes a highly conserved epitope present on a bacterial heat-shock protein, an HSV-2-induced 90kDa polypeptide (also recognized by a monoclonal against HSP90) and a 97kDa transformed cell polypeptide belonging to the Bn5T:TBS set. These findings suggest that an HSV-2-induced form of the HSP90 may play a role in oncogenic transformation by the virus. The synthesis of Bn5T:TBS polypeptides has not been detected in the rabbit reticulocyte lysate in vitro translation system and possible reasons for this have been investigated. Further, data from an amino acid sequencing study suggests that the 97kDa polypeptide in the Bn5T:TBS set has a domain with homology to one form of bovine casein; likely explanations are discussed in detail.


ABSTRACT Infection of endothelial cells with human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) is an essential event in the development of Kaposi's sarcoma. When primary microvascular endothelial cells (MECs) were infected with HHV-8 at a low multiplicity of infection, considerable latent replication of HHV-8 occurred, leading to a time-dependent increase in the percentage of virus-infected cells that was accompanied by cellular spindling and growth to a high density with loss of contact inhibition. Only a low percentage of MECs supported lytic replication of HHV-8 and produced infectious virus. Phosphonoformic acid blocked production of infectious virus but did not inhibit the rapid expansion of latently infected MECs. Pretreatment of MECs with alpha interferon (IFN-α) prior to infection effectively reduced HHV-8 viral gene expression, latent replication, and production of infectious virus. High levels of the double-stranded RNA activated protein kinase (PKR) were expressed in HHV-8-infected cells, and incubation with IFN-α increased PKR expression more in virus-infected cells than in uninfected cells. MECs that were immortalized with simian virus 40 large-T antigen differed from nonimmortalized MECs in their response to infection with HHV-8 and demonstrated that cells with elevated levels of expression of antiviral transcripts expressed viral transcripts at reduced levels. These studies demonstrate that MECs respond to HHV-8 with enhanced expression of cellular antiviral genes and that augmentation of innate antiviral defenses with IFN-α is a more effective strategy than inhibition of viral lytic replication to protect MECs from infection with HHV-8 and to restrict proliferation of virus-infected MECs.


The injection of CO2 at the Ketzin pilot site commenced in June 2008 and was terminated in August 2013 after 67 kT had been injected into a saline formation at a depth of 630–650 m. As part of the site monitoring program, four 3D surface seismic surveys have been acquired to date, one baseline and three repeats, of which two were conducted during the injection period, and one during the post‐injection phase. The surveys have provided the most comprehensive images of the spreading CO2 plume within the reservoir layer. Both petrophysical experiments on core samples from the Ketzin reservoir and spectral decomposition of the 3D time‐lapse seismic data show that the reservoir pore pressure change due to CO2 injection has a rather minor impact on the seismic amplitudes. Therefore, the observed amplitude anomaly is interpreted to be mainly due to CO2 saturation. In this study, amplitude versus offset analysis has been applied to investigate the amplitude versus offset response from the top of the sandstone reservoir during the injection and post‐injection phases, and utilize it to obtain a more quantitative assessment of the CO2 gaseous saturation changes. Based on the amplitude versus offset modelling, a prominent decrease in the intercept values imaged at the top of the reservoir around the injection well is indeed associated solely with the CO2 saturation increase. Any change in the gradient values, which would, in case it was positive, be the only signature induced by the reservoir pressure variations, has not been observed. The amplitude versus offset intercept change is, therefore, entirely ascribed to CO2 saturation and used for its quantitative assessment. The estimated CO2 saturation values around the injection area in the range of 40%–60% are similar to those obtained earlier from pulsed neutron‐gamma logging. The highest values of 80% are found in the second seismic repeat in close vicinity to the injection and observation wells.


Herbaceous vegetation is a major source of interference with the regeneration of woody species. This is particularly the case after forest fires, as a dense herbaceous layer usually regenerates naturally. Although the competitive effect of the herbaceous vegetation upon tree seedlings has been widely studied, there are still gaps in knowledge for management related to the effect of tree seedling age and size on the outcome of the interaction. In this study, we seek to determine the response of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Aiton) seedlings to herbaceous competition at two different seedling ages. For that, two treatments of herbaceous competition were implemented, namely unweeded (no action around pine seedlings) and weeded (herbaceous cover removed around pine seedlings). Treatments were conducted twice (2 and 4 years after the fire), and we monitored seedling survival and growth at the end of each growing season. The treatments were implemented across three adjacent landscape units that differed in the management of burned wood and that are representative of common post-fire scenarios: no intervention, salvage logging, and an intermediate degree of intervention. Weeding increased seedling survival from 44.7% to 67.8% when seedlings were 2 years old, but had no effect for four-year-old seedlings, which showed 99% survival. Seedling growth also increased in the weeding treatment, but only slightly. Moreover, growth (and survival for two-year-old seedlings) was strongly correlated with initial seedling size, particularly in the case of two-year-old seedlings. Initial pine seedling height was strongly and positively correlated with the height of the herbaceous layer, supporting the existence of microsite features that promote plant growth above competitive effects. The results support that management actions conducive to foster post-fire pine forest restoration in this Mediterranean ecosystem should reduce herbaceous competition at early stages after fire (second or third year) and focus on larger seedlings.


At the end of its life cycle, the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum forms a fruiting body consisting of spores and a multicellular stalk. Originally, the chlorinated alkylphenone differentiation-inducing factors (DIFs) -1 and -3 were isolated as stalk cell inducers in D. discoideum. Later, DIFs and their derivatives were shown to possess several biologic activities including antitumor and anti-Trypanosoma properties. In this study, we examined the antibacterial activities of approximately 30 DIF derivatives by using several bacterial species. Several of the DIF derivatives strongly suppressed the growth of the Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, and Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium, at minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) in the sub-micromolar to low-micromolar range. In contrast, none of the DIF derivatives evaluated had any noteworthy effect on the growth of the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli (MIC, >100 µM). Most importantly, several of the DIF derivatives strongly inhibited the growth of methicillin-resistant S. aureus and vancomycin-resistant E. faecalis and E. faecium. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that treatment with DIF derivatives led to the formation of distinct multilayered structures consisting of cell wall or plasma membrane in S. aureus. The present results suggest that DIF derivatives are good lead compounds for developing novel antimicrobials.


PVA:PEG/MnCl2 composites have been prepared by adding (MnCl2) to the mixture of the poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) and poly ethylene glycol (PEG) with different weight percentages (0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10) wt.% by using casting method. The type of charge carriers, concentration (nH) and Hall mobility (μH) have been estimated from Hall measurements and show that the films of all concentration have a negative Hall coefficient. In D.C measurement increase temperature leads to decrease the electrical resistance. The D.C conductivity of the composites increases with the increasing of the concentration of additive particles and temperature. The activation energy decreases for all composites with increasing the concentration of the additive particles. The A.C conductivity increases with increasing of the frequency and the concentration of MnCl2 particles. The A.C electrical properties show that the dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the composites decrease with increasing of the frequency.


Background: Patients with schizophrenia have been noted with an elevation of serum S100B protein concentration, but the pathological process is not known. This study was to investigate the relationship between levels of S100B protein and oxidative stress.

Methods: General information and blood sample were collected from the first-episode drug naïve or drug-free acute stage of patients who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV) criteria for schizophrenia and healthy controls. The serum levels of S100B, total oxidants (TOS) and malonaldehyde (MDA) were used to measure the level of oxidative stress in both patients, and healthy controls. General linear regression analysis was performed to examine the association of S100B protein with the levels of oxidative stress.

Results: The levels of serum protein S100B were associated with the concentration of both TOS (Beta=15.77; p=0.0038) and MDA (Beta=7.90; p=0.0068) in the first-episode drug-naive patients (n=29).While both associations were no longer significant (p>0.05) in the drug-free acute phase patients (n=29); the levels of serum S100B was still consistently associated with TOS (Beta=12.42;p=0.0026) and MDA(Beta=4.11;p=0.0480) in the combined group of patients group(n=58). Simultaneous analysis of both oxidative markers, we still found that both TOS (Beta=12.88; p=0.0103) and MDA (Beta=6.46; p=0.0167) were associated with the serum level of protein S100B in the first-episode drug-naive patients, but not drug-free acute phase patients.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that astrocyte activity, serum levels of oxidants, and their cross-talking might be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. This warrants a further study for understanding the underlying mechanism.


A flexible, low‐cost alternative to FISH, primed in situ labeling (PRINS) has traditionally been used to detect tandemly repeated target sequences in chromosomes and nuclei. The technique is capable of discriminating among closely related DNA sequences in situ and has the advantage of using very small probes which easily penetrate to almost any target. This unit describes basic PRINS and the alternative version, dideoxy‐PRINS, which can increase the sensitivity of the reaction by an order of magnitude. New material on multicolor PRINS and quantitative PRINS has been added. Protocols for detection of single‐copy sequences and for application to the study of in‐vivo activity of DNA‐modifying enzymes are planned.


Apparatus and methods are described for use with a vaporizer (20) that vaporizes at least one active ingredient of a material (82). In response to receiving a first input to the vaporizer, the material is heated, in a first heating step. An indication of the temperature of the material is detected, and, in response to detecting an indication that the temperature of the material is at a first temperature, the first heating step is terminated, by withholding causing further temperature increase of the material. The first temperature is less than 95 percent of the vaporization temperature of theactive ingredient. Subsequently, a second input is received at the vaporizer. In response thereto, the material is heated to the vaporization temperature, in a second heating step. Other applicationsare also described.


Transport of a conservative solute takes place in a formation made up from a matrix of conductivity K0 and porosity ϑ0 and inclusions of properties K, ϑ. For given inclusions shape, the system is characterized by the two parameters κ = K/K0 and the inclusions volume fraction n. In the past, approximate solutions of the flow and transport problems were obtained under the limit of low variability, i.e., κ − 1 ≪ 1, and arbitrary n [Rubin, 1995]. The present study aims at solving the problem under the opposite limit of a dilute system, i.e., n ≪ 1 and arbitrary κ. We are particularly interested in elongated inclusions (high length/thickness ratio) of high‐permeability contrast to the matrix. Such configurations are related to applications in which lenses or cracks are present in a medium of highly different conductivity (Figure 1). The basic procedure was developed by Eames and Bush [1999] for cylindrical or spherical inclusions, with no porosity contrast. They compute the macrodispersion coefficient, for advective transport past a large number of inclusions located at random. It is based on the solution for the distortion of a material surface of marked particles, moving past an individual inclusion in an unbounded domain and with uniform flow at infinity. In the present study we extend the approach to inclusions of arbitrary porosity and elliptical shape, characterized by the parameter e, the ratio between the small and large axes, with emphasis on e ≪ 1. We present the analytical solution of the flow problem and the procedure, requiring two quadratures, to calculate the macrodispersivity. Analytical solutions are obtained for two particular limits: κ ≪1 and κ ≃ 1. The latter is compared with the limit n ≪ 1 of the solution of Rubin [1995]. The theoretical results are applied to a few cases of hydrological interest [Lessoff and Dagan, this issue].


Background: Evaluating the efficiency of the reconstruction with immediate prosthesis for large bone loss in patients submitted to maxillectomy considering: hospital outcome, taking out the nasoenteral tube, swallowing, speaking, funcional and esthetic reabilitation. Methods: We evaluated 20 patients, four teen males and 6 females, with ages var ying from 7 to 78 years old, eleven with squamous cell car inoma. We performed the pr osthesis modeling within the operation time with acr yli samples. The time of prosthesis modeling was about 45 minutes and all patients left the operating room with the prosthesis in their mouths. Results: The results were highly satisfactory for all patients. The hospital length of stay was 8.1 days; the nasoenteral tube was taken out in 7.3 days. The majority of patients had oral feeding in 3.3 days with paste food. The voice was considered good for all cases. Conclusion: We concluded that immediate pr osthesis of lar ge bone loss post maxillectomy r educed the hospital length of stay and the time of taking out the nasoenteral tube. The prosthesis allows earlier feeding and keeping the voice; reducing the cicatricial r etraction and allowing the patient to r eturn to his pr ofessional activities earlier . Therefore, we recommend that it must be done as a routine procedure.


Abstract 2529 There are several theories as to the mechanism of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) in the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). One prominent theory involves accelerated pathogenic autoantibody clearance by saturation of the neonatal Fc Receptor (FcRn). FcRn is an IgG receptor, and FcRn within endosomes binds endocytosed IgG and diverts IgG from degradation. In the treatment of ITP, it has been theorized that high concentrations of IVIg saturate FcRn, reducing the ability of the pathogenic anti-platelet antibodies to bind FcRn, increasing their catabolism, and thus rapidly decreasing their serum concentration which results in a decrease in their ability to induce platelet clearance. Mice lacking FcRn have only 20–30% of the level of endogenous IgG as compared with wild-type mice and have an accelerated clearance rate of both endogenous and injected IgG. We have utilized these mice in a murine model of ITP to help understand the role, if any, that FcRn plays in IVIg9s therapeutic activity. Both IVIg (2 g/kg body weight) and monoclonal antibodies to CD44 (2 mg/kg body weight; please see submitted abstract ID# 29504, "Amelioration of murine immune thrombocytopenia by CD44 antibodies: a potential therapy for ITP?") successfully ameliorate murine ITP. To definitively determine if FcRn is required for the acute amelioration of ITP by these two therapeutics, we employed FcRn deficient mice in the murine ITP model. Here, we demonstrate that FcRn deficient mice (B6.129X1-Fcgrttm1Dcr/DcrJ) injected with an anti-platelet antibody exhibit a slightly more profound degree of thrombocytopenia than wild-type mice. FcRn deficient mice treated with IVIg or the anti-CD44 antibody KM114 (at a 3 log fold lower dosage than IVIg) were protected from ITP to the same extent as wild-type mice. FcRn has an absolute requirement for the protein β2 microglobulin (β2M) to be functionally expressed. Specifically, β2M deficient mice do not possess functional FcRn and also show low endogenous IgG levels and increased clearance of IgG. To verify and substantiate the results found with FcRn deficient mice, we next employed β2M deficient mice in the murine ITP model and found that β2M deficient mice (B6.129P2-B2mtm1Unc/J) treated with IVIg or KM114 were also protected from ITP to the same extent as wild-type mice. These data suggest that for both high dose IVIg as well as low dose monoclonal CD44 antibody treatment in an acute ITP model, FcRn expression is dispensable. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Mineral trioxide aggregate, which comprises three major inorganic components, namely, tricalcium silicate (C3S), dicalcium silicate (C2S), and tricalcium aluminate (C3A), is promising regenerative cement for dentistry. While mineral trioxide aggregate has been successfully applied in retrograde filling, the exact role of each component in the mineral trioxide aggregate system is largely unexplored. In this study, we individually synthesized the three components, namely, C3S, C2A, and C3A, and then mixed them to achieve various compositions (a total of 14 compositions including those similar to mineral trioxide aggregate). All powders were fabricated to obtain high purity. The setting reaction of all cement compositions was within 40 min, which is shorter than for commercial mineral trioxide aggregate (~150 min). Over time, the pH of the composed cements initially showed an abrupt increase and then plateaued (pH 10–12), which is a typical behavior of mineral trioxide aggregate. The compression and tensile strength of the composed cements increased (2–4 times the initial values) with time for up to 21 days in an aqueous medium, the degree to which largely depended on the composition. The cell viability test with rat mesenchymal stem cells revealed no toxicity for any composition except C3A, which contained aluminum. To confirm the in vivo biological response, cement was retro-filled into an extracted rat tooth and the complex was re-implanted. Four weeks post-operation, histological assessments revealed that C3A caused significant tissue toxicity, while good tissue compatibility was observed with the other compositions. Taken together, these results reveal that of the three major constituents of mineral trioxide aggregate, C3A generated significant toxicity in vitro and in vivo, although it accelerated setting time. This study highlights the need for careful consideration with regard to the composition of mineral trioxide aggregate, and if possible (when other properties are satisfactory), the C3A component should be avoided, which can be achieved by the mixture of individual components.


The pathogenesis of adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus is assumed to start with GORD that damages the oesophageal squamous epithelium while also inducing genetic reprogramming of progenitor cells that proliferate to repair the damage.1 Presumably, this GORD-induced reprogramming of developmental transcription factors causes the progenitors to differentiate into columnar cells with intestinal features, resulting in the squamous-to-columnar metaplasia of Barrett's oesophagus. Barrett's metaplasia, in an environment of oxidative and nitrosative stress from ongoing GORD, is predisposed to develop further genetic alterations resulting in dysplasia and, ultimately, cancer. Thus, oesophageal adenocarcinoma is widely regarded as a consequence of GORD and Barrett's oesophagus in most, if not all cases.

A number of observations have been difficult to reconcile with this popular concept of oesophageal carcinogenesis. Most notably, many patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma have no evidence of antecedent GORD or Barrett's metaplasia.2 ,3 Rather than abandoning the notion that all oesophageal adenocarcinomas arise from GORD and Barrett's oesophagus, authorities have proposed explanations for the unsupportive observations. The lack of antecedent GORD symptoms can be attributed to poor patient recall or to GORD that causes oesophageal damage without symptoms. The absence of Barrett's metaplasia in the oesophagus of patients with established adenocarcinomas has been dismissed as a consequence of tumour growth obliterating evidence of the precursor metaplasia. Although plausible, these explanations are largely unprovable and highly questionable.

In the stomach, chronic gastritis can lead to adenocarcinoma that is histologically indistinguishable from oesophageal adenocarcinoma. For an adenocarcinoma that straddles the gastro-oesophageal junction (GOJ), therefore, it is often not possible to establish whether the tumour arose from oesophagus or stomach. Consequently, patients with …


OBJECTIVE
Limb loss is a potentially devastating event in a person's life, often resulting in profound physical, psychological and vocational consequences. After amputation the patient can choose to wear a myoelectric prosthesis. To be able to use the prosthetic in the right way, the patient will rehabilitate and train with the prosthetic guided by the physiotherapist and occupational therapist. The goal of this research is to identify attributes which result in high effectiveness of the rehabilitation therapy for a myoelectric prosthesis according to the patients and the health care professionals.
METHODS
Data was collected in multiple stages. To find out what is known from the literature regarding attributes which result in high effectiveness of the rehabilitation and successful use of the myoelectric upper limb prosthesis a systematic literature search is done. To identify attributes besides the ones found in literature which can influence successful rehabilitation interviews were done with health care professionals. To structure the attributes found in literature and interviews the UTAUT model was used. At the end of the interview a list of attributes which were found in literature were shown to the interviewees. On a rating scale from no influence at all to very large influence the interviewees scored the characteristics to identify the importance of the attributes which were found in literature. To identify the importance of the found attributes according to the patients an online questionnaire using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a multi criteria decision analysis technique developed by Saaty, was used.
RESULTS
Patients and health care professionals agree that the expectations the patients have of the myoelectric prosthesis have the largest influence on the effectiveness of the rehabilitation therapy, and that the facilitating conditions are least important.
The patients and health care professionals have different opinions about some of the other attributes. Where the health care professionals ranked the factors concerning the effort expectancy of the training as having a low influence on the success of the rehabilitation, the patients ranked this category as important. There is agreement between the patients and health care professionals that the patients' expectations and insight in the training are more important than the time and difficulty of the training.
A remarkable difference between the answers of the patients and health care professionals is concerning the importance of the patient's influence on the decision for the prosthesis type. The health care professionals scored this relative low, where the patients ranked this as quite important for a successful rehabilitation.
The health care professionals scored that follow-up after the rehabilitation program has a large influence on successful rehabilitation where the patients gave this factor a very low relative importance.
Concerning Social influences on the effectiveness of the rehabilitation there is a large disagreement between the patients and health care professionals. Where the health care professionals feel that the influence of the social environment is quite important on the successful rehabilitation, the patient ranked this category as the least important. 1
The interviews with health care professionals resulted in some new attributes which weren't found in literature, which were part of the patient questionnaire. Three of those factors are ranked as having al large influence on the success of the rehabilitation by the patients:
• Offering the patients the opportunity to try different prosthetic options before choosing a prosthesis type
• Regular measurements of the patients' progress during the rehabilitation
• Focusing the rehabilitation on a patient's occupation
RECOMMENDATIONS
Health care professionals need to make sure the patient has the right expectations before the decision for a prosthesis type is made.
• Give the patients accurate and realistic information in an early stage to prevent the patients from constructing wrong expectations.
• Offering the patient the option of trying different options before making a decision can make sure the patient has the correct expectations of the different prosthetic options.
• More research about how patients form their expectancies can help give the health care professionals insight in the process a patient goes through when choosing a prosthetic option.
Besides factors concerning the expectancy the patients has of the myoelectric prosthesis, some other factors were found that could be improved the successful rehabilitation.
• Regular measurement of the patients' progress and communication of this progress with the patient can help keep the patient motivated.
• A person's occupation is a large part of a persons' daily life. Focusing the rehabilitation on the patients occupation makes sure the patient will use the prosthesis in his or her daily life in the right way, also when working.


On January 3, 2017, in Adhikari v. Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the Alien Tort Statute ("ATS") did not provide jurisdiction for claims brought against a U.S. military contractor for torts committed in Iraq. In foreclosing plaintiffs' claims, the Fifth Circuit held that the presumption against the ATS's extraterritorial application barred claims for injuries occurring outside the United States' territory. In so ruling, the court created a circuit split with the Fourth Circuit, which in Al Shimari v. CACI Premier Technology, Inc. held that the ATS provided jurisdiction for claims brought against a U.S. government contractor for torts committed in Iraq. This Comment argues that the Fifth Circuit adopted a restrictive approach to the meaning of the Supreme Court's "touch and concern" language in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. and engaged in a rigid application of the Supreme Court's "focus" test from Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd. The Fifth Circuit's holding betrays the purpose of the ATS and is inconsistent with the Supreme Court's ATS jurisprudence.


Cloud computing has become the prominent technology of this era. Its elasticity, dynamicity, availability, heterogeneity, and pay as you go pricing model has attracted several companies to migrate their businesses' services into the cloud. This gives them more time to focus solely on their businesses and reduces the management and backup overhead leveraging the flexibility of cloud computing. On the other hand, quantum technology is developing very rapidly. Experts are expecting to get an efficient quantum computer within the next decade. This has a significant impact on several sciences including cryptography, medical research, and other fields. This paper analyses the reciprocal impact of quantum technology on cloud computing and vice versa.


In this article, we argue that healing from trauma in a racialized context requires an act of collective, critical resistance whereby educators and researchers reject a White-dominant colonial perspective of trauma on the grounds that it is pathologizing in several ways. We introduce a holistic trauma framework for understanding and responding to trauma within a racialized context. First, our framework seeks to draw on multiple forms of knowledge and experience to gain a deeper sense of trauma, suffering, and healing. Second, it uses an organic approach to promote relationships and support healing. Third, our framework explores multiple timepoints by introducing proactive, interactive, and reactive approaches for addressing trauma more comprehensively. We hope our framework will enhance the field of trauma research, which is, at present, overpopulated by White-dominant, colonial perspectives that mask systemic racial inequities.


Olfactory disorders may have several causes. Nasal polyposis or chronic sinusitis can result in nasal obstructions that block the access of odorants to the olfactory epithelium, and this can explain the development of olfactory disorders. On the other hand, when nasal endoscopy has revealed that the nasal cleft is free of inflammatory or tumoural disease, olfactory disorders may be explained by neuroepithelial or central nervous system disturbances. This paper will provide information about current approaches to smell disorders in otorhinolaryngology. Major causes will be reviewed as outcomes after medical or surgical treatment. An algorithm will also be given to standardise clinical investigations, including psychophysical olfactory testing, imaging and electrophysiological examinations.


Renal cell cancer (RCC) is not a single disease but is made up of a number of cancers, each with a unique histology, biology, clinical course and response to therapy. Alterations in at least 16 hereditary genes have been attributed to the risk of developing RCC. In this study, we describe the prevalence and spectrum of germline variants among these genes and highlight correlations between germline genotype with tumor phenotype. Using the Geisinger MyCode cohort, we sequenced the whole exomes of 42,933 subjects. Subjects were divided into those with a renal cancer diagnosis, other cancer diagnosis and no cancer diagnosis. We analyzed the DNA sequences of 16 hereditary renal cancer genes from each of these groups. The damaging mutations was determined by following ACMG guidelines. Among the 42,933 subjects in the Geisinger MyCode cohort, 168 were diagnosed with RCC. None of these subjects had a family history of RCC. Clear cell RCC (ccRCC) was the most predominant histology (77%), followed by Type 1 papillary RCC (7%), chromophobe RCC (6%), and Type 2 papillary RCC (5%). Mutations in all the predisposing genes were identified in all the renal cancer subtypes but only a subset were deemed damaging. The top 2 ccRCC predisposing genes with damaging or likely damaging mutations were TSC2 (8%) and SDHD (4%). While TSC2 damaging variants were also found in the other histologies, novel TSC2 variants were differentially associated with high grade and metastatic disease in ccRCC as compared to those with low grade or non-metastatic disease. The genes harboring damaging or likely damaging variants in Type 1 and Type 2 papillary RCC were MET and FH respectively. Predisposing RCC germline mutations were found in a significant number of subjects with sporadic RCC. Family history was unhelpful in predicting the affected subjects. Knowledge of these mutations would be beneficial in counseling patients and their families as well as improving our understanding of the disease to direct patient care. Citation Format: Heinric Williams, Raghu Metpally, Mahmoud Mohamed, Sarath Krishnamurthy, Sertac Kip, David J. Carey, Aris Baras, John Overton. Germline mutations in renal cancer predisposing genes: Analysis of the Geisinger MyCode population. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2557.


Confidence intervals for the mean of discrete exponential families are widely used in many applications. Since missing data are commonly encountered, the interval estimation for incomplete data is an important problem. The performances of the existing multiple imputation confidence intervals are unsatisfactory. We propose modified multiple imputation confidence intervals to improve the existing confidence intervals for the mean of the discrete exponential families with quadratic variance functions. A simulation study shows that the coverage probabilities of the modified confidence intervals are closer to the nominal level than the existing confidence intervals when the true mean is near the boundaries of the parameter space. These confidence intervals are also illustrated with real data examples.


Received March 21, 2021 Revised May 05, 2021 Accepted May 21, 2021 Available Online May 24, 2021 This study aims to determine the knowledge and understanding of physics students related to thermodynamic scientists. This research method is descriptive quantitative and qualitative. Collecting data using a google form-based test instrument with 3 levels of questions on six scientist figures, namely Joseph Black, Robert Boyle, Joseph Louis Gay Lussac, Sadi Carnot, James Presscout Joule, and Gabriel Fahrenheit. The subjects of this research were students of physics at the State University of Surabaya in levels one and two who had taken basic physics courses. Based on research data, the percentage of respondents understanding related to thermodynamics, namely 12% did not know thermodynamics scientists, 24% only knew thermodynamics scientists, 40% understood the concept of thermodynamic scientists sufficiently, 24% understood the concept and could explain the concept of thermodynamic scientists findings as a whole. University students' knowledge and understanding related to thermodynamic scientists are mostly at the level of understanding. The most widely known figure of thermodynamic scientists and the concept of the most widely understood is Robert Boyle and the most unknown is Joseph Louis Gay Lussac.


AIM
study real nutrition of adults and children population of Aktyubinsk Region of Republic of Kazakhstan.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
260 adults aged of 18-59 and 128 children aged of 10-17 years were under investigation. The adults were differentiated into three age groups: 18-29, 30-39 and 40-59 years. For studying real nutrition a daily energy need, protein content in rations, fats, carbohydrate and mineral substance - magnesium, iron, copper, zinc - were assesses by 24-hours nutrition reproduction method. Investigation was made by questionnaire of observed groups.

RESULTS
according to power price and protein content the adults feeding is value and due to protein, content 10-12% from necessary daily energy is provided. In children and adolescents food ration of protein is 1.5 times below normal, real power price is 1.3 times below normal. Fats take a considerable part of food ration both in adults and in children and their amount is increased in 47.4% of men, 45.9% in women and about 50% in children instead of 30% of daily energy. Carbohydrates content in men and women is 1.4 times lower, they cover only 41,8% and 42.1% of energy while they must compose 56% from daily dose. Acute deficiency of carbohydrates intake is noticed in children in two times and power supply composes 39% against 55% of normal. Content mineral substances (magnesium, iron, copper and zinc) in rations adults and children reduced.


Hydrogen is a potential solution to transport's environmental challenge However. current production and delivery methods may make hydrogen no more environmentally friendly than many other transport fuels, Transporting hydrogen IS difficult and energy Intensive Given the right production and delivery system, a future Hydrogen economy could address environmental Issues and other major areas of concern such as energy security and shortage This research focuses on the viable pathways to deliver hydrogen for fleet vehicles. Drawing on a range of sources, including the recent Clean Urban Transport for Europe (CUTE) demonstration projects, the research models a set of pathway options comparing:-

• Economics - the cost of hydrogen for fleet vehicles compared to a base diesel reference case,
• Environmental issues - CO2 equivalent emissions for each of the pathways

Overall, the results of this research will show that:-

• Hydrogen is potentially competitive with diesel in terms of cost of production, but not for cost of distribution. Overall distribution costs make hydrogen pathways more expensive than diesel.
• Localised production of hydrogen is not competitive with centralised production at present. so it is likely that a hydrogen distribution system is going to be needed It is possible that future localised production systems may be competitive but would depend on reduced capital equipment costs.
• The cheapest hydrogen pathways may not be the pathways with the least emissions
• The storage of hydrogen appears to be a major part of distribution costs.
• Gaseous hydrogen delivery by road tanker can only meet small niche markets.
• Transporting hydrogen in liquid state is not viable for any supply chain lengths and demands in the UK (within the boundaries of this model ie: 200km and 5,000kg I day).
• Gaseous hydrogen delivery by pipeline is needed if a reasonable uptake is sought. This would require significant investment.


In order to export aircraft components or substructures, it is necessary to get a certification from the main company for the components or an airworthiness certification from the FAA. In Korea, those processes are performed by a small number of private companies for aircraft components. However, airworthiness certification has never been done in the company. To export an assembled aircraft, whether small or large, it is obligatory to get a certification for the aircraft being exported. Currently, the Korean government is trying to get BASA agreement in a few years. For a mid-size company, it is easier to get the NADCAP audit process for the supply of aircraft components to the main company. In this paper, the overall process of aircraft certification is discussed and airworthiness certification is treated for export aircraft. Moreover, the NADCAP audit process is described in detail by introducing example parts made of composite material. This detailed process would be very helpful to a small or mid-size company that wants to develop and deliver aircraft components to foreign companies.


BACKGROUND
Angelman syndrome (AS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder usually caused by an anomaly in the maternally inherited chromosome 15. The main features are severe intellectual disability, speech impairment, ataxia, epilepsy, sleep disorder and a behavioural phenotype that reportedly includes happy disposition, attraction to/fascination with water and hypermotoric behaviour.

METHOD
We studied the level of adaptive behaviour and the adaptive behavioural profile in the areas of 'motor skills', 'language and communication', 'personal life skills' and 'community life skills' in a group of 25 individuals with genetically confirmed AS, to determine whether there is a specific adaptive behaviour profile.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
None of the individuals, whatever their chronological age, had reached a developmental age of 3 years. A specific adaptive behaviour profile was found, with 'personal life skills' emerging as relative strengths and 'social and communication skills' as weaknesses.


Grain production and livestock are the basis of the state of Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil economy and favorable rainfall conditions accounts for about 20% of Brazilian production. However, the state has faced periods of drought, especially in the campaign area, decisively affecting agricultural production and hence the economy. The objective of this paper is to predict the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) on a monthly scale, from a series of rainfall from 1991 to 2012, for the city of Bage/RS/Brazil, in order to extend it by over 22 years, using a Markov chain to simulate the occurrence of rainfall and the Gamma distribution for predicting the precipitated amount. The results showed that the model simulated two-state Markov sequences of dry and wet days, keeping the statistical characteristics of the series. There were underestimations of the number on events classified as extreme and severe drought, obtained by serial SPI simulated compared to observed ones.


We describe a model based on diffusion theory and the temperature-dependent mechanism of brine concentration in sea ice to argue that, if viruses partition with bacteria into sea-ice brine inclusions, contact rates between the two can be higher in winter sea ice than in seawater, increasing the probability of infection and possible virus production. To examine this hypothesis, we determined viral and bacterial concentrations in select winter sea-ice horizons using epifluorescence microscopy. Viral concentrations ranged from 1.6 to 82 x 10(6) ml(-1) of brine volume of the ice, with highest values in brines from coldest (-24 to -31 degrees C) ice horizons. Calculated virus-bacteria contact rates in underlying -1 degrees C seawater were similar to those in brines of -11 degrees C ice but up to 600 times lower than those in ice brines at or below -24 degrees C. We then incubated native bacterial and viral assemblages from winter sea ice for 8 days in brine at a temperature (-12 degrees C) and salinity ( approximately 160 psu) near expected in situ values, monitoring their concentrations microscopically. While different cores yielded different results, consistent with known spatial heterogeneity in sea ice, these experiments provided unambiguous evidence for viral persistence and production, as well as for bacterial growth, in -12 degrees C brine.


A general procedure Is presented to determine the fields scattered by a periodic structure due to a complex excitation in terms of the structure's plane-wave response. Specifically, the scattered field from an electric line source over a semiinfinite metallo-dielectric photonic bandgap (PBG) material is described. An effective description for the artificial crystal's plane-wave response is used, consisting of angularly parameterized response functions. A methodology for analyzing the electromagnetic response of such a material to a nonplane-wave excitation is provided, whereby a general complex excitation is spectrally decomposed into an integral over a continuous spectrum of homogeneous and inhomogeneous plane waves. An analytic solution for the scattering of each plane wave by the PBG material half-space is then utilized. The complete scattered field is given in a closed integral form, which is computed both numerically and in the asymptotic limit. The effect of the PBG crystal half-space on the scattered field due to an electric line source is presented for frequencies that correspond, for a normally incident plane wave, to a transmission bandgap, a transmission band edge, and an antireflecting plateau. The focusing effects and electric- and magnetic-wall behavior of the PBG crystal are demonstrated. The presented approach promotes both the physical understanding of PBG material systems and the efficiency of the numerical modeling of these systems at frequencies beyond the quasi-static limit of the traditional effective medium theories.


Parts of the plant or the plant as a whole has been used in most parts of the world for the treatment of various ailments; either as topical applications to treat skin diseases or prepared into infusion, decoctions or even concoctions with other herbs and consumed to either alleviate pains or treat other diseases like malaria, pile, bacterial infective HIV etc. In an attempt to standardize this plant, the pharmacognostic studies were carried out on its stem bark. Preliminary processing of the plant material was done. The stem cuttings were debarked and the barks dried in an open air under shade. The macroscopical examinations were done. The dried plant materials was then powdered using morter and pistil. The anatomical sections and powdered samples of the plant parts were investigated for their microscopical profiles. These revealed the presence of phloem tissues, parenchyma cells, cork cells, calcium oxalate crystals, starch grains and secretory ducts in the powdered bark; while the anatomical sections revealed the presence of xylem tissues. A preliminary phytochemical screening revealed the presence of some phytochemicals. A co-chromatographic analysis revealed the presence of catechol (condensed tannins).


The authors experience with 96 patients treated for cancer of the hepatic porta arising from the hepatic duct is discussed. The most resultant technics of investigation in this pathology are retrograde endoscopic cholangio-cholecystography (in 30 patients) and transjugular cholangiography (in 3 patients). Thirteen patients were radically operated upon, they were subjected to a circular resection of the common bile duct the site of hepatic ducts branching with subsequent hepaticojejunostomy. It is believed that a higher degree of resectability in tumors of this zone may be possible on account of perfection of early diagnosis and widening of an extent of surgery.


We report the first experimental observation of Beliaev coupling between collective excitations of a Bose-Einstein condensed gas. Beliaev coupling is not predicted by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and so this experiment tests condensate theory beyond the mean field approximation. Measurements of the amplitude of a high frequency scissors mode show that the Beliaev process transfers energy to a lower-lying mode and then back and forth between these modes, unlike Landau processes which lead to a monotonic decrease in amplitude. To enhance the Beliaev process we adjusted the geometry of the magnetic trapping potential to give a frequency ratio of 2 to 1 between the two scissors modes.


In this paper, a LED driver compatible with TRIAC-dimmer applying active bleeder is proposed. If TRIAC-dimmer is connected with LED driver, flicker phenomenon occurs by TRIAC malfunction. In order to prevent this problem, a current over holding current must flow into TRIAC. Therefore, additional circuit compatible with TRIAC-dimmer is required to provide enough current. Passive bleeder has power loss in whole operation period. The proposed circuit apply a valley-fill circuit for power-factor-correction and a novel active bleeder detecting malfunction point of TRIAC. Therefore, it prevent malfunction of TRIAC-dimmer and have advantage of higher efficiency than passive bleeder. To verify the validity of proposed circuit, 13W-lighting LED driver prototype has been proposed.


Clinical isolates of Helicobacter pylori show marked diversity, which may derive from genomic changes that occur during the often lifelong association of the bacterium with its human host. We used the rhesus macaque model, together with DNA microarrays, to examine genomic changes in H. pylori that occur early during experimental infection. Microarray analysis showed that H. pylori recovered from challenged macaques had deleted babA, a member of a large family of paralogous outer membrane proteins (OMPs) that mediates attachment of H. pylori to the Lewis B blood group antigen on gastric epithelium. In some cases the babA gene was replaced by babB, an uncharacterized OMP that is closely related to babA. In other cases the babA gene was present but was not expressed because of alteration in dinucleotide CT repeats in the 5′ coding region. In either case, strains lacking babA did not adhere to Lewis B, which is expressed on macaque gastric epithelium. Absence of babA and duplication of babB was also seen in H. pylori isolates derived from human clinical samples, suggesting that this gene conversion event is not unique to experimentally infected rhesus monkeys. These results demonstrate in real time with a relevant animal model that H. pylori regulates OMP expression in vivo by using both antigenic variation and phase variation. We suggest that changes in babA and babB after experimental infection of macaques represent a dynamic response in the H. pylori outer membrane that facilitates adherence to the gastric epithelium and promotes chronic infection.


This paper presents system modeling, analysis, and simulation of an electric vehicle (EV) with two independent rear wheel drives. The traction control system is designed to guarantee the EV dynamics and stability when there are no differential gears. Using two in-wheel electric motors makes it possible to have torque and speed control in each wheel. This control level improves EV stability and safety. The proposed traction control system uses the vehicle speed, which is different from wheel speed characterized by a slip in the driving mode, as an input. In this case, a generalized neural network algorithm is proposed to estimate the vehicle speed. The analysis and simulations lead to the conclusion that the proposed system is feasible. Simulation results on a test vehicle propelled by two 37-kW induction motors showed that the proposed control approach operates satisfactorily.


Organised activities good for the health and school performance of adolescents Leisure time represents a large portion of adolescents' time budgets, and the ways it is spent substantially determines their lifestyle and health-related behaviours. Most research on leisure, and organized activities in particular, has thus far been conducted in the USA and Canada. Studies from European countries on this topic are scarce. Therefore, this thesis aimed to examine the associations of adolescents' participation in organized leisure-time activities (OLTA) and unstructured activities (UA) with health- and school-related outcomes, using a large representative sample of Czech adolescents who participated in the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. OLTA participants were more likely to report enhanced physical and mental health and good school functioning than non-participants. Moreover, participation in OLTA was associated with lower levels of substance use, especially in girls. Otherwise, the associations mostly held for both genders across all age categories (11-, 13- and 15-year-olds) surveyed, even after adjustment for socioeconomic status. However, they varied somewhat by pattern of OLTA participation; e.g. we observed differences in health- and school-related outcomes, with outcomes being best for those participating in the arts. Regarding UA, we found that those involved in unsupervised UA had higher rates of adverse health-behaviours and poor school performance than those who were not involved in such UA. Furthermore, those engaging only in UA were more likely to partake in adverse health behaviours and to do worse at school than those who participated in any OLTA concurrently.


This paper proposes a novel chip type ceramic dielectric antenna by using the advanced meander line technique that the radiation metals are formed on both the face of ceramic dielectric (8/spl times/4/spl times/1.5 mm, alumina) and the two faces of the substrate (1.0 mm thickness FR-4). The performance of the antenna model has a good agreement between measured and computed results. In the results, it has a 10 dB return-loss bandwidth (2.4-2.48 GHz) and 0.5 dBi measured radiation gain for Bluetooth application.


We found that the catabolism of nicotinamide (Nam) differs due to an intake of Nam itself in rats. When rats were fed with a Nam-free, tryptophan-limiting diet, the major catabolite of niacin was N1-methyl-4-pyridone-3-carboxamide (4-Py). However, its percentage was changed with increasing the intake of Nam. The major metabolite was N1-methylnicotinamide (MNA) in the diet containing 0.006% Nam, or 0.1% Nam. The toxicity of excess Nam was observed when rats were fed with a 0.5% Nam-containing diet. In this diet, the major metabolite was Nam N-oxide and it was noted that the urinary excretion of nicotinic acid and its metabolite nicotinuric acid was observed. Therefore, these acids might be detected only when the toxicity of Nam appears.


Equivalent-circuit models are obtained from direct interpretations of electromagnetic field data. Improved intuitive understanding is achieved with direct visualization of wave propagation through 3D structures. Applications to MCMs and power-distribution networks


Objective. A passive brain–computer interface (pBCI) is a system that enhances a human–machine interaction by monitoring the mental state of the user and, based on this implicit information, making appropriate modifications to the interaction. Key to the development of such a system is the ability to reliably detect the mental state of interest via neural signals. Many different mental states have been investigated, including fatigue, attention and various emotions, however one of the most commonly studied states is mental workload, i.e. the amount of attentional resources required to perform a task. The emphasis of mental workload studies to date has been almost exclusively on detecting and predicting the 'level' of cognitive resources required (e.g. high vs. low), but we argue that having information regarding the specific 'type' of resources (e.g. visual or auditory) would allow the pBCI to apply more suitable adaption techniques than would be possible knowing just the overall workload level. Approach. 15 participants performed carefully designed visual and auditory tasks while electroencephalography (EEG) data was recorded. The tasks were designed to be as similar as possible to one another except for the type of attentional resources required. The tasks were performed at two different levels of demand. Using traditional machine learning algorithms, we investigated, firstly, if EEG can be used to distinguish between auditory and visual processing tasks and, secondly, what effect level of sensory processing demand has on the ability to distinguish between auditory and visual processing tasks. Main results. The results show that at the high level of demand, the auditory vs. visual processing tasks could be distinguished with an accuracy of 77.1% on average. However, in the low demand condition in this experiment, the tasks were not classified with an accuracy exceeding chance. Significance. These results support the feasibility of developing a pBCI for detecting not only the level, but also the type, of attentional resources being required of the user at a given time. Further research is required to determine if there is a threshold of demand under which the type of sensory processing cannot be detected, but even if that is the case, these results are still promising since it is the high end of demand that is of most concern in safety critical scenarios. Such a BCI could help improve safety in high risk occupations by initiating the most effective and efficient possible adaptation strategies when high workload conditions are detected.


✓ A case is reported of successful anastomosis of the middle meningeal artery to a cortical branch of the middle cerebral artery. Based on the analyses of 50 random angiograms, the authors discuss the circumstances in which such an anastomosis might be practical and indicated.


EvalIndigenous began in November 2015 as a global task force network of EvalPartners. This Origin Story of EvalIndigenous is shared to describe some of the work being carried out today by Indigenous evaluators in the global north and south. EvalIndigenous' roots provide the tribal critical and Indigenous theories and methods, as well as the legal and political distinctions of Indigenous peoples and Tribal/First Nations. EvalIndigenous shares how evaluation is done "by us and for us". The article concludes by highlighting key strategies that the field of evaluation can consider in the future when working with Indigenous populations and sovereign Tribal/First Nations governments and communities.


This chapter identifies possible strategies for utilizing real-time simulation in the context of industrial production. The literature review offered provides a framework to assess and map the crucial elements of real-time simulation. Empirical data from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector is used to test the relationship between the strategic-level integration of real-time simulation models and sustainability performance. In doing so, the chapter develops a new way of characterizing real-time simulation based on the different tiers of data integration, and therefore a novel approach to defining different real-time simulation strategies. The results show that performance enhancement is strongly connected to the degree of data integration within production operations. Researchers and practitioners can apply the cluster solution of real-time simulation strategies to identify, develop, and evaluate the use of real-time activities for sustainable value creation.


The fundamental description of nature, beyond the Standard Model (SM), may include heavy neutrinos that mix and thus allow processes in which lepton flavor is not preserved. We investigate the impact of charged currents that couple heavy gauge bosons to heavy neutrinos and SM leptons on neutrinoless lepton-flavor-violating decays of SM leptons into three charged leptons. We implement our expressions for the leading contributions to ${\rm Br}(l_\alpha\to l_\beta\,l_\sigma\,l_\sigma)$, which hold for either Dirac or Majorana neutrinos, to the neutrinoless trilepton decay $\mu\to3e$, of the muon, and so determine sets of masses of heavy neutrinos and the heavy gauge boson, within GeVs to few TeVs, that are consistent with the upper bounds provided by the SINDRUM Collaboration. We utilize such parameters to find that the contributions to tau decays are $\sim10^{-14}-10^{-13}$, well below bounds from $B$ factories.


The aim of the Dutch Smart Dairy Farming project is to develop decision support models for operational support in farm management. This project started in 2012 and involves collaboration between several institutions and companies in the dairy chain. The project has three focus areas: animal health, fertility and feeding. The objective of the 'animal health' focus area is to optimise young stock rearing as a basis for extending the life of cows. Lowering the annual replacement rate, which is currently about 30%, has a significant positive impact on financial results. The main objectives of this young stock rearing project were to develop state-of-the-art tools which would help the farmer to optimise growth and development of young stock. Milk feeders and water drinkers combined with weighing scales were used for data collection at individual calf level. Daily data about milk intake, milk feeder visits, water intake and body weight were used to build detection models that generate alerts when measured values deviate and indicate a possible health problem. Body weight measurements were also used to determine the growth rate of a calf and to produce an alert if this deviated too much from a desired growth rate. All alerts were translated into messages with work instructions for the farmer. Weekly feedback from the farmer indicated that almost 60% of the messages were correct. It is suggested that the large number of wrong messages (false positives) can be reduced by applying more advanced analysis techniques.