In the global race for the best and the brightest, Japan's point-based Highly Skilled Foreign Professional visa, implemented in May 2012, represents a new step in trying to attract skilled foreign labor. Benefits offered under the visa are internationally competitive and previously unavailable in Japan, yet the policy has fallen considerably short of its aim. This paper briefly compares other highly skilled migration schemes to the new Japanese visa, and offers an assessment of the visa from the academic applicant perspective. Results indicate that while the residency benefits offered are often positively regarded, they strongly favor longer term residents. Other visa benefits appear to be of questionable merit. The Highly Skilled Foreign Professional visa further suffers from unclear application requirements and inconsistencies in administration, greatly increasing the amount of time and effort required to navigate the process. To improve its attractiveness, additional consideration can be given to information dissemination, and offering more differentiated categories of highly skilled worker entry with relevant and enticing benefits.


By investigating links between Reed-Muller transform and Walsh-Hadamard spectra an exact and non-exhaustive algorithm for the generation of optimal Reed-Muller expansions directly from just few Walsh-Hadamard spectral coefficients has been developed. The algorithm makes use of the properties of Walsh-Hadamard spectra and by using only few Walsh-Hadamard coefficients the optimal Reed-Muller expansion is obtained for all Boolean functions through the provided equations in the new algorithm.


This paper addresses the problem of the modeling and vibration control of tapered rotating blades modeled as thin-walled beams and incorporating adaptive capabilities. The blade model incorporates non-classical features such as anisotropy, transverse shear, secondary warping and includes the centrifugal and Coriolis force fields.
 For the non-adaptive system, a thorough validation and assessment of a number of nonclassical features including the taper characteristics is accomplished. The adaptive capabilities are provided by a system of piezoactuators bonded or embedded into the structure and spread over the entire span of the beam.
 Based on the converse piezoelectric effect, the piezoactuators produce a localized strain field in response to a voltage and consequently, a change of the dynamic response characteristics is induced. A combined feedback control law relating the piezoelectrically induced transversal bending moment at the beam tip with the kinematical response quantities appropriately selected is used and the beneficial effects upon the closed-loop dynamic characteristics of the blade are highlighted.


. Raspberries fruits ( Rubus idaeus L .) as important part of our diet are known for their sensory and nutritional characteristics, because of high content of essential nutrients that are beneficial for biological activity in human health. A high consumption of plant foods, such as raspberries, appears to decrease the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and overall mortality. It can also promote a healthy complexion, increased energy, and overall lower weight. Nutritional quality was analyzed through by chemical parameter of fresh raspberry samples from plantation in Kosovo area at the ripe stage. The following quality parameters were determined in the raspberry's fruits: pH, dry matter, total soluble solids (TSS/ ◦ Brix), total acidity (TA), TSS/TA ratio, total sugars, reducing sugars, sucrose, vitamin C, protein, and lipids. Results can be used to inform potential raspberry farmers about the nutritional qualities and consumer preferences for raspberries. The rich nutritional composition of the studied fruits makes them a very special diet. All statistical analysis was performed using the MS Excel program and SPSS 22.0 statistics software. total (TA), TSS/TA ratio, total sugars, reducing sugars, sucrose, vitamin C, protein, lipids.


This is a study of the impact of the Great War on one local community - the Lowland Scottish county of East Lothian. The thesis examines the economic, social and political consequences of the war in the short term of the war years and in the longer perspective of the first pre-war decade. The precise impact of the military presence in the county during the war and the extending role of government during the war are also discussed.

Chapter 1 surveys the literature on the effects of the Great War as relevant to this study. Chapters 2 and 3 provide a pre-war background to the geography, economy and demography of the county and examine its society and politics. Chapter 4 outlines the military aspects in a local context, including the voluntary and compulsory phases of recruiting, mobilisation by local military units and the impact of the military presence. Chapter 5 studies the impact of the war on the three major industries of the county - farming, coal mining and fishing - how their activities were disrupted by the war and to what extent these difficulties were surmounted. Chapter 6 examines the consequences of the war for East Lothian society, its demographic effect, the impact on education and crime and religion. The voluntary activities to aid the war effort are described. Chapter 7 traces the political life of the county during the war culminating in the 1918 General Election and considers the changing role of government during the war. Chapter 8 and 9 examine in turn economic, social and political trends in the county during the post-war decade.

The study found that, generally, local trends fitted in with national developments. The problems of the coal industry in the 1920's can be clearly related to the disruptive effect of the Great War, while those of agriculture and fishing illustrate the effect of more long term trends. There were limited social gains in the form of housing and increased educational provision as a result of legislation at the end of the war. The disintegration of Liberalism as a political force in East Lothian was to a great extent attributable to the failures and divisions of Liberals, though increasing working-class consciousness was also a factor in the growth of support for Labour.


It is shown that by a simple (one-way) mapping from quaternions to complex numbers, the problem of generating a four-dimensional Mandelbrot set by iteration of a quadratic function in quaternions can be reduced to iteration of the same function in the complex domain, and thus, the function values in 4-D can be obtained by a simple table lookup. The computations are cut down by an order. Simple ways of displaying the fractal without shading and ways of fast ray tracing such a fractal using the table so generated are discussed. Further speedup in ray tracing can be achieved by estimates of a distance of a point from the Mandelbrot set. Animation is a key factor in visualizing 4-D objects. Three types of animation are attempted: translation in 4-D, rotation in 4-D, and fly-through in 3-D.<<ETX>>


We derive expressions, in terms of 'polar shapelets', for the image distortion operations associated with weak gravitational lensing. Shear causes galaxy shapes to become elongated, and is sensitive to the second derivative of the projected gravitational potential along their line of sight; flexion bends galaxy shapes into arcs, and is sensitive to the third derivative. Polar shapelets provide a natural representation, in which both shear and flexion transformations are compact. Through this tool, we understand progress in several weak lensing methods. We then exploit various symmetries of shapelets to construct a range of shear estimators with useful properties. Through an analogous investigation, we also explore several flexion estimators. In particular, some of the estimators can be measured simultaneously and independently for every galaxy, and will provide unique checks for systematics in future weak lensing analyses. Using simulated images from the Shear TEsting Programme, we show that we can recover input shears with no significant bias. A complete software package to parametrize astronomical images in terms of polar shapelets, and to perform a full weak lensing analysis, is available on the Internet.


Background: Previous research has demonstrated that Herba Lysimachiae (HL) exerts the dual effects on platelet aggregation in the synovium, which may contribute to its protection against synovial lesions under different situations. However, the mechanism is unclear. In the present experiment, a biolabel research based on metabonomics was used to mine more information about the intervention of HL on synovium at the metabolite level, which may help to analyze the regulation of HL on synovial platelet aggregation and its possible treatment in synovial diseases. Methods: Synovial metabolic profiling was analyzed using a Shimadzu Nexera UHPLC LC-30A system and an AB SCIEX Triple TOF 4600 mass spectrometer. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to verify the biolabels analysis results. Results: Totally, thirteen common metabolites were differentially expressed after treating with HL, and implicated in 2 key pathways (arachidonic acid metabolism and glycerophospholipid metabolism). ELISA showed that HL up-regulated the expression of prostaglandins E1 and E2 in synovial tissues. Conclusions: This study reveals that HL may regulate the synovial platelet aggregation through prostaglandin E1/E2. Additionally, HL is suitable for treating synovial diseases, especially osteoarthritis, which may be associated with the platelet aggregation, apoptosis, inflammation, angiogenesis, and carcinogenesis processes.


This thesis asks how performing the labour of digging can be a social process that
engages with the ecologies and economies that define our experience of dwelling in
the city. The thesis contributes to understanding in the field of performance
practice and theory by developing original performances that experiment with
degrees of audience participation and proximity. I ask how my performances of
digging respond to the particular regulatory, social and ecological conditions of a
public park, the garden of a theatre and Birkbeck's School of Arts.
Anthropologist Tim Ingold's understanding of dwelling as a function of
human activity through the landscape has framed my analysis of the ecologies of
digging and dwelling. Henri Bergson's concept of duration frames discussions of
temporality. Karl Marx and economist John Maynard Keynes provide insight into the
economics of digging as wage labour and as a 'theatre of social labour'. My
performances of digging holes to plant flora, digging holes for wildlife ponds and
digging to restore a pathway are critiqued and developed with theatre philosopher
Antonin Artaud's 'theatre of cruelty' and Jacques Ranciere's 'emancipated
spectator' in the light of three historical case studies. I ask how and why radical
performance group The Living Theatre, performance artist Allan Kaprow and land
artist Agnes Denes performed the labour of digging and how they used digging to
negotiate the economic and/or ecological conditions of life in the city. The cities of
New York and London are an essential part of the global financial system and I
examine how localised performances of digging in these cities can enact
pharmacological economic strategies of care and the generation of knowledge.


BACKGROUND
For most rare diseases, which are often significantly under-resourced, sufficient information on funding landscape is missing, which may prevent effective use of research resources and be an obstacle to making effective decisions on research. The objective of this research was to create a database of Rett syndrome research projects carried out in the European Union (EU) and to provide a research landscape analysis.

METHOD
Websites of organizations funding research projects were identified and systematically checked. Projects were analysed by date, place, funder types, and research topics.

RESULTS
The analysis revealed that the total expenditure on Rett syndrome research was almost €70 million, allocated among 247 projects mostly performed in Italy and the United Kingdom. The main research sponsor was the European Commission. Highlighting research trends and gaps, this work facilitates changes in rare disease research data management.

CONCLUSION
This work demonstrates the feasibility of creating an EU-based research database on Rett syndrome projects. It provides a source of information on research development which is useful for individuals, organizations and key players in the private and public sector to make progressive decisions on Rett syndrome research.


Objectives: This study examined the effects of salvianolic acid B (SAB) on exhaustive exerciseinduced cardiac muscle damage to rats.
Methods: The study was carried out with 12-week-old young adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Thirty-six rats were divided into 3 groups; normal (n=12), exhaustive exercise group (ExS, n=12) and exhaustive exercise with SAB (ExS+SAB, n=12). Five days before exhaustive exercise, SAB were medicated for 5 days in ExS+SAB group. Rats in ExS and ExS+SAB group were forced to swim for 150 minutes and then they were sacrificed, while rats in normal group were sacrificed at rest. After that, blood was collected and cardiac muscle tissue damage indices were analyzed.
Results: Serum aspartate transaminase activity and lactate dehydrogenase activity were significantly lower in ExS+SAB group than in ExS group. Serum creatine phosphokinase activity of ExS+SAB was significantly lower than ExS group. However, the content of serum creatinine had no difference between ExS and ExS+SAB group. In the H&E stained left ventricle myocardium, ExS group showed signs of myocardial damage such as sporadic fragmentation of myocardial fibers, interstitial edema, cytoplasmic eosinophilia and neutrophils infiltration. However, ExS+SAB group alleviated the severity of the signs of myocardial damage. In the myocardial dihydroethidium staining, optical density was remarkably decreased in ExS+SAB group compared to ExS group. Furthermore, the up-regulation of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was observed in ExS+SAB group compared with ExS group.
Conclusions: The above results suggest that SAB may protect cardiac muscle damage via antioxidant activity and prevention of apoptosis.


Previous research has emphasized the importance of entrepreneurial characteristics for international entrepreneurship, hence the application of concepts such as entrepreneurial orientation and global mindset to the study of entrepreneurial internationalization tendencies (EIT). However, literature does not adequately address how EIT differ between countries or manifest in fragile country settings. We address this gap through a quantitative study to investigate EIT in two national settings that largely differ in terms of development, institutional stability, and culture. Through the lens of the institutional theory and the mindset theory, we therefore piloted the study on 112 high-growth startups in Germany and Pakistan. Our findings show, that while entrepreneurs in Germany and Pakistan show comparable levels of innovativeness and proactiveness, they significantly differ in other EIT measures. German entrepreneurs appear to have higher levels of risk-taking, which when explained through the institutional theory lens can be attributed to the higher institutional stability and support as well as social security in Germany. This potentially makes engagement in risky activities, such as business internationalization, more appealing than in Pakistan. However, despite having lower international cognition and international knowledge compared to Germany, Pakistani entrepreneurs appear to exhibit higher degrees of international behavior.


Most of readers' comprehension of verbal deception descends from social psychology and cognitive perspectives, particularly from political, advertising and forensic discourse. One discoursal domain that has been hitherto largely neglected is literary discourse, particularly crime fiction. To date, this article is the first study that presents some of the many strategies which a psychopathic and non-psychopathic character/first-person narrator use to invite deception in readers and amongst characters from a pragma-stylistic perspective. This study focuses on the deceptive strategies exploited in Flynn's popular American novel Gone Girl (2012) which is situated within the hybrid sub-genre of crime fiction: psychological thriller/whodunit. The study of the stylistic idiosyncrasies of the couple antagonists, Amy and Nick, is carried out by an eclectic pragmatic approach to expose their deceptive strategies for the fulfilment of their egoistic and/or selfish ends. The research undertaken will develop an eclectic conceptual framework which comprises the deceptive principle, speech act theory, (im)politeness, presupposition, certain rhetorical devices, and relevance theory, along with the stylistic effects achieved via the manipulation of such linguistic tools, to explore the two levels of discourse (viz., character-character level and narrator-reader level) proposed by Black (2006). More specifically, the present study is set for three main objectives: firstly, to explore the unreliable narrators' deceptive strategies and compare the findings to the lower level of discourse, that is, character-character level. Secondly, to compare the deceptive strategies which occur on the preand during/post-dénouncement stage. Thirdly, investigate the language of gender differences. It has been evinced that Amy is a serial liar who employs a plethora of deceptive strategies whilst Nick is a deceiver who principally relies on indirect strategies. As for the deceptive strategies exploited on the two levels and stages are neither quantitively nor qualitatively mirror-symmetrical. It has also been found that the fashion via which Amy and Nick deceive exhibit linguistic gender differences—most of which challenge the observations on the language of women and men put forth by Lakoff (1973). i Correspondence: email email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com Safaa K. Merzah, Nawal F. Abbas DECEPTION IN FLYNN'S PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER GONE GIRL (2012): A PRAGMA-STYLISTIC ANALYSIS European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies Volume 3 │ Issue 4 │ 2020 119


Title:
The perception of critical situations involving football fans – how conflicts escalate or de-escalate

Authors: Brechbuhl, A.1, Schumacher, A.1 & Seiler, R.1
1Institute of Sport Science, University of Bern, Switzerland

Abstract:
Introduction:
Fan violence in the context of football matches is a prominent issue in today's western societies and Switzerland presents no exception. A lot of research has been conducted on reasons for fan violence, mostly with fans of national teams. A prominent model is the Elaborated Social Identity Model (ESIM; Drury & Reicher, 2000): ESIM highlights the importance of interactions between the involved groups and their effect on the development of social identities. Another model is the aggravation mitigation model (AM model; Hylander & Guva, 2010) which illustrates factors that can contribute towards an escalation or non-escalation of group violence, such as the "categorization" of the opponent group. Despite these models, research about the individual perceptions, and in particular, what factors distinguish between an escalation versus a non-escalation of a potentially violent situation in domestic football, is as yet scarce. This explorative study examines perceptions of critical situations in the domestic football fan context in Switzerland.

Methods:
An explorative qualitative design was employed to gather data about critical situations (CS) around football matches of two clubs of the Raiffeisen Super League. A CS is defined as a setting in or around the football stadium where violence between football fans and another group could occur. Eight CS were identified and analysed. Fifty-nine narrative interviews with individuals involved in a CS, e.g. fans, police officers or security personnel, were conducted. Interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).

Results:
The involved opposing groups expressed group-specific perceptions. Furthermore a strong tendency to negatively stereotype the opponent group was observed. Provocative symbols, such as balaclavas or riot-gear uniforms, were considered as highly relevant for the interpretation of the situation. Successful communication and sufficient distance between opponent groups supported the appeasement of a CS. These findings also underline the importance of knowledge about the local fan culture. This culture serves as basis for the perception of legitimacy, which was assessed to be essential for a de-escalation of a CS by fans.

Discussion/Conclusion:
This study improves the understanding of fan violence in the domestic football context in Switzerland. Based on the results it is suggested to deploy security or police forces without riot gear but with the goal of seeking dialogue with the fans to increase the likelihood of a peaceful ending in a CS. The findings also support the applicability of the ESIM (Drury & Reicher, 2000) and the AM model (Hylander & Guva, 2010) in the context of domestic fan violence. Due to possible differences in the local fan cultures in Switzerland, research in this area should be continued.

References:
Drury, J., & Reicher, S. (2000). Collective action and psychological change: The emergence of new social identities. British Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 579-604.
Hylander, I., & Guva, G. (2010). Misunderstanding of out-group behaviour: Different interpretations of the same crowd events among police officers and demonstrators. Nordic Psychology, 62, 25-47.


Particle cycle and residence time distributions are critical factors in determining the coating quality in the Wurster process. Positron emission particle tracking experiments are performed to determine the cycle and residence times of particles in different regions of a Wurster fluid bed. The results show that particles tend to recirculate in and sneak out below from the Wurster tube. The experiments also show that a larger batch size leads to a shorter cycle time and a narrower cycle time distribution (CTD). It is possible to avoid recirculations and obtain a shorter cycle time and a narrower CTD by selecting the operating conditions appropriately or via equipment design. Experiments using binary mixtures of particles with a diameter ratio of 1.5 show that large particles have a longer cycle time than small particles and that the cycle time is shorter for mixtures with approximately equal amounts of small and large particles.


We designed and synthesized a novel quaternary ammonium methacrylate compound (QAC-2) bearing a perfluoroalkyl tail on one end and an acrylic moiety on the other. Via one-step UV curing of QAC-2 and methyl methacrylate (MMA) with ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as the cross-linker, we obtained cross-linked coatings with excellent antimicrobial property, as demonstrated by the total kill against both Gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Gram-positive Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) at a QAC-2 concentration as low as ∼0.06 mol % (∼0.4 wt %) relative to MMA, which was substantially lower than the QAC amount needed in the coatings containing QACs with a hydrocarbon tail. A zone of inhibition test confirmed that the antimicrobial effect was on the basis of contact killing and there was no leaching of antimicrobial species from the cross-linked coating. The high antimicrobial potency in QAC-2-containing films was the consequence of strong surface enrichment of the fluorinated QAC, as confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).


"The hope and future of America lies with its radicals." Saul Alinsky wrote these words in his book Reville for Radicals, which is a guide to organizing working class communities. He wrote these words in 1946 amid a new boom in the American economy after World War Two. Renewed optimism was in the hearts of many war veterans as they placed their hope in the GI Bill. Although the war confirmed America as a world super power and gave spirited faith in the American dream, there was a concurrent narrative unfolding. Social disparities persisted as many ethnic and working class groups remained marginalized. The denial of the American dream to these people during such prosperous times exacerbated the need for political and economic empowerment. This book unravels the history of how grassroots community groups fought for economic and political justice through community organizing culminating with an intriguing case study of how one such group in New York successfully secured jobs from Eastman Kodak, then one of the largest companies in the world. This book is rich in educational value as well as written in a compellingly easy to follow prose.


Time-resolved linear dichroism (TRLD) measurements are conducted on gels of sickle cell hemoglobin following laser photolysis of the carbonyl adduct to monitor religation kinetics to hemoglobin S polymers. The return of the polymer phase to its equilibrium ligation state has been found to be about 1000 times slower than that of the solution phase hemoglobin tetramers. Several mechanisms describing this slow religation to the polymer were proposed: (1) religation occurs through a biomolecular process involving all polymer hemes, (2) religation occurs through a bimolecular process in which only hemoglobin molecules at the polymer ends can participate, and (3) religation occurs through the exchange of ligated hemoglobin molecules in the monomer phase with unligated ones in the polymer phase. To test these mechanisms, measurements are performed on gels having different domain sizes. The results show no relation between domain size and religation kinetics. The independence of religation kinetics and domain size is most consistent with the first of the three mechanisms described above (bimolecular recombination involving all polymer hemes). This result is discussed in terms of a model in which diffusion of the ligand is inhibited in the polymer phase. An understanding of the ligand binding kinetics of sickle hemoglobin polymers could have pathophysiological significance in its relevance to polymer formation and melting during red blood cell circulation.


Endovascular techniques have been rapidly implemented into the surgical armamentarium for the treatment of infrainguinal arterial occlusive disease. Despite high initial technical success rates, all endovascular interventions in the femoropopliteal- tibial arterial distribution are associated with a significant restenosis and failure rate. Strategies to improve the durability of endovascular therapy need to be developed and should include medical therapy and surveillance testing to detect hemodynamic failure that typically precedes thrombotic occlusion. Duplex ultrasound can accurately identify the abnormal, stenosed angioplasty site, but the threshold criteria that predict thrombosis have not been defined. Duplex ultrasound surveillance protocols are designed to identify residual stenosis, which is associated with lower patency rates, and by serial testing, the development of a progressive, high-grade stenosis. The decision to reintervene and correct the angioplasty site lesion should be individualized based on patient characteristics, the clinical implication of angioplasty failure, and efficacy of secondary interventions in prolonging functional patency.


Natural antisense RNAs are endogenous molecules that are complementary to RNA transcripts of already established function. They were discovered first in prokaryotes in which they are now recognised as an important component of molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of gene expression. Recently, through the cumulative efforts of molecular biologists and bioinformaticians, natural antisense RNAs have been demonstrated in significant numbers in eukaryotic systems also. Probably the most exciting outcome of these studies is that natural antisense RNAs are particularly prevalent in the nervous system. Here we discuss the major known types of natural antisense RNAs in eukaryotic systems and focus on their potential roles in the regulation of gene expression in the brain.


We examine the effect of various types of spatial nonuniformities on the performance of semiconductor diode lasers. Light versus current (L-I) characteristics are modeled by solving the coupled rate equations for the carrier density, photon density, carrier temperature, and lattice temperature. In cases of macroscopic nonuniformities, that is, when the fluctuation correlation length (/spl Lambda//sub F/) is longer than the carrier diffusion length (L/sub D/), the cavity is divided into a large number of segments, and separate rate equations are solved for each segment. Type-II antimonide quantum wells are used as the model diode laser system. Macroscopic nonuniformities of the nonradiative lifetime are shown to have little effect on the slope efficiency at high injection levels, but produce a signature softening of the threshold abruptness if the nonuniformity is large enough. This results from the nonuniformity of the carrier concentration and consequent mixture of gain and loss regions. For the case of microscopic bandgap fluctuations (L/sub D//spl Gt//spl Lambda//sub F/), inhomogeneous broadening of the gain spectrum leads to an increase of the threshold current density, which is accompanied by only a small reduction of the efficiency. However, in the complementary limit of macroscopic bandgap fluctuations (L/sub D/</spl Lambda//sub F/), the regions with distinct bandgaps become isolated, and photons emitted from the regions with larger bandgaps tend to be absorbed by the regions with smaller bandgaps. For an example with a Gaussian bandgap distribution of width /spl sigma/=30 meV, the nonuniformities have the effect of increasing the threshold current by a factor of 2.6, while reducing the slope efficiency by a factor of 2. We also consider lateral nonuniformities due to the temporal instability of the lasing mode, which tend to have a rather modest effect on the threshold current, slope efficiency, and even on the maximum output power despite the severe degradation of the beam quality.


A 1 kW-class arcjet thruster was fired in a vacuum chamber at a pressure of 18 Pa. A gas mixture of H2 : N2 = 2.8:1.5 in volume at a total flow rate of 4.3 slm was used as the propellant with an input power fixed at 860 W. The time-dependent thrust, nozzle temperature and inlet pressure of the propellant were measured simultaneously. Results showed that with the increase in nozzle temperature the thrust decreased and various losses increased. The physical mechanisms involved in these effects are discussed.


Clostridial diseases are important group of diseases that cause deleterious effects and threating productivity in sheep and goats. It responsible for high mortality and economic losses in small ruminants. The main method for protection against it by vaccination depending on polyvalent vaccines. This study was conducted to evaluate the immune response of three polyvalent vaccines used in veterinary field in Egypt, through measuring of antibodies titers. Twenty sheep were selected in this experiment and divided into 4 groups (A, B and C) plus control one. Each group injected with one vaccine with initial and booster dose. Collected sera were used for estimation of antibodies titers by using of indirect ELISA. The results concluded that vaccines of group A and B induced high immune response in vaccinated sheep in comparison with vaccine of group C.


The DNA sequence of the gene encoding the protective surface protein antigen (SPA) of Rickettsia prowazekii has been determined. The open reading frame of 4836 nucleotides with promoter and ribosome-binding site is present on a 10.1-kilobase EcoRI fragment. The encoded carboxyl terminus of the 169-kDa protein contains a potential transmembrane region and hydrophilic regions with many lysine and arginine residues potentially accessible to proteolytic cleavage. Because the rickettsia-derived SPA has an estimated molecular mass of only 120 kDa and does not contain several predicted large carboxyl-region CNBr fragments, the SPA product appears to be processed by the rickettsiae. Eight other CNBr fragments were identical in sequence to those predicted from the encoded gene. A complementary 8.7-kilobase EcoRI fragment of Rickettsia typhi DNA was cloned. This fragment lacked a 1433-base-pair region that included the promoter, ribosome-binding site, and the initial 1162 base pairs of the open reading frame encoding the R. prowazekii SPA but had a 3674-base-pair region identical with the remainder of the R. prowazekii SPA gene sequence.


ABSTRACT This study illustrates the effects of light quality as influenced by photo-selective shade nets (red, yellow, and pearl with 40% shade) and the widely used commercial black net (25% shade) on overall retail quality and phytochemical contents of three lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) varieties (two green varieties, Ashbrook and Aquarell, and a red variety, Exbury) at after postharvest storage. Variety-specific responses were observed with respect to different coloured shade nets with regards to the accumulation of β-carotene, ascorbic acid, flavonoids (kaempferol, isorhamnetin, quercetin, myricetin, anthocyanin), and antioxidant activity at harvest. Growing var. Ashbrook under the pearl net improved the ascorbic acid and myricetin contents after postharvest storage. Var. Exbury (red) produced under the black net showed higher retention of ascorbic acid, and anthocyanin contents after postharvest storage. Also pearl net production improved the β-carotene content after postharvest storage in var. Aquarell. All lettuce types produced under the pearl nets showed less weight loss, and overall acceptance after postharvest storage. Spectral quality under the shade nets enabled us to improve the phytochemical content and antioxidant properties in light-sensitive varieties Ashbrook Aquarell and Exbury, during winter season.


How often can you peek behind the curtains of one of the most secretive governments in the world? Prisoner of the Stateis the first book to give readers a front row seat to the inner workings of China. It is the story of Premier Zhao Ziyang, the man who brought liberal change to that nation and who, at the height of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, tried to stop the massacre and was dethroned for his efforts. When China's army moved in, killing hundreds of students and other demonstrators, Zhao was placed under house arrest at his home in Beijing. China's most promising advocate for change had been disgraced, along with the policies he stood for. The Premier spent the last 16 years of his life, up until his death in 2005, in seclusion. China scholars often lamented that Zhao never had his final say. As it turns out, Zhao did produce a memoir, in complete secrecy. He methodically recorded his thoughts and recollections on what had happened behind the scenes during many of modern China's most critical moments. The tapes he produced were smuggled out of the country and form the basis for Prisoner of the State. In this audio journal, Zhao provides intimate details about the Tiananmen crackdown; he describes the ploys and double-crosses China's top leaders use to gain advantage over one another; and he talks of the necessity for China to adopt democracy in order to achieve long-term stability. A moving and riveting memoir, Zhao's voice has the moral power to make China sit up and listen.


This letter presents two novel power dividers operating in the FCC frequency range from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. The two outputs of each power divider are coplanar striplines, while the input is a microstrip line. Hence, the power dividers act as baluns and are suited for differentially fed antennas. The in-phase version shows a return loss of better than 15 dB from 1 to 12.3 GHz, whereas for the anti-phase version the return loss is better than 10 dB from 1 to 12.3 GHz. Besides the characterization of the dividers, a linear antenna array fed by one of the dividers is shown, and measurement results in the time domain and frequency domain are presented. The mean gain of the realized four-element array is 9.7 dBi.


This essay defends the Pragmatist's call to activism in higher education, understanding it as a necessary development of good democratic inquiry. Some criticisms of activism have merit, but I distinguish crass or uncritical activism from judicious activism. I then argue that judicious activism in higher education and in philosophy is not only defensible, but both called for implicitly in the task of democratic education as well as an aspect of what John Dewey has articulated as the supreme intellectual obligation, namely to ensure that inquiry is put to use for the benefit of life.


We give an explicit proof of equivalence of the two-point function to one-loop order in the two formalisms of thermal λ3 theory based on the expressions in the real-time formalism and indicate that the key point of completing the proof is to separate carefully the imaginary part of the zero-temperature loop integralfrom relevant expressions and this fact will certainly be very useful for examination of the equivalent problem of two formalisms of thermal field theory in other theories, including the one of the propagators for scalar bound states in an NJL model.


Locally available natural sources like dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), being rich source of functional ingredients can be exploited for their functional role by incorporating them in chicken meat loaves. Hence, a study was designed to evaluate the effect of incorporation of oven-dried Dandelion Leaf Powder (DLP) at three levels 1% (T1), 2% (T2) and 3% (T3) replacing lean meat in the formulation of the product. Cooking yield of chicken meat loaves showed a non-significant (P>0.05) increase with increase in levels of DLP. pH values increased non-significantly (P>0.05) among the treatment groups, with increase in levels of DLP. The percent moisture showed a non-significant (P>0.05) increase whereas the percent protein as well as fat content showed a non-significant (P>0.05) decrease among all the treatments including control. The percent ash content of 2% and 3% level was significantly (P≤0.05) higher than control whereas a non-significant (P>0.05) difference was found between control and 1% level. The antioxidant activity in terms of DPPH-RSA value showed a significant (P≤0.05) increase with increase in levels of Dandelion leaf powder and was higher at 3% DLP incorporation. Sensory evaluation of the products revealed a non-significant (P>0.05) difference in various attributes of control and all the other treatments. Thus, it was concluded that dandelion leaf powder up to 1% level can be efficiently incorporated in chicken meat loaves for improving their functional value.


A sex health information class was introduced to almost 100 students at Capital Normal University. The late Premier Zhou Enlai had suggested sex health education for adolescents in 1963. Although the State Education Commission issued several circulars regarding the development of an educational program about puberty for middle schools the directives were not followed properly. 4000 junior middle school students in Beijing were surveyed to ascertain their sexual psychological development; it was found that the teenagers were maturing sexually at an earlier age. However the age at marriage was late due to a policy of deferred marriage. Despite the importance of guidance during the middle school period teaching materials and teachers are not available. According to Dr. Gao Dewei (chief of the Research Centre for Sexual Health Education for the Capital Normal University) courses should be initiated at normal colleges and universities to provide teachers in this area. Beginning in 1993 a Sex Education Programme was introduced at the university in 3 steps: 1) an elective course in sex health; 2) a series of elective courses for biology majors; and 3) a subsidiary specialty course in sex health education open to students from all departments. Step 3 began in 1995. Sexual morals and ethics sexuality laws sex physiology and psychology sexual health care sex sociology and sex pedagogy are covered.


Using Schur complement techniques, it is shown that a non-negative operator valued trigonometric polynomial in two variables with degree (d1, d2) can be written as a finite sum of hermitian squares of at most 2d2 analytic polynomials with degrees at most (d1, 2d2 − 1). In analogy with the Tarski transfer principle in real algebra, when the coefficient space is finite dimensional, the proof lifts the problem to an ultraproduct, solves it there, and then shows that this implies the existence of a solution in the original context. The general result is obtained through a compactness argument. While the proof is non-constructive, it nevertheless leads to a concrete algorithm for the factorization.


Dose response relationships of creatine, creatinie excretions and their ratio in 24 hr urine samples have been studied on each individual day upto 4 days after 1-7 Gy whole body gamma irradiation to rats. Creatine excretion reaches the peak on the 2nd day while creatinine excretion reaches the peak on the first day and a plateau is maintained upto the 4th day in each case. Good dose response correlationship is maintained for creatine or creatinine levels upto the 4th day and for creatine creatinine ratio upto the 3rd day. Seperate dose response curves are needed on each individual day for using these parameters for biological dosimetry purpose. Administration of the radioprotectors viz., combination of 5-hydroxytryptophan (HT) and 2-amino-ethylisothiuronium bromide hydrobromide (AET), HT alone and optimum radioprotecting dose of AET before 5 Gy whole body γ-irradiation have not been of help for reducing creatinineurea.


Mutations in Parkin gene are responsible of 50% of cases with autosomal recessive juvenile-onset Parkinson's disease (ARJP). Although 21 parkin alternative splice variants have been cloned so far, most of the studies have focused their attention on the full-length protein. Despite the expression of the originally cloned protein has been observed in human blood cells, there is currently no study that has investigated the expression profile of parkin isoforms in human lymphomonocyte (LMN). In the present study, we have explored the expression pattern of parkin proteins in total LMN and in specific subpopulations like T lymphocyte (CD2+), monocyte (CD14+) and B lymphocyte (CD19+). Peripheral blood was collected from healthy volunteers (n=5). Total LMN homogenate expresses H1, H5 and H6 parkin isoforms. These data have been confirmed by immunoprecipitation analysis, by using three antibodies recognizing different domains of the full-length. In human CD2+, CD14+ and CD19+ subpopulations, two bands of ~58 and ~52 kDa molecular weight have been revealed. These proteins are distributed both in cytoplasm and nucleus, as demonstrated by fluorescence immunolocalization. The expression of parkin isoforms in human blood cells is subpopulation-specific, and is likely altered in PD patients. A future investigation of the parkin splicing profile in human blood cells could represent a useful tool for identify early non-invasive biomarkers in patients affected by ARJP.


An innovative, efficient, and robust algorithm is presented for the evaluation of the instantaneous flow-rate in high-pressure liquid flow pipelines. This algorithm is based on the pressure time histories measured at two locations. A simple ordinary differential equation has been derived from the mass and momentum conservation laws and has been solved analytically. This equation allows the flow-rate time fluctuations to be evaluated accurately around their mean value, without any need for initial datum on the liquid flow velocity. A measuring device has been designed and realized to evaluate the flow-rate. The proposed flowmeter layout consists of a piece of pipeline endowed with two piezoresistive pressure sensors equipped with miniaturized thermocouples, the pressure sensor conditioners and a central processing unit (CPU), in which the algorithm for the evaluation of the flow-rate has been implemented. A more sophisticated version of the flowmeter algorithm, which includes unsteady friction in the flow-rate evaluation, has also been developed. Different algorithm versions have been assessed and successfully validated through a comparison with numerical flow-rate data predicted using a reliable onedimensional model of a common rail (CR) fuel injection system. The prototypal flowmeter has been installed at the delivery section of a CR volumetric pump in order to investigate the flow-rate ripple. The flowmeter traces have been compared with the predictions of a previously developed theoretical model for the pump delivered instantaneous flow-rate, in order to further assess the reliability of both the model and the flowmeter as well as to have a better understanding of the cause and effect relationships between the flow-rate time history and the dynamic working of the pump. The effects that the actuation of the fuel metering valve (FMV), which is placed at the CR pump inlet, has on the instantaneous delivered flow-rate have also been analyzed


Extending instruction set architecture (ISA) of embedded processors is an effective way to enhance performance and energy efficiency. The typical approaches for identifying custom instructions (CIs) limit the maximum number of input and output (I/O) operands to the available register file port. Recently, there are several work that explore CI candidates without imposing a limit on the number of input and output operands. In this paper, we present a new algorithm based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to identify CIs within a given data flow graph (DFG) and evaluate it for both categories of CI identification approaches (with and without I/O constrains). By novel evolving strategy, we enhance the quality of the results in our partitioning algorithm. Experimental results show that in most cases CI identification with I/O constraints based on PSO finds better or the same CIs in terms of performance compared to genetic algorithm (GA)[1] and ISEGEN [2] (96% and 90%, respectively). Comparing our proposed algorithm with [12] and [13] reveals that ours has a shorter run-time several order of magnitudes for large DFGs and is independent of the number of forbidden nodes. Moreover, we propose a modified version of PSO called Wrapper PSO that is up to 100× and 500× faster than GA and ISEGEN in large DFGs, respectively.


We investigate spatial variations in the shape of the spectrum of sea level variability, based on a homogeneously-sampled 12-year gridded altimeter dataset. We present a method of plotting spectral information as color, focusing on periods between 2 and 24 weeks, which shows that significant spatial variations in the spectral shape exist,
and contain useful dynamical information. Using the Bayesian Information Criterion, we determine that, typically, a 5th order autoregressive model is needed to capture the structure in the spectrum. Using this model, we show that statistical errors in fitted local trends range between less than 1 and more than 5 times what would be calculated assuming "white" noise, and the time needed to detect a 1 mm/yr trend ranges between about 5 years and many decades. For global-mean sea level, the statistical error reduces to 0.1 mm/yr over 12 years, with only 2 years needed to detect a 1 mm/yr trend. We find significant regional differences in trend from the global mean. The
patterns of these regional differences are indicative of a sea level trend dominated by dynamical ocean processes, over this period


Auger electron spectroscopy and low-energy ion scattering were used to assess surface composition of yttrium-doped polycrystalline and single-crystal ..cap alpha..-aluminas which were heated under vacuum to temperatures above 1500/sup 0/C. Extensive surface and intergranular precipitation of yttrium aluminum garnet was observed in a compact of nominal Y content of 210 wt ppm, while apparent Y segregation to surface cation sites predominated in a second compact with a Y content of 160 wt ppm. In the latter case, the segregation enthalpy of yttrium to the alumina surface in the temperature range 1700/sup 0/ to 1900/sup 0/C was estimated to be of the order -44 kJ/mol with a maximum surface cation site occupancy of approx. =13%.


Background: Myocardial performance index (MPI) or Tei index is a Doppler-derived index of combined systolic and diastolic myocardial function, calculated as the sum of isovolumetric relaxation time (IRT) and isovolumetric contraction time (ICT) divided by the ejection time (ET). Objective: To evaluate the right and left ventricular systolic and diastolic function using MPI in children before and after liver transplantation. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 30 children with liver cirrhosis before liver trans-plantation, 30 age-matched comparison group at least 6 months after liver transplantation, and 30 aged-matched children without history of heart disease in Nemazi Liver Transplant Center, Shiraz, Iran, from April 2012 to April 2014. Echocardiographic evaluation was carried out with a GE Vivid 3 echocardio-graphic machine, using a 3-MHz probe with tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) software using conventional and TDI method. Results: The mean±SD left ventricle Tei index in patients was 0.33±0.02 before liver transplantation, 0.34±0.02 after liver transplantation, and 0.33±003 in the comparison group (p=0.36). The mean±SD right ventricular Tei index was 0.35±0.04 in patients before transplantation, 0.36±0.46 after liver trans-plantation, and 0.28±0.04 in the comparison group (p<0.001). In addition, when TDI was used, the mean±SD left ventricular Tei index was 0.39±0.50 in patients before transplantation, 0.37±0.42 after liver transplantation, and 0.38±006 in the comparison group (p=0.32). The tissue Doppler-derived Tei index for the right ventricle was 0.37±0.04 in patients before transplantation, 0.37±0.04 after liver transplanta-tion, and 0.33±0.05 in the comparison group (p=0.031). The left ventricular Doppler-derived Tei index had a significant (p=0.03) correlation with Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) score (r=0.57). Conclusion: Left ventricular MPI with Doppler echocardiography was correlated with CTP score. Right ventricular MPI was significantly increased in patients with cirrhosis and did not improve 6 months after transplantation.


Annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) can be divided into two cytotypes: diploid (2n = 2x) and tetraploid (2n = 4x). Polyploid versions of a given plant species result in increased seedling vigor, more robust growth and, potentially, greater yield. While most data suggest no difference in yield between diploid and tetraploid cultivars, there is still potential for weight gain advantages thanks to increased non-structural carbohydrates in tetraploid cells. The objectives of this study were to compare weight gain of cattle grazing either diploid or tetraploid cultivars of annual ryegrass. Two diploid annual ryegrass cultivars (Marshall and Tam 90) and two tetraploid cultivars (Jumbo and Nelson) were planted in 0.81-ha pastures, each replicated four times. Four steers (mean initial BW = 214 kg) were randomly assigned to each pasture for an 82-d grazing period. Body weights were recorded starting at d0 then every 28 days throughout the season. Data were analyzed in the GLM procedure of SAS using a significance level of α = 0.05. There were significant differences between cytotypes with respect to seasonal yield with diploids (9547.90 kg/ha) yielding greater than tetraploids (7762.00 kg/ha). As expected, ADF and NDF fractions were significantly less for tetraploids (ADF; 31.39%, NDF; 31.39%) compared to diploids (ADF; 33.75%, NDF; 53.25%). Tetraploids also contained significantly greater crude protein (13.50%) than diploids (12.90%). Cytotype had no effect on final average daily gain (ADG) (P = 0.9427). However, final ADG was significantly impacted by cultivar (P = 0.0134). Final ADG for Tam 90 (1.10 kg/d) was greater than Marshall (0.92 kg/d). Cattle grazing Nelson (1.04 kg/d) and Jumbo (0.99 kg/d) did not differ. Results show that regardless of differences in seasonal yield and nutritive value between cytotypes, there were no advantages in ADG for cattle grazing either cytotype.


Skull stripping is a major phase in MRI brain imaging applications and it refers to the removal of its non- cerebral tissues. The main problem in skull-stripping is the segmentation of the non-cerebral and the intracranial tissues due to their homogeneity intensities. As morphology requires prior binarization of the image, this paper proposed mathematical morphology segmentation using double and Otsu's thresholding. The purpose is to identify robust threshold values to remove the non-cerebral tissue from MRI brain images. Ninety collected samples of T1-weighted, T2-weighted and FLAIR MRI brain images are used in the experiments. The results showed promising use of double threholding as a robust threshold value in handling intensity inhomogeneities compared to Otsu's thresholding.


INTRODUCTION
The demographic and professional characteristics of specialists in Obstetrics and Gynecology registered in Portugal are presented and current and future needs assessed.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
An analysis of the data from Instituto Nacional de Estatística, Ordem dos Médicos and a survey sent to the directors of the departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Portuguese hospitals was perfomed. In order to calculate the necessary number of specialists, established indicators of the activity of the specialty were used.

RESULTS
In 2018, there were 1 437 441 consultations of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 89 110 major gynecologic surgeries and 85 604 deliveries. For that, 1065 Obstetrics and Gynecology physicians, working 40 hours per week, with no more than 40% aged 55 years of age and older or including 30 residents per year, are deemed necessary. According to the National Institute of Statistics, in the same year there were 1143 specialists in Portuguese hospitals, of which 234 worked in private hospitals. On the other hand, 1772 specialists were registered with the Ordem dos Médicos: 1163 (66%) were aged 55 years old or above and 84% of specialists under the age of 40 were females. In 2020, there were 864 specialists, 46% of which aged years of age and older working in 39 out of the 41 public or public-private departments that answered the survey. In 2035, an increase of 7% in the required number of specialists is expected.

CONCLUSION
In Portugal, there is not lack of Obstetrics and Gynecology specialists in absolute numbers, but the large number of specialists aged 55 years of age and older, who are exempt from shifts in emergency department work, and the existence of regional asymmetries contribute to the perpetuation of some shortages of these healthcare professionals in several departments, namely in public hospitals.


The BB2 receptor subtype, of the bombesin family of receptors, has been shown to be highly overexpressed in a variety of human tumors, including prostate cancer. Bombesin (BBN), a 14-amino acid peptide, has been shown to target the BB2 receptor with high affinity. 64Cu (half-life = 12.7 h, β+: 18%, Eβ+max = 653 keV; β−: 37%, Eβ−max = 578 keV) is a radioisotope that has clinical potential for application in both diagnostic imaging and radionuclide therapy. Recently, new chelation systems such as 1,4,8,11-tetraazabicyclo[6.6.2]hexadecane-4,11-diacetic acid (CB-TE2A) have been reported to significantly stabilize the 64Cu radiometal in vivo. The increased stability of the 64Cu-CB-TE2A chelate complex has been shown to significantly reduce nontarget retention compared with tetraazamacrocycles such as 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclodoadecane-N,N′,N″,N‴-tetraacetic acid (DOTA). The aim of this study was to determine whether the CB-TE2A chelation system could significantly improve the in vivo stability of 64Cu bombesin analogs. The study directly compares 64Cu bombesin analogs using the CB-TE2A and DOTA chelation systems in a prostate cancer xenograft SCID (severely compromised immunodeficient) mouse model. Methods: The CB-TE2A-8-AOC-BBN(7–14)NH2 and DOTA-8-AOC-BBN(7–14)NH2 conjugates were synthesized and radiolabeled with 64Cu. The receptor-binding affinity and internalization profile of each metallated conjugate was evaluated using PC-3 cells. Pharmacokinetic and small-animal PET/CT studies were performed using female SCID mice bearing PC-3 xenografts. Results: In vivo BB2 receptor targeting was confirmed by tumor uptake values of 6.95 ± 2.27 and 4.95 ± 0.91 %ID/g (percentage injected dose per gram) at the 15-min time point for the 64Cu-CB-TE2A and 64Cu-DOTA radioconjugates, respectively. At the 24-h time point, liver uptake was substantially reduced for the 64Cu-CB-TE2A radioconjugate (0.21 ± 0.06 %ID/g) compared with the 64Cu-DOTA radioconjugate (7.80 ± 1.51 %ID/g). The 64Cu-CB-TE2A-8-AOC-BBN(7–14)NH2 radioconjugate demonstrated significant clearance, 98.60 ± 0.28 %ID, from the mouse at 24 h after injection. In contrast, only 67.84 ± 5.43 %ID of the 64Cu activity was excreted using the 64Cu-DOTA-8-AOC-BBN(7–14)NH2 radioconjugate because of nontarget retention. Conclusion: The pharmacokinetic and small-animal PET/CT studies demonstrate significantly improved nontarget tissue clearance for the 64Cu-CB-TE2A8-AOC-BBN(7–14)NH2. This is attributed to the improved in vivo stability of the 64Cu-CB-TE2A chelate complex as compared with the 64Cu-DOTA chelate complex.


This paper explores the question of how live coding musicians can perform with musicians who are not using code (such as acoustic instrumentalists or those using graphical and tangible electronic interfaces). This paper investigates performance systems that facilitate improvisation where the musicians can interact not just by listening to each other and changing their own output, but also by manipulating the data stream of the other performer(s). In a course of performance-led research four prototypes were built and analyzed using concepts from NIME and creative collaboration literature. Based on this analysis it was found that the systems should 1) provide a commonly modifiable visual representation of musical data for both coder and non-coder, and 2) provide some independent means of sound production for each user, giving the non-coder the ability to slow down and make non-realtime decisions for greater perfor-


T his work depends on detailed petrographic and diagenetic processes studies of collected cutting rock samples, from the Late Jurassic Naokelekan Formation from Ajil-8, Balad-1 and Baiji-1 wells. Based on the thin sections study, the formation contains various petrographic components represented by pelecypods, calcispheres, planktonic and benthonic foraminifera, in addition to the groundmass of micrite and microspars. Many diagenetic processes affected the rock successions such as, compaction, micritization, authigenic minerals (pyrite), cementation, neomorphism, dissolution, porosity, replacement and dolomitization. The detailed microfacies analysis reveals that the rock successions consist mainly of three microfacies including; lime mudstone, which is divided into non-fossiliferous lime mudstone, bioclastic lime mudstone and planktonic foraminiferal lime mudstone, lime wackestone which also divided into calcispheres lime wackestone, benthonic lime wackestone, and pelcypodal lime wackestone, and lime packstone include, bioclastic lime packstone, peloidal lime packstone, and calcispheres lime packestone. The overall characters of these microfacies indicate the formation was deposited in two different environments: (1) shallow marine subtidal environment at the lower and upper parts (2) outer shelf in an euxinic environment at its middle part .


In this issue of JNN, Crago et al. present findings from a pilot analysis of data on individuals who had sustained aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) andwere employed preinjury. Data were obtained from a larger NIH-funded trial investigating complications and outcomes after aSAH. For the current study, investigators focused specifically on those individuals who had been employed before their injury to determine impact of deficits on work productivity. For this section of Research Bytes, we'll break down what was done in the study, review findings, and discuss what it means for nursing practice.


Experiemntal fuels made up of cottonseed oil, transesterified cottonseed oil (methyl ester) and No. 2 diesel fuel have been compared to a baseline No. 2 diesel fuel in a turbocharged, open chamber diesel engine. All fuel blends were analyzed and their properties compared to those of typical No. 2 diesel fuels. Test results include data on performance, gaseous emissions and limited (200-hour) cyclic durability. Crankcase oil samples were withdrawn at regular intervals during durability tests and analyzed for indications of fuel-lubricant compatibility. The paper presents data obtained and discusses effects of fuel properties and engine operating conditions on the short and long-term response of existing diesels. 9 figures.


Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by the production of antibodies against a variety of self-antigens including nucleic acids. These antibodies are cytotoxic, catalytic (hydrolyzing DNA, RNA, and protein), and nephritogenic. Current methods for investigating catalytic activities of natural abzymes produced by individuals suffering from autoimmunity are mostly discontinuous and often employ hazardous reagents. Here we demonstrate the utility of dual-labeled, fluorogenic DNA hydrolysis probes in highly specific, sensitive, continuous, fluorescence-based measurement of DNA hydrolytic activity of anti-ssDNA abzymes purified from the serum of patients suffering from SLE. An assay for the presence and levels of antibodies exhibiting hydrolytic activity could facilitate disease diagnosis, prediction of flares, monitoring of disease state, and response to therapy. The assay may allow indirect identification of additional targets of anti-DNA antibodies and the discovery of molecules that inhibit their activity. Combined, these approaches may provide new insights into molecular mechanisms of lupus pathogenesis.


PURPOSE
Patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) refractory to standard therapy have a poor prognosis. We assessed prognostic factors and clinical outcomes for patients with MBC referred to a phase I clinic focused primarily on targeted agents.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We reviewed the medical records of sequential patients with MBC who presented to our phase I clinic between September 2004 and May 2008 to assess baseline patient characteristics, overall survival (OS), and clinical benefit.

RESULTS
A total of 92 patients were identified, with a median age of 53 years (range, 28-83 years). The median number of previous therapies was 5 (range, 1-16 therapies). Of 92 patients, 78 were eligible for and offered > or = 1 phase I clinical trial. With a median follow-up of 7.4 months, the median OS was 6.7 months (95% CI, 5.2-9.7). In multivariate analysis, independent factors predicting shorter survival were > or = 10 previous treatments (vs. < 10 previous treatments; hazard ratio [HR], 3.27; 95% CI, 1.37-7.81; P = .008), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (PS) 2/3 (vs. 0/1; HR, 2.92; 95% CI, 1.28-6.66; P = .01), and albumin level < 3.5 g/dL (vs. > 3.5 g/dL; HR, 2.88; 95% CI, 1.41-5.89; P = .004).

CONCLUSION
Patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer referred for our phase I studies had a median survival of 6.7 months. Heavily pretreated disease, poor ECOG PS, and/or low albumin levels were associated with significantly shorter survival in a multivariate analysis.


ABSTRACT The most common presentation of symptomatic postnatally acquired toxoplasmosis in immunocompetent patients is painless cervical adenopathy. Acute visceral manifestations are associated in rare cases. We report 16 cases of severe primary toxoplasmosis diagnosed in French Guiana during a 6.5-year period. All of the subjects were immunocompetent adults hospitalized with clinical presentations consisting of a marked, nonspecific infectious syndrome accompanied by an altered general status with at least one visceral localization, mainly pulmonary involvement (14 cases). Acute toxoplasmosis was diagnosed according to the results of serological tests suggestive of recent primary infection and the absence of an alternative etiology. Recovery was rapid following specific antitoxoplasmosis treatment. Thirteen of the 16 patients had consumed game in the 2 weeks before the onset of the symptoms, and in eight cases the game was considered to have been undercooked. Toxoplasma strains, which were virulent in mice, were isolated from three patients. Microsatellite analysis showed that all of these isolates exhibited an atypical multilocus genotype, with one allele found only for isolates of this region.


Solar photovoltaics provides a practical and sustainable solution to the increasing global energy demand. Using first-principles calculations, we investigate the energetics and electronic properties of two-dimensional lateral heterostructures by group-III monochalcogenides and explore their potential applications in photovoltaics. The band structures and formation energies from supercell calculations demonstrate that these heterostructures retain semiconducting behavior and might be synthesized in laboratory using the chemical vapor deposition technique. According to the computed band offsets, most of the heterojunctions belong to type II band alignment, which can prevent the recombination of electron-hole pairs. Besides, the electronic properties of these lateral heterostructures can be effectively tailored by the number of layers, leading to a high theoretical power conversion efficiency over 20%.


Measures of familial emotional climate and communication deviance, obtained when subjects were adolescents, were used to predict social adjustment 15 years later. The results showed that disturbed family functioning predicted poor quality of later intimate relationships, but did not predict other dimensions of adult social functioning.


Pyogenic granuloma (also known as lobular capillary hemangioma) is a benign and vascu-lar lesion of the skin and mucous membranes that is frequently seen in the head and neck region. Although the etiology of the condition is still unknown, some conditions, such as trauma, poor oral hygiene, viral or fungal in-fections, and periodontal and gingival diseas-es, are considered to be related to the for-mation of pyogenic granuloma. The cheeks and the oral cavity are the major locations for pyogenic granuloma in the head and neck region, but larynx localization is also known, although rare. In this case report, we present a 47-year-old male patient with lobular capil-lary hemangioma of the left vocal fold and discuss the related literature.


This qualitative, phenomenological study was undertaken to find out how patients felt about being transferred from the intensive care unit to the ward. The six patients who took part in the study, had been in intensive care for more than 4 days. Their transfer was planned as part of their recovery from a critical illness. Following transfer to the ward, the patients were interviewed using a semi-structured approach. The interviews were audio-taped, and transcriptions from the tapes were analysed for meaning and interpretation. Findings supported the literature that was reviewed, in that transfer from intensive care to the ward was a traumatic experience for the patient, who often found it confusing, stressful and tiring. Improvements to the transfer process can be guided using the information from the literature review and findings of the study.


Upon maturation, dendritic cells (DCs) acquire the unique ability to activate naïve T cells. We used time-lapse video microscopy and two-photon imaging of intact lymph nodes to showthat after establishing initial contact between their dendrites and naïve T lymphocytes, mature DCs migrate toward the contacted lymphocytes. Subsequently, the DCs tightly entrap the T cells within a complex net of membrane extensions. The Rho family guanosine triphosphatases Rac1 and Rac2 but not Rho itself control the formation of dendrites in mature DCs, their polarized short-range migration toward T cells, and T cell priming.


The proposed upgrade of the LHC, the Super-LHC, will tenfold the peak luminosity to 1035 cm−2s−1 at a center of mass energy of (s)1/2 = 14 TeV. Depending on the upgrade scheme up to 400 events per bunch crossing have to be considered, a challenge especially for the tracking detectors and trigger systems of CMS and ATLAS. The ATLAS upgrade program foresees a new all-silicon inner detector and modifications to the trigger system. Exploiting track information already on the first trigger level, being only marginally done in the current ATLAS detector, is a promising option to reduce the L1 trigger rate and bandwidth. We describe a possible realisation of a Level 1 Track Trigger based on Content-Addressable-Memories and the impact of the new inner detector design on the track trigger performance.


A diverse set of sensors and actuators are key components of integrated security systems, which provide protection against various types of attacks and threats. Based on the type of the protected objects and environment the sensor/actuator components can be completely different, and the control logic, which makes decision based on the sensor readings, must be configured to the actual scenario. Short-lifetime security systems require fast and cost effective deployment but the safety requirements are still high. In this paper an architecture and a corresponding model-based code generation scheme is proposed, which provides easy and fast deployment for security applications with various sensory needs.


In this paper we study the transmission of capital depreciation shocks. The existing literature in the real business cycle tradition has concluded that these shocks are irrelevant to business cycle fluctuations. We show that they are potentially important drivers of aggregate fluctuations in a new Keynesian model. Nominal rigidities and some persistence in the shock process are the key ingredients that generate co-movement across real variables.


A 61-year-old white woman dislocated her left condyle. She did not seek care for almost three years. In such a long-standing unilateral dislocation, Gottlieb reported that such extreme adhesions and accumulation of connective tissue develops in the joint cavity that actual reduction is impossible and that violent manipulation may lead to ankylosis. Therefore, in such cases, surgery (condylectomy) is indicated. This was done in our case with good functional results.


OBJECTIVES: Vocal cord palsy seen in some patients with multiple system atrophy may result from neuronopathy of the recurrent laryngeal nerve. METHODS: Six controls and six patients with multiple system atrophy, four with and two without vocal cord palsy were studied. The number of myelinated nerve fibres were counted and fibre diameter histograms were established for the motor and sensory divisions of the laryngeal branch of the recurrent laryngeal nerve. RESULTS: Although both groups of patients with multiple system atrophy showed selective loss of the myelinated fibres in the motor branch, the change was greater in those with vocal cord palsy than in those without. The small myelinated nerve fibres (diameter < 7 microm) were decreased in number in both multiple system atrophy groups, whereas the large myelinated nerve fibres (diameter < 8 microm) were decreased only in those with vocal cord palsy, and preserved in those without the symptom. CONCLUSION: In multiple system atrophy, the small myelinated fibres innervating the vocal cord are affected first, without obvious clinical signs. The patient develops vocal cord palsy only after the loss of the large myelinated fibres, which mostly comprise the alpha motor axons that innervate the intrinsic laryngeal muscles.


We developed a new peptide, natural phytochelatin (PC), which tightly binds to CdSe/ZnS quantum dots' (QDs) surfaces and renders them water-soluble. Coating QDs with this flexible and all-hydrophilic peptide offers high colloidal stability, adds only 0.8-0.9 nm to the radius of the particles (as compared to their original inorganic radius), preserves very high quantum yield (QY) in water, and affords facile bioconjugation with various functional groups. We demonstrate specific targeting (with minimal nonspecific binding) of such fluorescein-conjugated QDs to ScFv-fused mouse prion protein expressed in live N2A cells. We also demonstrated homogeneous in vivo biodistribution with no significant toxicity in live zebrafish.


BackgroundSome clinical and experimental studies suggest that propofol decreases myocardial contractility and relaxation, whereas others report preserved cardiac function. To investigate the effects of propofol on intrinsic contractility and relaxation, increasing concentrations of propofol were infused in isolated blood-perfused rabbit hearts. Equimolar concentrations of thiopental were infused as a reference group. MethodsCoronary blood flow, left ventricular contractility and relaxation (as maximal positive and negative left ventricular pressure derivatives [dP/dtmax and dP/dtmin], respectively), and myocardial oxygen consumption (MvO2) were measured during infusion of 10–1,000 μM propofol in bloodperfused hearts. To determine whether the effects of propofol depend on the heart's perfusate, propofol also was infused in isolated buffer-perfused rabbit hearts. In addition, the effects of propofol solvent were investigated in blood- and buffer-perfused preparations. ResultsIn blood-perfused preparations, coronary blood flow increased with propofol concentrations greater than 30 μM and with 300 and 1,000 μM thiopental. Left ventricular dP/dtmax and dP/dtmin remained unchanged with propofol and decreased with concentrations of thiopental equal to or greater than 30 μM. MvO2 increased with 1,000 μM propofol, whereas coronary venous oxygen tension and content remained unchanged. MvO2 decreased with thiopental associated with a significant increase in coronary venous oxygen tension and content. In six buffer-perfused hearts, basal coronary blood flow was much greater and MvO2 less than in blood-perfused hearts. Left ventricular dP/dtmax and dP/dtmin decreased with 30, 100, and 300 μM propofol. Propofol vehicle did not change coronary blood flow, myocardial performance, or MvO2 of blood- or buffer-perfused hearts. ConclusionsWhen compared to a reference drug such as thiopental, propofol did not depress the myocardial performance of blood-perfused rabbit hearts. The type of the perfusate (blood vs. buffer), however, had a major influence on the myocardial effects of propofol.


: Outsourcing has emerged as a globally embraced business strategy that involves restructuring geared at improving flexibility, inducing innovation and creativity, whilst simultaneously creating greater employment opportunities. Telecommunications companies worldwide have adopted outsourcing strategies leaving them to concentrate on their core business. In Uganda almost all telecommunications companies have also followed the outsourcing trend. However, despite the increasing adoption of outsourcing strategies, there is a dearth of literature about how outsourcing in the telecommunications sector has contributed to the generation of employment in Uganda. MTN Uganda and Airtel Uganda were selected as study sites and a mixed-methods approach was followed for the data collection and analysis. The quantitative data was analysed through descriptive statistics and inferential analysis using version 23 of the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The descriptive statistics were analysed, confirming that a multitude of business functions are being outsourced to other companies in Uganda. Correlation analyses were performed for purposes of generating inferential statistics and the findings revealed that the outsourcing of Human Resource Management (HRM) functions, Information Technology (IT) functions and Facility Management (FM) functions by the telecommunications companies in Uganda has a significant positive relationship with employment generation in Uganda. The qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis and content analysis, with these findings supporting information revealed through the quantitative analysis. Based on the study's findings, the researchers recommend that more activities and/or services should be strategically outsourced by companies in the Ugandan telecommunications sector so as to maximize flexibility, and induce innovations and creativity while creating increased employment opportunities in the country.


The core of a power transformer can weigh hundreds of tons, and represents a significant part of the total ownership cost of the transformer, in terms of both the construction cost and of the monetary cost of losses. It is therefore desirable to have a method of diagnosing the core to ensure optimal performance, and to enable the operator to plan repairs of damaged or defective cores. This study shows that measuring the magnetizing current gives an amplification effect, compared to measuring just the no-load loss, that allows even small variations in the state of the core to be detected. The measurement is performed on several large power transformers, demonstrating that the method is easy to use and that it gives reliable results that are comparable between different transformer designs, though further experiments are necessary in order to fully validate it. Experiments performed on small-scale transformer models show that different types of core faults give different characteristic changes in the magnetizing current, thus making it possible to diagnose the core.The large scale does, however, introduce other phenomena that must be taken into account. The most important of these is that, at high voltages, the capacitances in the transformer become noticeable and must be compensated for. This study describes a method of approximating the capacitive part of the no-load current using naturally occurring harmonics in the supply voltage.Additionally, there is, at present, no satisfactory method of describing the magnetizing current of a three-phase transformer. Because of the non-linearity of the core steel, there is a large difference between the measured no-load current and the actual magnetizing current. Three methods for measuring the magnetizing current in a three-phase transformer are described. However, these methods are only applicable under very special circumstances, and are generally not useful under real conditions. As an alternative, a simulation method is outlined. Measurement results from a transformer can then be compared to the simulation result, and any differences between the two can be interpreted to make a diagnosis of the transformer core. The method is used to simulate a large three-phase transformer, and produces a qualitative agreement. An improvement to the hysteresis model used in the simulation, which could potentially make it possible to make quantitative predictions as well, is discussed.Much work remains before the methods described in this thesis can become fully functional diagnostic tools, but the work shows the feasibility of the project, and the potential benefits. By measuring the magnetizing current it is possible to obtain valuable information about the status of the core. This makes it easier for the transformer operator to plan maintenance, or for the manufacturer to assess the quality of the core, and increases operational reliability and efficiency.


The five million workers employed in science and engineering (S&E) occupations, and the 20 million with S&E degrees, are considered keys to U.S. competitiveness in the 21st century. Most of those earning PhDs in engineering at U.S. universities are foreigners, as are many of those earning PhDs in science. Many U.S. employers assert that the U.S. Government impairs economic competitiveness with policies that force some foreigners who earn advanced degrees from U.S. Universities to leave and restrict admissions of H-1B temporary foreign workers and that employers want to hire.


BACKGROUND
SARS-CoV-2 may trigger new-onset persistent hypertension. This study investigated the incidence and risk factors associated with new-onset persistent hypertension during COVID-19 hospitalization and at ≈6-month follow-up compared with influenza.

METHODS
This retrospective observational study was conducted in a major academic health system in New York City. Participants included 45 398 patients with COVID-19 (March 2020 to August 2022) and 13 864 influenza patients (January 2018 to August 2022) without a history of hypertension.

RESULTS
At 6-month follow-up, new-onset persistent hypertension was seen in 20.6% of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and 10.85% of nonhospitalized patients with COVID-19. Persistent hypertension incidence among hospitalized patients did not vary across the pandemic, whereas that of among hospitalized patients decreased from 20% in March 2020 to ≈10% in October 2020 (R2=0.79, P=0.003) and then plateaued thereafter. Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 were 2.23 ([95% CI, 1.48-3.54]; P<0.001) times and nonhospitalized patients with COVID-19 were 1.52 ([95% CI, 1.22-1.90]; P<0.01) times more likely to develop persistent hypertension than influenza counterparts. Persistent hypertension was more common among older adults, males, patients with preexisting comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease), and those who were treated with pressor and corticosteroid medications. Mathematical models predicted persistent hypertension with 79% to 86% accuracy. In addition, 21.0% of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 with no prior hypertension developed hypertension during COVID-19 hospitalization.

CONCLUSIONS
Incidence of new-onset persistent hypertension in patients with COVID-19 is higher than those with influenza, likely constituting a major health burden given the sheer number of patients with COVID-19. Screening at-risk patients for hypertension following COVID-19 illness may be warranted.


Understanding the regulation of cardiac fibrosis is critical for controlling adverse cardiac remodeling during the development of heart failure. Previous studies implicated that microRNA-378 is primarily expressed in cardiomyocytes, and it is down-regulated during heart failure. To understand the consequence of miR-378 depletion during cardiac remodeling, the present study employed a LNA-modified-antimiR to target miR-378 in vivo. Results showed that loss of miR-378 function in mouse hearts led to the development of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and fibrosis. Upon evaluation of the mechanism of profibrotic response of miR-378 inhibition, we found that antimiR treatment induced TGFβ1 expression in mouse hearts as well as in cultured cardiomyocytes, whereas its expression in cardiomyocytes abolished AngII-stimulated induction of TGFβ1 mRNA. Among various secreted cytokines, only TGFβ1 levels were found to be increased in the conditioned-media of miR-378 depleted cardiomyocytes. Treatment of cardiac fibroblasts with the conditioned-media of miR-378 depleted myocytes activated pSMAD2/3, a critical step in TGFβ-signaling, and induced fibrotic gene expression. This effect of miR-378 depletion was counteracted by including a TGFβ1-neutralizing antibody in the conditioned-medium. In cardiomyocytes, antimiR-mediated stimulation of TGFβ1 mRNA was correlated with the increased expression of c-fos and c-jun. Adenovirus expressing dominant negative N-Ras or c-Jun prevented antimiR-mediated induction of TGFβ1 mRNA, documenting the importance of Ras and AP-1 signaling in this response. These results demonstrate that reduction in miR-378 levels during pathological conditions participate in the process of cardiac remodeling through paracrine release of a profibrotic cytokine, TGFβ1, from cardiomyocytes. Our data imply that the presence of miR-378 in cardiomyocytes plays a critical role in the protection of neighboring fibroblasts from activation by pro-fibrotic stimuli.


This is a cross-sectional study aiming to characterize food consumption of pregnant women, highlighting sources of iron and inhibitors of iron absorption foods. The study group encompassed women 19 to 49 years of age in the second trimester of their first pregnancy, who were assisted by a public prenatal care service in Cuiaba, the state of Mato Grosso capital, Brazil from May 2008 to May 2009. A food frequency questionnaire and a structured questionnaire were applied during in-person interviews to obtain data on socioeconomic and obstetric characteristics. Means and 95% confidence intervals were estimated for continuous variables and proportions (%) were estimated for categorical variables. Half of the women were less than 25 years of age, 60% had family income below a minimum wage per capita, and 42% were attending the first pre-natal consultation. Rice, beans, and bread were the most consumed foods. The mean frequency of consumption of foods that inhibit iron absorption was greater than those sources of iron; 65% of women reported increased appetite during pregnancy, and 53% showed aversion to a particular food. A poor intake of food sources of iron was observed.


The saturation of the delta4-double bond of delta4-3-oxo steroids by the mammalian 5alpha- or 5beta-reductases is by an enzyme mechanism that does not involve a Schiff-base intermediate.


Abstract Introduction  Computed tomography (CT) details of the external auditory canal (EAC) are not fully covered in the literature, so building up base for the CT evaluation and description is important. Preoperative details of the EAC are mandatory before any approach or procedure involving the canal. Objective  To determine the different dimensions, measurements, and grading of the EAC by CT scan that were not previously published. Methods  The CT scans of 100 temporal bones (200 sides) were included. Axial images were acquired with multiplanar reformates to obtain delicate details in coronal and sagittal planes for all subjects. Results  At the EAC entry, the mean vertical length (height) was 7.75 ± 1 mm, and its mean horizontal length (width) was 6.1 ± 0.8. At the bony cartilaginous junction of the EAC, the mean vertical length was 7.88 ± 1 mm, and its mean horizontal length was 6.22 ± 0.9. At the EAC isthmus, the mean vertical length was 6.8 ± 0.97 mm, and its mean horizontal length was 5.2 ± 0.76. At the medial end of the EAC, the mean vertical length was 7.1 ± 0.9 mm, and its mean horizontal length was 5.4 ± 0.85. There were no reported significant differences between right and left sides in all dimensions. Males showed significantly longer vertical and horizontal dimensions of the EAC entry, vertical dimension of the isthmus, and vertical dimension of the medial end of the EAC than females. Conclusion  This study improves otologists and radiologists' awareness of EAC variations in the ear field and can be of help to residents in training.


Imaging Neuroscience is aiming to reveal functional changes, that is, changes in brain activity, and structural changes, which address changes in neuroanatomy. There is a growing interest in defining functional interactions of different brain regions based on the increased sensitivity and specificity of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The present contribution is a brief overview of the trends in brain connectivity research driven by the development of several techniques derived from fMRI.


Abstract:Miranda Bailey's bout with OCD on the TV show Grey's Anatomy presents disability in black women as a threat to American capitalism, which legitimizes the state control and exploitation of black women's work. Because this OCD narrative emerges through contradiction, causing Dr. Bailey to work both too much and not enough, it construes black disabled women as a version of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's "tangle of pathology" that comes into being because of disability. Producing black women as "bad" disabled subjects allows American popular culture to nominally prize "good" disabled subjects—white men whose OCD supposedly offers them genius and career excellence.


IR models using a pretrained language model significantly outperform lexical approaches like BM25. In particular, SPLADE, which encodes texts to sparse vectors, is an effective model for practical use because it shows robustness to out-of-domain datasets. However, SPLADE still struggles with exact matching of low-frequency words in training data. In addition, domain shifts in vocabulary and word frequencies deteriorate the IR performance of SPLADE. Because supervision data are scarce in the target domain, addressing the domain shifts without supervision data is necessary. This paper proposes an unsupervised domain adaptation method by filling vocabulary and word-frequency gaps. First, we expand a vocabulary and execute continual pretraining with a masked language model on a corpus of the target domain. Then, we multiply SPLADE-encoded sparse vectors by inverse document frequency weights to consider the importance of documents with low-frequency words. We conducted experiments using our method on datasets with a large vocabulary gap from a source domain. We show that our method outperforms the present state-of-the-art domain adaptation method. In addition, our method achieves state-of-the-art results, combined with BM25.


A new transportation system built in Palembang, the South Sumatra Light Rail Transit (otherwise known as LRT Sumsel), stretches along the road corridor from Sultan Mahmud Badarudin II Airport to the Jakabaring Sport City Palembang. In practice, a city needs criteria that must be met to develop a city properly. One of the urban development approaches is Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), an approach that emphasizes not only transit accessibility but also a sustainable environment. Therefore, in developing a city that has mass transportation, TOD calls forth the integration of all transportation modes with the elements of the city. This is closely related to the design of urban space at the transit area and how to achieve the concept of TOD. This research was conducted to find out whether the space around the South Sumatra LRT transit area has properly fulfilled the TOD concept. To achieve the success of Palembang City development, the complexity of TOD and the quality of urban space must be integrated. The goals of this research were to identify the elements of urban space in the transit area. The South Sumatra LRT station is the case study in this research employing descriptive qualitative methods using observation, stakeholder interview, and literature study. The results of the study point out that LRT Sumsel must highlight the availability of parking and attributes, which can allow more frequent transit activities. This research hopes that it can provide consideration for the development of the city of Palembang in terms of architecture and transportation utilization.


Aim: Evaluation of the 24 - hour esophageal monitoring results in children with GERD associated with asthma.

Methods : In 41 children with asthma and GERD (16 erosive and 25 non-erosive cases of GERD) prolonged esophageal pH monitoring was performed. GINA-2010 and ESPGHAN-2009 criteria were applied.

Results: 24 hours monitoring of the acid (pH 8) exposition of esophageal mucosa showed a significantly longer exposition time in children during asthma exacerbation (acid - 164 minutes, 11.42±3.9%; alkaline - 104 min., 7.19±1.8%) comparing with GERD associated with controlled asthma (acid - 103 min., 7.14±2.3%; alkaline - 44.7 min., 1.86±0.9%), p< 0.05. A significant increase of frequency of alkaline reflux in asthma exacerbation was seen as compared with remission period (277.5±40.3 vs. 58.3±4.5, p<0.05). Also, analysis of the integrated DeMeester score showed increased values in uncontrolled asthma (59.72±12.6) comparing with controlled asthma (27.01±8.8; p<0.05). There was a correlation of DeMeester score and asthma severity (mild asthma – 21.1±7.5; moderate – 46.17±8.5; severe – 75.0±31.6 (p<0.05), that demonstrates an increase of acid and alkaline reflux with increasing severity of asthma. In mild asthma this score is equal to 82.0±5.8 acid and 92.4±10.2 alkaline reflux episodes; in moderate asthma – 154.9±31.9 and 304.5±48.2; in severe asthma only acid ones (185.6±9.6). Conclusion : Children with asthma associated with GERD have disorders of the esogastric junction motility during asthma exacerbations manifested with increase of reflux frequency and acid or alkaline exposition of the esophageal mucosa that correlates with asthma severity.


We will consider the torsional completion of gravity for a background filled with Dirac matter fields, studying the weak-gravitational non-relativistic approximation, in view of an assessment about their effective phenomenology: we discuss how the torsionally-induced nonlinear interactions among fermion fields in this limit are compatible with all experiments and remarks on the role of torsion to suggest new physics are given.


The biography describes the life and work of the psychologist Alfons Chorus (1909-1998). He followed studies on psychology at the newly founded Catholic University of Nijmegen and on psychopathology at Utrecht University. In 1937 he joined the 'Paedologisch Instituut' in Nijmegen. This institute did research on malajusted children for whom Chorus developed a classification. Main categories were 'restless' and 'autistic' children. He became the first in the world to dedicate - in 1942 - a scientific publication to this form of autism. In 1940 he gained his PhD on Het tempo van ongedurige kinderen (The tempo of restless children), a category that now falls under the disorder ADHD. In 1942 Chorus published Zuigeling en Kleuter (Suckling and Toddler) with practical educational tips. For 20 years this book remained the reference on education for Catholics in the Netherlands. In 1947 Chorus was appointed Professor of Psychology in Leiden. The oldest and most renowned University of the country was the last to establish a Chair in that subject, and he was allowed to shape psychology studies in Leiden and educate a generation of psychology students till he retired in 1979. Chorus engaged in all areas of his profession until the creation of the Faculty of Social Sciences in 1963. From that moment he gradually restricted his scientific activities to developmental and personality psychology. In his writings Chorus argued that psychology contains scientific aspects, but is even more related to the Humanities. With apprehension he noted that Dutch psychology took a turn in the direction of the American, 'empirical-analytical' approach. Thus it left the more philosophically oriented European direction behind it. In the late 1950s he wrote two books on the mapping of the personality. He referred to the typology of Heymans and argued that those types are temperaments that are defined by natural predispositions. Characters are based on them as a 'superstructure', depending on environment and experience. Taking into account the whole life course of man he advocated the use of the 'biographical method', as he saw in the biography 'the for the psychologist exemplary way to depict man in his totality'. As a follow-up to his work on the biographical method Chorus also focused on biography itself, as a source of insight into human nature. At the end of his career Chorus paid most of his attention to the care for mentally disabled and retarded children. He focused on the professionalisation of this care, which in the 1950s still was the domain of physicians and psychiatrists. His aim was to widen the care teams by taking in psychologists and pedagogues, using game-and behaviour therapy.


This paper reports the development of the first SSR marker-based sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) molecular identity database in the world. Since 2005, 1,025 sugarcane clones were genotyped, including 811 Louisiana, 45 Florida, 39 Texas, 130 foreign, and eight consultant/seed company clones. Genotyping was done on a fluorescence-capillary electrophoresis detection platform involving 21 highly polymorphic SSR markers that could potentially amplify 144 distinctive DNA fragments. Genotyping data were processed with the GeneMapper? software to reveal electrophoregrams that were manually checked against the 144 fragments. The presence (A) or absence (C) of these 144 fragments in any sugarcane clone was recorded in an affixed sequence order as a DNAMAN® file to represent its molecular identity being achieved into a local molecular identity database. The molecular identity database has been updated annually by continued genotyping of newly assigned sugarcane clones. The database provides molecular descriptions for new cultivar registration articles, enables sugarcane breeders to identify mis-labeled sugarcane clones in crossing programs and determine the paternity of cross progeny, and ensures the desired cultivars are grown in farmers' fields.


This thesis describes the design and measurement of an IC which can digitize both capacitance and temperature. Capacitance sensing functionality is added to an existing Temperature to Digital Converter (TDC) without adding significant die area. Two kinds of baseline capacitance compensation techniques have been investigated and their performance has been simulated at the system level. While adding capacitance sensing functionality to the TDC, the capacitive DAC and sigma-delta zoom ADC of the existing design have been reused. Dynamic element matching has been applied to ensure that mismatch in the capacitive DAC will not give rise to discontinuities between the sub-ranges of the ADC. Measurements show that the chip is functional and achieves the targeted capacitance-sensing resolution at a FOM of 1.87pJ/step.